Congratulations to our portfolio company Neat, makers of digitally-native business-friendly current accounts, which just announced an $11m Series A! The round includes Pacific Century Group (the family office of Richard Li), Visa and Massmutual Ventures, with participation from us and our existing co-investors and friends Linear Capital and Sagamore Ventures. Post Series A, Neat is embarking on strategic partnerships with Visa and with Pacific Century Group – more to come on that in the next few weeks. In Southeast Asia, a core focus market for Neat, the company will be launching local currency solutions.

It’s a timely piece of news – as lockdowns continue and bank employees in many countries are forced to stay home, global commerce is grinding to a halt. It’s a frustrating – and precarious – situation for companies that can remain open for business during these times. Now is the time for digital financial services to shine.

Neat is growing up too. When DAV invested in Neat a little over two years ago, Neat was just pivoting from a B2C digital current account that lived on a prepaid Mastercard, targeted at millennials, to a B2B company aiming to make business-friendly current accounts accessible for startups and SMEs in Hong Kong. Since then, they’ve found a core fan base: B2B companies that power trade between Europe and Asia. The product has evolved along with the customers – aside from the original value proposition of a purely digital account opening process, Neat now offers payment instructions in multiple currencies, worldwide bank transfers, corporate credit cards, and corporate budgeting tools. It’s integrated with Shopify, Xero, online accounting services, and online corporate secretarial services. The mission has evolved too. Now it’s about enabling the entrepreneur economy – helping companies everywhere make international expansion frictionless. From a team of five in a tiny Hong Kong office, Neat now has employees in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and London, and customers from 24 different countries. They’re also rebranding from Neat.hk to Neatcommerce.com to better serve their global customers. You can find the announcement here.