Hello Fintech Friends,

What a week for content!

First, we had a great guest post for Signals from Sara Hayden Van Velkinburgh on Why fintech has failed Mexico’s unbanked population and what can be done about it.

Next, our podcast co-hosts Helen and Julie interviewed Kelly Soderlund, the Senior Director of Global Public Relations for Navan, and Katie Evans, Head of PR for Swarm, on a topic that will be familiar to many people in fintech: Imposter Syndrome.

Check out the full conversation in the newest episode of Beyond Two Percent!

And what a week for investment!

You can now add Ryan Reynolds to the prestigious association of fintech investors. Which celebrity will be next to join the fintech revolution?

Lastly - I’m joining the team at Unit for a live virtual event on 2:30 pm ET on Wednesday, April 26th, to talk about how brands like DoorDash and Lyft are using embedded finance to grow through challenging economic times. Come say hi 👋

👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!

Please find another week of fintech financing events below.

Q1 fintech ‘megarounds’ – deals valued at $100 million or more – “accounted for 61% of total funding in the first quarter, a whopping 179% increase quarter over quarter across 16 deals and a total of $9.2 billion.” But only one fintech unicorn Egypt-based MNT-Halan, has been minted so far in 2021. (Source)

💸 Venture Financing

1. Pagaya, an AI tool for consumer financial risk prediction, raised $75 million in the form of a convertible perpetual preferred security.
2. Unchained Capital, a Bitcoin-based financial services provider, raised a $60 million Series B.
3. Mooncard, a French expense management card and software, raised a €37 million Series C.
4. Clerkie, a debt repayment platform, raised a $33 million Series A.
5. Trullion, an accounting automation startup, raised an additional $15 million as part of its Series A.
6. TaxCloud, a sales tax compliance platform, raised a $20 million round and was acquired by private equity firm Camber Partners.
7. Yonder, a UK credit card rewards startup focused on Gen Z, raised £12.5 million.
8. Rally, a checkout platform for e-commerce merchants, raised $12 million.
9. VoxSmart, a communications surveillance tool for financial institutions, raised $12 million.
10. Universal Ledger, a digital currency embeddable wallet app, raised $10 million.
11. Triver, a UK open banking working capital provider to small businesses, raised £7 million in seed funding.
12. Evergrow, a fintech for tax financing and clean energy tax credits, raised a $7 million seed round.
13. Floodlight, a financial management app for small and medium e-commerce businesses, raised a $6.4 million seed round.
14. Fractal, a transparency platform for crypto trading markets, raised $6 million.
15. Bixby, a provider of credit information on private syndicated loan issuers, raised a $5.5 million Series A.
16. TiiCKER, a shareholder loyalty and engagement platform, raised a $5 million seed round.
17. Waave, an Australian account-to-account bank payments startup, raised a $4.7 million seed.
18. Ocho, a personal finance support platform for business owners, raised a $4.5 million seed round.
19. CurbWaste, a waste management payments startup, raised a $4 million seed extension.
20. Charm Solutions, an AI-powered small business credit advisor, raised a $3.5 million seed round.
21. Coinflow Labs, a web3 payment stack provider, raised a $1.45 million pre-seed.
22. Nuvei, a Canadian payments platform, received an investment from Ryan Reynolds.
23. Hokodo, a European B2B buy-now-pay-later platform, added Citi to its Series B.
24. NexGen Financial, a capital provider to debt settlement companies, received an investment from Blue Sage Capital.

From The Economist: why America will soon see a wave of bank mergers

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

• The digital finance world got its first filing for a crypto IPO in a long time this week! Chia Network, a “more environmentally friendly, less energy-intensive blockchain that relies on hard drives, including recycled ones, for data storage,” filed for IPO. The company last fundraised at a $500 million valuation in 2021.
• Rakuten Bank, the banking unit of Japanese commerce software platform Rakuten, successfully went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and its shares popped 40% in the first hours of trading.
• Britain’s Co-operative Bank is in the early stages of exploring a potential sale or IPO.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

• AI credit and financial risk platform Pagaya is exploring an acquisition of Sunlight Financial, a rooftop solar financing platform.
• Network International, the largest payment processing firm across the Middle East and Africa, received takeover interest valuing it at about $2.56 billion, sending its shares up 23%. Private equity firm Brookfield Asset Management submitted a £2.1 billion bid for the firm.
• Electronic direct lending exchange American Financial Exchange was acquired by growth equity firm 7RIDGE.
• German insurance giant Allianz is looking to sell its stake in neobank N26 at a sharp discount – an implied $3 billion valuation, down from $9 billion.
• Australian publicly-listed payments firm EML Payments fired its CEO and is exploring a sale after facing pressure from the Central Bank of Ireland over anti-money laundering deficiencies at its Irish subsidiary.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

• Goldman Sachs is mulling the sale of the buy now, pay later-based home improvement lender Greensky that it acquired for $2.24 billion in 2021.
• French bank BNP Paribas is in talks to sell its consumer finance division in Hungary to French cooperative banking group Crédit Mutuel. Meanwhile, Crédit Mutuel is looking to sell a stake in its payments unit, Monext.

🌎 Fintech Around the World

Infographic: LatAm Fintech Landscape, 2023

For LatAm payment orchestration startups, market fragmentation is a blessing in disguise

China's payment association warns over risks of using AI products like ChatGPT

How London lost its luster for fintechs

What is the Future of Agency Banking in Nigeria?

📚 Deeper Reads & Features

The Path Forward: Consumer Protection with Rohit Chopra

Goodbye, Starbucks Visa Card

There Are Gaps In The US Real-Time Payment System. Who Will Fill Them?

How N26 - Germany’s top fintech - is struggling to grow up

First Republic Worked Hard to Woo Rich Clients. It Was the Bank’s Undoing

What's the relationship of human vs algorithms when it comes to investing?

New Understanding Emerging Around Uninsured Deposits

How fintechs will decide which payments to route in real time

Citi predicts $4 trillion of tokenized assets

Banks Are Finally Facing Pressure to Pay Depositors More

Social Issues Impact Consumers’ Choice Of Banks—Should Banks Take A Stand?

Goldman Sachs CIO suggests bank could train its own ‘ChatGS’ A.I. chatbot

How Pagaya uses alternative solutions to decision on credit, enabling more financial inclusion

Bridging the Gap: How Financial Inclusion Can Help Reduce Poverty and Income Inequality

How Fintech-Bank collaborations are bringing together the best of both worlds

Remarks by Vice Chairman Travis Hill at the Bipartisan Policy Center on the Recent Bank Failures and the Path Ahead

Square software turns Android devices into powerful payment technology

'Disbelief' as Rare Albino Dolphin Spotted Swimming in Africa

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