Younited, a Paris-based credit and payment platform, has hit unicorn status thanks to a €60 million raise from its main shareholders, including Goldman Sachs.
Eurazeo, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and Bpifrance via its Large Venture fund joined the round, which values Younited at €1.1 billion, a "significant" increase on its valuation at a May 2021 funding round.
Founded in 2009 to simplify the credit process for consumers and businesses, Younited operates a cloud-only SaaS platform that uses data from open banking to make lending decisions. A fully EU-accredited Credit Institution operating in five European countries, the firm has facilitated billions of euros in finance since launch.
The fundraising will allow the company to continue the deployment of its "instant credit" offering, which uses open banking to provide a decision in seconds. Available in Spain, Portugal and France, the product will be introduced in new geographies.
The new funding will also be used to build the firm's partner network, which lets merchants and
financial institutions use its technology for their own instant credit offerings.
"While Younited's historical activity ("Direct-to-Consumer") is profitable in 2022 across all of our five countries, this new fundraising will allow us to continue investing in our disruptive technology as well as in the deployment of our second activity ("Partnerships") launched more recently," says Charles Egly, chairman, management board, Younited.