Goldman Sachs and Mastercard have joined a $32 million Series A funding round for Bond, a US startup connecting digital brands to banking partners.
Coatue led the round, with participation from Canaan, B Capital, XYZ Ventures and angels including former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack.
Bond is building a fintech platform designed to act as a growth engine for "digital brands" that want to provide access to capital to their customers, and banking partners that want to grow by providing the underlying financial services.
The machine learning-powered platform does this by using APIs and SDKs to streamline the integration between brands and banks, reducing friction and creating a more repeatable model.
The brainchild of three seasoned industry executives who have worked at BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, SAP, SoFi, and Twilio, the startup says it platform will help the 22% of US households without bank accounts to access financial services.
Roy Ng, CEO, Bond, says: "The ongoing global pandemic and renewed focus on societal inequalities make Bond's mission of driving financial innovation and inclusion more important now than ever before.
"Opportunity starts with access. We look to lead the industry in enabling banks and innovators across industries to level the playing field for consumers and small businesses."