London-based fintech startup TrueLayer raises $70 million to take on Visa and Mastercard

It’s been a while since we wrote about TrueLayer, a London, England-based fintech startup that builds universal APIs or application programming interfaces to allow companies to capitalize on new Open Banking initiatives in the UK, and beyond. TrueLayer lets fintech apps like Revolut and Freetrade connect with customers’ bank accounts. Back in June 2019, we featured TrueLayer after the company raised $35 million in Series C funding to fuel growth.

Fast forward two years later, TrueLayer announced today it’s raised $70 million in fresh funding to expand its services internationally, building out its presence in Europe first before targeting a rollout in Australia. TrueLayer also said that it’s exploring whether to launch in Brazil further down the road.

The latest investment round was led by Addition, the venture capital firm founded by former Tiger Global partner Lee Fixel. Existing investors Anthemis Group, Connect Ventures, Mouro Capital, Northzone, and Singapore’s Temasek also invested. The latest funding also highlights continued appetite from investors for fast-growing fintech startups like TrueLayer.

Founded in 2016 by Francesco Simoneschi and Luca Martinetti, TrueLayer provides a platform to build financial apps that connect to bank data, verify accounts, and access transactions in real-time. The SAAS platform uses its toolkit to develop consumer and server message block (SMB) applications in the areas of payments, online lending, personal financial management (PFM), robot-advisors, insurance, investment services, p2p marketplaces, and cryptocurrencies. It aims to grow the open banking economy by creating a platform for companies to develop new financial services and products.

TrueLayer lets other fintech apps securely and efficiently access their customers’ bank accounts to share financial data, make payments and validate their identity. This means users of those apps can then make payments from their bank or view balances and transactions from different accounts.

Francesco Simoneschi, TrueLayer’s CEO and co-founder, said in an interview that the firm decided to raise more cash on the back of strong growth in 2020, helped in no small part by the coronavirus pandemic and a shift from consumers toward digital means of managing their finances.

According to a public record, TrueLayer has raised a total of $141.8 million in funding over 7 rounds. Its latest funding was raised today from a Series D round. TrueLayer is funded by 20 investors. Visionaries Club and Mouro Capital are the most recent investors.

TrueLayer Team