US-based digital bank Aspiration has completed a $135m series C round featuring UBS O’Connor, a hedge fund management arm of banking group UBS, Fortune reported yesterday.
The round was led by Alpha Edison and included family office DNS Capital, investment funds Radicle Impact and Sutter Rock, and an entity known as Social Impact Finance. The company confirmed the close of the round today without formally announcing the participants.
Aspiration operates a neobank with 1.5 million registered users that offers a bank account together with cash management and investment services that focus on social and environmentally responsible assets.
The company, which was founded in 2013, recorded more debit card transactions in March and April this year than in any preceding month, co-founder and chief executive Andrei Cherny told Fortune.
“I think this crisis is accelerating trends that were already occurring, and one of those is the shift toward digital banking,” Cherny said. “We think that this funding round will allow us to build out America’s preeminent socially conscious financial home for millions of people.”
The round took Aspiration’s total funding to $202m. Social Impact Finance led its $47m series B round in 2017, investing alongside Alpha Edison, Allen and Company, Reyl & Cie, Omidyar Network, Ago Partners, Capricorn Investment Group and various individuals.
Aspiration had previously secured $15.5m in a 2015 series A round led by social media and financial technology company Renren and backed by Capricorn Investment Group, GSV Capital, IGSB and assorted angel investors.
