Banyan, a product procurement data platform that helps banks, fintechs, hotels and merchants automate spend management and more, today raised $43 million in a Series A funding round — $28 million in equity and $15 million in debt — led by Fin Capital from M13, FIS Impact Ventures. and with the participation of TTV Capital. A source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the price is in the “mid-$100 million” range.
CEO Jehan Luz said the new capital will be used for product research and development and infrastructure development, as well as expanding Banyan’s headcount from 46 employees to 50 by the end of the year. “This round of funding will make Banyan grow well,” he told TechCrunch in an email interview, bringing the company’s total raised to $53 million.
Banyan maintains a “SKU-level” database and a platform that uses the database to enable customers to use purchase data in a variety of ways (eg, fraud prevention, loyalty programs and card-linked discounts). For example, Banyan integrates item-level purchasing data into commercial banking or expense management applications, eliminating the need to organize invoices and expense reports. Elsewhere, the platform organizes, categorizes, and ranks receipt data so that merchants and their partners can target discounts on specific items, categories, and aisle-level subcategories they want to reward (such as “Buy appliances at Grocer X and get 20% cash back”).
Luz — who has an associate degree in computer science from the University of Cambridge, a bachelor’s degree in food science from the U.S., and a master’s degree in epidemiology and law from the University of Pennsylvania — founded Banyan in 2019 after a stint in tech. Director of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. One of the main differences of the company is that the network obtains directly from first-party sources, such as merchants, and provides personal information – addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc. – “unless necessary”.
“Merchants are key partners in our network, providing reliable purchase receipt information without the need for screen scraping or mobile phone snapshots of problematic receipts,” he said. We are organizing and standardizing item-level data across all merchants to ensure it is accurate and consistent when integrated into banking institutions’ customer platforms.
He says he has a banyan. It has processed billions of transactions and invoices from over 35,000 merchant partners in its network. Luz, who declined to disclose the company’s client base, says it is mostly made up of banks and fintechs (he declined to name them).
“In an environment where more consumers are tightening their belts and rethinking brand loyalty, item-level data can be key for retailers to deliver real savings on strategic ‘passage’ budgets, as well as manage product levels and drive sales retention more effectively.” Luz Ale grumbled when asked about Banyan’s revenue numbers. “Our investments will enable financial institutions to deliver personalized digital experiences to enhance customer engagement and enable merchants to enhance their shopping experience and improve their inventory management capabilities by creating new sales revenue streams.”
