Weekly update #43

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 topics for this week, 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 linkhttps://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!

Coming back to us, I’ve been reading a very interesting article this week, from Miguel Armaza of Gilgamesh Ventures . The idea behind the article is to try to understand the answer to a simple question: what makes a great fintech founder?

The concept is pretty simple. They started from the most influential fintech startups in the United States and Latin America that were launched after 2000 and have achieved over $250M in revenue. From this group, they identified the top fifteen fintech companies with the highest number of former employees who went on to become founders in the Americas. These fifteen companies, which they refer to as the “Fintech Families,” have collectively produced nearly 2,600 founders across the region. Notably, around 12% (298) of these founders established fintech companies in the US and Latin America.

The research strongly supports a common belief presents in the industry for some time: a select group of pioneering fintech companies has inspired a new generation of founders to create their own startups. These alumni-led companies are showing strong early momentum, with this trend accelerating in the past 18 months. Notably, 27% of these founders launched fintech companies in 2023 alone.

Even in the present environment, a fresh wave of fintech startups has emerged from the Fintech Families, with over a third of the top companies in the analysis securing funding in just the past two years. Remarkably, 2023 saw the highest number of fintech founders in any single year, indicating that entrepreneurs are eager to explore new opportunities within the sector.

This is intriguing on its own, but the real impact becomes clear when you look at the amount of funding raised. Some of these figures are staggering: Square alumni have raised nearly $1 billion, Zillow founders close to $900 million, and SoFi founders almost $600 million. And these are just the top three.

It’s understandable why some have proposed creating venture funds dedicated solely to investing in alumni from certain highly successful companies. Naturally, only time will reveal how these alumni-led companies perform in terms of exits and liquidity in the coming years. You can find the link to the whole article here if you want to have a deep dive.

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. Both Revolut and Stripe are willing to let their employees cash out from their company's shares. PayPal expands its partnership with Adyen , offering Fastlane in the US, while Klarna acquired New Zealand based Laybuy . Finally, we saw Pix moving the first steps in Europe in partnership with the Spanish Wipay . In the VC market, Mark Bezos raised $100 million for HIPstr, Nine Realms closed a $50 million fund, while BEVC launched a first $25 million fund to invest in climate tech. Unfortunately no fintech news this week in the Italian ecosystem. And last but not least, some very interesting founding rounds from fintech startups like Amount , Peaks , Waza (YC W23) , PostEx , resal , Revenew , Lettuce Financial , Moneycatcha and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Capitalize raises $19 million to growth its platform and help people transfer retirement assets
• Amount secures $30 million investment to expand digital solutions in banking sector
• Toronto based Boosted.ai raises $10 million from CIBC Innovation
• European fintech app Peaks raises $1.38 million to boost investment education in EU
• Chaos Labs secures $55 million investment to innovate DeFi risk management solutions
• Nigerian fintech Waza (YC W23) raises $8 million in an equity and debt funding round
• Wealth management and real estate platform Vanilla secured $66 million
• Your Money Line secures a $4.5 million series A
• Mesh triples its valuation in a pre-series A round led by QuantumLight
• WSPN secures a $30 million seed round to redefine the future of digital payments
• Pakistani fintech PostEx secures $7.3 million in pre-series A funding round
• Saudi based resal raises a $9 million Series A to expand its digital rewards platform in Saudi Arabia
• Fintech provider Nymbus secures investment from Gesa Credit Union
• Revenew raises from stealth closing a $4.55 million funding round
• Lettuce Financial closes a $15 million series A led by Zeev Ventures
• Crypto payments network Skyfire raises $8.5 million to introduce AI agents into payments
• Zurich proptech Optiml raises a $3.5 million pre-seed extension to push for decarbonization in real estate
• Brasil fintech Magie closes a $4 million seed led by Lux Capital
• Kenyan HR and payroll startup Workpay secures a $5 million series A
• Australian fintech Moneycatcha raises $1.5 million in new funding round
• Montreal based fintech YouSet secures $3.5 million oversubscribed seed round
• Revolut alumni raised $18 million for real time shopping app Tilt

Insights on the VC industry

• Jeff Bezos brother, Mark Bezos, just launched a $100 million VC fund, HIPstr
• Nine Realms closes a $50 million fund to invest on early stage European startups
• BEVC closes a new $25 million fund to invest in climate-related startups

News on the market

• Revolut secures the $45 billion valuation in the anticipated share sale from their employees
• Nubank CEO sells $404 million shares as stocks hit record high
• PayPal expands Adyen partnership to offer Fastlane in the US
• Bitwise Asset Management expands into EU by acquiring ETC Group
• Bolt is looking to raise $450 million as Ryan Breslow wants to return as CEO
• Klarna acquires New Zealand based BNPL Laybuy
• Amazon is considering to spin off its Amazon Pay app into a stand alone solution in India
• Flutterwave partners with American Express to boost eCommerce payments in Africa
• Brazilian payment infrastructure Pix strikes a strategic partnership with Wipay to launch in Europe
• Stripe will give its employees the possibility to sell their shares at a $70 billion valuation

A special look in the Italian market

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

Events you don’t want to miss

• BolzanoSlushD | Bolzano - 03.09.2024 (Link to the invite or website) I still have some discount codes for this one, reach out to me if you want one!
• Italian Tech Week | Turin - 25-27.09.2024 (Link to the invite or website)
• Newport investor summit | Newport (RI) - 26-27.09.2024 (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)
• VDS+ | Valencia 23-24.10.2024 (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.

Take also a look at the last edition of the newsletter, Weekly update #42