Fintech-as-a-Service Platform Strong Secures $63 Million in Sequence B Funding

Fintech-as-a-service innovator Strong raised $63 million in Sequence B funding this week.Strong affords a platform that permits companies to construct and scale embedded fintech merchandise into their very own options.The corporate, which made its Finovate debut in 2019 as “Smart,” will use the funding to speed up its enlargement into “fintech-ready” verticals corresponding to journey, well being care, and the gig financial system.

Fintech-as-a-service firm Strong has raised $63 million in Sequence B funding. The corporate affords infrastructure to allow corporations to launch and produce to scale embedded fintech options. The spherical was led by FTV Capital. Present investor Headline additionally participated.

“We constructed probably the most complete fintech infrastructure from the bottom up, so others don’t must,” Strong co-founder and CEO Arjun Thyagarajan stated. “Now, any firm can rapidly spin up financial institution accounts, crypto wallets, ship funds, and difficulty playing cards to their finish customers, proper into their product expertise, whereas Strong does the heavy lifting of constructing and sustaining compliant fintech infrastructure.”

Strong made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 as “Smart.” On the convention, the corporate demonstrated its small enterprise banking-in-a-box providing that included a checking account, funds, invoicing, playing cards, and point-of-sale options. The corporate rebranded as Strong final yr as a part of a pivot to spotlight the fashionable banking platform they’d used to launch their Smart enterprise banking resolution.

“We went from powering the Smart app to powering different merchandise and ecosystems,” Thyagarajan and firm co-founder and President Raghav Lal wrote on the Strong web site final spring. “Alongside the best way, we realized our model and our positioning wanted to alter, too. And right now, we’re making the change and excited to share that Smart is now Strong.”

Strong will use the brand new capital to assist gasoline the corporate’s accelerated enlargement into what it calls “fintech-ready” verticals like journey, development, healthcare, and the gig financial system. The corporate’s absolutely abstracted fintech-as-a-service platform provides builders the instruments they should simply embed fintech merchandise into their choices. Strong experiences that fintech packages that construct and launch on its platform personal the expertise and have little or no regulatory overhead. Strong’s know-how additionally leverages trendy APIs and a minimal-code method to make integration simpler. Firms which have used Strong’s platform embody fellow Finovate alums like Paystand, in addition to SaaS corporations corresponding to Everflow and rising startups like Starlight.

Based in 2018, Strong is headquartered in San Mateo, California. This week’s funding brings the corporate’s whole funding to greater than $80 million based on Crunchbase. Strong reported a 10x development in revenues, buyer base, and transactions processed final yr. Greater than 100 fintech packages and $2 billion in transactions have been processed on the corporate’s infrastructure yr so far.

Photograph by David Bartus