Pollinate Funding, Investors & Competitors

Pollinate has raised $218M across 3 funding rounds, most recently a $50M Series C in March 2021.

Last Pollinate funding round

$50M

Series C · Mar 2021

Cumulative funding Pollinate raised

$218M

across 3 funding rounds

Key investors in Pollinate

Pollinate Overview

About Pollinate

Pollinate is a London-based software platform reinventing merchant acquiring for banks worldwide. It integrates with legacy systems to deliver digital onboarding, merchant portals, loyalty programs, and data analytics without migrations. Pollinate powered Royal Bank of Scotland's NatWest Tyl launch in 2019, enabling business payment acceptance, customer engagement, and community rewards for UK merchants.


Founded

2017

HQ

United KingdomLondon

Status

Privately held

Customer focus

B2B

Revenue model

Subscription

Pollinate Funding History

Pollinate has raised a total of $218M across 3 funding rounds.

Pollinate's first fundraising round was a $78M Series A in October 2019. The most recent completed round was a $50M Series C in March 2021.

Pollinate funding rounds

Pollinate funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedDeal Summary
Mar 2021Series CInsight Partners (lead); NatWest Markets; Motive Partners; National Australia Bank; Mastercard; EFM Asset Management$50MPollinate is a London-based fintech software platform founded in 2015 (per FintechMagazine) or 2017 (per FinTechFutures) that partners with banks to digitally transform their merchant acquiring and business customer offerings. The platform enables banks to offer small and medium-sized businesses access to capital, payment processing, digital loyalty programs, marketing insights, and other value-added services through a white-label marketplace. The company is led by CEO and founder Alastair Lukies, former business advisor to UK government leadership. On March 18, 2021, Pollinate closed a $50 million Series C funding round led by Insight Partners. The round included participation from existing investors: NatWest Group, Mastercard, National Australia Bank (NAB), EFM Asset Management, and Motive Partners. This brought Pollinate's total funding to $218 million across three rounds (and later to $127.63 million across four rounds by February 2022 when CIBC Capital Partners invested). Insight Partners, a US venture capital and private equity firm based in New York City, is known for backing growth-stage technology companies and previously invested in Twitter and Trivago. The Series C funding was designed to accelerate Pollinate's global expansion, particularly into North America where the company was in advanced conversations with multiple banks. The capital also supported expansion of the white-label marketplace offering to better serve banks' small and medium-sized business customers. The company had already demonstrated traction through deployments with major banks, including Tylo by NatWest (launched May 2019) and Payit with NatWest (launched June 2020), claiming to have reduced online payment costs by 25% based on an average transaction of £80.
Sep 2020Series BNational Australia Bank (lead)$91MPollinate is a London-based fintech platform focused on transforming merchant acquiring services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) globally. The company provides cloud-based merchant services including digital invoicing, accounting tools, business insights, third-party integrations, and loyalty program capabilities. In September 2020, Pollinate closed a £70 million funding round with participation from National Australia Bank (NAB), NatWest, Mastercard, EFM Asset Management, and Motive Partners. The round was announced alongside Pollinate's expansion into the Australian market through a strategic partnership with NAB, marking the second major bank partnership for the company following NatWest in the UK, where Pollinate had previously launched two solutions: Tyl (unveiled September 2019) and Payit (launched June 2020). The company's model involves working with one leading bank per geography to bring next-generation merchant services to market, with the firm also in advanced discussions with banks in South Africa, Canada, and other regions at the time of the NAB partnership announcement.
Oct 2019Series ANatWest Markets; Motive Partners; Mastercard; EFM Asset Management$78MPollinate is a London-based merchant services platform founded in 2017 that provides a cloud-based system wrapping around banks' legacy payment services to enable merchant onboarding, e-commerce portals, and loyalty programs, primarily targeting relationships between banks and SMEs. The platform integrates with Microsoft Azure, utilizing big data, AI, threat intelligence, and authentication services, with its first deployment in 2019 via Tyl by NatWest, a merchant acquiring business from RBS/NatWest. On approximately October 31, 2019, Pollinate raised £60 million (about $77.7 million) from investors including EFM Asset Management, Mastercard, Motive Partners, and RBS/NatWest Markets, enabling the platform to go live globally. Partners include Mastercard, Endava, and Motive Partners, with leadership from CEO Alastair Lukies and other executives from payments, tech, and loyalty sectors. This Series A round (dated 10/31/2019 in some trackers) supported Pollinate's expansion discussions with retail banks worldwide following the Tyl launch. Subsequent rounds included a Series B on 10/2/2020 and Series C on 3/18/2021 with participation from existing investors like NatWest Group and Mastercard, plus new ones like NAB Ventures and Insight Partners leading a $50M raise, bringing total funding to $218M by 2021 for US/North America expansion. Pollinate's technology aims to reduce online payment costs (claimed 25% based on £80 average transaction) and enhance merchant operations through digital tools and data integrations, positioning it in the fintech merchant services space competing via bank partnerships rather than direct consumer-facing apps.

Who has invested in Pollinate?

6 investors have backed Pollinate across its funding rounds, including Mastercard, Motive Partners, National Australia Bank, NatWest Markets, EFM Asset Management and Insight Partners.

Lead investors include Insight Partners and National Australia Bank.


Pollinate Investors

Investors in Pollinate by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
NatWest MarketsUnited KingdomEdinburgh2ParticipantOct 2019
Motive PartnersUnited StatesNew York City, NY2ParticipantOct 2019
National Australia BankAustraliaSydney2LeadSep 2020
MastercardUnited StatesNew York City, NY2ParticipantOct 2019

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Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples

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Pollinate Competitors

Pollinate competitors include listed companies like Aisino, eFinance, Sunyard Technology and Toast, and private ones like Korea Credit Data and SmithRx.

Public and private companies comparable to Pollinate
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
AisinoChinaChinaPublicly listed$828M($46M)$1.8B-
eFinanceEgyptEgyptPublicly listed$130M$67M$1.6B-
Sunyard TechnologyChinaChinaPublicly listed$307M$10M$722M-
ToastUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$6.2B$359M$18B2.3x
Korea Credit DataSouth KoreaSeoulPrivate$44M-$943M-
SmithRxUnited StatesSan Francisco, CAPrivate--$355M-

Pollinate Public Comps

Pollinate is still privately-owned, but its public comps include S&P Global, Moody's, Block, Constellation Software, Fiserv, Affirm, Verisk Analytics, HiThink, Fair Isaac and SS&C Technologies.

Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
S&P Global$15B$7.7B8.9x9.1x17.6x17.3x
Moody's$7.7B$3.8B11.2x10.6x22.5x20.1x
Block$24B$2.2B1.7x1.6x18.6x9.4x
Constellation Software$12B$2.5B4.0x3.5x18.5x12.9x
Fiserv$21B$8.9B2.5x2.8x6.1x6.4x
Affirm$4.3B$1.3B7.3x6.9x24.9x23.4x
Verisk Analytics$3.1B$1.7B8.8x8.5x16.2x15.1x
HiThink$899M$530M23.0x18.9x39.1x31.2x

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Common questions about Pollinate

When was Pollinate founded?Pollinate was founded in 2017.
Where is Pollinate headquartered?Pollinate is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
Is Pollinate publicly listed?No, Pollinate is a private, VC-backed company.
How much funding has Pollinate raised?Pollinate has raised $218M across 3 funding rounds.
What was Pollinate's last funding round?Pollinate's last funding round was a $50M Series C in March 2021, led by Insight Partners.
Who are Pollinate's investors?Pollinate's investors include NatWest Markets, Motive Partners, National Australia Bank, Mastercard, EFM Asset Management and Insight Partners.
Which companies are comparable to Pollinate?Companies comparable to Pollinate include Aisino, eFinance, Sunyard Technology, Toast, Korea Credit Data and SmithRx.

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