Griffin – a Banking as a Service (BaaS) fintech firm – has raised $15.5 million (£12.5 million) in funding to launch the OS for embedded 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, VP of Growth at Wise, Rob Straathof, CEO at Liberis and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie and ex CCO of Worldpay.
Griffin also welcomes Notion Capital co-founder and managing partner Stephen Chandler to its board of directors. Chandler’s previous investments include fintech unicorns GoCardless and Paddle, and he brings a wealth of industry knowledge and operating experience in both banking and software to Griffin.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Notion Capital and to have someone of Stephen’s calibre join our board. His experience fits perfectly with our vision to blend the worlds of banking and technology in one powerful platform,” said David Jarvis, Griffin CEO and co-founder. “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 full-stack vertically integrated BaaS platform, powered by modern user-friendly technology. The company has raised $27 million of funding to date and recently submitted its application to the PRA and the FCA to become an authorised bank. Notion and other investors recognise this as a key market differentiator for the company. Becoming a bank would enable Griffin to offer banking services and a more comprehensive BaaS platform than middleware competitors. Griffin’s vision is to be a stable, long-term banking partner for innovative fintechs who often struggle with long, expensive onboarding processes and integration with legacy tech at established banks.
“SaaS is finally eating the financial services sector the way it has every other industry, and Griffin will empower fintechs to build and launch financial products with a single secure and modern SaaS platform,” Stephen Chandler, Managing Partner at Notion Capital said. “I’m thrilled to support the team as they rewrite the way companies interact with banks and accelerate growth.”
In addition to clear market demand for a full-stack BaaS provider, Notion and other investors also backed Griffin based on the calibre 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 tech 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 begun commercialising its platform, currently available for exclusive early access. This new round of investment will be used to grow the leadership and operational teams and continue the build of the core banking platform. Griffin is also committed to protecting its company culture as it scales. The company’s culture is based on trust, kindness and transparency and underpins its goal of becoming the bank for builders and innovators.
“The financial services industry has not kept pace with consumer trends and tech innovation, creating demand for a developer-friendly bank built on modern APIs and intuitive software,” Tom Mendoza, EQT Ventures partner and Griffin board member added. “Griffin aims to challenge the status quo by offering a full-stack banking platform that will make it fast, simple, and cost-effective for brands to launch financial products. This influx of capital will drive the next phase of the company’s ambitious journey.”
Griffin is making the bank you can build on. The company is developing an API-first, full-stack Banking as a Service platform that lets companies focus on building products for their customers, not managing back-end infrastructure and compliance operations. Griffin was founded by Silicon Valley engineers David Jarvis and Allen Rohner (who co-founded tech unicorn CircleCI) and a team of banking and technology executives from the Bank of England – PRA, Nasdaq, Visa HSBC, Form3, Monzo, SWIFT, GoCardless and more. Griffin is based in the UK and backed by investors EQT Ventures, Tribe Capital, and Seedcamp. Learn more: www.griffin.sh
Notion Capital is a European B2B SaaS and Cloud VC with more than $700m assets under management and over 100 investments to date. The Notion team founded, built and exited two highly successful SaaS businesses – Star and MessageLabs – and invests exclusively in exceptional founders with the ambition to build global category leaders. The Notion portfolio includes Currencycloud, Dixa, GoCardless, Mews, Paddle, Tradeshift and Unbabel. Notion is also the founder of Included VC, the venture capital fellowship for individuals from diverse and overlooked communities from around the world. Learn more: www.notion.vc
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