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Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! We're back after a short break and I can tell you that venture investing in the fintech space is definitely picking up steam, judging by the amount of offers I received last week. This week we take a look at Plaid's latest move towards an IPO, a BNPL company's financial results and more. Let's dive in!
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The big story
Last week, Plaid announced it had hired its first-ever president. Notably, Cloudflare's former chief product officer, Jen Taylor, has a lot of experience taking a private company public – something we expect Plaid to do in the relatively near future. Coincidentally, I was already working on an article titled “Here are the fintech startups that could go public in 2024.” With the help of F-Prime Capital, I put together a list of fintechs that have the potential to go public sooner rather than later. Klarna, Chime, Stripe are just a few of those mentioned.
Analysis of the week
Speaking of publicly traded companies, buy now, pay later. Affirm reported its earnings last week. Despite the 48% increase in revenue of $591 million versus estimates of $521 million, investors remained cautious. After rising 7% on Thursday, shares fell nearly 11% on Friday, closing at $43.86. However, it's important to note that this isn't far from Affirm's 52-week high and is almost double what it was in November. In general, public fintechs had a better year last year. “Total market capitalization reached $573 billion by year-end 2023, up from a low of $389 billion in December 2022 – but down from a high of $1.3 trillion in September 2021,” it said in an email from F-Prime Capital.
Dollars and cents
Ingrid made a big splash with the news that Entrust was buying AI-based ID verification startup Onfido for more than $400 million.
New unicorn alarm! Romain reported that accounting software startup Pennylane has become France's newest unicorn with a €40 million fundraising campaign.
Meanwhile, Christine reported that another accounting startup had – finally – raised $10 million in equity funding. Miami-based Further aims to help companies automate accounting and finance functions.
ICYMI: Expense management startup Ramp has acquired AI-powered startup Venue as it expands its procurement offerings, and Metronome's usage billing software finds success in AI as the startup raises $43 million in fresh capital.
What else we write
Jio Financial Services, a spin-off of Reliance Industries, said it was not negotiating with Paytm to acquire its wallet business, dismissing “speculative” media reports as the company struggled to avoid last week's fire from the central bank to delete.
An Indian parliamentary panel has called on the government to support the growth of domestic fintech players that can provide alternatives to the Walmart-backed PhonePe and Google Pay apps, which currently dominate more than 83% of the country's digital payments market.
PayPal is working on a new consumer app for its mobile customers and indicated it will be “ready” to take advantage of the EU's new regulation, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), when it becomes technical “gatekeepers” next month “comes into effect. like Apple.
Don't miss Tag's in-depth look at how African startups face many of the same issues faced by fintechs in more mature markets like the UK and US
Very interesting headlines
Kin Insurance drives growth with $15 million in financing
Construction insurance technology startup Shepherd secures $13.5 million in Series A funding
RealReports raises $2 million in seed funding
Pagaya secures $280 million credit facility for AI-driven consumer financing products
Navro secures EMI license and raises $14 million to revolutionize global payments
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