Weekly update #83

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, but you can always recover the last one with Konstantin Stiskin, founder of Finom here on YouTube, or you can listen to it here on Spotify or here on Apple Podcast.

Kos has a very interesting background, with a strong interest in the entrepreneurial mindset. He started his career in Venture Capital, with Runa Capital and FinSight Ventures , until reaching partner role at Binomial Ventures. But his main interest was the entrepreneur path, and he will tell us everything about launching one of the most interesting digital banks in Europe!

This week I will also be moderating a panel at Money20/20! I will be on stage along with with Anil Hansjee from Fabric Ventures and Victoire de Lavigne from Portage to talk about what VCs are backing in fintech nowadays! Happy to meet you there if you are around!

Coming back to us, I was reading an interesting report this week, the “Global Private Market Outlook 2025” by McKinsey & Company. By now you should know it, I love their newsletter about capital markets, always a lot of interesting insights. In this report, the report there is a very wide overview of different asset classes and their growth during the last couple of years, with some insights on 2025. Here my main takeaways:

In 2024, private equity began to rebound after a turbulent period marked by rising interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty. For the first time since 2015, LP distributions exceeded capital contributions, reflecting renewed exit activity and improved dealmaking conditions, especially in large-cap transactions. Financing costs eased, enabling higher entry multiples and stronger valuations. Despite ongoing challenges with legacy portfolio valuations, LPs remain optimistic—30% plan to increase PE allocations, citing long-term outperformance relative to public markets.

GPs are adapting by diversifying capital sources, tapping non institutional investors, and developing new fund structures like continuation vehicles. Public-to-private deals rose sharply in Europe, and large managers continued consolidating smaller firms. However, venture capital and Asian markets lagged behind, and the industry still faces an overhang of unsold assets from the 2021–2022 boom, many marked at high valuations. Looking ahead, geopolitical risk, refinancing pressures, and AI adoption will shape how investors create and realize value across portfolios.

Private equity fundraising declined for the third straight year in 2024, falling 24% year over year to $589 billion. The slowdown was global, with North America, Europe, and Asia all experiencing drops, though Europe’s decline was more moderate at 11%. Fundraising in buyout, growth equity, and venture capital each fell by roughly 23–25%. Adding to the challenge, funds took longer to close, averaging a record 21.9 months—up from 19.6 months in 2023—and the number of closed funds hit a ten-year low, with just 420 buyout funds closed.

Despite the overall decline, midmarket funds ($1–5 billion) showed relative resilience, maintaining flat fundraising levels and gaining market share from both smaller and mega funds. In contrast, funds under $1 billion faced longer fundraising periods, and first-time funds raised only $34 billion—the weakest showing since 2013.

While midmarket private equity funds proved most resilient, maintaining flat fundraising levels despite a broader industry downturn. This contrasts with a slowdown in large funds, partly due to fewer mega fund closings. Smaller funds under $1 billion faced greater difficulty, staying in market longer, while first-time funds raised just $34 billion—the lowest since 2013.

Despite these challenges, LPs have steadily increased their private equity target allocations, rising from 6.3% in 2020 to 8.3% in early 2024. Even with overallocation concerns, 30% of LPs plan to boost their commitments, reflecting confidence in PE’s long-term returns. However, fundraising remains difficult due to delayed or uneven distributions, increased competition among funds, and the complexity of multiyear commitments, all compounded by a significant backlog in portfolio exits.

In 2024, public markets outperformed private equity for the third time in four years, reversing a decade-long trend where private equity consistently led. Even excluding the high-performing “Magnificent Seven,” the S&P 500 delivered over 17% returns through Q3, surpassing all PE sub asset classes. Despite this, long-term performance still favors private equity—particularly buyouts—which have historically outperformed public markets over 10- and 25-year horizons, helping sustain LP interest due to both return potential and diversification benefits.

Buyout valuations also remain lower than public market valuations, reflecting the “illiquidity penalty” tied to longer investment horizons. In 2024, the gap between public and private multiples widened further, reinforcing the relative value of buyouts even amid short-term underperformance.

Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Circle officially filed for the long awaited IPO, pushing away rumors about a possible sale, while Warren Buffet sold its entire $250 million stake in Nubank. Revolut partners with Danubio to launch Revolut Reader in Romania, while planning to relaunch crypto services in the US, Apple expands tap to pay in 8 new European markets, and Worldpay taps BVNK to expand its stablecoin offer. In the VC industry, we saw Cathay Innovation closing a $1 billion new fund, but also Outset Ventures with a $25 million fund and Masia with a $20 million fund. And finally, some very interesting funding round with fintech startups like Dojo, Stable Money, RevenueCat, OpenFX, Rillet, Conduit, [Husk [Formerly Lipefi]](https://www.linkedin.com/company/usehusk/), Inven, Stitch and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Monarch Money secures a $75M Series B at $800 million valuation to advance financial wellness for all
• OpenFX emerges from stealth with $23M to transform cross-border payments through stablecoins
• RevenueCat raises $50 million to expand beyond subscriptions and shape the future of app monetization
• Nigerian fintech Carrot Credit secures a $4.2M Seed round to expand asset-backed lending across Africa
• Stable Money secures $20M Series B doubling valuation in Wealthtech push
• GyanDhan secures nearly $6 million to strengthen Its educational finance platform
• Financial Navigator raises €1.1 million to scale treasury tech from Luxembourg
• [Husk [Formerly Lipefi]](https://www.linkedin.com/company/usehusk/) raises €1 million to build financial infrastructure for Europe’s startup economy
• Mufin Green Finance secures $18M debt funding to accelerate EV financing for India's MSMEs
• Dojo secures $190 million to accelerate european expansion in payments tech
• Rillet raises $25 million Series A from Sequoia Capital to redefine accounting with AI
• Conduit secures $36 million Series A to modernize cross-border payments with stablecoin infrastructure
• Velocity raises €8.9 million to build the operating system for global digital finance
• Sequence raises $7.5 million to build the command center for automated consumer and SMB finances
• Qashio raises $19.8 million to drive MENA expansion and enter Saudi market
• FUTR raises $1.25M to advance AI-driven consumer finance platform
• Stitch raises $10 million to revolutionize fintech infrastructure across MENA and East Africa
• Inven raises €11.2 million to scale its AI-native deal sourcing platform globally
• Palla Financial raises $14.5 million Series A to modernize real-time cross-border payments across Latin America

Insights on the VC industry

• Masia launches with €20 million Angel Fund to fuel Barcelona’s rise as a european Tech powerhouse
• Cathay Innovation closes €1 Billion fund to fuel AI across key industries
• Outset Ventures closes $25 million fund to power New Zealand’s deep tech breakthroughs

News on the market

• Berkshire Hathaway exits Nubank with $250 million gain as Buffett repositions toward liquidity
• Wall Street’s stablecoin ambitions take shape as US banking giants explore joint digital currency initiative
• 카카오페이 (kakaopay) plans to acquire SSG Pay and Smile Pay in a $365M acquisition deal
• Apple expands Tap to Pay on iPhone to eight more European markets
• Breaking news: Circle officially files for IPO
• Revolut business partners with Danubius to launch Revolut Reader across Romania
• Worldpay taps BVNK to power stablecoin payouts across 180 markets
• Aryza acquires Webio to accelerate AI integration across credit lifecycle solutions
• Revolut plans to relaunch crypto services in the US

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

• Money 20/20 - Amsterdam | 3-5.06.2025 (link to 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 #82