Series A Funding Signals Significant Growth for Mesh and Its Cutting Edge Read and Write APIs

Money Forward, Inc., today announced that it had led the Series A round of Mesh, the U.S. embedded finance startup. This round features notable contributions from esteemed organizations such as Galaxy, Samsung Next, and the funds raised will be allocated towards the development of new services. Shinji “Sandy” Kimura, our Group Executive Officer, Head of Global Strategy and Money Forward America CEO and  Anil Arora, former CEO of Yodlee will join Mesh’s Board of Directors.

Mesh, formerly known as Front Financial, is an ‘enabler’ within the embedded finance sector, boasting cutting-edge capabilities in API aggregation. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2020, they launched their service at the end of previous year. Centered around digital assets and securities, they have integrated with more than 300 financial institutions, and already have 70 partners. While many other players in the embedded finance space only offer ‘read-only’ APIs that use scraping technologies, Mesh is the leading provider in the industry to offer ‘Read-and-Write’ APIs enabling real-time financial transaction instructions and fund transfers, with ensuring a high level of security.

Currently, there are over 10,000 fintech companies in the U.S. and approximately 30,000 worldwide^*1. The embedded finance market is estimated to grow tenfold over 5 years, from 2020 to 2025, reaching a scale of 230 billion USD^*2. Angela Strange, a general partner at top-tier U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, stated in 2020 that “every company will become a fintech company.” 47% of U.S. companies have responded that they plan to offer embedded finance services in the near future^*3. Additionally, the U.S. is quickly embracing these services, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau^*4 planning an open banking system by 2024 and most banks now offering mobile apps.

We decided to invest as the lead investor in Mesh, motivated by strong alignment with the vision articulated by its co-founder and CEO, Mr. Bam Azizi, to “create an open, connected, and secure financial ecosystem.” This decision was influenced by the immense global growth potential of the embedded finance sector, as well as the synergistic alignment with our ongoing SaaS × Fintech strategy. As we move forward, we are committed to supporting Mesh in the development of its asset-class agnostic ‘Read-and-Write’ API services, to fulfill the mission the company has set forth.

For more information about Mesh and its groundbreaking financial solutions, please visit https://www.meshconnect.com/.

*1 Statista: Number of fintech startups worldwide from 2018 to 2023, by region
*2 Statista: Market value of the embedded finance sector in the United States in 2020, with a forecast for 2025
*3 Accenture Research: Global Business Perspectives on Embedded Finance
*4 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Website

■About Mesh
Founded in 2020, Mesh’s mission is to build an open, connected and secure financial ecosystem. Mesh is a modern financial operating system that provides enterprise clients with the ability to enable digital asset transfers, crypto payments, account aggregation and registered securities trading, all within their platform. With integrations to over 300+ platforms, Mesh is creating an embedded financial ecosystem that is more open, connected and secure for businesses and users alike. To learn more, visit https://www.meshconnect.com/.

■About Money Forward
Name: Money Forward, Inc.
Location: 21F Tamachi Station Tower S, 3-1-21 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023
Representative: Yosuke Tsuji, Representative Director, President and CEO
Establishment: May 2012
Overview: Leading Fintech/SaaS company in Japan / Listed on Prime Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange
URL: https://corp.moneyforward.com/en/
​​Main Services：​
“Money Forward ME”, a service to visualize personal finance https://moneyforward.com/
“Money Forward Cloud”, SaaS platform for back-office operation https://biz.moneyforward.com/

* All company names and product/service names (including logos) are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

For further information, please contact
Public Relations: pr@moneyforward.co.jp