6 min read

Fintech Highlights - 4/16/2024

PayJoy sees solid growth. Revolut goes to Mexico. Finmid raises a roundHere's what we've been watching this week 👇

Pinned to the Top

shallow focus photography of person holding smartphone
PayJoy enables a paid off phone to become collateral

PayJoy is an example of a company with positive unit economics and a mission to help the underserved.

It’s not often that we see those two things intersect, so when you do, you get pretty excited.

TechCrunch wrote about the company’s milestone of achieving $300 million in annualized revenue and profitability last year, while also managing to land $150 million in Series C funding.

The company’s model is unique: It helps people build credit through pay-as-you-go financing for smartphones.

Once the phones are paid off, customers can apply for loans through PayJoy using their devices as collateral. 

More here ->

The BFD

white and black card on white surface
Revolut has approval from Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission

UK fintech Revolut, which already boasts 40 million customers worldwide, has approval from Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission as it looks to expand across LatAM.

The licence is pending an audit, but once approved Revolut will begin rolling out a number of new products and services in the country, including cross-border remittances.

Tell me more: Remittances in Mexico reached a record $63.3 billion last year, and many of the payments sent came from the US, so Revolut targeting this market makes economic sense.

 It’s been a strong year overall for Revolut, who have reported their first year of annual profit, and investor Schroder now believe the fintech is 45% more valuable than it was a year ago.

 Following news of its new banking licence, Revolut’s Mexico CEO Juan Miguel Guerra announced plans to invest over $100 million in 2024, primarily for hiring and maintaining sufficient operational liquidity, to fuel their growth.

 Mexico has become a key fintech battleground, with Nubank also awaiting their banking licence and investing heavily. They have also beaten Revolut to remittances by partnering with Felix Pago back in January.


What's next: Revolut have already outlined their plans for cross-border remittances, but a banking licence unlocks the potential to provide a full range of banking services in the country, including savings and lending products.

 Mexico is the second largest economy in Latin America, which makes it a huge potential area of growth for Revolut. However, they face tough competition from Nubank, who already have millions of customers in Mexico and strong brand value in the region.

 As they build on their EEA licence, and continue to pursue a UK banking licence, there’s clearly no limit to Revolut’s ambition, but where they will move next remains to be seen.

M&A

Bowhead Specialty, a N.Y.-based specialty property & casualty insurer, filed for an IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE as BOW. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, and Keefe Bruyette Woods are the joint bookrunners on the deal. axios.link/3vQRwUY More here ->

Empower Finance announced its plans to acquire Petal, which apparently began looking for buyers last year “when it was short on cash,” according to Fortune. More here ->

Embedded Fintech

Finmid, a German embedded fintech startup, raised €23m ($24.7m) in Series A funding. Finmid enables B2B platforms to offer their customers financing solutions directly within their existing platforms.  More here ->

Fintech

Ramp, a N.Y.-based corporate finance management startup, raised $150m in additional Series D funding at a $7.65b post-money valuation. axios.link/3Ul26Nn More here ->

Billd, a provider of construction financing services, raised $9.5 million of venture funding from undisclosed investors. The company has raised $166.1 million to date. The company aims to address the cash flow challenges faced by contractors and subcontractors by providing financing that allows them to purchase materials and pay for labor costs upfront, with the option to repay over time. More here ->

Rumor has it that HR/fintech startup Rippling is raising $200 million, with another $670 million worth of shares being sold by existing stockholders.  More here ->

TransferGo, the U.K.-based fintech best known as a consumer platform for global remittances, has raised a $10 million growth funding round from Taiwan-based investor Taiwania Capital, with a view to expanding in the Asia-Pacific region. It last raised a $50 million Series C funding round in 2021. TransferGo claims its growth, combined with the new investment, doubles its valuation.  More here ->

Pliant, a German corporate credit card startup, raised over $19m in additional Series A funding. Pliant aims to offer businesses a flexible and technologically advanced payment platform that integrates seamlessly into existing financial processes and systems. More here ->

Toku, a Chilean business payments management startup, raised $9.3m in Series A funding. Toku specializes in payment management and recurring revenue collection for subscription-based companies in Latin America. More here ->

Flatpay, a Danish SMB payments startup, raised €45m ($47m) in funding. The company ounded in 2022 that provides payment solutions and point-of-sale (POS) systems for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).  More here ->

Payflows, a Paris-based SaaS for finance teams, raised €25m in Series A funding. The platform provides a unified view of accounts payable, accounts receivable, customers, suppliers, payments, and cash flows. More here ->

Midas, a fintech startup that allows people in Turkey to invest in U.S. and Turkish equities, says it has raised $45 million in a funding round led by Portage of Canada.  More here ->

More fintech funding rounds:

US startup Parafin lands $125M warehouse facility from SVB and Trinity Capital

Tabs secures $7M seed funding to enhance AI-driven accounts receivable platform

UAE’s fintech Fortis secures $20M in a Series A round 

Anrok hits a $250M valuation with a mundane idea: calculating

Investtech

Bridgewise, a U.K.-based financial markets translation startup, raised $21m in funding. More here ->

Crypto

Centrifuge, an UAE-based blockchain finance startup, raised $15m in Series A funding. More here ->

Nebra, a N.Y.-based crypto research startup, raised $4.5m in seed funding. More here ->

Insuretech

Pula, an insurtech based in Kenya, has been keen on enhancing the access to agricultural insurance by small-holder farmers across emerging markets. So far, the insurtech has supported 15.4 million farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America to get insured, and it is eyeing more following a $20 million Series B funding round. More here ->

From the Stash

RPA does job of 500 people at KeyBank - KeyBank is using robotic process automation to boost efficiency without hiring more people.   The $189 billion bank has about 300 processes automated through (RPA), Michael Reynolds, business technology executive for service digitization, said last month at Bank Automation Summit 2024 in Nashville, Tenn.  More here ->

Ally launches digital products in first quarter - Ally Financial invested in its digital product strategy, which continues to boost customer retention rates.  “We have expanded our products and features to deepen customer relationships, including Ally Home and Ally Invest,” Interim Chief Executive Doug Timmerman said today during the bank’s first-quarter earnings call.  More here ->

Transactions: BNY Mellon, Accenture team up to boost data and analytics services - BNY Mellon has selected technology services provider Accenture to enhance the bank’s data and analytics services.  The bank will use Accenture’s AI and data expertise to introduce new services and create new client experiences, according to an April 15 release. More here ->

U.S. Bank’s investment in payments tech drives growth - U.S. Bank’s investment in payments technology contributed to growth and higher payments revenue in the first quarter.  “We are maintaining our through-the-cycle underwriting discipline and seeing the benefits of our multiyear investments in [the] digital, technology and payments ecosystem in the form of strong fee growth across our business lines,” More here ->

Bank of America’s digital offerings draw more users - Bank of America’s digital offerings continue to be a draw, as its virtual assistant Erica reached 2 billion user interactions in the first quarter.  “Erica continues to drive increased digital engagement, in part because it gives us the ability to deliver important information to clients and answer their questions in real-time,” More here ->

Klarna has launched its credit card in the United States - With the Klarna credit card, the company is now competing with the likes of Apple and more recently, Robinhood, as well as rival BNPL player Affirm in offering a credit card in the United States. More here ->

More stories for you:

Google Wallet appears in India, with local integrations, but Pay will stay

India scrambles to curb PhonePe and Google’s dominance in mobile payments

Jio Financial, BlackRock to tap India’s wealth management market

Inside LemFi’s play to be fintech to the Global South diaspora


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