Despite all the talk of a cold winter descending on venture funding, especially fintech companies, money just seems to keep coming. At least for some companies.

The latest company to break through the freeze is embedded banking startup BankiFi. This UK-based company was launched in 2016 by current CEO Mark Hartley. The company just raised $4.8 million to support its North American expansion. This brings the company’s cumulative fundraising to $8.5 million, according to Crunchbase.

BankiFi offers banks a set of financial solutions that they in turn can offer their customers. The idea is to make banks more useful to their SMB customers. And as a result, retain and grow their business.

“We want to put banks at the heart of the small business relationship,” Hartley said in a company explainer video.

So BankiFi provides banks with software tools that help automate otherwise manual processes for SMBs. One example that the company sites is chasing late payments. By automating this process, SMBs save money. And the bank becomes a hero to the small business operator.

BankiFi fits broadly into the embedded finance space. This segment of fintech offers tools that allow anyone with customers to become a financial services provider. This is what allows an SMBs SaaS vendor to become a lender or payment processor.

Platforms with large numbers of SMB customers are another key customer base for BankiFi. These companies may want to embed payments, for example, in the solution they offer SMBs. BankiFi can provide this to them.

International Growth

In July BankiFi opened a sales office in the U.S., and hired Keith Riddle to head BankiFi Americas. Riddle is a 35-year financial services veteran. The new funding, all from existing investors, is earmarked to support the North American rollout. In 2021, BankiFi expanded into Australia/New Zealand.

Riddle acknowledged that BankiFi is fortunate to be able to raise money in this environment.

“Technology investments have been slowing down this year, and to see our investors show such a strong commitment is a huge vote of confidence in BankiFi’s direction and growth,” said Keith Riddle, CEO of BankiFi Americas. “Our mission is to make all aspects of cash management and payments easier for SMBs everywhere, and this investment is another huge step to making that a reality.”

BankiFi’s lead investor not surprisingly sees the U.S. as key to the company’s growth.

“BankiFi has proven to be an industry-leading open cash management provider in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries,” said David Foreman, managing director of Praetura Ventures. “Now that they have launched in North America, BankiFi has an opportunity for dramatic growth. We’re looking forward to continuing our partnership and seeing their solutions continue to transform bank channels, in order to support SMBs around the world.”