European crowdfunding leader KissKissBankBank Technologies announces a €5.3 million Series B financing led by Orange Digital Ventures aiming to fuel the growth of its three platforms:KissKissBankBank, hellomerci and LENDOPOLIS.
Clipperton acted as sole financial advisor to KissKissBankBank Technologies.
Paris – February 19, 2016 – Clipperton a leading European corporate finance firm focused on the Technology space, advised the European crowdfunding leader KissKissBankBank in the structuration of a €5.3 million Series-B financing. The round was led by Orange Group’s venture capital arm Orange Digital Ventures, joined by a group of business angels and historical investor XAnge Private Equity. With the new financing, the Group ambitions to push its three complementary platforms (KissKissBankBank, Lendopolis and Hellomerci) at the forefront of the French and international Fintech scenes.
Vincent Ricordeau, CEO and co-founder of the Group explained: “This new step is part of KissKissBankBank’s natural growth process. We will strongly strengthen Lendopolis and Hellomerci’s teams in France to increase our competitiveness on the buoyant crowdlending segment. Internationally, we already have offices in Belgium and Canada and will open additional ones soon, starting with Germany where are currently building a team”.
The only crowdfunding player with a transversal approach, KissKissBankBank Technologies operates three platforms: KissKissBankBank, the well-known reward-based platform to fund artistic, cultural and innovative projects, Hellomerci which allows individuals to finance interest-free micro-loans andLendopolis the fast-rising crowdlending platform.
As the pioneer of crowdfunding in Europe, KissKissBankBank collected over €50 million since launching in 2009, of which more than €21million in the last 12 months. Pursuing the same objective as in its early days, allow individuals retain control over their money and invest in the real economy, KissKissBankBank Technologies introduced Lendopolis in November 2014. The platform quickly positioned itself as a leader in the very dynamic crowdlending market, empowering individuals and businesses to lend their money to SMEs with an interest rate between 5 and 12%.
With this new investment, Orange Group demonstrates its strong interest for the Fintech space. Commenting on the transaction, Pierre Louette, Managing Director at Orange Digital Ventures said: “Our investment in KissKissBankBank Technologies demonstrates our interest for crowdfunding, as well as our willingness to establishing Lendopolis as the crowdlending reference for SMEs in Europe.”
Vincent Ricordeau added: “We are very pleased to welcome Orange Digital Ventures on board. Our market demands an ever increasing credibility and visibility amongst a large public to accelerate and Orange Digital Ventures is for us the perfect partner to achieve that goal.”
The transaction highlights the strong expertise of Clipperton in the Fintech sector. Partner Thomas Neveux who managed the transaction declared: “We are proud to have accompanied KissKissBankBank in this fundraising that will help the Group take its very innovative multi-product crowdfunding platform to the next level. Orange Digital Ventures was clearly the perfect fit for the company”.
For more information, please contact:
Clipperton
Thomas Neveux, Partner, tneveux@clipperton.net
Martin Vielle, Associate, mvielle@clipperton.net
Justine Meunier, Analyst, jmeunier@clipperton.net
About Clipperton
Clipperton is a European independent corporate finance advisory firm exclusively dedicated to the Technology space, advising high growth companies on M&A transactions, debt financings and equity offerings. With offices in London, Berlin, and Paris and an international reach, Clipperton is a European leader in Technology financial advisory. Over the past 15 years, the team has successfully completed more than 150 high profile transactions globally. For more information, visit www.clipperton.net