Fintech
Sequoia Takes Big on Stripe, Latin American Fintechs Clean Up, and African Startup Gets Huge Series A
Welcome to TechCrunchFintechThis week, we look at Sequoia Capital’s push to give its LPs liquidity on the company’s investment in Stripe, how Latin American fintechs continue to capture investor attention, a sizable Series A from an African startup, and more.
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The big story
Payment giant Band delayed going public for so long that its largest investor Capital of Sequoia AND getting creative to offer returns to its limited partners. The venture capital firm emailed LPs funds raised between 2009 and 2011 with an offer to buy up to $861 million of Stripe stock. The move is evidence that LPs are increasingly eager for liquidity in this dry IPO market. But perhaps more tellingly, Sequoia’s gesture reflects that the company is confident not only in Stripe’s future, but also in its ability to eventually exit in a way that will handsomely reward investors. It also disclosed that the company’s most recent 409A valuation was $70 billion.
Analysis of the week
Investors continue to be attracted to Latin American fintechs. Walking on clouds it is said to be raising up to $400 million with a valuation of at least $4 billion, The Information reports (the company declined to comment on the rumors). TC’s Anna Heim reported that Caliza has raised $8.5 million to bring real-time money transfers to Latin America using cryptocurrencies stablecoins — most notably, Circle’s USDC, backed by reserves. Initialized led the round, with principal Abdul Ly serving as investment manager. Meanwhile, A car now — a Mexican fintech for self-employed workers across the Americas — told TechCrunch that has raised $86 million in fundingmostly debt but with some equity.
Dollars and cents
Nalaa remittance startup that is now expanding its portfolio through a new B2B payments platform, has raised $40 million in equity in a rare deal that becomes one of the biggest Serie A transactions in Africa.
Encounter Advertisementa new UK-based fintech startup that wants to help businesses get their bills paid, no matter the cost. The startup has already raised $4.9 million in seed fundingco-directed by Index Ventures and Visionaries Club.
Adaptablewhich provides a range of workflow automations for financial management, including budgeting, expense tracking, accounts payable and electronic payments, has closed a $19M Series A Round led by Emergence Capital.
What else are we writing?
THE Synapses the disaster left observers questioning the concept of banking-as-a-service and digital banking as a wholewhereas millions of consumers with nearly $160 million in deposits still cannot access their funds. Here is a timeline of Synapse’s problems and the impact they are having on banking consumers.
Evolve Bank & Trust confirmed that the personal data of at least 7.6 million people, including more than 20,000 customers based in Maine, were accessed during the incident, and the fallout continues to grow.
The European Union accepted Apple’s commitments on how Apple Pay is handled to close a long-running competition investigation. Apple has until 25 July to make changes that will allow competing mobile wallet developers to offer contactless payments via the predominant technology used in the EU (NFC).
Titles of great interest
Best CEO Vishal Garg Ordered to Pay $5.5 Million in Decade-Long Case
Bain Capital to buy financial software provider Envestnet in $45 billion deal
CNBC has released its list of the world’s top 250 fintech companies for 2024
If you want to know more: Fintech funding hits five-quarter high in the second quarter, according to CB Insights.
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