Weekly update #12

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.

Recently I read multiple reports on the state of the startup ecosystem on 2023, the year of "keeping startup afloat" as named in an article from Sifted recently. The main trend of the year it was in fact the general downturn of the funding in the ecosystem.

As you can see in the image above, startups had a very tough year, with deal value dropping by 46% compared to the year before. Still trend in the number of deals, dropping by 20% in 2023.

We can see the same unlucky fate for VC in the following image:

Many struggled with raising capital in 2023, with fewer funds raising less money than the year prior. Just 141 funds raised €17.2bn — down nearly 52% and 39%, respectively, from 2022.

But in a very dark scenario, I think we can always find some good hope. 2024 could potentially be the year of coming back for the startup ecosystem in Europe, mostly for two reasons: 1) there is a lot of talk of potential IPOs in the market, with name like Klarna and others looking to file by the end of the year; 2) many investors and bankers are forecasting a cut in interest rates already in the upcoming quarter (Q2), that could indicate a wave of liquidity in the market.

But as you can see below, the market wasn't enthusiastic as well:

We will have to wait in order to see what's coming in our direction, but in the meanwhile we saw some interesting news recently. There's been a lot of interest in the LATAM fintech space recently, with an open banking company Prometeo OpenBanking in South America, and some interesting deal in the MENA region, with the Egypt based Zeal. In Europe, we saw some very interesting news about the Berlin based Pliant and a wonderfull news for the payment ecosystem with Apple opening their NFC systems on iOS for third parties.

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

Closed deals

• Uruguay based Prometeo OpenBanking raised $13 million to innovate Open Banking in Latam;
• Mexican startup Finbra.com raises $2.3 million to boost SMEs lending;
• WaveBL raises $37 million to digitalise trade documents;
• GXS Bank just received $109 million from his mother company, the super app Grab;
• Egyptian based Zeal raised $4 million for international expansion;
• 10x Banking just announced his latest funding round raising $50 million;
• Berlin-based Pliant extends Series A to €33 million;
• Quantinuum raised $300 million at $5 billion valuation;
• The car finance startup Carmoola closes a $15.5 million funding round;
• Argentina based Pomelo just closed a $40 million series B;
• Panacea Financial raised $24.5 million in a series B funding round;
• Open finance player Ayoconnect secures $2.5 million from PT. Mandiri Capital Indonesia (MCI);
• Kashable secures $25.6M in Series B funding for expanding financial wellness solutions;
• Varengold Bank invests €29.5 million in BNPL dutch startup Billink;
• Constructions fintech platform Briq raises $8 million as extension of his last round;
• Kiln raised a $17 million funding round to expand his staking platform.

Strategic moves on the market

• J.P. Morgan started off boarding business customers from wePay;
• Tioex Technologies is able to let users invest in the secondary market of amazing companies like SpaceX;
• The fintech unicorn Airwallex is preparing to go public;
• Global Credit Union acquires First Financial Northwest Bank for $231 million;
• Google join forces with National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI) to bring UPI global;
• Big step forward for contactless payment in EU: Apple has agree to allow third party app to make contactless paymentson iOS without ApplePay or AppleWallet.

A special look in the Italian market

• Spanish startup PLAYTOMIC acquires the italian based Sportclubby to expand in the italian Padel market;
• Italian reg tech Lexroom.ai closes a €500k founding round.

Insights on the VC industry

• Delin Ventures raises a £46m fund to invest in B2B SaaS and Edtech in Europe;
• Thomvest Ventures closed a $250 million fund to invest across fintech, cybersecurity and AI;
• Dutch based Golden Egg Check raised a $2.5 million fund to invest in Dutch startups;

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 #11.