Fintech company Banked has raised $20m (£14.8m) in a Series A funding round led by Bank of America and Edenred Capital Partners.
The London-headquartered startup plans to use the fresh capital to expand its financial services into the US. It is currently active across Europe.
Existing investors Acrew, Force Over Mass, Firestartr, OM2, Love Ventures Kuvi Capital and founder of Indeed.com Paul Forster provided further funds.
New investors include Sidekick Partners, 9Yards and angel investor Huey Lin, formerly of PayPal.
Founded in 2018, Banked provides alternative real-time card payment methods to businesses and consumers.
It uses an application programme interface (API) to connect with consumers’ bank accounts. Consumers that select “Pay by Bank” at checkout are asked to select their bank before being redirected to their banking app to authorise the payment.
Banked uses biometrics to authorise payments, which means consumers don’t have to create an account or share their financial details.
The company claims that its fees are up to 90% lower than traditional payment methods and that its service can reduce fraud.
Businesses can also use the payment process to drive customer engagement and loyalty with incentives and rewards integrated into the payment process.
The growing market for account-to-account payments is predicted to reach $43bn by 2026 in Europe, according to a report from Allied Market Research.
“Banked has built a product that can operate inside tier 1 banks, payment providers, gateways and technology platforms to allow them to offer Pay by Bank to their merchants,” said Banked CEO, Brad Goodall.
Faiz Ahmad, head of global transaction services with Bank of America, said: “We are pleased to be a lead investor for Banked and they have already demonstrated a proven ability to develop unique ecommerce solutions with Pay by Bank”.
The new investment means Banked has now raised over $30m in funding, having previously raised £2.35m in seed funding back in 2020.
The company currently employs over 60 people worldwide and competes to some extent with other banking services such as Truelayer, Trustly and Volt.
The Banked funding round follows a record year for UK fintech investment, with startups attracting $11.6bn in capital.
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