New trends are beginning to emerge in the fintech VC realm, foremost, the investment in NFT platforms and offerings. Web 3.0 keeps on rolling on. Football (a/k/a soccer here in the US) and cricket, etc. has emerged as a leading area for this type of investment in Europe.
- This week, our top deal came in at $300M for a German-based defi soccer platform (last week we saw a major investment in Rario – a defi cricket platform);
- Just like last week, three of this week’s top deals touched on crypto/ defi/ blockchain. And yes, we are well aware these are 3 different things but for the sake of simplicity, we’re pointing to the fact that the digital asset sector – in its many varying forms – is getting increasingly more top VC deals done. More so than any other sector right now.
- Two deals came out of the US, one out of Germany and two out of the US this week. So not all US deals anymore – we were seeing more of that in 2021 than we have in 2022. More locational diversification for these large VC funding rounds.
Without further ado, here are this week’s top 5 fintech VC deals for the week below, in order from highest to lowest funding levels.
1OneFootball
$300M, Series D | German| Web 3.0 DeFi Sports Platform | Liberty City Ventures, Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, DAH Beteiligungs, Quiet Capital, RIT Capital Partners, Senator Investment Group, Alsara Investment Group |
LinkedIn Firm Overview:
“OneFootball’s goal is to fuel the world’s football obsession. Reaching over 100m football fans worldwide every month, OneFootball is the most popular football media platform for the new generation of football fans. It is the only app with a fully personalised home stream for non-stop news of your favourite club and the only company to offer single live football matches in-app on a free and pay-per-view basis. In the spirit that football is more than just 90 minutes, OneFootball operates a 24-hour newsroom to provide fans across the world with the comprehensive football content they crave – from statistics and live scores of 200+ leagues and competitions worldwide to breaking news, highlight clips, live streaming, transfer rumours and features. Native integration from OneFootball’s network of over 350 independent content creators, clubs, federations and broadcasters adds an additional 120k+ pieces of content per month. OneFootball is available in 12 languages and is the best rated sports app in the world, based on millions of App Store and Google Play reviews. Founded in 2008, the company has its headquarters in Berlin and regional offices in London, New York, Mexico City, Singapore, Cairo, Istanbul and Rio de Janeiro...”
2Outfund
$144.5M, Series A (Debt & Equity) | UK | Business Lending Platform | Force Over Mass, PostFinance, 1818 Venture Capital, Tribe Capital |
Firm Website Overview:
“Nobody said starting, operating, and scaling your own business was easy. But accessing capital should be. We started Outfund because we didn’t think founders like you had the right funding options, from complicated equity finance to restrictive debt. We’re changing the way businesses scale...”
3Starling Bank
$165.3M, Series D | UK | Crhallenger Bank | Steadview, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Kingsway, DraperDragon, Republic, Kindred Ventures |
LinkedIn Overview:
“We’re Starling Bank (aka the Best British Bank 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021). Through our app and online banking platform, we’re helping nearly 1 million customers take control of their money like never before. Quicker, easier and distinctly better. We offer various accounts – personal, joint, business, euro and connected – each of which can be managed from your mobile or desktop. Features include instant payment notifications, insights into your spending habits, in-app card lock, a flexible overdraft and 24/7 customer support. There’s also the Starling Marketplace, which gives you access to a wide range of services and products from third party providers. Plus, with a MasterCard Contactless Debit Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, FitBit Pay and Garmin Pay, you can pay your way...“
4Ox Labs
$70M, Series B | San Francisco | Institutional liquidity aggregator for DeFi applications | Greylock Partners, OpenSea, Pantera Capital, Jump Capital, Jared Leto |
Firm Website Overview:
“0x is important infrastructure for the emerging crypto economy and enables markets to be created that couldn’t have existed before. As more assets become tokenized, public blockchains provide the opportunity to establish a new financial stack that is more efficient, transparent, and equitable than any system in the past…”
5Certik
$60M, Series B3 | NYC | Web 3.0 + Blockchain Security | softBank, Tiger Global |
LinkedIn Overview:
“Founded in 2018 by professors of Yale University and Columbia University, CertiK is a pioneer in blockchain security, utilizing best-in-class AI technology to secure and monitor blockchain protocols and smart contracts. CertiK’s mission is to secure the cyber world. Starting with blockchain, CertiK applies cutting-edge innovations from academia into enterprise, enabling mission-critical applications to be built with security and correctness. CertiK is one of the fastest growing and most trusted companies in blockchain security and has become a true market leader. To date, we have collectively worked with over 2500 enterprise clients, helped secure over $310 billion worth of digital assets, and detected over 45,000 vulnerabilities in blockchain code. Our clients include leading projects such as Aave, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Terra, Yearn, and Chiliz...”
We’ll be back next week with more news on fintech VC funding.
