London-based TrueLayer, that provides easy access to bank APIs, has raised $3 million in series A funding. Led by Anthemis Group, the round witnessed participation from existing investor Connect Ventures.
The startups comes as a saviour for those who are in the process of developing new financial apps and services. Its API platform provides developers with an easy way to access the bank data they need, thereby, helping both, startups and banks, to bring innovation in financial services. It supports account verification, KYC processes, and transactional data for account aggregation, credit scoring and risk assessment.
Founded in 2016 by serial entrepreneurs Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti, TrueLayer launched its private beta in February. It saw hundreds of developers signing up including many from high growth fintech firms and recognized brands.
With the fresh inflow of funds, TrueLayer will focus on augmenting its team and increase its coverage of supported banks before moving the API to general availability later in the year. Francesco, in a statement, said,
TrueLayer is committed to delivering the best possible user and developer experience, reducing the barrier-to-entry for fintechs that want to leverage the opportunities of open banking while still providing a secure and streamlined experience for consumers. The new funding will help us to accelerate the growth of our team, expand our product coverage and reach into markets.
Also, post the funding round, Yann Ranchere, partner at Anthemis Group, will be seen joining TrueLayer’s board. In an official statement, Yann says,
We are excited to support the TrueLayer team in their ambition to bring developer-driven solutions to the emerging banking API ecosystem.
The company also wants to build out its offering as an Account Information Service Provider (AISP) and Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) in line with the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) that is yet to be written in law by January 2018. This will allow developers to benefit from open banking services including access to aggregated customer banking data and payment initiation while enhancing security and privacy of consumers.
The European Union’s PSD2 will make it a compulsion for banks operating within the region to offer read and write access. This is done to enable third-party apps and services access a user’s bank account data, including being able to make and receive payments on your behalf.
In addition, TrueLayer is planning to launch compliance-as-a-service features to make it easier for developers and fintechs to access bank APIs within regulatory parameters while also drastically reducing the cost of compliance and operations.
The API is free to solo developers and early stage startups, with volume-based pricing and metered billing available to large applications and enterprises.
Prior to this funding round, TrueLayer had raised $1.3 million from Connect Ventures in February this year. Currently it is available in the UK and plans to enter other EU countries in 2018.
