Funding deals, Founders and Investors, & Movers and Shakers #29
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FUNDING
🇺🇸 Alpaca raised $50 million and laid out its plan to launch cryptocurrency trading. Link here.
🇭🇰 OneDegree raised $28 million in a new round of funding as the startup looks to expand in Asia. Link here.
🇬🇧 Capitalise.com raised £10 million from Experian, QED Investors, Gauss Ventures, Hambro Perks and PostFinance. Link here.
🇬🇧 pawaPay announced that it has closed $9 million in seed funding to scale its operational presence, recruit talent and expand into new markets. Link here.
🇺🇸 Finexio announced an oversubscribed $8 million growth round. Link here.
🇳🇱 Requr raised €5 million. Link here.
🇲🇾 Ethis Global announced the closure of its RM6.8 million pre-Series A fundraising round from angel investors. Link here.
🇩🇪 Taktile raised $4.7 million in seed financing led by Index Ventures. Link here.
🇺🇸 Treasure Financial closed its Seed + round led by Peter Thiel and Jump Capital. Link here.
🇺🇸 Balance raised $25 million in Series A funding. Link here.
🇺🇸 Sayata raised $17 million in its Series A round led by Team8 Capital and Vertex Ventures. Link here.
🇦🇪 Hala هلا raised $5 million in Series A round, led by Entrée Capital. Link here.
🇵🇱 SoftPos fintech startup 🇧🇬Phos has secured €2 million in funding as it plots a course to a Series A round later in the year. Link here.
🇧🇷 Cora received a series B investment of more than R$600 million (US$116 million) to become the bank for small businesses that earn up to R$4.8 million per year. Link here.
🇩🇪 Moss announced that it has raised $29M (approx €24.79M) in its Series A extension round of funding. Link here.
🇨🇦 Blockstream has announced raising $210 million as part of a Series B financing on a valuation of $3.2 billion. Link here.
🇹🇼 XREX Inc. has secured $17 million in a pre-Series A round as it looks to expand its blockchain-based cross-border payment services. Link here.
FOUNDERS & INVESTORS
After 2020 with significant losses, SoftBank has already achieved record profit in 2021 as it moves toward ending the year with a tripled investment volume, a report compiled by 🇺🇸 CB Insights showed. Link here.
🇺🇸 Andreessen Horowitz has begun to announce new funds almost as routinely as some startups have begun announcing follow-on rounds. Link here.
With the help of 🇬🇧 LinkedIn’s UK team, 🇬🇧 Sifted tracked down female tech leaders in Europe who regularly share thought-provoking, useful and smart posts on LinkedIn. Who are they –– and how did their entrepreneurial journey begin? Link here.
According to 🇳🇱 Dealroom.co, European marketplace and ecommerce funding in 2021 has already hit €16bn, double the amount raised in the whole of 2020. Link here.
🇺🇸 Brex is looking to take advantage of the increase in venture debt financing with a $150 million fund. Link here.
In just the first half of 2021, even as the world was fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, investments in fintech firms in the UK set a record for the year. 🇬🇧 Innovate Finance pointed to $5.7 billion in venture capital flowing across 317 deals. Link here.
While 2021 has been a blockbuster year, lucrative fintech exits aren’t entirely novel. Between 2013 and 2019, European FinTechs pulled in €83bn via initial public offerings or acquisitions. Link here.
Over the past six months in Europe, there has been €22.6bn worth of exits, making a lot of investors mighty rich, according to 🇺🇸 PitchBook Data. Link here.
🇺🇸 Ramp has more than doubled its valuation since its previous round just five months ago amid torrid revenue growth and strong demand for FinTech investments. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS:
Investment app 🇬🇧 Wombat Invest is adding two senior executives to its board of advisors. David Davies, former Hargreaves Lansdown chief information officer and current CEO of Navos Technologies, and Iqbal V. Gandham, former managing director of eToro and UK managing director at Ledger, are both joining the advisory team on a three-year deal. Link here.
🇬🇧 Truelayer will see former WhatsApp and Facebook executive, Joe Morley, TrueLayer’s vice president, and general manager for Europe and its newly appointed chief operating officer for Europe, Leigh-anne Cotter lead the Dublin base. Link here.
🇺🇸 AffiniPay appointed Bryan Thompson as Chief Technology Officer as the company continues to expand. Link here.
🇺🇸 Monit made a series of senior leadership appointments across the organization. Link here.
🇬🇧 Currencycloud hired a pair of industry veterans to take on the COO and CTO roles. Link here.
If there is anything else you think I’m missing, please don’t hesitate to reach out by email at bonjour@marcelvanoost.nl.
Let me know if there are any questions or news/insights worth mentioning in next week's article. Until the next!
Regards,
Marcel van Oost
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