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Hello Fintech Friends,

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No time to read? Catch up on the last week's fintech news with our Weekly Briefing from Helen Femi Williams:

‎The This Week in Fintech Podcast: TWIF News Briefing - 15th March on Apple Podcasts

‎Show The This Week in Fintech Podcast, Ep TWIF News Briefing - 15th March - 14 Mar 2024

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This week we published Matthew Goldman's Where do fintech people bank?, in which we surveyed the TWIF community via email, social, and Slack to determine where fintech folks bank in the fintech world. The answer is that most of us do not use the products we are all creating. Read on below.

Where do fintech people bank?

Our survey reveals: Not with fintech companies.

This Week in FintechMatthew Goldman

We were also excited to share The Fintech Fund portfolio company Griffin's* $24M Series A extension. Grififn recently secured a full banking license in the UK to help fintechs launch and grow with a fully-verticalized solution.

‘Banking-as-a-Service’ startup Griffin raises $24M as it attains full banking license | TechCrunch

Founded by former Silicon Valley engineers, UK-based Griffin Bank, has now raised $24 million (£19 million) in a fresh, extended Series A, funding round.

TechCrunchMike Butcher

All in all, it's been another hot week for fintech raises. Indian credit underwriting provider Perfios was the latest to join the unicorn club, with a new $80 million raise, and British savings provider Flagstone raised £108 million in new funding.

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

Raising debt capital is a crucial requirement for card, lending, and neobank startups, but most fintech operators don’t come from a capital markets background. That’s why Finley and Cross River Bank put together this comprehensive guide to raising debt capital. It outlines the people, processes, and partners you need to assemble to execute a debt capital raise. Download your free copy here.

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📊 Stat of the Week

Nexi, the Italian payment facilitator, recorded an 88% increase in the value of in-store mobile payments and smartwatch transactions in Italy.

💸 Venture Financing

• Flagstone, a British neobank and savings account provider, raised £108 million in new funding.
• PPRO, an e-commerce payments provider, completed a dual tranche funding round totalling €85 million. The company last reported revenue of £56 million and losses of £19 million.
• Perfios, an Indian fintech that provides real-time credit underwriting solutions to banks, raised $80 million at a $1 billion+ valuation.
• CodaMetrix, a health care billing technology provider, raised a $40 million Series B.
• Eye Security, a Dutch provider of 24/7 monitoring, attack response and cyber insurance to financial services firms, raised a €36 million Series B from backers including JP Morgan.
• Griffin*, a British banking-as-a-service startup, raised a $24 million Series A extension.
• Lago, a French open source billing platform, raised $22 million.
• Worth AI, a financial underwriting platform for small and medium-sized business loans, raised $12 million in pre-seed funding.
• ClearToken, a British clearing house for global digital assets, raised $10 million in funding.
• Cache, which provides an exchange fund product to accredited investors, raised $8.5 million in seed funding.
• Elixir, a decentralized network designed to improve liquidity across order book exchanges, raised an $8 million Series B at an $800 million valuation.
• Freed, an Indian debt relief platform, raised $7.5 million in new funding.
• PayShepherd, a vendor relationship management platform designed for heavy industry firms, raised a $7 million seed round.
• Bluwhale, a service that leverages AI to connect companies with Web3 wallet holders, raised $7 million.
• NFTfi, a lending protocol for NFT holders, raised a $6 million Series A1.
• RemotePass, which helps companies onboard, manage, pay and retain remote workers, raised $5.5 million.
• Paylode, a provider of loyalty and payment solutions for brands, raised a $5.5 million seed round.
• Grupago, a digital microcredit for small businesses in Latin America, raised a $4.3 million seed round.
• Blockus, which provides payments for web3 and blockchain games, raised a $4 million pre-seed.
• Kravata, a Colombian firm that uses blockchain to offer currency conversions to stablecoins, cross-border payments, global accounts, and compliance, raised $3.6 million to expand to Mexico, Panama, Chile, and Brazil, and announced that the company has processed $215 million.
• Youverify, a Nigerian provider of identity verification and anti-money laundering solutions for banks and startups, raised $2.5 million.
• Tookez, a Moroccan app that consolidates loyalty points from a variety of brands into a single wallet, raised $1.5 million.
• Moxey, a digital trade network for local businesses, raised $1.25 million.
• Recap, a crypto tax calculation services provider, raised £300,000.
• Icon Solutions, a low code payment framework that enables banks to create new payment workflows, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from NatWest.
• Tuum, the core banking provider that last month raised €25 million, added Citi to its investors.
• One Inc, a digital payments platform for the North American insurance industry, raised strategic capital.

French accounting platform Pennylane and Dutch financial audit provider DataSnipper both joined the unicorn club in February, with a $43 million Series C at a $1.1 billion valuation and $100 million Series B at a $1 billion valuation, respectively.

Raising debt capital is a crucial requirement for card, lending, and neobank startups, but most fintech operators don’t come from a capital markets background. That’s why Finley and Cross River Bank put together this comprehensive guide to raising debt capital. It outlines the people, processes, and partners you need to assemble to execute a debt capital raise. Download your free copy here.

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