Thought Machine, a London-based fintech company that develops cloud-native core banking technology, announced that it has secured $200M (approx €177M) funding in Series A round at a valuation of over $1B, giving it ‘unicorn’ status.
The round was led by Nyca Partners, a New York and San Francisco-based VC firm, with the participation of ING Ventures, JPMorgan Chase, and Standard Chartered Ventures.
Existing investors Lloyds Banking Group, British Patient Capital, Eurazeo, SEB, Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit), Backed, and IQ Capital, also participated in the round.
The funding announcement comes one year after raising $83M (approx €73.6M).
Fund utilisation
The UK company will use the funding to develop Vault and its Universal Product Engine.
Vault is built around APIs using a microservice architecture. The services within Vault constitute a significant portion of all the functionality required to run a bank.
The company also plans to expand its international reach, strengthen its five global offices and target new key markets to accelerate the adoption of cloud-native core banking.
Paul Taylor, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Thought Machine, says, “We set out to eradicate legacy technology from the industry and ensure that all banks deployed on Vault can succeed and deliver on their ambitions. These new funds will accelerate the delivery of Vault into banks around the world that wish to implement their future vision of financial services.”
Thought Machine: What you need to know
Founded by former Google engineer Paul Taylor in 2014, Thought Machine provides modern, cloud-native core banking technology to banks globally, including Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, SEB, and others.
The company has added 200+ employees since 2020 and relocated into a larger London HQ to support its headcount growth in October this year.
Investor
Nyca Partners is a venture capital and advisory firm that focuses on the fintech sector. The firm connects innovative companies to financial institutions and technology companies and expert individuals as investors and advisors.
Hans Morris, Managing Partner at Nyca Partners, says, “Thought Machine is the leading technology among the new generation of cloud-native core platforms, and as a result, it has become the top choice for tier one banks looking to upgrade their core architecture. These institutions tell us that Thought Machine’s engineering approach is unrivalled; Vault is highly configurable, flexible, scalable, and specifically designed for the complex environment and requirements of tier one banks. Investing in Thought Machine is an investment in the future of banking and we are very energised to be working with them as they build a new standard for core banking technology.”
