Weekly update #67
All the latest news from the startup, VC and fintech 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 Builders podcast will be back next week with a great new guest. In the meanwhile, you can recover the last episode with Andrea Gurnari, partner at 2100 Ventures.
Andrea comes from a real multi sector experience, ranging from BlackRock to Goldman Sachs, from Atomico to Nivaura, with transversal skills from product to finance.
With Andrea, we will discuss the status of the VC market in Europe, the importance of a multicultural environment for founders, how to be relevant in this industry and the upcoming trends in fintech.
You can find the full video here on Youtube, and the audio here on Spotify and here on Apple Podcast.
Coming back to us, this week I’ve been reading a very interesting report named “The state of Israeli fintech: 2025 the comeback year”, by Viola FinTech. The report takes a deep dive on the fintech market globally, with a high level overview of investment levels and dynamics, with a specific focus on the Israeli market. Here my main takeaways:
Since the market turbulence of 2022, driven by inflationary pressures and rising interest rates, the FinTech sector has struggled to regain momentum. Between 2021 and 2024, FinTech investments declined by 77.1%, a sharper drop compared to the overall 62.8% decline in total VC funding. Public FinTech stocks also saw a significant downturn, falling by 48%, while EMCLUD and NASDAQ recorded declines of 44% and 2%, respectively, from their 2021 peaks.
Despite this challenging period, the expected reduction in interest rates—from 5.4% in Q3 2024 to 4.0% by Q4 2025—is poised to breathe new life into the sector.
Publicly traded FinTech companies are at the forefront of the market rebound. After enduring a prolonged "FinTech winter," these firms have gained strength in 2024, now outperforming key market indices. While they have yet to return to pre-COVID levels, 2024 marked a decisive turning point. The Viola FinTech Index surged by 33.8%, surpassing the S&P 500 (+27.1%) and the EMCloud Index (+18.0%).
Share prices of public FinTech firms saw notable gains in August and October 2024, driven by strategic corporate moves and favorable market trends. Adyen’s stock jumped 63% following an investor day that reaffirmed confidence in its long-term growth strategy, while SoFi Technologies reported its fourth consecutive profitable quarter, exceeding earnings expectations.
Despite a cautious investment landscape in early 2024—shaped by high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty—the sector demonstrated resilience. Global FinTech revenues continued to expand, growing 14% over the past two years, while a shift toward profitability saw EBITDA margins improve by an average of nine percentage points.
While early signs of recovery are emerging, challenges remain. Private FinTech funding has seen a steep decline, dropping from its 2021 peak of $143.6 billion to just $33.7 billion in 2024. This decline mirrors a broader contraction in venture financing, which fell from $662.5 billion in 2021 to $274.6 billion in 2024.
FinTech’s share of total venture funding has also shrunk significantly, falling from 22% in 2021 to 12% in 2024. This prolonged downturn highlights a shift in investor sentiment and priorities, as the market adjusts to evolving economic conditions and a recalibration of capital allocation strategies.
Amid broader economic shifts, Israeli FinTech funding has significantly declined in recent years. After reaching a peak of $6.4 billion across 216 deals in 2021, investment dropped to just $1.1 billion in 2024, with only 81 deals recorded.
While global FinTech funding saw a 39% decline in H2 2024 compared to H1 2020, Israel’s FinTech sector demonstrated relative resilience, experiencing a smaller 31% drop. This strength is particularly notable given that overall funding in Israel decreased by 35%, while global investment saw a 12% increase.
Anyway we saw some very interesting news in the market this week. Worldpay acquired Ravelin Technology, DailyPay is preparing for an IPO in 2025, and Stripe finally closed its Bridge acquisition for $1.1 billion. On top of that, Ripple teams up with Revolut and Zero Hash to boost stablecoin adoption. In the venture industry, Cherry Ventures closes $500 million in new funds, but also Emblem gained some momentum with a $85 million new fund and Conviction Partners with a $230 million fund. In the italian market, Bending Spoons completed the acquisition of Brightcove, while NEVA SGR launched two new funds for a total of $500 million. And finally, some very interesting funding rounds from fintech startups like MYNE, Fimple, Sokin, dub, Anchor, comstruct, WEALTHON (congrats Aleksander Przetakiewicz!), TaxGPT and many others.
But let's take a closer look at the main news of the last seven days.
Closed deals
UK fintech Sokin secures $15 million from BlackRock
German crypto startup Irreducible raises a $24 million series A
Fuel Ventures 🚀 led the $4 million round of wealth tech startup Prosper
Now it's official: Solaris SE closes a $140 million Series G round
Securitisation platform TeamSec secured $7.6 million from Deniz Ventures and Rasmal Ventures
Brazilian fintech NeoSpace AI secures a $15 million round led by Itaú Unibanco
Saudi crowdfunding platform Lendo | ليندو secures a $690 million facility from J.P. Morgan
Copy trading platform dub raises $17 million to introduce teens to trading
Billing and collection platform Anchor raises a $20 million series A
Miami based fintech platform Crowded raises $7.5 million to help no-profit with financial operations
Jump - Advisor AI secures a $20 million series A for its AI-powered financial advisor platform
Fintech startup Wisetack raises $25 million for its pay-over-time solution
AI software Semeris raises €4 million to meet demand for GenAI in FinTech
Singapore-based fileAI raises $14m to revolutionise unstructured data management in financial services
Deel secures $300M from new anchor investors as it hits $800M run rate
Egypt based Khazna secures $16 million for its financial super app and to expand into Saudi
Turkish fintech Fimple raises $12 millions for its core banking solution
UAE's fintech MYNE raises a $2 million pre-seed round
Bhavish Aggarwal invest $230 million in Indian AI startup Krutrim
Digital identity startup ID.me secures a $275 million facility from Ares Management Corporation
Indian fintech Cashfree Payments raises a $53 million round
Qount secures a $17 million round to accelerate the adoption of its accounting platform
Trayd: Construction Payroll secures $4.5m to enhance construction payroll solutions
Oslo based fintech Receipts secures a $1.7 million pre-seed round led by DNB Ventures AS
Munich based comstruct raises $13 million to simplify procurement in construction
Warsaw based WEALTHON secures $126 million to build an ecosystem of digital financial solutions for SMEs
TaxGPT raises a $4.6 million seed round to build the first AI tax Co-Pilot for accounting and tax firms
Insights on the VC industry
Conviction Partners launches a second $230 million fund
Cherry Ventures secures $500 million for its flagship early stage fund and a new opportunity fund
European VC Emblem raises a first $85 million fund
Varrock Ventures raises $30 million for Maiden Fund
GTMfund raises a $54 million fund led by Max Altschuler
NYC based Overlap Holdings secures $33 million for its first fund
News on the market
Payment provider Worldpay acquires the AI-powered fraud prevention platform Ravelin Technology
Stripe closes the already announced $1.1 billion Bridge deal
Ripple teams up with Revolut and Zero Hash to expand RLUSD Stablecoin access worldwide
Payroll provider DailyPay prepares for a 2025 IPO in the US
A special look in the Italian market
Kili Ventures invests in the 1,5 million Euro round of the Marocco based fintech WafR
Bending Spoons completes the already announced acquisition of Brightcove for $233 million
And here some useful resources for everyone involved in the ecosystem:
Events you don’t want to miss
TechChill - Riga (Latvia) | 5-7.02.2025 (Link to the event)
0100 DACH - Wien (Austria) | 18-20.02.2025 (Link to the event)
Tech Arena - Stockholm (Sweden) | 20-21.02.2025 (Link to the event)
You have a cool event you want to mention or to sponsor? Feel free to send me a DM.
Startups raising funds
Loyyal - Loyalty platform from the MENA region, with entities in the US and South East Asia, provides a B2B2C platform to handle multiple loyalty programs and earn rewards all over the world. Raising a $6M Series A
Freedhome - Proptech and fintech platform, enabling people to be able to gain profit from real estate by renting them to intermediaries. Raising a $1M seed round
Tutornow - Edtech that provides an online tutoring platform for students with learning disorders. Raising $500k to $1M.
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.
Shoppy Code:Gift card platform that offers a points based loyalty program. They share part of the profits coming from marketing budgets with their customers. Raising $500k.
Take also a look at the last edition of the newsletter, Weekly update #66