Alt21's London team. Image: Alt21
The start-up rebranded itself earlier this year and now plans to move into new regions and gain new strategic partners.
Alt21, the fintech start-up formerly known as Assure Hedge, has closed a $21m Series A funding round to support its growth plans.
The Dublin-headquartered company said the new funding will be used to move into new geographies and to expand its footprint by licensing its software to banks and fintech businesses.
Alt21 offers a digital hedging platform to help companies protect themselves against currency risks. The start-up said it provides this platform to strategic partners, who then embed hedging products into their business to support SME customers.
The fintech said this business generated more than €8m in operating income last year, which is five times higher than in 2021. Alt21 now plans to reach new strategic partners to reach a larger number of SMEs.
Alt21 said it has made significant investments over the past 12 months to improve its platform. It also doubled its R&D headcount to 37 people, bringing its total workforce size to 68. The company also plans to invest in AI and machine learning in the future to bolster its products.
Pritesh Ruparel, the ALT21 CEO, said the company’s goal is to “make things simple” and claimed its “highly automated service” is able to cut costs and complexity.
“When fintechs experience high demand, it’s tempting to push for growth at all costs without strengthening the foundations to scale,” Ruparel said. “Making the decision last year to invest in our foundations and build scalable architecture amid rapid growth was a brave one, and one that I believe will pay off for us in the long run.
“We are extremely focused on creating sustainable success for our customers and believe this is exemplified by the infrastructure investments we have made, which allow us to support customer growth while rapidly gaining market share.”
The company rebranded itself from Assure Hedge to Alt21 in June in order to reflect its growth and evolution. This start-up is registered in England and Wales, with its parent company – still called Assure Hedge – being incorporated in Ireland.
In 2021, the start-up raised €5m to give itself flexibility ahead of further fundraising. Similar to the 2021 fundraise, no investor names were disclosed in the Series A funding round.
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