Amount is a company providing tech solutions to banking and financial institutions, and has now raised a whopping $99 million as part of its Series D funding round. The valuation of the company is now a little more than $1 billion as per azevedotechcrunch. The fund was spearheaded by the growth-equity entity WestCap which was set up by former Blackstone and Airbnb CFO, Laurence Tosi while other participants included Hanaco Ventures, Invus Opportunities, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays Principal Investments.
The investment accrues only five months after the raising of $86 million by the company in its Series C round where the main investor was the Goldman Sachs Growth entity and this round valued it at $686 million. The original amount was $81 million although Barclays Principal Investments put in $5 million later on. The Series C round took place only three months post its Series B round of $58 million. The latest round takes the cumulative funding raised by Amount to $243 million ever since it was spun from online lending startup Avant which has raised $600 million in equity.
Amount enables financial institutions to digitize swiftly and take on rivals in the fintech space. The company was established a little before the outbreak of the pandemic. Amount has grown considerably over the last few years and its CEO Adam Hughes states that the company came out of Avant in order to ensure enterprise software tailored for banking sector players, helping them digitize their entire infrastructure in a matter of months and compete better in the tech-driven retail lending segment. They can also compete in the buy now, pay later segment as a result. The company now has a team of 400 people and specializes in offering POS (point of sale) technology and retail banking solutions which help in accelerating digitization for most financial institutions.
It aims at enabling a more secure and smooth digital merchant and customer experience for these clients while tapping into its capabilities in terms of analytics and verification. Amongst the banks using the service are names like Banco Popular, TD Bank, HSBC, Avant and Regions. They use the technologies offered by Amount for streamlining their digital transitions. Barclays US Consumer Bank has already started providing installment POS choices, enabling merchants in terms of white labeling POS payments under their brands.
Hughes has also opined that the pandemic led to a drastic acceleration of the interest of banks in further digitization of their retail lending experiences, while ensuring buy now, pay later financing solutions, especially with the growth of e-commerce. He also added that with fintech players disrupting the market, a partnership with Amount will help banks ensure top-class digital experiences for all their customers. Amount offers retail banking solutions via multiple channels and an entire POS suite of products along with other features such as verification, prevention of fraud, account management, and the like. It has catered to financial institutions that service in excess of 50 million customers in the U.S. and with assets in the country of $2 trillion. Amount will deploy its funds for scaling-up research and development, along with investing in products and technology. It may also look at acquisitions in the future.
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