Weekly update #19

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.

One of the most interesting things I read this week, was a report by McKinsey & Company about the impact of AI and Gen AI on different kind of industries, such as Media, Tech and Telecom. This report made me think about a recent news released by Klarna, where the fintech Swedish giant highlighted that they were able to substitute a customer support team with a Gen AI tool.

The use case made by McKinsey was very similar to the news reported by Klarna, with a focus on Telco. The consulting company conducted a very wide study in order to understand how the use of Gen AI already impacted one specific function, customer support, in terms of costs reduction. And a good numbers of executives reported that more than 50% of the costs related to this function could potentially be automated using AI. This, for anyone outside the industry, means only one thing: reduction in terms of human resources.

The scope of the report is to try to go beyond the hype around AI, in order to try to calculate a direct impact on businesses. You can find the link here, for everyone who could find it interesting: Report by Mckinsey

This week we saw another very interesting news in the market. The italian company Bending Spoons is in talks to acquire the US based Vimeo.

Bending has been very present in the news recently, mostly because they just closed a crazy $155 million funding round, with a staggering valuation of $2.5 billion. What is most interesting about this Italian excellence is the growing strategy through M&A they are implementing. In the recent years they acquired Evernote, Meetup, Humamy and many others, in order to reach $500 million in revenue by the end of 2023. This strategy has also started some critics in the market, given the fact that their approach is very similar to the Private Equity one, with a complete restructuring and potentially layoffs after every acquisition. It will be very interesting to see what happens to Vimeo now.

Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Apple opened up his API to thiurd party in order to let them fetch transactions from Apple Card and the savings account. Qatar is pushing a lot in the startup direction, with the launch of a $1 billion fund to invest widely in the industry. At the same time we have Commerce Ventures raising $150 million Fund V. Monzo Bank finally confirmed his latest $400 million led by Alphabet Inc.. And many other funding rounds by some interesting fintech startups.

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

Closed deals

• Indonesian based wagely raised $23 million to innovate earned wage access in south east Asia;
• EasyKnock secures $28 million to innovate home equity solutions;
• Mews becomes Amsterdam's latest unicorn with €101.3M funding round;
• Monzo Bank finally confirmed the $400 million series C led by Alphabet Inc;
• Synctera secures $18.6M in Series A funding to fuel global expansion and new CRO appointment;
• RemotePass raises a $5.5M Series A and expands into emerging markets;
• Latam based Yuno closes a round at the valuation of $150 million;
• Theia Insights raised $6.5 million to bring AI to investment community;
• SoFi announces that is looking to raise $750 million in convertible notes with a 2029 due date;
• Copenhagen based Meo raised €1.67m to bolster AML compliance across Europe;
• Zara FX raised a $2 million series A for the global expansion of his brokerage platform;
• Remofirst raises $25 million to take on Deel and Rippling;
• YoFio Raises $10M to empower Microbusinesses in Mexico;
• Carputty accelerates into the future of car financing with $80M capital boost;
• Fluent raises $6.8 million to transform data analytics and team collaboration;
• Paris based Zama raises a $67 million series A for his privacy platform;
• IDfy secures $27M in investment to revolutionize identity verification across Asia and beyond;
• Lettuce Financial secures $6M in Seed funding to revolutionize accounting and tax services;
• PayShepherd secures $7M CAD in Seed funding to transform the contractor management industry.

Strategic moves on the market

• A good news for Apple Card holders: Goldman Sachs just raised their account balance limit to $1 million;
• ZIFF acquires Arrenda, and targets $1 billion loans in Mexico by 2027;
• Fiserv eyes Shift4 payments acquisition;
• Deel accelerates global expansion with strategic acquisition of PaySpace;
• The French fintech unicorn Qonto acquires Regate;
• Apple released a new API to fetch transactions from Apple fintech products;
• Sorare layoffs 13% of the workforce, as web3 continues to sputter;
• Nationwide Building Society will acquire Virgin Money for $2.9 billion;
• Revolut and MetaMask join forces to unveil Revolut Ramp for seamless Crypto transactions;
• Binance.US laid off 2/3 of the workforce, after a 75% drop in revenue.

A special look in the Italian market

• Breaking news from Bloomberg: Bending Spoons is in talks to acquire Vimeo.

Insights on the Vc industry

• #Qatar launches $100M fund to boost startup ecosystem;
• Commerce Ventures launches oversubscribed $150M Fund V;
• Israeli based Team8 raised $500 million for a new tech and fintech fund;
• Andreessen Horowitz could be near to raise one of the biggest fund in the recent VC history, bringing home $7 billion.

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 #18