Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we look at Stripe’s easy acquisition, the role fintech played in Clio’s latest raise, the latest with digital banking startup Mercury, and more.
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The big story
Payments giant Band made its third acquisition in the last 14 months and at least the 15th overall over its lifespan, TechCrunch exclusively reported. Band picked up Lemon Squeezy for 13 peoplea merchant of record that calculates and pays global sales tax on digital products, handling legal processing and fees in each country. The startup primarily served SaaS and software businesses. It’s always interesting when a larger fintech acquires a smaller competitor. In announcing the acquisition of
Analysis of the week
I covered Canadian legal technology Clio for several years now. So I was particularly interested when the company announced last week that it had raised $900 million at a valuation of $3 billion (led by new backer New Enterprise Associates, which alone has shelled out more than $500 million). I was even more interested when I discovered that one of the main drivers of investor interest was integrated financial technology. Clio began integrating payments into its offering in 2022 and has since seen its ARR climb to over $200 million, up from $100 million in reserve rights in June 2022. And it’s profitable! Fintech for victory!
Listen to the Equity team analyze the deal here:
Dollars and cents
MNT-Halanan Egyptian fintech unicorn, is on a consolidation march. The microfinance and payments startup has raised $157.5 million in funding and is using the money in part to finance the acquisition of another fintech, Tam Finans, to expand into Türkiye.
Tiger Beetlewhich built an open source database designed for processing online financial transactions, recently closed its doors a $24 million Series A round led by Natalie Vais of Spark Capital with participation from Amplify Partners and Coil.
What else do we write
Digital banking startup Mercury said it no longer serves customers domiciled in the United States with business and residential addresses from certain countries, including Ukraine and Nigeria, in a movement which upset founders and investors. Mercury has since walked back this claim, telling TechCrunch that it was an “error” and that the policy change only applies to founders living in Ukraine, not founders living in the United States with a Ukrainian passport. See an opportunity, competitor Brex intervened to try to help the Ukrainian founders.
CREDITan Indian fintech startup, has deployed a new feature this will help its customers manage and better understand their cash flow, as the startup seeks to drive engagement through personal finance tools.
Revolution has been obtained a banking license of the Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) in the United Kingdom. This is a significant milestone for the London-based fintech company, especially as it attempts to obtain this license. since 2021.
Very interesting titles
Global financing of financial services has slowed over the past five quarters
Robinhood expands features with joint investment accounts
The European rival of Visa and Mastercard soon deployed in Belgium
Nova Credit Adds Credit Karma Co-Founder Nichole Mustard to its Board of Directors (TC covered the startup’s latest raise here.)
UniCredit to acquire banking-as-a-service business Vodeno and Belgian digital bank Aion
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