Funding deals, Founders and Investors, & Movers and Shakers #38
FUNDING
The fintech sector is booming, with a record $91.5 billion in global funding so far this year—that’s almost twice as much as what the sector collected in the entirety of 2020. Link here.
🇮🇳 Zolve, a FinTech startup based in India and San Francisco, has raised $40 million in Series A funding to expand its neobank, streamlining mobile banking for thousands of immigrants. Link here.
Online investment platform 🇳🇿 Sharesies has raised $50 million to fund expansion in Aotearoa, Australia, and further afield, the company said on Thursday. Link here.
🇬🇧 Nook has raised $1.1 million in a pre-seed round. Link here.
🇦🇲 HighWay CJSC, a Yerevan-based fintech start-up, has announced the closing of a seed funding round of $2M. Link here.
Softbank Vision Fund 2 is taking a step back—and making a $25 million bet on Israeli venture capital platform 🇮🇱 OurCrowd. Link here.
Venture capital manager 🇧🇷 monashees is raising $700 million from two new funds to invest primarily in startups in Latin America, two sources familiar with the matter said. Link here.
“Headless checkout” startup 🇺🇸 Rally Commerce. has secured $6 million in seed funding. Link here.
Compliance-as-a-Service startup 🇬🇧 Ondato has closed a €3.6M seed extension round led by OTB Ventures, LitCapital, and Startup Wise Guys, bringing the total amount raised by Ondato so far to €5.6M. Link here.
Indian investment app 🇮🇳 Groww, India has tripled its valuation to $3 billion on the back of a $251 million Series E financing round. Link here.
🇦🇺 Parpera has raised $1.3 million as it ramps up to launch its Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) enabled offering. Link here.
New York-based digital payments infrastructure provider 🇺🇸 Extend has raised $40 million in a Series B fundraising round led by March Capital and backed by B Capital Group, Point72 Ventures, FinTech Collective, Reciprocal Ventures, Wells Fargo, and Pacific Western Bank. Link here.
🇧🇷 Swap, a São Paulo-based BaaS startup, announced it has raised $25 million in a Series A led by Tiger Global Management. Link here.
FOUNDERS & INVESTORS
🇧🇷 Nubank and 🇺🇸 Sequoia Capital have partnered up to invest in Latin American startups, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. The Brazilian neobank, which has had Sequoia as a shareholder since 2013, has decided to invest alongside the venture capital firm in startups in sectors that may go beyond financial services, such as e-commerce and enterprise software. Link here.
Following a record-breaking Q2, global FinTech private market deal activity remained elevated in Q3’21. In 🇺🇸 CB Insights State of Fintech Q3’21 Report, they dive into global investment trends. Link here.
🇬🇧 Hedosophia is not the type of firm to make a splash. The London VC is often referred to on press releases simply as “a large unnamed investor” and portfolio companies must seek permission before talking about their backer. Link here.
🇺🇸 Stripe has made its second investment in India, just days after disclosing the first. Link here.
🇺🇸 Marqeta, Inc, the global modern card issuing platform, announced it is partnering with Branch, a leading workforce payments platform, and Uber Freight to bring fast, reliable payments and carrier-first financial services to the logistics and transportation industries. Link here.
Also, 🇺🇸 Marqeta, Inc, the global modern card issuing platform, announced that the company is partnering with Bill.com. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
🇸🇪 P27 Nordic Payments, the cross-border payments platform being developed by a group of Nordic banks, has appointed SEB's Paula da Silva as CEO, replacing Lars Sjögren. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
Malaysia continues to be a prominent global Islamic Capital Market (ICM) hub, with Islamic assets under management (AUM) growing 2.7 times. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.