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British fintech start-up Bud says it secured $20 million in a funding round co-led by HSBC and Goldman Sachs.
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Australia's ANZ, South Africa's Investec and Spain's Banco Sabadell also backed the Series A round.
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CEO Ed Maslaveckas says the investment is about partnering with banks and expanding overseas.
British fintech start-up Bud said Monday that it had secured $20 million in a funding round co-led by HSBC HSBA-GB and Goldman Sachs GS .
The London-based company's platform lets banks update their apps to give users access to financial services products from rivals. Banks can also categorize a customer's spending data using Bud's technology to help them find more cost-efficient products.
Its offering is part of an emerging theme in the world of fintech known as "open banking," which essentially means banks sharing their customer data with third-party providers to enable them to create new financial products.
Proponents of open banking say that it will increase competition in the industry and benefit consumers, giving them more choice over who they bank with.
Ed Maslaveckas, Bud's co-founder and chief executive, said in an interview that the sector has seen a "massive shift" from a focus on competitive rates and services to a digital-oriented customer experience and a "marketplace" banking model.
"The market dynamic is such that open banking is a much bigger change for banks than I think people realize," he told CNBC. "Open banking essentially allows the customer to get their banking data and make payments from any app or service of their choosing."
Bud's Series A funding round — an early-stage investment — also got backing from other big lenders including Australia's ANZ ANZ-AU , South Africa's Investec INVP-GB and Spain's Banco Sabadell SAB-ES . Investec invested through its venture fund INVC while Banco Sabadell participated via its venture arm InnoCells.
Nineyards Capital — which counts former U.K. Finance Minister George Osborne as an advisor — and former Man Group EMG-GB Chief Executive Lord Fink also invested in Bud's Series A.
Part of the funding is subject to regulatory approval by the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority, Bud said.
Bank partnerships, global expansion
Bud's boss said an underlying theme of the bank-led investment was partnering with large lenders to provide them with its technology.
"Not that much has been done to deliver these types of services to the millions of customers that use their banking apps day-to-day," Maslaveckas said.