Brex Eyes Stability Before Taking the IPO Leap
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Brex is thinking about going public—but not just yet. The FinTech wants to make sure it has a steady, predictable business before taking the step. “It’s easy to go public, it’s hard to be a public company with low volatility and very high predictability,” said CEO Pedro Franceschi.
The startup aims to achieve cash-flow positivity by mid-year and reach $500 million in revenue by year-end, laying the groundwork for long-term stability before making any major moves.
Founded by Pedro Franceschi and Henrique Dubugras, Brex started as a corporate card provider and has since expanded into business banking and expense management. The startup has positioned itself as a challenger to major financial players like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, while competing with FinTechs like Ramp and Mercury.
Still, Brex has more than doubled its FinTech competitors’ peak valuations, reaching $12.3 billion in 2022, while Ramp and Mercury so far peaked at $7.65 billion and $3 billion, respectively.
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INSIGHTS
🇬🇧 Bird to leave Europe due to onerous regulations in AI era. "We are mostly leaving Europe as it lacks the environment we need to innovate in an AI-first era of technology," said Robert Vis, its CEO. Bird's operations in the future will be mostly split between New York, Singapore, and Dubai, he said.
FINTECH NEWS
🇬🇧 UK WealthTech investments dropped by 59% amid market uncertainties in 2024. Only 89 deals were recorded in 2024, representing a sharp 67% decline from the 272 deals completed in 2023. This marks the lowest number of deals in the past five years, highlighting a significant contraction in investor appetite as market conditions remain challenging.
🇳🇬 Futterwave FinTech is in talks for IPO on the Nigerian Exchange. The company revealed plans to list on the NGX, with a potential valuation exceeding N4.5 trillion. If completed, the listing would make it the largest financial services company on the exchange and the fifth most capitalized overall.
🇬🇧 Saxo sees boom in UK client numbers following new pricing. The company reports a significant increase in its client base following the introduction of its new pricing model, with the total number of new trading end clients across markets up 132% in 2024 compared to 2023.
🇬🇧 Mastercard settlement approved by UK court despite funders' opposition. The company mentioned that the Competition Appeal Tribunal had approved an agreement to settle the long-running litigation over card fees for GBP 200 million. The lawsuit was approved despite opposition from the firm that funded the litigation.
🇺🇸 Brex eyes $500 million in 2025 revenue as it Mulls IPO. The company is one of several financial technology startups that’s considering an initial public offering and wants to make sure it’s ready to present investors with a predictable business before it decides on pursuing an IPO, according to the CEO.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇬🇧 Merchants focus on functionality, reliability and speed of payment providers, by Ecommpay. A research has found that merchants place more value on the practical elements of a payment provision than on a personal recommendation or even cost. Over half (57%) of merchant respondents selected ‘functionality’ as one of their top three criteria when choosing a payment provider. This was followed by 53% choosing ‘reliability’ and 51% ‘speed’. Half chose ‘cost’, while just 41% rated social proof or recommendation as a deciding factor.
🇨🇴 Lyra FinTech expands to Central America, the US, and plans growth in Mexico and Ecuador. In 2024, the company successfully extended its presence to new regions, expanding into six Central American countries. Additionally, the firm onboarded its first clients in the US and continues to progress with its strategic expansion in Mexico.
🇦🇺 Nium expands instant payment services to Australia. This enables businesses to process instant cross-border payments to Australian bank accounts and PayIDs. The move taps into Australia’s New Payments Platform, enabling real-time transactions with its infrastructure.
🇬🇧 Payments watchdog could be abolished in PM's purge of regulators. A decision is expected to be taken in principle within weeks, although sources indicated this weekend that the government was "actively considering" a decision to scrap the body.
🇧🇭 BBK and JP Morgan boost cross-border payments in Bahrain. The collaboration will leverage JP Morgan’s ‘Xpedite Auto’ solution, which uses AI to improve payment processing, reduce transaction times, and optimize costs for international transactions.
REGTECH NEWS
🇬🇧 Ecommpay responds to speculation that the UK Government plans to abolish Payment Systems Regulator. Comment from Willem Wellinghoff, CCO and UK Chair of inclusive payments platform, Ecommpay:
“With the FCA and PSR in the same building, and the PSR being a subsidiary of the FCA, it’s unsurprising that some might think the two organisations could be merged. Whilst there is definitely scope for improvement on how the PSR interacts with the industry, the Bank of England and the FCA, the PR and FCA have fundamentally very different purposes and objectives. And combining the two organisations could potentially negatively impact the FCA, which is already stressed as a regulator."
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇵🇰 Pakistan’s first digital bank has launched. After nearly three years, the State Bank of Pakistan has given a digital banking license to Easypaisa, which was one of many contenders that had first made a bid for this pioneering opportunity.
🇦🇷 Naranja X opens bi-monetarism to its millions of customers. The FinTech enables debit card payments in dollars in Argentina, simplifying transactions for those with foreign currency income. From the app, customers can select the option to pay in dollars, and the transaction will be directly debited from the user's dollar-denominated bank account, with no additional taxes or fees.
🌍 Mastercard Move and ACE Money Transfer make sending money across borders easier and faster. The collaboration will enable users in the UK, Australia, Canada, and Europe to send funds in near real-time to beneficiaries in India, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and SEPA countries.
🇬🇧 The AA unveils plans to offer savings accounts and personal loans. The announcement is the first step in a long-term partnership with NatWest Boxed. This will enable the AA to expand its range of financial services, with products that could help people save for their first driving lesson or help with the cost of an emergency repair.
🇬🇧 Equifax UK launches Financed Emissions Calculator™ to help lenders streamline sustainability reporting. This solution aims to transform the manual, time-consuming, and error-prone processes of calculating financed emissions into an automated system designed to support regulatory-compliance.
🌍 Plumery and Smile ID partner to power secure and scalable digital banking in Africa. This collaboration enables institutions to reduce implementation costs, strengthen authentication processes, and deliver seamless, secure digital banking experiences for their customers.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇸🇬 Bybit fully covered $1.4B Ether Gap after the Hack and handled $6.1B in withdrawals. The cryptocurrency exchange hacked last Friday withstood an outflow of over $6.1 billion over the weekend. However, the exchange’s CEO announced that the platform replaced the $1.4 billion worth of Ether stolen in the attack.
🇨🇳 After Bybit, hackers steal $49M from Infini Crypto FinTech. Another big crypto hack has rocked the industry. Infini, a crypto FinTech company, lost $49 million in USDC, and the twist? The hacker was one of their developers. Read more
🇩🇪 New Bitwala Visa Card Features: more control, more options. The Bitwala Card turns digital assets into a practical payment method, accepted by over 100 million merchants worldwide. Continue reading
🇺🇸 Robinhood says SEC closed the investigation into Robinhood Crypto. On February 21, 2025, the SEC’s Enforcement Division advised RHC in a letter that it had concluded its investigation and did not intend to move forward with an enforcement action.
🇺🇸 Bgin Blockchain files for $50M IPO in US. Bgin said it would offer around 59.54 million Class A ordinary shares and 15.69 million Class B ordinary shares. Its registration statement also said it had applied to Nasdaq to list its Class A shares under the ticker “BGIN.”
🇦🇺 MeaWallet partners with Backbase to deliver advanced tokenization solutions in Australia and New Zealand. The partnership will feature two groundbreaking solutions: Mea Push Provisioning and Mea Card Data. These solutions will enable issuers and FinTechs to efficiently activate OEM.
🇨🇳 Hong Kong expands crypto offerings after FTX fallout. Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) executive director Eric Yip highlighted the need for these measures, following stricter global regulations after FTX’s collapse. Read More
🇵🇹 Ethena crypto project raises $100 million to fund finance foray. The fundraising, which hasn’t been previously reported, was completed in December and drew investors including Franklin Templeton and F-Prime Capital, the venture capital firm affiliated with Fidelity Investments.
PARTNERSHIPS
🌍 ModernTV Group and Solidgate: Revolutionizing online payments for Pay-TV. Through this collaboration, ModernTV Group has leveraged Solidgate’s expertise in payment processing to enhance its checkout experience. Together, the firms are redefining online payment standards, delivering a secure, seamless, and user-friendly experience for IPTV customers across Europe.
🌎 DEUNA and Worldpay have joined forces to make e-commerce operations easier across LATAM. With this integration, businesses can connect with customers worldwide, effortlessly integrate multiple payment methods and leverage Worldpay’s security infrastructure to protect transactions while meeting the highest industry standards.
🇨🇳 HEYTEA partners with Adyen to accelerate global expansion. The partnership is expected to accelerate HEYTEA’s development process and overall global expansion. In addition, the deal is expected to bring the company’s products to clients across the regions of the US, the UK, Singapore, and Australia.
🇩🇪 Nexi becomes Wero acquirer, in partnership with Computop. The companies will enable merchants to benefit from the new European digital wallet payment method, first in e-commerce and later in brick-and-mortar retail. Computop provides all technically necessary interfaces to Wero operator EPI.
🇧🇪 Wero is now available at Hello Bank enabling fast and instant transfers. Users can download the app, enter the amount to send, select their contact or input their number, and confirm the transfer with the Digital Key. The recipient will receive the money immediately in their account and be notified via a notification or SMS.
🇺🇸 Verifone and PopID partner to drive adoption of biometric payments. They partnered to create biometric modules comprised of biometric sensors and software to enable existing Verifone or third-party payment terminals to accept face and palm authentication.
🇶🇦 Yuno has partnered with Invest Qatar to accelerate Yuno’s expansion in the Middle East with the establishment of a new regional headquarters in Qatar. This important milestone aligns with Qatar’s Third National Development Strategy, which aims to diversify the economy through the cultivation of innovative sectors such as FinTech.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
💰 Over the last week, there were 5 FinTech deals in Europe, raising a total of €71 million, 3 deals in France, as well as 1 deal in Germany and the Netherlands each.
🇸🇦 FinTech Flow48 secures $69M Series A to expand into Saudi Arabia. With this new funding, Flow48 plans to expand its presence in its two primary markets and introduce its solution in Saudi Arabia, the largest economy in the MENA region, which has a significant but underdeveloped SME ecosystem.
M&A
🇳🇱 Prosus Group and Just Eat Takeaway.com have entered into a conditional agreement for Prosus to acquire all outstanding shares of JET for equity consideration of EUR 4.1 bn. The takeover of the Dutch meal delivery company must still be approved by shareholders and the relevant authorities. This acquisition aims to create a leading European food delivery company.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇬🇧 FNZ Group appoints former JP Morgan exec Aashish Kamat as new Group CFO. Kamat brings over 35 years of experience in financial services and private equity to his new position and previously worked as co-managing partner at L Catterton’s GCC Asia Growth Fund.
🇺🇸 Kotapay appoints Heather Schumacher Head and cards and BaaS operations. In this role, Heather will lead our credit and debit card operations, as well as the deployment and availability of the Kavinu platform. Continue reading
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