Fintech
Inside TabaPay’s dramatic decision to abandon its plan to buy Synapse’s assets
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we look at the drama surrounding TabaPay’s decision not to buy Synapse’s assets, as well as falling stocks for a couple of fintechs, Monzo raising even more money, and more!
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The big story
There were a lot of things he said, he said finger-pointing in the fintech world last week. Instant payments company TabaPay confirmed to TechCrunch that it had done so abandoned his plans to purchase the assets of the troubled banking-as-a-service startup Synapse. Synapse said the problem was banking partner Evolve Bank & Trust. And Evolve said it was not involved and bears no blame. Meanwhile, another player in the saga, Mercury, says that Synapse’s accusations have “no merit.” What really happened? Maybe one day we’ll find out. But for now we know for sure that the $9.7 million deal is off.
Analysis of the week
Despite not-so-shabby earnings reports, a couple of fintechs saw their shares tumble last week. Digital bank Dave said has “improved its credit performance over the past year with the use of artificial intelligence (AI),” but its shares have down more than 7.5% on May 10th. Buy now, pay later giant Affirm reported a smaller loss than expected and last week its forecasts came in higher than expected, but its shares took a sharp nosedive, some say in tune with Shopify. The shares were trading on May 10 at $31.59, down 9.25% that day. Meanwhile, Nubank announced that it has officially reached the milestone Brand of 100 million customerswhich he said made it the first digital banking platform to achieve this milestone outside Asia.
Dollars and cents
Monzo has raised another $190 millionas the challenger bank seeks to expand its presence internationally, particularly in the United States. The new round comes just two months later Monzo raises $430 million, meaning the London-based company has now raised more than $620 million in 2024 and $1.5 billion since its inception nine years ago.
Ben Lambert founded an AI workflow tools startup, Check first, which enables remote inspections and allows companies to schedule inspectors based on geographic location and qualifications. The company has now raised a pre-seed of $1.5 million led by Lisbon-based venture capital firm Olisipo Way and GP firm Hiero VC. Notion Capital and angel investors from companies such as Source Point, Busuu, Swogo and FaceIT also participated.
What else are we writing
Digital banking startup Mercury is becoming a SaaS company, now software overlay on your bank accounts. This will give its enterprise customers the ability to pay invoices, invoice customers and reimburse employees, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The additional features put the company in even more direct competition with the likes of Brex and Ramp, two rival fintechs that have been fighting for market share in an increasingly crowded space. Mercury says it has more than 200,000 customers who send $4 billion in outgoing payments each month through its platform. You can listen to the Equity team discuss it here:
Titles of great interest
Fintech Farm raises $32 million to expand its ‘neobank in a box’ model in India
As banks cut off risky fintech businesses, a small lender is leaning in
Former top executive drops lawsuit against Better.com and its founder. TechCrunch initially covered the lawsuit in 2022 Here.
FIS presents the Ateli integrated financial platformor
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