London-based Round Treasury bags €1.9M: CEO & co-founder Pac O’Shea on simplifying financial ops for startups, new features, and future plans

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London-based Round Treasury, a banking and treasury platform for startups, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $2.1M (approximately €1.9M) in a pre-seed funding round led by Passion Capital.

Other investors, including Tiny VC, Ascension, Samos Investments, and Entrepreneur First, also participated in the round.

The funding round also attracted support from prominent fintech figures, including Darren Westlake (founder of Crowdcube), Simon Taylor (11FS), Pranav Sood (GM of Airwallex), and former executives from Stripe and Starling.

Several of the company’s early customers also participated as angel investors.

The UK company plans to use the funds to expand its team and continue refining its product to meet the evolving needs of founders and CFOs.

Additionally, the company plans to expand its services across Europe, bringing its simple, intuitive platform to more high-growth startups.

Birth of Round Treasury

Round Treasury was founded by Pac O’Shea and Hayyaan Ahmad after realising a crucial insight — existing financial tools were too rigid and complex for modern businesses.

Talking about the inspiration behind founding Round Treasury to Silicon Canals, Pac O’Shea, CEO & co-founder says, “The inspiration for Round Treasury came from a simple but universal frustration: managing business finances was too complicated, scattered across too many tools. Founders and CFOs were wasting time navigating fragmented systems when what they needed was a single, unified platform.”

As a result, the founding duo developed a solution to simplify cash management and protection.

“The idea crystallised during two key moments. First, while consulting for a major European bank, it became apparent that the bank only provided cash management services to businesses with over £100M, leaving smaller companies without support. At the same time, as a Venture Partner, I kept hearing from startups about how poor their banking experiences were—fragmented, inefficient, and risky. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank further emphasised the need for startups to have better financial tools tailored to their needs,” he adds.

What does Round Treasury do?

Round Treasury was created to provide a platform where founders and CFOs could manage all their financial needs in one place.

Explaining the Round Treasury’s differentiating factor, O’Shea says, “Most fintech companies focus on building point solutions—they solve one problem but end up creating more complexity. You end up juggling multiple apps, logging into different services, and managing a fragmented system. It’s like trying to fix a leak with a thousand tiny patches.”

Round Treasury’s platform consolidates banking, treasury, and cash management, making it easy for founders and CFOs to manage their finances.

“We’re taking a different approach. Instead of adding more tools to the stack, we’re bringing everything together into one platform. All your financial management is in one place, working seamlessly. We also use AI to automate 40 per cent of manual tasks, so they can spend less time managing and more time focusing on your business,” he continues.

The company’s core offering is a treasury solution that helps startups extend their runway and grow their teams by earning up to 5 per cent yield with next-day liquidity through government security-backed Blackrock money market funds.

The company also offers a multibanking feature, which allows businesses to manage all their existing bank accounts in one place.

Instead of switching between different banking apps, founders and CFOs can view a single, consolidated cash balance.

The platform also offers Vault Savings Accounts, which give businesses access to hundreds of savings accounts across UK banks, without needing to open individual accounts.

This setup enhances FSCS protection, ensuring that deposits are spread across multiple banks and safeguarded against risk.

Challenges

According to O’Shea, the company’s platform development posed several significant challenges.

“Firstly, there was the task of navigating financial regulations, which was addressed by seeking expert help like the ex-head of compliance at Entrepreneur First. His expertise made sure we built something that worked and worked right from day one,” he says.

The team also worked on simplifying the Know Your Business (KYB) process, which used to take several weeks. By carefully refining and optimising it, they managed to shorten the process to just a few days.

“The hardest part, though, was making everything feel seamless. We didn’t want to just build features—we wanted to build an experience. The only way to do that was by listening. Since January, we’ve spoken to 1.5 customers a day on average. Their feedback has guided us, helping us create a platform that feels simple, intuitive, and powerful,” he adds.

Based on the feedback, the UK company realised businesses struggled with fragmented and inefficient processes. They used multiple tools with countless features, but only a small percentage of them.

As a result, Round Treasury focused on creating a platform that simplifies everything and saves time wherever possible such as streamlining the onboarding and KYC processes from weeks to days to automating key financial tasks such as deposit diversification and withdrawals.

“But one thing automation can’t replace is human connection. Our customers told us they wanted more than just a product—they wanted support when they needed it. This is why we offer live, 24/7 support to all our customers, ensuring they always have someone to talk to,” he adds.

How did Silicon Valley Bank collapse reshape Round Treasury?

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank made businesses rethink financial security, and Round Treasury is no exception!

As a result, the London company enhanced its platform’s security and risk management features to provide an even more resilient system.

“We integrated multi-bank partnerships to help spread risk and ensure users are never reliant on a single financial institution. This gives our customers greater peace of mind, knowing that their assets are diversified and protected,” O’Shea explains.

Additionally, Round Treasury prioritised transparency, allowing businesses to easily track their finances with each banking partner and how they are spending, helping them make informed decisions.

“Finally, we’ve doubled down on customer support. We know that when there’s uncertainty in the financial world, quick and reliable communication becomes critical. We’ve expanded our support team to ensure our customers always have someone to talk to when they need reassurance or guidance,” he states.

What does the future hold for Round Treasury?

According to Pac O’Shea, the company is planning to focus on automation and intelligence.

“Treasury is the heart of every financial operation, where every money movement starts. We’re taking that and making it smarter, faster, and almost invisible,” he adds.

“The future isn’t about managing more; it’s about managing less. We’re building a system that works for you, so you can focus on growing your business, not managing the back-office details,” he concludes.

The investor

Passion Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm based in London.

To date, the company has funded 97 early-stage tech startups, backing over 100 founders who have grown their teams to include over 1000 team members.

“Round is doing for treasury management what Stripe and GoCardless did for payments—taking something complex and making it simple. Startups don’t need more complexity—they need clarity, control, and growth. Round delivers all of that in one platform. We’re excited to support their vision as they reshape the financial stack for the next generation of businesses and to ensure companies of all sizes have access to the best solutions and yield,” says Eileen Burbidge, Partner at Passion Capital.

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Vigneshwar Ravichandran

Vigneshwar has been a News Reporter at Silicon Canals since 2018. A seasoned technology journalist with almost a decade of experience, he covers the European startup ecosystem, from AI and Web3 to clean energy and health tech. Previously, he was a content producer and consumer product reviewer for leading Indian digital media, including NDTV, GizBot, and FoneArena. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Instrumentation in Chennai and a Diploma in Broadcasting Journalism in New Delhi.

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