Agricultural bank Oxbury raises GBP 20 mln in funding

The new funding follows its GBP 31 million raised in a Series C funding round in March 2022. The add-on takes Oxbury’s total capital raised to GBP 68 million.

Among the investors participating in Oxbury’s round are Frontier Agriculture and Hutchinsons Group, along with the bank’s existing investors Hambro Perks and Grosvenor Food & AgTech.

As part of the funding Oxbury also revealed it’s surpassed a GBP 500 million milestone of completed or in-progress lending, reaching the figure after just 15 months of lending.

Since acquiring its core banking technology provider Naqoda as part of its Series C funding round, Oxbury has now rebranded the technology as Oxbury Earth and Coates, the next step being to offer it up as a Banking-as-a-Service solution beyond the UK.

What’s happening when it comes to investments

Fintech investment has taken a turn in the past few weeks and months, with down rounds and layoffs impacting the sector, most notably with Klarna’s valuation tumbling by as much as 85% and prominent sector investors marking down their holdings.

Financial technology may be one of the interesting areas of investment for venture capitalists — USD 1 out of every USD 5 of funding flowed into fintech startups in 2021, but given the recession that’s around the corner, investors are not as keen to invest as they were before. Besides, they are getting more selective about the companies they back.

According to CB Insights, global venture investment in fintech firms sank 18% in the first quarter of 2022. However, niche industry buzzwords like Open Banking, Banking-as-a-Service, and embedded finance remain of interest, with a slew of new fintech firms hoping to eat away at the volumes of incumbent players.