Weekly update #10

Welcome to this edition of the weekly newsletter. The idea behind this activity is to gather all the information in the startup ecosystem in one place, with a special focus on the fintech market.

As often happens, we begin the year taking a good look at everything that happened during the last twelve months. In the startups and VCs industry this means taking a good look at all the deals that we went through in 2023, trying to understand the overall health of the ecosystem.

In this report from Dealroom.co and Flow Partners, we can see that 2023 was the worst year in terms of capital inflow into the system since 2017. But I would say, that no one involved in this market should be surprised by that. the investment level during 18 months (2021-mid2022) was so crazy high, and mostly driven by zero interest rates, that was absolutely impossible to think that we could have continue like this without consequences.

Now, with the rise in interest rate and a return to fundamentals and business economics, we came back to earth in term of startup valuations and overall level of capital inflow in the market.

I am honestly optimistic about the upcoming months. I believe we will see interest rates slowly going down, but not to zero, in 2024, leading to a new inflow of capitals in the market during 2025. And, hopefully, to new and healthy funding rounds.

But let's take a closer look at the main news of the last seven days:

Closed deals

• Yoti closes a $20 millions funding round in debt and convertible notes;
• Indian fintech RevFin just closed a $14 millions series B;
• Fimple closes a $5.5 millions bridge investment;
• Chile based Levannta raised $10.5 millions in both capital and debt;
• Service provider Software Group closed a $9.5 millions funding round;
• Escrowpay extends his Series A to $6 millions in total;
• Founders Capital closes $75 million for next-gen fintech and enterprise software startups;
• Bumper UK, a BNPL for car repairs, just raised $48 millions Series B;
• Indian fintech MobiKwik is looking for $84.2 millions through an IPO.

Strategic moves on the market

• Troubles in paradise for J.P. Morgan and his partly owned Viva.com, accused of breaking his own policy;
• Revolut is expanding his product offering to home loans;
• HSBC is launching a new payment app: Zing;
• Florida based KindCard is set to acquire OpenTransact;
• Ruth Foxe Blader launches a fintech focused VC, Foxe Capital;
• Talus Pay acquires Jobox.ai and CLARUS MERCHANT SERVICES;
• An extended report on the VC market in 2023 by Dealroom.co

A special look in the Italian market

• Mamazen raised $5 millions and aim to launch 15 new startups;
• Nexi Group acquired the merchant acquiring business of Sparkasse · Cassa di Risparmio di Bolzano;

Startups raising funds

• PopulaRise - The platform that allows companies of every dimension to promote themselves on social media through the collaboration with their clients. B2B2C SaaS. Raising $1M.
• Cents - Fintech companies that allow corporate to include charity payments on their checkout. B2B SaaS. Raising $1M. Round closed!
• Bitcoin People - Fintech company focused on crypto payments between corporate and cross countries. B2B, SaaS. Raising $500k.
• Tutornow - Edtech that provides an online tutoring platform for students with learning disorders. Raising $500k to $1M.
• Recivu - Fintech  startup trying to digitize the receipt flow by getting rid of papers. Looking for $150k in SAFE, already $50k committed.
• Weagle - B2B Tech startup that provides the very first browser designed for company, with total security for sensitive data. Raising $6 millions for their seed round.
• Reach Finance - Reach is the fintech platform for wealth accumulation for the Y&Z generations, they provide users with the tools to build wealth such as a budget tracker, a financial plan and a systematization of investments. Looking for $700k, with already $500k committed;
• wrapp.ai - A fintech startups that offers a virtual accountant and CFO that can help SMEs scale globally. Looking for $1 million, $750k already granted from public funds, looking to close the last $350k.
• Viewit - Fintech startup, providing smart solution to boost management and performances, get more financing and innovate. Raising $500k.

If you are a startup and want to be present in this list, please contact me directly.

If you are an angel investor or a VC interested in those companies, contact me for an intro!

Take also a look at the last edition of the newsletter, Weekly update #9.