This Week in Fintech (3/13)

British neobank Starling raised a £272 million Series D at a £1.1 billion valuation.

NYDIG, a financial services firm for investors entering cryptocurrency, raised $200 million from investors including Morgan Stanley.

Cedar, a patient payment platform for hospitals, raised $200 million in funding at a $3.2 billion valuation.

Flutterwave, the Nigeria-based pan-African payments provider, raised $170 million at a $1 billion valuation.

Indian consumer investment startup Groww is in talks to raise a Series D between $100 and $125 million. (After expenses shot up 20x in 2020 with minimal revenue growth.)

WeLab, a Hong Kong mobile lender, raised a $75 million Series C1.

Wealth management platform M1 Finance raised a $75 million Series D, a couple months after raising $45 million Series C, and announced $3.5 billion AUM.

Automated tax credit software provider Mainstreet raised a $60 million Series A.

Pipe, a revenue-based financing platform for SaaS companies, raised $50 million.

Alternative asset investment platform Alt raised $31 million.

Wrapbook, an entertainment payroll and accounting company, raised a $27 million Series A.

Autobooks, a small business payment and accounting software, raised a $25 million Series B.

Komainu, a bank crypto custody joint venture of Nomura, CoinShares, and Ledger, raised a $25 million Series A.

Cloud security firm Securonix raised $24 million from Capital One Ventures.

Rewire, an Israeli cross-border banking service for migrant workers, raised a $20 million Series B.

Zeni, an accounting “finance concierge” for startups, raised a $13.5 million Series A.

Cube raised a $10 million Series A to build financial planning and analysis software for the mid-market.

Exabel, an analytics tool for investment teams, raised a $9 million seed round.

AeroPay, a digital payments platform for the cannabis industry, raised $5 million.

Cheese raised $3.6 million to build a digital bank for the Asian American community.

Clara, a Mexico-based corporate spend management startup (similar to Tribal or Brex), raised $3.5 million.

Flowcast, an AI tool for non-performing credit and loans, raised $3 million from INGVentures.

ClearGlass Analytics, a long-term savings market fee transparency provider, raised a  £2.6 million round.

Elucidate, a German financial crime detection startup, raised €2.5 million.

Interprice, a debt capital markets platform, raised a $2.5 million seed round.

Stoovo, which provides banking assistance and financial advice to gig workers, raised $2.4 million.

Manara raised its seed round from Stripe. The firm helps MENA software engineers get jobs at top-tier technology firms.

BitcoinBlack, a Canadian firm building a crypto credit card, raised an undisclosed amount.

Atom Bank is in talks to raise a possible £40 million down-round from its 2019 valuation.

Endowus, a Singaporean wealth management platform, is in talks to raise a $20 million Series A.

Monva, a financial comparison startup, is looking to raise £200,000.

Payments processor Flywirefiled confidential paperwork for an IPO that could value the company at up to $3 billion.

European payment provider Nets Group completed the €2.85 billion sale of its clearing, instant payment services, and e-billing solutions to Mastercard.

POS provider Lightspeed continued expanding its global footprint via its acquisition of Vend for $350 million to grow into Asia-Pacific.

Alkami Technology, which empowers banks and credit unions by enabling their digital interfaces, filed for an IPO expected to raise north of $100 million.

Geru, a Brazilian consumer fintech lender focused on prime customers, and Rebel, a Brazilian unbanked consumer lender, merged to form Open Co, a credit provider with a BRL 1.5 billion portfolio.

PFM Acorns acquiredHarvest, a consumer debt reduction startup.

CeriFi, a financial services certification and training platform, acquiredBionic Turtle, a provider of risk management exam prep.

Private equity firm Levine Leichtman acquired Icelandic credit information and risk management provider Creditinfo.

Italian credit ratings agency Cerved is fielding $2.2 billion buyout offers from multiple private equity firms.

Australian lending solution Pepper Money is once again exploring an IPO.

JD Technology may withdraw the Shanghai stock sale of its fintech subsidiary, JD Digits, pending restructuring. Meanwhile, the company is looking to acquire brokerage Sinolink Securities for at least $1.5 billion.

SoFi acquired its own bank, Sacramento community bank Golden Pacific Bancorp, for $23 million.

Private equity giant Apollo Global Management will buyAthene, a provider of credit and investment products (including insurance) for $11 billion.

RIA Mercer Global Advisors continued its acquisition streak, buying out Epstein & White Financial.

Australian ETF manager BetaShares received a strategic investment from private equity firm TA Associates.

Private equity firm TDR Capital increased its bid for European investment platform Arrow to £540 million.

Southeast Asia’s Grab, a superapp provider of financial and other products, is in talks to merge with Altimeter Capital’s SPAC, Altimeter Growth. The deal could value the enterprise at $40 billion.

FTAC Zeus Acquisition, The Bancorp’s eleventh fintech SPC, filed for a $440 million IPO.

Corsair Partnering Corp filed for a $350 million IPO targeting financial services.

Callodine Acquisition filed for a $250 million IPO to seek out an asset management target.

Chardan NexTech Acquisition, which is looking for a fintech target, filed for a $200 million IPO.

What's wrong with financial infrastructure today.

Why is it so hard to upgrade.

What can base primitives of finance do to help?

Also - four fintech companies you should see, a breakdown of the Pipe.com raise, Blockfi raising $350m!