Augmentum Fintech , a venture capital firm that is listed on the London Stock Exchange, announced on Thursday that it has invested £8.5 million ($10.77 million) in three different firms.
The bulk of that cash, £5 million ($6.34 million), was put towards Tide - a challenger bank that's targeting small and medium-sized enterprises.
This is not the first time that Augmentum has invested money in Tide.
In August of last year, the firm provided the start-up with a £3 million ($3.8 million) convertible loan as part of a wider £8 million ($10.14 million) funding round. A few months later, in December of 2018, the venture capital company pumped another million pounds ($1.27 million) into the firm.
Alongside that investment, Augmentum has also put £2.5 million into Monese. Also a challenger bank, Monese was the first company in the UK to launch a mobile-only current account, ahead of competitors Monzo and Revolut.
As with Tide, Augmentum has already put money into Monese in the past.
Last September, the venture capital firm invested £5.3 million ($6.72 million) in the challenger bank as part of a wider funding round that saw several companies, including Payments giant PayPal, investing £46 million ($58.30 million) in Monese.
Done its DueDil
The third company that Augmentum confirmed it had put money into on Thursday is DueDil.
Though its name may suggest a focus on compliance, DueDil actually provides an array of technology, much of which is geared towards sales and marketing teams, to businesses operating in a number of different industries.
Augmentum is investing another £1 million in DueDil, having already injected £2 million into the technology company in August of last year.
“We are pleased to announce these follow-on investments in three of our existing portfolio companies," said Tim Levene, a portfolio manager at Augmentum. "Since our initial investments last year, we have been working closely with the management teams in each of these companies and have been impressed with the progress that they have made against their respective business plans. All of these innovative businesses are continuing to effect change and much needed disruption in their target markets."
