Fintech Highlights - 6/14/2022

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Pinned to the Top

Fundbox, the embedded working capital platform for small businesses announced last week a partnership with Visa and that it has crossed over $160 million in annual revenue run rate.

Its partnership includes the launch of the Fundbox Flex Visa Debit Card, which it says combines “the power of Flex Pay (which has grown 80% in transaction volume QoQ) with Visa’s ubiquitous acceptance,” it told TechCrunch.

It will also be working to develop a BNPL product for businesses and instant fund disbursement products.

“In order to accelerate the flow of funds to our customers, it’s critical for us to continue enhancing our core payment capabilities, and our partnership with Visa is a significant step towards that vision” said Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox.

The BFD

During its WWDC keynote, Apple announced a bevy of changes and updates to its hardware and software - and plans to expand its fintech footprint by announcing a new service called Apple Pay Later that will allow consumers to make mobile and online purchases sliced into four payments over six weeks at the millions of U.S. retailers that already accept Apple Pay.

Why it's the BFD: What about outfits like Klarna, Afterpay and Affirm? Will Apple’s news upset their apple carts? And what should we consider the potential impact of Apple’s news on the smaller, regional or otherwise niche-y BNPL players that raised so very much capital in the last few years?

Details: To say it’s been a topsy-turvy few weeks in the world of BNPL would be possibly the understatement of the year. First Affirm saw a 75% drop in shares. Then Klarna announced mass layoffs. And now the tech giants (with an emphasis on GIANT) are hoping to corner a diminishing market with a product that will be integrated straight into users’ products with the dawn of iOS 16. Can’t wait to see how much memory that takes up.

The bottom line: The impact that Apple will have on the category will be intriguiging - with only time being able to tell. But already we;ve seen investors voting their position with their trading activity - shares of Affirm sold off in the wake of the Apple announcement.

Fintechs

BUD, the London-based open banking / embedded finance startup, raised $80m. An early and well known pioneer in the UK, Bud is a provider of an AI-based open banking platform that is used by large banks and others to help power lending and other personalized products. More here ->

Proper, a provider of data reconciliation software for fintechs, raised $4.3m in seed funding.  The company is working to streamline operations at other fintech startups, specifically through its reconciliation software that those companies can use to help ensure they’re working with accurate and precise data even when it comes from different places. More here ->

Fruitful, a New York-based financial planning startup, raised $25m. Fruitful aims to "provide access to financial planning to the masses at a cost that won’t eat up whatever savings — if any — they might have." More here ->

Securesave, a Seattle-based emergency savings fintech co-led by Suze Orman, raised $11m. SecureSave is building an easier way for employers to offer employees sponsored emergency savings accounts. More here ->

Backbase has raised $130 million in a series A round. The self-styled “engagement banking” fintech provides a white-labeled platform for banks and credit unions that digitizes retail and business banking and counts $181 billion KeyBank and $153 billion Navy Federal Credit Union as banks that have “embraced” its products. More here ->

Trovata, a San Diego-based cash management automation startup, raised $27m in Series B funding. The company is "focused on automating cash reporting and forecasting via wholesale, multi-bank API data aggregation.” More here ->

Codat, a London-based software startup that connects small businesses with financial institutions, raised $100m in Series C funding at an $825m valuation. The company sees it self as "being the data infrastructure layer for small business at scale.” More here ->

Kinly, a neobank focused on Black millennial women, raised $15m in Series A funding. Kinly is an inclusive financial technology company that proudly serves the unique needs of Black America and its allies. More here ->

Delphia, a "share to earn" investment app, raised $60m in Series A funding.  The stock-picking startup with algorithmic and crypto features plans to reward users for access to their data. More here ->

Klar, a digital banking startup in Mexico, raised $90m. The bank, believed to be Mexico’s largest digital bank, has experienced a period of hypergrowth with a “7x” year-over-year increase in revenue and 4x bump in transaction volume over the same time period. More here ->

Juni, a Swedish e-commerce-focused neobank, raised $100m in Series B.  Founded in 2020, Juni provides financial management platforms to ecommerce companies and had raised $52 million in October. More here ->

Datia, a Sweden-based sustainability calculation fintech, raised $3.4m in seed funding. Simplifying investors’ transition to sustainable finance, the green tech company helps firms to understand impact of their portfolios, regulatory reporting and pre-trade screening. More here ->

Kushki, an Ecuadoran payments infrastructure startup, raised $100m in new Series B funding at a $1.5b valuation.  Kushki aims to help make it easier, cheaper and more secure for businesses across LatAm to send and receive/process digital payments. Specifically, it enables LatAm businesses to accept payments globally and receive money in their local currency. More here ->

Indica, a Nigerian business credit startup, raised $3m in seed funding. Lenders can use Indicina for credit scoring and bank sentiment analysis, getting access to ML-driven financial analytics and improved insights into consumers they currently don’t have and derisk unsecured loans. More here ->

Crypto

Skolem Technologies, an SF-based DeFi asset management provider, raised $20m in Series A funding. Skolem aims to provide a safe and secure entry point for institutional investors wishing to access the constantly evolving decentralized finance (DeFi) markets. More here ->

Ledgible, an Atlanta-based crypto tax and accounting startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. Ledgible says it integrates major blockchains, exchanges, wallets, and professional accounting tools in order to determine tax liabilities for both consumers and enterprises.  More here ->

Mash, a Toronto-based payments platform that uses the Bitcoin and Lightning networks, raised $6m in seed funding. The company leverages a usage-based payment model that lets consumers choose what they spend money on, rather than charging flat fees. More here ->

Navigate, a Singapore-based crypto rewards startup, raised $7.6m in seed funding. Navigate's business idea is to let users share data on its platform and, in return, offer crypto rewards in its NVG8 token. More here ->

Indonesian crypto trading app Pintu has closed a $113M Series B round. Launched in April 2020, Pintu bills itself as “Indonesia’s leading homegrown crypto assets platform.” This is the third round of funding the startup has landed in little over a year. More here ->

Entropy, a decentralized crypto custodian, raised $25m in seed funding. The Brooklyn, New York-based startup is aiming to disrupt the way digital assets are held through its decentralized self-custody solution. More here ->

Cryptio, a crypto back-office startup, raised $10m in Series A funding.  Tapping into the need for accountability and sound financial reporting in both crypto native and financial institutions holding digital assets, Cryptio is providing a data infrastructure that helps these organisations translate on-chain activities into reports and ledgers. More here ->

Request Finance, a Berlin-based crypto payments startup, raised $5.5m in seed funding. The startup simplifies and automates invoicing, expenses and payroll for both centralized and decentralized companies. More here ->

Coinbase has agreed to invest in Zipmex, a Southeast Asian crypto exchange that had been seeking funding at a $400m valuation, after deciding against a full acquisition. More here ->

Insuretechs

Branch, a Columbus, Ohio-based home and auto insurance startup, raised $147m in Series C funding at a $1.05b valuation. The startup bundles auto and home insurance in a single transaction. More here ->

Policygenius, an insurtech that raised $125 million in a Series E round less than 3 months ago, has reportedly laid off about 25% of its staff. Recently Policygenius — whose software essentially allows consumers to find and buy different insurance products online — said that its home and auto insurance business had “grown significantly,” with new written premiums having increased “more than 6x from 2019 to 2021.” More here ->

Proptechs

Summer, a New York-based financing startup for second homes, raised $13.4m in seed funding. The company helps consumers buy a second home and rents it while they are away. More here ->

Just Move In, a British home setup service, raised £4m.  Using the platform, a mover can manage council, water, sewerage, energy and broadband in a single environment (not going out to third-party sites), and it’s also adding insurance and removals imminently, as well as integrating its service via API into the journey(s) of conveyancing firms, banks and other kinds of fintechs. It even includes removals and storage company recommendations. More here ->

Keyway, a startup that buys property from small and medium-sized business owners and then leases it back to them, has secured $70 million in debt financing on the heels of a $15 million equity raise. More here ->

From the Stash

Investors show LatAm fintechs the money — app.sparkmailapp.com Greetings from Austin, Texas, where the temps have been over 100 degrees for days now and we’re trying hard just not to melt.

How the Buy Now Pay Later landscape is shifting • 11:FS — content.11fs.com It’s been a rough period for BNPL so let’s take a look at how we got here and whether there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

PayPal is finally allowing users to move their cryptocurrency to other wallets – TechCrunch — techcrunch.com PayPal announced today that its users will now be able to transfer cryptocurrency from their accounts to other wallets and exchanges.

PayPal laid off 83 employees as it reduces Bay Area presence — techcrunch.com PayPal laid off dozens of employees from its San Jose headquarters, filings show. As first reported by The Information and later confirmed by Techcrunch, the layoffs impacted 83 employees. PayPal’s layoffs, while just now coming to the surface, were conducted around a week before the fintech confirmed that it was shuttering its San Francisco office. […]

Sheryl Sandberg, Substack and the art of still raising money for groceries — techcrunch.com Welcome back to Equity, a weekly TechCrunch podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

Crypto market tumult drops Bitcoin to 18-Month low — news.crunchbase.com Bitcoin plummeted—again—to hit its lowest mark since December 2020. As of early Monday morning the cryptocurrency was down more than 10%.

Podcast

Ripping up the rulebook - 11:FS — content.11fs.com

David M. Brear and Gwera Kiwana are joined by some great guests, from Orum and Chipper Cash, to break down the comparisons between DeFi, embedded finance and the music counterculture.

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