Australian VC firm Square Peg has led local banking software and operational platform developer Constantinople’s $21.2-million seed funding round, per an announcement.
Tech and software focused investor AirTree Ventures and Great Southern Bank also participated in the funding round, according to the release.
“We’re thrilled to be part of Constantinople’s $22-million seed funding round, alongside Square Peg and Great Southern Bank, as they help banks replace manual operational processes with full automation around servicing, risk, and compliance,” AirTree Ventures wrote in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday.
Launched in 2022, Constantinople’s platform supports a full suite of customer products, including mobile and Web apps, transaction and savings accounts, payments, debit and credit cards, and a range of secured and unsecured lending products.
It also supports underlying operational services required by a bank, including onboarding & KYC, AML, fraud prevention, payments and lending operations, regulatory reporting, and customer service.
The firm recently released its platform into production with its first client bank, Great Southern Bank, and are currently in a live pilot.
The investment is Square Peg’s largest seed investment and Australia’s largest seed round. The company had raised $550 million for its fifth fund to focus on tech founders in Australia, Southeast Asia, and Israel last year.
The VC firm invests in areas such as consumer Internet and software as a service (SaaS) and mainly participates in companies’ Series A and Series B funding rounds. Square Peg’s portfolio includes recruitment automation platform Kula, Singapore-based startup Supabase, payments platform Airwallex, and design platform Canva, among others.
Founded in 2012 by Paul Bassat, Tony Holt, Justin Liberman, and Barry Brott, Square Peg has backed more than 60 founders and claims to have delivered strong returns and returned substantial capital back to its investors — over $580 million across 11 exits at an IRR of 42%.