Weekly update #32

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.

This week I’ve been reading a report from European Women in VC , in collaboration with Founders Forum Group and Tech Nation , called “Beyond return: Venture and growth investing fueling sustainability and societal change”. The report revolves around the impact of venture capital across all aspects of European society, economic development, and growth, with a focus on the return itself of those investments. But let’s start from some numbers:

Impact investing is recently gaining some traction as you can see. ⅓ of LP say that reducing carbon footprint is a top priority, while half of VCs consulted said that ESG criteria are one of the main priorities for the next 12 months. 88% of investors use impact investing framework or tool to guide investment decisions. But that is not all. While investments in women co-founded and impact startups have been quiet flat until 2023, they are exploding in 2024. Among the main criteria in terms of impact, we can see UN SDG chosen by 34% of the total VCs consulted, followed by 22% for responsible investments (PRI) and sustainable investments (IFRS) with 14%. Still, 33% of VCs used none of them. Climate action is surely taking the lead in terms of development goals, followed by infrastructure, good health and obviously affordable energy. Overall, I would say that reducing carbon footprint is by far the main trending topic recently when talking with VCs, only challenged by AI. A nice discovery, the facts that money are following words in this case, with climate startup investments raising exponentially during the last three years. Western Europe is surely leading the way in this sense. But in this image we can see a couple of points of concern. First of all, the huge difference in terms of investments between Southern Europe and the rest of the continent. Difference that became almost embarrassing if compared with the UK. The second one is the overall metric of investments made in women co-founded startups, only 11% in Europe. Last but not least, the difference in terms of importance of those factors by geographic area. The Nordics lead the way here, with almost 70% of VCs and LPs considering impact one of the main priorities. The UK is left behind in many categories, while Southern Europe, that could be potentially disrupted by climate changes, does not care enough about reducing carbon footprint, with only 40% considering that a priority. I would say we can see in this report a lot of the common practices and main trends we see in the VC market today, with quantitative data to demonstrate them. One thing I would love to see is the impact on returns that those kinds of priorities or decisions have on the long run. Here you can find the link to the whole report if you want to take a deeper look. Before jumping to the latest news, a quick request from my side. I will start a small series of podcasts to interview fintech founders and VC managers active in the ecosystem. If you want to be part of it, feel free to drop me a line on Linkedin! Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Robinhood acquired the european exchange Bitstamp , in a move to expand outside of the US, while Stripe moved to an invite-only based model in India. Monzo Bank posted its first year of full profitability, while bunq wants to return in the UK in 2024. Capital One forged a partnership with Stripe and Adyen to fight fraud, and in a crazy announce Apple will introduce ChatGPT into ios18. In the VC world the king of the week is surely Creandum , that raised a $500 million fund, followed by WndrCo that secures $460 million in two funds to invest in fintech, and Estancia Capital Management, LLC that raises $350 million. Cheers to my friends at Blackwood Ventures , that raised DDK 110 million for their first fund. In the italian market, the milan based Sibill raised $6.2 million from Keen Venture Partners . And finally, we saw some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Bcas , Novel , Sipay , re:cap , Nium , Prosperos.ai, Fizz , Fibe.India (Formerly EarlySalary) and many others. But let's take a closer look at the main news of the last seven days:

Closed deals

• Novel secures $15 million in pre-series A funding
• Fortunafi raises $9.5 million for RWA and Stablecoin Expansion
• Kintsugi AI secures a $6M Series A funding to revolutionize Tax Automation
• SiFi - Simplified Financial Solutions Company raises $10 million to expand spend management solutions in Saudi Arabia
• Madrid based fintech Bcas secures $17 million to fuel international expansion
• Copenhagen based Claimlane raises $1.8 million to innovate refunds management in eCommerce
• Berliner fintech re:cap secures €13.5 Million in funding to fuel expansion in EU
• Nium raises $50 million in Series E funding to expand global real-time payments infrastructure
• Sipay secures $15 million investment to expand internationally and innovate the payment industry
• Barclays leads £4 million seed round in WealthOS
• Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) raises $120 million to challenge NYSE and Nasdaq
• Bain Capital leads $35 million series A funding round of crypto startup M^0 Labs
• Prósperos.ai raises $3 million to transform banking for the latino community
• Indian fintech Fibe.India (Formerly EarlySalary) raises $90 million to offer tailor made loan products
• Fizz raises $14.4 million in seed funding to revolutionise credit building for Gen Z college students
• Torpago secures $10 million in Series B funding to innovate commercial credit card and expense management
• Digital receipt startup Slip raises £2.5 Million to reshape customer insights for physical stores
• iPiD secures $5.3 million funding to expand payment verification services in Europe

Insights on the VC industry

• Creandum raises a $500 million fund to invest in European tech startup
• Dreamcraft Ventures launches a $66 million fund to invest in fintech and SaaS in DACH and nordic region
• BackFuture fund emerges from stealth and close a first $3 million fund to back early stage SaaS in EU
• WndrCo enters venture capital with $460 million across two funds
• PE firm Estancia Capital Management, LLC targets $350 million fund to invest in fintech
• Blackwood Ventures secures DKK 110 million for the second closing of his debut fund

News on the market

• A very interesting trend going on in the VC industry. Bigger funds are selling shares to smaller funds in a very hot SPV market
• Visa and Mastercard settle ATM fee class action lawsuit for $197 Million
• Stripe is moving to an invite-only model in India amid of regulatory challenges
• A very interesting report from European Women in VC about sustainability and social change in growth investing. And probably a spoiler for my next newsletter.
• Philippine fintech beppo secures funding to acquire JuanTax and other five tax platform to aggregate the demand in the region
• Monzo Bank announces first full-year profitability and european expansion plans with a new office in Dublin
• The first step outside of EU of the neo bank bunq will be a return on the UK in 2024
• LoanSnap promised to revolutionise the mortgage industry. Now, it seems on the verge of collapse facing lawsuits from creditors and fines from regulators.
• BankTech Ventures announces strategic investments in Equabli, Inc, Filejet Inc., and Monit to empower community Banks
• Zopa Bank expands into current accounts, investments and SMEs lending
• Another neo bank expanding into other markets. This time is Ramp making waves introducing Travel: a revolutionary travel booking platform
• Robinhood will acquires European exchange Bitstamp for $200 million to fuel expansion outside of the US
• SAP acquires digital adoption platform WalkMe™ for $1.5 Billion
• Capital One joins forces with Stripe and Adyen to combat frauds
• Apple to integrate ChatGPT into iOS 18 following landmark deal with OpenAI

A special look in the Italian market

• Milan based Sibill raises $6.2 million with Keen Venture Partners joining as investor

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

Events you don’t want to miss

• Startup Africa Day | Next generation africa - 11.06.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• Doorway Connect - Milan: investments | startup | education | networking - 11.06.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• Tenity Demo Day | Zurich - 13.06.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• Dock DemoDay 2024 | Rome - 14.06.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• We Make Future | Rimini - 13-14-15.06.2024 (Link to the website)
• B4i Demo Day Batch IX | Milan - 16.07.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• BolzanoSlushD | Bolzano - 03.09.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• Italian Tech Week | Turin - 25-27.09.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• Milan Fintech Summit | Milan - 08-09.10.2024 (Link to the invite or website)

You have a cool event you want to mention or to sponsor? Feel free to send me a DM.

Startups raising funds

• Fantalegends - a Fantasy Football free-to-play mobile game that aims to provide an enjoyable and safe experience, user-centered, with more than 2k daily active users. Raising $1M.

• 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.
• Bitcoin People - Fintech company focused on crypto payments between corporate and cross countries. B2B, SaaS. Raising $500k. Round closed!
• 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.

You want to be present in this list? Feel free to shoot me a DM on Linkedin. Take also a look at the last edition of the newsletter, Weekly update #31