Canapi Ventures, a company that aims to invest in early to growth-stage Fintech firms offering “disruptive” alternatives to outdated business models and technologies, has been making substantial investments in the financial tech sector, especially since August of this year.
Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina and founded in 2018, Canapi Ventures has participated in five recent Fintech-focused rounds. The VC firm was notably the leader or co-lead investor in four of these rounds.
Canapi Ventures is advised by CenterHarbor Advisors and Canapi Advisors LLC, which is a subsidiary of Live Oak Bancshares.
Some of the key members of the Canapi team include James “Chip” Mahan, Neil Underwood (co-founder and partner at the Canapi), and Pete Underwood, who previously worked as CTO at nCino.
In statements shared with Wilmington Biz, Underwood noted that the company believes their investments are “critical” to the ongoing digital transformation of the global financial system. He explained that the firm’s investments focus on improving existing bank infrastructure, moving traditional banking platforms to the Cloud, and also on enhancing the customer experience (CX).
Canapi Ventures has invested in Moov, a developer of open-source API libraries that aim to simplify the process of conducting digital transactions.
As reported in August 2020, Moov Financial, a U.S.-based embedded banking platform, secured $5.5 million through its Seed funding round, which was led by Bain Capital Venture with participation from Canapi Ventures, and many other investors.
Canapi has also made a strategic investment in Blend, which is a digital mortgage point-of-sale systems developer. According to Crunchbase data, Blend has secured a total of $365 million in investments (to date). It includes participation from Canapi when the software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform carried out its Series F round. Blend says it helps lenders process consumer loans and mortgage applications in a more efficient manner.
Canapi Ventures has also invested Alloy, a company that secured $40 million through a Series B round to develop an identity core for the financial services sector. Canapi’s other investments include being the lead investor in Laika’s $10 million Series A round. The company provides software to support compliance policies and various other business processes.
As covered, Canapi took part in Greenlight Financial Technology’s recent $215 million Series C round. Greenlight is a U.S.-based Fintech company that has created a smart debit card for kids, teens, and college students. Greenlight offers a debit card and app that allows kids to explore the world of money.
Underwood noted that the “critical themes for [the company] continue to center around Identity, Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC), and digitizing mission-critical workflows, specifically around loans, deposits, and payments.”
He added that given the firm’s LP base of around 40 local banks, they have many Fintech company executives who are eager to access Canapi’s bank investor base. He also mentioned that its his company’s job to “weed through each of these and find those most applicable to the massive movement going on around digital transformation.”
