Hello Fintech Friends,
My favorite story this week was that of Array, an ‘algorithmic currency system,’ which put out a press release that announced a $10 million investment from Singaporean investor Temasek, with such quotes as “Array is thrilled to reveal that its valuation after this investment is rumored to be over $100 million” and “Unlike traditional bonding curves [...] Array-Go learns, observes, and predicts, making ArrayFi a groundbreaking DeFi project in the market.”
The kicker? It was all made up. Temasek quickly put out its own press release claiming that the entire investment was fake news.
I’ll be here with 🍿 waiting for the next development.
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Heading to Los Angeles for Tech Week? Meet us for drinks, light bites and an ocean view 🏖️
👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!
Please find another week of fintech financing events below.
💡
AWS Corner, from our Partners at Amazon (Sponsored)
How machine learning helps Fraud.net to build a modern app on AWS to combat financial fraud.
Startups know firsthand how better technology can improve the quality of life: From
allowing scientists to better predict patient health outcomes, to
driving life-saving innovation, and
enhancing accessibility.
With better technology also comes the opportunity for criminals to commit more advanced levels of crime. Fraud, especially, is occurring with
as society transitions into a digital-first world. Fraud and cybercrime are also growing at significant rates, and now cost businesses around the world over
or an average of 5% of their revenues.
To outpace and outsmart the technology criminals use to commit fraud, former bankers Whitney Anderson and Cathy Ross founded Fraud.net, amodernfraud and compliance platform, in 2016. Fraud.net offers customers in the banking and fintech industries across the globe a serverless
that uses
and
to rapidly identify fraud, leading to more efficient operations and higher customer satisfaction.
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💸 Venture Financing
Advance Intelligence Group, the Singaporean fintech builder and owner of buy-now-pay-later firm Atome, raised $80 million in new equity, bringing its total raised to $700 million.
Tarabut Gateway, the Bahraini pan-MENA open banking platform, raised $32 million from Visa and others to expand into Saudi Arabia.
Duetti, a music financing and catalog sales provider, raised $32 million.
Nomba, a Nigerian payment service provider, raised a $30 million pre-Series B, valuing the company at $150 million+.
Liquido, a LatAm payments provider similar to Stripe, raised $27 million.
Inbox Health, a patient billing communications platform, raised a $22.5 million Series B.
Fintech Farm, a UK-based neobank-builder for emerging markets (beginning in Azerbaijan, Vietnam, and Nigeria), raised a $22 million Series B.
Slash, an online banking platform for solopreneurs (and not the Guns & Roses guitarist), raised $19 million in seed and Series A capital.
OpenEnvoy, an accounts payable automation solution, raised a $15 million Series A.
Range, an AI wealth management tool builder, raised a $12 million Series A.
Niro, a Bangalore-based consumer embedded lending startup, raised $8.5 million in equity and $2.5 million in debt.
Kreditz, a Swedish credit scoring and information startup, raised €10 million.
Setscale, a purchase order financing provider for SMBs, raised a $9.5 million seed round and secured $70 million in debt.
Constrafor, a construction payment and procurement platform, raised $7.5 million.
Kiwi, an Indian UPI-enabled credit card provider, raised a $6 million pre-seed.
Aligned, a buyer-seller network and financing platform for business transactions, raised $5.8 million.
Green-Got, a French neobank, raised €5 million.
Tristero, the builder of a decentralized investing dark pool, raised $4.8 million in seed funding.
Moonsense, a fraud prevention app, raised a $4.2 million seed.
Marble, a digital wallet specifically for consumer insurance, raised $4.2 million.
InvestorHub, an Australian platform to help public companies communicate with investors, raised $4 million.
Frost, a UK-based e-wallet provider that connects users to utility providers to help them save on their household bills, raised a £1.87 crowdfunding round.
💰 Venture Funds
Vera Equity, a fintech-focused venture capital firm founded by former Venmo COO Michael Vaughan, raised $20 million for its first fund.
Fineqia is setting up a new venture capital fund to invest in digital asset businesses.
Happy hour, but make it #wesanderson @twifintech pic.twitter.com/3q2KmeJqWG— Sophie Vo (@itssophievo) May 1, 2023
This week for the Fintech Frontlines, we highlight @jas_shah, Founder of Bitsul. Noted for his kindness and generosity, Jas shares both time and insight in order to help fintechs build better products for consumers the world over.
Congrats on the recognition, Jas! pic.twitter.com/ab8LFzizFM— This Week in Fintech (@twifintech) May 4, 2023
