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The Front Page of Global Fintech

The the largest fintech community in the world. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest in news opinions, and all things financial technology.

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In financial services, quantum computing is big business 🖥️ (TWIF 1/20)

In financial services, quantum computing is big business 🖥️ (TWIF 1/20)

Hello Fintech Friends,

Are you not entertained?

That's how we feel looking at 23 new fintech funding announcements this week, including $75 million for an earned wage access provider, $100 million for a Chinese digital asset exchange, and $300 million for a bank-focused quantum computing platform.

All in all, fintechs raised over $700 million this week.

Signals Fintech Founders: Plenty’s Emily Luk
On lessons from Stripe, inspiration from Costco, serendipity, and the next generation of consumer fintech (for couples!)
Early findings from the world’s largest UBI study | GiveDirectly
Money always helps, but for the poorest, one large lump sum can last a long time. A long-term universal basic income also looks promising.

Please find another week of fintech financing events below. (PS: Have feedback for us? 👍👎 Let us know!)


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If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity or debt, we may be able to help - come check out our fund, The Fintech Fund (including a link to pitch us). Are you a fintech angel investor? Come join our syndicate.


📊 Stat of the Week
Fintech Funding Halved Last Year, But VCs Are Excited About These Areas And Deals In 2024
Venture investment in 2023 into financial services and fintech, which just a few years ago was the top sector for startup funding globally, totaled $43 billion, its lowest level in six years, according to Crunchbase data.
💸 Venture Financing
  • Quantinuum, a quantum computing startup with many financial services institutions as customers, raised $300 million at a $5 billion valuation from JP Morgan.
  • HashKey, the operator of two Hong Kong-licensed crypto exchanges, raised $100 million at a $1.2 billion valuation.
  • DailyPay, the earned wage access provider to workers, raised $75 million in new equity at a $1.75 billion valuation.
  • Digital Onboarding, a customer engagement solution built for banks, raised $58 million.
  • Flowdesk, a French market-maker-as-a-service for crypto and tradfi institutions, raised $50 million.
  • Pomelo, an Argentinian provider of payment infrastructure, raised a $40 million Series B.
  • 10x Banking, a UK provider of a core banking system, raised £35 million from investors including BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase.
  • Billink, a Dutch buy-now-pay-later provider, raised €29.5 million from German bank Varengold Bank.
  • Kashable, a provider of credit and financial wellness solutions to employees, raised $25.6m
  • Vertice, an expense management tool focused on software spend, raised $25 million.
  • Panacea, a neobank and provider of loan, banking and insurance services, raised a $24.5 million Series B.
  • Kiln, a provider of white-label infrastructure-focused crypto staking technology, raised $17 million.
  • Carmoola, a British car financing platform, raised a £15.5 post-Series A.
  • Prometeo, a Uruguayan startup building open banking products to function across Latin America, raised a $13 million Series A.
  • Woo, the provider of a crypto exchange, raised $9 million in order to improve liquidity.
  • PredictAP, an invoice ingestion & coding solution for real estate accounts payable, raised an $8 million Series A.
  • Briq, a startup that uses AI to automate finances in construction, raised an $8 million Series B extension at at $150 million valuation.
  • Upswing, an Indian provider of a multi-bank deposit product, raised a $4.2 million pre-Series A.
  • Zeal, an Egyptian app which allows users to link a payment method to the app's QR code, raised $4 million.
  • Tandem, an app for couples to manage their finances together (below), raised $3.7 million.
  • Canza Finance, a Nigerian cryptocurrency platform, raised $2.3 million to get a banking license and build DeFi products.
  • Depasify, a Spanish startup bridging traditional financial services and digital assets, raised €2 million.
  • Truewind, an accounting copilot, raised $1 million.
  • CollateralEdge, a solution that enables community and regional banks to structure more competitive commercial loans, raised strategic funding.

💵 Debt Financing
  • Victory Park Capital provided retail finance provider Zip with a new $225 million credit facility.

💰 Venture Funds
  • ThomVest raised $250 million for a new fund focused on fintech, cybersecurity, and AI.

📖 Reads of the Week
The Self-Checkout Nightmare May Finally Be Ending
Self-checkout is a failed experiment, and a growing number of stores are backpedaling on these cursed machines.
Schrodinger’s market: what the quantum internet could mean for the financial system
Ed Hill Once the stuff of science fiction, quantum technologies are advancing fast. Individual quantum computers are finding a range of applications, primarily driven by the immense speed-ups they …

☯️ Exits
💻 IPOs & SPACs
  • Kazakhstani provider of online banking, payments, and marketplace Kaspi set terms for its US IPO. The company plans to raise $873 million.


🤝 M&A - Fintech
  • American Express sold Accertify, whose technology helps retailers prevent credit card fraud, to private-equity firm Accel-KKR.
  • Encompass Corporation, a KYC provider, acquired two compliance startups - CoorpID and Blacksmith - developed by Dutch bank ING.
  • Onbe, the former Wirecard North America that merged with daVinci Payments in 2020, is reportedly looking for a buyer. It is valued at around $2 billion.
  • Ukheshe, African provider of a single API to integrate fully digital financial services, including wallet and payment methods, acquired acquired EFT, a pan-African payment solutions and financial switching provider.
  • Private equity firm Rockbridge acquired TouchFuse, a platform that allows financial advisors nationwide to manage the full spectrum of their marketing campaigns.
  • EquiLend, a securities lending platform, was acquired by private equity firm WCAS.
  • Ascent Technologies, a provider of AI-enabled compliance automation solutions for financial services companies, was acquired by private equity firm Edgewater.
  • Bain Capital is considering a sale of British payroll firm Zellis that could value the company at about £2 billion.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ
  • UK boutique investment banks Panmure Gordon and rival Liberum agreed to merge, creating Britain's largest investment bank.

🌎 Fintech Around the World

Bridging Borders in the Digital Financial Era - Africa's Cross-Border Payment Transformation

Indian funding winter shows signs of thaw but fintech industry is under scrutiny

📚 Deeper Reads & Features

Brian Armstrong’s Coinbase, a winner from the new bitcoin ETFs that recently started trading, faces a big legal test

Slicing Fintech Compliance: Understanding the FDIC consent order to Brighton Bank

Analyzing Amazon’s financial services strategy: Where the retail titan is focusing its efforts in fintech

Crypto and fintech groups fined $5.8bn in global crackdown on illicit money

Tokenized Deposits: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Stablecoins

Basel Proposal Violates the Law

Carta’s growth story is being overshadowed by its stock trading snafu

What happens to Carta now?

Cyber and fintech risk policies rejigged in a few central banks

Here’s How the New Bitcoin ETFs Work

Deal Dive: A Stripe secondary deal worth paying attention to

Taylor Swift’s cat Olivia Benson has a higher net worth than Travis Kelce


Have a news item for us? Reach out to news@thisweekinfintech.com