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State Of Fintech Report:

Investment & Sector Trends To Watch
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CB Insights helps us compress our time-
to-decision when gathering and
analyzing data and getting an external
view on what's happening in the market
so we can quickly take action.

Meraj Mohammad
Vice President, Ventures Group, ADP

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Contents
6 29 78

Fintech In Review Sector Trends Appendix

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WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

5
Fintech In
Review

6
Summary of findings
2020 funding and deal activity declined slightly. Funding and deal
activity fell 2% and 13% year-over-year (YoY), respectively. Deals in
every fintech vertical we track fell except for SMB, which grew 13%
YoY. Startups addressing payroll operations — such as Remote,
PagarBook, and Gig Wage — saw significant traction this year.
Q4’20 saw 522 deals, reversing a 4-quarter decline. Deal activity
increased 11% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) in Q4’20, the first quarter of
deal growth since Q3’19. Series A, B, and C rounds accounted for 90%
of the increase in deals. Higher early- and mid-stage deal activity helps
explain why mega-rounds’ ($100M+ deals) share of total funding fell
from 59% to 44% in the quarter.
Fintech is gaining momentum in South America. From 2016 through
2020, funding to South America-based fintech companies grew at a
64% CAGR. Around 40% of deals during this period went to alternative
lending and payments companies. Access to credit and the ability for
consumers and businesses to send and receive money are significant
pain points in the region; startups such as Creditas and dLocal raised
funding in 2020 to help solve them.
Note: This report focuses on equity rounds to VC-backed fintech companies. This report does not cover companies funded solely by angels, private equity firms, or
any debt, secondary, or line of credit transactions. All data is sourced from CB Insights. Unicorns are private companies with a $1B+ valuation.
Europe surpassed Asia in quarterly deal activity for the first time
since Q2’19. Deal activity in Europe grew 6%; however, Asia’s deal
activity dropped 2%, falling below Europe’s deal total in Q4’20. This
was the fifth consecutive quarterly decline in deal activity for Asia-
based fintech companies. However, funding in the region grew 10%
while funding to Europe-based companies fell 17%.
M&A activity grew 25% YoY in 2020. 2020 was a busy year for
fintech M&A, with companies spanning our coverage areas
becoming acquisition targets. For example, Visa and Stripe both
made acquisitions in emerging markets, acquiring YellowPepper
and Paystack, respectively. We also saw incumbent financial
market data providers Bloomberg and FactSet buy businesses to
supplement their offerings (Second Measure and Truvalue Labs,
respectively).
7
Sector investment trends in 2020
Payments: Payments companies raised over $12B in 2020, a YoY
increase of 3%. Deal activity in the same period declined 7% to
337. Notably, there were 37 mega-rounds in 2020, up from 30 in
2019.
Banking: While funding to digital banking companies increased
12% YoY, deals were flat. Q4’20 was also the fourth consecutive
quarter of funding growth, up 5% vs. Q3’20.
Alternative lending: Alt lending investment activity was down
significantly in 2020, with both funding and deal activity declining
35%. Mega-rounds also declined from 25 in 2019 to 15 in 2020.
Wealth management: Deals to wealth management companies fell
11% during the year. However, funding increased 86% thanks to 10
mega-rounds, which accounted for 50% of total funding in 2020.
Insurance: Insurtech deal activity was flat for the year, but funding
fell 6%. However, 2020 saw multiple public market exits, including
Lemonade, Root Insurance, and Metromile.
Capital markets: Funding grew 21% YoY, but deal activity declined
by 13% as larger rounds took share. Mega-rounds alone accounted
for 60% of total funding in 2020. Additionally, the number of mega-
rounds more than doubled from 13 in 2019 to 27 in 2020.
SMB: SMB funding and deal activity increased 18% and 13% YoY,
respectively. Q2’20 was by far the biggest contributor to funding
and deal growth, representing 41% and 29%, respectively.
Real estate: Funding to real estate companies plummeted 43%
YoY, while deal activity declined by 23%. Quarterly deal activity has
not grown since Q3’19.

Note: This report focuses on equity rounds to VC-backed fintech companies. This report does not cover companies funded solely by angels, private equity firms, or 8
any debt, secondary, or line of credit transactions. All data is sourced from CB Insights. Unicorns are private companies with a $1B+ valuation.
Q4’20 FINTECH SPOTLIGHT #1

‘Buy now, pay later’ accelerates in popularity

Amid the pandemic-fueled e-commerce boom, BNPL startups raised record-high funding
Sweden has the highest BNPL penetration with 24% of e- BNPL startup funding grew at a 93% CAGR
commerce payments attributed to BNPL from 2016 – 2020
Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals
$1,600 25

$1,400 20
19 20
$1,200
15
$1,000 15
$800

$600 10
7
$400 5
5
$200
$106 $372 $291 $1,031 $1,465
$0 0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Source: CB Insights, Bank of America Research 9

Q4’20 FINTECH SPOTLIGHT #2

Insurtech companies make ambitious moves

Lemonade hit 1M customers and announced plans Other leading insurtech companies made major
to offer life insurance in Q1’21. Are other acquisitions and expanded product offerings in Q4’20
products soon to follow?
Life insurance startup Bestow acquired
Centurion Life Insurance Company to become a
licensed insurer in 47 states in December.
Launched

Launch announced
Commercial insurance startup Next Insurance
? Potential area for expansion
? acquired Juniper Labs, an insurance data platform
startup in December. It also expanded its workers’
Q1’21 launch
comp product to 24 additional states.
?

Homeowners insurance startup Hippo raised

?
$350M from MS&AD Insurance Group in
November. The company, which is now live in 32
states, is potentially planning to go public in 2021.

Source: Lemonade S-1 10

Q4’20 FINTECH SPOTLIGHT #3

Fintech benefits from shifting regulatory

landscape
US regulation changes in Q4’20 will likely benefit many companies in the fintech ecosystem

Regulation/ruling Impact to fintech

1. FDIC finalized revisions to regulations regarding The rule change broadens options for “less than well
brokered deposits capitalized” banks to gather deposits and will likely
encourage more partnerships between banks and fintechs.

2. CFPB determined PayActiv’s earned wage access is not The CFPB’s approval order exempts PayActiv from the
considered credit Truth in Lending Act and Regulation Z and sets a
precedent for how earned wage access business models
should be structured.

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 Q4’20 FINTECH SPOTLIGHT #4

Investments in South America-based fintech

companies surged from 2016 – 2020
Funding to South America-based fintechs 44% of deals went to alt lending and payments
has grown at a 64% CAGR since 2016 companies over that same period
Capital Markets
Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals Wealth
5%
$2,000 90 Management
79 77 6%
73 80 Insurance
$1,600 68 7%
70
Alt Lending
60 25%
$1,200
50 Banking
40 10%
$800
36 30
SMB Payments
$400 20 19%
13%
10
$257 $342 $704 $1,526 $1,842 Real Estate
$0 0 15%
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Q4’20 FINTECH SPOTLIGHT #5

Table stakes: formerly innovative features have

become must-haves for crowded fintech verticals
Challenger banks Alt lenders Consumer payments

• API integrations with banks • Alternative data underwriting • Instant/real-time transfers

• Free current account • Borrower-friendly terms • Merchant acceptance
• No foreign transaction fees • Healthy partnership pipeline competitive with incumbents
• Virtual KYC/AML • Instant fund disbursement • Roadmap to adjacent products
• User-friendly interface such as lending and BNPL

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FAMGA IN FINTECH

FAMGA in fintech Q4’20 updates

• Patent granted: “Processing payment transactions using artificial intelligence messaging services”
• Product: Stablecoin association, Libra, rebranded to Diem, with plans to launch in early 2021

• Partnership: Signed a 4-year agreement with credit card company, Isracard, to bring Apple Pay to Israel

• Partnership: Added Paysafe as a payment option in the Microsoft Store across 22 countries
• Partnership: Adopted Adyen’s Network Token Optimization to improve payment authorization rates

• Partnership: Axis Bank partnered with Google Pay and Visa to launch a new credit card (ACE credit card)
• Product: Google Pay became the #1 app on the Google Play app store after the company launched a
redesigned version

• Partnership: John Hancock, a division of Manulife, will offer a free Amazon Halo wearable along with a 3-
year membership in its John Hancock Vitality Program

Source: CB Insights 14
 M&A ACTIVITY
Selected consolidation activity in Q4’20
Payments leaders target emerging markets
Visa acquired YellowPepper, a
real-time payment platform
targeting Latin America, for an
undisclosed amount.
October 28, 2020
Stripe acquired Paystack, a
Nigeria-based payment
processing platform, for $200M.
October 15, 2020
Financial data providers add alt data
Bloomberg acquired Second
Measure, a transaction data
provider, for an undisclosed
amount.
December 24, 2020
FactSet to acquire Truvalue
Labs, a sustainability and
environmental, social, and
governance (ESG) data
provider, for an undisclosed
amount.
October 20, 2020
Insurance incumbents buy digital distributors
Aviva merged its Singapore
operations with Singapore Life, a
direct-to-consumer life insurance
provider, for $2.4B.
November 30, 2020
Brown & Brown acquired
CoverHound, a digital insurance
broker, for an undisclosed amount.
November 9, 2020
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2020 deal activity fell 13% YoY, but total
funding remained in line with 2019
Global VC-backed fintech financing trends, 2016 – 2020
Total Funding ($M) -13% # Of Deals
-2%
$50,000 2,341 2,293 2500

1,947
$40,000 1,991 2000
1,589
$30,000 1500

$20,000 1000

$10,000 500

$23,440 $23,361 $48,291 $42,984 $42,141

$0 0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Deal activity grew 11% in Q4’20, reversing a 4-
quarter decline
Quarterly global VC-backed fintech deals, Q1’17 – Q4’20

604 600 608 604 11%

577 560 550
531 521 522
491 479 489 488 478 470

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2017 2018 2019 2020

17
Meanwhile, funding remained level in 2020
Quarterly global VC-backed fintech financing ($M), Q1’17 – Q4’20

$14,000
$3,519

$11,077

$12,550

$10,275

$10,772

$10,287

$10,553

$10,529
$6,234

$7,586

$6,022

$8,024

$8,626

$8,138

$9,503

$9,083
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2017 2018 2019 2020
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Mega-rounds reached new high in Q4’20, but
had lowest share of funding since Q1’17
Global number of fintech mega-rounds ($100M+) and share of total funding, Q1’17 – Q4’20

Mega-rounds Mega-round funding % of total funding

35 100%
29 30
30 26
24 24 80%
25 20 21 21 19
20 17 17 17 60%

15 11 12 40%
10
10
4 20%
5
31% 54% 56% 41% 44% 80% 44% 58% 58% 53% 57% 51% 61% 50% 59% 44%
0 0%
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2017 2018 2019 2020

19
Series A, B, and C deals gained share in Q4’20
% of quarterly deal activity by deal stage, Q1’18 – Q4’20
100% Series E+
5% 7% 6% Series D
90% 7% 8% 6% 8% 9% 6%
7% 10%
14% 11% Series C
80% 13% 14% 16% 13% 15% 16% 15% 16% Series B
16%
70% 19% 18% Series A
60% 24% 30% Seed / Angel
27% 25% 26%
30% 23% 27% 29% 24%
50% 25%
24%
40%

30%
45% 43% 42% 42%
20% 41% 42% 38% 37% 38%
35% 32% 33%
10%

0%
Q1'18 Q2'18 Q3'18 Q4'18 Q1'19 Q2'19 Q3'19 Q4'19 Q1'20 Q2'20 Q3'20 Q4'20
20
 Series A and mid-stage deal activity also
increased QoQ
Quarterly deal activity by deal stage, Q1’18 – Q4’20

250 Seed / Angel

Series A
200 Series B
Series C
150 154 Series D
12% Series E+
115
100 21%
85

50 69% 49
20
19
0
Q1'18 Q2'18 Q3'18 Q4'18 Q1'19 Q2'19 Q3'19 Q4'19 Q1'20 Q2'20 Q3'20 Q4'20

Note: “Mid-stage” includes Series B and Series C deals. 21

Europe overtook Asia in deal activity in Q4’20;
Africa’s deals grew for second consecutive quarter
Global VC-backed fintech deals by continent, Q4’19 – Q4’20
229 223 27
217 Africa
North
185 188 America 22
21
20
158 18 18 South
139 140 16 America
122 128
Europe
129 12
123 116 120 119 Asia 10
9
7 Australia
6 6
4

Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020 2019 2020
22
Funding in Africa, Australia, and Asia grew QoQ
Quarterly funding ($M) by continent, Q4’19 – Q4’20

$134 $15 $15 $36

$43
$93 $314 $42 $314
$223
$342 $405 $715 $499
$1,225 $2,077
$2,056 $2,172 $1,792
$3,055 $1,829 $1,685 $1,858
$4,685

$5,427 $5,667 $5,925 $6,028

$3,745

Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020
North America Asia Europe South America Australia Africa
23
Top rounds span many fintech verticals
Q4’20 fintech funding rounds of $150M or higher (continued on next page)
Deal Date // Total Disclosed
Company HQ Select Investors Description
Amount Raised Funding

$709M Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital,

US – CA Nov '20 // $350M Homeowners insurance
($1.5B valuation) Propel Venture Partners, Fifth Wall Ventures

$751M Snowflake Ventures, New Enterprise Associates,

US – MA Nov '20 // $320M Enterprise AI platform
($2.2B valuation) Accomplice, Sapphire Ventures

$568M Kaszek Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners,

Brazil Dec '20 // $255M Digital lending
($1.8B valuation) SoftBank Group, QED Investors, Naspers

$1,518M Ironbridge Capital, Bain Capital Credit, Tikehau

Australia Dec '20 // $212M Digital SMB lending
($1.2B valuation) Capital, Citibank, Goldman Sachs

$707M Invus Group, QED Investors, Oaktree Capital

US – VA Dec ‘20 // $207M Credit card issuer
Management, Goldman Sachs

$367M capitalG, BlackRock, Broadridge Financial

US – NY Oct '20 // $207M No-code platform
($2B valuation) Solutions, Blue Seed Collective, Goldman Sachs

$405M American Express Ventures, Pine Brook, Kleiner

US – NY Nov '20 // $200M Digital mortgage lender
($4B valuation) Perkins Caufield & Byers, Ally Financial

Source: cbinsights.com 24
57% of top deals were raised by US-based cos
Q4’20 fintech funding rounds of $150M or higher (continued)
Deal Date // Total Disclosed
Company HQ Select Investors Description
Amount Raised Funding

$262M Accel, Norwest Venture Partners, Tiger Global

US – CA Dec '20 // $160M Point-of-sale & billing platform
($1B valuation) Management, Steadview Capital, Avataar Venture

CBRE Group, ENGIE New Ventures, Linse Capital,

US – CA Oct '20 // $157M $178M Real estate management
Energy Ventures, CarVal

Gobi Partners, Shenzhen Capital Group, Ant

(eSign) China Nov '20 // $150M $273M eSignature
Financial Services Group, THG Ventures

Tencent Holdings, PayPal, KKR, Google,

Indonesia Nov '20 // $150M $4,735M E-commerce & payments
Formation Group, Sequoia Capital India

Tencent Holdings, IDG Capital, Gaorong Capital,

China Nov ‘20 // $150M $630M Health insurance
Swiss Re, Sinovation Ventures

$286M Durable Capital Partners, Greenoaks Capital,

US – CA Oct '20 // $150M SMB
($2B valuation) Group 11, Zeev Ventures, 01 Advisors

Visa Ventures, Temasek, Advent International,

Brazil Oct '20 // $150M $170M Payments platform
Viking Global Investors, Riverwood Capital

Source: cbinsights.com 25
The most active fintech VCs from Q4’19 – Q4’20
By number of unique fintech company investments (new or follow-on)

Rank Investor Select Fintech Investments

1*

*Sequoia includes its US, China, and India funds. 26

The most active fintech VCs from Q4’19 – Q4’20
By number of unique fintech company investments (new or follow-on)

Rank Investor Select Fintech Investments

10

27
Globally there are
75 FINTECH UNICORNS
Valued in aggregate at
$270B

28
Q4’20
Fintech
Sector
Trends

29
WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

30
WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

31
 Payments funding and deal activity dipped
Global VC-backed payments financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20

Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals

$4,000 113 120

96
$3,500
100
$3,000 86 82
73 80
$2,500

$2,000 60

$1,500
40
$1,000
20
$500
$3,587 $3,510 $3,296 $3,400 $2,085
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020

32
Payment facilitators raise funding to offer SaaS
platforms in-house payments
Q4’20 Funding: $28M Series A - II
Select Investors: Providence Equity
Partners, Blue Star Innovation
Partners
Focus: Payrix is a full-service
payment facilitator platform that
provides end-to-end solutions to
simplify payment facilitation for
marketplaces, ISOs, and SaaS
providers.
Q4’20 Funding: $2.2M seed
Select Investors: N/A
Focus: Tilled is a payfac-as-a-service
platform that enables businesses to
generate revenue from payments
processing.
Q4’20 Funding: $1.1M seed
Select Investors: Plug and Play Ventures,
Global Founders Capital, Activant Capital
Focus: Gr4vy offers a no-code, cloud-based
payment orchestration platform that helps
mid-sized businesses add payments
infrastructure to their businesses.
33
Installment payments players emerge across
different verticals
Q4’20 Funding: $3.9M seed
HQ: Columbia, MO
Select Investors: Revolution
Ventures
Focus: Paytient lets employees pay
any medical, dental, vision, and vet
bills over time. Companies can issue
payment cards to let employees pay
on a pre-tax or post-tax basis in full
or over time
Q4’20 Funding: $4.5M seed
HQ: New York, NY
Select Investors: Walkabout Ventures,
Upfront Ventures
Focus: Clair provides instant pay access as
a service for human capital management
platforms and the gig economy. With Clair,
employees and contractors get access to a
digital bank account that allows them to get
a portion of their earned wages as soon as
they finish work.
Q4’20 Funding: $34M Series A
HQ: Los Angeles, CA
Select Investors: Greycroft, Loeb.NYC,
Bonfire Ventures
Focus: Credit Key is a B2B fintech that
allows merchants to offer an integrated, in-
cart BNPL function at the online point-of-
sale.
34
SWIFT’s real-time payments initiative has raised
the bar for incumbent payment challengers
SWIFT has made significant progress in executing on its global payments initiative (gpi). By updating
its messaging standard, the organization has been able to deliver faster settlement times with greater
transparency for banks using its correspondent banking system.
SWIFT’s Basic Tracker delivers improved SWIFT gpi’s enhanced messaging standard has
payments transparency for banks significantly reduced confirmation times

35
WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions to-medium-sized businesses platforms
(re)insurers

36
 Funding to digital banking companies rose for
the fourth consecutive quarter
Global VC-backed banking financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20
Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals

$3,000 64 63 70

$2,500 53 55 60
52
50
$2,000
40
$1,500
30
$1,000
20
$500 10
$1,856 $1,933 $2,255 $2,440 $2,554
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020

37
Emerging challenger banks focus on younger
demographics
Q4’20 Funding: $50M Series B
Select Investors: Crosslink Capital,
Coatue Management, Collaborative Fund,
Stripe
Focus: New York-based Step provides
teens and their families with financial
tools for today’s banking needs. Step has
over 500K users today.
Q4’20 Funding: $1.6M Series A-II
Select Investors: Undisclosed
Focus: Sweden-based Gimi is a savings app for
kids and parents, offering mobile wallet and
budgeting tools for kids under the age of 18.
Q4’20 Funding: $3.6M seed
Select Investors: Foundation Capital, F-
Prime Capital, Hetz Ventures, Dux
Capital, Secocha Ventures, John Farrell
Focus: Miami-based Mozper is a
personal finance app and debit card
designed for kids and parents in Latin
America.
38
Business banking startups attack incumbent
banks with SMB-focused offerings
Q4’20 Funding: $15M Series A
HQ: New York, NY
Select Investors: Foundation Capital,
Primary Venture Partners, Group 11
User Growth: Lili has seen rapid growth
this year, with transactions up 700%
since March and nearly 100K accounts
opened since its launch in 2019.
Focus: Lili is a challenger bank designed
for freelancers. The Lili checking
account and mobile experience are
created to help balance work & life with
expense management and tax savings.
Q4’20 Funding: $15M Series A
HQ: New York, NY
Select Investors: M13, Inspired Capital
User Growth: N/A
Focus: Rho Business Banking is a digital
banking service for entrepreneurs. The
product provides a full-service digital
banking solution that integrates with the
tools and services that entrepreneurs use to
run their businesses.
Q4’20 Funding: $12M Series A
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Select Investors: e.ventures, Techstars,
Base10 Ventures
User Growth: N/A
Focus: Wise is a digital banking and
growth platform for small businesses.
The Wise platform integrates with banking
technology to offer cloud-based products
and services that can help small
businesses grow.
39
Challengers and incumbents want a piece of the
‘buy now, pay later’ market
Q4’20 Developments: In November, Chase
introduced My Chase Plan, its new “buy
now, pay later” (BNPL) platform. My Chase
Plan will enable credit card holders to
select recent transactions over $100,
choose a repayment time period that
ranges from 3 to 18 months, and make
payments with no interest but a monthly
fee.
Q4’20 Developments: Denmark-based
challenger bank Lunar launched an
installment lending product, Pay Later, which
can split transactions into installments and
delay payments for up to 30 days in the
mobile app. As of December, Lunar has 200K
users mainly in the Nordics.
Q4’20 Developments: India-based ICICI
Bank rolled out a mobile-only installment
lending feature, Cardless EMI or Equated
Monthly Installments. Only pre-approved
customers will be allowed to buy goods in
installments of 3 to 18 months.
40
Capital One pushes back on BNPL for credit card
transactions
Key Highlights:
• In December 2020, Capital One became the first major financial institution to bar
its 62M customers from using its credit cards to clear BNPL debt.

• The company stated that BNPL transactions are risky for customers and banks
as credit card defaults and charge-offs are expected to rise amid the pandemic.

• Capital One’s main revenue generator is interest. Eliminating competitors who

allow interest-free installment lending will help the company stay competitive
and force its customers to use its credit card financing options instead.

• BNPL companies are subject to less regulatory scrutiny in most countries and
usually attract customers with little to no credit history.

• Customers will still be allowed to use BNPL options through Capital One’s debit
card and checking account products.

• The BNPL industry should expect similar strategic decisions from major card
issuers while BNPL regulation remains limited.
Source: Business Insider 41
WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

42
 Lending deal activity and funding fell in Q4’20
Global VC-backed alternative lending financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20

Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals

$2,000 80
70
70
$1,600
56 60
55
44 50
$1,200
40
40
$800 30

20
$400
10
$1,289 $870 $1,687 $1,726 $1,256
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020

43
Alt lenders are improving credit data integration
with API and cloud technologies

Q4’20 Funding: $10M Series A
Select Investors: Resolute Ventures, Slow Ventures,
Commerce Ventures, AllegisNL
Focus: New York-based Bloom Credit is an API platform that
allows businesses to integrate with credit bureaus to access
credit scores, credit monitoring, and furnishment products.
Q4’20 Partnership: SaaS banking platform Mambu partnered with
fintech and bank infrastructure provider Alchemy to build a lending
decision engine that will enable community banks and credit unions
to deliver new loan products to the market faster.
Banks and credit unions can leverage Alchemy’s front-end lending
solution and Mambu’s back-end processing solution to offer new
lending products to both consumers and SMBs.
44
Alt lenders with expertise in healthcare,
student loans, and agriculture raised in Q4’20
Alternative lending deals by deal size ($M), Q4’20

Deal Date // Total Disclosed

Company Latest Round Funding Select Investors Description

Fifth Third Bank, QED Investors,

Dec ‘20 // $34M
$154M Montage Ventures, Technology Provide is a lender to healthcare practices.
Series A
Ventures

Nov ‘20 // $23.6M Lendbuzz is an online lender that offers car loans to expats
$216M 83North, O.G. Tech Partners
Series C and international students.

Nov ‘20 // $2.5M Techstars, SP ventures, Bread & Traive facilitates loans for farmers and the agriculture industry
$4M
Series A Butter Ventures by using big data to create farmer credit profiles.

45
BNPL providers see booming signups and
more merchant fee revenue
Revenues from BNPL services have grown nearly 7x since Q4’20 saw later-stage BNPL companies raise, exit,
2016 as demand for credit cards has fallen and partner

$286M reverse merger

$59.5M Series C-II

Minority investment from

Macy’s via 5-year
partnership

Source: IBIS World 46

WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

47
 Wealth tech funding fell 56% in Q4’20
Global VC-backed wealth management financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20

Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals

$1,800 70
59
$1,600 60
54
$1,400
46 50
$1,200
37 40 $660
$1,000 40
$600
$800 30
$600
20
$400
$200 10
$288 $470 $766 $966 $717
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020
Note: Q2’20 and Q3’20 funding totals were driven by Robinhood’s $280M Series F, $320M Series F-II, $200M Series G, and $460M Series G-II. 48
Millennials drive interest in social investment,
ESG scores become important

Note: Media mentions of “ESG Investing”. 49

European early-stage impact investing cos
provide sustainable assets investment options

Q4’20 Funding: $3M angel
Select Investors: Crowdcube
Focus: Clim8 is a UK-based
sustainable investing app that allows
customers to invest in a targeted
portfolio of publicly listed companies
that aim to make an impact on climate
change.
Q4’20 Funding: $1.6M seed
Select Investors: Lifeline Ventures, Nordic
Makers
Focus: Cooler Future is a Finland-based impact
investing platform that allows users to invest in
a climate-friendly portfolio of assets and track
the carbon dioxide impact of their investments
along with financial returns.
Q4’20 Funding: $15M Series A
Select Investors: Mundi Ventures, DB1
Ventures
Focus: Madrid-based Clarity AI is an
enterprise SaaS tool for asset managers that
visualizes a more socially efficient capital
allocation in customers’ investment
portfolios by providing tools to understand
ESG impact. 50
 ESG-focused startups became strategic
acquisition targets
M&A Transaction: FactSet announced its
acquisition of Truvalue Labs, an AI-driven ESG data
analytics platform, in October 2020.
The acquisition will bolster FactSet’s ESG data
since Truvalue Labs currently covers 19,000 public
and private companies and generates scores
derived from various ESG signals.
M&A Transaction: In November 2020, Moody’s
announced its acquisition of a minority stake in
MioTech, a provider of ESG & KYC data and
analysis tools in China.
The acquisition will provide innovative ESG and
KYC solutions for Moody’s in China’s growing
financial market.
M&A Transaction: Fintech Wahed Invest
announced its acquisition of UK-based
challenger bank Niyah in December 2020.
Wahed Invest provides robo-advisor
investment services for the Muslim
community, which will be further enhanced
with Niyah’s banking app and ethical financial
platform that serves UK’s underserved Muslim
population.
51
 Big players in payments, messaging, and
banking expand further into wealth management
Q4’20 Developments: Safaricom, Kenya’s
mobile network operator, will partner with
either fund managers or investment banks
to launch mobile-first savings and wealth
management products.
The shift will enable the large mobile
payments player to expand its offerings and
provide an omnichannel experience.
Q4’20 Developments: WhatsApp plans to roll
out micro-pension products on its platform in
India.
The Facebook-owned messaging app aims to
partner with HDFC Pension to provide micro-
pension products to people in India
regardless of income and location.
Q4’20 Developments: US-based challenger
bank digit added robo-advising and automated
retirement services to its platform.
The new service will periodically invest a user’s
extra cash into an IRA (individual retirement
account) or long-term investment account,
making the experience more seamless for the
customer.
52
Companies creating APIs and software for
wealth managers gained traction
Top wealth management software deals by deal size ($M), Q4’20
Deal Date // Total Disclosed
Company Latest Round Funding Select Investors Description

Nov ‘20 // $117M Sway Ventures, 8VC, WestCap Addepar is a financial operating system that brings data-driven
$364M
Series E Group investing to advisors and their clients.

PureFacts provides wealth tech enterprise solutions that

Nov ‘20 // $15.4M
$15.4M Scotiabank, Round13 Capital include fees & billing, client reporting, and augmented
Undisclosed
intelligence.

Spark Capital, Social Leverage, Alpaca is an API stock brokerage for developers and bots. The
Oct ‘20 // $10M
$21.9M Portag3 Ventures, Abstract company allows corporate clients to integrate commission-
Series A
Ventures, Fathom Capital free trading platforms through its API.

53
WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

54
 Insurtech funding in H2’20 grew 64% from
H1’20
Global VC-backed insurtech financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20

Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals

$2,500 94 100
85
82 90
$2,000 72 76 80
70
$1,500 60
50
$1,000 40
30
$500 20
10
$2,101 $929 $1,597 $2,131 $2,018
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020
55
Regional homeowners insurance startups
raised rounds in Q4’20
Q4’20 Funding: $350M Series F
Select Investors: Mitsui Sumitomo
Insurance Venture Capital
Focus: Hippo is a California-based
homeowners insurance startup. The
company uses smart home devices to
identify and mitigate risks to reduce
claims. The company also raised $150M
in July after its acquisition of Spinnaker
Insurance Company in June.
Q4’20 Funding: $60M Series B
Select Investors: Founders Fund, Accel,
Speedinvest
Focus: Luko is a France-based
homeowners insurance startup. The
company claims to pay out claims quicker
than incumbent insurers and offers home
repairs from a certified expert within 2
days if needed.
Q4’20 Funding: $9M Series A – II
Select Investors: Obvious Ventures,
Cherry Ventures, CommerzVentures,
Novax
Focus: Hedvig is a Sweden-based
homeowners insurance startup. The
company allows customers to get
quotes, buy, and manage their
homeowners policy through its mobile
app.
56
Insurtech companies eye public markets
IPO date: June 2, 2020
Amount raised: $319M
Lemonade, a home and renters
insurance provider, went public
on June 2, 2020. The company
raised $319M at a $1.59B
valuation at the date of the IPO.
The stock was up 145% as of
December 31, 2020
SPAC date: November 24, 2020
Amount raised: $230M
Metromile, an auto insurance
provider, announced it would go
public via SPAC on November
24, 2020. It was valued at $1.3B
at the date of acquisition by
INSU Acquisition Corp II. The
transaction is expected to close
in Q1’21.
SPAC date: October 6, 2020
Amount raised: $1.2B
Health insurance provider Clover
Health announced it would go
public via SPAC on October 6,
2020. The company was valued
at $3.7B at the date of
acquisition by Social Capital
Hedosophia Holdings Corp III.
IPO date: 2021
Oscar, a health insurance
provider, announced it had
confidentially filed in
December 2020 for a proposed
IPO. The company also raised
a $140M Series F led by Tiger
Global Management in
December.
IPO date: October 28, 2020
Amount raised: $724M
Auto insurance company Root
went public on October 29,
2020. It raised $724M at a
$6.75B valuation at the date of
the IPO. The stock was down
42% as of December 31, 2020.
IPO date: 2021?
Home insurance company
Hippo is rumored to also be
looking to go public in 2021,
either through a traditional IPO
or a merger with a SPAC. The
company also raised $350M
from MS&AD Insurance in
November.
57
 Incumbents and startups build out API
capabilities
• In December, Nationwide announced the launch of its
Partnership Platform, which enables developers to offer
Nationwide products to their own customers via API
integrations. The company currently partners with Ford,
Amazon, and Bold Penguin through this platform.
• Chubb announced it was working with Brazil-based digital
bank Nubank to offer life insurance to its banking customers
in December. The product was built using Chubb Studio, an
API-driven integration platform the company unveiled in
September.
• In November, workers compensation and commercial
insurance provider Pie Insurance announced the launch
of its partner API. The company says the API enables
partners to access Pie’s application and provide quotes
to customers.
• Life insurance provider Bestow launched its Protect API,
which enables companies to offer life insurance through
their own interfaces, in November. The company also
revealed that its first partner to use the API was
Tomorrow Ideas, a company offering will and trust
services.
58
Insurtech companies merge to strengthen
products
Insurtech startup M&A deals, 2015 – 2020 Insurtech startup Q4’20 selected M&A activity

16

9 October 6, 2020: Commercial insurance distribution platform

7 Bold Penguin acquired RiskGenius, an insurance data
enhancement platform, for an undisclosed amount.
5 5

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

December 10, 2020: Small business insurer Next Insurance
acquired Juniper Labs, an insurance data enhancement platform,
for an undisclosed amount.
Source: cbinsights.com 59
WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

60
Capital markets deals, funding declined in Q4’20
Global VC-backed capital markets financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20

Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals

$2,500 100
86 90
$2,000 76 80
70
59 70
$1,500 57 60
50
$1,000 40
30
$500 20
10
$1,627 $1,493 $2,309 $2,251 $1,993
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020

61
Incumbents step into digital securities trading
Singapore Bank DBS To Launch Digital
Exchange As Demand For Virtual Currencies
Soar
Dec 10, 2020

Note: News mentions of “digital securities trading” or “digital securities exchange”. 62

Investment data and analytics platforms raised
early- and late-stage funding rounds
Q4’20 Funding: $320M Series F
HQ: Boston, MA
Select Investors: Salesforce Ventures,
Hewlett Packard Enterprise,
Snowflake Ventures
Focus: DataRobot is a machine
learning platform that leverages AI to
help financial services firms
reimagine their operations, from trade
execution to asset allocation and
fraud detection.
Q4’20 Funding: $3M Series A-II
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Select Investors: DLA Piper Venture Fund,
Orrick Venture Fund, Donnelley Financial
Solutions
Focus: Aumni offers an investment data
analytics platform for private markets. The
company’s platform extracts, audits, and
tracks thousands of data points from
definitive investment agreements.
Q4’20 Funding: N/A Series C
HQ: Hong Kong
Select Investors: Moody’s, TOM Group
Focus: MioTech develops financial
intelligence solutions for investment
managers. The company's platform
enables users to aggregate multiple
data sources, study financials and
scenarios, and automate workflows.
63
Early-stage funding rounds show continued
interest in algorithmic trading products

Q4’20 Funding: $2.1M Series A-II Q4’20 Funding: $5M Series A

HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Select Investors: Credit Suisse Entrepreneur Capital, FinLab EOS VC
Focus: AlgoTrader is an algorithmic trading software solution for
hedge funds and trading companies. AlgoTrader’s software can
automate quantitative trading strategies in forex, options, futures,
stocks, ETFs, and commodities markets.
HQ: Stamford, CT
Select Investors: QC Ventures
Focus: BestEx Research provides global, multi-asset algorithmic
trading products for equities, futures, and foreign exchange in all
markets. The company’s algorithms can reduce trading costs for
buy-side managers and provide sell-side firms a seamless trading
solution for their clients.
64
Digital asset trading, exchange, and settlement
platforms gained traction, especially in US
Deal Date // Total Disclosed
Company HQ Select Investors Description
Amount Raised Funding

Tenaya Capital, Swisscom Ventures, Digital Fireblocks is a digital asset custody, transfer,
US – NY Nov '20 // $30M $46M
Currency Group and settlement platform.

Hong Lenovo Incubator Group, Draper Dragon, QBN HKbitEX is a digital asset exchange and trading
Dec '20 // $10M $10M
Kong Capital, Lingfeng Capital platform for global professional investors.

NYDIG offers a full suite of institutional-grade

US – NY Dec '20 // $5M $55M MassMutual, Bessemer Venture Partners digital asset prime brokerage, execution, and
custody services.

FalconX develops a digital asset trading

Dec '20 // Accel, Coinbase Ventures, Avon Ventures,
US – CA $17M platform that provides a platform, API, and full-
Undisclosed Lightspeed Venture Partners
service trade desk.

Curv provides a cloud-based institutional digital

Oct ‘20 // Franklin Templeton, Coinbase Ventures, Digital
US – NY $29.5M asset wallet service.
Undisclosed Currency Group

65
WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

66
 SMB funding and deal activity fell for second
consecutive quarter
Global VC-backed SMB financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20
Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals
$3,000 69 80

63 70
$2,500
50 52 60
$2,000 47 50
$1,500 40
30
$1,000
20
$500
10
$900 $1,202 $2,829 $2,003 $949
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020

67
Payroll management startups address pain
points across SMB segments
Q4’20 Funding: $35M Series A
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Select Investors: Index Ventures, Sequoia
Capital.
Focus: Remote aims to simplify payroll,
tax, HR, and compliance for distributed
teams. The company plans on expanding to
30 businesses, up from 17. It has doubled
its customer base every month since its
launch early in 2020.
Q4’20 Funding: $15M Series A
HQ: Karnataka, India
Select Investors: Sequoia Capital India, India
Quotient
Focus: PagarBook is an employee management
solution built for micro, small, and medium
enterprises (MSMEs). The company focuses on
MSMEs in the manufacturing, construction, and
retail sectors where payroll and employee
management are highly manual. The company
claims to service over 5M MSMEs.
Q4’20 Funding: $7.5M Series A
HQ: Dallas, TX
Select Investors: Greendot, Techstars
Focus: Gig Wage is a platform that aims to
simplify payroll payments for the gig economy.
Through its partnership with Green Dot, Gig
Wage offers a debit card specifically for gig
workers and plans to build a comprehensive
banking platform to cater to this group.
68
Expense management companies tackle
spending at various levels of the organization
Q4’20 Funding: $5M Series A-II
HQ: New York, NY
Select Investors: Fin Venture Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Tribe
Capital
Focus: Teampay is a spend management platform for decentralized
teams. The platform allows multi-channel requests (including Slack),
intelligent authorization, and real-time spend tracking to give finance
teams transparency into spend. Teampay’s spend under
management reportedly grew 800% since the close of its Series A,
while recurring software revenue grew by 320%.
Q4’20 Funding: $3.4M seed
HQ: London, UK
Select Investors: Anthemis, Nauta Capital
Focus: Cledara is a SaaS purchasing and analytics platform for
businesses to manage recurring subscription payments. Cledara
reports its customers reduce software spend by 30%. The company
reportedly grew revenues by 20x in 2020, and has over 100
customers, including Railsbank, Florence.co.uk, and Unmind.com.
69
Stripe Treasury’s ‘platform of platforms’ brings
fin services online and to the SMB masses

Stripe launches its banking-as-a-service platform,

Stripe Treasury
• Stripe Treasury’s infrastructure enables marketplaces and
platforms to offer their users financial services.
• Through the integration, platform users’ customers can
hold funds, pay bills, earn interest, and manage cash flow.
• Stripe has partnered with Shopify to power Shopify Balance,
which offers merchants control over finances.
• Bank partners include Goldman Sachs and Evolve Bank &
Trust in the US. Stripe plans to expand Treasury to other
countries through partnerships with Citigroup and Barclays.

70
Point-of-sale systems and SMB lenders were
M&A targets in Q4’20
Total Disclosed
Company Exit Valuation Funding Acquirer Description

$440M $162M Lightspeed POS ShopKeep provides a cloud-based iPad point-of-sale system.

$430M $191M Lightspeed POS Upserve offers a cloud point-of-sale for restaurants.

$225M Visma provides business management software and services

$123M Mercell in the Nordic region.

$122M* $394M Enova OnDeck Capital offers small businesses loans.

$24M $18.4M NerdWallet Fundera is an online marketplace for small business financial
loans.

*OnDeck first went public at a $1.6B valuation in 2014. 71

WHAT THE STATE OF FINTECH COVERS

PAYMENTS BANKING ALTERNATIVE LENDING WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Payments processing, Digital-first banks or Companies creating new Personal finance tools,
card developers, money companies digitizing banking solutions for personal or investment and wealth
transfer platforms, and services for credit and debit commercial lending management platforms, and
tracking software analytics tools

INSURANCE CAPITAL MARKETS SMB REAL ESTATE

Companies selling or distributing Sales and trading, analysis, Companies focused on Mortgage lending, transaction
insurance digitally or providing and infrastructure tools for providing solutions to small- digitization, and financing
data analytics and software for financial institutions and medium-sized platforms
(re)insurers businesses

72
 Real estate funding rebounded after 5-quarter
low
Global VC-backed real estate financing trends, Q4’19 – Q4’20

Total Funding ($M) # Of Deals

$4,000 92 100
82
$3,500 90
74 80
$3,000 67 67
70
$2,500 60
$2,500
$2,000 50
$1,500 40
30
$1,000
20
$500 10
$1,599 $1,098 $1,145 $900 $1,750
$0 0
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
2019 2020

Note: Q1’20 funding was predominantly driven by Ziroom’s $1B Series C and Beike Zhaofong’s $1.5B Series D extension. 73
SPACs surge in real estate tech
Tishman Speyer Launches $300M
SPAC to Invest in Proptech
Nov 10, 2020

Note: News mentions of “SPAC” or “Special Purpose Acquisition”. 74

Mortgage platforms revived old IPOs and
announced new ones
AmeriHome revived plans for its IPO,
which could value the company at
$1.3B.
HQ: Westlake Village, CA
Year Founded: 2014
Focus: AmeriHome is a direct
mortgage lender that offers home
loans, refinancing, and loan servicing
in the US.
LoanDepot revived plans for its IPO at a Better.com prepares for a 2021 IPO at $4B
predicted valuation of $12-15B. valuation.
HQ: Foothill Ranch, CA HQ: New York
Year Founded: 2010 Year Founded: 2016
Focus: LoanDepot is a nonbank consumer Focus: Better.com is a direct lender that
lender, offering home mortgage, refinance, provides online mortgage financing and
and home equity loan products in all 50 refinancing services.
states.
75
 Startups build alternative paths to
homeownership
Distressed home iBuyer
Q4’20 Funding: $36M Series B
HQ: Sacramento, CA
Select Investors: Susa Ventures, Founders
Fund, Navitas Capital, QED Investors
Focus: Sundae is a real estate iBuyer that
focuses on distressed properties. It aims to
allow homeowner to sell homes as-is with
no repairs, updates, or showings. Sundae
operates in select markets in California.
Co-ownership
Q4’20 Funding: $17M Series A
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Select Investors: Maveron, CrossCut Ventures,
Global Founders Capital
Focus: Pacaso’s platform enables co-ownership for
second-home buyers, allowing buyers to purchase
anywhere from one-eighth to half of a second home,
depending on occupancy needs. Pacaso places each
property held in an LLC and fully manages it.
Lease-to-own
Q4’20 Funding: $14.8M seed
HQ: Hamburg, Germany
Select Investor: Atlantic Labs
Focus: OWNR buys and leases out
apartments and houses currently available
for sale in the local market. Users have the
option to buy without a brokers’ commission
and at a fixed price.
76
Online rental property listing platforms
received more attention in the US and beyond
US-based startups raised new capital
California-based Apartment List is a rental listing
platform for apartments. The company allows renters to
search rental apartments in all 50 states and offers a
wide range of search filters to help users quickly find the
right property based on their needs.
Apartment List raised a $50M Series D round in Q4’20
from investors including Allen & Company, Canaan
Partners, Tenaya Capital, Soros Fund Management, and
Janus Henderson Investors.
Early-stage international startups gained traction
Singapore-based Cove is a rental property search
platform that allows users to browse apartments through
VR and quickly book places online. Cove raised a $4.6M
Series A round in Q4’20 from Keppel Land.
South Korea-based Dongnae is a property search platform
for rental and for-sale homes. Dongnae raised a $4.1M
seed round in Q4’20 from investors including Flybridge
Capital Partners, MetaProp, and Maple VC.
Estonia-based Rendin is a mobile-based rental property
search and agreement platform. Rendin raised a $1.5M
seed round in Q4’20 from Atomico, Tera Ventures, and
TrueSight Ventures, among others.
77
Appendix

78
GET ALL THE DATA USED IN THIS REPORT

Fintech Wealth Management

Payments Insurance

Banking Capital Markets

Alternative Lending SMB

Real Estate

79
 Methodology
CB Insights encourages you to review the methodology and definitions employed to better understand the numbers presented in this
report. If you have any questions about the definitions or methodological principles used, we encourage you to reach out to CB Insights
directly. Additionally, if you feel your firm has been under-represented, please send an email to info@cbinsights.com and we can work
together to ensure your firm’s investment data is up to date.

What is included: What is excluded:

― Equity financings into emerging fintech companies. Fundings must be put into VC-backed
companies, which are defined as companies that have received funding at any point from
venture capital firms, corporate venture groups, or super angel investors.
― Fundings of only private companies. Funding rounds raised by public companies of any
kind on any exchange (including Pink Sheets) are excluded from our numbers, even if they
received investment by a venture firm.
― Only includes the investment made in the quarter for tranched investments. If a company
does a second closing of its Series B round for $5M and previously had closed $2M in a
prior quarter, only the $5M is reflected in our results.
― Round numbers reflect what has closed — not what is intended. If a company indicates
the closing of $5M out of a desired raise of $15M, our numbers reflect only the amount
which has closed.
― Only verifiable fundings are included. Fundings are verified via various federal and state
regulatory filings, direct confirmation with firms or investors, or press releases.
― Previous quarterly VC reports issued by CBI have exclusively included VC-backed rounds.
In this report, any rounds raised by VC-backed companies are included, with the
exceptions listed.
— No contingent funding. If a company receives a commitment for $20M subject to hitting
certain milestones but first gets $8M, only the $8M is included in our data.
— No business development/R&D arrangements, whether transferable into equity now, later, or
never. If a company signs a $300M R&D partnership with a larger corporation, this is not equity
financing, nor is it from a venture capital firm. As a result, it is not included.
— No buyouts, consolidations, and/or recapitalizations. All three of these transaction types are
commonly employed by private equity firms and are tracked by CB Insights. However, they are
excluded for the purposes of this report.
— No private placements. These investments, also known as PIPEs (Private Investment in Public
Equities), are excluded even if made by a venture capital firm(s).
— No debt/loans of any kind (except convertible notes). Venture debt or any kind of debt/loan
issued to emerging startup companies, even if included as an additional part of an equity
financing, is not included. If a company receives $3M with $2M from venture investors and
$1M in debt, only the $2M is included.
— No government funding. Grants, loans, or equity financings by the federal government, state
agencies, or public-private partnerships to emerging startup companies are not included.

80