Fintech Highlights - 2/22/2022

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Pinned to the Top

Financial technology firm FIS announced that it has enhanced its embedded payments strategy with the acquisition of Atlanta’s Payrix.

This acquisition aligns with FIS’ strategy to expand its digital commerce offerings to firms of all sizes, and in any industry, by “embedding payments capabilities within Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms.” This acquisition will also “enable FIS to unlock the value of its broad solution portfolio by delivering embedded finance capabilities in addition to its e-commerce offerings to SMBs.”

Established in 2015, Payrix claims to be an innovative fintech company that “specializes in enabling SaaS-based platforms to embed payments and financial technology into their offerings to enhance the payments experience for SMBs.”

A key industry player in deposit, lending, issuing, B2B and global payments solutions, FIS will aim to “leverage and combine its portfolio of banking and payments assets with Payrix’s advanced embedded payments solutions to create new and differentiated experiences for any size business.”

The BFD

Better Tomorrow Ventures, a fintech-focused early stage venture firm headed by NerdWallet co-founder Jake Gibson and ex-500 Startups partner Sheel Mohnot, has raised $150 million for a sophomore fund, and $75 million for an opportunity fund.

Why it matters: Fintech continues to be a hot sector, with record venture dollars invested and several blockbuster exits.

The big picture: For fintech investors like Better Tomorrow, there's now a lot more startups to back, but also a lot more competitors vying for those deals.

• "Valuations are up like 20% since we started investing, so we need more capital to get same ownership size," says Mohnot of raising a new fund that's twice as big as the first one in 2020.
• And even if the firm is still able to win deals without offering the highest valuation, it undeniably has to pay more now, he adds.

Yes, but: A number of public fintech companies took a hit in late 2021 amid a broader market selloff, which has had a ripple effect down to the startup market.

• Seed-stage insurance startups, for example, are getting less interest from investors who have written off the category because of the performance of public comps like Metromile, Root, and Lemonade, notes Mohnot. (Notably, Kin Insurance, in which Mohnot invested prior to Better Tomorrow, opted for a private round instead of going through its planned SPAC merger last month, as Axios reported.)

Acquisitions / Mergers

Circle, a Boston-based provider of payment and treasury infrastructure solutions for online businesses, restructured its merger agreement with Concord Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: CND), a SPAC formed by former Barclays boss Bob Diamond. The original deal had an implied $4.5b valuation, whereas the new mark would be $9b. More here ->

Revolut, a London-based financial superapp valued by VCs at $4.6b, acquired Arvog Forex, an Indian money transfers and currency exchange company. More here ->

Madison Dearborn Partners agreed to acquire MoneyGram International, a Dallas-based cash transfer and money order company, for $1.8 billion in cash. More here ->

Billtrust, a Lawrenceville, N.J.-based provider payment cycle management software, acquired Order2Cash, an Amsterdam-based electronic invoicing and payments company. VC-backed Billtrust recently agreed to go public via a SPAC called South Mountain Merger Corp.(Nasdaq: SMMC).  More here ->

Fintechs

Found, the banking and tax app created with small-business owners, freelancers, and the self-employed in mind, has raised $60M. Found aims to give people back the time and money spent managing their business finances so they can do what they intended when they became self-employed; run their business. More here ->

Check, an NYC-based payroll infrastructure startup, raised $75m in Series C funding. Founded in New York in 2019, Check develops infrastructure that helps integrate payroll into the platforms businesses use already. It publicly launched last year with the aim of serving small businesses and simplifying the process of paying employees. More here ->

Trullion, a New York-based financial automation platform, raised $15m in Series A funding. Trullion’s AI-powered platform extracts data from source documents, and automates workflows for accounting teams to collaborate in real-time with their auditors, providing unparalleled levels of data accuracy and efficiency. More here ->

RapidRatings, a New York-based provider of financial health data and analytics, raised $200m. The company’s software is used to gauge the financial health of suppliers, creditors and customers to help manage supply-chain risk. More here ->

Mundi, a New York-based fintech startup focused on cross-border trade, announced today it has raised $16m in Series A funding. The startup built its platform from scratch with the goal of underwriting SME exporters in Mexico. It works by offering them working capital by paying them upfront so they don’t have to wait 30, 60 or 90 days to get paid. More here ->

Catch, a personal-benefits platform, to bundle taxes, retirement, time off, health insurance, and student loan refinancing in one place - made our radar this week. While many in the FinTech space are trying to make a billion dollars by disrupting a slice of the market, Catch is building a platform that can simplify and bundle many aspects of a person’s financial life. Think of it as Gusto for a person. More here ->

ViaBill, a Danish provider of BNPL services for physical retailers, raised $120m in equity and debt funding. ViaBill has tested the shopping behavior of roughly 11,000 consumers over the last quarter. The results show a massive uplift in BNPL transactions. On average the shopping frequency has tripled for users having our virtual or physical cards as the card is instantly pushed to ApplePay or GooglePay. More here ->

African fintech Flutterwave has raised $250 million in a Series D round that tripled the company’s valuation to over $3 billion in just twelve months. Flutterwave facilitates cross-border payments transactions of small to large businesses in Africa via one API. The company also helps businesses outside Africa expand their operations on the continent. Some of its international clients include Booking.com, Flywire and Uber. More here ->

Earnipay, a fintech that provides flexible and on-demand salary access to income-earners, has raised $4 million in seed financing. Earnipay, which has been in beta since September 2021 and only launched last month, plans to offer its on-demand salary solution to 200,000 employees by the end of 2022.  More here ->

Crypto

Multis, a financial and ops tool stack for DAOs and DeFi startups, raised $7m. Originally designed as a neobank for companies working with cryptocurrencies, the company has slightly altered its product vision. It now intends to offer the software layer that helps web3 organizations manage their crypto finances. More here ->

Aurox, a Dallas-based cryptocurrency trading platform, announced a $5M equity financing round. More here ->

Insuretechs

DIMO, a Dover, Del.-based platform for drivers to collect and share vehicle data, raised $9M. DIMO is a decentralized vehicle data network that allows drivers to submit their vehicle data to improve the future of transportation while managing the vehicle’s performance and health. More here ->

Proptech

KWx, the Austin-based parent company of residential real estate giant Keller Williams Realty Inc., has purchased transaction management company Conveyance Pros, providing Realtors with a new platform to manage the financial aspect of their jobs. More here ->

Optimal Blue, a Plano-based online mortgage marketplace has been fully acquired by existing investor Black Knight. For an aggregate purchase price of $1.2B, Black Knight will purchase the outstanding shares of Dun & Bradstreet Holdings stock valued at $722.5 million and $433.5 million in cash. More here ->

Northspyre, a New York-based financial tracking and project delivery automation platform for real estate, raised $25m in Series B funding. The company has built a cloud-based intelligence platform specifically made for real estate development that eliminates redundant work through AI-powered automation and gives development teams unprecedented insight into project delivery concerns. The platform can save up to 40% of the time that is typically allocated for data entry, giving teams more time to spend on high-value tasks.  More here ->

Evolve, a Denver-based vacation rentals startup, raised $100m led by Durable Capital Partners. Evolve has an a la carte model. Its basic plan charges a 10 percent commission and doesn’t include housekeeping or maintenance but does include all aspects of driving rental income as an on-ramp to marketing a property on major channels like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo. More here ->

SiteKick, a Minneapolis-based commercial real estate construction site-monitoring startup, raised $1.2m in seed funding.  More here ->

Nomad, a "guaranteed rent" marketplace for small landlords, raised $20m in Series A funding.  The raise comes just six months after the Denver-based startup raised about $5 million in a seed round of funding. Nomad’s co-founders PJ O’Neil and Matt Thelen started the company after leaving their respective roles at Opendoor and Twilio. O’Neil was a general manager at Opendoor and Thelen was director of business operations at Twilio. More here ->

Nanonets, an S.F.-based document processing automation software startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. Nanonets supports platforms customers can directly import from or export to existing workflows. The platform also gives users the ability to write their own business rules, connect to different business data sources, and update internal systems to automate document workflows and financial controls. More here ->

ICON, the 3D printing home manufacturing company, announced a $185M funding round with a valuation “nearing $2B”. ICON has raised $451M in equity to date. More here ->

Self Financial, a credit-builder loans provider, announced the acquisition of RentTrack, with terms undisclosed. The acquisition includes RentTrack, the enterprise solution that offers rent reporting through property managers and is available in over 2.8 million rental units, and LevelCredit, the company’s consumer solution that enables customers to build credit through rent, cell phone, electric, water and gas payments. More here ->

Groundfloor, the first real estate crowdfunding platform to gain regulatory approval, announced today that it raised its first round of institutional capital since 2015. Groundfloor’s platform offers investments in real estate debt to its 150,000+ users, with a minimum investment of $10. Nearly all of the products available on its platform are open to non-accredited investors, Dally, who serves as CEO, told TechCrunch. Groundfloor users have a wide range of reasons for using the platform, from new investors who are looking for a safer alternative to public markets to experienced investors who prefer investing through an app instead of using the broker, Dally said. More here ->

From the Stash

Better.com loses more senior execs as employees brace for another mass layoff – TechCrunch — techcrunch.com Things are getting worse at Better. More executives have resigned from Better.com nearly three months after the online mortgage lender laid off 900 employees via Zoom and as the company prepares for more layoffs, according to multiple sources familiar with the internal happenings at the company. Those sources include both current and former employees. The […]

Fintech Roundup: What investors really, really want – TechCrunch — techcrunch.com Welcome to my new weekly fintech focused column. I’ll be publishing this every Sunday, so in between posts, be sure to listen to the Equity podcast and hear Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and me riff on all things startups! And if you want to have this hit your inbox directly once it turns into a […]

Crypto Company Circle Comes Back Around On SPAC Deal While Doubling Its Valuation To $9B — news.crunchbase.com The crypto market remains bumpy, but Boston-based Circle Internet Financial seems to have found a way around that.

10 fintech investors discuss what they’re looking for and how to pitch them in Q1 2022 – TechCrunch — techcrunch.com We interviewed fintech investors to shed some light on just what they're looking for and the best way to pitch them.

Stronghold launches $100M venture arm to invest in underrepresented founders and fintech – TechCrunch — techcrunch.com Payments infrastructure company Stronghold has launched a venture capital arm to deploy $100 million of its balance sheet capital in startups and funds in three core strategies — underrepresented founders, fintech, and web3, CEO Tammy Camp told TechCrunch in an interview. Stronghold offers a suite of fintech and blockchain APIs and services, including embedded payments, […]

Reports / Webinars

How to Build a Bank • Reports • 11:FS — content.11fs.com Fintech product experiences: looking back and thinking forwards

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