This Week in Fintech (7/24)

Hello Fintech Friends,

Women-led startups received just 2.3% of venture funding in 2020. VC friends, how do we change this?

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 [email protected].

Interested in understanding the key disruptive innovations for payments in the fintech industry? Download the Aite Group Report, featuring TrueAccord, to learn why digital-first, machine learning powered collections are creating better experiences for consumers in debt.

💸 Venture Financing

Bolt, a checkout provider, raised a $333 million Series D at a $4 billion valuation.
Soldo, a European business expense management platform, raised a $180 million Series C.
Employment Hero, an Australian payroll provider, raised a A$140 million Series E.
Spendesk, a French corporate spend management startup, raised €100 million.
Vestwell, an investment and retirement platform, raised $70 million from backers including Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs.
Titan, a retail investing platform, raised a $58 million Series B at a $450 million valuation.
Yapily, a UK open banking infrastructure provider, raised a $51 million Series B.
Properly, a Canadian real estate home-buying and selling platform, raised $35 million.
Lev, a commercial real estate lender, raised $30 million at a $130 million valuation.
Paystone, a Canadian payment processor, raised C$30 million.
Paro, a financial expertise platform for businesses, raised a $25 million Series B.
InDebted, an Australian debt collection provider, raised a A$25 million Series B.
Dwolla, an online payments platform, raised $21 million.
Daloopa, an AI financial data extraction tool, raised a $20 million Series A from backers including Credit Suisse.
Lightico, a financial document collection tool, raised a $15 million Series B from backers including Capital One.
Anduin, an invoice and billing solution for professional services firms, raised a $14 million seed round.
Prodigal, a loan servicing fintech, raised a $12 million Series A.
Esusu, a credit building startup, raised $10 million.
Artis, a business real-time lending and payment solution, raised a $7 million Series A.
WhenThen, a no-code payment operations platform, raised $6 million.
Vincent, an alternative investment search engine, raised $6 million.
Allocate, a platform to give retail investors access to venture capital funds, raised a $5 million seed.
Percent, a payments platform for charitable donations, raised $5 million.
Monarch Money, a new kind of PFM, raised $4.8 million in seed funding.
WLTH, an Australian digital lending and payments app, raised a $3 million seed round.
Clim8, a sustainable investment app, raised £2.85 million through crowdfunding.
GetEquity, a Nigerian startup funding platform, raised a $100,000 pre-seed.
Klar, the Mexican neobank, raised an unspecified Series B.
Capchase, a revenue-based financing platform, raised $280 million in debt and equity.
Zilch, a UK buy-now-pay-later provider, raised £80 million in combined debt and equity from Goldman Sachs.
Drivewealth is in the process of raising an up to $400 million Series D.

💰 Venture Funds

i80 Group, a credit provider to startups, has quietly provided over $1 billion in debt capital to fintech lenders.
Sequoia is coming to Latin America to invest in fintech.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs

South Korean neobank KakaoBank raised $2.2 billion in its IPO.
Robinhood is looking to raise up to $2 billion in an IPO that could value the company at anywhere from $13 to $40 billion.
MeridianLink, which provides back-end software to banks and fintechs, set terms for a $300 million IPO.
Riskified, an online payments fraud platform, filed for an IPO that could value it at $3 billion.
UK neobank Monzo could potentially be considering an IPO soon.
UK consumer credit company NewDay may be planning an IPO.

📈 SPACs

PayLink Direct, a payment service provider, will merge with vehicle protection plan platform Olive and go public through the MDH Acquisition Corp SPAC.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Visa announced that it will acquire cross-border payments provider Currencycloud, valuing the business at £700 million. (What will Mastercard’s response acquisition be?)
Online billing and back-end accounts receivable giant Bill.com will acquire competitor Invoice2go, in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $625 million.
Buy-now-pay-later provider Klarna bought German discount shopping app Stocard for €113 million.
When minnows eat sharks: international transfer cryptocurrency Stellar Foundation is eyeing an acquisition of legacy remittances provider MoneyGram.
Latin America’s PicPay acquired Brazilian financial solutions provider Guiabolso.
Financial reporting software provider insightsoftware acquired APAC rival CALUMO.
European KYC startups Onegini and iWelcome announced their merger.
Vodafone could spin off Kenyan mobile money powerhouse M-Pesa.

💲 M&A - Investment Management

Canadian financial services holding company Great-West Lifeco acquiredPrudential's retirement investing business for $3.5 billion.
Lightyear Capital in the UK announced that it will acquire Wren Sterling Financial Planning.

Leaders from banks, credit unions and investors are already confirmed - join these faces in Miami this September for two days of high-quality, in-person meetings. No keynotes. No panels. Just business. See who is already confirmed and apply to join here.