Weekly update #79

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.

No episode of Builders this week, the podcast will be back as usual next week. But you can always recover the last episode, where I sat down with Alexander Emeshev , Ceo and founder of Vivid Money .

You can find the full episode here on YouTube, or you can listen to it here on Spotify or here on Apple Podcast.

Under his leadership, Vivid Money evolved from a B2C fintech into a top European business bank, bringing the speed, simplicity, and affordability of retail banking to SMEs. Today, Vivid provides an integrated financial platform with competitive pricing, treasury management, and seamless connectivity between private and business banking. Backed by Greenoaks Capital and DST Global, Vivid is among Germany’s top three business banks, shaping the future of SME banking in Europe.

Coming back to us, I’ve been reading a very interesting report this week: “UK AI sector spotlight 2025” by Tech Nation. The report is an interesting study of the impact of AI as a vertical on UK’s investment landscape, in terms of capital flowing into this technology from VCs and institutions. Here my main takeaways:

The UK AI sector, home to over 2,300 VC-backed companies, continues to drive innovation across industries, attract substantial investment, and contribute significantly to the broader growth of the UK tech landscape. Although the market has seen a 4% decline in value since its 2024 peak, the UK remains Europe's largest AI hub and ranks third globally, behind only the US and China, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 22%. A major portion of this value is attributed to Arm , the publicly listed semiconductor and software design giant valued at $118 billion. Even when excluding publicly traded companies, the UK AI sector remains more than 55% larger than any other in Europe.

AI investment in the UK is defying the broader slowdown in venture capital, with Q1 2025 marking the strongest first quarter for AI startup fundraising since 2022. This surge has been driven by major rounds raised by companies such as generative AI leader Synthesia, analytics firm Quantexa, and compute infrastructure provider Ori. Setting aside Wayve’s $1.05 billion mega-round in Q2 2024, venture funding for UK AI startups has consistently ranged between $650 million and $900 million per quarter over the past two years.

Between 2020 and 2024, UK AI investment grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7%. Despite the broader decline in total UK venture capital since the peak years of 2021 and 2022, funding for AI remains on the rise. In 2024, UK AI startups secured $4.3 billion in venture investment, making it the second strongest year to date, with Wayve’s fundraising round accounting for nearly a quarter of that total.

A record number of UK AI companies exited in 2024, although exit activity has slowed in Q1 2025. Last year, 47 AI firms completed exits, including major deals such as Darktrace’s $5.3 billion acquisition by Thoma Bravo and Exscientia’s $688 million acquisition by Recursion Pharma. The trend reflects the broader UK landscape, where acquisitions dominate exit routes, with public listings remaining limited—acquisitions have accounted for 95% of AI exits over the past five years.

In Q1 2025, eight AI companies exited, all through acquisitions, marking a decline from the previous two quarters. Notable transactions included Ravelin being acquired by Worldpay , Metaphysic by DNEG Group, and Peak.ai by UiPath .

Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Revolut announced the launch of mobile plans in the UK and DE by the end of the year, while being reported refusing an investment that valued the company $65 billion. Ripple tried to acquire Circle for $5 billion, while DoorDash offered to buy Deliveroo for $3.6 billion. Nubank got a banking license in Mexico, and some very interesting partnerships in the stablecoin market, Bridge partners with Visa to launch a stablecoin card issuing product, and Mastercard launches an end-to-end stablecoin product. In the VC ecosystem, EWOR launched a $60 million fellowship in Germany, but also new funds from Venture Guides, Volution, Fluent Ventures, Revo Capital and Vinted. In the Italian market, the banking risiko continues with Mediobanca launching an OPA on Banca Generali. And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Pliant, Bachatt, Navro, SpriveApp, Particula, Clara, Persona, and many others.

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

Closed deals

• pliant Berlin fintech Pliant secures a $40 million to accelerate its mission of redefining business cards
• London based fintech WineFi 🍷 secures £1.5M in a Seed funding round for its wine investing platform
• Indian fintech Bachatt closes a $4 million seed funding round
• Cross-borders payments startup Thunes secures a $150 million series D round
• UK fintech SpriveApp secures a $7.3 million round to facilitate mortgage overpayments
• UK based fintech Navro secures a $41 million round to fuel global expansion
• TX Ventures invests in Particula's $5.5 million round to innovate AI-driven digital asset risk intelligence
• Surfin Meta Digital Technologies raises $26.5 million to provide fintech solutions to the underserved
• Zest Equity secures a $4.3 million pre-series A to help funds and founders sell secondaries shares online
• Crypto infrastructure startup Theo raise a $20 million round to bring Wall Street level trading tool to the crypto market
• French stablecoin payment system Next Generation secures a $5 million seed round for its B2B payment ecosystem
• Madrid based Acoru secures a $4 million round to fight financial crimes
• Philippines fintech LenderLink secures a $1.25 million pre-seed round to revolutionize real time credit data
• San Francisco based fintech Kintsugi doubles valuation in 6 months after a $18 million round
• Miden closes a $24 million round led by a16z crypto
• Telgea secures a $2.7 million round to simplify global mobile operations management
• Latam fintech Clara secures $80 million and aims at profitability
• UK fintech Tide secures $100 million from Fasanara Capital to boost SME lending
• Global identity platform Persona closes a $200 million Series D round

Insights on the VC industry

• Venture Guides closes a second $262.5 million fund
• TDK Ventures closes a $150 million third fund
• Volution double down on UK fintech with a new $100 million fund
• San Francisco based Fluent Ventures launched with $40 million to back replicated models in emerging markets
• German accelerator EWOR launches a $60 million founder fellowship to back European next unicorn
• Turkish VC Revo Capital secures $86 million for its third fund
• Vinted enters the VC space launching Vinted Ventures
• Verb Ventures launches a $25 million fund to back supply chain startups

News on the market

• US food delivery app DoorDash offers to buy UK rival Deliveroo for $3.6bn
• Nubank officially secures a banking license in Mexico
• Qonto closes a partnership with payment provider Mollie to empower European businesses
• Coinbase launches a Web3 accelerator in the UK along with Fabric Ventures, Animoca Brands and Founders Factory
• Revolut will launch mobile phone plans in Germany and UK already this year
• Checkout.com introduces face authentication to strengthen digital identity
• Mastercard unveils end-to-end solution to power Stablecoins transactions
• Visma acquires a minority stake in Belgium based Accountable
• Circle has reported reject a $5 billion acquisition offer from Ripple
• Bridge partners with Visa to launch a Stablecoin card issuing product
• Kraken Digital Asset Exchange introduces Embed, a crypto-as-a-service product for banks and fintechs
• Revolut has been reported to reject a secondary sale promising a $65 billion valuation

A special look in the Italian market

• Mediobanca launches a €6.3 billion OPA on Banca Generali

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

Events you don’t want to miss

• 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 #78