Hello Fintech Friends,
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Editor's Note:
Because of the double-post from our publishing software glitch on Friday, I'm combining this week's Saturday and Sunday posts to avoid cluttering your inbox.
What a week for content!
First, we had a great guest post for Signals from Sara Hayden Van Velkinburgh on Why fintech has failed Mexico’s unbanked population and what can be done about it.
Fintech has done a great job of improving access to credit, providing better banking services, and streamlining processes, but it did not bring millions into the formal banking system. 🤯Sharing my piece on WHY and what fintechs could do reach this population. https://t.co/UuTV0OCGGL— Sara H. Van Velkinburgh (@svanvelk) April 18, 2023
Next, our podcast co-hosts Helen and Julie interviewed Kelly Soderlund, the Senior Director of Global Public Relations for Navan, and Katie Evans, Head of PR for Swarm, on a topic that will be familiar to many people in fintech: Imposter Syndrome.
Check out the full conversation in the newest episode of Beyond Two Percent!
If you're in Miami for @fintechamericas, join us for lunch May 4th! @twifintech @GalileoFintech https://t.co/sPmH7Zr53g— Sophie Vo (@itssophievo) April 19, 2023
And what a week for investment!
You can now add Ryan Reynolds to the prestigious association of fintech investors. Which celebrity will be next to join the fintech revolution?
Lastly - I’m joining the team at Unit for a live virtual event on 2:30 pm ET on Wednesday, April 26th, to talk about how brands like DoorDash and Lyft are using embedded finance to grow through challenging economic times. Come say hi 👋
Earlier this week, I posted a ❓in the @twifintech Slack channel and got 5+ responses in less than 30 min.
At yesterday’s TWIF happy hour, at least 2 more came up to me with more answers. Love being part of such a great community! @NikMilanovic— Youmna Sirgi (@youmsirgi) April 21, 2023
👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!
Please find another week of fintech financing events below.
Q1 fintech ‘megarounds’ – deals valued at $100 million or more – “accounted for 61% of total funding in the first quarter, a whopping 179% increase quarter over quarter across 16 deals and a total of $9.2 billion.” But only one fintech unicorn Egypt-based MNT-Halan, has been minted so far in 2021. (Source)
💸 Venture Financing
Pagaya, an AI tool for consumer financial risk prediction, raised $75 million in the form of a convertible perpetual preferred security.
Unchained Capital, a Bitcoin-based financial services provider, raised a $60 million Series B.
Mooncard, a French expense management card and software, raised a €37 million Series C.
Clerkie, a debt repayment platform, raised a $33 million Series A.
Trullion, an accounting automation startup, raised an additional $15 million as part of its Series A.
TaxCloud, a sales tax compliance platform, raised a $20 million round and was acquired by private equity firm Camber Partners.
Yonder, a UK credit card rewards startup focused on Gen Z, raised £12.5 million.
Rally, a checkout platform for e-commerce merchants, raised $12 million.
VoxSmart, a communications surveillance tool for financial institutions, raised $12 million.
Universal Ledger, a digital currency embeddable wallet app, raised $10 million.
Triver, a UK open banking working capital provider to small businesses, raised £7 million in seed funding.
Evergrow, a fintech for tax financing and clean energy tax credits, raised a $7 million seed round.
Floodlight, a financial management app for small and medium e-commerce businesses, raised a $6.4 million seed round.
Fractal, a transparency platform for crypto trading markets, raised $6 million.
Bixby, a provider of credit information on private syndicated loan issuers, raised a $5.5 million Series A.
TiiCKER, a shareholder loyalty and engagement platform, raised a $5 million seed round.
Waave, an Australian account-to-account bank payments startup, raised a $4.7 million seed.
Ocho, a personal finance support platform for business owners, raised a $4.5 million seed round.
CurbWaste, a waste management payments startup, raised a $4 million seed extension.
Charm Solutions, an AI-powered small business credit advisor, raised a $3.5 million seed round.
Coinflow Labs, a web3 payment stack provider, raised a $1.45 million pre-seed.
Nuvei, a Canadian payments platform, received an investment from Ryan Reynolds.
Hokodo, a European B2B buy-now-pay-later platform, addedCiti to its Series B.
NexGen Financial, a capital provider to debt settlement companies, received an investment from Blue Sage Capital.
From The Economist: why America will soon see a wave of bank mergers
☯️ Exits
💻 IPOs & SPACs
The digital finance world got its first filing for a crypto IPO in a long time this week! Chia Network, a “more environmentally friendly, less energy-intensive blockchain that relies on hard drives, including recycled ones, for data storage,” filed for IPO. The company last fundraised at a $500 million valuation in 2021.
Rakuten Bank, the banking unit of Japanese commerce software platform Rakuten, successfully went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and its shares popped 40% in the first hours of trading.
Britain’s Co-operative Bank is in the early stages of exploring a potential sale or IPO.
🤝 M&A - Fintech
AI credit and financial risk platform Pagaya is exploring an acquisition of Sunlight Financial, a rooftop solar financing platform.
Electronic direct lending exchange American Financial Exchange was acquired by growth equity firm 7RIDGE.
German insurance giant Allianz is looking to sell its stake in neobank N26 at a sharp discount – an implied $3 billion valuation, down from $9 billion.
Australian publicly-listed payments firm EML Payments fired its CEO and is exploring a sale after facing pressure from the Central Bank of Ireland over anti-money laundering deficiencies at its Irish subsidiary.
🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ
Goldman Sachs is mulling the sale of the buy now, pay later-based home improvement lender Greensky that it acquired for $2.24 billion in 2021.
French bank BNP Paribas is in talks to sell its consumer finance division in Hungary to French cooperative banking group Crédit Mutuel. Meanwhile, Crédit Mutuel is looking to sell a stake in its payments unit, Monext.
Gotta celebrate all your wins right? @_feedspot has named my podcast 'Hey Fintech Friends', brought to you by @twifintech in their top 40 Best Financial News Podcasts!
It must be our 'would you rather' section driving this 🙈
Apple https://t.co/oPJPghcJoj— HelenFemi (@HelenFemix) April 18, 2023
Consumer-funded earned wage access (EWA) coming under more fire from California financial regulators:
APRs go up to 1336% (🤯), "are comparable to the average APRs for licensed payday lenders in California."
Seems like regulators are gearing up to label EWA charging fees to… pic.twitter.com/YSjCofVTuJ— Sophie Vo (@itssophievo) April 19, 2023
"Strong opinions, weakly held" pic.twitter.com/5IV13g06kJ— let me know how i can be helpful (@vcstarterkit) April 15, 2023
🌎 Fintech Around the World
📚 Deeper Reads & Features
Have a news item for us? Reach out to [email protected]
