FinTech News
FinTech Banking Platform Oxygen Announces $17 Million Funding Round
After what seemed to be a fairly successful year in the world of FinTech (all things considered), new deals are already rolling in. This week, Oxygen announced that it had raised $17 million in funding. The Series A was led by Runa Capital with participation from such firms as Inventures, S7V, 1984.vc, EFG Hermes, and Rucker Park. Additionally, individual investors including Deutsche Bank’s Frank Strauss, Plaid’s William Hockey, Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal, Founder and CEO of Teachable, NFL star Larry Fitzgerald, and others participated.
Oxygen is a digital banking platform built to meet the needs of both consumers and small business owners. For example, accounts have no minimum balance requirements or monthly fees and Oxygen’s debit cards offer cashback rewards on purchases in select categories and from certain merchants. Currently the service partners with The Bancorp Bank, so customer deposits are also FDIC insured.
In a press release announcing the round, Oxygen CEO Hussein Ahmed stated, “We are humbled that our investors are putting their faith in us with this most recent round of funding. This investment not only validates what we’ve built but also enables us to continue pursuing our vision of building financial tools that integrate seamlessly with the digital world of today and delight our customers.” Ahmed went on to say, “We founded Oxygen because we wanted to provide financial services in the same way people interact with technology in their everyday lives. We didn’t see that and believe this led to exclusion for many. This is an important milestone, but we are just getting started.”
Elsewhere, Runa Capital general partner Andre Bliznyuk said of the banking platform, “Oxygen is the premier banking platform for today’s digital consumer. Their all-in-one banking app serves both consumers and businesses, ranging from tech-savvy consumers who are just looking for a better banking experience to burgeoning entrepreneurs and small businesses looking for digital banking solutions that meet their strict requirements. It’s banking done better.”
Prior to this funding round, Oxygen had already seen some promising growth. After officially launching one year ago, the company reports more than 125,000 accounts have been opened. Additionally, in May of last year, the startup joined Visa’s Fast Track program, allowing them to utilize such tools as Visa Direct to help ensure that users can receive payments quickly.
With 2021 mere days old, it’s encouraging to see that the FinTech sector is off to a strong start. On that note, while late-lettered mega-rounds are always impressive, it’s nice see strong early rounds as well. Hopefully this is just the beginning for Oxygen — and for FinTech funding in 2021.
