Fintech Shield raises 20 million and wants to strengthen its presence in Portugal – Technologies
Shield – a startup focused on secure communications within banks and financial institutions – announced this Thursday the completion of a Series B funding round, worth US$20 million.
The investment, which arrives less than a year after the company raised another 15 million in a Series A round, was won by Macquarie Capital and involved the participation of UBS’s innovation and venture capital firm, UBS Next, and also from Mindset Ventures and OurCrowd.
Shield has a research and development center in Lisbon and, with the capital now raised, intends to open another unit in the Portuguese capital. Shiran Weitzman, CEO and co-founder of fintech, justifies the bet on Portugal because the country is asserting itself as one of the biggest hubs of the European technological ecosystem.
“We are excited to be able to start working with UBS on multiple levels – as a customer and now as an investor in our latest funding round,” he said in a statement. “This is further evidence that there is an immediate market need for a modern, proactive solution that powers surveillance across communication channels, and that Shield is well positioned to meet that need.”
“We strongly believe in the value that Shield can bring to financial organizations and we are pleased to continue to support them as we deliver real benefits to a growing range of clients”, underlined, in turn, David Standen, of Macquarie Capital. “Fintech’s impressive growth over the past year has been driven by the need for a cutting-edge platform that can be rapidly integrated, and our latest investment confirms our belief in the company’s plans for further market expansion.”