Fintech Highlights - 11/16/2021

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Pinned to the Top

Brex and Ramp Want to Take On Amex. First, They’ll Fight Each Other

Brex employees haven’t had to look hard for reminders of their startup’s ambition to reign supreme over the big corporate card companies: The Wi-Fi network password at one of its former offices used to be “BuyAmex.”

But Brex is facing increasingly fierce competition, including from a two-year-old copycat named Ramp that’s catching up fast, according to financial information on both companies reviewed by The Information. That rivalry could distract the older fintech startup from its larger goals.

Brex, valued at $12.3 billion in October, expects to increase its annual recurring revenue by 90% to about $320 million this year as transaction volumes—dollars spent on its credit cards—balloon to $12 billion.

And Ramp has already grown to about one-third of Brex’s size by several metrics.

We'll watch as these two heavyweights slug it out.

The BFD

Proptech startup Place has raised $100 million in a Series A round led by Goldman Sachs

Bellingham, Washington-based Place raised $100 million in a Series A round led by Goldman Sachs.

The company provides top real estate agents with their tech needs and covers costs of services it performs for the agent’s business. Place then shares a percentage of the profits (the percentages vary).

Why is this the BFD? Top agents need more than just software; they need a full-stack offering that fully abstracts away the complexity of running a business. Goldman's interest is clear - this is a business model that has market fit and traction that could really change the game in real estate.

Details: Place plans on using the funding to ramp up hiring, invest in technology that makes it easier for customers to get mortgages and buy real estate, and expand its consumer services, such as mortgage, title and insurance. The company has around 300 employees, but wants to grow its team to between 750 and 1,000 employees in the next 18 to 24 months.

The bottom line: Proptech offering's like Place have a ways to go to figure out distribution challenges with agents, but this validation from Goldman may give them the room to figure that significant part out.

Fintechs

CacheFlow, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of embedded financing solutions for enterprise SaaS, raised $6 million in seed funding. The startup is a wager that the software buying experience of today is antiquated — and a rising source of frustration. So, Cacheflow is building a hybrid buying service and financing solution to make it simpler.  More here ->

CloudWalk, a Brazilian open payments networking company, raised $150 million. With a presence in 150,000 stores across 4,300 cities in Brazil, CloudWalk’s vision is to create the best payment network worldwide, as the Company is democratizing the payments industry by empowering merchants and entrepreneurs through technological, inclusive, and life-changing solutions. More here ->

Upgrade, an S.F.-based neobank focused on credit, raised $280 million in Series F funding. Upgrade is focusing on responsible credit for consumers in the U.S. It offers several credit cards that encourage you to pay your balance on time. When you make your monthly balance payments, you receive rewards. More here ->

Nomod, a U.K.-based fintech that enables merchants to accept payments without hardware, has raised $3.4M seed round. Micro and small businesses in emerging markets still struggle to access digital payments for several reasons. One, most of them are excluded from various payment ecosystems globally due to their size, and two, getting hardware from providers can be expensive. Hence the offering. More here ->

Oxygen, an SF-based neobank for freelancers and small businesses, is in talks to raise around $70 million in Series B funding. Banks in the U.S. — and elsewhere — have traditionally refused to serve individuals without a traditional job and a consistent salary flow. Oxygen hopes to change this. More here ->

MFS Africa, an UK and Ghana-based digital payments network, raised $70 million in Series C equity funding. The company connects more than 320 million mobile money wallets across 35+ African countries and 700 corridors. It also covers a broad range of financial services around bank accounts, prepaid cards and virtual debit cards. More here ->

Solidus Labs, a New York-based provider of crypto trade surveillance and risk-monitoring software, raised $15 million in Series B funding. More here ->

Socure, a New York-based platform for digital identity trust, raised $450 million in Series E funding. Socure’s identity resolution engine uses predictive analytics to parse over 8 billion records, providing a multi-dimensional picture of a consumer’s identity for fraud detection purposes, even for hard-to-identify populations, including those who are Gen Z, credit-invisible or new to the country.  More here ->

Aplazo, a Mexico-focused BNPL startup, raised $27 million in Series A funding. Aplazo plugs into a merchant’s payment process, online or offline, and enables users to purchase items and pay in five equal installments without needing a credit card. More here ->

Check, the payroll-as-a-service startup whose mission is to make paying people simple - is worth checking out. More here ->

Insuretechs

Shepard, a commercial construction insurance platform, has come out of stealth. They've announced seed round funding of $6.15m. The company aims to digitize the way insurance is procured within construction via a single end-to-end platform for everything from submission development to policy documents. It will also leverage integrations with construction tech partnerships to automate and personalize much of the underwriting process. More here ->

Root, a South African low-code insurance platform, raised $3 million in seed funding. Root’s first product was programmable bank accounts and cards but it has moved on to providing insurance APIs which is now its core offering. More here ->

From the Stash

BNP Hires Advisers to Explore $15B Bank of the West Sale - Sources — axios.link BNP Paribas is working with advisers to assess a sale of its U.S. arm Bank of the West as it seeks to retreat from the American retail banking market after struggling to compete with larger and better capitalised rivals, sources told Reuters.

The Rise Of Insurtechs Doesn’t Have To Be A Disruption Story — news.crunchbase.com While insurance is an industry ripe for disruption and technological advancements, stiff competition doesn’t always have to be the case, writes Breeze CEO and co-founder Colin Nabity in this guest commentary.

BMO’s Cloud-first Strategy Reduced Costs by 30% — bankautomationnews.com Five years ago, BMO launched a cloud-first strategy that today is leading to more IT automation with an annual cost savings of 30% for its transportation finance group. Image by CanStock A key part of that strategy involves looking at how to automate, Lawrence Wan, chief architect and innovation officer at BMO Financial Group, told […]

Intertrust in Talks Over Possible $1.9 Billion Takeover by CVC — axios.link Dutch financial services company Intertrust has entered exclusive talks over a potential 1.63 billion euro ($1.87 billion) takeover by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, it said on Friday.

Reports / Webinars / Events

Bank Automation Summit — bankautomationsummit.com The Bank Automation Summit is the perfect event for leading executives and evolving industry innovators looking to collaborate. This one-of-a-kind event is designed for financial services professionals to discover new use cases and technologies that are accelerating automation in banking.

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