AAF Management Ltd.

03/28/2024

Portfolio company Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, is excited to announce the appointment of seasoned leaders from prominent financial services companies, including PayPal, Stripe, American Express, First Data Corporation, Western Union, and Square. These appointments reinforce Flutterwave’s dedication to risk and compliance to continue growing sustainably and successfully expanding globally.

Amaresh Mohan, Chief Risk Officer, joins Flutterwave as the company’s first Chief Risk Officer, a role he previously held at GoTo Group, Indonesia’s largest digital ecosystem that publicly listed at IDX last year. Amaresh’s 25-year career includes leadership positions at Stripe and PayPal where he was responsible for building risk management capabilities to enable market entries and scaling up in a number of emerging markets globally. Previously, Amaresh has held key roles in leading global banks, including Citi, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Bank of America.

At Flutterwave, Amaresh will oversee all aspects of Risk Management, including Compliance, Trust and Safety. He will work closely with the board and Flutterwave leadership to build a risk-aware culture and strong governance across the company.

Stephen Cheng, EVP Global Expansion and Payment Partnerships, brings over two decades of global experience at Fortune 100 and high-growth regulated financial institutions, building and leading world-class risk and compliance organizations. He has held multiple C-level positions at public and private companies such as American Express, First Data, Green Dot, and Prime Trust. Most recently, Stephen was Chief Risk and Compliance Officer and Chief Executive Officer at Wyre. Stephen will spearhead Flutterwave’s navigation of the ever-evolving global payment systems and facilitate the company’s expansion into new markets globally through acquiring licences and strategic payment partnership initiatives.

Amanda Ortega, Head of Compliance, US, brings more than 20 years of experience in the banking industry, including 12 years as a regulator with the State of Wyoming’s Division of Banking, where she served in various roles, including Chief Bank Examiner and Deputy Banking Commissioner. Prior to Flutterwave, Amanda was a regulatory, audit, and compliance executive for multiple licensed trust companies and money transmitters. She will be responsible for overseeing Flutterwave’s regulatory standards and compliance in North America.

Chris Davis, who joined as VP, Risk and Compliance Operations, held leadership roles in compliance, risk, and operations at Scottrade and Square/Cash App.

Adewale Ayantoye, who joined as VP, Risk Management, previously held a Director-level Financial Crimes Operations role at Etsy and a leadership role in compliance at Square/Cash App.

Sell online, process payments, build financial products, or use business tools designed to grow your business.

03/28/2024

Congratulations to portfolio company Hapi App for raising a $1.6 million Seed extension with participation from UTEC Ventures, Unpopular Ventures, Softeq Ventures, and Mural Capital.

“The emerging company Hapi, headquartered in San Francisco with Peruvian roots, has secured significant funding of USD $1.6 million to strengthen its presence in the Latin American stock market.

The purpose of this capital injection is twofold: on the one hand, it aims to support the sustained growth of the company, and on the other, it intends to enhance the user experience in buying and selling stocks and other financial products in the U.S. stock markets, as stated by Dusko Kelez, CEO and co-founder of Hapi, in an interview with Forbes Perú.

The primary commitment of Hapi is to facilitate and make stock market investment more accessible for the people of Latin America. So far, the company has shown steady progress toward achieving this goal. It has focused on accelerated growth, particularly noticeable since its foundation in October 2020, when Kelez Piero Sifuentes and Billy Caballero started this venture.

By October of the previous year, Hapi had reached 10,000 users, projected to increase this number to 75,000 by the end of 2022. However, current figures show even more impressive growth, as the company is about to reach 300,000 users to hit 500,000 by the first quarter of 2024, according to Kelez.

Hapi is characterized as an application focused on purchasing and selling stocks in the U.S. stock market, specifically designed for clients in Latin America. The company states that its mission is to bring prosperity to the region by facilitating access to the world of stock investments.

Furthermore, the Peruvian startup has gained backing from essential entities in the field of technological entrepreneurship, such as Y Combinator, one of the most recognized accelerators in Silicon Valley, and has also received support from Harvard Management Company, strengthening its market position.”

Hapi raises USD $1.6 million to facilitate stock market investment in Latin America, driving exponential growth.

03/28/2024

Congratulations to portfolio company PayCaddy (YC W22) for making it on Forbes Centroamérica's list of future unicorns in Central America! Keep crushing it Juan Diego Galvez, we're excited to have been on your ride since the Seed round!

"PayCaddy, marca originaria de Panamá, está liderando la transformación del sistema financiero en la región, ofreciendo soluciones de pago innovadoras y seguras. Su plataforma está contribuyendo a la inclusión financiera y simplificando las transacciones comerciales en la región.

Centroamérica está demostrando un gran potencial de innovación empresarial a través de éstas y otras marcas, las cuales están pavimentando el camino para futuros inversionistas y empresarios que buscan oportunidades en una región rica y diversa.

El espíritu emprendedor y las posibilidades de crecimiento en Centroamé- rica son razones convincentes para que el mundo empresarial preste atención a esta vibrante y prometedora región."

Centroamérica es una región que está emergiendo como un ecosistema empresarial excepcional. A pesar de su tamaño.

03/28/2024

Portfolio company Jasper announced its new “end-to-end AI copilot for better marketing outcomes,” according to Timothy Young, the new CEO of Jasper as of three weeks ago, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat.

"The features Jasper announced today include new performance analytics to optimize content, a company intelligence hub to align messaging with brand strategy, and campaign tools to accelerate review cycles. The features will start rolling out in beta in November, with additional capabilities planned for Q1 2024.

By outlining the campaign parameters upfront, Jasper’s new copilot can not only generate customized content for each channel but also schedule, distribute, and track the entire effort. This elevates Jasper from tactical content creation to true strategic campaign management.

Crucially, the copilot also closes the feedback loop by integrating performance analytics. This allows users to demonstrate the real business impact of their campaigns to stakeholders.

Young, a former leader at Dropbox and VMware, said Jasper is “up leveling the capabilities…from just an individual piece of content to groupings of content that are strategically valuable.”

For Young, one of the most exciting aspects of Jasper’s technology is the profound emotional impacts it can have on knowledge workers. He recounted being moved while witnessing an exuberant reaction after Jasper generated over 100 product descriptions for her e-commerce site in minutes.
“Those moments where technology really invokes someone deeply at an emotional level, I just think, are incredibly rare,” Young said.

By helping eliminate the friction and loneliness of the creative process, Young believes AI assistants can rekindle that sense of childlike wonder people feel when discovering profoundly useful new tools.

“No one should have to work alone again,” said Young. By serving as a conversational companion that sparks new ideas and surfaces actionable insights from company data, Jasper aims to get people firmly “in the flow of work” through natural dialogue. Young hopes this makes the workday feel less solitary and allows employees to consistently achieve their peak performance.

If Jasper and other AI tools can help more workers feel like “heroes” both on the job and at home, Young believes it will not only boost productivity but profoundly impact peoples’ overall well-being and job satisfaction for the better. For him, technologies that forge deep emotional connections by empowering users are uniquely positioned for long-term success."

New features include analytics to optimize content, a company intelligence hub to align messaging with brand strategy, and campaign tools.

03/28/2024

Congratulations to portfolio company Drata for making it on LinkedIn's Top 50 US startups for the second year in a row - coming in at a cool #6!

Keep trailblazing Adam Markowitz and Troy Markowitz and Daniel Marashlian!

Full-time headcount: 475 | Headquarters: San Diego | Year founded: 2020 |
Most common skills: Salesforce.com, Cloud Computing, Sales Development | Most common job titles: Business Development Representative, Customer Experience Manager, Account Executive | Largest job functions: Sales, Engineering, Customer Success and Support |

What they do: Drata is a security automation platform designed to simplify security compliance for businesses through continuous monitoring and real-time insights. The SaaS startup’s latest funding round doubled their total valuation to $2 billion last December, just one year after reaching unicorn status.

03/13/2024

Portfolio company Vero Technologies closes an $8.5 million Series A led by BankTech Ventures with participation from Sopra Steria Ventures and other notable fintech investors including Arcadia Funds, LLC, Antler, AAF Management Ltd., and the Independent Community Bankers of America. Congratulations John Mizzi, Isaac Zafarani and Rama Potturu!

Vero will use the capital to accelerate the growth of its lending-as-a-service (LAAS) offering, giving banks a digital solution for the financial processes that stand in the way of their expansion in the wholesale financing space.

Manufactured goods dealers, such as auto, powersports and agricultural equipment dealers, need capital to acquire inventory from manufacturers and suppliers. Historically, banks have been unable to offer this form of wholesale–or “floor plan”–financing due to complexities with originating, servicing and monitoring dealers. Vero Technologies’ lending-as-a-service platform streamlines these processes so that banks can extend wholesale financing to dealers in their local communities–all without overhauling existing systems or adding specialized headcount.

The platform leverages open banking technology to offer end-to-end loan lifecycle management to its current user base of community and regional banks across the country. Its capabilities span everything from underwriting, loan servicing and digital auditing to real-time inventory, risk management and financial analytics. As a result, banks can profitably introduce wholesale financing, while providing dealers lower cost of funds and enhancing operational efficiencies. The platform also includes dealer and supplier-facing tools to eliminate unnecessary manual interactions.

“We’ve been fortunate to build a viable product and achieve initial market pe*******on with minimal funding to date. Now, as we set out to expand, we’re pleased to do so in partnership with BankTech Ventures, Sopra Steria Ventures and other strategic investors who share our vision of providing banks with a bespoke solution for wholesale finance," said John Mizzi, CEO of Vero Technologies. "This investment will enable us to build our growing footprint with community and regional banks across the country and enhance our platform's capabilities."

For dealers and manufacturers with limited options for wholesale financing, Vero Technologies’ solution represents a differentiated value proposition. Through Vero, these dealers now have access to lower-cost funds through their preferred financial services partners, ensuring that dealers can consolidate their financial resources and drive business growth.

Vero Technologies, a wholesale financing technology and loan servicing platform, today announced the close of its $8.5M Series A funding round. Led by

01/23/2024

Portfolio company Current has launched a secured credit card called 'Build.' Congratulations Stuart Sopp and Trevor Marshall and the entire Current team!

"In July, Current did a soft launch of a new product, the Build card. Build is a new take on the secured credit card concept. Typically, to use a secured card the consumer has to establish a deposit account that serves as collateral for the credit line associated with the card. Build uses funds that the customer has on deposit in their Current banking account, either one they already have or a new account if they haven’t banked with the fintech before.

Balances are not carried over from month to month, making it effectively more of a charge card. The deposit balance retires the total amount charged on the card each month.

But spending on the Build card is reported as a credit card transaction, helping people to establish a credit history with a record of on-time payments. (Current reports to one of the three leading credit bureaus, TransUnion.)

The intent behind the Build card is to increase cardholders’ credit scores and enable them to move on to other forms of consumer credit. In addition to allowing them to access credit, the higher scores also will make credit cheaper for them.

Current has been “sifting for gold” in the sub-600 FICO credit score area, while traditional banks typically don’t delve below 620, says Sopp.

“I know from talking to some of our competitors that everyone has a similar roadmap, which is to nail down the banking side — which we’ve done — and then start to build,” he says.

In Current’s bid to get out of the red, it has several factors already working in its favor. Sopp says that many of its 4.5 million accounts are profitable on a standalone basis. Current also has started its own processing operation to deal directly with Visa — rather than going through an outside processor — which saves it some money.

Current began with a teen banking product and expanded into personal banking accounts a couple of years later. Its revenue comes chiefly from credit and debit card interchange at present.

The features that have been its selling points include early access to direct deposits, fee-free overdrafts and 4% APY on up to $6,000 in deposits (subject to certain other requirements) — all of which have become table stakes for fintechs serving consumers.

Current began developing Build in late 2022 and a full marketing launch started in August. The company is targeting existing customers to get them to switch their accounts to a linked Build account instead. It is also seeking fresh signups from noncustomers.

The focus is largely on conversions right now, but once more customers adopt Build, Sopp expects to see a 50/50 split in the marketing mix. (He says the level of conversions so far is “amazing,” but gave no detail.)

01/23/2024

Portfolio company Flutterwave Africa’s largest payments startup, is expanding to India after securing a partnership with IndusInd Bank Ltd., a leading financial institution in the Asian nation.

The agreement will enable Flutterwave, worth an estimated $3 billion, expand its remittance product into Asia’s second-biggest economy, said Olugbenga Agboola, co-founder and ceo of the pan-African payments company, who accompanied President Bola Tinubu to India for the G20 summit. “The Indian expansion for Flutterwave will be the first African company to do this at scale where remittances from India to Africa become seamless and quick,” Agboola said in an interview Friday.

IndusInd Bank has approximately 35 million customers across the country, including individuals, large corporations, various government entities, according to information on its website.

Since its founding in 2016, Flutterwave has rapidly expanded and now has a presence in about 30 African countries. Agboola has led funding rounds, with one in January last year tripling the company’s valuation to $3 billion.

Based in Lagos and San Francisco, Flutterwave has attracted investments from venture capital firms including Tiger Global Management, and works with companies including Alibaba Group’s Alipay, Uber Technologies Inc. and Netflix Inc.

The company also secured an agreement with French company Capgemini, an IT service management company it sees helping strengthen its engineering infrastructure.

“We are a partnership driven organization. So as we see more bank partners to work with in India, we’ll definitely embrace that,” Agboola said.

Flutterwave Inc., Africa’s largest payments startup, is expanding to India after securing a partnership with IndusInd Bank Ltd., a leading financial institution in the Asian nation.

01/23/2024

Portfolio company Current, a premier U.S. fintech platform dedicated to empowering Americans in their pursuit of a brighter financial future, today announced the launch of a new credit building product with Cross River Bank, a technology infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions.

Together, the two companies will provide access to building credit history for previously unserved and underserved communities, empowering individuals to improve their financial well-being through a new secured charge card.

over four million members to build their credit histories through a single spending balance, which is viewed and managed on Current’s platform. The secured charge card, issued by Cross River on the Visa network, connects to members’ available spending balance to build credit history, while minimizing risks associated with debt.

"We are excited to partner with Current to create a custom solution and bring this credit building product to market," said Anthony Peculic, Head of Cards and BaaS at Cross River. "We have been, and continue to be, committed to expanding access to financial services and empowering underserved communities. Together, we can make a meaningful impact by providing individuals with the tools they need to establish or rebuild their credit profiles."

With over 26 million Americans that are "credit invisible" and another 19 million "unscorable," a 2020 report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that “a credit builder loan could increase the likelihood of establishing a credit record for consumers without one, and could help improve the credit scores of those with no current outstanding debt.”

“There is nothing that matters more to your financial life than the quality of your credit,” said Stuart Sopp, Current CEO and co-founder. “We’re proud to partner with Cross River and be able to leverage our core technology to solve the complexity of multiple accounts and launch an innovative secured charge card not yet seen in the market. Together we can provide millions of hard-working Americans a simple way to build their credit histories and improve their financial futures.”

Partnering earlier this year, the credit building card leverages Cross River’s proprietary, API-based operating system and banking infrastructure, and the Company’s card and account expertise, alongside Current's core technology, to facilitate financial inclusion and economic empowerment for underserved communities

01/23/2024

Congratulations to portfolio company Caden for closing a $15 million Series A led by Nava Ventures with participation from Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Montage Ventures, Industry Ventures, 1707 Capital and AAF Management Ltd.

As consumers become more privacy aware, an increasing number of startups are emerging to — in line with the trend — enable people to monetize their data. Datacy, for example, lets users collect their browsing data, aggregate it with data from others and then sell it to the highest bidder. Pogo and Tapestri, similarly, grant consumers rewards in exchange for providing access to their behavioral and purchasing data.

But a new player in the space, Caden, is taking a different tack by offering controls that allows users to fine-tune which data they share with third parties. Backed by Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Caden pulls in analytics data on what movies users watch, where they travel, what they buy and more, and lets those users opt-in to monetize their data in various ways.

John Roa, who sold his previous startup, Äkta, to Salesforce in 2015, says he was inspired to launch Caden after observing the paradigm shift occurring in online privacy and personal data access.

“For 25 years, users have ‘exchanged’ their personal data for ‘free access’ to services, apps and websites, resulting in companies accumulating vast amounts of data without prioritizing user privacy,” he told TechCrunch in an email interview. “I envisioned a future where users would be empowered and placed at the center of this data exchange, rather than having it siphoned from them without consent.”

On the enterprise side, Caden plans to launch a tool called Context AI that’ll allow customers like marketers to ask natural language questions about consumer behaviors, like “Since Netflix added an ad-supported tier, how have subscription numbers changed amongst key demographics and media consumption habits?” In addition to answering queries in text (e.g. “78% of users who downgraded from a $14.99 subscription to a $6.99 watch less than 1 Netflix program per week”), Context AI will provide visuals in the form of charts and graphs to emphasize key points.

“We offer one of the most sought-after assets to the enterprise: ethically-sourced first-party data,” Rao said. “We also handle a lot of the expensive decision- and data science. As things tighten up and it becomes more expensive, difficult and cumbersome to understand consumer behavior, we’ll have some of the most powerful tools in the industry to help enterprises do business more efficiently, ethically and sustainably.”

Caden, a platform that allows users to monetize their personal data in various ways, has raised $15 million in a venture funding round.

01/23/2024

Portfolio company Sure recognized on the 2023 Inc. Magazine ’s list of America’s fastest growing private companies. Congratulations Wayne Slavin and the Sure team!

In addition to Sure’s impressive revenue growth over the last three years, in 2023 alone the company released several innovative products, including Retrace as well as its new home warranty solution.

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