Groov

Groov is an Edinburgh-based embedded finance infrastructure company building the data and analytics layer that connects lenders, fintechs, and B2B SaaS platforms to the merchant and SME revenue insights they need to make smarter lending decisions.

The problem Groov addresses is a structural gap in the SME lending market: while open banking and payments data has transformed what lenders can theoretically know about a borrower, most lending teams lack the technical infrastructure to access, process, and operationalise that data at scale. The result is that creditworthy SMEs are turned away or given poor terms not because they are bad risks, but because lenders cannot efficiently analyse the data that would prove otherwise.

Groov solves this by providing a single API integration through which lenders and platforms can access structured, analytics-ready outputs — income verification, affordability signals, spending categorisation, and cashflow metrics — derived from live merchant transaction data. The platform supports a lender-agnostic model, meaning businesses are connected to a broad panel of capital providers to ensure competitive terms and high approval rates.

The company raised a £1.5 million seed round led by Fuel Ventures with participation from Aperture Capital and industry-focused angels, which it is using to expand its API capabilities, deepen open banking integrations, and grow its commercial pipeline among UK lending platforms and challenger banks.