Today, Griffin – a Banking as a Service (BaaS) fintech company – announces that it has raised $15.5m (£12.5m) in funding to launch the operating system for integrated finance. The round was led by Notion Capital, with participation from existing investor EQT Ventures as well as fintech angels including William Hockey, co-founder of Plaid and founder and co-CEO of Column, Nilan Peiris, vice president of growth at Wise, Rob Straathof, CEO of Liberis and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie and ex CCO Worldpay.
Griffin also welcomes Notion Capital co-founder and managing partner Stephen Chandler to its board. Chandler’s previous investments include fintech unicorns GoCardless and Paddle and he brings Griffin a wealth of industry knowledge and operational experience in banking and software.
“We are delighted to work with Notion Capital and to have someone of Stephen’s caliber on our board. His background fits perfectly with our vision to combine the worlds of banking and technology into one powerful platform,” said David Jarvis, CEO and co-founder of Griffin. “With this injection of funding, we can continue to innovate, scale our business and focus on building the best banking platform possible.”
Griffin is building a vertically integrated BaaS platform powered by modern, user-friendly technology. The company has raised $27 million in funding to date and recently submitted its application to the PRA and FCA to become an authorized bank. Notion and other investors recognize this as a key market differentiator for the company. Becoming a bank would allow Griffin to offer banking services and a more comprehensive BaaS platform than its middleware competitors. Griffin’s vision is to be a stable, long-term banking partner for innovative fintechs that often struggle with lengthy and costly onboarding processes and integration with existing technology at established banks.
“SaaS is finally eating into the financial services industry like it has in every other industry, and Griffin will enable fintechs to build and launch financial products with one secure, modern SaaS platform,” said Stephen. Chandler, managing partner at Notion Capital. “I’m excited to support the team as they rewrite the way businesses interact with banks and accelerate growth.”
In addition to the clear market demand for a full BaaS provider, Notion and other investors have also backed Griffin due to the caliber of its leadership. David Jarvis and Allen Rohner, founder and former CTO of tech unicorn CircleCI, founded the company in 2017 and have since assembled a formidable team of technology and banking leaders from the Bank of England – PRA, Visa, HSBC, Form3, SWIFT , Monzo, GoCardless, Atlassian, Snyk and more.
Since its last funding announcement in November 2020, Griffin has tripled in size and started commercializing its platform, which is currently available in exclusive early access. This new round of investment will be used to grow the management and operational teams and continue building the core banking platform. Griffin is also committed to protecting its corporate culture as it evolves. The company’s culture is based on trust, goodwill and transparency and underpins its objective of becoming the bank for builders and innovators.
“The financial services industry has not kept pace with consumer trends and technological innovation, creating demand for a developer-friendly bank based on modern APIs and intuitive software,” added Tom Mendoza. , a partner at EQT Ventures and a member of the Griffin Board of Directors. “Griffin aims to challenge the status quo by offering a comprehensive banking platform that will allow brands to launch financial products quickly, simply and affordably. This influx of capital will lead to the next phase of the company’s ambitious journey. »
