Juni Raises $73M in Series A For eCommerce Banking

eCommerce banking platform Juni announced Thursday (Oct. 14) it has raised $73 million in Series A funding that it plans to use to boost its employee count to more than 120 people and launch an integrated credit line offering, according to a Tech.Eu report.

Juni’s platform integrates with banks and payment providers to automate several functions, including managing spending and invoices. The company’s transaction volume jumped almost 500% every month between March and May and its weekly average growth rate was up 81% in that stretch.

“We’re internet entrepreneurs too, after all, and before launching Juni, we were in the industry that we cater to today,” said Founder and CEO Samir El-Sabini. “We understand their pain points and business needs in a way that traditional banking can’t, which in turn means we’re able to offer them a credit product that actually makes sense for them.”

Venture capital company EQT Ventures invested $52 million in Juni in this Series A round, joining existing investors Partners of DST Global, Felix Capital and Cherry Ventures, the company said in an announcement.

“Juni is the fastest-growing fintech we’ve ever seen, by a long stretch,” said EQT Ventures Ted Persson in the Tech.Eu report. “The company has hit an impressive average weekly growth rate of 80% in just five months, and we’re hearing great things from digitally native entrepreneurs.

“The fact that we’ve known Samir for a long time, and rate him highly made the investment decision easy. We’re excited to help Juni bring a new kind of credit product to the market, disrupting banking platforms for businesses even further,” he said.

Related: Banks Capturing Coalition Loyalty Programs Could Be the Key to Get UK SMBs Over the Single Merchant Loyalty Setback

The U.K. is a haven for loyalty programs and other special offerings, with more than three-fourths (76%) of all consumers getting rewards or discounts from at least one business where they shop, according to a recent PYMNTS report, Making Loyalty Work For Small Businesses, a collaboration with U.K.-based software firm Pollinate.

Our research also found that many of the 40 million active U.K. loyalty program users plan to sign up for more, and more than half (52%) of U.K. consumers who already use loyalty programs say they would be “very” or “extremely” interested in signing up for services that would allow them to receive rewards and other offerings when shopping with their local small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).