TrueLayer scores $35 million from Tencent, Temasek and prior backers to expand its 'Open Banking network' in and outside of Europe

British fintech scale-up TrueLayer, a provider of financial APIs, has raised $35 million in funding in a round led by Tencent and Singapore's Temasek. Previous investors Northzone and Anthemis also chipped in, bringing the total investment raised by the company to date to $47 million.

Based in London, TrueLayer basically provides an interface between financial institutions and third-party applications over an API. The company says it will use the investment to continue to expand its 'Open Banking' platform as it aims to connect the majority of European banks by the end of 2019.

The startup says this will enable developers to build banking and fintech propositions that use account aggregation, payment initiation, bank account verification and more features. Founded in 2016, TrueLayer has already partnered with the likes of Monzo, Zopa, ClearScore and Plum.

Next up is expansion outside of Europe, with Asia and Australia as considerations for its next destination, which makes sense given its latest investors.

Francesco Simoneschi, co-founder and CEO of TrueLayer, commented on the financing round:

"Open Banking is removing friction and barriers of entry from banking so that consumers will benefit from modern, fair and competitive access to financial products and services. In the last year, we have seen steady growth, and increased adoption of Open Banking in consumer propositions, however, we still have a long way to go."

"Four million people in the UK can’t access credit, 20 million are using the wrong financial product and five million SMBs are struggling to keep up with taxes and cash flow. TrueLayer will be a driving force behind this change by enabling and fostering financial innovation and removing friction from financial services," Simoneschi added.