A $100 million Series B for African fintech 🔥 (TWIF 3/23)

Hello Fintech Friends,

It's great to see venture funding flowing back to the African continent. After an influx of new venture investors in 2020 and 2021, it's been uniquely difficult for founders in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa over the last two years, in spite of many fintech startups and founders showing great traction. Hopefully Moove's $100 million Series B and Zone's oversubscribed $8.5 million seed round this week are a signal that capital is finally returning.

It was also interesting to see blockchain home lending startup Figure raise a round this week to build a new company called Figure Markets, a decentralized marketplace for a range of securities, including equities, fixed income, alternatives and crypto assets.

No time to read the news this week? Catch up with our weekly briefing podcast below!

And come talk with us about crypto, African fintech, fundraises, and everything else at our upcoming NY Fintech Week kickoff events:

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

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💸 Venture Financing

Moove, an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing and delivery app drivers, raised a $100 million Series B from strategic investor Uber at a $750 million valuation.
Solaris, the embattled European embedded finance and banking-as-a-service platform, raised €96 million to continue operations.
Figure, a blockchain-based non-bank HELOC provider, raised $60 million in order to create a decentralized competitor to the largest centralized crypto exchanges.
NX Technologies, a German-based automotive payments and lending provider, raised a €22 million Series B led by PayPal.
AccessPay, a "payments-focused Plaid for mid-size businesses," raised a $16 million Series C.
Marco, a US-to-Latin America trade finance platform, raised a $12 million Series A.
D2X, a Dutch crypto derivatives trading platform, raised a $10 million Series A.
Zone, a Nigerian blockchain-based decentralized payment infrastructure builder, raised an $8.5 million seed round.
Keyring Network, a UK-based builder of on-chain permissioning tools for financial service providers, raised $6 million.
FlexPoint, a payments and financing platform for managed service providers, raised $5 million in equity and $30 million in lending debt.
OpenMeter, an automated SaaS billing and revenue collection platform, raised $3 million.
Arrow Risk Management, a UK-based underwriting platform that provides brokers and carriers with real-time data, raised £2 million.
Monzo, the UK neobank that just raised $400 million to expand to the US, is reportedly in talks with Singapore sovereign wealth fund to sell an additional $50 million stake.