Fintech Highlights - 10/4/2022
👋 Thanks again for subscribing.
Pinned to the Top
On September 28, LinkedIn released its Top Startups list (link is also below in “Reports”), which is its self-described annual ranking of 50 emerging U.S. companies “gaining attention and recruiting top talent.”
The professional networking site takes into consideration a variety of criteria based on its own data when coming up with the list: employment growth, engagement with the company and its employees, job interest and ability to attract talent from companies.
What fintechs made the list? And why?
Seven fintech companies ranked in the top 50: Brex (No. 4), Ramp (No. 5), Gravy (No. 14), Esusu (No. 29), GPARENCY (No. 35), Deel (No. 43) and Masterworks (No. 47).
Among the seven fintech startups that made the list, there are 125+ open roles. An astounding 87% of those open roles are for remote positions.
“A majority of fintech startups on this year’s list deal in the realms of building and managing credit for businesses and consumers — credit management is only becoming more important as interest rates rise and the economy slows, positioning these companies to play an even more relevant role in the lives of their users and customers,” LinkedIn business and finance editor at large Devin Banerjee told TechCrunch over email.
The BFD
Hopscotch, a B2B payments fintech, aims to be a Venmo-like payment tool for businesses. The company’s new product, Hopscotch Flow, is the first step.
Why it’s the BFD: Too often, B2B invoicing/bill-pay solutions are self-serving, with fragmented features, and offer few tools to help elevate hard-working modern freelancer/small business owners.
Even as small businesses struggled to survive in 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that business applications were up a record-breaking 43.3% over the same period in 2019 — small businesses are thriving and need support.
The big picture: Hopscotch's 22-year-old founder was inspired after paying vendors for his apparel brand with paper checks. Founder Reed Switzer says: "We’re meeting a need. We’re trying to break barriers — I’m a 22-year-old black founder in B2B payments.
And we’re rooting for him.
M&A
Citigroup (NYSE: C) is seeking second-round bids for its Mexican retail arm Banamex by the end of October, per Bloomberg. It may be the final bidding round, with expectations in the $7b-$8b range. More here ->
EQT Partners agreed to buy Billtrust (Nasdaq: BTRS), a B2B accounts receivable automation and integrated payments company that went public last year via SPAC, for around $1.7b. More here ->
Recurly, an SF-based subscription billing and management company, agreed to acquire LeapRev, a San Ramon, Calif.-based revenue recognition and forecasting startup. Recurly backers include Devonshire Investors, Ebridge Ventures and Accel-KKR. More here ->
Fintechs
Card Debt App Tally Triples Valuation to $855 Million in Round — www.bloomberg.com Tally Technologies Inc., a startup that automates credit card payments, has tripled its valuation to $855 million in a funding round led by Sway Ventures.
Bridge Money raises $5.8M for supplemental income app — www.axios.com
The app is targeted at low-income earners to help make more cash.
HSBC invests $10m in Nova Credit — www.finextra.com
HSBC has invested $10 million in SF-based Nova Credit (which is focused on immigrant credit history) as part of a wider partnership giving the bank global access to the startup's cross-border credit data product.
Scout Raises $2.6 Million to Turn Student Athletes Into Investors — sports.yahoo.com
Scout, an app designed to help people establish their first investment habits, recently raised $2.6 million in a seed funding round. So far, the company has focused on getting users on college campuses, and particularly inside athletic facilities.
Embedded finance platform provider Shaype has raised $21.3 million in series C funding — bankautomationnews.com
The platform provides single API access to services for card payments, know your customer, data insights and real-time transaction monitoring across payment channels
Perenna, a British digital mortgage lender, raises a $30m Series A round — axios.link
Mortgages in the U.K. typically have fixed terms of only two or five years. After the fixed rate expires, mortgage holders pay either the "standard variable rate," or they can refinance into a new fixed rate loan. Perenna changes that.
Signzy, an India-based digital banking infrastructure provider, raises $26m — www.moneycontrol.com
The company looks to enhance its ‘no-code workflow digitisation’ platform and solutions to target greater adoption by global banking and financial services clientele.
Berlin-based Workist snaps up €9 million to automate B2B transactions — www.eu-startups.com Berlin-based Workist has just announced a €9 million capital boost for its AI-enables platform that is freeing up administrative burden and making
French fintech Regate nabs $20m in Series A funding — www.fintechfutures.com
Regate claims it helps finance departments and accountants save time by automating recurring tasks, gathering financial data on a single platform and improving collaboration between teams.
Toqio raises €18.7M Series A investment — techcrunch.com
Financial institutions have struggled to develop their own technologies, hence the rise of neo-banks which used Open Banking regulations to build their own fintech stacks. That has led to a wave of innovation, and startups have hungrily devoured the opportunities to “platformise” the financial work.
Numida, a Uganda-based small and midsized enterprise lender, raised $12.3m in equity and debt funding. Serena Ventures led, and was joined by YC, Breega, 4Di Capital, Launch Africa and Soma Capital.
Solfacil, a Brazilian solar energy fintech startup, raised $30m led by Fifth Wall Climate. More here ->
Investtech
Equi raises $15M round led by former Disney execs — www.axios.com
The Austin-based startup says it's valued at $100 million.
Exponential, a DeFi investing platform, raised $14m in seed funding. Paradigm led, and was joined by Haun Ventures, FTX Ventures, Solana Ventures, Polygon and Circle Ventures. More here ->
Crypto / Web3
Web3 banking platform Juno raises $18 million, launches tokenized loyalty program — techcrunch.com Juno has amassed over 75,000 customers in the U.S. who take their salaries in crypto and invest consistently in digital assets each month.
Former Revolut employees launch Solvo, an app that simplifies crypto investing — techcrunch.com Solvo is a new mobile app that wants to make it easier to invest in cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency-related financial products.
Payments shop Strike raises $80 million in Bitcoin maximalist flex — www.axios.com Strike is making the cumbersome digital asset "go" by using the Lightning Network, a layer 2 that enables faster and cheaper transactions.
Alameda Research, Jump Crypto Lead $37M Funding for 3Commas Automated Crypto Trading Platform — www.coindesk.com The CEO of crypto custodian Copper also led the round for the trading bot-driven ecosystem.
Crypto hardware wallet maker OneKey raises $20 million in Series A funding — www.theblock.co OneKey, a crypto hardware wallet maker based in Hong Kong, has raised around $20 million in a Series A funding round.
Eclipse, a customizable blockchain solution provider led by ex-Citadel quant Neel Somani, raised $15m in pre-seed and seed funding from Tribe Capital, Tabiya, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Soma Capital, Struck Crypto and CoinList. More here ->
Krypton, a decentralized exchange for crypto trades, raised $7m led by Framework Ventures. More here ->
Insuretechs
Evident Raises $14 Million to Reduce Third Party Insurance-Related Risk for Enterprises | Insurtech Insights — www.insurtechinsights.com Our investors have been instrumental to our growth and continued innovations,” Thomas continued. “We are excited and humbled to work...
Karn Saroya raises $14 million for insurance protocol Re as insurtech platform Cover is wound down — www.theblock.co Insurance protocol Re aims to become a decentralized Lloyds of London and has secured a post-money valuation of $100 million.
Yonder, a Dublin-based platform for automating health insurance and retirement benefits, raised $2.6m More here ->
From the Stash
Is investor bullishness on embedded insurtech warranted? — techcrunch.com Embedded insurance — selling coverage at the same time as another product or service — is on the rise. Are investors bullish on the insurtech subsector?
Square now supports Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhones — techcrunch.com Square is now rolling out support for Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhones for all the merchants based in the US.
Chase, DoorDash and Mastercard Announce Partnership to Launch Credit Card — www.businesswire.com Chase, the largest co-brand card issuer in the U.S., and DoorDash, the local commerce platform, today announced plans to launch the first-ever DoorDas
Despite its many troubles, the insurtech market is 'far from dead,' investors say — techcrunch.com The insurtech market has had a rough time this past year, so we reached out to eight investors to find out where insurtech is headed in Q4.
Web3 Weekly: Crypto Holding Even As Equities Markets Tumble — news.crunchbase.com This new feature looks back at the week in crypto, blockchain and Web3, with insights and analysis. This week we look at crypto M&A deals.
FTX Buys Assets Of Bankrupt Voyager; Celsius’ CEO Leaves — news.crunchbase.com The fallout from the summer’s crypto bankruptcies continues. FTX is buying the assets of Voyager Digital, which filed for bankruptcy in July.
RBC names Jason Gurandiano head of U.S. technology banking Royal Bank of Canada has named Jason Gurandiano head of US technology banking at RBC Capital Markets, elevating one of the firm’s top financial technology bankers.
wefox urges global insurance industry to improve customer experience — www.insurtechinsights.com Berlin-based insurtech, wefox, is calling on the insurance industry to improve customer experience after its Global Safety Report results...
Reports / Webinars
LinkedIn Top Startups 2022: The 50 U.S. companies on the rise — www.linkedin.com The 2022 LinkedIn Top Startups list reveals 50 emerging U.S.
Future of API Management 2nd Edition The number of APIs is rising at an exponential rate, thanks to the rise of Internet Business Models, IoT, social media, and Cloud Adoption. Securing and monitoring APIs and data is a challenge for businesses. As a result, effective API management will become the norm in the IT portfolio.
Webinar: The Customer Experience - How Pet Insurance Is Leading The Way — www.insurtechinsights.com In an industry that has long been starved of innovation and emphasis, recent years have ushered pet insurance into an era of rapid growth, with the... %
Insurtech Insights Europe - Europe's Largest Insurtech Conference — www.insurtechinsights.com Insurtech Insights is Europe's Largest Insurtech Conference, gathering over 2,500 executives, entrepreneurs, and investors from all over the world...
—
☑️ 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 we’re not already connected - let’s do it.