Fintech Highlights - 7/30/2024
Human Interest paves the way for a public listing. Informa has agreed to acquire Ascential. Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy. And more...
Here's what we've been watching this week 👇
Pinned to the Top
SMB-focused 401k provider Human Interest last week announced a $267 million funding round, further paving the way for a public market listing.
No timeline has been given.
CFO Tripp Faix told TechCrunch: “We are looking to become a public company when the time is right.”
Human Interest raised a $40 million Series C in March 2020. It then raised a few more rounds before BlackRock acquired a minority stake in the company in January 2023.
Impressively, the company says it is “approaching cash flow break-even and has enough cash on the balance sheet to fund continued 70%+ year-over-year growth without additional capital.”
Fun fact: Layoffs.fyi founder Roger Lee co-founded Human Interest in 2015 and remains a director on its board.
The BFD
Informa has agreed to acquire Ascential, the owner of the Money20/20 and Cannes Lions conferences, for about £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) in cash.
Why it's the BFD: While the media industry is still struggling to squeeze revenue from advertising, live events are a bright spot.
Zoom in: Informa will pay Ascential investors about £5.68 per share, a 53% premium to the its closing share price on Monday.
- Informa said it will help expand the Money20/20 conference into the Middle East and Africa to take advantage of investor interest.
The bottom line: "Ascential is one of the few remaining events companies of any scale. Analysts at Peel Hunt said Ascential's events were 'prestigious ones, with longevity of growth, which should merit a premium valuation.' Analysts at MKP Advisors said there was unlikely to be any counter offers: 'Informa management has a good track record in dealmaking and is likely to get the benefit of the doubt to deliver on any M&A deal.'" — Daniel Thomas and Arash Massoudi, FT
M&A
Sixth Street agreed to acquire Enstar (NASDAQ: ESGR), a Bermuda-based insurance company, for $5.1b, in a deal backed by former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire J. Christopher Flowers. More here ->
Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy, a Salt Lake City payments and compliance software provider. More here ->
Fast-growing payroll provider Deel has made another acquisition — its third this year. Deel has acquired Hofy, a London-based company that delivers and helps manage office equipment for remote hires. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the deal was worth over $100 million. More here ->
Fintech
Grazzy, an Austin-based hospitality industry digital payments company, raised $4m in seed funding he company offers innovative solutions to address key challenges in these sectors, particularly around tipping, employee earnings, and financial wellness. More here ->
Vanta, an SF compliance and security software company, raised $150m in Series C funding at a $2.45b valuation. Founded in 2018 by Christina Cacioppo, Vanta has grown to become a leading trust management platform with over 7,000 customers. More here ->
Mica, a financial services company providing payment infrastructure solutions raised $7.3 million from unknown investors. Mica has raised $17.3 million to date. More here ->
Digital ledger API startup Fragment raised $9 million from fintech infrastructure executives from Stripe, BoxGroup, Avid Ventures, Zach Perret (Plaid), and Jack Altman (Lattice). The company offers a ledger API designed to make real-time, double-entry accounting accessible to engineers buildingfinancial products More here ->
Coast, a startup that describes itself as “a financial services platform for the future of transportation,” has raised $40 million in Series B funding led by ICONIQ Growth — just four months after announcing a $25 million venture round. More here ->
Astor, a free personal finance platform for women that merges community and investing in an approachable way, raised $1.4 million. More here ->
Sam Altman-backed Slope, a Silicon Valley-based B2B payments platform offering order-to-cash workflow automation for enterprise companies, secured JP Morgan Payments as the lead in a new $65 million strategic equity and debt financing round. More here ->
Matera, a Brazilian company that provides instant payment, QR code payment and core banking software to financial institutions, received a $100 million investment from Warburg Pincus. More here ->
Payt, a Dutch invoice and payments management software maker, raised $59.7 in funding led by Partech. More here ->
Paris-based startup Pigment raised a $145 million funding round, valuing it at $1 billion just five years after its inception. The enterprise software company offers a business planning platform for large companies to visualize their past financial performance and forecast upcoming quarters. More here ->
Investtech
GeoWealth, a Chicago proprietary technology and turnkey asset management company, raised $18m in new funding. Founded in 2010, the company offers a comprehensive suite of services that enable advisors to manage theirclients' portfolios more effectively and efficiently. More here ->
Strive Enterprises, a Columbus financial services co-founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, raised $30m in Series B funding. The company was created with the mission to depoliticize corporate America and restore shareholder primacy in capital markets. More here ->
Powder, a Los Altos, Calif., wealth and investment management software startup, raised $5m in seed funding. The company leverages generative AI to automate and streamline various tasks for wealth advisors, significantly reducing the time and effort required for manual processes. More here ->
Bunch, a Berlin private investment management software maker, raised $15.5m in Series A funding. The company aims to modernize and streamline themanagement of private market investments through its comprehensive, all-in-one platform. More here ->
Altruist, a custodian for registered investment advisors (RIA), in May raised $169 million in a Series E funding round led by investment firm ICONIQ Growth that gave it a valuation of more than $1.5 billion. More here ->
Crypto
Bitlayer, a Singaporean Bitcoin startup, raised $11m in Series A funding at a $300m valuation. More here ->
Wintermute, a U.K. crypto trading firm, is raising $200m-300m in primary and secondary funding at a $2b valuation, per Bloomberg. More here ->
Insuretech
Cowbell, a Pleasanton, Calif. provider of cyber insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises, raised $60m in Series C funding from Zurich Insurance Group. More here ->
Proptech
Rent2Cash, an Italian rental advance startup, raised €3m in pre-seed funding from undisclosed investors. The company provides a formal liquidity proposal within 10 days of a client's request. More here ->
From the Stash
Capital One, Discover plan integration, await merger approval - During the second quarter, Capital One continued to plan for its acquisition of Discover Financial Services as it awaits approval from the Federal Reserve. “Our applications for regulatory approval are in process and we’re fully mobilized to plan and deliver a successful integration,” Capital One Chief Executive Richard Fairbank said More here ->
Fintech unicorns are getting to be about as rare as a four-leaf clover - According to CB Insights’ State of Fintech Q2 Report, the number of new fintech unicorns born in the second quarter totaled just two. For comparison, in the second quarter of 2021, 49 new fintech unicorns were birthed. More here ->
Indian fintech Paytm’s struggles won’t seem to end - The company reported that its revenue declined by 36% and its loss more than doubled in the first quarter as it continues to grapple with a regulatory clampdown that has significantly curtailed business at its payments bank subsidiary. More here ->
African remittance fintech Pesa is in the final stages of acquiring the requisite licenses for rollout in the United States, having just recently launched in 27 European countries after seeing success in Canada. More here ->
More from the stash:
Mark Kleinman
Jeff Kauflin
FinSMEs
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