A hedging technology business called ALT21, with headquarters in London, declared on Thursday, October 12, that it had raised $21 million (or around €19.4 million) in a pre-series A round of fundraising.
The UK business will utilize the money to maintain its development trajectory and increase the number of strategic partners it works with to connect with more SMEs.
To enable banks and fintechs to provide their consumers with cheaper FX services inside their regulated operations, ALT21 aims to expand internationally and license its software to a wider spectrum of fintechs and banks.
The business wants to enhance offerings like its hedgucation suite of educational modules by investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning to close the gap between human connection and trade applications for SMEs.
“This most recent funding round serves as an important external validation of ALT21’s strategy, execution, and market opportunity,” says Richard Hayes, Chairman. The past year has been challenging for fintech companies in a rising interest rate environment. Still, the ALT21 team has kept up its great execution, bolstering the reliability of its platform and operations and bringing in top-tier new talent.
ALT21: Online platform for hedging. Pritesh Ruparel is the owner of ALT21, an end-to-end digital hedging platform.
The platform, available as a SaaS and managed service, enables financial and non-financial organizations to offer easy-to-use, affordable, and self-service hedging services, greatly increasing acceptance among SMEs. According to the corporation, operating income reached €8 million in 2022, a five-fold increase from the previous year.
According to ALT21, it has made significant investments over the past 12 months in its platform, enhancing automation and user experience, its operating infrastructure and procedures, and its staff, virtually tripling its R&D headcount to 37 individuals over the same span, bringing the total headcount to 68.
The CEO of ALT21, Pritesh Ruparel, states, “Our objective is to make things simple. We grow using technology where others have added human capital, offering a highly automated solution that reduces cost and complexity and adds value to small businesses at a crucial moment.
“When there is a lot of demand for fintechs, it might be tempting to pursue expansion at any cost rather than laying the groundwork for scaling. Last year, it was a daring move to design scalable architecture while experiencing significant growth, but I think it will pay off for us in the long term. Our infrastructure investments, which enable us to support client growth while quickly gaining market share, best demonstrate our commitment to helping our customers achieve sustained success.
