Greetings from TechCrunch Fintech!
In this week’s edition, we delve into the total capital raised by fintech startups in 2024, a series of funding agreements, the impressive revenue increase reported by Plaid last year, and much more!
For a weekly summary of TechCrunch’s most significant fintech news delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, register here.
The Major Update
Global investment in fintech startups is on the decline. The CB Insights 2024 State of Fintech Report reveals that these startups raised a total of $33.7 billion last year, representing a 20% decrease from the previous year. Additionally, deal volume fell by 17%, totaling 3,580. However, there are some positive developments: the annual funding drop is the smallest observed in the last three years, and investing surged in the final quarter of 2024, hitting $8.5 billion, an 11% rise compared to Q3 2024. CB Insights noted a 33% increase in the median deal size, now reaching $4 million.
Financial Insights
LemFi, a financial services platform based in London catering to immigrants, has successfully raised $53 million in new funding aimed at increasing its customer acquisition efforts and expanding its footprint into additional countries.
Recharge, a significant player in the European online prepaid payments sector, has secured a €45 million debt facility from ABN AMRO, planning to pursue market consolidation through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) while also branching out into fintech-like services.
French startup Hyperline, aspiring to develop the next-gen Chargebee, kicked off with a €4 million initial funding round from Index Ventures back in 2023 (approximately $4.1 million based on current exchange rates). Index Ventures is reinforcing this position with an additional $10 million investment.
Bench, the accounting startup that faced turmoil during the holiday season, filed for bankruptcy in Canada on January 7, revealing substantial debts according to documents obtained by TechCrunch. The filings — one for Bench and another for 10Sheet, the original name of Bench — indicate that by the conclusion of its operations, Bench held $2.8 million in cash while accruing liabilities amounting to $65.4 million. For deeper insights, Charles Rollet provides an extensive analysis here.
Are we witnessing a surge in fintech IPOs? The trading platform eToro has reportedly filed for a confidential U.S. IPO that could potentially value the company at over $5 billion. The Israel-based eToro, a competitor of Robinhood, informed TechCrunch that it will not comment on IPO speculations.
In another strategic move, Amazon has opted to acquire Indian buy-now-pay-later startup Axio, as part of its expansion into financial services within one of its fastest-growing markets.
Akshay Naheta, a former SoftBank executive, is at the helm of Distributed Technologies Research (DTR), a Swiss startup working to harmonize traditional banking with blockchain technology, joining numerous firms aiming to modernize global payment systems.
Barclays’ Rise is set to close in 2025.
Personnel Changes
Synctera has appointed its inaugural CFO, Matias Pino.
Mark Fiorentino has announced his departure from Index Ventures to join Bain Capital as the latest partner charged with steering the next wave of growth-stage AI-native, vertical SaaS, and fintech startups.
Top News Highlights
Last year proved to be successful for Plaid. According to Bloomberg, the revenue for Plaid Inc., which facilitates connections between fintech companies and banks, increased by over 25% in the past year.
The cryptocurrency wallet provider Phantom Technologies secured $150 million in funding at a $3 billion valuation, with Sequoia Capital and Paradigm leading the investment round.
Thank you for reading! We look forward to seeing you next week!
Compiled by Techarena.au.
Fanpage: TechArena.au
Watch more about AI – Artificial Intelligence
