Luca Martinetti and Francesco Simoneschi. Image: TrueLayer
The UK fintech company, now backed by Lee Fixel’s Addition, is eyeing up international markets beyond Europe.
In another big funding round for open banking, British start-up TrueLayer has raised $70m from backers.
The London-based company develops APIs for fintech companies and banks to connect their services.
The Series D round is led by Addition, the new firm led by Lee Fixel, with participation from Anthemis Group, Connect Ventures, Mouro Capital, Northzone and Temasek.
The news comes just a day after its US rival Plaid announced that it secured a bumper $425m investment to expand internationally.
TrueLayer has internationalisation on its mind as well. Open banking has been spearheaded in Europe, thanks largely to PSD2, the EU payments directive that forced financial institutions to open up their war chests of data to smaller players.
For example, it allows the likes of payment apps to sync up with a user’s traditional bank account to share account data, cutting out some of the steps for a user to access the information they want.
Since then, more and more countries have followed suit with open banking rules, opening up the playing field for fintech companies. The open banking market is expected to reach $43bn by 2026.
TrueLayer chief executive Francesco Simoneschi said that the company is now looking to expand its network in Europe and beyond.
“Our mission at TrueLayer is to open up finance. We’re building an open banking network that brings together payments, data and identity to redefine how people spend, save and transact online,” he said.
“We’re doing this in a way that puts customers at the centre, enabling the creators, the doers and the builders in every industry to reimagine finance and improve the fabric of our society.”
TrueLayer will build “new open banking-based capabilities” as it seeks to broaden its reach into more markets, Simoneschi added. As part of its expansion, TrueLayer will be opening a Dublin office.
The company has not disclosed a valuation following this Series D funding.
