Weekly update #20

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 thing I read this week was a report by Mambu about the digital banking landscape in South east Asia. I knew many different startups that started to provide financial services in that part of the world, but I was very intrigued by the landscape overall.

What catches my eye here, is the amount of companies coming from different field that started to provide financial services. A couple of example here: 카카오뱅크 Kakaobank bank in South Korea is also a popular chatting app, I’ve used it multiple times while I was studying at Yonsei University in Seoul, and while it surely a very asian experience, it has also some very good financial features.

At the same time, take a look at WeBank in China, or Rakuten en in Japan, or Ant Bank (Hong Kong) nk in Hong Kong. A lot of good examples on how different parts of the world think about fintech and banking in different ways. In Asia, a good majority of digital banks started out of companies operating first in different industries, slowly transitioning to a super app over time.

In Europe, but also in the US, we have many different examples of companies trying a very different approach. One example above all is Revolut t. They started from digital banking, then moved to the concept of an overall financial services app, until lately when they started to provide other services, like eSim.

Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Nexi Group and Mastercard ard strike a partnership on payments in Europe, while Griffin raised $24 million and gained a real banking license in Europe. Stripe is introducing support for Apple pay later for all his merchant, while Klarna is pushing forward on Open Banking. We also saw some interesting news in the VC ecosystem in India, along with multiple funds launched this week.

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

Closed deals

• BaaS Griffin raises $24 million as it attains full banking license;
• Argyle secures $30M to revolutionize payroll connectivity in fintech;
• New York Community Bank (NYCB) halts trading and gets $1 billion cash infusion;
• France based Adaptive ML raises $20 million for his custom made Gen AI;
• Flagstone's raises £108M in equity to transform the global cash management market starting from the UK;
• Vouch Insurance secures $25M in Series C funding to revolutionize business insurance for high-growth companies;
• Munich based VC platform AQUATY raises €2.3 Million in pre-seed funding;
• Eye Security clinches €36M in Series B from J.P. Morgan to expand cybersecurity footprint in Europe;
• PPRO secures €85 Million in landmark funding to fuel global expansion;
• Lago secures $22M for open source billing revolution;
• SAPI secures £7.5 Million to innovate the small business lending market;
• Perfios becomes on of India's most valuable startups after a $80M boost from Teachers' Venture Growth;
• D2X Group raises a $10 million series A for his crypto derivatives trading platform.

Strategic moves on the market

• Tap-to-pay on iPhone available also in PayPal and Venmo;
• Troubles never end for Binance. This time, two executive of the criminal investigation team of the company have been detained in Nigeria;
• Levenue acquires MidFunder to expand Swiss FinTech;
• Amadeus expands its horizon acquiring Voxel in a strategic move to reinvent travel payments;
• Klarna introduce Open Banking-powered Settlements in the UK;
• Stripe launches Apple buy now pay later, now available for all merchants.

A special look in the Italian market

• Nexi Group strikes a partnership with Mastercard to push open banking payments in Europe;
• SILICON BOX, Singapore based startup, invests $2.3 billion in the italian semiconductors industry;
• Talentware raised €800k from 360 Capital to further develop in Italy and Europe.

Insights on the Vc industry

• Artemis raises $36 million to invest in fintech and boost diversity;
• Ada Ventures raises $80M for second fund focused on inclusivity and diversity;
• Peak XV Partners, the former India and south est Asia arm of Sequoia Capital, launches Perpetual Fund;
• Elaia launches €120M Seed Fund to propel deepTech startups into the future;.

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 #19