banyan, a product purchase data platform that enables clients such as banks, fintechs, hotels and merchants to automate expense management and more, today announced it has raised $43 million in a Series A financing round — $28 million in equity and $15 million in debt. – led by Fin Capital with participation from M13, FIS Impact Ventures and TTV Capital. A source familiar with the case tells londonbusinessblog.com that the valuation is in the “mid $100 million” range.
CEO Jehan Luth says the new capital will be spent on product research and development and infrastructure growth, as well as expanding Banyan’s workforce from 46 to 50 by the end of the year. “This funding round positions Banyan well with enough runway to grow,” he told londonbusinessblog.com in an email interview, noting that it brings the company’s total revenue to $53 million.
Banyan maintains a database of SKU-level data and a platform that uses the database to enable businesses to use purchase data in a variety of ways (e.g., fraud prevention, loyalty programs, and card-based offers). For example, Banyan can integrate item-level purchase data into business banking or expense management apps, eliminating the need to organize receipts and expense reports. Elsewhere, the platform organizes, classifies, and standardizes receipt data to enable merchants and their partners to target offers to specific aisle-level items, categories, and subcategories that they want to reward (think ad campaigns such as “buy grilling equipment at grocer X and get 20% cash.” back”).
Luth — who has an associate’s degree in computer science from the University of Cambridge, a bachelor’s degree in food science from the Culinary Institute of America, and a master’s degree in epidemiology and law from the University of Pennsylvania — founded Banyan in 2019 after serving as technology director from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He claims that one of the company’s key differentiators is that the network obtains data directly from first-party sources, such as merchants, and does not collect personal information — addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and the like — “unless absolutely necessary” to provide a service.
“Sellers are a key contributor to our network, providing secure receipt data, eliminating the need for screen scraping or problematic cell phone receipt snapshots,” said Luth. “We organize and standardize item-level data for all merchants so that it can be accurate and consistent when integrated into banking client platforms.”
Banyan claims to have processed billions of transactions and receipts from the more than 35,000 trading partners in its network. Luth, who declined to reveal the size of the company’s customer base, says it’s mostly made up of banks and fintechs (he won’t name names).
“In an environment where many consumers are tightening their belts and rethinking brand loyalty, item-level data can be a key for retailers to deliver real savings by leveraging strategic ‘aisle’ budgets, while also managing inventory levels and efficiently driving sales retention. ,” Lutho said reluctantly when asked about Banyan’s earnings. “Our investments will enable financial institutions to increase customer engagement by delivering personalized digital experiences, and empower merchants to streamline the purchasing experience and create new sources of sales revenue, along with improving their ability to manage inventory. .”