Hello Fintech Friends,

This week saw the roaring return of later-stage financing rounds in fintech, with 5 fundraises over $70 million, led by Human Interest's $267 million raise at a $1.3 billion valuation. Brazilian financial software provider Asaas and event payments platform atVenu also both pulled in over $100 million.

I was personally excited to share Zeal's* $15 million Series B. We invested in the company in early 2021, and since then, they've built an HR and payroll platform that offers fully digital and self-serve onboarding, earned wage access with paycards and digital wallets, custom branded no-code mobile apps, and benefits administration.

And on Twitter / X, I wrote something:

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This Week in Fintech

Please find another week of fintech financing events below.

(PS: Have feedback for us? 👍👎 Let us know!)

Public launches new 6.7% yielding Bond Account

All-in-one investing platform Public recently launched its new Bond Account, offering a new way to invest in corporate bonds and take advantage of some of the highest bond yields in years. When you invest your cash in a Bond Account, you can lock in a 6.7%* yield with a diversified portfolio of investment-grade and high-yield bonds that generate 20 interest payments annually. Unlike other investing platforms, many of which charge $10,000+ to invest in just one bond, Public allows you to get started with as little as $1,000. Plus, you can continue earning a 6.7%* yield, even if the Fed continues to cut rates.

Discover a new way to invest in bonds and lock in a 6.7% with a Bond Account on Public.

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📊 Stat of the Week

Average and total consumer debt balances in the US (Experian & Federal Reserve):

💸 Venture Financing

• Human Interest, a startup that lets smaller companies offer retirement plans and 401k's, raised $267 million at a $1.33 billion valuation.
• Asaas, a Brazilian company that makes financial software for small- and medium-sized businesses, raised a $148 million Series C.
• atVenu, a payment solutions provider for live events, raised $130 million.
• Imprint, a provider of modern co-branded credit cards, raised a $75 million Series C at a $600 million valuation.
• Farther, a software that helps financial advisors with administrative tasks and marketing support, raised $72 million in new capital at a $542 million valuation.
• Facet, a tailored financial advisory app founded in 2016, raised $35 million in new funding.
• Salmon, a Philippines-based consumer lender, raised $30m in Series A2 funding
• Numeric, an automated accounting platform, raised a $28 million Series A.
• FlexFactor, a startup that helps companies recover lost revenues from payment issues, raised a $16.8 million Series A.
• Zeal*, a provider of flexible, automated, and native payroll solutions, raised a $15 million Series B.
• Surfin, a Singaporean provider of consumer lending, payments, remittances, credit cards, and wealth management, raised $12.5 million.
• Bitlayer Labs, the developer of a Bitcoin Layer 2 payment network, raised a $9 million Series A extension at its $300 million valuation.
• Apex Fusion, a multi-chain Layer 1 network, raised $6 million through a private token sale.
• Quartr, a Swedish data provider improving qualitative public market research for investor relations, raised $6 million.
• Kriptown, a French stock exchange for small businesses, raised a €4.2 million Series A.
• WithLess, a software management platform for CFOs and finance teams, raised €3 million.
• FutureMoney, a micro-investing platform for families to invest in their kids, raised a $2.5 million pre-seed.
• Round Treasury, a banking and treasury platform, raised a $2.1 million pre-seed.
• Infinite Giving, a fintech platform for nonprofits, raised $2 million in seed funding.
• Monzo received approval from investors to buy back stock from its employees at a £4.5 billion valuation.

💵 Debt Financing

•  Small business banking platform Mercury secured a $100 million credit facility from Natixis to scale its corporate credit card business.

Public launches new 6.7% yielding Bond Account

All-in-one investing platform Public recently launched its new Bond Account, offering a new way to invest in corporate bonds and take advantage of some of the highest bond yields in years. When you invest your cash in a Bond Account, you can lock in a 6.7%* yield with a diversified portfolio of investment-grade and high-yield bonds that generate 20 interest payments annually. Unlike other investing platforms, many of which charge $10,000+ to invest in just one bond, Public allows you to get started with as little as $1,000. Plus, you can continue earning a 6.7%* yield, even if the Fed continues to cut rates.

Discover a new way to invest in bonds and lock in a 6.7% with a Bond Account on Public.

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.

Want to invest in the best fintech companies of tomorrow? Come join our syndicate.

*This yield is the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across all ten bonds in the Bond Account, before fees, as of 10/08/2024. Because the YTW of each bond is a function of that bond’s market price, which can fluctuate, your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here and your YTW is not “locked in” until the time of purchase. A bond’s YTW is not guaranteed; you can earn less than that YTW if you do not hold the bonds to maturity or the issuer defaults.

A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. The 6.6% yield is the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across all ten bonds in the Bond Account, before fees, as of 10/08/2024. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. 

Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. You should evaluate each bond before investing in a Bond Account.  The bonds in your Bond Account will not be rebalanced and allocations will not be updated, except for Corporate Actions.

Fractional Bonds also carry additional risks including that they are only available on Public and cannot be transferred to other brokerages. Read more about the risks associated with fixed income and fractional bonds. See Bond Account Disclosures to learn more

While corporate bond yields should fall in reaction to a Federal Reserve rate cut, we cannot know whether that will be true of the bonds in the Bond Account, how quickly bond yields will respond, or how much they will decline.