Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re taking a look at major ramp-ups and valuation jumps, Mercury’s foray into personal banking, Klarna’s recent bank card, global funding rounds and more!
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Big story
Ramp, the expense management startup that competes with the likes of Brax, Navan and Airbus, told TechCrunch exclusively last week that it had raised $150 million at a post-production valuation of $7.65 billion. Khosla Ventures & Founders Fund co-led the round, which represented a 31.9% increase in value from the August 2023 raise. That’s a formidable feat in a difficult market filled with down rounds. Also, notably, Ramp is certainly one of the few major fintechs that hasn’t needed to lay off staff. What’s causing all of the investor interest to ramp up? CEO Eric Gilliman believes that is the corporate’s continued growth and emphasis on AI.
Analysis of the week
Business Banking Startup Mercury Expanding into consumer banking. The seven-year-old company today serves greater than 100,000 businesses, a lot of that are startups, through its B2B practice. CEO and co-founder Imad Akhund told TechCrunch that Mercury hopes to convert a lot of its business clients into consumers moderately than going after the general public. With the same offering, Onyx Private recently made a reverse move, pivoting from B2C to B2B. Industry experts I’ve spoken to emphasise that business and private banking are “two different animals,” but that, too, Mercury is not ranging from scratch.
You can hear Equity staff discuss this week’s fintech news here:
Dollars and cents
Berlin-based embedded fintech startup finmid It has raised $24.7 million in a $107 million post-money valuation in a Series A round to further develop its products and enter recent markets.
Since 2015, anywayAn insurtech based in Kenya seeks to extend access to agricultural insurance for smallholder farmers in emerging markets. To date, the insurtech has helped insure 15.4 million farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America, and is seeking to expand following a $20 million Series B funding round.
MidasA fintech startup that enables people in Turkey to speculate in U.S. and Turkish equity says it has raised $45 million in a funding round led by Portage of Canada.
Rumor has it that the HR/fintech startup to wave is raising $200 million, and $670 million value of shares are being sold by existing stockholders.
What else are we writing?
Clarify has launched its bank card in the United States, the Swedish fintech company told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. With the Klarna bank card, the corporate is now offering bank cards in the US with the likes of Apple and, more recently, Robinhood, in addition to rival BNPL player Affirm.
More stories for you:
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More interesting headlines
Pipe launches a service as embedded capital for small businesses.
Kamina Raises $3.2M in Ecuador’s Largest Pre-Seed Round
Finix launches tool to onboard merchants for payment approval.
This fintech seeks middle-class financing. SRM Ventures “loaned” R$40M to the thought.
Forge and Uber Eats partner on SNAP EBT grocery delivery (TC previously covered the fodder here.)
Public access to Stocktwits trading accounts.
Bolt co-founder pulled strings on unusual stock buyback, suit alleges
Credit : techcrunch.com
