Frineds, checking in with our latest news in fintech venture capital. While we are always optimistic about the sector and the innovation coming from start-ups, there’s undeniable evidence that VC is cooling. Fewer deals, less $$ flying around, more fintech closures that didn’t quite make. We’re not sure that isn’t a good thing, since we honestly thing that many of the deals have seen are – well let’s just say it – foolish. And we’ve, okay, ranted in the past around the Series E & F deals we see (and there’s one in this newsletter today, too). Why such a long runway to profitability? It doesn’t make logical sense to any business pragmatist, but maybe that’s where I’m just all wrong about the true nature of VC. Anwyay, we’ve reported as much in recent months – but CB Insights quantified it for us in this newsletter.
In the meantime, some trends worth noting for the week:
- No deals topped $100M in the digital wealth VC in the past week;
- Our funding winner for the week was came to us from Asia, in the form of a shopping & rewards platform, banking on the continued strength of the shopping consumer. Let’s hope, we’ll see;
- The “Embedded Finance” sector is back with more funding this week – which according to Unit’s website is “non-financial companies offering financial products and services.”
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.
1Shopback
$80M, Series F | Singapore | Shopping & Rewards Platform | 65 Equity Partners, Temasek |
http://corporate.shopback.com
LinkedIn Overview:
“The ShopBack Group is Asia-Pacific’s leading shopping and rewards platform, serving over 35 million shoppers across ten markets. ShopBack was founded in 2014 and today, ShopBackers across the region continue to win over shoppers by constantly upping their game – be it rewards or meaningful experiences – such that shoppers can achieve a personal victory every time they use ShopBack. The Group powers over US$3.5 billion in annual sales for over 10,000 online and in-store merchant partners. In 2022, ShopBack launched ShopBack Pay and PayLater, extending the platform’s offerings into financial services, providing shoppers responsible and convenient payment options at checkout.“
2Tally
$80M, Series D | San Francisco | Credit Card Debt Payment Platform | Sway Ventures, Menora Mivtachim, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures, Cowboy Ventures | https://www.meettally.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Tally is a consumer tech company pioneering full-service financial automation. Founded in 2015, we built the first automated debt manager to help people overcome credit card debt and put billions of dollars back in people’s pockets. Tally’s vision is to automate people’s entire financial lives, so they can stress less about money and do more of what they love.“
3Railsr
$46M, Series C (Debt & Equity) | UK | Embedded Finance Experiences Platform | Anthos Capital, Ventura, Outrun Ventures, CreditEase, Moneta, Mars Capital | https://www.railsr.com/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Consumers want fully immersive and frictionless experiences, and expect brands to deliver the best, most personalised and distinctive engagement campaigns. Railsr is passionate about enabling brands to build relevant finance experiences to drive customer engagement and loyalty. It believes that the embedded finance economy is a fundamentally different way of creating relationships between companies and consumers. Railsr has created a unique category within the financial services industry: embedded finance experiences. It has developed this to enable its customers to help the financial consumer, to deliver greater inclusion and freedoms. Railsr is a pioneer of a new way of looking at how financial services can empower and liberate. It offers a new approach for brands to harness the power of embedded finance through a low cost turnkey platform. It delivers embedded finance into a brand’s digital journey, designed as a vertically integrated financial ecosystem, starting at the central bank, or payment scheme (e.g. Visa), and ending with a fully embedded digital experience.“
4Crowdstreet
$43M, Equity & Debt | Austin | Real Estate Investing Platform | TIAA, Cypress Equity Investments, The Dinerstein Companies, Foulger-Pratt, Grotech Ventures, Rally Ventures, Seven Peaks Ventures, Green Visor Capital | https://www.crowdstreet.com
LinkedIn Overview:
“CrowdStreet is the largest online private equity real estate investing platform. As reported by Dr. Adam Gower in Best Real Estate Syndication Platforms | Gower Crowd – UNLEASHED, published 2022, based on dollars raised by individual investors. To date, we’ve launched more than 600 deals, including both individual assets and funds. Some of the world’s largest sponsors, including Greystar and Harbor Group International have used CrowdStreet to raise capital. Since 2014, our investor community has committed more than $3 billion in investments since March 2022…”
5Jiko
$40M, Series B | San Francisco | Treasury Bill Access Platform | Red River West, Trousdale Ventures, Owen Van Natta, Temaris & Associates, La Maison Partners, BPI France, Anthem Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Radicle Impact | https://jiko.io/
LinkedIn Overview:
“Jiko is a revolutionary new financial network, enabling companies – from multinational corporations to startups – to both store and move money, starting with the power of T-bills, made spendable. Securely stored at the biggest custody bank in the country, cash is put directly into T-bills with on-demand liquidity. Jiko combines the stability of an established national bank with the modernity of an integrated technology stack. Founded in 2016 and led by a team of Wall Street veterans, quants and technologists, Jiko owns and operates an OCC-chartered, Member FDIC national bank and registered broker-dealer.”
We’ll be back next week with more news on fintech VC funding.
