This Week in Fintech (10/16)

Oct 16

Hello Fintech Friends,

Fintech startups raised $4.5 billion in combined equity this week.

This doesn’t even include the CRED, Flutterwave, and Slice $100mm+ rounds in which the final amount is still undisclosed. There were 42 total equity raise announcements.

Elsewhere and much less excitingly, I did an AMA with the team at Heyday.

Please find another week of fintech financings and exits below.

Editor’s Note: If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity or debt, I may be able to help - reach out to nik@thisweekinfintech.com.

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💸 Venture Financing

GoodLeap, a solar roof and green home financing platform, raised $1 billion.
MoonPay, a payments on-ramp for cryptocurrency investing, is raising $400 million at a $3.4 billion valuation.
Celsius Network, a decentralized earning and lending protocol, raised $400 million.
Bolt, an online one-click checkout provider, raised $389 million at a $6 billion valuation.
Global Processing Services, an API-based payments and embedded finance platform, raised $300 million.
TradingView, a financial information API, platform, and social network, raised $298 million at a $3 billion valuation.
Tripactions, a corporate employee expense management startup, raised $275 million at a $7.25 billion valuation.
Trumid, an electronic credit trading platform, raised $208 million.
Swile, a French payment card for employee benefits, raised a $200 million Series D at a $1 billion+ valuation.
Interfirst Mortgage, a mortgage originator, raised $175 million in a superheated homebuying market.
Tala, an emerging markets microlender, raised a $145 million Series E from backers including Upstart and Stellar.
Halo Investing, an investing platform for structured notes, annuities, and buffered ETFs, raised a $100 million Series C.
Open, an Indian neobank, raised a $100 million Series C.
ZoneBilling, a NetSuite billing technology provider, raised a $76 million growth investment.
Alviere, an embedded finance startup, raised $70 million (a $20 million Series A and $50 million Series B).
Beacon, a custom trading and risk management solution, raised a $56 million Series C.
Juni, a Swedish e-commerce banking provider, raised a $52 million Series A.
M2P Fintech, an Asian financial API infrastructure provider, raised a $35 million Series C.
Fount, a South Korean roboadvisory investor, raised $33.4 million.
Ramp, (the other ramp) a Polish fiat to crypto on-ramp, raised a $30 million Series A at a $300 million valuation.
Atomic, a payroll API, raised $22 million in Series A funding.
Nelo, a Mexican buy-now-pay-later company, raised $20 million.
Productfy, an embedded financial services platform for fintechs, raised a $16 million Series A.
FrankieOne, an ID and fraud management service for fintechs, raised A$20 million ($16 million).
Xpansiv, an ESG commodities marketplace, raised $15 million from Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Mono, an African open banking API provider, raised a $15 million Series A.
MagicCube, a chip replacement provider for mobile payment terminals, raised $15 million.
Mondu, a German B2B payments company, raised $14 million in seed funding.
Lendflow, an embedded small and medium business lender, raised a $10.8 million Series A.
Pagos, a payments intelligence infrastructure, raised $10 million in seed funding.
Chari, a Moroccan business-to-business payment and commerce startup, raised a $5 million seed.
Niro, an Indian consumer lending startup, raised $3.5 million in seed funding.
Sparkle, a Nigerian neobank, raised $3.1 million.
Klasha, a Nigerian cross-border commerce and payments API, raised $2.4 million in seed funding.
Ejara, a Cameroonian investing and crypto trading platform, raised $2 million.
SUMA Wealth, a financial management app for young Latino users, raised a $2 million pre-seed.
Perch, a Canadian real estate investing platform, raised a $1 million seed round.
Payday, a “PayPal for Africa,” raised a $1 million pre-seed.
CRED, an Indian credit card rewards startup, is raising a new round of funding at a $5.5 billion valuation.
Flutterwave, a Nigerian financial infrastructure provider, is raising funds at a $3 billion valuation.
Slice, an Indian credit card issuer, is reportedly raising over $100 million.
Finbourne, a UK financial data management startup, raised strategic funding from the London Stock Exchange.

Forge Global Inc. also launched a new fund, D/XYZ, which raised $100 million for its first investment portfolio and aims to list it publicly as a closed-end exchange-traded fund for retail investors.

💵 Debt Financing

Atome, an Asian buy-now-pay-later platform, raised $500 million in (committed) lending capital from Standard Chartered.
Ampla, an embedded lender for consumer brands, raised a $250 million credit facility from Atalaya Capital Management.
Lendable, which provides debt financing to fintech startups across emerging markets, is raising a further $100 million.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs

Personal financial advice and product marketplace NerdWallet filed for a US IPO on the back of strong earnings (including a 32% jump in revenue).
AvidXchange successfully raised $660 million in its IPO.
Australian neobank Judo Bank is looking to raise A$653 million in its IPO at a valuation around A$2.3 billion.
Enfusion, an investment management software provider, set terms for a $300 million IPO that would value it around $1.9 billion.
AvidXchange,
P10, an alternative asset investment management software provider, began its IPO roadshow.

📈 SPACs

Green Visor Financial Technology Acquisition, a fintech SPAC, filed for a $150 million IPO.
Finnovate Acquisition, an Israeli fintech SPAC, filed for a $150 million IPO.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

SumUp, a European point of sale provider, acquired customer loyalty startup Fivestars for $317 million in cash and stock.
Vroom, a UK car-buying e-commerce platform, acquired auto lender United Auto Credit Corporation for $300 million in cash.
finova, a UK core banking solutions provider, acquired mortgage and savings software BEP.
Danish neobank Lunar acquired payments gateway provider Paylike.
Goodlord, a UK property tech firm, acquired acasa, a fintech platform for tenant household bills.
Financial data platform FactSet acquired portfolio monitoring provider Cobalt Software.
European blockchain company R3 acquired stablecoin issuance platform Invo.

🏦 M&A - Bank

Bank mergers are on-track to hit their highest level since (ominously) the financial crisis.

American banks Umpqua and Columbia Banking are combining in a merger valuing the combined bank at $5.1 billion.
Capital One is acquiring boutique investment bank TripleTree.

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🌎 Fintech Around the World

British Business Bank’s Regions and Nations Tracker 2021

UK banks plan to grow partnerships with fintech firms in wake of pandemic

Brazil’s Central Bank Built a Mobile Payment System With 110 Million Users

Why WhatsApp payments failed to click in India

Regulating African Fintech Space: Promoting Innovation Or Stifling Growth

Sub-Saharan Africa mobile financial services use triples in 6 years (Paywall)

📚 Deeper Reads

Neobanks, and Investment Platforms Stepping Into Crypto – Should Crypto Exchanges Be Concerned?

Open Source Is Finally Coming to Financial Services

Traders phone up gambling helplines as game-like broker apps spread

How fintech can bridge the credit gap for first-time borrowers

BaaS served three ways: A closer look at a rapidly evolving market

The eNaira Project

A Servicing Health Check (October 2021)

Fintech, adoption growing even after pandemic

The 2021 McKinsey Global Payments Report

Dog Always Brings A Leaf To 'Buy' Himself Treats At The Store

Want to be a This Week in Fintech Sponsor? Reach out to us at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com.
Have a news item for us? Reach out to news@thisweekinfintech.com.

This Week in Fintech (10/15)

Nik Milanović

Oct 14

Hello Fintech Friends,

Whoops… hit ‘send’ a day early on this one.

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

💬 Quote of the Week
“It is important to ensure that companies permitted to directly access critical payment systems are well-regulated, but it makes little sense to require a payments company to become a full-service bank, or to be regulated like one. They have entirely different business models and present different risks.”
Nick Catino, Jonah Crane, and Daniel Gorfine (A Smart Solution to Advance Consumer-Centric Payments Innovation in America)

📖 Read of the Week

You’ll see a lot of Andreessen Horowitz in today’s newsletter. This week, the investor published How to Win the Future: An Agenda for the Third Generation of the Internet, which is essential reading if you care about the future of digital payments and money.

📊 Stat of the Week

The number of people in extreme poverty — defined as households spending less than $1.90 a day per person — had fallen from 1.9 billion people to 648 million people in 2019, even as the global population increased by 2.5 billion people. (Source)

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🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

Bank of America launched a multi-payment option business-to-consumer portal.

📰 Other News

This week saw more developments in the emergence of low-cost, real-time international payments infrastructure. International payments networks EBA Clearing, SWIFT and The Clearing House all entered into a partnership to speed up and improve cross-border payments. It remains to be seen what effect this has on cross-border payment prices and providers. Unicredit partnered with JP Morgan to enable Swift’s ‘Swift Go’ service and let individuals and businesses send small instant payments across borders.

Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Coles, Woolworths, Azupay, Beem It and Merchant Warrior all signed up for a new QR code payment regime in Australia.

Beneficial State Bank became the first American bank to unionize in 40 years.

Santander started rolling out its recycled cards in Spain.

88 Bank in Ireland is closing a third of its branches permanently this week. SocGen will cut 3,700 jobs in its merger with Credit du Nord. Barclays, meanwhile, is growing its Glasgow tech team.

(Source)

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Fidel launched a reimbursement payment API.

Nigerian neobank Carbon launched a buy-now-pay-later service for its banking app.

UK banking and investing app Ziglu released a fee-free euro account.

API-based payment provider Bottomline launched a payment tracker.

Mbanq and Temenos partnered to launch a credit-union-as-a-service (CUaaS?) platform.

PhonePe and NBBL partnered to launch ClickPay for online bill payments in India.

A new UK digital asset financial services platform called BVNK launched.

Red Deer launched an active asset management platform.

📰 Other News

Coinbase is working on an NFT marketplace. Stripe announced a crypto team. Payments firm Wirex brought its crypto platform to Vietnam.

Mobile provider To The Moon added a debit card to its product offering.

mmob, an open finance partnership, signed up PensionBee, Upside, and Glint Pay. Core provider Jack Henry integrated with open banking services Finicity, Akoya and Plaid. UK digital money provider MoneyBrain joined Visa’s Fast Track program.

Starling Bank sees no customer concerns about the new £100 contactless limit.

United will let guests make in-flight purchases with PayPal QR codes. Google Pay allowed Bakkt users to provision their crypto-backed cards to its wallet. Spreedly integrated Stripe into its Connect platform.

The Crypto-Fintech Laboratory and BTC.com entered a partnership to develop new payment methods.

Women’s World Banking named Boost Capital and People’s Pension Trust as the winners of its Third Annual Fintech Innovation Challenge. Juniper Research gave its Future Digital Award for Fintech & Payments to Huawei.

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🇪🇺 Europe

Fintech VibePay is going up against Klarna over its upcoming “Vibe” rewards launch in a trademark dispute.
Monzo has abandoned its plans to get a US banking license in what represents a retreat from the US market for the UK neobank.
The EU is looking to hit Apple with an antitrust suit over its restricting access to its NFC chip which powers Apple Pay.

🌏 Asia

Centrum-BharatPE group received approval from RBI to start operations of its Small Finance Bank appointed Rajnish Kumar, former Chairman of SBI Bank, as Chairman of the Board.
India’s UPI recorded 3.65 billion transactions worth $88.4 billion in September 2021.
Open, a SMB neo banking startup, raised $100mm and M2P Fintech, a fintech infrastructure starutp, raised $35mm.
Standard Chartered Bank signed a 10 year partnership with Atome to invest $500 million in the company and launch multiple products.

📜 Policy

In collaboration with Ben White.

The White House is reportedly weighing an executive order on expanding crypto oversight via a “whole of government” approach.
A group of 96 consumer advocates penned a letter to CFPB Director Chopra asking to reverse the 2020 advisory opinion on Earned Wage Access programs, instead asking they be covered as credit products.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended a proposal for the IRS to collect bank account information as part of tax authority.
The Financial Stability Board released a 31-page report examining the adoption of its 2020 recommendations on global stablecoins.
The CFPB published their proposed rules on Dodd-Frank 1071, which would require financial institutions to report data on small business lending to minorities.
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority is seeing staff turmoil over a new pay structure.
OCC Comptroller Nominee Saule Omarova is seeing unfair criticism over her ethnic background.
The Group of Seven set out policy principles for countries for Central Bank Digital Currencies.
The CFPB’s new debt collection rules have industry scrambling.
Former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond warned that the UK’s treatment of digital currencies poses a risk to the financial sector.

Want to be a This Week in Fintech Sponsor? Reach out to us at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com.

Come meet us in-person at www.fintechhappyhour.com.

This Week in Fintech (10/9)

Nik Milanović

Oct 9

Hello Fintech Friends,

For anyone who tried to sign up for our Berlin event before, the invite link is working now (sorry) and we’ve found some pretty exciting collaborators :)

If you’re in NYC, save the date on 12.2.21. Details coming soon.

Please find another week of fintech financings and exits below.

Editor’s Note: If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity or debt, I may be able to help - reach out to nik@thisweekinfintech.com.

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💸 Venture Financing

AlphaSense, a research and insights platform for (among other things) financial data, raised a $180 million Series C.
Ajaib, an Indonesian stock trading platform similar to Robinhood, raised a $153 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation.
Masterworks, a fractional art investing platform, raised a $110 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation.
Modern Treasury, a business treasury and balance sheet management platform, raised an $85 million Series C at a $2 billion valuation.
Till Payments, an Australian B2B payments provider, raised an $80 million Series C and announced plans to expand into New Zealand, the UK, Europe and US.
CRM & BONUS, a Brazilian customer giftback platform to increase billing and retention, raised R$280 million ($51 million).
Anyfin, a Swedish loan refinancing company, raised $52 million.
CommonStock, a social investing platform, raised a $25 million Series A.
Ontop, a cross-border workforce payment solution, raised a $20 million Series A.
WeMatch, a trading platform for the derivatives industry, raised a $19.5 million Series B from investors including Deutsche Börse.
Qapita, a Singaporean and Indian equity management software, raised a $15 million Series A.
Copper Banking, a digital bank for teens, raised $13.3 million in seed funding.
Verto, a Nigerian B2B payments platform, raised a $10 million Series A.
Chip, a UK money management app, overshot its £1 million crowdfunding target, raising £7 million total.
Playbook, an app for lowering IRA taxes, raised $6 million.
Daffy, a tax-free charity donation app, raised $4.8 million in seed funding.
incident.io, an incident response platform for banks, raised $4.7 million.
Otto, a platform to let people borrow credit against their vehicles, raised a $4.5 million seed.
Now, an invoicing startup launched by Stacey Abrams, raised $4 million.
Hopscotch, a B2B payments startup, raised $3.6 million.
Crezco, a UK B2B open banking payments startup, raised a £3 million seed.
Senso, a home financing platform, raised a $3 million pre-Series A round.
Coinshift, a treasury management platform that uses crypto, raised a $2.5 million seed round.
PostEx, a Pakistani online payment method for cash-on-delivery orders, raised a $1.5 million seed.
Bitmama, a Nigerian digital currency transaction platform, raised a $350,000 pre-seed.
GoCardless, a branded card program manager, is talking to JP Morgan about a potential £200 million funding round.
Motus, a reimbursement software, received a strategic investment from private equity firm Permira.

💰 Venture Funds

SBI Group (Japan), Sygnum (Switzerland), and Azimut Group (Italy) partnered to launch a joint $75 million bank-led venture fund for digital asset companies.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs

North Carolina-based accounts payable software provider AvidXchange filed to raise $506 million at a $4.4 billion valuation.
Investment management software maker Allvue Systems moved from postponing its $275 million IPO to formally withdrawing it.

📈 SPACs

Early investors are dumping SPAC deals once they go public, leaving day traders to rush in. We broke down fintech SPAC activity starting in Q4 of last year, but net-net this isn’t surprising: SPACs are generally the only path to liquidity for distressed tech companies.

Anthemis Digital Acquisitions I filed to raise $200 million for a digital financial services-focused SPAC.
ExcelFin Acquisition filed for a $200 million IPO to purchase a fintech.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Southeast Asian payments superapp and ride-hailing platform Grab is taking a 90% majority stake in Indonesian digital wallet provider OVO.
UniversalCIS and Credit Plus, both credit reporting and income verification providers to the mortgage industry, will merge into the largest mortgage credit agency in the sector.
Dock, a Latin American financial technology infrastructure provider, will acquire BPP, a Brazilian banking-as-a-service solution.
Consumer investment manager Vanguard announced its acquisition of tax-managed personal wealth platform Just Invest.
Vanguard’s acquisition came only a day after Franklin Templeton announced its own acquisition of direct investment indexing platform Canvas.
Green Dot’s attempted acquisition of Republic Bank & Trust’s tax-refund business was abandoned following Federal Reserve scrutiny.

🏦 M&A - Bank

Bank mergers are on-track to hit their highest level since (ominously) the financial crisis.

Sun Life Financial, which… as far as I can tell, is a Canadian financial services company, will buy oral healthcare company DentaQuest for $2.47 billion.
UK bank NatWest is acquiring children’s pocket money and financial planning app RoosterMoney.
Santander bank is spinning off its Brazilian merchant payment business, Getnet Brazil.
Private equity firms Centerbridge Partners and TowerBrook are looking into a €1.7 billion acquisition of German bank Aareal Bank AG.

Sponsored Content

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🌎 Fintech Around the World

A new payments platform for African currencies is a push for independence from the dollar

Africa’s Top Fintech Hubs Are Also Its Most Regulated

Zimbabwe cracks down on currency dealers

Latin America’s Fast-Evolving Fintech Regulatory Landscape

A report on the state of FinTech in Qatar

China’s Central Bank Governor Vows More Fintech Crackdown

📚 Deeper Reads

Google Plex – On Track Pivot

Under the Hood: Open Banking Account Information for PFM

Rappi: The One Who Knocks

Apple Pay Fees

Reexamining Overdraft Programs A Guide for Financial Institutions

‘Salomon Sisters’ Is Coming to Wall Street

Rethinking Concentration Risk in B2B Fintech Infrastructure

What is the point of a stablecoin?

Open banking’s unstoppable momentum

Inside the battle to be Europe’s Robinhood

Did The President Of Robinhood Dump All His AMC Stock Right Before They Restricted Trading?

The Race To Build Data-Sharing Hubs For Banks — And End Screen Scraping

Gorilla dies in the arms of ranger who rescued her as an infant 14 years ago 😢

Golden Retriever's Joyous Reunion With Brother After Months Apart Goes Viral Online

Want to be a This Week in Fintech Sponsor? Reach out to us at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com.
Have a news item for us? Reach out to news@thisweekinfintech.com.
Come meet us in-person at www.fintechhappyhour.com

This Week in Fintech (10/8)

Nik Milanović

Oct 8

Hello Fintech Friends,

Here’s a look ahead at our month in fintech (it’s busy) -

10.18: NYC Fintech Week begins
10.20: Our New York Fintech Dinner (thank you to partners Bond, Codat, & Minna)
10.21: Our Denver Happy Hour
10.21: Our San Francisco Happy Hour (thank you to our partner QED)
10.24: Money2020
10.28: Our Lagos Happy Hour
10.28: Our Los Angeles Happy Hour

Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

💬 Quote of the Week
“Stablecoins — privately-issued cryptocurrencies that are pegged to a stable asset such as the U.S. dollar — have an important role to play in the next generation of democratized financial services”
Katie Haun, Tomicah Tillemann, and James Rathmell, a16z (Source)

📖 Read of the Week

Does fintech really exist?

Fintech increasingly does not seem to be a tech product category, but rather an integral feature of online products and services. Payments are a core component of everything from e-commerce to healthcare. Lending is an integrated part of the home and auto acquisition experience. Insurance is baked into products from surgical procedures to flights. But these consumer products and services are not in and of themselves financial - they just have a financial layer the same way they may have a software layer or a web layer.

This is partly the embedded finance thesis elucidated by Angela Strange (link) or Matt Harris (link). But, if you’ll humor me, rather than every company becoming a fintech company, I think the likely end state is that ‘fintech’ as a category won’t exist. Fintech is becoming overbroad to the point where it is no longer meaningful. Rather, the code that determines how and where money moves and rests will be a feature of every product, not a product category unto itself.

📊 Stat of the Week

(Source)

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💼 Open Role Spotlight

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🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🚀 Product Launches

Barclaycard rolled out a multicurrency B2B payment service.

Portugal’s Crédito Agrícola launched a carbon-tracking tool.

US Bank launched its own crypto custody service.

📰 Other News

Bank of America’s Life Plan tool grew to over 5 million users in its first year.

JPMorgan Chase's digital bank in the UK will be built on 10x Banking.

DBS Bank’s brokerage arm received approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a digital token payment service. The Monetary Authority of Singapore is also prepping a data sharing platform to fight money laundering.

Singaporean bank UOB will invest $500 million in its own digital innovation initiatives.

Interac bought exclusive rights to Canada’s SecureKey ID system and is building a decentralized identity banking credential service for the country.

French bank Société Générale applied for a $20 million loan on the MakerDAO protocol.

The Saudi Arabia Tourism Development Fund partnered with Temenos on a digital lending service. Laos is working with a Japanese fintech startup on its own central bank digital currency and Hong Kong is exploring its own CBDC.

Microsoft rolled out its financial services-specific cloud.

Wells Fargo predicts over 100,000 banking jobs will disappear to technology in the next 5 years. NatWest plead guilty to money laundering charges.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Investing exchange Public launched crypto trading.

Dastgyr launched a buy-now-pay-later product in Afghanistan.

Azimo launched an instant remittance service to Turkey.

📰 Other News

Target is partnering up with Affirm and Sezzle to enable buy-now-pay-later payments. Affirm, meanwhile, is launching crypto and debit products in its bid to create a ‘superapp.’ Australian buy-now-pay-later lender Zip is building an integration into Microsoft’s Edge browser. Visa is also partnering with ANZ bank on BNPL in Australia. US card issuer Upgrade is adding BNPL loans to its cards.

Banks are pushing back on the fees that Apple Pay layers onto credit card transactions, trying to get Visa to change the way that fees are appended.

Dutch transaction monitoring startup Sentinels is partnering with YouWorld to fight financial crime.

After ending its relationship with Ripple, Moneygram is partnering with its competitor Stellar on cash-to-crypto transfers.

Bitpanda and Fabrick combined to build a white-label digital asset investing service (similar to Zero Hash) for Italian banks.

Indian revenue-based financing startup GetVantage introduced an initiative to help Indian businesses recover from pandemic stress.

Vast is building crypto banking as a service. Lending protocol Compound mistakenly credited $90 million to users.

CB Insights released their top 250 fintech companies of 2021. Online checkout startup Bolt moved to a 4-day work week.

UK startups are democratizing litigation funding.

UK neobank Monzo is abandoning its plan to get a US banking license. Google is abandoning its plan to provide Plex bank accounts to users. Zillow is embroiled in a scandal that has to do with Tiktok and housing price manipulation. Wise CEO Kristo Käärmann was fined £350,000 for defaulting on his tax bill.

Sponsored Content

🌎 Latin America

Merama raised the largest-ever Series B round in Latin America. The $225 million equity round will help the Mexico City-based company continue to acquire and build direct-to-consumer brands throughout the region.
Konfio raised a $110 million Series E extension, bringing its valuation to $1.3 billion and minting Mexico’s fourth unicorn.
Accendo, a Mexican bank, lost its license due to compliance issues around capital and liquidity requirements. Accendo provided banking-as-a-service to various fintechs in Mexico.

🇪🇺 Europe

Reports of fraudsters using Monzo accounts to steal millions from Barclays accounts using PISP raising fresh questions about security at Monzo.
Santander is closing its Wise rival PagoFX, another notch against incumbent banks copying a fintech.
Starling is launching its BaaS product across Europe, continuing the trend of B2C fintechs launching B2B products.

🌏 Asia

CoinSwitch Kuber, an Indian crypto exchange, raised $260 million at a $1.9 billion valuation led by a16z.
BharatPe launched PostPe, a BNPL product, for one-click purchases at stores with a credit limit up to INR 10 lacs ($13,500).
Singapore's central bank, MAS, will launch COSMIC - a centralised data sharing platform to curb money laundering and terror financing.
Hong Kong's central bank released a technical overview of launching an e-HKD, its central bank digital currency.

📜 Policy

In collaboration with Ben White.

The US FDIC is investigating deposit insurance for stablecoins.
Rep Patrick McHenry (R-NC) introduced a bill to establish a safe harbor for digital asset projects.
The Biden Administration is said to be considering options for regulating stablecoins like bank deposits.
OCC Comptroller Michael Hsu compared crypto and DeFi to toxic credit instruments that led up to the ‘08 financial crisis.
The Federal Reserve is set to launch its review into the benefits and risks of Central Bank Digital Currency.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler testified that the U.S. won’t outright ban cryptocurrency.
Circle revealed as part of its public listing disclosures that it had been subpoenaed in July by the SEC.
Lawmakers on the Financial Technology Task Force are coming together across the aisle to curb aggregator data-sharing.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) continued her barrage against the Federal Reserve, accusing it of having a “culture of corruption.”
The US Department of Justice launched a national cryptocurrency enforcement team.
The US Department of Education overhauled its Student Loan Forgiveness Program.
The State of Ohio passed legislation standing up a regulatory sandbox for fintech companies.
The EU is reportedly preparing an antitrust suit against Apple over its NFC chips.
The Bank of International Settlements GM Agustin Carstens warned of stablecoin risk to financial stability in a two-day BIS conference on “Regulating Big Tech.”

Want to be a This Week in Fintech Sponsor? Reach out to us at sponsor@thisweekinfintech.com.

Come meet us in-person at www.fintechhappyhour.com.

This Week in Fintech (10/2)

Nik Milanović

Oct 2

Hello Fintech Friends,

Thank you to everyone who came out to our New York, San Francisco, and London meetups this week!

Please find another week of fintech financings and exits below.

Editor’s Note: If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity or debt, I may be able to help - reach out to nik@thisweekinfintech.com.

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💼 Open Role Spotlight

Stealth-mode embedded investing platform Atomic is hiring across the board, for a General Counsel, a Series 27 FinOp, a Head of Trading, an AML/Fraud Manager, and a Middle Office Operations Manager.

💸 Venture Financing

OfBusiness, an Indian small business credit provider, raised a $207 million Series F at a $3 billion valuation.
Ascend Money, the company behind Thai digital wallet TrueMoney, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Built Technologies, a maker of construction financing software, raised a $125 million Series D at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Konfio, a Mexican lending platform, raised a $110 million Series E extension at a $1.3 billion valuation.
Alloy, the universal identity API for financial services, raised a $100 million Series C at a $1.3 billion valuation.
Buckle, a financial services provider for the gig economy, raised a $60 million Series B.
Betterment, a US roboadvisor, raised a $60 million Seres F at a $1.3 billion valuation.
Aspire, a Singaporean neobank, raised a $58 million Series B.
EquityBee, a platform for financing private company share purchases, raised a $55 million Series B.
Highnote, a banking-as-a-service card issuing platform, emerged from stealth with a combined $54 million seed and Series A.
Capital Float, an Indian buy-now-pay-later service, raised $50 million.
TransferGo, a UK migrant remittance network, raised a $50 million Series C.
Omaha National, a payroll and workplace compensation provider, raised a $45 million Series B.
Zero Hash, a digital assets enablement platform for financial services, raised a $35 million Series C.
Capiter, an Egyptian B2B payments and e-commerce platform, raised a $33 million Series A.
Parafin, a lender to small businesses, raised a $30 million Series A.
QC Ware, a quantum computing startup, raised $25 million from Citi.
Higo, a Mexican B2B payments platform, raised a $23 million Series A.
TailorMed, a digital financial health company, raised $20 million.
Vareto, a financial planning platform for businesses, raised a $20 million Series A.
Swan, a French embedded banking platform, raised a €16 million Series A.
Yellow Card, a Nigerian digital assets exchange, raised a $15 million Series A.
Rize, a banking infrastructure developer, raised an $11.4 million Series A.
VertoFX, an African cross-border B2B payments provider for emerging markets, raised a $10 million Series A.
Angle Labs, a stablecoin based on derivatives, raised a $5 million seed.
Prometheus, an alternative investment platform and social network, raised a $5 million seed round.
Stake, a cash back rewards program with flexible payment plans for renters, raised $4 million in seed funding.
Oraan, a Pakistani platform for financial inclusion for women, raised $3 million.
Verihubs, an Indonesian KYC and ID verification service for financial services, raised a $2.8 million seed.
Coinrule, a French retail digital asset trading platform, raised $2.2 million in seed funding.
Ziglu, a UK-based money app, crowdfunded £1 million.
InvestX Capital, a private market secondaries exchange, raised a strategic investment from Jefferies and Virtu Financial.
HelloChoice, a South African agricultural finance startup, raised funding from Standard Bank.
QisstPay, a Pakistani buy-now-pay-later platform, raised a $15 million mix of equity and debt.
Deel, a developer of payroll tools, is reportedly raising at a $5.5 billion valuation.
Chip, the UK money management app, plans to raise £100 million over 24 months through crowdfunding.

💵 Debt Financing

German business lender Auxmoney placed a €250 million bond securitization of its loans.
Singaporean neobank Aspire raised $100 million in debt alongside its Series B.
Roboadvisor Betterment raised a $100 million credit facility alongside its Series F.

💰 Venture Funds

Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank is launching an $800 million fintech venture fund.
Cross-border currency developer Ripple launched a $250 million NFT creator fund.
Financial services software giant Intuit launched a new venture arm, Intuit Ventures, to invest in small business-focused innovation.

(Source)

☯️ Exits
💻 IPOs

P10, an alternative asset investment manager, filed for a US IPO at a valuation over $1 billion.
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is preparing to list its online bank for an IPO.
Allvue Systems, a developer of software for the investment industry, is postponing its planned IPO due to adverse market conditions.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

European omni-channel payment platform Market Pay acquired French mobile fintech service Dejamobile.
Chilean insurance platform Betterfly acquired six companies, including Brazilian payments service Xerpay.
Private equity firm Francisco Partners took a controlling stake in investment research product SourceScrub.

Sponsored Content

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🌎 Fintech Around the World

What we can learn from Afghanistan’s nascent crypto economy

Reserve Bank of India: Fintech regulations must be based on entity, not activity

North Africa’s Top Banks in 2021

📚 Deeper Reads

Financial Tools for Solopreneurs (a16z September Newsletter)

Why Free Trading Will Never Be Free

Why cash will be obsolete within a decade

Minting Money Out Of Radical Uncertainty

The “DeFi Fund” Charade

Jeeves makes more waves

Startup Firms Help Home Buyers Win Bidding Wars With All-Cash Offers

Coinbase’s latest partnerships could be first steps towards the ‘future of payroll’

A new generation of climate fintech startups

Small businesses are turning to loans that require zero human oversight

Capybaras are taking over a fancy gated community in Argentina

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Have a news item for us? Reach out to news@thisweekinfintech.com.
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