Weekly update #74

​​Welcome to this edition of the weekly newsletter. The idea behind this is to gather all the information in the startup ecosystem in one place, with a special focus on the fintech market and the VC industry.

The latest episode of Builders has been released this week. In this episode, I sit down with Anne-Sybille Pradelles, co-founder of Formance .

Anne-Sybille has a very interesting profile, coming from a financial background through experiences at Credit Suisse and AXA VENTURE PARTNERS, she then went deep dive on the startup ecosystem, working in cybersecurity startups before discovering her passion for the fintech industry, founding Formance.

You can find the link to the full episode here on YouTube, or you can listen to it here on Spotify and here on Apple Podcast. Here a short clip from it:

Formance enables Platforms and Fintech companies to build modern financial applications composing payments, banking, lending, investing, and insurance through complex fund flows. After going through the program at Y Combinator, they raised a $21 million series A.

With her, we will deep dive on the experience of launching a fintech startup from scratch, the funding environment in Europe, but also the feeling of going through Y Combinator and how to raise a round in less than 3 months.

Coming back to us, I’ve been reading a very interesting study this week, the “Europe diving into crypto” from Bitpanda Technology Solutions. The report gradually explores the market environment for crypto assets in Europe and provides a deep understanding of the current sentiment and preferences of investors and financial institutions (FIs). Finally, it also presents implications for FIs entering the market. Here my main takeaway:

The potential for crypto adoption in Europe is closely linked to three key factors: the overall size of the investor market, the visibility of the Web3 economy within each country, and the strength of its regulatory framework. Together, these elements influence capital availability, public awareness, and investor confidence.

From a market size perspective, Germany, the UK, and France dominate the European investment landscape, collectively holding €15.7 trillion in liquid investor assets. Germany leads with the largest number of individuals at investment-seeking age (73.5 million), while the UK, despite a smaller base (56.7 million), benefits from its role as a global financial center and shows a higher concentration of liquid wealth (€4.3 trillion) than France (€2.8 trillion). Switzerland also plays a significant role, thanks to its financial ecosystem, even though its population of private investors is comparatively small (7.7 million).

On the institutional side, liquid wealth held by business investors also reveals regional strengths. Countries like Germany, France, and Switzerland remain attractive due to their robust financial infrastructure and investor activity.

In this context, countries with strong investor bases and growing regulatory clarity are better positioned to support the development and mainstream adoption of crypto services.

European private and business investors differ significantly in how they approach and perceive crypto assets. While both acknowledge the growth potential of cryptocurrencies, private investors remain more cautious in their engagement compared to institutional players.

A common view is that crypto represents a distinct asset class. Around 60% of business investors support this idea, with only a small minority rejecting it. Among private investors, agreement is more muted, with about one-third seeing crypto as a standalone category.

Bitcoin remains the dominant point of reference. Over 40% of business investors consider it the only relevant cryptocurrency, a sentiment shared by just 15% of private investors. That said, roughly 30% of private investors and 26% of business investors recognize the relevance of other cryptocurrencies as well.

Overall, business investors show greater confidence and conviction in the legitimacy and potential of the crypto asset class, while private investors continue to adopt a more reserved stance.

Looking ahead, there is a general consensus that cryptocurrencies will gain importance over the next three years, particularly among business investors. A majority of them—56%—express confidence in crypto’s growing relevance, with enthusiasm especially high in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where over 64% of business investors support this outlook. In contrast, France stands out with the highest level of skepticism, as one in five French business investors do not expect crypto to become more relevant.

Private investors show a more reserved outlook, with only 27% expecting increased relevance. However, this lower figure is not driven by stronger opposition, but rather by a larger number of uncertain or undecided respondents. Across countries, differences among private investors are minor, though CEE private investors again show more optimism compared to their peers.

The overall trend indicates increasing expectations around crypto’s role in the financial landscape, led by institutional confidence and regional enthusiasm, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

Across Europe, around one in five business investors who have not yet entered the crypto market express clear intentions to invest in the future. Notably, half of them plan to do so within the next 12 months, emphasizing both the momentum building in the crypto space and the urgency for financial institutions to offer crypto access if they have not already.

Among companies currently invested in crypto, most report annual revenues between €5 million and €100 million, with ownership levels remaining relatively stable across different revenue brackets. Geographically, adoption is relatively balanced, though Italy shows the lowest share of invested businesses.

Industry-wise, the strongest adoption comes from the internet, technology, and telecom sectors (31%), followed by finance and insurance (18%). These figures reflect a clear alignment between crypto adoption and industries already engaged with digital innovation or financial services.

However, in sectors like marketing, e-commerce, and retail, adoption rates vary widely by country. For example, over 70% of such companies in France and CEE have invested in crypto, while Germany lags significantly behind at just 30%. Although tech-centric firms are slightly overrepresented in the sample, the data still confirms broadening interest in crypto across diverse business sectors.

Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Revolut launched the crypto platform Revolut X, Coinbase is in talks to acquire Deribit , and Robinhood launched three products in private and wealth banking. Tether.io acquired 30.4% of Be Water Content (Chora Media & Will Media), Monzo Bank launched a split payment service and eToro filed for the long awaited IPO. In the VC industry, Emergence Capital closes a $1 billion fund, but also more new funds from Pillar VC, SemperVirens Venture Capital , daphni and Incore Invest. In the italian market Bain Capital acquired the majority of Namirial Group, while compri raised a $1.6 million seed round and Bending Spoons got a $600 million debit facility. And finally, some very interesting rounds from fintech startups like Ualá, RockFi, Rain, Sympera AI, Firenze, Mercury, PAID, HUGLO and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Buenos Aires based fintech Ualá raises additional $66 million for its Series E round
• MoonPay secures a $200 million revolving credit line from Galaxy
• Stable Sea secures $3.5 million to boost global stablecoin offramping
• Dubai based embedded payment enza raises a $6.75 million seed round
• Swiss based Browser Use raises $17 million to help AI agents navigate the web
• French fintech RockFi raises a $18 million series A and aims to $1 billion in AuM
• ​​Crypto card issuer Rain raises a $24.5 million round
• Sympera AI raises a $10 million seed round to help banks build their relationship with AI agents
• Fyxer AI closes a $10 million round led by Harry Stebbings from 20VC
• Manchester based fintech Firenze secures a $2.5 million seed round for its credit Lombard solution
• Welsh fintech Burbank Software raises a £5 million round to launch its online payment technology
• Slovak fintech HUGLO secures €1.5M in funding to accelerate SME financing through its digital platform Foaf.sk
• Mercury raises a $300 million series C led by Sequoia Capital
• London based Paid secures a $10 million round to transform AI agent economy
• Bogota based fintech Addi secures a $170 million credit facility from Fasanara Capital and Goldman Sachs
• Island secures a $250 million round at a $4.8 billion valuation
• Nigerian fintech Payhippo rebrands as Rivy (Formerly Payhippo) and closes a $4 million round for clean energy financing
• Mexico based fintech Mendel secures a $35 million series B
• Times Internet spin off Abound raises $14 million to help Indian Americans send money back home
• Saudi based NAYLA نايلة raises a $4 million seed round to boost operations in KSA

Insights on the VC industry

• SemperVirens Venture Capital closes two new funds for a total of $177 million
• Pillar VC closes a fourth fund at $175 million
• Crypto VC giant Haun Ventures is raising $1 billion for two new funds
• daphni secures $215 million for its third climate fund
• Incore Invest closes a $25 million new fund to back fintech startups
• Emergence Capital closes a $1 billion fund to back B2B startups
• French Vc Founders Future is expanding to the US and is looking to raise a $250 million fund
• Elbow Beach closes a £63M fund to invest in UK climate tech startups

News on the market

• Sam Altman's Worldcoin is reported in talks with Visa about a stablecoin payment wallet
• Adyen and Affirm expand their partnership in the UK
• Revolut is coming for Crypto platforms out there with the launch of Revolut X
• Coinbase is reported in talks to acquire Deribit in a multi billion dollar deal
• Uniswap passes $165 million funding plan after DAO vote
• Monzo Bank introduces split payments feature
• PayPal strikes a partnership with Ignyte to strengthens its presence in the UAE
• Now it's official: eToro files for IPO in the US
• PayU acquires a 47.5% stake in Mindgate Solutions
• Tether.io acquires 30.4% in Be Water Content (Chora Media & Will Media)
• Robinhood moves into Wealth management and Private banking
• UK fintech myPOS acquires UK payment service provider UTP Group
• fiskaly acquires German store based retail provider DF Deutsche Fiskal GmbH
• Fidelity Investments is planning to launch its own Stablecoin

A special look in the Italian market

• Bain Capital acquires a majority stakes in Namirial Group for $1.1 billions
• Milan based compri secures a $1.6 million round led by DFF Ventures (Dutch Founders Fund) and Italian Founders Fund
• Bending Spoons announces a $600 million debt facility from Silver Point Capital, L.P.

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

Events you don’t want to miss

• Nordic startup challenge - Hamburg, Germany | 24-26.03.2025 (Link to the event)
• Tech.eu Summit - London, UK | 25-26.03.2025 (Link to the event)

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

Startups raising funds

• Loyyal - Loyalty platform from the MENA region, with entities in the US and South East Asia, provides a B2B2C platform to handle multiple loyalty programs and earn rewards all over the world. Raising a $6M Series A
• Freedhome - Proptech and fintech platform, enabling people to be able to gain profit from real estate by renting them to intermediaries. Raising a $1M seed round

• Tutornow - Edtech that provides an online tutoring platform for students with learning disorders. Raising $500k to $1M.
• 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.

• 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 #73