Weekly update #33

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.

Before jumping to the main piece of content I’ve read this week, a quick note from my side. On Tuesday 2nd I will be the guest of Agicap to talk about banking connectivity and how PSD2 ties in with the ERP industry. You can watch the live broadcast here.

Coming back to us, I’ve been reading a very interesting report about a topic that seems to be not a target for startups anymore, at least in public: becoming a unicorn.

Until 2020, with all the stimulus and liquidity present in the market, becoming a unicorn seemed to be so simple that everyone was trying to become one. But then the valuation bubble exploded after interest rates went up, and those valuations were not possible anymore. One of the results of this chain of events was a specific storytelling in the market that wanted startups to have higher revenue as their main goal, instead of a huge valuation.

Dealroom.co, in partnership with Armstrong International, released a paper titled “The making of a fintech unicorn: The path to $1B and founder CV”. Inside this report there is a very interesting study about the main variable that defines a unicorn founder, assuming there is still someone out there that want to be one.

One of the most interesting take away I found in this study was the flywheel effect. Over 50% of founders since 2015 are serial founders, or at least second time founders. In this trend, we can also find some other interesting path, like the revolut mafia, that seems to have started more than 100 fintech startups all over Europe in the last 10 years.

Another very interesting takeaway was the median age. I’ve always read reports about the average age of successful founders, finding that usually they are between 40 and 45 years old. The median age of unicorn founders in fintech is 32 years old, with 23.8% of them being between 24 and 30 years old. I believe this data is strongly related to the peak of the trend we saw in this market, and possibly changing also in the future when the market will recover in terms of investments.

Among the various variables taken into consideration in this study you can also find the number of founders at the launch of the venture, the academic background and many others, but none of them seems to be as important as the country of origin. As you can see in this image, launching in the UK seems to have a clear advantage in this market, and I am quite sure that this information doesn’t take anyone by surprise.

To be honest, I am not really sure if being a unicorn is not a target anymore because of the funding environment or if founders are really looking for sustainable business models over the long term. What I see here, is a specific portrait of the typical unicorn founder that limits extensively the pool of people who could potentially do that. You can find the link to the full report here, if you want to take a look.

Finally, an update unrelated to the report that I recently came across while reading some articles in Sifted. Apparently, after some months of decline, funding is finally coming back to the early stage segment in Europe. In the image you can see here, there was a total inflow of investments in May ‘24 of approximately $1.7 billion and a total of 407 deals. Obviously not enough data to declare the winter season over, but at least some light at the end of the tunnel.

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. Apple was the absolute protagonist of the week, announcing some very interesting features at WWDC, like tap-to-cash, a peer to peer fintech feature, and Apple intelligence in collaboration with OpenAI . Kraken Digital Asset Exchange is reported in talks with investors to raise $100 million ahead of a potential IPO, and BeReal. was acquired by Voodoo for $500 million. A lot of new funds this week in the VC market! Foresite Capital raised $900 million for his sixth fund, Vsquared Ventures $214 million, and then Day One Ventures and Friends & Family Capital respectively $150 and $118 million, and they were not the only ones. But the most interesting fund in my opinion raised capital in the Italian market, with Italian Founders Fund, a fund launched by former founders and investors, raising $50 million to invest in early stage startups in Italy. We also saw Nozomi Networks raising $10 million from CDP Venture Capital SGR. And finally, we saw some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like AccountsIQ , Light, Sidekick , Bridgit , Pipe , Plenti , Linqto , ZELIQ , Sahl , Accountfy and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Amsterdam’s fintech innovator Prêts raises €1M to boost access to sustainable home technologies
• Swiss finTech Kaspar& secures CHF 2.5 million seed funding, partners with Avaloq
• Accountfy secures $6.5M in Series B Funding to transform financial reporting Platforms
• Sifted reported today that Mistral AI closed its highly anticipated last funding round, raising $600 million at $5.8 billion valuation
• Dubai based Stake raises $14 million to bring fractional properties investment platform to Saudi Arabia
• Plenti secures $60 million funding to propel green financing initiatives
• SmartLoC - Smart Letter of Credit secures €1.8 million Seed funding to innovate B2B Payments
• Linq rises $6.6 million to revolutionize financial research with AI
• Egyptian fintech Sahl raises $6 million to Revolutionize payments in Egypt and MENA
• ZELIQ secures $10 million Seed funding to revolutionize sales management
• Brightwave secures $6 million in Seed funding to innovate financial research with AI
• TymeBank is raising $150 Million ahead of planned IPO
• Pipe secures a $100 million credit line from Victory Park Capital Advisors to expand capital-as-a-service offerings
• Bridgit secures a $14.2 million Series A to reshape the home lending market
• Light exits stealth with $13 million Seed funding to transform how CFO interact with tech stack with AI
• Hawk extends Series B with Rabobank investment
• Sidekick raises $4 million to build wealth for Gen Z
• InScope secures $4.3 million Seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
• AccountsIQ raises $65 million to revolutionize Bookkeeping with AI
• NOW Money secures $4 million investment to boost financial inclusion

Insights on the VC industry

• Collaborative Fund raised a $125 million fund to tackle climate, food and health
• Cisco Investments launches $1 billion AI fund to drive innovation in artificial intelligence
• Vsquared Ventures closes €214 million fund to fuel Europe's innovation boom
• Equilibrium Ventures hits first close of €30 million fund to fuel blockchain innovation
• Day One Ventures raises a $150 million fund to back Early-Stage innovators
• HSBC Egypt launches $31.5 million fund for fintech SMEs in the country
• Friends & Family Capital unveils Third $118 million fund
• Foresite Capital raises $900 million for sixth fund to invest in Life Sciences

News on the market

• Kraken Digital Asset Exchange is in talks for a pre-IPO funding round of $100 million
• Apple's new 'Tap to Cash' feature unveiled at WWDC, introducing Peer-to-Peer payments in iOS 18
• Santander's Zinia becomes provider of consumer finance services for Apple in Germany
• Apple unveils "Apple Intelligence" with New AI features, but most importantly, brings ChatGPT to the iPhone
• Affirm to integrate 'Buy Now, Pay Later' option with Apple Pay
• BeReal. acquired by Voodoo for €500 Million!
• Pluxee to acquire Spanish fintech startup Cobee

A special look in the Italian market

• Italian Founders Fund just a launched a $50 million investment pool to support at least 25 early stage startups
• Nozomi Networks secures over €10 million from CDP Venture Capital SGR in Series E round

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

Events you don’t want to miss

• 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)
• Bits & Pretzels founders festival | Munich 29.09-01.10.2024 (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.
• 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.

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 #32

Finally I am exploring partnerships with the newsletter. So this edition is sponsored by Notion, which is offering a 6-months free plan of its plus product to all founders submitting an application for their startups program.

In order to redeem the free trial, submit an application using this link [https://ntn.so/michelemattei](https://ntn.so/michelemattei), select Michele Mattei as partner and include the following partner key: STARTUP4110P62416. I really hope it will be helpful for many founders out there!