U.K. Based Fintech Company Bud Raises $20 Million

By Dan Anderson ● Feb 10, 2019

Bud, a U.K. based financial technology company, has raised $20 million in funding. Essentially Bud helps banks connect their apps and data to other financial technology companies. HSBC, Goldman Sachs, ANZ, Investec’s INVC fund, and InnoCells participated in this round along with Stanley Fink (former CEO of the Man Group hedge fund) and 9Yards Capital. With this funding round, Bud is going to expand its team.

In 2016, Bud started out as a consumer app that makes several financial services accessible from a single interface, according to TechCrunch. Since then, the company pivoted to a technology platform that helps banks remain competitive.

“I met up with George, a friend from back home, on a trip back to the UK and, over a pint in Hackney’s Old Ship Inn, I pitched him an idea for an app that would bring all these new fintech tools into one place. After a couple more drinks (probably one too many), he agreed to build it. The idea was simple: Connect everything together and make money simpler for everyone,” wrote Bud’s CEO Edward Maslaveckas in a blog post referring to co-founder George Dunning. “This has been the driving force ever since. As a generation, many of us are afraid of money — it’s why our finger hovers over our banking apps without pushing the button, why we don’t view our balance at a cashpoint, and why we rarely change our banking providers despite better offers elsewhere. We know we’re not getting it right, but we live with this sense of unease anyway. The alternative is to acknowledge how much we don’t know.”

Currently, Bud works with 85 companies such as Wealthify, PensionBee, Hiscox, and AJ Bell. And Bud is also working with the U.K. government as part of the Rent Recognition Challenge.

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