3 min read

Fintech Highlights - 09/07/2021

šŸ‘‹ Ā Thanks again for subscribing. You'll notice the slight rebrand, and next week we'll explain why.

For now - hereā€™s whatā€™s worth watching this weekā€¦.. šŸ‘‡


We get a lot of content from AXIOS. Who are crushing the daily newsletter game. Sign up for one of their excellent newsletters such as Pro Rata by Dan Primack, Whatā€™s Next and more - Ā today.

Fintechs

Jeff, the financial services "super app'" has announced it has raised $1.5m. Jeff App wants to give consumers a ā€œsuper appā€ where they can compare many financial products and apply for them using the startupā€™s proprietary data-scoring models. For service providers, Jeff serves as a distribution channel, helping them find and retain customers. More here ->

Wave, a U.S. and Senegal-based mobile money provider, has raised $200 million. Itā€™s a spinoff from Africa-focused remittance provider Sendwave, which offered offer little or no fee remittances from North America and Europe to select African and Asian countries. The YC-backed company became a WorldRemit subsidiary last year when the global fintech paid up to $500 million in cash and stock for Sendwave. More here ->

Octane, a New York-based pay-as-you-go billing startup, raised $2 million. Octane offers a metered billing system that helps vendors create a plan, monitor usage and charge in a similar way to Snowflake and AWS. More here ->

Point has raised a $46.5 million Series B funding round. The company offers an account associated with a debit card. And the startup positions itself as a premium debit card company and tries to offer credit card rewards with debit cards. More here ->

Oddup, an investment data and crypto custody startup, raised $12.8 million in Series C funding from IRO Capital, Elliot Capital, Jervois Hillier and insiders Click Ventures, White Capital and The Times Group. www.oddup.com

Insuretechs

Insurify, a Cambridge, Mass.-based virtual insurance agent and comparison platform, raised $100 million. Insurify has built a machine learning-based virtual insurance agent that integrates with more than 100 carriers to digitize ā€” and personalize ā€” the insurance shopping experience. More here ->

Shepherd, a commercial construction startup, has raised $6.15m. The company is aiming to digitize the way insurance is procured within construction via a single end-to-end platform for everything from submission development to policy documents. More here ->

From the Stash

Zip acquisition of Payflex means Africa is ripe for BNPL disruption ā€“ TechCrunch ā€” techcrunch.com Australian buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Zip this week acquired South Africa-based BNPL player Payflex for an undisclosed amount. Itā€™s a piece of news that once again highlights the hype around BNPL services and the quest for global dominance among the leading players. This year we have covered BNPL services from the likes of [ā€¦]

Strategy Session: Frank Rotman Of Boutique Fintech VC QED Investors On Rebuilding Banking ā€“ Crunchbase News ā€” news.crunchbase.com QED Investors was set up in 2007 to invest in fintech, long before it became the leading sector it is today. In the 14 years since, Virginia-based QED has amassed a total of 19 unicorn companies in its portfolio, including Ā San Francisco-based Credit Karma.

Botify raises $55 million to optimize search engine indexing ā€“ TechCrunch ā€” techcrunch.com

Botify has raised a $55 million Series C funding round led by InfraVia Growth with Bpifranceā€™s Large Venture fund also participating. The company has created a search engine optimization (SEO) platform so that your content is better indexed and appears more often in search results.

Reports / Webinars

Google Cloud Next ā€™21 ā€” cloud.withgoogle.com Explore Next '21 to find the tools and training you need to succeed in the cloud, get informed, and solve your biggest business challenges.

Ever wonder if there is a list of these startups that get included each week?

Well, you are in luck - there is. And you can access it here ->

ā€”

ā˜‘ļø Thanks for reading. Please ask your friends, colleagues and others to sign up.

If you have any companies or news to share - use the form

AND - if weā€™re not already connected - letā€™s do it.