Photo by Debby Hudson / Unsplash
Hello Fintech Friends,
The year is not starting slowly.
Stablecoin card payments provider Rain yesterday announced a $250 million Series C, led by ICONIQ at a $1.95B valuation. This comes only 4 months after its August Series B and 10 months after its Series A, a 17x increase in valuation.
Rain provides the infrastructure for enterprises to launch compliant stablecoin-powered payment solutions. This includes stablecoin cards – cards that work anywhere Visa is accepted (Rain is a Visa Principal Member) – and financial tools like fiat-to-stablecoin conversion, secure wallets, and cross-border payout rewards.
The company currently facilitates over $3 billion in annualized transactions for more than 200 partners, including Western Union and Nuvei.
You can see our Money Code interview with CEO Farooq Malik here:
Please find another week of fundraise news below!
Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm
Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.
News coverage written and provided by Rachel Chang.
Stat of the week
According to CB Insights State of Fintech Q3 Report:
Mega-rounds still dominate: In Q3 2025, 40% of all fintech funding flowed to $100M+ deals, even as total funding stayed flat at $10.9B.
Later-stage interest rising: 22% of fintech deals in Q3 were mid/late-stage, the strongest showing since 2021.
A new episode of The Architects with @FlourishVC is live, listen in!
Julie VerHage-Greenberg and Kabir Kumar take on a big, infrastructure-level question: What happens when money and assets become programmable, interoperable, and increasingly tokenized and what a true “internet… pic.twitter.com/FiNgDY77B7— This Week in Fintech (@twifintech) January 7, 2026
Venture Financing
Architect Financial Technologiesraised$35 million in Series A to scale its institutional perpetual futures exchange, AX.
Obitaraised$30 million in a pre-A financing round to accelerate growth of its enterprise-grade payments infrastructure platform.
Knight Fintechraised$23.6 million in Series A to expand the Mumbai-based provider of lending and treasury solutions into the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Pluto raised $8.6 million in seed funding to build AI-powered credit infrastructure enabling financial advisors and their high-net-worth clients to borrow against private equity, venture, and alternative assets without selling.
Coinbax raised$4.2 million in seed funding to bring institutional-grade controls and compliance tooling to stablecoin payments infrastructure.
Trade Republic closed a €1.2 billion secondary share sale at a €12.5 billion valuation as it expands its platform enabling European customers to invest in stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies and private markets.
Market cap isn’t the story. Liquidity is.@JoseFDaPonte, President & Chief Growth Officer@StellarOrg, explains why stablecoin scale only matters when it delivers real liquidity. Minimal slippage, smooth off ramps, and systems institutions can actually use.
In conversation with… pic.twitter.com/EP9GHAdc8q— stablecon (@thestablecon) January 8, 2026
Debt Financing
BharatPeraised₹45 crore (~$5 million) in debt financing from Neo Group ahead of a 2027 IPO, as part of its pre-IPO plan to expand its B2B and B2C payments offerings.
There have been 98 new major Yield Bearing Stablecoins launched in 2025 pic.twitter.com/rsBBo0sY0t— stablewatch (@stablewatchHQ) January 8, 2026
Top Fintech Fundraises of 2025
Binance secured a $2 billion investment in stablecoins, "making it the largest investment ever paid in crypto...and the single largest investment into a crypto company."
Polymarketraised$2 billion from ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) at $8 billion valuation.
FNZ raised~$1.15 billion across two funding rounds: $500 million in Apr 2025 and $650 million in Nov 2025.
Kalshi raised $1 billion at $11 billion valuation.
Krakenraised$800 million at $20 billion valuation.
Rampraised ~$800 million (across two funding rounds: $500 million in Jul 2025 and $300 million in Nov 2025) at $32 billion valuation.
Wealthsimple raised CAD $750 million(~$538 million) at CAD $10 billion (~$7.2 billion) valuation.
Airwallexraised ~$650 million (across two funding rounds: $300 million in May 2025, and $330 million in Dec 2025) at $8 billion valuation.
Rippleraised$500 million at $40 billion valuation.
Tempo raised $500 million at $5 billion valuation.
Plata raised $500 million to launch a digital bank, marking the largest private funding ever raised by a Mexican fintech.
Deel raised $300 million at $17.3 billion valuation.
Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.
