American Express Ventures, the strategic investment arm of payment services firm American Express, has contributed to a $30m extension that increased US-based payment technology provider Finix’s series B round to $75m.
The extension was led by venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company had initially received $35m in a first close led by Sequoia Capital and backed by Bain Capital Ventures, Acrew Capital, Activant Capital and Inspired Capital in February this year.
Inspired Capital and PSP Growth participated in a $10m second tranche in March, at which point Sequoia Capital gave up its stake due to a conflict of interest surrounding its investment in Finix rival Stripe.
Finix has built a software platform that enables financial technology and software-as-a-service businesses to easily build a digital payments infrastructure that can benefit their e-commerce customers.
The product enables customers to find a middle ground between constructing their own payment infrastructure from scratch and outsourcing it to an external service provider. The company said its payment volume increased 4.5 times year on year in Q2 2020.
American Express Ventures managing director Lindsay Fitzgerald said: “Finix and American Express share a dedication to helping businesses simplify operations and grow their business. We are excited to support Finix’s continued growth as they deliver tools for e-commerce innovators.”
The latest close increased Finix’s overall funding to $96m, it said. Bain Capital Ventures led its $17.5m series A round in July 2019, investing together with payment services firm Visa, Insight Partners, Aspect Ventures and existing backers Homebrew, Precursor Ventures and Act One Ventures.
