Weekly update #105

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 this episode, I sit down with Nikolay Seleznev, Co-Founder of Uzum. You can find the full episode here on YouTube, or here on Spotify and here on Apple Podcast. here a short clip from the video:

Nikolay started as a very traditional investment banker, at Fx Trader In Mosca first, and then with J.P. Morgan in London and Arthur D. Little later on. But his real passion was entrepreneurship and more specifically fintech, and he found a greenfield of opportunities in Uzbekistan.

He launched Uzum in 2022 along with Djasur Djumaev, and they quickly grew it to be Uzbekistan’s first unicorn after a $70M series A in 2024. Uzum started its journey in Uzbekistan with an e-commerce marketplace called Uzum Market, and shortly after its success, the startup added fintech with a debit card and later expanded into its express food delivery service, Uzum Tezkor.

With him, we talked about the Uzbek fintech market, the challenges on launching a fintech company, but also the main trends in fintech today and where he would start building from scratch.

Coming back to us, I’ve been reading two very interesting reports this week. The first one is “Competing systems, Contested outcomes” from McKinsey & Company. The study is a comprehensive analysis of the current global payment ecosystem, and dissects the rise of diverse payment rails, the impact of digital assets, and the transformative power of AI. Here my main takeaways:

Between 2019 and 2024, global payments revenue expanded at an average annual rate of 7 percent, with interest income accounting for 46 percent of total revenues in 2024 amid higher rates. However, growth slowed to 4 percent in 2024, down from 12 percent in 2023, due to peaking interest rates, a softer macroeconomic environment, lower-yield payment methods, and persistent fee pressures.

Regionally, Latin America led with 11 percent growth, followed by EMEA at 8 percent and North America at 5 percent, while APAC declined by 1 percent. Despite this slowdown, payments remained the most profitable financial subsector, delivering an average 18.9 percent return on equity, with some firms exceeding 100 percent. Looking ahead, net interest income is expected to grow at about 2 percent annually through 2029, while overall payments revenue is projected to expand by 4 percent per year, reaching an estimated $3.0 trillion market size by 2029.

Global payments revenues remain evenly split between consumer (51 percent) and commercial (49 percent) segments, though regional compositions differ widely. North America is predominantly consumer-driven, with credit cards central to payments and lending. In Asia–Pacific, 25 percent of revenues stem from commercial account net interest income (NII), reflecting corporate banking depth and deposit-based growth. EMEA presents a balanced mix, with 20 percent of revenue each from commercial and consumer account NII, supported by trade, treasury, and savings activity. Latin America also skews toward consumers, with credit cards generating 32 percent of total revenues.

Cash use continues to fall globally, representing 46 percent of payments in 2024, down from 50 percent in 2023. Account-to-account and digital wallet payments now cover about 30 percent of point-of-sale transactions, led by India, Brazil, and Nigeria. As lower-yield rails expand, monetization pressures intensify. Meanwhile, digital adoption in B2B payments and innovation in AI, tokenization, and digital currencies are reshaping value creation amid uneven global progress.

The second report is “Progress on the preparation phase of the digital Euro” from the European Central Bank. In the current payment ecosystem, stablecoin is dominating the scene, and I was very curious to hear an update on the project, also considering that they recently announced a potential test already in 2027. Here the main updates:

In January 2024, the European Central Bank produced the first interim draft of the digital euro scheme rulebook, defining its scope, key actors, operational model, and technical requirements. Following an interim review completed in April 2024, about 2,000 comments from members of the Rulebook Development Group (RDG) were incorporated into updates and clarifications. Around 50 experts from more than 30 organisations across the euro area contributed through RDG workstreams focused on user experience, certification, risk management, and implementation standards.

A revised version, issued in June 2025, integrated extensive feedback and added provisions on user experience standards, branding, and technical implementation for PSPs. It also introduced frameworks for dispute management, onboarding, certification, and device testing. A four-month consultation, ending in October 2025, gathered feedback from consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and service providers. The rulebook aims to ensure interoperability, standardisation, and innovation across the euro area as preparations for the digital euro continue.

The architecture ensures user data protection, operational continuity, and reliable performance across the euro area. Advanced cybersecurity controls include secure development practices, cryptographic agility against emerging threats like quantum computing, regular simulated cyberattack testing, and robust governance. Privacy is safeguarded through data minimisation and pseudonymisation: users are onboarded by PSPs under AML and KYC rules compliant with GDPR, while the ECB cannot link transactions to individuals. The offline version enhances anonymity by keeping sensitive data on users’ devices only.

Operational resilience is supported by a central ledger distributed across three regions, ensuring uninterrupted service even during regional outages. The design integrates distributed ledger principles—atomic transactions, decentralised execution, and immutability—without resource-heavy consensus mechanisms. Using AI-driven fraud detection, real-time processing, and a PSD2-based REST interface, the system achieves both scalability and compliance, balancing innovation with security and efficiency.

Anyway we saw a lot of interesting news this week. OpenAI partners with PayPal to bring checkouts and agentic payments to ChatGPT, Ant Group files “Antcoin” trademark in Hong Kong for its future stablecoin, Western Union launches its stable UDSPT using Solana. A lot of acquisitions this week! Barclays acquired Best Egg for $800M, Mastercard is in talks to acquire zerohash, and Morgan Stanley acquires EquityZen. In the VC ecosystem, Accel and Prosus Ventures launched an investment partnership in India, Andreessen Horowitz targets $10B for its next fund and Sequoia Capital launches a $950M early stage fund. In the Italian market, Bending Spoons making waves! They acquired AOL for $1.4B, closed a $2.1B financing and finally closed a $710M funding round. Crazy week for them! And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Clerq, Natural, Hercle, Formalize, Wealthsimple, FAKTUS, ZAR, Jupiter and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Natural secures $9.8M seed round to build payment infrastructure for AI agents
• Clerq raises $21M to expand account-to-account payments for high-ticket industries
• Riverchain raises US$5M Series A to expand SME construction financing across APAC
• Raenest Business secures US$11 million Series A to accelerate African expansion
• Brico raises $13.5 million Series A to modernize financial licensing with AI
• Mercor raises $350 million at $10 billion valuation to scale AI model training marketplace
• Formalize raises €30 million Series B to scale compliance automation across Europe
• Wealthsimple raises CAD $750 million, reaching CAD $10 billion valuation to expand financial platform
• Hercle raises $60 million to scale institutional stablecoin settlement infrastructure
• Coinbase Ventures backs Kite to accelerate autonomous agent payments with x402 integration
• Ava raises $15.5 million seed round to scale autonomous personal finance in the US
• FAKTUS raises €56M to build Europe’s first neobank for construction SMEs
• ZAR raises $12.9 million led by a16z to expand stablecoin access across Pakistan
• Legora raises $150 million Series C at $1.8 billion valuation to expand global AI platform for lawyers
• Bridge secures $5.1 million seed funding to build AI-native OS for private markets
• FundPark raises US$71 million to expand AI-powered financing for eCommerce scale-ups
• General Atlantic invests $600 million in IPO-bound PhonePe at $14.5 billion valuation
• UPTIQ secures $12 million to scale AI infrastructure for financial institutions
• Jupiter Money raises $13 million to accelerate growth and move toward profitability
• SalarySe raises $11.3 million Series A to expand salary-linked financial platform

Insights on the VC industry

• Andreessen Horowitz targets record $10B fund to accelerate AI and defence innovation
• Sequoia Capital launches $950 million in new early-stage funds to reinforce its core strategy
• Steven Bartlett raises landmark funding at €365 million valuation to build global creator media platform

News on the market

• bunq secures FINRA approval for a Broker-Dealer license in the US!
• J.P. Morgan to accept Bitcoin and Ether as collateral for institutional loans
• Accel and Prosus launch early-stage investment partnership to fuel India’s next wave of “leap tech” startups
• Affirm expands partnership with Worldpay to boost embedded BNPL access for SaaS platforms
• Findi to acquire climate tech start-up Sphere in AUD 6M all-share deal to expand sustainability payments
• Synthesia prepares new funding round after rejecting Adobe’s $3B acquisition offer
• OpenAI and PayPal partner to bring Instant Checkout and agentic commerce into ChatGPT
• Uber appoints Checkout.com as global payments partner to enhance transaction performance
• Ant Group files “AntCoin” trademark in Hong Kong amid digital asset momentum
• Citi partners with Coinbase to expand institutional digital asset payment capabilities
• Klarna partners with PagoPA S.p.A. to enable installment payments for Italian public services
• Tabby | تابي reaches $4.5 billion valuation following secondary share sale
• Western Union introduces USDPT stablecoin and Digital Asset Network on Solana
• Barclays to acquire Best Egg for $800 million to expand US consumer lending
• J.P. Morgan to launch Chase in Germany with ambition to become a top-five retail bank
• Mastercard reportedly in talks to acquire zerohash for up to $2 billion
• Monzo Bank CEO TS Anil steps down and gets replaced by former Google executive Diana Layfield
• Morgan Stanley acquires EquityZen to expand access to private market investing

A special look in the Italian market

• Bending Spoons acquires AOL in $1.4 billion deal backed by $2.8 billion financing
• Bending Spoons raises $710 million at $11 billion valuation to fuel global expansion and AI-driven acquisitions

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 #104.