Weekly update #104

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! In the last episode, I sat down with Victor Orlovski, Managing Partner at R136 Ventures. You can find the full episode here on YouTube, or here on Spotify and here on Apple Podcast.

Victor started at IBM , then he became CTO of one of Europe’s largest banks, managing a 25,000-person engineering team serving 90M+ users. But he discovered then that the real challenge, and his true passion, wasn’t scaling tech. It was scaling founders.

He started his journey in Venture at Fort Ross Ventures in 2015. Now, he is General Partner at R136 Ventures, a $500M fund investing in Series B+ rounds ranging from AI, fintech, B2B software, and more. He was also the author of: “From Rhino to Unicorn”, a WSJ Bestseller, and a Forbes contributor on late-stage markets and agentic AI.

Some of his exits over time: eToro (Nasdaq, $5.2B), Dynamic Yield by Mastercard (McDonald’s, $327M), Intel Granulate (Intel), DeciAI (Nvidia).

With him, we talked about the very basic dynamics of venture markets, the impact of AI on the global economy, but also why he thinks virtual assets and metaverse will be one of the main trends to watch.

Coming back to us, I’ve been reading a very interesting report this week, the “Market update - New nordics | Q3 2025” from byFounders . The report is a very comprehensive study of all rounds, from pre-seed to series A, into Nordics and Baltics based startups backed by tech focused VCs. In a moment where European tech seems to be living a momentum of hype, strongly driven by the Stockholm ecosystem, I really wanted to deep dive on this region. Here my main takeaways:

Venture capital activity in the Nordics accelerated sharply in Q3 2025, with early-stage tech funding climbing to €534 million — a 91% increase compared to Q3 2024 (€343 million) and more than double the capital raised in Q2. According to Crunchbase data, the region recorded 57 early-stage rounds during the quarter, marking a 19% rise over Q2 and a 21% year-on-year gain. Series A investments represented €268 million of the total, while seed rounds contributed €73 million, and Lovable’s €170 million raise stood out as a key driver of the surge.

This rebound in early-stage capital follows several quieter quarters through 2024, reflecting renewed investor confidence in Nordic innovation and early-stage tech ecosystems. The uptick in both deal volume and ticket size indicates that venture investors are once again backing growth-oriented startups across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway, particularly in AI, fintech, and sustainability-focused technologies.

Venture capital dynamics in the Nordics during Q3 2025 reflected mixed trends across early-stage segments. Median pre-seed rounds declined slightly to €0.9 million, down from €1.3 million in Q2 2025 and below Q3 2024’s €1.0 million, suggesting a cautious stance among investors at the earliest stages. Seed rounds remained relatively stable, trailing just under €3 million for the year, with Q3 2025 maintaining a median of €2.7 million, consistent with previous quarters.

The strongest momentum appeared in Series A activity, where the median round surged 72% quarter-over-quarter to €17 million, compared to €9.9 million in Q2 2025. This sharp rebound points to improving valuations and stronger investor appetite for scaling-stage opportunities across the Nordic ecosystem. Together, these shifts indicate that while entry-level funding remains steady but selective, growth-oriented startups in the region are increasingly commanding larger capital commitments as confidence returns to the venture landscape.

Early-stage venture funding in the Nordics during Q3 2025 showed distinct dispersion patterns between pre-seed, seed, and Series A rounds. Pre-seed and seed investments were more concentrated than in Q2, ranging from under €0.5 million to €8 million, with a stable median round size of approximately €1.8 million—consistent with both 2024 and the previous quarter. This suggests sustained investor discipline at the earliest stages, emphasizing capital efficiency and selective deployment.

In contrast, Series A funding displayed a much broader range, from around €2 million to €170 million, significantly exceeding the dispersion observed in both Q2 2025 and 2024. The sharp upper outlier was largely driven by Lovable’s €170 million Series A, which lifted the segment’s overall variance and signaled renewed confidence in scaling-stage ventures.

Venture capital activity across the Nordics in Q3 2025 remained concentrated in Sweden and Denmark, which each recorded 20 investment rounds, jointly leading the region. Sweden secured €219 million in total funding—almost twice the capital raised by Denmark (€117 million) and Finland (€109 million)—largely boosted by Lovable’s €170 million Series A. Norway followed with €69 million, while Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania attracted €15 million, €4 million, and €1 million respectively.

When adjusted for population, Sweden also led in capital invested per capita at €20.7 million, closely followed by Denmark (€19.6 million) and Finland (€19.4 million). Norway (€12.3 million) and Estonia (€10.8 million) trailed behind, reflecting smaller but growing ecosystems. This concentration of both deal flow and funding volume underscores Sweden’s continued dominance in the Nordic venture landscape, driven by large-scale transactions and mature startup infrastructure, while Denmark and Finland maintain robust and competitive early-stage environments.

Anyway we saw a lot of interesting news this week. Revolut making waves again, they closed a $3B round, but also secured a banking license in Mexico, a Mica license in EU and opened a financial holding in Japan! Coinbase acquired Echo for $375M, Bitpanda expanded in Mexico in partnership with Onda Finance, and Tamara secured a UAE banking license. SumUp increased to 41% its stake in German eCommerce Shopware, TrueLayer acquired Zimpler and Allica Bank acquired Kriya. In the VC market, new funds closed by Lifeline Ventures, Polytechnique Ventures and Burnt Island Ventures. And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Tempo, Pierre, Avid, Saturn, Moniepoint Group, Volta Software, Paygentic and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Revolut secures $3B at $75B valuation, reaffirming its dominance in European fintech
• Stripe-backed Tempo raises $500M to build the next global payments blockchain
• Tria raises $12M to build the first self-custodial neobank for humans and AI
• Bull raises $1.8M to expand white-label payroll lending in Brazil
• nexos.ai raises €30M Series A to secure enterprise AI adoption across Europe and North America
• Female-led fintech Piere raises $2.1M to build AI-powered “self-driving money” platform
• Avid raises $6.5M to build AI-powered operating system for nonprofit fundraising
• Moniepoint Group secures additional $90M to drive African fintech expansion and close their $200M Series C
• Volta Software raises €5M to accelerate AI-driven digitalisation of France’s €360B B2B commerce market
• Saturn raises $15M to make financial advice 90% cheaper through AI automation
• Finster AI raises $15M to redefine financial intelligence for global investment firms
• Modern Treasury acquires Beam for $40M to expand into stablecoin-powered payments
• INSTANDA raises $20M from CommerzVentures to drive global InsurTech expansion
• Karta raises $5.4M and launches first U.S. premium credit card for global non-residents
• Pave Bank secures $39M to launch the first programmable bank for the AI and digital asset era
• Cybrid raises $10M Series A to scale compliant stablecoin infrastructure across global payments
• StraitsX secures $10M from UQPAY to drive stablecoin expansion across Asia
• Anrok raises $55M Series C to build AI-driven global tax infrastructure
• Bluwhale secures $10M Series A as UOB backs decentralized AI network for finance
• Streetbeat raises $15M to expand AI-driven wealth management platform globally
• Paygentic raises $2M pre-seed to power billing infrastructure for the AI-native economy
• TABsense raises $5M to revolutionize restaurant operations with AI-powered Agentic PoS
• Tensec secures $60M from Upper90 to scale AI-powered cross-border finance to $5B in annual trade volume
• Endowus raises $70M led by Illuminate Financial to scale WealthTech expansion across Asia

Insights on the VC industry

• Lifeline Ventures launches €400M Fund VI to fuel Europe’s next wave of global tech scaleups
• IRIS Ventures raises up to €100M in first close of second fund to back next-generation consumer brands
• Burnt Island Ventures raises $50M Fund II to accelerate innovation in global water technology

News on the market

• Revolut secures full banking license in Mexico, marking major Latin American expansion
• Bitpanda Technology Solutions enters Latam through partnership with Onda Finance
• Alpaca joins Nasdaq as exchange member, reinforcing its full-stack brokerage infrastructure
• UPI expands to Japan through NTT DATA partnership, enabling instant QR-based payments
• Qashio acquires Sanad Cash, Inc. to drive Saudi fintech consolidation and regional expansion
• lemlist acquires Claap to launch AI-powered ‘smartbound’ sales platform
• Tamara secures Central Bank of The UAE license to expand financial innovation across the Emirates
• Coinbase acquires Echo for $375M to expand onchain capital formation and community-driven investing
• SumUp enters Mexico to empower 4.5 million SMEs with digital payment solutions
• PayPal increases ownership in German e-commerce platform Shopware to 41%
• Japan’s top banks unite to launch yen-backed stablecoin, targeting cross-border efficiency
• TrueLayer to acquire Zimpler, creating Europe’s leading Pay by Bank network
• Allica Bank acquires Kriya to build a unified digital credit and banking platform for UK SMEs
• Revolut prepares for banking expansion in Japan with new financial holding company
• President Trump pardons Binance founder Changpeng Zhao amid renewed U.S. crypto debate
• Revolut secures MiCA licence to launch crypto services across Europe
• Fireblocks acquires a16z-backed Dynamic for $90M to expand digital wallet infrastructure
• Monzo Bank prepares private share sale ahead of potential IPO
• Splitwise Inc. and Tink extend Pay by Bank across Europe amid surging open banking adoption

A special look in the Italian market

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

Events you don’t want to miss

• Singapore Fintech Festival | Singapore - 12-14/11/2025 (link here)
• Seamless Saudi Arabia | Riyadh - 17-19/11/2025 (link here)
• MoneyLIVE Payments | Amsterdam - 19-20/11/2025 (link here)
• 22nd Bank Management Conference | Athens - 20/11/2025 (link here)

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 #103.