The London-based banking-as-a-service (BaaS) startup Griffin (website) announced a fresh funding of around €15 million from FinTech bigshots. The startup is currently going through the bank authorization process with the PRA and FCA. Founded in 2017 by Silicon Valley engineers David Jarvis and Allen Rohner, Griffin aims to become the bank other fintechs can build on.
Notion Capital led the round, which included existing investor EQT Ventures and 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 of Liberis; and Shane Happach, CEO of Mollie and ex-CCO Worldpay.
Griffin also welcomes Stephen Chandler, co-founder and managing partner of Notion Capital, to its board of directors. He remarked: “SaaS is finally eating up the financial services sector like every other industry. Griffin will enable fintechs to develop and launch financial products with a single secure and modern SaaS platform.”
Griffin’s vision is to be a stable, long-term banking partner for innovative fintechs that often struggle with long, expensive onboarding processes and integration with legacy technology at established banks. With the bank application and this fresh funding, the company shows that it is well on its way to achieving that goal.
Tom Mendoza, Partner at EQT Ventures and Griffin board member, added, “The financial services industry has not kept pace with consumer trends and technology innovation, which has led to a demand for a developer-friendly bank built on modern APIs and intuitive software. Griffin aims to challenge the status quo by offering a full-stack banking platform that makes it fast, easy and cost-effective for brands to bring financial products to market.”