Video: Top fintech stories this week – 20 December 2019
FinTech Future’s weekly news round-up.
Investment & Funding
AI-powered pension solution Abaka raises $6.5m in Series A
The fintech says it’s “one of the biggest” investments for the pensions and retirement space.
Supplement: the 2019 fintech review
Ruby Hinchliffe dissects her top five 2019 fintech trends from this year’s top stories!
Mexico’s neobank Albo raises $26.4m Series A total
The round was led by Valar Ventures, PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s fund.
Time is now: US investors seek fintech opportunities abroad
Fintech investors are looking outside of the US for greater returns.
Hong Kong’s fintech WeLab raises $156 million to launch WeLab Bank in 2020
Backers included Alibaba’s Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and China Construction Bank.
Portify raises £7m to offer gig economy and freelancers access to credit
The UK start-up landed a partnership with Deliveroo earlier this year.
Mexican neobank Flink gains seed funding from Spanish firm Latina
The Spanish technology company sees a bright future in Flink.
Berlin-based insurtech Wefox raises $110m Series B extension
The CEO puts success down to its technical understanding of risk.
Plug and play platform FintechOS raises £10.7m
The start-up enables banks and insurance companies to compete with challengers.
Freetrade brings first native full stack solution to UK
The exec team come from Snapchat, Google and KPMG.
Montréal’s FlexPay raises $6m in seed round
The fintech says 24% of recurring credit card transactions are falsely declined.
Brazilian fintech Cora raises $10m, founded by Wirecard company creators
Founders Igor Senra and Leo Mendes created MOIP which was bought by Wirecard in 2016.
AvidXchange launches $300m private fundraising round which could reach $2bn valuation
Previous investors have included Mastercard and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
UK P2P firm Zopa receives £140m injection to keep banking hopes alive
Zopa’s temporary licence was set to expire.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 06 December 2019
FinTech Future’s weekly news round-up.
US neobank Chime quadruples valuation to $5.8b, raises $500m Series E
Chime soars ahead of Brazilian challenger NuBank’s $400 million record fundraise.
Nationwide invests in charity app Percent to support local British communities
The investment is part of the UK bank’s £50 million venture fund.
Ant Financial to raise $1 billion fund for Southeast Asian and India start-ups
The fund is for payments and online finance start-ups.
Mexican lendtech start-up Konfio bags $100m investment led by SoftBank
This is the Latin American start-up’s fourth financing round.
Portag3 Ventures closes $320m fund for early-stage investment
Venture capital firm plans to focus on the US and Canada, as well as overseas
Fintech API platform Rapyd raises $20m and hits $1.2bn valuation
The company is gearing up to make two acquisitions.
Singapore’s FinAccel raises $90m to make financing more accessible in Southeast Asia
FinAccel hits $500 million evaluation.
Mike Cagney’s Figure Technologies set to raise $103m in Series C
Figure is also edging into the student financing space.
Revenue-based financier Uncapped launches and secures £10m
The capital offering sits between debt and equity financing.
Canada’s neobank Koho secures extra $18.8m in Series B to diversify investors
The round was led by Drive Capital and National Bank of Canada’s VC arm, NAventures.
French start-up Pixpay raises €3.1m to tap younger banking generation
The funding round was led by seed and growth investor Global Founders Capital.
What’s next for investment in tech?
Will fintech firms re-evaluate the costs & benefits of public and private ownership?
UK start-up Student Finance raises €1.15m to tackle university loans
The firm will cover fees and get a future share of students’ future incomes.
CMFG Ventures hands BankBI Series A investment to tap US market
BankBi will use CMFG Ventures’ US credit union connections.
Hastee raises £208m to boost on-demand payroll systems
The firm will use this new capital to increase its scale.
Private bank for YouTubers and high-net-worth youngsters 220 to launch for users next year
There is strict criteria to join the private banking community.
Swedish AI start-up Bokio raises €4m led by local investor Creandum
The start-up uses AI to simplify bookkeeping for small businesses.
Middlegame Ventures reaches first close of €150 million for investment in early-stage fintechs
New venture fund wants to empower fresh innovation.
French fintech Virgil raises €2.1m to co-own homes with first-time buyers
The start-up offers future buyers a capital contribution – not a loan.
European Investment Fund dedicates €100m to AI and blockchain
The EIF wants to address the blockchain and AI ‘financing gap’ in Europe.
Spanish cybersecurity start-up Buguroo raises $11m
The start-up builds unique “cyber profiles” for each finserv customer.
Argentine money manager Ualá raises $150m in round led by SoftBank and Tencent
Bloomberg says Ualá is close to a $1 billion valuation.
Paytm raises $1bn in fresh round of funding
Indian payments giant aims to battle the bigtechs
Automation Anywhere raises $290 million in Series B round
RPA firm has previously had funding from SoftBank.
