Tallying up on Payments
Payments continue to be one of the most well-funded categories for startups, but more complexities exist outside dev. Regulations of cross-border payments may be the most challenging hurdle to overcome.
“More than 26,000 rules apply to international payments—from disclosure protocols to remediation standards. This makes the system uniquely compliance-driven and requires a complex web of contacts at global financial institutions as well as regulatory bureaus.” – The Financial Revolutionist.
But while regulations may be challenging, everyone from mobile app companies to banks is seeking new payment alternatives (plus perks). Add-in identification verification and payment applications are now a new ID source for multiple states and even the TSA.
Some notable trends this week:
- Eigen Labs, this week’s #1, adds more to its earlier award of $50M in funding.
- It was a good week for US-based startups, with most funding deals stateside.
- This week’s #5, Truework, has single source backing from one of the Big3, TransUnion.
Next up, here are this week’s Top 5 VC Deals
1Eigen Labs
$64.5 M, Series A, Capital| Equity| Washington State | Blockchain| Undisclosed | https://www.eigenlayer.xyz/
LinkedIn Overview:
“We propose EigenLayer, a restaking collective for Ethereum. EigenLayer is a set of smart contracts on Ethereum that allows consensus layer Ether (ETH) stakers to opt in to validating new software modules built on top of the Ethereum ecosystem…”
2Gensyn
$43M, Series A, Capital| Equity | UK | Blockchain | Andreessen Horowitz, CoinFund, Canonical Crypto, Protocol Labs, Eden Block, Maven 11 | https://www.gensyn.ai/
LinkedIn Overview:
“The Gensyn network is the Machine Learning Compute Protocol that unites all of the world’s compute into a global machine learning supercluster, usable by anyone at any time.”
3CloudZero
$32M, Series B, Capital | Equity | MA | FinTech | Innovius Capital, Threshold Ventures | https://www.cloudzero.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“CloudZero is the leader in cloud cost intelligence. We empower the world’s engineers to build cost-efficient software without slowing down innovation…”
4Paro
$25M, Series C, Capital| Equity |Chicaco | FinTech |Top Tier Capital Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Revolution Ventures, Sierra Ventures | https://paro.ai/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Paro is an AI-powered marketplace that delivers finance and accounting solutions to businesses through a combination of expert fractional talent, data-driven tools and guiding insights…”
5Truework
$24M, Capitatl | Equity | SF | FinTech | TransUnion | https://www.truework.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“On a mission to create trust with every financial transaction, Truework provides a one-stop, customizable platform for income and employment verification that is more efficient, accurate, and secure…”
