This Week in Fintech (1/15)

Hello Fintech Friends,

Somebody started the year telling me they thought fintech fundraising had cooled down… well, we’re back with 43 deals this week and counting. No sleep til next December.

For those who missed it, we announced our Global Fintech Treks yesterday!

Come join us, and start off with our Europe, Asia, and Latin America editions.

Please find another week of fintech financings and exits below.

Editor’s Note: If you’re an early-stage startup founder raising equity or debt, we may be able to help - please see our primer for more details and reach out to nik@thisweekinfintech.com.

PItch Deck of the Week: Erad is building a revenue-trading marketplace for the 20mm businesses in the Middle East. See their pitch deck here and reach out to get in-touch.

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💼 Open Role Spotlight

Come find your place on the team at the most inspiring fintech startups! Browse open roles on This Week in Fintech’s job board.

💸 Venture Financing

Four separate business neobanks raised funds on the same day this week. Even Citadel is out there raising from Sequoia and Paradigm…

Checkout, the UK payments competitor to Stripe, raised $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation.
Qonto, a French business-focused neobank, raised a €486 million Series D.
Bolt, an online checkout provider, raised a $355 million Series E at an $11 billion valuation.
Pagaya, an Israeli AI embedded fintech platform, raised a $350 million PIPE ahead of its planned merger with EJF Acquisition Corp.
Brex, the corporate banking and rewards provider, raised a $300 million Series D-2 at a $12.3 billion valuation and is eyeing additional acquisitions.
CAIS, an alternative investment provider, raised $225 million.
Qraft, a South Korean AI tool for ETF investing, raised $146 million to expand to the US.
Seba Bank, a Swiss digital asset-focused bank, raised €100 million to fuel its growth into Asia and the Middle East.
Global Processing Services, a banking core infrastructure provider, raised $100 million.
Zero Hash *, a digital currency infrastructure provider to financial institutions, raised a $100 million Series D.
Novo, a US-based SMB neobank, raised a $90 million Series B at a $700 million valuation.
Refyne, an Indian earned wage access provider, raised an $82 million Series B.
FPL Technologies, an Indian credit education company, raised a $75 million Series C.
Klar, a Mexican credit card for unbanked consumers with 1.2 million users, raised a $70 million Series B.
Pluang, an Indonesian investment app, raised $55 million.
DMI Finance, an Indian lender, raised $47 million from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank.
KoinWorks, an Indonesian small business banking platform, raised a $43 million Series C.
AcreTrader, a farmland alternative asset investing platform, raised a $40 million Series B.
Alasco, German a financial management platform for the real estate industry, raised €35 million.
Twig, a UK instant cash-out app billing itself as “your bank of things,” raised a $35 million Series A.
Rupeek, an Indian gold lending platform, raised $34 million.
Accrue Savings, a “save now pay later” startup, raised a $25 million Series A.
Conduit *, the orchestration layer for decentralized finance, raised a $17 million seed round.
Gr4vy, a payment orchestration platform, raised a $15 million Series A+.
Flashtract, a billing and payments software for construction, raised a $15 million Series A.
Shield, a compliance platform, raised a $15 milion Series A.
Woo Network, a defi liquidity provider, raised a $12-million Series A+.
Arc, a borrowing, saving, and spending platform for SaaS companies, raised $11 million in seed funding and $150 million in debt financing.
SeamlessHR, a Nigerian payroll platform, raised a $10 million Series A.
Kaleidofin, an Indian neobank, raised a $10 million Series B.
Parrot, a PoS card reader for Latin America, raised $9.5 million.
Acorn Finance, a financing provider for home improvement, raised an $8.4 million Series A.
Fintech Farm, a UK platform for launching neobanks in emerging markets, raised a $7.4 million seed.
Responsible, an embedded finance platform for fashion, raised a $6.6 million seed round from Barclays.
Seashell, a decentralized savings platform offering 10% rates, raised a $6 million seed round.
Friktion, a defi portfolio management tool, raised a $5.5 million seed.
ThankUCash, a Nigerian infrastructure builder for cashback and buy-now-pay-later, raised a $5.3 million seed round.
Paysail *, a B2B payments provider that lowers costs and drives latency building on Celo, raised a $4 million seed round.
muvin, an Indian younger generation-focused neobank, raised a $3 million pre-Series A.
Pocketnest, a female-founded financial wellness platform, raised $2 million.
BondCLiQ, a quote system for the corporate bond market, raised a Series A from the London Stock Exchange.
Trust & Will, an estate planning platform, raised money from UBS Fintech Portfolio.
Vitt, a UK and Germany revenue-based financing platform, raised $15 million in debt and pre-seed equity.
PrimaryBid, a UK retail investment platform in public equity cash calls, is in talks to raise £110 million.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

Pine Labs, an Indian point of sale and e-commerce software provider, confidentially filed for a $500 million US IPO.
Akulaku, an Indonesian online lender, is considering a SPAC at a $2 billion valuation.
Payroll giant Justworks delayed its IPO, citing market conditions.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Public cloud digital banking platform nCino acquired homeownership platform SimpleNexus.
UK neobank Tandem Bank acquired credit and lending provider Oplo, to create an entity with £1.2 billion of total assets.
Crypto exchange Coinbase acquired FairX in order to launch crypto derivatives…
…while Gemini acquired BITRIA to get into wealth management.
Sustainability-focused neobank Aspiration announced it will acquire carbon accounting tool Carbon Insights.
FundThrough acquired invoice factoring firm BlueVine.
United Fintech, a holding company for capital markets solutions, bought a 25% stake in investment decision software Athena Systems.
Fundraising platform GoFundMe acquired nonprofit fundraiser Classy.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

Citi will sell off its Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam operations to Singapore’s United Overseas Bank for $3.7 billion.
German bank BayernLB is evaluating a sale of its asset management arm.
Wealth management firm Mercer Global Advisors, which has been acquiring left and right, bought retirement manager Cordasco Financial Network.
European bank ING took a stake in EIT InnoEnergy.

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