The Front Page of Global Fintech

The largest fintech community in the world. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest in news opinions, and all things financial technology.

Image Description

The Front Page of Global Fintech

The the largest fintech community in the world. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest in news opinions, and all things financial technology.

Image Description

This Week in Fintech (3/20)

This Week in Fintech (3/20)

Hello Fintech Friends,

Last reminder for next Friday’s presentations on fintech in Southeast Asia, the MENA, Canada, Australia, and China! Sign up here.

Please find another week of financings and transactions below.


Sponsored Content

Fintech Meetup is a new event from the founders of Money20/20 and Shoptalk! We’re scheduling 10,000+ 15-minute online meetings so you can meet new people and get business done - get your ticket now! Fintech Meetup is not affiliated with Money20/20 or Shoptalk.


💸 Venture Financing

  • Stripe raised $600 million at a $95 billion valuation.
  • CRED, an Indian credit card rewards platform, is raising $200 million at a $2 billion valuation.
  • Bitpanda, an austrian digital currency brokerage, raised a $170 million Series B to expand its investment platform to traditional fintech assets such as gold and equities.
  • CreditShop, a credit issuing startup, raised $100 million and rebranded to Mercury Financial.
  • PayFit, a French payroll SaaS platform, raised a €90 million Series D.
  • Socure, the financial identity verification provider, raised $100 million at a $1.3 billion valuation.
  • UK bank merchant-acquiring startup Pollinate raised a $50 million Series C.
  • Genesis, a UK capital markets software, raised a $45 million Series B.
  • Republic, the private share retail investing platform, raised a $36 million Series A.
  • Brim, a Canadian payments-as-a-service firm, raised a $25 million Series B.
  • Kuda, a Nigerian neobank for Africa and the African diaspora, raised a $25 million Series A.
  • Zeller, focused on building Australian payments services, raised an A$25 million Series A.
  • Invstr, a UK financial education platform, raised $20 million and announced the addition of trading and banking services.
  • Leap, an Indian student loan credit verification company for students abroad, raised a $17 million Series B.
  • Adumo, focused on making payments more affordable for small businesses in South Africa, raised R225 million ($15 million) in new funding.
  • Fondeadora, a Mexican neobank, raised a $14 million Series A extension.
  • AcreTrader, a farmland investment platform, raised a $12 million Series A.
  • Yap, an Indian and Southeast Asian financial data API provider, raised a $10 million Series B.
  • Gatsby, a no-commission stock trading app, raised a $10 million Series A.
  • Enfuce, a Finnish payments and open banking startup, raised a €7 million Series B.
  • Lendo, a Saudi SMB lending marketplace, raised a $7.2 million Series A.
  • Diem, a UK debit card with an instant-payment product return feature for recycling purchases, raised a $5.5 million seed.
  • Capdesk, a UK equity management platform, raised a £5 million Series A extension.
  • Landlord financial services provider Zibo raised $4.5 million.
  • B-North, a UK small business-lending bank, raised £4.45 million.
  • upSWOT, a fintech platform for SMBs, raised a $4.3 million seed.
  • Trullion, a real-time accounting workflow automation platform, raised a $3.5 million seed.
  • Higo, a ‘Venmo for B2B payments in LatAm,’ raised a $3.3 million seed.
  • Pledge, a non-profit fundraising platform, raised a $3 million seed.
  • Dayra, an Egyptian workforce financial services platform, raised a $3 million pre-seed.
  • Honeycomb Credit, a peer to peer lending platform, raised a $1.8 million seed.
  • NowPay, an Egyptian payroll and employee financial wellness platform, raised a Pre-Series A round.
  • After ending its proposed Visa merger, Plaid is in talks to raise $600 million at a $10 to $15 billion valuation.

New S&P Global private fintech funding report.

💵 Debt Financing

  • SumUp, a UK startup that facilitates business payment acceptance, raised €750 million in debt.

☯️ Exits and M&A

💻 Fintech
  • US neobank Chime is preparing an IPO that could value it at over $30 billion.
  • Airtel Africa sold a $200 million stake in its trans-continental mobile money business to TPG’s Rise Fund.
  • Apollo Global Management ended talks to acquire bankrupt supply chain lender Greensill’s UK assets for $60 million.
  • Robinhood acquired recruiting firm Binc to increase its recruiting capabilities.
  • Digital lending startup Blend acquired title insurance and settlement services provider Title365.
  • Credit data provider UniversalCIS raised more capital from Lovell Minnick to fund its continued acquisitions.
  • Private equity firm Endicott Growth Equity Partners took a minority position in government spend software GovSpend.
  • US homebuilder Lennar is divesting its non-core units in order to become a housing financial services company.
🏦 Bank
  • HSBC is in talks to sell its unprofitable French retail banking division to New York private equity firm Cerberus in a restructuring.
  • Australia’s Westpac Bank will sell its mortgage business to Arch Capital Group.
💲 Investment Management
  • Fidelity acquired a minority stake in private market strategy provider Moonfare as part of a joint venture to provide private investment advice to Fidelity’s wholesale clients.
  • Private equity firm Warburg Pincus took a minority stake in investment advisory firm Edelman Financial Engines at an implied $7.3 billion valuation.
  • Eurazeo bought a stake in French wealth management firm Groupe Premium at a €290 million valuation.
  • Financial advisory firm Resolute is looking to sell itself for $1.5 billion.
📈 SPACs
  • Online trading platform eToro agreed to go public at an implied $10.4 billion enterprise value through a merger with The Bancorp founder Betsy Cohen’s FinTech Acquisition Corp. V.
  • EFIC1, a financial services SPAC that was founded by former Commerzbank CEO Martin Blessing, is filing for a €415 million IPO in Amsterdam.
  • Reverence Acquisition, a fintech SPAC, filed for a $300 million IPO.
  • BharCap Acquisition, focused on financial services and fintech, filed to raise $250 million.
  • Fintech SPAC Thunder Bridge Capital Partners IV filed for a $225 million IPO.
  • 1Sharpe Acquisition, looking for a fintech target, filed for a $225 million IPO.
  • Fintech SPAC Newcourt Acquisition filed for a $200 million IPO.

(Source)


🔎 Weekly Deep-Dive

Need a deeper dive? Read Simon Taylor’s Fintech Brain Food for more.


📚 Deeper Reads

What Happened When American Investors Tried to Buy the World's Oldest Bank

There is a worldwide fintech gender gap

Should Jack Dorsey combine Twitter and Square?

What You Need to Know about Cards to Get to Market Fast

Why screen scraping still rules the roost on data connectivity

A digital euro would be dual threat to banks and fintechs

Emb.F[x] and what's coming next

How Fintechs and Social Changes Are Radically Reshaping Banking

What Happens When the Fed Goes Down?

Neobanks: A Fintech Solution For Underbanked Communities

US Banking Digital Trust Study

Many consumers don’t understand these 5 basic credit score concepts

Square: One year since Covid

Pipe dreams of turning recurring revenues into an asset class (paywall)

The Strategic Value of 3DS2 and Phone-Centric Identity

Fintech Giant Fiserv Used Unclaimed Domain

Patrick Collison interview

Nigeria: Who’s who in the fintech sector?

‘If we were a bank, we would be a very big bank.’

Pet frog from Orlando is finalist to become the next Cadbury Bunny