Australian neobank Volt Bank Limited (Volt) has raised $70 million in a Series C funding round, according to an announcement.
The round, that takes the total funding of Volt to $100 million in equity, has been oversubscribed by $10 million as its original target set for Series C was $60 million.
According to the Australia Financial Review, it is understood that that the company raised its funding from as many as 176 investors, of which 47 are its existing backers.
The corpus will be used by Volt to build its digital infrastructure, hire a global digital team, besides ramping up its number of data and banking experts. The company also plans to use a part of the funding to develop its ‘innovative platform-based banking model’.
The company said the new investment will bring Volt, which is Australia’s newest neobank, one step closer to a planned listing on the Australian Stock Exchange in late 2020.
Volt also aims to kick off its Series D equity funding round due to the regulatory capital demands of a bank. For the upcoming Series D round, Volt will scout for investors in the UK and the Middle East, besides talking to existing investors in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
“Key to our ultimate global scale is the development of our platform strategy. We are now raising more capital to invest in the development, integration, and onboarding of partners that will open up new customer bases with both Volt-branded and white-labeled banking products,” Volt Bank CEO Steve Weston said.
The company claims to have a headcount of about 160 people in its North Sydney office. Going forward, it plans to grow the number to over 200 people over the next twelve months.
Volt, which is the first neobank to receive a full banking license in 2019, has recently launched its first deposit product and it aims to have a full range of consumer deposit and loan products in the market by the end of 2020. It plans to tap small and medium enterprises (SME) in 2021.
Neobank refers to a fully digital bank that taps customers online. It operates through an online platform or a mobile app.
Apart from Volt, there are other neobanks operating in Australia, such as 86 400 and Xinja – both listed entities in the region.
