Greetings from TechCrunch Fintech Weekly! In this edition, we’re diving into Sequoia Capital’s innovative strategy to provide liquidity for its LPs through its holdings in Stripe, the continued interest in Latin American fintech startups, a significant Series A funding for an African enterprise, among other updates.
For a comprehensive summary of TechCrunch’s most crucial fintech reports straight to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.
Top Story
With Stripe postponing its public offering indefinitely, Sequoia Capital, a major investor, is exploring alternative ways to generate returns for its limited partners. Sequoia has reached out to LPs in funds initiated from 2009 to 2011, proposing the purchase of up to $861 million in Stripe shares. This initiative indicates a growing impatience among LPs for liquidity amidst a stagnant IPO market and showcases Sequoia’s confidence in Stripe’s prosperity and a future lucrative exit. Moreover, it was disclosed that Stripe’s latest 409A valuation stands at $70 billion.
Week’s Analysis
The allure of fintech companies in Latin America persists. Reportedly, CloudWalk is in the process of securing funding that could reach $400 million, aiming for a valuation of at least $4 billion, according to The Information. TechCrunch’s Anna Heim highlighted that Caliza has successfully raised $8.5 million to enable instant money transfers in Latin America using crypto stablecoins, with a focus on Circle’s USDC. Initialized spearheaded the financing round, led by principal Abdul Ly. Additionally, OneCarNow, a fintech serving gig workers across the Americas, informed TechCrunch of an $86 million investment, comprising mainly of debt alongside some equity.
Financial Highlights
Nala, initially recognized for its remittance services, now aims to broaden its offerings with a new B2B payments solution, having raised $40 million in equity funding. This makes it one of the most sizeable Series A financings within Africa.
Introducing Adfin, an emergent U.K. fintech venture aiming to simplify the process for companies to collect on their invoices. The startup has successfully raised $4.9 million in seed funding, co-led by Index Ventures and Visionaries Club.
Adaptive, known for its comprehensive financial management workflow automations including budgeting, spending monitoring, and electronic payments, finalized a $19 million Series A investment round spearheaded by Emergence Capital.
Also on Our Radar
The Synapse crisis raises skepticism around the banking-as-a-service model and digital banking globally, as millions remain unable to access nearly $160 million in deposits. Here’s an overview of Synapse’s predicaments and its profound effect on banking customers.
Evolve Bank & Trust has acknowledged that the personal details of up to 7.6 million individuals were compromised during a security breach, affecting over 20,000 customers in Maine, continuing to escalate the incident’s severity.
The European Union has concluded an investigation into Apple’s practices around Apple Pay by accepting its commitments to enable competitor mobile wallets to utilize NFC technology, fundamental for contactless payments in the EU. Apple is to implement these changes by July 25.
Headlines of Note
Better CEO Vishal Garg ordered to settle a $5.5M lawsuit.
Bain Capital acquires financial software provider Envestnet in a colossal $45B transaction.
CNBC unveils its 2024 list of the top 250 global fintech firms.
In case you missed it: Fintech investment reaches a five-quarter peak, says CB Insights in Q2 analysis.
Got a tip? Shoot an email to maryann@techcrunch.com or text me on Signal at 408.204.3036. To contact the TechCrunch team more securely, find our contact details here, including SecureDrop (guidelines here) and encrypted messaging options.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
Fanpage: TechArena.au
Watch more about AI – Artificial Intelligence
