Offering any and all brands managed embedded financial services, Y Combinator alum HUBUC raises $10 million

Barcelona-based embedded financial services startup HUBUC has raised $10 million in a seed round. The new funding will be used to bolster the company’s European footprint, strengthen the compliance team, continue product development and further streamline the customer implementation process.

Traditionally dogged by regulatory restraints that vary from country to country, the process of implementing embedded finance solutions can be complex, time-consuming, and ultimately, costly. And while there’s certainly no shortage of providers on the market today, where HUBUC aims to stand apart from the crowd is through its managed service, and thus, speed of implementation. 

Using a single API, HUBUC can offer any and all brands the ability to add a host of managed financial services ranging from bank accounts to payments, virtual and physical cards, real-time foreign exchange rates, and digital wallets, to their product lineup. In a fraction of the time when compared to industry standards.

The key element here lies in HUBUC’s compliance platform, a service that sits as a layer between the financial partners HUBUC works with, and the company’s product. Through this operation, the contracts, knowledge, regulatory requirements, integrations, and risk are all handled in-house by HUBUC, thereby allowing the company to offer customers the ability to go to market on average in 7-8 weeks.

“Embedded finance is no longer the exclusive privilege of large technology firms. Our vision is to become the platform that enables any company to embed financial services within their products. And we’re doing that by simplifying a hugely complex process and wrapping everything into one contract and one API,” explained CEO Hasan Nawaz.

Founded in 2019 and launched just nine months prior, HUBUC has seen an uptake in multiple industries ranging from travel booking payments to marketing and media spend and employee benefits, and has garnered a client list that includes Wagesteam, PayFlow, OkTicket, and Declarando. 

HUBUC’s $10 million seed round was co-led by WndrCo and Runa Capital with Y Combinator and Village Global participating. The round was also supported by a number of angel investors including Sujay Jaswa, John Lilly, Immad Akhund, Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen, Bo Jiang, John Bautista, and Anthony Saleh.

“When I met the HUBUC team, it very much reminded me of the early days of Uber and Dropbox," commented former Balderton Capital general partner, Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen. "There are so many of the same critical factors, from the team to the product, monetisation and timing, and what Hasan and Ignacio are building something that can truly become a giant in embedded financial services.”