Sequoia bets big on Stripe, LatAm fintechs clean up and one African startup’s outsized Series A
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Sequoia Capital’s effort to give its LPs liquidity on the firm’s investments in Stripe, how LatAm fintechs are still catching investors’ attention, a sizable Series A from an African startup, and more.
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The big story
Payments giant Stripe has delayed going public for so long that its major investor Sequoia Capital is getting creative to offer returns to its limited partners. The venture firm emailed LPs in funds raised between 2009 and 2011 with an offer to buy up to $861 million worth of shares in Stripe. The move is evidence that LPs are increasingly antsy for liquidity in this dry IPO market. But perhaps more telling is that Sequoia’s gesture reflects that the firm is confident not only of Stripe’s future, but also in its ability to eventually exit in a way that will reward investors handsomely. It also revealed that the company’s most recent 409A valuation was $70 billion.
Analysis of the week
Investors continue to be drawn to Latin American fintechs. CloudWalk is reported to be raising up to $400 million at a valuation of at least $4 billion, reports The Information (the company declined to comment on the rumors). TC’s Anna Heim reported that Caliza has raised $8.5 million to bring real-time money transfers to Latin America using crypto stablecoins — specifically, Circle’s reserve-backed USDC. Initialized led the round, with principal Abdul Ly serving as the lead on the investment. Meanwhile, OneCarNow — a Mexican fintech for gig workers across the Americas — told TechCrunch that it secured $86 million in funding, mostly debt but with some equity.
Dollars and cents
Nala, a remittance startup that is now widening its portfolio through a new B2B payments platform, has raised $40 million in equity in a rare deal that becomes one of the largest Series A transactions in Africa.
Meet Adfin, a new U.K.-based fintech startup that wants to help companies get their invoices paid — whatever it takes. The startup has already raised $4.9 million in seed funds, co-led by Index Ventures and Visionaries Club.
Adaptive, which delivers an array of workflow automations for financial management, including budgeting, expense tracking, accounts payable and electronic payments, closed a $19 million Series A round led by Emergence Capital.
What else we’re writing
The Synapse debacle has left observers questioning the banking-as-a-service concept and digital banking as a whole, considering that millions of consumers with nearly $160 million in deposits remain unable to access their funds. Here is a timeline of Synapse’s troubles and the ongoing impact it is having on banking consumers.
Evolve Bank & Trust confirmed that the personal data of at least 7.6 million people, including more than 20,000 customers based in Maine, was accessed during the incident, and the fallout from it continues to grow.
The European Union has accepted commitments from Apple over how it operates Apple Pay to settle a long-running competition investigation. Apple has until July 25 to implement changes that will allow developers of rival mobile wallets to offer contactless payment by the predominant technology used in the EU (NFC).
High-interest headlines
Better CEO Vishal Garg ruled to pay $5.5M in a decade-long lawsuit
Bain Capital to buy financial software vendor Envestnet in $45B deal
CNBC released its list of the world’s top 250 fintech companies for 2024
ICYMI: Fintech funding hit five-quarter high in Q2, according to CB Insights.
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