Liquidity Group reaches unicorn status

Liquidity Group, an Israeli credit-oriented FinTech platform, has reportedly joined the unicorn club following a $40m funding round that brought the company’s valuation to $1.4bn. The funding round was led by Japanese banking giant MUFG Bank. Liquidity Group invests, syndicates, and automates growth and middle-market lending for businesses globally. It provides capital mainly to later-stage technology firms and claims to be growing at a rate of 500% per year.

The platform leverages integrated machine learning and real-time data and performance monitoring to enhance, automate, and expedite credit investment processes. Since its inception in 2018, the company has raised $120m in equity, with $775m in credit facilities raised in April 2022. The funding included $425m from Apollo Funds for a credit facility to assist Liquidity in scaling its lending activity for late-stage technology companies. Additionally, MUFG Bank deployed $300m for a debt fund JV named Mars Growth Capital, investing in future unicorn firms. Finally, $50m came through a SAFE note investment by Apollo Funds, MUFG Innovation Partners, and Spark Capital.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has also announced a loan of up to €30m ($34m) to support the company’s lending activities. The funds are expected to enable the firm to offer more efficient funding solutions to businesses, leading to faster economic recovery and job creation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other Israel FinTech news, BondIT secured $14m in a funding round led by BNY Mellon at the end of 2022. The FinTech firm leverages advanced technologies, machine learning, and explainable-AI to automate and optimize fixed income portfolio construction, management, and research.