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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.

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This Week in Fintech (9/25)

This Week in Fintech (9/25)

Hello Fintech Friends,

…Am I the last to find out about Braintree, Massachusetts?

If you couldn’t grab a ticket in time to our San Francisco or New York events this coming Thursday, we have good news for you - we’re still hosting a dinner for 100 people in New York in October. The attendees with the most interesting conversation topic suggestions will get tickets to join.

Please find another week of fintech financings and exits below.


Editor’s Note: If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity or debt, I may be able to help - reach out to nik@thisweekinfintech.com.


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💸 Venture Financing

UK investors are doubling down on prior fintech bets rather than investing in new companies.

  • Atome, a Singaporean buy-now-pay-later lender, raised $400 million at a $2 billion valuation.
  • Airwallex, an Australian cross-border payments platform, raised a $200 million Series E at a $4 billion valuation.
  • XTransfer, a Chinese cross-border financial services provider, raised a $138 million Series D.
  • TrueLayer, a UK open banking platform, raised $130 million at a $1 billion valuation.
  • sunday, a restaurant payments solution, raised a $100 million Series A (just as competitor Toast IPOs).
  • Monese, a neo-core banking provider, raised a $90 million Series C.
  • Ocrolus, a developer of a financial document recognition tool, raised an $80 million Series C.
  • Neo Financial, a Canadian neobank and financial app, raised a $64 million Series B.
  • Bilt Rewards, a loyalty program for renters to earn points on rent, raised $60 million at a $350 million valuation (including from backers like Wells Fargo and Mastercard).
  • ZestMoney, an Indian buy-now-pay-later provider, raised a $50 million Series C (including from Australian BNPL Zip, which used the investment to enter India after recently entering South Africa, Europe, and the Middle East).
  • Cobo, a Singaporean decentralized finance-as-a-service startup, raised a $40 million Series B.
  • Spenmo, a Singaporean cloud payments software, raised a $34 million Series A.
  • Open Mineral, a digital trading platform for base metal commodities, raised a $33 million Series C.
  • FloBiz, an Indian neobank for small businesses, raised $31 million.
  • Bright Money, a $15-a-month financial credit card debt repayment service, raised a $31 million Series A and plans to IPO.
  • dopay, an Egyptian B2B2C payments platform, raised an $18 million Series A.
  • Doconomy, a Mastercard-backed carbon tracking app for spending, raised $17 million.
  • Vyne, a UK merchant-focused open banking solution, raised a $15.5 million seed round.
  • Tomorrow, a German sustainable banking app, raised €14 million and plans to raise another €5 million.
  • Tag, a Pakistani provider of employee banking services, raised $12 million at a $100 million valuation.
  • Awning, a real estate investing platform, raised $9.3 million.
  • Sprout, a Brazilian platform for investing in US stocks, raised R$30 million ($5.6 million).
  • Maroo, a buy-now-pay-later provider for weddings, raised $3.8 million.
  • Wiserfunding, a UK small business credit risk assessor, raised £3 million.
  • Triodos Bank, a UK sustainable bank, raised a £2 million crowdfunding bond.
  • Book Salon, a Finnish payments platform for hair salons, raised a €1 million seed round.
  • Kernolab, a Lithuanian banking-as-a-service provider, raised a $1 million pre-seed.
  • Jumuisha, a Kenyan church payments startup, raised a seed round.
  • Brimore, an Egyptian social commerce and payments startup, received funding from e-payments provider Fawry.
  • Ziglu, the UK crypto payments app, is crowdfunding £1 million.

💵 Debt Financing

  • UK small business lender MarketFinance raised £280 million in debt to lend.

(A breakdown of Baas provider Unit’s product offering from Not Boring)

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs
  • China’s Dongguan Rural Commercial Bank raised over $1.2 billion in its Hong Kong IPO.
  • Restaurant payments provider Toast blew through the top of its IPO share price range of $40, raising $870 million at a $20 billion valuation.
  • Remittances provider Remitly raised $523 million in an IPO valuing it at $8 billion.
  • Allvue Systems, an investment management software developer, set terms for its $275 million IPO, which would value the firm at $1.7 billion.
  • Enfusion, an investment management software developer, filed for a $100 million IPO.
  • AvidXchange, an accounts payable software provider, filed for an IPO looking to raise the placeholder amount of $100 million.
  • Xplor Technologies, a suite of payment solutions, filed its registration for IPO.
  • Investment management software developer Clearwater Analytics priced its IPO to trade on the NYSE today.
  • Payments and customer engagement software EngageSmart (Invoicecloud)’s shares soared 40% on its IPO.
  • South Korean payments app Kakao Pay pushed back its IPO until November.
🤝 M&A - Fintech
  • German investment bank Deutsche Bank will acquire Berlin-based payment service provider Better Payment to expand its online payment acceptance offering.
  • Equipped AI, the investment analytics software of private equity and credit firm AnaCap, spun off into its own unit.
  • Nu México, the Brazilian subsidiary of Nubank acquired savings and financial society Akala.
  • Construction management firm Procore acquired construction lending and payments firm Levelset.
  • Entrust acquired French digital card provider and portfolio Antelop Solutions.
🏦 M&A - Bank
  • Japanese banking giant MUFG will exit the US by selling its retail banking operation in the country to U.S. Bancorp for $8 billion.
  • JP Morgan acquired Frank, a college financial planning fintech that had raised $20 million.
  • Greece’s Piraeus Bank is in talks with Bain Capital to sell off its lending and leasing portfolio.
  • PagoNxt, the payments fintech of Banco Santander acquired a 70% stake in its Mexican tech partner Mercadotecnia, Ideas y Tecnología in order to expand its merchant payments business globally.

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🌎 Fintech Around the World

Fintechs are shattering financial inclusion barriers in the Philippines

India's Account Aggregator System Is Plagued by Privacy and Safety Issues

Why Indian teenagers are keen on investing in cryptocurrency

Latin America Digital Transformation Report 2021

Investors from Silicon Valley to China catch the African fintech bug

The Nigerian fintech boom, by the numbers

Nigerian fintech HerVest wants to bring financial inclusion to more African women

📚 Deeper Reads

Banks beware, Amazon and Walmart are cracking the code for finance

Amazon Is Doing It. So Is Walmart. Why Retail Loves ‘Buy Now, Pay Later.’

More than half say BNPL will replace credit cards

JPMorgan: DeFi Adoption By Institutional Investors Surges

How This Startup Proves NFTs Can Solve Fundamental Problems In Finance

Wall Street Influencers Are Making $500,000, Topping Even Bankers

Fintechs are at the mercy of 3-day bank transfers. Astra could change that.

Bulldog gets adorably 'overwhelmed' on first day of puppy club


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