ff Ventures joins €11.8M round for UK’s fintech kennek

London-based kennek, a company that specialises in developing an operating system for lenders, has announced €11.8 million in a seed round of funding. It was led by HV Capital, with participation from Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, ff Ventures, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One. The funds will allow kennek to grow its team and expand into the UK market. 

• kennek was founded in 2021 by Thibault Lancksweert, Edmund Parsons and Xavier De Pauw. The company and develops an end-to-end operating system designed to streamline the operations for lenders, credit investors, corporates, and servicers in the alternative credit sector.
• The startup works with existing lenders and banks, but also with new lenders that can be launched efficiently with Kennek’s complete lender-in-a-box. As such, Kennek plays the role of lender incubator offering credit expertise, the full operating system and access to institutional funding.

The round was backed by:

• HV Capital, German VC fund that supports European startups with the capital between €500,000 and €50 million.
•  AlbionVC, London-based firm that partners with UK early-stage B2B software and healthcare companies. AlbionVC manages $1 billion of venture funds, currently invested in over 50 companies.
• DFF (Dutch Founders Fund), an early-stage VC that primarily invests in marketplaces and network effects across Europe. 
• ff Venture Capital, a US and Poland-based fund. In July 2023 it invested in NeoKe during its €1.3 million round.

ff Venture Capital invests in NeoKe during its €1.3M round

• Plug and Play Tech Center, an ultimate innovation platform that are active in over 50 locations globally, including the U.S., China, France, Germany, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil and more.
• Syndicate One, a group of 32 startup operators, founders and executives aiming to help the Belgian early-stage tech ecosystem.

The fresh capital comes nine months after the firm raised a $4.5 million pre-seed funding round and will be used to hire more staff and expand into continenental Europe.