Weekly update #76

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 Scarlett Sieber , Chief Strategy Officer at Money20/20.

You can find the full episode here on YouTube, or you can listen to it here on Spotify or here on Apple Podcast. Take a look at a short clip here:

Scarlett has one of the most interesting and varied profile in the fintech market. She comes from a financial background, with experiences at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Opus Bank , but then she went full startups. She co-founded Infomous , a data visualization startup, she acted as contributor to the Huffington Post, Forbes, WeWork, and many others.

More recently, she took over a very interesting challenge: driving the strategy for Money 20/20, maybe the most well known fintech event globally. With her, we will talk about the difficulty of doing products for an event company, the expansion of the brand globally, but also the impact of Covid in 2020 and the differences in events in different parts of the world.

Coming back to us, I’ve been reading two interesting study this week, “The future of deposits 2025: reshaping for change” by Mambu . The fintech company in this study focus mostly on two fundamentals themes: the economic and technological forces rapidly reshaping the way money flows –and where value is being created and stored in financial systems. As the research indicates, banking is at a turning point. But it’s not a zero sum game: the future of deposits, of banking itself, will be defined as much by what banks and fintechs have in common as what divides them. Here my main takeaways:

After a decade of rapid expansion in global deposits driven by new market entrants and sustained inflows, the environment is shifting. According to Mambu’s Global Head of Solution Engineering, Perminder Grewal, the fintech-fueled growth wave is giving way to a more challenging era. As shown in recent data, deposits in the USA declined in 2023, while the Eurozone saw a nearly 4% drop—the sharpest contraction since the early 2000s. For markets that represent over half of global deposits, this signals a critical moment. The rising tide has stalled, and the next phase will demand resilience, adaptation, and smarter growth strategies.

The battle for account primacy is intensifying as alternative banking and payment providers reshape consumer habits. Neobanks are expected to grow ten times faster than traditional banks through 2032, with a projected CAGR of 46%. This shift is not just theoretical—WeBank, the world’s largest neobank, already serves nearly 400 million customers, more than double Santander’s 165 million in Europe. As digital wallets become preferred over traditional methods for a majority of U.S. consumers, the pressure is on. Traditional banks are adapting, using advanced analytics to dynamically price deposits and retain customers—but the rise of agile, digital-first challengers signals that the future of banking will be defined by innovation, speed, and customer-centricity.

Traditional banks are entering a storm of rising competition, mounting cost pressures, and increasingly demanding customers. As Francisco Morandeira of GFT notes, bumper profits from recent years may soften the blow temporarily, but without addressing core legacy systems, banks risk falling behind. Legacy infrastructure is now more than a tech problem—it’s a strategic liability, blocking scalability, integration, and innovation. Meanwhile, neobanks like China’s WeBank, with 399 million customers, are not just catching up—they're surpassing incumbents like Santander, which holds 165 million accounts. The message is clear: in the face of AI, autonomous banking, and digital-first competitors, the industry can no longer afford to delay transformation.

Gen Z is not just emerging—they’re leading a fundamental shift in global financial behavior. Set to become the largest age group in the world by 2025, this digitally native generation is driving the rise of digital wallets while moving away from credit cards. As shown in recent data, 79% of Gen Z already use digital wallets, while their average number of credit cards has dropped to just 1.7—the lowest across all generations. Their financial awareness is real: a third already hold savings of at least €1200, and 40% see saving as central to their future. Fintechs like Vietnam’s Cake are capitalizing on this shift, building profitable, Gen Z-focused digital banks in under four years. The takeaway is clear—digital-first, experience-driven financial services are no longer optional, they’re essential.

Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. The week was dominated by the tariff news, with many fintechs like Klarna and eToro delaying their planned IPO. Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, Robinhood just obtained a full brokerage license in Lithuania. Revolut got the license to offer prepaid card and wallet in India, and Mastercard partners with Kraken Digital Asset Exchange to offer crypto based payments. In the VC industry, we saw Osney Capital launching a $50 million fund and SignalFire closing a $1 billion new fund. But also Revent and DIG Ventures . And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Sipay, Hawk, Pennylane, Jumpstart, Ryft, Haball, JUSPAY and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Fintech startup Turbine Finance raises $22 million to help VC get cash without selling their stakes in startups
• French fintech Pennylane secures $75 million and double valuation at $2 billion
• Brazilian fintech Jumpstart raises R$2.8 million in a pre-seed round
• FNZ announces a $500 million in new capital from existing shareholders
• Dealstack, AI-driven automation platform for the private capital industry, raises a $5.5 million seed round
• Hawk just announced a $56 million round for its AI based solution to fight financial crimes
• Berlin based Miss Moneypenny Technologies secures a €7.3 million Seed round for its SaaS wallet studio platform
• Turkish fintech Sipay secures a $78 million series B to expands its Stripe like services to Emerging Markets
• Pune based fintech Easebuzz secures $30 million from Bessemer Venture Partners for its offline payment solution
• LA based fintech Rain closes a $75 million series B
• Blackbird Labs raises $50 million for its blockchain based payment solution for restaurant
• UK based fintech Ryft raises a £5.7 million series A to take over Stripe and Adyen
• Pakistani fintech Haball secures a $52 million pre-series A
• Anecdotes secures a $55 million series B for its AI powered GRC solution
• Solve Intelligence raises a $12 million series A to build an AI for patents
• JUSPAY secures $60 million to secure payments infrastructure with AI
• Bitcoin backed lender platform Firefish secures a $1.8 million seed round
• Fixed income trading fintech TransFICC raises a $25 million series B
• Moroccan fintech PayTic secures $4 million to expand its payment solution across Africa
• Fintech Alinea Invest raises $10.4 million for Gen Z wealth platform
• Damisa secures a £2.25M pre-seed round for its stablecoin based payment solution
• London based fintech Treble Peak raises £5M to digitize private market access

Insights on the VC industry

• Osney Capital closes a $50 million fund to invest in cybersecurity startup
• SignalFire closes a $1 billion fund to invest in early stage data-drive startup
• Moneta Ventures closes a $250 million fund to invest in Seed and series A SaaS startups
• DIG Ventures closes $100 million in new capital to invest on early stage European startups
• Berlin based VC Revent closes a €100 million ($109 million) Fund II to invest in “planetary and societal health” startups

News on the market

• Breaking: After Klarna also eToro will delay the US IPO as tariffs shock Wall Street
• Republic acquires crypto trading platform INX for $54.8 million
• Stripe applies for US banking license to expand merchant acquiring capabilities
• Revolut partners with Walt to offer Wolt+ to their customers on paid plans
• Ripple announced the acquisition of primer broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion
• Fiserv announced the acquisition of Australian fintech Pinch Payments
• Lietuvos bankas | Bank of Lithuania has granted Robinhood a full brokerage license in the EU
• Airwallex is aiming for a banking license both in UK and US
• Revolut gets RBI license to launch prepaid cards and wallet in India
• Mastercard partners with Kraken Digital Asset Exchange to let Europeans use Crypto to make everyday payments
• Checkout.com becomes the first PSP to launch card issuing in the UAE
• NatWest Group invests in credit card platform Yonder
• BaaS fintech Solid files for bankruptcy after raising more than $81 million

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

• 0100 Europe/USA - Amsterdam, NL | 02-04.04.2025 (Link to the event)
• EU startup summit | 24-25.04.2025 (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 #75