Welcome to this edition of the weekly newsletter. The idea behind this activity is to gather all the information in the startup ecosystem in one place, with a special focus on the fintech market.
This week was obviously dominated by the OpenAI saga. The main player in the AI industry has been through an hard week end, with Sam Altman being suddenly fired by the executive board on a Friday night. Then Microsoft came in, to offer him the lead of an AI team inside the big tech giant, but the workforce in OpenAI had different ideas, and requested the board to resign and the former founder to come back, threatening mass resignations.
The saga ended exactly like this, with the resignation of the board and Sam coming back, like a novel's hero.
Obviously that didn't stop the market, with many other topics going on, from Google trying to enter in the #fintech space, Binance CEO pleads guilty, and Germany trying to boost his startup ecosystem.
Let’s take a look at what happened this week and who is looking for capital to raise:
OpenAI went through an hard week end, when they suddenly fired his founder Sam Altman. The saga ended four days later, with Altman coming back.
Google is reported in talk with Monzo Bank to led their latest funding round, in a move to enter in the fintech market;
Binance is reported in talk with the US government to end the case against them, paying a stunning $4 billions. In order to close this, Changpeng Zaostep down from CEO position to facilitate the closing;
The Indian Kiwi is raising $13 millions to reshape the credit card industry in India;
Advent International acquired myPOS in a deal that can potentially value the company $500 millions;
Scapia secured a $23 millions funding round to innovate the travel credit card industry;
TRIVER just closed a $22.9 millions funding round to boost the financing in the SMEs space;
Germany wants to invest $1 billion in startups, days after the introduction a new regulation on stock options;
Blockchain.com just raised $110 millions from Kingsway Capital;
Privy raised $18 millions for their first series A;
DoorFeed closed a $12 millions round to launch a new innovative proptech investment platform;
The French startup Obat raised $12 millions for his construction specific platform;
HappyPal just raised $7 millions to transform the employees benefit landscape;
The Nigerian startup FrontEdge raises $10 millions to innovate the cross-borders payment for SMEs;
Smarter Contracts just closed a $2.65 millions investment for his investment for blockchain-based Consent Protocol Pulse.
Some honourable mentions from the Italian market
The Italian market is surely the rising star in the European startup ecosystem, attracting the attention of international investors. We had a couple of great deals in the market this week:
Walliance just acquired LYMO Finance, innovative French real estate crowfunding platform;
Aptus.AI closed a stunning $3 millions seed round for hir regtech AI platform.
Startups raising funds
PopulaRise - The platform that allows companies of every dimension to promote themselves on social media through the collaboration with their clients. B2B2C SaaS. Raising $1M.
Cents - Fintech companies that allow corporate to include charity payments on their checkout. B2B SaaS. Raising $1M.
Bitcoin People - Fintech company focused on crypto payments between corporate and cross countries. B2B, SaaS. Raising $500k.
Tutornow - Edtech that provides an online tutoring platform for students with learning disorders. Raising $500k to $1M.
Recivu - Fintech startup trying to digitize the receipt flow by getting rid of papers. Looking for $150k in SAFE, already $50k committed.
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.
Reach Finance - Reach is the fintech platform for wealth accumulation for the Y&Z generations, they provide users with the tools to build wealth such as a budget tracker, a financial plan and a systematization of investments. Looking for $700k, with already $500k committed.
If you are a startup and want to be present in this list, please contact me directly.
If you are an angel investor or a VC interested in those companies, contact me for an intro!
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