Arival, a Singapore-based fintech bank for businesses and entrepreneurs, has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube to raise a minimum of £700,000 in funding. The startup is currently offering 5.51% of equity at a £12,012,061 pre-money valuation. The initiative’s launch comes just a little over a month after Arival sought reservations for preferred stock on SeedInvest (note: SeedInvest and Crowdcube have a partnership to cross list investment offerings). Arival will also be a crypto-friendly bank.
As previously reported, Arival was founded in 2018 on the notion that banks in many places around the world are closing accounts of crypto-related businesses as they are fearful of any collateral ramifications to holding these types of accounts.
“We partner with some of the hottest fintechs on the market to deliver a full suite of financial products and tools hand-picked to help run your business. Anything from corporate expense cards, international transfers, factoring, lending, savings, and much more.”
Arival reported that it has applied for an International Financial Services Act (IFE Act) banking license in 2018 and hope to receive it in the summer of 2019. Arival has also applied in Lithuania (EU) plus sandbox app in Malaysia, with UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, and Dubai in pipeline.
“The underbanked SME industry is a combined trillion-dollar industry. Freelancers, startups and SMEs present a real demand for banks, which has yet to be met. This is a relatively untapped market (especially in the US). It is likely innovation in the SME space will continue to grow, which means more of these businesses and entrepreneurs will be seeking forward-thinking fintech partners to meet their banking needs.”
Funds from the Crowdcube round will be used to continue the growth and development of the Arival platform. The progress bar above includes £242,064 raised via a co-offering being conducted abroad. This is a bridge round (the funding is from SeedInvest). Since its launch, the campaign has raised more than £250,000 from nearly 30 investors. It is set to close in late August.
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