Money Moves: Fintech startup Rize just raised $11.4M for its financial services products

Arlington, Virginia-based Rize, a financial services firm, closed on $11.4 million in a Series A round this month.

Alpha Edison and Morpheus Ventures co-led the round, with participation from existing investors Raptor Group, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Third Prime, Red & Blue Ventures, Graham Holdings, Walkabout Ventures and Rucker Park Capital.

Originally a B2C fintech company, Rize now assists fintech companies, financial institutions and brands in building and development across multiple account types in one application.

According to a Medium post announcing the news, the funding will be used for continued core product development and advancing clients tools, adding new products and architecture as well as expanding its team.

“We’re so excited for what lies ahead and can’t wait for you to see the new products we’re working on,” cofounders Kirk Voltz and Justin Howell wrote. “We believe you all will truly blow us away with what you can achieve when you no longer have to worry about your infrastructure and can focus solely on building life-changing financial user experiences.

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54gene, a genome healthtech company based in DC and Lagos, Nigeria, raised $25 million in a Series B round in September.

The round was led by the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund alongside Adjuvant Capital, KdT Ventures, Plexo Capital, Endeavor Capital and Ingressive Capital, among others. The firm has raised $45 million to date since its launch in 2019.

54gene completes genome and pharmaceutical research inclusive to Africa’s population, as it says much of the current genomic data excludes those in that category.

The funding, it said, will be used for sequencing, target identification and validation and precision clinical trials for drug discovery. It will also be expanding its diagnostics decision and genomics branch across the many countries within Africa going forward.

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Here’s who else is raising around DC:

Companies:

• The Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) invested in Impruvon, a King George, Virginia-based medtech company. Impruvon, which also has offices in Manassas, Virginia, automates medication management efforts and record-keeping for prescriptions.
• Aravenda, a Vienna-based company which provides software for thrift and consignment stores, also received CIT funding recently. The funding will be used to expand the team and continue product development, which allows secondhand stores to move sales online.
• Pennsylvania-based digital marketing company Kegerreis is investing $1.7 million in a relocation effort to move its headquarters to Danville, Virginia.

Funds:

• Halycon now has a new $100,000 fund from the Kimsey Foundation for DC-area startups. The Halcyon Microloan Fund is available to local startups in need of alternative forms of funding.
• Vensana Capital, a VC firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Vienna, Virginia, closed a $325 million fund. The Versana Capital II fund will provide capital for medical devices, diagnostics, data and life sciences and digital health, with 10 investments made so far.

Government contracts:

• Reston, Virginia-based CACI International won a contract with the U.S. Transportation Command’s Defense Personal Property System worth $36 million. CACI will be working on digital modernization solutions in air, land and sea travel for the Department of Defense.
• Parsons Corporation, an engineering and technical services company based in Centreville, Virginia, landed a 10-year, Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition contract worth up to $46 billion for providing engineering and infrastructure services to the Air Force and partners.
• McLean, Virginia administrative and management solutions company OST also nabbed a spot on the Eglin contract.
• ECS, the Fairfax, Virginia-based federal government arm of IT firm ASGN, inked a $36.7 million contract with the US Central Command. ECS will be providing classified and unclassified work in command and information management.
• VTG, a modernization and digital transformation solutions company based in Chantilly, Virginia, won a contract with the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs for engineering services.