• Valar Ventures, Moonfire and Album VC, along with founders from a number of billon-dollar fintech successes invest in London-based start-up

• Bound, tipped by VCs to be the next big European fintech, is building a platform to make currency hedging easy for SMEs

• Taking just 30 mins to set up, Bound can save the average business £70,000+ a year

Bound, the platform setting out to make currency hedging simple for SMEs, is being tipped by VCs to be one of Europe’s next major fintechs.

The company has already received $7m in seed capital from some of the founders and VCs behind Klarna, Stash, MX, and Qonto to help it transform the UK’s SME forex market.

Institutional investors in the company’s seed round include three of the world’s leading venture capital firms — Valar Ventures, Moonfire, and Album VC.

The space Bound is targeting is massively underserved. Currently, only 4%* of UK SMEs protect themselves from currency risk, compared to more than nine in 10 (94%**) Fortune 500 companies.

This is because hedging, to the average SME, is confusing and complicated. Bound’s mission is to address this and show every SME trading internationally that hedging doesn't need to be a headache.

Bound gives SMEs a simple and effective way to protect their currency similar to that of a large corporation.

Crucially, Bound’s clients do not need to be finance experts or understand the complex hedging strategies used by forex pros globally, only that their money transfers are being optimised 24/7, 365.

The Bound platform provides customers with a simple interface free of finance jargon and even integrates with some of the major accounting systems commonly used by SMEs.

James Fitzgerald, General Partner at Valar Ventures, commented:

“The market Bound is targeting is massively underserved and offers a huge opportunity for transformation. We believe Bound could become one of the major European fintechs in the years ahead. The management team has a clear vision of where the company is going and what it’s out to achieve: Democratising currency hedging and making it easily accessible to SMEs, something that is insanely overdue.”

Seth Phillips, founder, Bound, added:

“Being backed by some of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and VCs is an important validation of our vision. Right now, currency hedging, to the average SME, is confusing and complicated but it doesn’t need to be. We're on a mission to help SMEs effortlessly protect their businesses from ever-changing currency rates and save them billions in the process. We have an aggressive strategy to acquire market share and are encouraging anyone who wants to be involved in our growth story to get in touch. We’re aiming to triple the size of our team in the next few months and are looking for smart people in multiple roles.”

Stefan Cars, Founder and CEO of Snowfall Travel added:

“The travel industry is rife with currency risk but Bound makes that risk easy to manage for companies of our size. It’s a gamechanger for any SME trading internationally that is exposed to currency fluctuations. Best of all, it’s affordable, easy to set up and totally free of all finance jargon.”

Bound is currently hiring for a number of positions, including development, product, and marketing roles. To apply, please visit careers.

— ENDS —

Notes to Editors

*At its 24th Annual General Meeting in Beijing, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc (ISDA) announced the results of a survey of derivatives usage by the world’s 500 largest companies. According to the survey, 94% of these companies use derivative instruments to manage and hedge their business and financial risks.

** “4% of exporting SMEs currently using products to mitigate against foreign currency risks” — UK SME exporting trends: finance and trade | February 2020

For more information, interviews with Seth, James, Stefan, and pics, please contact:

Tom Garcia-Bridgeman, Rhizome Media: tom@rhizomemediagroup.com | 07341 819 197

About Bound

Bound is not a bank or a broker but a technology company that loves solving problems. Bound’s founders built software for professional risk managers and traders from some of the largest corporations in the world. Their tools processed tens of thousands of trades per day worth trillions of dollars. Our vision is to completely reinvent currency protection for the massively underserved SME market, the way that it should be.

Bound Rates Limited (FRN 966723) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an Investment Firm.

Visit: bound.co

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