Germany-based fintech company builder Finleap secured €41.5m ($47.3m) on Monday in a funding round led by insurance provider Ping An’s Global Voyager Fund.
Founded in 2014, Finleap builds fintech companies such as digital banking platform SolarisBank, which raised $70m in a series B round backed by corporates including Visa and Bertelsmann in March this year.
Finleap has formed 16 startups to date, typically providing each with up to €5m in seed funding on top of offering access to a network of external investors and entrepreneurs.
The funding will support continued growth, including further international expansion, and the development of new technologies and companies. Some of the cash will be invested in existing fintech platforms Finreach Solutions and Infinitec Solutions.
Donald Lacey, managing director and chief operating officer of Global Voyager Fund, will become chairman of Finleap’s advisory board.
Lacey said: “In Finleap, we see a focused and high-quality company builder that has the ability to accomplish great things with an infusion of more capital.
“Our ambition is to help Finleap accelerate the development of new ventures across Europe by making use of Ping An‘s significant in-house technology capabilities, particularly in AI and blockchain.”
Finleap had previously raised $44.7m from insurance company Signal Iduna, reinsurance provider Hannover Re and financial services firms SBI Group and NIBC in July 2017.
Hannover Re had already contributed to a $23.6m funding round in 2016 alongside company builder HitFox Group, a founding investor in Finleap that had also supplied an undisclosed sum in 2015.
Finleap also named MS&AD Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of insurance company MS&AD Insurance Group, as an existing shareholder this week, without revealing when it invested.
News of the round came days after Jonathan Larsen, Voyager Fund’s CEO, told DealStreetAsia the unit planned to invest an additional $100m by the end of 2018. It had allocated $100m to deals since September this year and generally provides $15m to $30m for each deal.
