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Stablecoin issuer Tether is reportedly making a final push to raise new funds at a $500 billion valuation, a process which began in December but had reportedly collapsed in February.
Also in the growth-stage fundraising wings: business-focused neobank Mercury, which is reportedly raising new funding at a $5 billion valuation, a couple days after its acquisition of payroll provider Central. For those keeping score at home, Mercury last raised at $3.5B almost exactly one year ago and has been profitable for 3 years, with $650M of annualized revenue in 2025. The bank has over 300,000 customers, with 50% YoY customer growth and 73% of customers from outside of tech.
Lastly, what a week for stablecoin fundraises! Aside from Tether, Kulipa, OpenFX, Valinor*, and Better Money* were all in the news with their own fundraises. More details below.
Please find another week of fintech financing events below.
Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm
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Stat of the Week
Since last year’s Liberation Day in the US, focused on levying tarrifs on international exporters and resuscitating domestic manufacturing, US goods’ trade deficit is up 2% and the US has lost 89,000 manufacturing jobs.
Venture Financing
ICE (NYSE parent) invested $600 million into Polymarket to support the prediction market's growth and regulatory compliance efforts.
OpenFX announced a $94 million Series A round to scale its institutional foreign exchange trading venue powered by blockchain technology.
Cross River raised $50 million to accelerate its integration of artificial intelligence and digital asset services into its core banking platform.
Midas, a platform for composable onchain investment products, raised a $50 million Series A.
Valinor*, a tokenized private credit fund built for the stablecoin era, raised a $25 million round of funding.
The Better Money Company* launched with $10 million in backing from a16z crypto to build a stablecoin clearinghouse designed to reduce settlement risks.
Transfi secured $19 million in a seed funding round to expand its crypto-to-fiat payment infrastructure across emerging markets.
Latitude collected $8 million in a seed round led by former Stripe and Coinbase employees to develop a new cross-border payments network.
Kulipa raised $6.2 million for its stablecoin-native card issuing infrastructure platform
Frontlands announced a $5.5 millon equity round and $50 million in debt financing to build a credit card backed by natural resource rights (like oil, gas, solar, wind, and water) access the value of those rights without selling them.
Keyrock reached a $1.1 billion valuation after a successful funding round, cementing its status as a leading crypto market maker.
Eunice raised $8 million to automate complex due diligence processes for financial institutions using its proprietary AI platform.
AccessPay secured a majority investment from Accel-KKR to drive the next stage of its corporate payment automation software.
SPONSORED
Safeguard is hosting their inaugural AI Deepdive Retreat for 500+ fraud, compliance, and identity practitioners and builders. May 3–6 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Practitioners get a complimentary ticket and $1,500 in travel reimbursement. Spots are limited and registration closes April 10th.
Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.
