This Week in Fintech (6/19)

Hello Fintech Friends,

Today marks Juneteenth in the United States, a commemoration of the end of slavery (and now a federal holiday). It is a much-needed reminder of the racial inequalities that persist today due to systemic injustice.

Racial inequality takes many forms - differences in education, in career opportunities, in criminal justice, in financial access - and results from many drivers. Those drivers are systemic, in that they permeate the basic architecture on top of which society is constructed. The criteria used by a bank loan officer, for example, can have nothing to do with race, and yet generate disparate racial outcomes. But that architecture is a choice, and it is one we can unmake. This simple fact is a reminder to the fintech community of our responsibility to build a better financial system: one predicated on inclusion and justice.

It’s exciting to see community-focused banks like Greenwood, First Boulevard, and Cheese gain traction for that explicit purpose: to provide the banking services to underrepresented communities that legacy financial institutions won’t.

But there is still much work to be done...

(Source: Brookings)

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, I may be able to help - reach out to nik@thisweekinfintech.com.

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💸 Venture Financing

Shopify, Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake, and others bought up $1 billion of secondary shares from Stripe.
Ebanx, a Brazilian cross-border payments platform, raised $430 million ahead of a potential US IPO.
Guideline, a provider of 401(k) solutions to small businesses, raised $200 million at a $1.5 billion valuation.
ThinCats, a UK alternative lender to SMBs, raised a £160 million strategic investment.
10x Future Technologies, a banking software provider, raised a (confirmed) $187 million Series C. (We reported on the $130 million rumor last week.)
Addepar, a wealth management dashboard software, raised $150 million at a $2.17 billion valuation.
Paycargo, a freight payment platform, raised a $125 million Series B.
DNA Payments, a UK payment processor, raised £100 million.
Unit, a banking as a service provider, raised a $51 million Series B.
FIA Tech, a technology provider to the futures industry, raised $44 million from industry backers including ABN Amro, Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wells Fargo.
Novo, a neobank for SMBs, raised a $40.7 million Series A.
Splash Financial, an online loan comparison tool, raised a $44.3 million Series B.
FamPay, an Indian neobank for teens, raised a $38 million Series A.
Finleap Connect, a European open banking platform, raised €22 million.
Hello Alice, a business capital and CFO suite for SMBs, raised a $21 million Series B.
Eltropy, a communications suite for financial institutions, raised $21 million.
Upflow, a payments collection optimization platform, raised a $15 million Series A.
Booste, a Polish revenue-based financing platform, raised a €12 million Series A.
Dapp, a Mexican business payments startup, raised a $12.4 million Series A.
Goldfinch, a decentralized lending platform for emerging markets, raised an $11 million Series A.
Arrived Homes, a residential real estate investing platform, raised $10 million.
Coinme, a startup providing crypto enablement to financial services institutions, raised $10 million.
nSure AI, a fraud prediction service, raised a $6.8 million seed.
Wajve, a financial advisory app for Gen Z, raised a €5 million seed.
Change, a crypto investing platform, raised €3.7 million in crowdfunding.
Finley, a debt management CMS, raised a $3 million seed.
Ophelos, a UK debt collection platform, raised a $2.3 million pre-seed.
B9, a financial app for immigrants, raised a $1.7 million pre-seed.
Finantier, a Southeast Asian open banking / open finance startup, raised a “seven figure” seed round.
Layer, an Irish digital banking transformation platform, is in the market for new funding.
TeamApt, a Nigerian agent banking platform, plans to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation.

💵 Debt Financing

Residential real estate platform Arrived Homes raised $20 million in debt.

💰 Venture Funds

Fintech partner bank Cross River Bank launched its own venture capital arm, Cross River Digital Ventures, to invest in fintech startups.
Build-to-rent operator Amro Partners launched a dedicated fintech venture capital arm.
European fintech venture capital firm Augmentum Fintech plans to raise a new £40 million fund.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs

International cross-border payments company Wise (formerly Transferwise) settled on a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange at a valuation of $6 to $7 billion.
Angel Oak Mortgage, a mortgage investment fund, priced a downsized IPO, selling 11% fewer shares than expected to raise $137 million.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

JP Morgan Chase’s UK arm will acquire personal financial management startup Nutmeg to expand its consumer wealth management offering in the UK.
Global payment solutions provider EVO Payments acquired Chilean payment gateway Pago Fácil.
Kenyan retail distribution solution provider MarketForce acquired retailer startup Digiduka to bring financial services to more consumers in Africa.
UK online payments giant Checkout.com acquired Estonian software development firm Icefire.
BearingPoint RegTech, a European banking regulatory technology provider, acquired Irish regtech Vizor Software.
Experian acquired tax solution Tax Credit Co. from private equity firm VSS Capital Partners.
Vertically-integrated payments solution provider REPAY completed its acquisition of BillingTree for $503 million.
Mastercard completed its acquisition of ID verification provider Ekata.

🏦 M&A - Bank

Private equity firm Cerberus will acquire the French retail banking division of HSBC.

💲 M&A - Investment Management

Private equity giants Ares Management and Maven Capital Partners launched a new firm,Titan Wealth Holdings, built through its acquisitions of Tavistock Wealth (£1 billion AUM) and Global Prime Partners (£2 billion AUM.)
Capital markets service provider D.A. Davidson acquired fintech-focused investment bank Marlin & Associates.

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