London-based Fidel raises $18 million Series A to power its fintech API

Fidel has announced an $18 million Series A round, its first major funding to make card payment data both more secure and more accessible, so that the fintech ecosystem can develop faster.

The round was led by US-based fintech funds Nyca Partners and QED Investors, along with support from many others, including: Citi Ventures, Commerce VC, Elefund, Horizons Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada, 500 Startups and several high profile angel investors such as Cris Conde, former CEO of Sungard, and Taavet Hinrikus, founder of Transferwise.

Through a secure and reliable API, Fidel provides access to global real-time financial data from Visa, MasterCard and American Express – all through a single integration point. By anonymising card numbers, Fidel ensures security compliance and that developers can avoid dealing with sensitive data. The API reduces the amount of time it takes users (other businesses) to access card payment data, so that they can bring engaging, personalized fintech services to market more quickly.

Founder and CEO at Fidel Subrata Dev believes it is high time such a solution exists: “Though the card networks have built extremely robust infrastructure, alternative payment methods are evolving and consumer choice will be driven by value. Our goal at Fidel is to supercharge innovation by empowering everyone in the ecosystem. By making it easy for developers to build on top of the infrastructure, the card networks stay relevant. By removing the barriers to entry for developers, applications can be brought to market more quickly. That drives value back to consumers, who get the same benefits and user experience they are used to receiving with other online services.”

Hans Morris, Managing Partner at Nyca Partners and former President of Visa will be joining the company’s board. Commenting on the investment, he said: “Fidel provides a new approach for fintech innovators to create new products by opening up access to the world’s three largest payment networks. This company has seen incredible traction and customer adoption and is poised to be a breakout fintech success story.”

Fidel will use the funding to build the team, support product development, and expand the business in North America, the Nordics and APAC.