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This week, we take a look at how much funding fintech startups have raised in 2024, a number of funding deals, Plaid’s reported revenue growth over the last year, and more.
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big story
Global funding for fintech startups continues to decline. According to CB Insights’ State of Fintech 2024 Report, fintech startups worldwide raised a total of $33.7 billion last year, down 20% from the previous year. The number of transactions also fell by 17% to 3,580 transactions. But there are at least some bright spots. The fintech industry’s annual funding decline was the smallest in three years. In addition, funding recovered and ended the year on a strong note, reaching $8.5 billion in Q4 2024, an 11% increase compared to Q3 2024. CB Insights also reported that the median fintech deal size increased 33% annually to $4 million.
dollars and cents
LemFi, a London-based financial services platform for immigrants, raises $53 million in new funding and will use it to accelerate efforts to acquire more customers and expand into more countries I will.
Recharge, Europe’s leading player in online prepaid payments, has secured a €45 million debt facility with ABN AMRO as it looks to expand its market through a series of M&As and move towards fintech-style services.
French startup Hyperline aims to build the next generation of Chargebee. The company raised its first funding round of 4 million euros ($4.1 million at current exchange rates) from Index Ventures in 2023. Now, Index Ventures is doubling down on this investment, investing an additional $10 million in the startup.
Bench, the accounting startup that went bankrupt during the holidays, filed for bankruptcy in Canada on January 7, disclosing huge debts, according to documents obtained by TechCrunch. The filings (one with Bench and one with 10Sheet, Bench’s original name) show that Bench had $2.8 million in cash on hand by the end of its lifespan, but $65.4 million in cash. This indicates that they were in debt. Charles Lorre digs deep here.
Another fintech IPO?! Trading platform eToro has reportedly secretly filed for a U.S. IPO that could value the company in excess of $5 billion. Israel-based eToro, which competes with companies like Robinhood, told TechCrunch it “does not comment on IPO rumors.”
Amazon has agreed to acquire Indian buy-now-pay-later startup Axio, strengthening its push into financial services in one of the fastest-growing markets.
Distributed Technology Research (DTR), a Swiss-based startup founded by former SoftBank veteran Akshay Naheta, is attempting to bridge the gap between traditional banking and blockchain technology, and is expanding global payments It joins a growing group of companies looking to modernize infrastructure.
Barclays Rise will close in 2025.
people move
Synctera has hired its first CFO, Matias Pino.
Mark Fiorentino is leaving Index Ventures to join Bain Capital as “our newest partner tasked with guiding the next generation of growth-stage AI-native, vertical SaaS and fintech startups.” announced.
Interesting headlines
Last year was a good year for Plaid. Bloomberg reported that Plaid, which provides infrastructure that connects fintechs and banks, saw its revenue soar more than 25% last year.
Cryptocurrency wallet provider Phantom Technologies has raised $150 million in a funding round at a $3 billion valuation. Sequoia Capital and Paradigm co-led the round.
Thank you for reading. See you next week!