Finland’s NordicNinja co-leads $24M round for Griffin, UK’s banking platform

Griffin, a London-based full-stack Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform, has announced a $24 million Series A investment round led by Finnish VC firm NordicNinja, MassMutual Ventures, and Breega. The capital will help scale the bank and enhance its infrastructure for customers.

About Griffin

• Griffin was co-founded by David Jarvis and Allen Rohner and is led by a team of banking and technology executives from Form3, Swift, Barclays, Virgin Money, Lloyds, etc. The startup offers a full-stack platform for technology-driven firms looking to offer banking, payments, and wealth solutions to their customers.

• Recently, the bank has obtained a banking license, roughly one year after starting the application process. This means it has been given the green light from the UK’s financial services regulators, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), to exit ‘mobilization’ and launch as a fully operational bank.

Investment details

• NordicNinja is one of the lead investors this round. Founded in 2019 as a Japanese-European joint venture between JBIC IG Partners and BaltCap, NordicNinja is managed by Tomosaku Sohara, Shinichi Nikkuni, Marek Kiisa, and Rainer Sternfeld. In September 2023, the fund launched its new €200 million Fund II.

We are hugely impressed with Griffin’s level of emphasis on ethical business practices and sustainability. The team’s commitment to helping their customers as well as everyone impacted by their business is very unique, and we are looking forward to working with them further,

Marek Kiisa, co-founder and Managing Partner at NordicNinja, said.

• MassMutual Ventures (MMV), a multistage global venture capital firm investing in financial technology, enterprise SaaS, healthtech, climate technology and cybersecurity companies, is the second lead investor in the round. With teams based in London, Singapore, and Boston, MMV manages over $1 billion in investment capital across the globe.
• Breega, a Paris-based venture capital fund designed to finance startups in the digital economy, also co-led the round. The firm closed its first fund in 2015 and now have more than €600 million AUM and over 100 trailblazing portfolio companies.
• The $24 million investment round also saw participation from Griffin’s existing investors Notion Capital and EQT Ventures.

With the fresh investment, Griffin is ready for accelerated growth and is committed to scaling responsibly  as pilot customers go live. The bank will also take on new customers via its early access programme, Foundations. Griffin will work closely with Foundations participants to help them enhance their offering with seamless, contextual finance embedded directly into their customer experience.