AI business banking startup Flex reportedly hits a $1.2 billion valuation in a $70 million round

Flex, a three-year-old startup that sells AI-powered banking and expense tools to mid-market business owners, has reportedly reached a $1.2 billion valuation in a new funding round that raised $70 million. The figure more than doubles the company’s valuation from six months earlier.

The round, labeled B1, lands as investors keep paying up for fintechs that wrap AI around business banking. Flex’s total funding now stands at about $180 million in equity and $300 million in debt, and it says its platform has passed $10 billion in annualized total payment volume.

Flex aims at a specific slice of the market: owners of businesses generating $3 million to $100 million in annual revenue, a mid-market band larger fintechs have historically underserved. The company said it plans to expand internationally, raise marketing spend and roughly double its headcount to more than 200 employees.

The specifics rest on the company’s own disclosures. The valuation, the payment-volume figure and the growth plans come from Flex and have not been independently verified, and a valuation that doubles in six months says as much about a frothy private market as about the business underneath. Whether Flex’s revenue and payment volume keep pace with a $1.2 billion price tag, or the number looks stretched at its next raise, is what will matter more than the headline.