Weekly update #100

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

Builders is back with Season 3! Last week, I sat down with Mark Beeston and Alexander Ross , founder and general partner at Illuminate Financial, you can find the full video here on YouTube, and the audio here on Spotify or here on ApplePodcast.

Mark Beeston is a 30 year+ veteran of financial markets and is Managing Partner and founder of Illuminate Financial Management, a venture capital firm focussed on financial services technology currently investing from its third fund and which currently lists nine strategic partner LP’s drawn from the largest global names in banking, finance and markets infrastructure.

Alexander Ross, joined Illuminate early-on to help set-up and launch the first fund. Alexander joined from Bain & Company where he advised Top Tier private equity funds on acquisitions of TMT & Fintech companies, he also worked on fund strategy and bank restructuring projects. Alexander worked in the Technology division at J.P. Morgan, an Agri-food social enterprise in Ghana, and co-founded the online booking system provider, Teamup.

Mark launched the firm in 2014 following a long career in capital markets where he had been both the consumer of financial markets technology as well as the entrepreneur (T-Zero / Creditex), operator (ICAP), and early stage funder of capital markets businesses.

With them, we talked about launching a fund from scratch, what can an investor bring to the table in terms of value and network, but also what to look for in fintech founders and their vision on the market itself.

But this wasn’t the only interview I did recently. During Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh I had the opportunity to speak with Aamir Aftab, Chief Product Officer, JazzCash . Formerly known as MobiCash, is a Pakistani mobile wallet, mobile payments, and branchless banking services provider, and definitely the main payment provider in the region.

Aamir Aftab has over 24 years of expertise spanning telecommunications, digital, and financial services. As the Chief Product Officer at JazzCash, Pakistan’s largest digital financial services platform, he spearheads a dynamic team of product managers responsible for innovating, developing, and executing strategies for a diverse range of products. His mission: to create scalable, customer-centric solutions that advance financial inclusion and foster sustainable growth.

Here the main points from our interview:

M: Launching a fintech company in an emerging market like Pakistan is never easy. How did JazzCash begin its journey? A: We started in 2012, when smartphone penetration was still low and trust in digital services was limited. From the outset, we decided to serve the unbanked, not the already banked. Our first use case was utility bill payments, as customers had to stand in long queues at banks. We partnered with small shops and built a network of over 250,000 agents who became ATMs, enabling cash-in, cash-out, and bill payments. Over time, we introduced USSD wallets and later launched the app, gradually building trust.

M: How did you adapt your model when regulatory changes affected your revenues? A: Initially, our revenues came from transaction fees on money transfers. But during COVID, the government eliminated fees on small peer-to-peer transfers, which hit us hard. That forced us to pivot toward merchant QR acceptance, expanding to over 550,000 merchants, and to online payments, where today every one in two e-commerce transactions in Pakistan is processed by JazzCash.

M: Digital lending has become a big part of your business. Can you tell us more? A: We expanded our digital loan offering three years ago, offering micro-loans averaging 5,000 rupees, up to 50,000 rupees as customers build their credit score. Today, we disburse 160,000k loans per day, making us Pakistan’s largest digital lender. Our default rates remain under 5%, thanks to a scoring model based on more than 150 parameters, including telco data such as handset type and utility bill size. Lending now represents around 50% of our revenues, though our aim is to diversify further.

M: Beyond lending, how are you leveraging customer engagement to grow? A: Our AI-driven risk engine predicts potential defaults, enabling us to proactively engage customers through messages, app pop-ups, and even calls. These conversations have not only improved repayment rates but also helped us identify new opportunities, such as cross-selling micro-insurance. Customers trust us because we never harass them for repayments, which strengthens long-term relationships.

M: Are you planning international expansion? A: Yes, remittances are a key focus. We are exploring the UAE market and looking at wallet-to-wallet transfers to serve the Pakistani diaspora and eventually other labor communities from Bangladesh and the Philippines. In these markets, the bottom of the pyramid is often overlooked, yet it represents the biggest opportunity.

M: How do you see the regional fintech landscape evolving? A: In South Asia, QR payments are becoming the main catalyst, bypassing cards entirely, as seen in India and Thailand. In the Middle East, the labor market is still underserved, with most remittances going through physical outlets. We see a huge opportunity for digital adoption there.

M: What role has government support played in Pakistan’s digital finance growth? A: The government’s stance has shifted dramatically. For example, disbursements under the Benazir Income Support Program were digitized directly into wallets, saving beneficiaries time and cost. This success convinced policymakers of the potential of digital wallets, leading to the “Cashless Pakistan” initiative. Today, we work closely with the Prime Minister’s task force, which has set ambitious targets for QR deployment and digital transactions.

Anyway we saw a lot of interesting news this week. Apple acquired WhyLabs, BitGo filed for a $90B IPO, Checkout.com was valued at $12B in a share buy back for employees and Morgan Stanley will release crypto trading after backing zerohash round. Revolut made waves again, not only unveiled their new HQ in Canary Wharf, but also committed to $3B investments in the UK and they are looking to get a banking license in Turkey. In the VC industry a lot of new interesting funds, Ventech raised a $175M fund to invest in fintech, Essence Venture Capital closed a $41M fund led by Timothy Chen, but also C4 Ventures, Glilot Capital Partners and DFF Ventures. Very good news from the Italian ecosystem! We saw SylloTips II Techstars ‘24 raising a $4.2M round and Pillar raising a $3.2M pre-seed for construction fintech. And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Tide, BwaTech, Cardless, Kertos, Kilde, Alguna and many others.

But let’s take a closer look at the main news of the last seven days.

Closed deals

• Numeral secures $35M Series B to scale AI-powered tax automation
• Tide reaches unicorn status with $120M TPG-led investment
• Cardless raises $60M Series C to redefine co-branded credit cards
• Kertos secures €14M Series A to build Europe’s compliance desk
• Rekord secures $2.1M to redefine credit decisioning with AI
• Shield raises $5M to expand cross-border crypto payments for global trade
• zerohash raises $104M Series D backed by Morgan Stanley, SoFi, Apollo Global Management, Inc. and Interactive Brokers
• ZILO™ raises $27M Series A to modernize global transfer agency services
• Circuit & Chisel raises $19.2M to launch ATXP, a protocol for agentic payments
• CommerzVentures leads €9.2M Series A in Sunhat’s AI compliance platform
• BwaTech secures $16M to advance corporate fintech infrastructure&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A(7376472457769050112%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7376465410533027840)) in Saudi Arabia
• Fnality raises €115M Series C to build global blockchain-based settlement network
• Crazy news: Tether.io in talks to raise up to $20B at $500B valuation
• Zilch secures £30M debt facility from US bank to fuel next growth phase
• erad (YC S22) secures $33M debt financing to scale Shariah-compliant SME lending
• Goodvest raises €12M Series B to scale responsible investment platform
• Light raises $30M Series A to bring AI automation to finance teams
• Coinbase Ventures leads $14.6M round in stablecoin startup Bastion
• TRIVER secures £114M to expand SME cash flow finance in the UK
• Kilde raises US$1.5M to expand private credit platform
• Alguna secures $4 Million seed funding to redefine monetization in the AI era
• RedotPay secures $47M and joins fintech unicorn ranks
• Flipkart injects $30M into Supermoney (GetClarity Fintech Services Pvt Ltd) to expand lending and equity brokerage

Insights on the VC industry

• Ventech closes €175M Fund VI to back 35 European tech startups
• Glilot Capital Partners closes $500M fund to strengthen cybersecurity and AI investments
• C4 Ventures launches €100M fund to drive European AI and deepTech sovereignty
• Timothy Chen’s Essence Venture Capital closes $41M fourth fund
• DFF Ventures launches €50M Fund III to back vertical AI, recommerce and marketplaces

News on the market

• Apple acquires AI startup WhyLabs to strengthen AI capabilities
• WhatsApp expands business features in India with payments and customer support tools
• SoftBank Investment Advisers Vision Fund cuts 20% of workforce to double down on AI investments
• BitGo files for US IPO with $90.3B in assets under custody
• Morgan Stanley prepares crypto trading on E\*TRADE from Morgan Stanley after backing zerohash
• Revolut commits £3B to UK as it opens new global headquarters
• Revolut eyes Turkish banking licence as part of global expansion
• European banks like UniCredit, ING and CaixaBank form consortium to launch Euro stablecoin
• Pleo expands into embedded finance with Mastercard partnership
• FIS acquires digital banking origination firm Amount to expand account opening capabilities
• Checkout.com targets profitability and open an employee share buy back at $12B valuation

A special look in the Italian market

• SylloTips II Techstars ‘24 secures €4.2M to scale human-in-the-loop AI for enterprises
• Pillar secures €3.2M Pre-Seed for construction fintech in Italy

And here some useful resources for everyone involved in the ecosystem:

Events you don’t want to miss

• Italian Tech Week - Turin | 1-3.10.2025 (link to event)

You have a cool event you want to mention or to sponsor? Feel free to send me a DM.

Startups raising funds

• Loyyal - Loyalty platform from the MENA region, with entities in the US and South East Asia, provides a B2B2C platform to handle multiple loyalty programs and earn rewards all over the world. Raising a $6M Series A
• Freedhome - Proptech and fintech platform, enabling people to be able to gain profit from real estate by renting them to intermediaries. Raising a $1M seed round

• 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.

• Shoppy Code:Gift card platform that offers a points based loyalty program. They share part of the profits coming from marketing budgets with their customers. Raising $500k.

Take also a look at the last edition of the newsletter, Weekly update #99