Yapily secures $51m in Series B financing

Open Banking infrastructure provider Yapily has announced the first closing of a $51 million Series B financing round led by Sapphire Ventures, which will be used to fund its European expansion.

The latest round takes Yapily’s total investment to date to $69 million and saw existing investors Lakestar, HV Capital and Latitude also participate, with the second closing subject to regulatory approvals.

Yapily intends to extend Open Banking to cover 95% of Europe by the end of the year and will use the proceeds to enter new markets, such as France and Spain.

The company said it will also continue to invest in existing markets, including the UK, Italy and Germany, where it has a “rapidly increasing” customer base.

“Europe is leading the world in Open Finance, and consumers and businesses will start to see more innovation from industries such as mortgages, pensions and insurance, with easier access to financial data and payments infrastructure,” said Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily.

“With more frameworks coming into effect around the globe, the time is right to double down on our growth plans by entering regulatory-led markets and enabling companies to build better and fairer financial products and services.”

Primarily investing in Series B through IPO technology companies, Sapphire Ventures supports the growth of API infrastructure.

Vaccino added that the venture capital firm is “hugely supportive of our strategic approach and share our vision of Open Finance”.

Andreas Weiskam, partner and co-founder of Sapphire Ventures said: “Fintech is evolving from a vertical to a horizontal sector as companies in many verticals are moving to embed financial services into their offerings. This is a trend we believe is here to stay and relies on the development of a robust financial infrastructure layer.”

Weiskam said that the decision to invest in Yapily was “clear”, adding that it is an “infrastructure-first approach to deliver better and fairer financial services for everyone”.

“Europe is a fast mover in embracing an open and API-centric model, and Yapily is at the epicentre of financial innovation to push the regulatory boundary and shape the future of the open economy,” he added.

Yapily has plans to expand to markets beyond Europe as open finance regulation is implemented globally in 2022 and will also continue to invest in its product and employees, with a focus on significantly growing the size of its engineering capabilities over the next 12 months.

Listen to this recent episode of Open Banking Expo Unplugged to find out what Stefano Vaccino had to say about how he came up with the idea for Yapily and what he looks for in a partnership.