Novo was established by Tyler McIntyre and Michael Rangel. It is customer-first banking for the modern entrepreneur, giving users the flexibility to bank on their own terms. Novo, the powerfully simple small business banking platform, today announced that the company has raised $40.7M in Series A funding. Valar Ventures led the round, with participation from Crosslink Capital, Rainfall Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, and BoxGroup.
Before this series A funding it had raised $6.7 million in its Seed Round from Crosslink Capital, Red Sea Ventures, Hack VC, RRE, Rainfall, and the Stanford Law School Venture Fund. The funding will be utilized to expand operations and provide a compelling banking experience.
It has a client base of over 100,000 small and medium enterprise customers. A neobank that is 100 percent digital and does not operate physical branches. It allows its clients to open a business checking accounts in minutes, assures them safe and secure transactions with no hidden charges and minimum balance required. It allows its clients the flexibility to bank on their own terms. The company also offers integration with automation platforms like Xero, Zapiers, and others to give real-time insights to its clients on the financial health of their businesses.
“The modern-day online small business owner expects a digital banking platform to offer more than a well-designed interface — they want a robust, centralized, and no-fee application that offers true value-add to how they manage their money,” said Michael Rangel, CEO, and co-founder of Novo. “Small businesses across the U.S. have chosen it because our team has built a digital banking platform that makes everyday financial tasks a breeze — from creating invoices and receiving payments to connecting their accounts with other tools their businesses need to operate like Stripe, Shopify, Square, and more.”
Since launching in 2018, more than 100,000 small businesses have opened a Novo account. In 2021, it surpassed $1 billion in lifetime transactions, announced a number of new features, opened a new office in Miami, and grew its leadership team. The company was also named both CNBC’s Best Business Checking Accounts of March 2021 and Money Magazine’s Best Business Checking Accounts of 2021.
“The ability of the Novo team to grow the company rapidly during a year where businesses have faced unprecedented challenges is impressive,” said Andrew McCormack, founding partner at Valar Ventures. “Novo tripled its small business customer base in the first half of 2021! Their custom infrastructure and banking platform put them in a prime position to expand their services at an even faster pace as we come out of the health crisis. All of us at Valar Ventures are excited to join this team.”
Commenting on the funding, Michael Rangel, Co-Founder & CEO, said in a statement, “Novo has witnessed deeper investor interest in recent times, especially owing to the pandemic enhancing the role of virtual support ecosystem. India, being one of the fastest-growing economies, is a vital market for us. It is focused on creating jobs in India in support operations and building advanced technology, enabled by our funding partners. Presently, it has a strength of over 50 employees in India and plans to triple it to 150 by this financial year (FY22).”
Ajar Upadhyay, Director of Operations in India, said, “At Novo, we have support operations in India across Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, and Bengaluru. The funding will be utilized to expand operations, banking, product and, most importantly, engineering verticals and enhance hiring across key and support roles in India.”
This year, the company opened a new office in Miami and introduced several new features such as invoicing and budgeting. It also completed $1 billion in lifetime transactions in 2021.
