Financial

American Express Ventures has added $6m to the $29m Next had already raised for a series A round backed by Munich Re, Markel and Nationwide Mutual.

Metro Group led the mobile payment and loyalty app developer's $15.3m series B round, increasing its overall funding to more than $30m.

ING Group and PSN have provided $28.2m of series B funding for personal finance management app developer Fintonic, which will use it to expand in Spain and Latin America.

Touchstone Innovations has provided $5.1m to the series B round, having previously led a $10m series A for the company in 2015.

The Comcast-backed company, which links a visual social media platform with goods and services, is valued at $4bn and is potentially pointing a new way forward for mobile commerce.

Debeka invested $11m into Ottonova, an insurance technology startup that has now raised a total of $44m in capital from backers also including Tengelmann and Vorwerk.

BBVA-backed venture firm Propel Venture Partners led the series A round, which came after a $2.1m seed round for the employee benefits software provider in 2015.

Card digitisation technology provider Sequent has achieved the first close of a round led by TIS that also includes corporate venturing unit SBT Ventures.

The digital currency technology developer has raised $40m in a round co-led by GV and backed by Virgin which will support global expansion and R&D.

The University of California-backed UC-RNT Fund has led a round that enabled strategic investor Axis Bank to exit.