Weekly update #84

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. This time my guest was Jonatan Allback , CEO and founder of NjiaPay . Here you can see a short clip from the interview, and you can see the full episode here on youtube, or here on Spotify or here on Apple Podcast.

Jonatan comes from a very traditional background in finance at Goldman Sachs and RBC. Then he took the fintech way, being one of the first 100 employees at Adyen , where he led strategic projects and accounting management for 8 years.

After a first experience at Skipify and consulting, he co-founded and currently leads as CEO NinjaPay. NjiaPay is the Payments-as-a-Service provider that simplifies payments for online businesses in Africa.‍ With one integration, merchants have access to a complete Payments Management Platform.

This was also Money20/20 week! I was on stage with Anil Hansjee from Fabric Ventures and Victoire de Lavigne from Portage to talk about what VCs are backing in fintech nowadays. Overall, wonderful event, I think I lost count of how many times I heard stablecoin and AI in three days.

Coming back to us, I was reading an interesting report this week, the “State of Fintech Q1 2025” from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) . In the report, the very well known management consulting group realizes a deep analysis of the status of the fintech market in terms of investments and deal size. Here my main takeaways:

In the first quarter of 2025, fintech funding totaled around $10 billion, largely driven by a limited number of sizable late-stage rounds. While capital is still accessible, investors are clearly favoring mature companies, which continues to restrict funding opportunities for early and mid-stage startups. This trend reflects a cautious market sentiment, where capital is being deployed more selectively.

The number of mega deals exceeding $100 million dropped to 13, representing a decline of approximately 25% compared to the same period last year. In parallel, the total number of deals fell by 17% year-over-year to 571, underscoring a more conservative investment climate focused on fewer, high-conviction bets.

Fintech investment in Q1 2025 remained relatively stable, with only a slight quarter-over-quarter decline, suggesting early signs of market stabilization. Although interest rates eased slightly in late 2024, they remain well above pre-2022 levels, contributing to a higher cost of capital and more conservative valuation practices.

This environment continues to pressure funding activity, but investors are showing a growing preference for fintech companies with solid fundamentals and a clear trajectory toward profitability. The overall landscape reflects a more disciplined investment climate, where capital is being allocated with greater scrutiny and long-term performance in mind.

Later-stage fintech funding—particularly across Series C to E+ rounds—experienced a noticeable rebound, indicating renewed investor confidence in companies with clearer paths to profitability. Although funding remains below the highs of early 2022, the trend suggests a shift toward mature, performance-oriented startups.

Meanwhile, Series A and B rounds saw more selective activity, with investors still showing interest in early-stage fintechs that demonstrate innovation and initial market traction. At the Seed and Angel stage, funding remained limited, as capital continues to concentrate around founders with proven execution in high-potential segments, reflecting a highly competitive early-stage landscape.

Fintech investment trends across regions varied significantly between Q1 2023 and Q1 2025. The Americas recorded a modest 6% increase in Q1 2025 compared to the previous quarter but remained down over 67% versus Q1 2023, with Payments and Accounts capturing 40% of regional funding. EMEA experienced a strong rebound, with investment rising 72% quarter-over-quarter and 88% year-over-year, driven largely by a $2 billion round for Binance, which pushed Trading and Investment firms to dominate the funding landscape.

In contrast, APAC saw an 18% quarterly decline, continuing its downward trajectory, with capital concentrating on Financial Infrastructure and Trading sectors. Overall, EMEA showed signs of recovery, while APAC and the Americas continued to lag behind pre-2022 levels.

Anyway this week was surely dominated by the event at Money20/20. A lot of announcements on stage, Zilch with the launch of the physical card, but also the partnership between Visa and Klarna on the flexible debit card and the partnership between Kraken Digital Asset Exchange and Ivy on instant bank payments. But also, Revolut making waves by launching a network of ATMs in Spain, Worldline joining Wero and Wise moving the main listing to the US. In the VC ecosystem, we saw Schroders Capital launching a $600 million new fund, but also Nascent and Metalayer Ventures with smaller funds. And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech companies like Payflow (YC S21), Nomupay, Scalable Capital, Banxware, OatFi, Stable Money, Syfe and many others.

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

Closed deals

• Payflow (YC S21) secures €10 million to strengthen its position in Europe and Latin America’s earned wage access market
• Uplinq raises $10 million Series A to scale AI-powered bookkeeping for U.S. SMBs
• Kashable secures $250 million to expand credit access and financial wellness in U.S. Workplaces
• SALAD Money raises £2 million to expand ethical lending for underserved workers
• Nomupay secures $40 million Series C from SoftBank Group Corp. to accelerate cross-border payment expansion
• Scalable Capital raises €155 million to expand retail investment platform across Europe
• Neuralink secures $650 million Series E to advance brain-computer interface technology
• Banxware secures €10 million from UniCredit to scale embedded SME lending across Europe
• HSBC invests in Token.io to expand open banking capabilities across global payments
• OatFi secures $24 million Series A to redefine embedded credit in B2B payments
• Aibidia raises $28 million Series B to expand AI-powered tax compliance platform in the U.S.
• Stable Money raises $20 million Series B to expand fixed-income investment platform across India
• FISPAN secures $30 million Series B to scale embedded ERP banking across North America
• Syfe raises $80 million Series C to accelerate WealthTech expansion across Asia-Pacific
• Paytient secures $40 million to expand its interest-free Healthcare payment platform across the U.S.

Insights on the VC industry

• Nascent VC launches $15 million Fund II to back Latin America’s next wave of tech founders
• Schroders launches $600 million fund to accelerate global GenAI and innovation in investing
• Early Runna backer Sasha Trower launches £11.5 million fund to back the next generation of consumer tech
• Metalayer Ventures closes $25M Fund I to back the next generation of crypto infrastructure

News on the market

• Worldpay and Exodus partner to launch XOPay, enabling card-based crypto purchases in self-custodial wallets
• Midas launches tokenized treasury bill on Algorand Foundation, opening U.S. yield access to european retail investors
• Zilch enters new growth phase with Visa partnership and launch of physical card
• Monzo Bank surges past £1.2B in revenue as profit quadruples and expansion plans accelerate
• FIS and Episode Six unveil cloud-native issuing hub to accelerate global payments innovation
• Circle upsizes U.S. IPO, targets $7.2B valuation amid growing Stablecoin momentum
• Kraken Digital Asset Exchange partners with Ivy to enable instant bank payments across Europe
• Klarna and Visa debut new flexible debit card to redefine everyday payments
• Revolut will launch an ATM network in Spain
• After Revolut, also Worldline joins Wero to launch the payment option in eCommerces this summer
• PayPal launches physical credit card to extend digital financing power to in-store purchases
• Deutsche Bank and Mastercard partner to scale Open Banking payments across Europe
• Wise shifts primary listing to the U.S., marking a strategic pivot away from London
• Spendesk expands into cross-border payments with launch of international transfers in Euros
• Ripple secures landmark deal as DZ BANK AG goes live with XRP-powered digital asset custody
• Mollie achieves 30% growth in 2024 as product innovation and expansion fuel European momentum
• Venmo expands checkout and card perks to challenge Cash App in U.S. fintech market

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

• Viva Technology - Paris | 11-14.06.2025 (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 #83