Alviere Secures $70M Funding for Embedded Finance Solutions

Alviere Secures $70 Million to Expand Embedded Finance Solutions

Alviere, a company specializing in embedded finance, has recently announced the successful completion of a $70 million funding round. This investment aims to empower brands to seamlessly integrate financial products and services directly into their offerings for both customers and employees.

Recent Funding History

Just six months prior, in April, Alviere secured $20 million in Series A funding. This earlier round was spearheaded by Viola Ventures and Viola Fintech, with contributions from CommerzVentures, Mitsubishi Capital Corporation, Wix.com Capital, Draper Triangle Ventures, Cross River Bank Capital, CERCA Partners, and others.

The current Series B financing, totaling $50 million, was led by unnamed institutional fintech investors. Existing investors, including Viola Ventures, Viola Fintech, and CommerzVentures, also participated, alongside new backers North Coast Ventures, based in Cleveland, and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital division of BNP Paribas. To date, Alviere’s total funding reaches $90 million since its establishment in 2017.

The Rise of Embedded Finance

Embedded finance is gaining significant traction, attracting increasing investment within the fintech sector. Recently, Productfy, a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) company focused on bridging traditional finance with decentralized finance (DeFi), raised $16 million in a Series A round led by CM Ventures.

Alviere’s Origins and Vision

Yuval Brisker, CEO and co-founder of Alviere, launched the company alongside Pedro Silva following the sale of their previous venture, TOA Technologies, to Oracle. The transaction was reportedly valued at over $500 million. TOA Technologies was a cloud-based enterprise software provider located in Cleveland, Ohio.

Brisker is careful to differentiate Alviere from traditional Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) providers.

“We are focused on embedded finance, a market that is comparable in size, if not larger, than BaaS,” Brisker explained to TechCrunch.

Industry forecasts predict the embedded finance market will reach $7.2 trillion globally by 2030, as projected by Simon Torrance. The banking-as-a-service market alone was valued at $356 billion last year, according to Verified Market Research.

From Payment App to Comprehensive Platform

Alviere’s initial concept involved developing a payment application that facilitated money transfers without requiring the exchange of personal information.

“We soon discovered this presented considerable challenges,” Brisker recalls. “However, the technology we developed for our own use proved adaptable for white-labeling and sale to other businesses.”

The team ultimately decided to package their solution, known as The HIVE, enabling businesses and brands to launch a variety of financial services independently.

Differentiating Alviere from BaaS

“BaaS offerings typically cater to technology experts who can leverage the technology to accelerate the development or integration of financial products into their existing software,” Brisker clarified. “Our approach is different.”

Alviere targets mainstream brands lacking existing financial technology capabilities but possessing established, loyal customer bases. Through Alviere, these brands can offer services like bank accounts directly to their customers, retaining ownership of those customer relationships rather than relying on partnering banks.

A Collaborative Approach to Banking

Brisker believes Alviere’s offering complements, rather than threatens, traditional banking institutions. He argues that by streamlining customer service, banks can enhance profitability.

“By reducing the burden of customer service, banks can operate more efficiently while still benefiting from deposits and loan revenue,” he stated to TechCrunch.

Expansion Plans and Target Market

Alviere intends to utilize the new funding to expand its operations beyond North America, where it currently holds licenses in “almost” all 50 U.S. states, to include Europe and Latin America. This expansion aims to extend financial services to a broader user base.

The company is focused on Fortune 500 companies and has already secured agreements with two unnamed brands, each boasting over 10 million household subscribers or customers. Alviere’s revenue model is tied to its customers’ success, sharing revenue generated through interchange fees from branded credit card transactions.

“We are deeply integrated into our clients’ businesses at multiple levels,” Brisker emphasized. “Embedded finance technology is driving the decentralization of financial services, allowing any brand – from telecommunications providers to retailers – to deliver financial products and services to their customers.”

The HIVE’s Capabilities

The company asserts that its software empowers brands to launch profitable ventures, offering a comprehensive suite of “everything personal finance” to their customers.

Financial services enabled by Alviere’s HIVE include direct deposit, FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts, credit, debit, prepaid, and gift cards, payment services, domestic and international money transfers, loyalty programs, and cash pick-up and deposit services.

Investor Perspective

Omry Ben David, general partner at Viola Ventures, stated that his firm had been actively seeking opportunities in the embedded finance space for “quite some time.”

“As experienced investors in legacy fintech for the past 20 years, we believe consumer financial services are undergoing a fundamental shift. The next wave of consumer banking will be driven by established brands offering customized financial services to their existing and new loyal customers,” he explained via email. “This includes checking/savings accounts, branded credit cards, loyalty or gift cards, BNPL loans, digital payments, remittance, and more – all tailored to specific consumer segments, geographies, and needs. The era of ‘one size fits all’ is over.”