Weekly update #131
The latest news from the fintech and VC ecosystems
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! In this episode, I sit down with Rabea Bader, co-founder and CTO of Quidkey. You can watch the full episode here on YouTube, or listen to it here on Spotify or here on Apple Podcast.
Rabea is a fintech entrepreneur and CTO with a strong focus on payments infrastructure and account-to-account solutions. He is the Co-Founder and CTO of Quidkey, where he is building a secure, bank-integrated checkout experience that enables seamless domestic and cross-border A2A transactions while helping merchants reduce costs and banks unlock new revenue streams.
Prior to Quidkey, he served as CTO at REQPay Inc., where he co-invented a patented payments technology. His career also includes leadership roles as General Manager of Le Wagon in Israel and founding CEO of IZMUS. He began his professional journey as a backend developer at UBS, building a strong technical foundation in financial systems.
Rabea holds a degree in Computer Science and Economics from Tel Aviv University and brings a global perspective, with experience across the US, Israel, and Europe, and fluency in Arabic, English, and Hebrew.
With him, we will talk about cross border payments, how to validate your product when launching a new company, and also stablecoins and everything going on in fintech right now.
Coming back to us, instead of reading a new report this week I’ve met with Maksim Evdokimov, CPO of Bir ecosystem, the first fully integrated banking, payments and e-commerce ecosystem of the Caucasus.
Launched in 2025 to unite the country’s leading brands, including Birbank, MilliÖn payment terminals, and m10 e-wallet app, the Bir ecosystem reaches over 5 million users, so we’ve sit down together to talk about the fintech ecosystem in Azerbaijan:
Michele: Maksim, could you start by introducing yourself and your professional background?
Maksim: My name is Maksim Evdokimov. I am originally from Russia and have spent most of my career there, with some experience in Ukraine as well. I have more than 25 years of product experience, starting in telecoms before moving into finance around 2011 or 2012.
A key part of my career was at Tinkoff Bank, now T Bank, where I spent six and a half years during a period of major growth, including its 2013 IPO. I was responsible for digital service experience. Later, I worked across retail ecosystems, online streaming, and HR tech, including as CPO of HeadHunter. Since 2024, I have been Chief Product, Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at Bir, the first integrated payments, banking and e-commerce ecosystem in the Caucasus, operating in Azerbaijan.
Michele: Azerbaijan is not always the first market people associate with fintech. How would you describe the local fintech scene?
Maksim: Azerbaijan is the largest country in the South Caucasus, with a population of just over 10 million. Historically, the country was strongly associated with oil and gas, but over the past eight to ten years there has been a clear government agenda to diversify the economy. In fintech, we see digital banking development and some leapfrogging. Apple Pay and Google Pay were adopted quickly. QR payments are also available and widely supported, but many users prefer Apple Pay or Google Pay because they are simple and familiar. E-commerce is still at an early stage. It represents only around 3 to 4 percent of retail FMCG GMV, which creates a major opportunity. Key players include Trendyol – our strategic partner in Azerbaijan, Birmarket, which is part of our ecosystem, and Temu.
Michele: Birbank, which is also part of the Bir ecosystem, comes from a traditional banking background. How does that shape your work?
Maksim: It is both an opportunity and a challenge. Kapital Bank, operating under the Birbank brand, is the largest retail bank in the country. Almost every second customer has a Birbank product, whether it is a salary card, pension product, deposit, loan, or payment card. This gives us a huge customer base, with around 5.2 million active customers in a country of 10 million people. But it also means we must operate with care. We are not building a small niche product. We are building something that affects a large part of the population.
Michele: Did you face resistance when trying to innovate inside a traditional bank?
Maksim: Always. But I also saw resistance during my time at Tinkoff. It is human nature. People often think: it works, so why change it? There are technology challenges, regulatory challenges, psychological challenges, and marketing challenges. But the world is moving extremely fast. What felt fast ten years ago now feels slow compared with today. AI tools, new models, and new products are appearing constantly. For me, working with people through that change is one of the most important parts of the job. In a way, my product is the people I work with, because they are the ones who build the final product.
Michele: How are you using AI inside the organization?
Maksim: We are adopting AI carefully, especially because we work in banking and must protect personal data and bank data. Developers are already using AI tools to improve speed and quality. We also use AI in product discovery, documentation, Jira hygiene, and internal processes.
One important area is customer care, including chatbots, voice to text, automation, and tools that help service teams become more efficient. Another area is AI-based navigation inside the app. As we add more services, users should be able to find what they need more easily, potentially through an assistant rather than only through buttons and menus.
Michele: What are the main products or use cases you are focusing on now?
Maksim: The biggest focus is e-commerce. We have Birmarket as a separate application, but we are now thinking more as a one ecosystem company. The question is whether we build a broader experience from the e-commerce side, adding banking capabilities, or whether we enrich the banking app with e-commerce services. Both approaches have advantages. We are also developing travel services, such as air tickets and hotel bookings, which can connect with lending products, BNPL, credit cards, and Bir Bonus, our cross-ecosystem loyalty program. The main objective is to combine our existing products so the ecosystem creates real value for customers.
Michele: Do you believe the super app model can work in Azerbaijan?
Maksim: It is an open question. Super apps have worked best in Southeast Asia and some Central Asian markets, but there are fewer successful examples in Europe or the United States. Culture matters. In our region, wealth, prosperity, and great quality that is visible are important. A product cannot simply work well. It also needs to look beautiful and feel valuable. You cannot just copy an Amazon style experience and expect it to work locally. The design, perception, and emotional value matter.
Michele: Are you also moving into investment and wealth products?
Maksim: We have a product called Birbank Invest. It is at an early stage because capital markets in Azerbaijan are also still developing. Building the local capital market is on the Central Bank’s agenda, and several state companies have already completed local IPOs. Our product supports the local exchange and also gives access to US markets through a US-based broker partner. For now, users are mostly innovators and early adopters. It is less about building large portfolios and more about testing, learning, and using investment as an alternative to deposits.
Michele: How are you funding this ecosystem development?
Maksim: Currently, we fund it ourselves. But we now believe we have something to offer investors. We are open to partnerships, whether private equity, bonds, or strategic partnerships. We already have examples of strategic cooperation, including our joint venture with Trendyol in Azerbaijan. For us, investment is not only about money. It is also about expertise, leverage, and potential for further regional development.
Michele: Do you have an international expansion strategy?
Maksim: We are currently very focused on Azerbaijan. There is still significant local potential, especially in e-commerce, payments, and ecosystem development. That said, every door is open when the timing and value proposition are right. We are backed by an investment group that already has connections in markets such as Georgia and Turkey, including Pasha Bank Turkey and Pasha Bank Georgia. Expansion should not happen just for the sake of being present somewhere. It should strengthen the business and create sustainable growth.
Michele: What advice would you give to young fintech founders today?
Maksim: My advice is to focus on building a lovable product, not just a viable product. With AI tools, almost anyone can build an application in a few days. The competition is no longer about creating an MVP. It is about creating what people truly love.
It was very interesting to speak with Maksim, and to get to know a fintech market I knew very little about like Azerbaijan.
But let’s take a closer look at the main news of the last seven days. Monzo Bank is launching in Spain, Coinbase and PayPal are cutting jobs in strategy revamp, Ramp reported in talks to raise at $40B valuation and Kalshi raised $1B at $22B valuation. But also, Kraken acquired Reap for $600M, MoonPay acquired D-flow, Bullish acquired Equiniti and Tether.io closed a crazy Q1 with $1.01B in profit. In the VC ecosystem two huge funds closed: a16z crypto with $2.2B and Founders Fund with $6B, but also new funds from Ridgeline Capital Group, Haun Ventures, Arāya Ventures. And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like Fun, Smartness, Segura, Kleva, CredibleX, OpenTrade, Elastics and many others.
Let’s take a closer look:
Rounds
Fun raises $72M Series A to scale global payments infrastructure
Smartness secures €47M Series B to scale agentic AI for hospitality
A-Cube raises €4M to scale digital tax compliance infrastructure across Europe
Kleva raises $1.55M Seed to scale AI agents for debt collection
Sahi raises $33M Series B at $200M valuation to expand trading platform
Segura raises $8M Seed to build WhatsApp based insurance infrastructure in LatAm
Ekiden raises €1.7M seed to build institutional grade blockchain trading infrastructure
profitize raises €1.4M to scale AI financial planning for hospitality
CredibleX secures $15M Series A led by Mubadala to expand SME financing in the UAE
OpenTrade raises $17M to scale stablecoin yield infrastructure
Five raises $6M to bring palm based payments to market
Kalshi raises $1B at $22B valuation as institutional demand surges
Spring Labs raises $5M to scale AI driven compliance for financial institutions
Astrada raises $3.8M to build data infrastructure for autonomous finance
InstaSwitch raises $4.7M to activate business banking relationships
Elastics raises €1.7M to build AI agents for prediction markets
VC funds
Ridgeline Capital closes $180M fund II to back applied technology startups
Katie Haun‘s Haun Ventures secures $1B across multiple funds to double down on crypto and blockchain investments
a16z crypto raises $2.2B fund amid market slowdown
Founders Fund raises record $6B new fund to double down on late stage AI
Arāya Ventures and Sie Ventures secures £7.5M first close for Arāya Sie Fund to back female founders across Europe
News on the market
Rain is working with Mastercard to release debit and credit cards
Citi launches Arc platform to deploy AI agents across banking operations
Anthropic targets enterprise AI with $1.5B Wall Street joint venture
Monzo Bank accelerates EU expansion strategy with Spain launch
Bullish to acquire Equiniti for $4.2B to build tokenized securities infrastructure
PayPal plans job cuts as new CEO pushes $1.5B turnaround strategy
Tether.io reports $1.04B Q1 profit as reserve buffer reaches $8.23B
Plus1 expands into Germany with former Solaris SE executive Nicolas Knecht
Mesh and Kalshi partner to enable seamless crypto funding for prediction markets
Kraken and MoneyGram partner to enable crypto cash out for customers
Figure and Credibly partner to bring SMB lending onto blockchain capital markets
Tetra Digital Group launches CADD, Canada’s first regulated CAD stablecoin
Corpay integrates blockchain settlement through stablecoin via J.P. Morgan and BVNK
Western Union partners with Fireblocks to launch USDPT stablecoin
Bitget Wallet expands crypto card across Africa with Mastercard integration
Kraken acquires Reap for $600M to expand stablecoin payments in Asia
MoonPay acquires DFlow to strengthen Solana trading infrastructure
Robinhood draws 150,000+ retail investors to venture fund IPO
Yuno and Triple-A partner to scale stablecoin payments for global merchants
Ramp reportedly targets $40B+ valuation in new $750M fundraise
Coinbase suffers 7 hours outage following AWS data center incident
And here some useful resources for everyone involved in the ecosystem:
Events you don’t want to miss
Stablecon EMEA | Amsterdam - 19th-20th May (Link here)
Money 20/20 | Amsterdam - 02-04 June (Link here)
SuperReturns | Berlin - 08-10 June (Link here)
You have a cool event you want to mention or to sponsor? Feel free to send me a DM.
Founders to watch in fintech
I also wanted to start shining a light on the most interesting fintech founders out there, so I thought to start sharing how I look for ideas to invest on. Every week, I will start sharing the most interesting founders in fintech, divided per area.
This week we take a look at the most interesting founders in fintech in Japan.
I usually use Spectre to scout for new ideas, the team is great and they also give me a free account once they learned I was a fan of the product. So if you wanna take a look at it, you can find it here.
VCs and PEs raising new funds now
I would like to leave this part of the newsletter as space for VC and solo GP that are launching new funds right now. I frequently speak with GPs and LPs, and I like the idea of giving them a showcase where to announce what they are doing. Here the new funds raising right now that I have been talking with:
Parallax Ventures, a fintech VC fund focused on Latam. They closed Fund I with a strong +50% IRR and 0.7x DPI, and are now raising Fund II. Take a look here if you want to know more or reach out directly to the GP at gennari@parallax.vc for details.
Founder Factor, VC focused on YC companies, that just closed investments on the latest YC W26. They are expanding the current vehicle to double down on the current batch. Partner is Marco Scotti, you can take a look here if you are interested.
RedFish Capital Partners, a private equity investor focused on Italian SMEs in growth and mature capital phases, with a track record exceeding 40% IRR and with over €200M in Assets. Currently raising its brand new AIF, which has already secured a soft commitment from the European Investment Fund (EIF). You can check them out at redfish.capital or contact the team at investor.relations@redfish.capital.
Overall, very interesting to see where the VC ecosystem is heading recently, between new emerging managers, solo GP and micro funds.
Always happy to support if I can! If you are raising a fund and you want to be listed here send me a message on Linkedin.
And finally, take also a look at the last edition of the newsletter, Weekly update #130.