Open Banking FinTech Bud Lands $20M

Open Banking-as-a-service FinTech Bud has announced $20 million in Series A funding, the company said in a blog post on Sunday (Feb. 3).

HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Banco Sabadell, ANZ and Investec all provided the funding, while 9Yards Capital and former Man Group CEO Lord Fink also participated, according to the company’s post, written by CEO and Co-Founder Edward Maslaveckas.

Bud collaborates with financial institutions to connect their own apps to third-party FinTech platforms while still maintaining control and security of data. The firm, based in the U.K., initially launched as a consumer-facing app to link users to an array of financial services via a unified interface. Its pivot as a B2B company working with financial institutions has emerged as Open Banking and PSD2 continue to disrupt the banking industry and foster data sharing between banks and FinTechs.

Chief Technology Officer and co-founder George Dunning spoke with TechCrunch about the impact of Open Banking regulation on the company’s ability to augment its services.

“We have built a number of data enrichment features using transactional data to make people’s lives that little bit easier,” Dunning said. “Connection and aggregation of people’s accounts is the standard now, so we focused on things like increasing financial literacy.”

Automated analytics enables Bud to link users to products based on past behaviors — for instance, connecting them to travel insurance if they plan to travel abroad.

For bank customers, the solution enables streamlined connectivity with third-party platforms without compromising data security. Today, First Direct, owned by HSBC, is the only publicly-announced financial institution using Bud tools, though Dunning said there are others. He added that Bud is working with 85 different FinTechs and third-party financial services firms to facilitate bank integrations.

“Since the start of our partnership with Bud back in 2017, we’ve been impressed with the team’s approach to innovation,” said HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management Head of Digital Product Raman Bhatia in a statement. “They have helped us shape our approach to open banking, working with us to deliver services that make banking easier for our customers.”

The Series A funding will go toward doubling Bud’s staff levels, reports said.