Fintech Highlights - 3/29/2022
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Pinned to the Top
Several startups have been racing to sell software known as one-click checkout to retailers such as The Honest Company and Forever 21 to speed up how their customers pay for products online. But Fast, the only startup in the field backed by payments provider Stripe, has been slow to grow its business and is far behind rivals.
The San Francisco–based Fast, which launched its one-click service in 2020, tried to win by signing up small merchants. Its main startup rival, Bolt, launched its service in 2018 with a different strategy: landing large customers including Lucky Jeans and Nautica. The startups’ financial results have diverged: Last year, Fast generated around $600,000 in revenue, three people with knowledge of the numbers said, while The Information previously reported that Bolt generated roughly 50 times that figure.
And when Fast late last year tried to raise a $100 million Series C financing at a valuation north of $1 billion, it didn’t find any takers at the time, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
More here ->
The BFD
Optimism, a New York-based Ethereum scaling startup, raised $150m in Series B funding at a $1.65b valuation co-led by Paradigm and by Paradigm and Andreessen Horowitz.
Why it's the BFD: Web3 evangelists see a decentralized future that sprints cheaply along the Ethereum network, but the current architecture can't handle more than a jogger's pace at a luxury gym. Optimism, and a handful of peers, wants to build a second layer that adds speed and reduces costs.
The bottom line: "There are other Layer 2 projects out there built on Ethereum, the best known of which is Polygon. Like the others, Optimism functions like a second chain that regularly reports back to Ethereum to provide it security. It runs much faster and cheaper than Ethereum by functioning 'optimistically,' that is it assumes all transactions submitted to it are valid while allowing other users time to challenge malicious transactions; who'll be rewarded if their challenge turns out to be right."
M&A
Apple reportedly paid around $150m to buy Credit Kudos, a London-based open banking startup that had raised around $10m from firms like Albion Ventures. More here ->
Danish challenger bank Lunar has made an offer to buy Norwegian digital bank Instabank in an all-cash deal valued at 1.29 million Norwegian kroner (~$150 million). More here ->
Fintech
Doxo, a Seattle-based bill payment platform, raised $18.5m in Series C funding. The company lets customers improve their financial health by streamlining recurring bill payments. More here ->
Wealth, a Tempe, Ariz.-based digital estate planning platform, raised $16m in seed funding. Co-founded by Rei Carvalho, the former Emailage founder and CEO (acquired by LexisNexis®), and Rafael Loureiro, CEO, Wealth is an estate planning solution that features an asset aggregation platform, workflows, and thought leadership content. More here ->
Hopscotch, a B2B platform for freelancers and small business owners, has raised $6.1M. The startup’s technology aims to make B2B payments easier for freelancers and small business owners. More here ->
AutoFi, a leading online platform for digital auto sales and financing, announced Monday it closed an $85 million funding round boosting its total valuation at almost $700 million. AutoFi is in the midst of a four-year streak of 100% revenue growth, doubling the size of its staff in 2021 to 220 employees, processing more than one million auto finance requests that resulted in more than $3 billion in vehicle sales last year. More here ->
Zepto, an Australian account-to-account merchant payments startup, raised A$25m in Series A funding. The company offers real-time account-to-account (A2A) merchant payments platform. More here ->
Simetrik, a Colombian payments infrastructure startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. The startup says its infrastructure “delivers greater control and transparency” over a company’s financial transactions by automating reconciliation through a no-code offering. More here ->
in3, a Dutch buy now pay later (BNPL) lender with a focus on responsible credit, has raised $11.1M. in3 makes its money from retailers who pay fees when their customers use the lender’s services. More here ->
Viva Republica, a South Korean fintech that's building a super-app, is seeking to raise up to $1b in new funding in order to better rival Grab. More here ->
Kadmos, a Berlin-based fintech focused on international salary payments, raised €8.3M. Kadmos aims to bring fintech into industries riddled with opaque mark-ups, kickbacks, and physical cash. More here ->
Lunar, the Nordic neobank, raised $77m to reach a $2bn valuation.
Crypto
Dave, the online banking app, has announced that FTX Ventures invested $100m and also struck a strategic partnership. FTX US will serve as the exclusive partner for any crypto offerings offered by Dave. More here ->
Ribbon, a DiFei startup focused on crypto derivatives, raised $8.8M. The protocol automates crypto derivatives strategies for the lay DeFi trader. More here ->
Upstream, a "DAO in a box, startup," raised $12.5 million in Series A funding. The company is known for for software tools to launch and manage Web3 collectives known as “DAOs.” More here ->
Insuretech
BriteCo, BriteCo, an Evanston, Illinois-based startup that partners with jewelers to help consumers insure fine jewelry and watches within minutes of purchase, announced a seed-round raise of $2 million. More here ->
+Simple, a French based insurtech, raised €90 million and acquired three European companies. The French platform operates as an insurance Robo-Broker for freelancers, small and medium businesses. More here ->
Proptech
Flock Homes, a Denver-based real estate exchange fund provider, raised $26m in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led. Flock Homes wants to give landlords a similar ability to own shares of a portfolio that is made up of multiple properties. More here ->
Tomo, a "PayPal for mortgages," raised $40m at a $640m valuation. Founded in October 2020 by Greg Schwartz and Carey Armstrong (Zillow) - Tomo aims to be a “PayPal for the mortgage industry,” offering both underwritten pre-approvals and verified pre-approvals, which do not require a “hard credit inquiry” and can be completed in three hours. More here ->
Roofstock, a platform for investing in the single-family rental rental market, announced yesterday a Series E raise of $240 million. Their platform includes extensive algorithms for predicting profitable purchases, fractional ownership opportunities and property management services. More here ->
REX, a real estate technology company, secured $10M in financing, with the option to increase the amount to $45M. The company also recently launched Homes Plus, which provides customers cost savings and peace of mind after their purchase, by providing home maintenance, repairs, lawn care, moving and storage, all in one place. More here ->
From the Stash
Dealroom Talks: The Rise of Embedded Finance — dealroom.co This week we hosted a virtual forum on the rise of embedded finance. With the help of industry experts, startup founders and our own Intelligence Unit, we
BNPL Companies Face New Challenges As Incumbents Enter The Ring, Big Customers Shift Business Models — news.crunchbase.com Buy now, pay later companies are facing more pressure as competition in the space intensifies and traditional payments companies offer their own models.
Gen Z Doesn’t Need Investor Networks. They Make Their Own — news.crunchbase.com Data shows that Gen Z is the first generation that feels more themselves online than offline, and the ramifications are enormous, writes Ripple Ventures' Matt Cohen, who shares ways the generations can come together to drive innovation.
Citi Commercial Cards selects Marqeta for tokenized card provisioning — bankautomationnews.com Citi Commercial Cards will deploy payments fintech Marqeta to support tokenized card access for its corporate customers. Photo by Bloomberg Mercury Marqeta will integrate with Citi Commercial Cards, which operates under the umbrella of $2.3 trillion Citigroup, to support network agnostic provision of corporate physical and virtual cards into secure mobile wallets, a Citi spokesperson
The Week’s 10 Biggest Funding Rounds: Yuga Labs Goes Ape For A Large Round, Fintech Rules Again — news.crunchbase.com This week was big for NFTs and corporate card and expense reporting platforms.
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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