Movenbank deposits $2.4 million of seed capital

Financial services business Movenbank has secured $2.41 million (£1.54 million) of seed capital as part of a round led by Anthemis Group.

The company, which claims to provide the 'protection and security of a bank, but none of the frustrating baggage', has to date been self-funded by the founders including CEO Brett King.

Anthemis Group has been joined by Raptor Ventures, Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank and a syndicated group of Singaporean investors in New York-based Movenbank’s seed investment round.

According to King and Movenbank, the funding will allow the business to invest in strengthening its team and continue with the build-out of its 'CRED ecosystem', a financial credibility score platform.

King comments, 'Our investors believe, as we do, that mobile banking and payments have the opportunity to fundamentally change the everyday retail banking model.'

For London-based Anthemis, its last investment deal came back in March when it followed up an investment in social media business PeerIndex. In October it closed a €1.87 million backing of financial services and e-commerce banking business Fidor Bank.

The investment firm is looking to profit from what it calls 'the emergence of a new paradigm in financial services and markets' by targeting disruptive business models, products and services in the sector.

Udayan Goyal, co-founder of Anthemis Group, says, 'We believe that Brett and his team are at the cutting edge of Finance 2.0 and embody the ethos and philosophy of Anthemis Group to develop user-centric financial services companies for the new millennium.'

He adds, 'In a world where retail banking is broken, we believe that Movenbank, through innovations such as the CRED ecosystem and their pioneering work in smartphone based payments, will fundamentally change the way banking is done.'