Check out the details below on two recent venture capital deals totaling more than $26 million.
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Building credit isn't always easy, especially for people in underserved communities. That's why Austin-based StellarFi launched its fintech product last year. The startup said around 150 million Americans have credit scores below 680, which can make it tougher to get loans at low rates — and the pandemic made it even worse.
StellarFi — which has developed a platform that helps people stay up-to-date on paying bills ranging from rent to subscriptions, and reports the on-time payments to the big four credit rating companies as part of a way to bolster credit scores — said March 28 it secured a $15 million series A round led by San Francisco-based Acrew Capital. Austin-based firms Trust Ventures and ATX Venture Partners also invested, along with FJ Labs and others.
That boosted the startup's total funding to $22 million. StellarFi, led by founder and CEO Lamine Zarrad, said it grew to $2 million in annual recurring revenue last year, and it intends to continue expanding access to credit via its platform, which includes personalized credit reporting tools, counseling with certified credit advisors and rewards programs for bill payment.
A cybersecurity startup that recently moved its headquarters to Austin from New York City has secured a new investment that will help it bring on new hires in Austin and remotely. Votiro Cybersec Ltd. said March 30 it raised $11.5 million in a series A funding led by Harvest Lane Asset Management, a firm based in Sydney, Australia.
Votiro was founded in Israel in 2012 and developed on-premise security products. But it made a significant pivot in 2018 when it moved its HQ to New York City and began focusing on cloud-based, zero-trust security products that extract safe data from documents, such as email attachments, and pass it along, leaving potentially malicious files outside of company or consumer systems.
For more local deals, check out another recent funding wrap. And subscribe to Austin Business Journal for startup resources such as lists of venture capital and private equity firms, incubators and accelerators, angel investors and coworking providers.
