🚨Breaking: Monzo's Funding Round Hits £500M with Hedosophia onboard

Hey FinTech Fanatic!

Rumblings from the financial hub suggest that Monzo could make the big reveal this week, unveiling Hedosophia alongside Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC) as key backers in a fundraising round nearing the £500 million mark.

This unexpected surge in funding positions Monzo among the elite ranks of British tech companies, marking one of the largest fundraising rounds in its history.

Word on the street is that GIC is injecting north of £50 million into Monzo, while Hedosophia is also flexing its financial muscles with tens of millions in commitments.

What a start of the week!

Cheers,

Marcel

#FINTECHREPORT

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FINTECH NEWS

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PAYMENTS NEWS

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🇺🇸 What a week it was for Stripe 🤯

Here is a list of Key News Updates from Stripe this week.

🇭🇰 Alipay+ enables digital payment from 14 overseas e-wallets in Hong Kong. Users from 9 countries can now use their home e-wallets in Hong Kong via Alipay+ for seamless payments with transparent exchange rates at merchants displaying the Alipay+ / AlipayHK logo.

🇳🇱 Bird enters Payments! According to CEO Robert Vis: "𝘽𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙖 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙟𝙤𝙞𝙣 𝘽𝙞𝙧𝙙 𝙋𝙖𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙝 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙮𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙪𝙥 𝙩𝙤 𝟗𝟎% 🤯 𝙋𝙡𝙪𝙨." Click here to learn more 

OPEN BANKING NEWS

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DIGITAL BANKING NEWS

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🇿🇦 Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie said he is far more concerned about the competition that international brands like Apple and Facebook could bring to South Africa’s banking sector than local market players like new digital banks.

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The 5 BIG News Updates you need to know from Revolut this week.

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DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS

🇬🇧 Monzo Bank expands fundraising to £𝟱𝟬𝟬𝗺 in a round that includes money from Hedosophia, according to Sky News. The larger-than-expected round makes it one of the largest ever achieved by a British Tech company.

🇨🇦 Canadian FinTech firm Qohash secures $17.4m for AI data security expansion. This latest financial injection will help Qohash further develop its innovative Qostodian platform, which utilises artificial intelligence to manage and secure high-risk data across various sectors.

🇵🇭 Consumer finance app BillEase secures $5-m funding from Saison Investment. BillEase, which offers personal loans, e-wallet top-ups, prepaid load, gaming credits, bills payment and BNPL solutions, achieved profitability in 2023. Keep reading

🇺🇸 RevenueCat raises $12M Series C as it expands its subscription management to the web. In addition to fueling its new products, the fundraise will help RevenueCat expand to new markets, including Japan and South Korea. Read more

🇧🇷 Brazilian Banking as a Service company QI Tech is valued at over $1 billion after extending its Series B funding to $210 million, it tells Axios exclusively. The company is now one of 18 Brazilian unicorns, based on CBInsights data.

M&A

🇳🇱 Amsterdam-based Moodus, a company that facilitates contactless donations, has acquired the assets of ACTOLL, a French FinTech company owned by Matawan. Ahmed Ali, co-founder of Moodus, announced the development via a LinkedIn post. 

🇫🇷 Spendesk, a French unicorn specializing in payment management for businesses, completes its first acquisition. With the acquisition of Okko, it aims to diversify its activities. By integrating Okko's technology and resources, Spendesk becomes the first European solution to fully integrate procurement and expense management for SMEs and mid-sized enterprises.

🇺🇸 Paystand buys Teampay. The transaction creates a B2B payments powerhouse whose continued goal is to revolutionize payments by expanding the largest, fastest, and most cost-efficient B2B payments network. 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

🇺🇸 Polygon Labs COO Michael Blank to step down as the company axes the exec role. The elimination of Blank’s role comes almost three months after the company let go of 60 employees, approximately 19% of its staff, per a post from Boiron announcing the layoffs in February.

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