Bud helps banks connect their applications and data to other fintech companies and financial services providers has closed more than $ 20 million in additional funds.
The round of the Series A considers that the company will recover the support of a series of banks: HSBC (which, through First Direct, also counts as a client), Goldman Sachs, ANZ, INVC fund of Investec and InnoCells (the division of business risk of the Bank). Sabadell).
Other participants include Lord Fink (the former executive director of the hedge fund Man Group) and 9Yards Capital (the venture capital firm of which George Osborne is an advisor).
Originally launched in 2016 as a consumer application that wanted to make several financial services accessible from a single aggregate interface, the London-based startup has become a technological platform that offers banks to help them remain more competitive.
In the Open Banking / The era PSD2. Its technology allows banks to create new applications and services that allow customers to manage all their financial products within a single application.
Essentially, Bud acts as the technological layer that intelligently connects the data of the bank accounts with the financial services of third parties, including those provided by fintechs and the most traditional financial providers, in addition to performing a large number of heavy tasks necessary to create new consumer experiences from banking data.
“The work we have done with First Direct is a showcase of possible features and functionalities thanks to the new regulation, data science and relevant connections for financial and financial services,” says Bud CTO and co-founder George Dunning.
“We have created a series of data enrichment functions that use transactional data to make people’s lives a little bit easier, and the connection and aggregation of people accounts is the standard now, so we focus on things like increase financial education ‘Smart Balance’ is a feature that shows users what they can spend safely and ‘Goals’ helps them plan for the future. Our advanced regular payments search engine filters and tracks invoice payments and, if you can save money, Bud connects you to a service that will make it happen. ”
Many of these functions are based on Bud’s ability to use data to detect patterns and behaviors. “Something as simple as detecting if someone is going abroad and helping you get insurance for your trip using one of our partners from the application is much better than doing it in the traditional way,” says Dunning.
Apart from First Direct, owned by HSBC, Bud’s co-founder can not disclose to any of the other banking clients of the company. “We are working with a handful of banks throughout the industry, using open banking and our service market to solve problems for their clients that could not be resolved before,” he says.
In the area of financial and financial services, Bud currently works with 85 different companies. These include Wealthify and PensionBee from fintechs to more established companies such as Hiscox and AJ Bell.
Another partner that Dunning can talk about is the US government. UU., With which Bud is working as part of the Revenue Recognition Challenge to create new solutions for people who want to climb the ladder of the house.
“First-time buyers have it harder now than ever. The work we are finalizing with The Treasury uses rental payments to help people increase their credit history to buy a house, “he says.
Meanwhile, Bud says the new capital will support the expansion of Bud’s team, as the company moves to double its workforce, creating what it claims will be the “largest team dedicated to Open Banking.” in the world. “His current staff is 62.