Funding deals, Founders and Investors, & Movers and Shakers #40
FUNDING
🇺🇸 doola (formerly StartPack), a startup that aims to help global entrepreneurs form a U.S. business, has raised $3 million in seed funding. Link here.
🇬🇧 Nomod (YC S21) raised $3.4 million in seed funding at a valuation of $50 million. Link here.
British start-up 🇬🇧 Zilch is riding the "buy now, pay later" wave to America. The London-based company said Wednesday it has raised $110 million in a fresh round of funding. Zilch plans to use the fresh cash to launch into the United States. It has set up an office in Miami with about 10 employees working on its U.S. expansion. Link here.
🇨🇭ZoodPay SA, the “Buy Now Pay Later” (BNPL) Super app has successfully completed a $38 million Series B fundraising, attracting significant attention from leading global investors. Link here.
🇧🇷 Canary, the Brazilian venture capital firm backing some of Latin America’s successful startups like Buser Brasil, Sallve, Hashdex, Facily, and Trybe, closed on its third fund that was oversubscribed with $100 million in commitments. Link here.
Capital is flowing into LATAM's financial technology companies at a slicing pace, leading to a wave of startups that are building private-market value at a simply astounding rate. Link here.
🇺🇸 Founders First Capital Partners, the nation’s leading revenue-based finance and advisory investment platform for underserved and diverse-led small businesses, announced it has closed an $11 million Series A financing round. Link here.
🇧🇷 QI Tech, a fintech that provides a range of financial services through APIs and the first SCD approved by the Brazilian Central Bank, announced that GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, has invested $50M in one of the largest Series A in Latin America. Link here.
Cacheflow this morning announced its exit from stealth and a seed round worth $6 million. Link here.
Meow, the future of modern, compliant investing for corporate treasuries, announced that the company has raised a seed round of funding. Link here.
🇺🇸 Atomic, a US outfit that provides an API to help banks and fintechs integrate investing into their products, has launched with $25 million in Series A funding. Link here.
After Tencent’s $100 million, it’s time for Tiger Global’s $ 400 million. From China to the United States, the French neobank for pros 🇫🇷 Qonto has not finished attracting international investment funds. Link here.
🇮🇹 Tot, an Italian fintech startup serving freelancers and micro-enterprises, has finalised a €2 million seed founding round from Banca Sella ahead of market entry in early 2022. Link here.
Pakistan-based FinTech and developer of the country’s first cashback app and pay-per-sale affiliate marketing network, 🇵🇰 Savyour has successfully raised $3.3M in its latest funding round. Link here.
🇿🇲 Union54 (YC S21), the first Zambian startup backed by Y Combinator, has gotten another major venture capital firm on its term sheet: Tiger Global Management. Link here.
🇪🇬 A15, a leading venture capital firm supporting entrepreneurs in the MENA region, has announced it is the first investor in one of Egypt’s latest start-ups to successfully launch, 🇪🇬 Sympl – which is set to disrupt the country’s consumer payments sector. Link here.
🇬🇧 Digital Horizon VC is launching its second venture fund, with a target volume of $200 million and a focus on the fintech and corporate software sectors. Link here.
When TechCrunch last checked in with 🇺🇸 Alt back in March, it had just raised $31 million for its alternative asset platform — a platform, thus far, used primarily by those looking to research, trade, and securely store high-value sports cards. Link here.
UK-based banking and crypto app 🇬🇧 Ziglu has raised a record £7.19 million and closed its crowdfunding campaign early on leading crowdfunding platform Seedrs after a surge in investments. Link here.
🇺🇸 Fin Venture Capital Raises $400 Million To Be A Full-Stack B2B Fintech Investor. Fintech was just starting to get hot in 2018 when Logan Allin spun out from SoFi Ventures to launch his own firm dedicated to the sector. Link here.
🇵🇭 GCash (Mynt - Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.), the financial technology firm behind the GCash payments platform, has attained “double unicorn” status with a $300-million fresh equity deal that jacked up its valuation to over $2 billion. Link here.
🇺🇸 Fin Venture Capital Raises $400 Million To Be A Full-Stack B2B Fintech Investor. Link here.
FOUNDERS & INVESTORS
Mexico is experiencing record levels of VC dollars. In just the last 5 years, VC funding has increased 560%. According to LAVCA’s 2021 Review of Tech Investment in Latin America report, in 2019, 91 Mexican startups received $698M in funding; and in 2020. Link here.
Venture capital investing in FinTech has gone nuts lately. It looks like the industry will invest over $50B in private FinTech companies this year alone, which will mean a three-year total of over $100B. Link here.
There is a clear pattern that 🇺🇸 Visa’s relationships data reveals about its M&A strategy. While prior investment by Visa or Visa Ventures is a good indicator, partnerships are where Visa’s M&A targets of the future are most evident. Since 2018. Link here.
VCs used to let angels take the pre-seed deals — before jumping in when the most promising startups were ready for more capital. Link here.
“Only take money from individuals you get along with. As they say, it’s like a marriage. You should lean on your investors as much as you can — not to do the work for you, but to provide differing perspectives, lived experience, and strong opinions. And if you’re going to be leaning on them, they had better be people you get along with and look forward to speaking to.” Link here.
Fintech funding in ASEAN has more than tripled to a record high of US$3.5 billion in 2021 from 2020, with Singapore retaining the top spot thanks to its mega-rounds. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
The 🇺🇸 Western Union Company, a leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, announces the appointment of Devin B. McGranahan as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Link here.
Michael Santner has joined European payments leader 🇩🇰 Nets Group, part of Nexi Group, as Head of PSP DACH. In this role, he is responsible for e-commerce payment activities in the DACH region. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
🇸🇪 Klarna, the global retail bank, payments, and shopping service with 90 million users globally, officially launches in Ireland, empowering Irish consumers with a better shopping experience and greater control, transparency, and choice over how they pay. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.