Gauss Ventures leads USD 55 million round in Curve
In a record year for Fintech investments, Curve is now amongst the top 5 UK Consumer Fintechs* *
Curve, the over-the-top banking platform that consolidates multiple cards and accounts into one smart card and an even smarter app, has secured $55 million from a leading group of investors as part of a successful Series B funding round, valuing the company at 250 million US dollars.
The investment marks the beginning of a new era in banking — an Over-The-Top Banking Platform that provides a better banking experience, and places Curve in the top five UK consumer fintechs next to Transferwise, Monzo, Revolut and Starling.
The round is being led by Gauss Ventures, a fintech investor whose team has a track record of funding some of the highest-growing and visible fintechs in the UK and globally, and comes less than two years after Curve secured its Series A investment. The Series B round also welcomes other prominent investors such as Creditease, IDC Ventures, Olayan Group, and Cathay Ventures, which has just announced a new €300M fund. Gauss Ventures’ Michael Burns will also join the board at Curve.
Several of Curve’s early stage investors such as Santander, Breega, Seedcamp and Speedinvest have also shown their confidence in Curve by participating again.
Shachar Bialick, founder and CEO of Curve said, “While the challenger and traditional banks are busy fighting to win or retain new customers, Curve is playing a completely different ball game. Curve is not a challenger bank. Curve is building an Over-The-Top Banking Platform that provides customers with a better banking experience with no need to change their bank. We focus on creating a radically better customer experience, without asking customers to trust their salaries with us, or the significant overhead of becoming a regulated bank. Receiving this level of investment from such prominent investors is a fantastic endorsement of the value and experience Curve brings to its customers.”
Curve, which launched out of Beta in February 2018, is growing at a spectacular pace and is on track to welcome it’s millionth customer by the year end. The Curve team is now over 150 people in its UK offices in London and Bristol.
Curve is already available in 31 European countries and plans to use the fresh funding to expand its product offering in the UK, Europe and overseas. It will officially launch into six European markets later this year: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain, and aims to launch its operations in the US by mid next year.
“The success of Curve, demonstrated by its outstanding growth, is a clear testament to the opportunity in rebundling of financial products and services. The strength in Curve over the challenger banks is its product strategy which avoids competing directly with the banks by building an over the top banking platform” said Daniel Gusev, partner at Gauss Ventures. “As the market continues to fragment, with new financial products and services spawning every day, Curve is best positioned to connect all these products into one single interface — allowing its customers to discover new products with a tap” he added.
Curve engages with its customers exceptionally well thanks to its over-the-top model. A Curve customer spends on average £1,500 a month through the Curve platform acting as mission control for their money. This is significantly higher than the big challenger banks. For instance, Monzo’s last annual report stated that only 30% of their customers spend — roughly £1000 a month — goes through Monzo.
Bialick acknowledges that as a new product, Curve’s appeal is driven by customer advocacy: “Curve has developed a completely new category in banking and has a wave of followers that drive 85% of our growth from word of mouth. Our customers don’t stop talking about the product to their friends and family, pointing out all the tiny improvements that together give them a significantly better experience.”
Fans of the business include Transferwise founder Taavet Hinrikus, previous COO of Deutsche Bank Henry Ritchotte, Betfair’s founder Ed Wray and Tandem Bank founder Ricky Knox, who backed Curve at various stages and continue to be advocates of Curve’s business model.
Curve’s funding announcement comes amid a wave of new product launches on Curve’s platform. In June, Curve launched Curve Cash which gives Curve customers unlimited 1% instant cashback at leading retailers such as Amazon, Uber, Spotify, Netflix, Tesco, Sainsbury and over 100 more retailers. Earlier this year, Curve launched enhanced Customer Protection, protecting customer for purchases made up to £100,000, access to Travel Insurance, Gadget Insurance and over 1000 airport lounges worldwide.
*According to Dealroom data on Series B fundraises, and Invyo Insights
About Curve:
Curve is an over-the-top banking platform, consolidating all your cards and accounts into one smart card and even smarter app. It allows customers to supercharge their legacy banks to the 21st century without leaving their bank or topping-up. Curve offers a host of benefits to its customers; it makes all your cards fee-free when spending abroad, you get instant notifications and categorisation of spend,you can earn instant 1% cashback at the likes of Amazon, Uber, Netflix and Sainsbury’s and Time Travel enables customers to swap spend to a different card in the app for up to two weeks after the purchase was made.
Curve also offers Curve Customer Protection, a policy that covers all credit and debit card payments made via the Curve card up to £100,000, giving cardholders an extra layer of protection for disputes with merchants and any unauthorised use of their Curve card. Whether you have a Curve Metal card, Curve Black card or Curve Blue card, Curve Customer Protection offers you a better level of protection in many ways — filling in the gaps that Section 75 leaves.
For more information go to www.curve.app,
About Gauss Ventures:
Gauss Ventures packs over 100 years in cumulative experience in building successful businesses, running major international banks, and investing into transformational companies. It specialises in hands-on domain specific investments in fintech and smart industry companies. Backing high impact technologies that reshape industries, Gauss provides both capital and the tools necessary to build growth. For more information go to www.gauss.vc
