Bagan, Myanmar
Hello Fintech Friends,
2021 was the "risk on year" in fintech venture.
And 2022 was the hangover. Funding dried up and investors stopped taking calls from all but the safest fintechs, as high-profile explosions like Fast, Bolt, FTX, TomoCredit, and Synapse had a chilling effect on the sector. This left a lot of strong founders with great ideas and strong tracton stranded in between rounds – but when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and so it was refreshing to see African crypto exchange Yellow Card – which sits at the intersection of two fintech sectors investors had written off as 'too risky – raise a $33M Series C this week on the back of transaction volumes hitting $3B.
Hopefully we see more funds returning to Africa soon, because if this week's Lagos Fintech Meetup was any indication, the ecosystems from Lagos to Nairobi to Cape Town to Cairo are still going strong:
🇳🇬Thank you to everyone who made it out to our 2024 Lagos Fintech Happy Hour!🔥
Big shout-out to our partners, @TechCabal x Moonshot, @usesmileid, @joinowo, @mono_hq, @paystack, and @palmpay_ng.
And a huge thank-you to organizer and legend @wizaj.
Photos and aftermovie below: pic.twitter.com/7NaT8t12xB— This Week in Fintech (@twifintech) October 18, 2024
And on the other end of the spectrum, if you missed Jevgenis' great monthly writeup on how public fintechs are growing – and how the TWIF Index is outperforming the broader market – you can check it out here:
Please find another week of fintech financing events below.
(PS: Have feedback for us? 👍👎 Let us know!)
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📊 Stat of the Week
A study from Innovate Finance and Vested Impact found that 98% of fintechs improved productivity in the UK, 39% are increasing and promoting financial inclusion, and 26% are dedicated to protecting data privacy.
💸 Venture Financing
Contabilizei, a Brazilian startup which automates accounting for small businesses and self-employed professionals, raised $125 million.
Agrolend, a Brazilian agricultural lending company, raised a $53 million Series C.
Vanilla, a provider of estate planning software for financial advisers and wealth management firms, raised $35 million.
Yellow Card, a crypto platform launched in Nigeria in 2019, which has since become Africa's most-funded crypto exchange, raised a $33 million Series C.
Bitnomial, which is building a regulated derivatives market for digital assets, raised $25 million led by strategic investor Ripple.
Tebi, a financial platform for independent hospitality and retail businesses founded by Adyen alums, raised €20 million.
Omnea, a platform that leverages AI to give companies more control over their procurement spend, raised a $20 million Series A.
Solv, a bitcoin staking protocol, raised $11 million.
Kick, an AI for bookkeeping startup, raised a $9 million seed round.
Predicate, a startup to facilitate crypto transaction approvals, founded by two Celo alums, raised $7 million.
Concourse, an AI to automate financial tasks, raised $4.7 million.
Acquired, a payments platform specialising in recurring commerce, raised £4 million.
Diesta, a British payment operations provider for the insurance industry, raised a $3.8 million seed.
MyFO, a platform for family offices and wealth management professionals, raised a $3.5 million seed round.
OCTA, a Dubai-based accounts receivable management for small businesses, raised a $2.25 million pre-seed.
Kyriba, a treasury management and liquidity provider for enterprises, sold off a minority stake in the business to General Atlantic at a $3 billion valuation.
Marketnode, a Singapore-based digital market infrastructure provider, raised strategic funding from European exchange Euroclear.
💵 Debt Financing
Asset manager Blue Owl agreed to buy up to $2 billion of consumer installment loans from fintech lender Upstart.
Wealth platform and student lender SoFi reached a deal to use $2 billion from Fortress Investment Group for the origination of personal loans.
Neobank TBC in Uzbekistan raised a $10 million credit facility to bolster its loans to customers.
💰 Venture Funds
Rerail, an angel fund for fintech startups, closed $20 million.
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Sponsored Content
Join leaders from JPMorgan, E*TRADE, Atomic, Revolut and more at The Big Deal, a virtual charity poker tournament with live dealers and curated tables. Compete with your industry peers for bragging rights and a chance to choose the charity for a $1,000 donation. Free to sign up — presented by april.
Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.
Want to invest in the best fintech companies of tomorrow? Come join our syndicate.
