Welcome to Techcrunch Fintech! It’s good to be back.
This week, we are watching the Wild Ride which was the closure and acquisition of bench; Dozens of companies hiring in the Fintech space; Prosecution against Paypal; an IPO update; And more!
This edition is a little longer than normal because we were on a break for a few weeks. Happy New Year, BTW! Hoping for a peaceful and joyful year for all of us.
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The great story
This is always a news when a company that has raised more than $ 110 million in venture capital funding suddenly folds. But it’s even more eyebrows when a few days later, this same company – in this case, Bench – is acquired. Unfortunately, thousands of customers and hundreds of employees must feel the cervical boost.
Right now deepCharles Rollet from Techcrunch breaks down the details of what led to the bench stop and plunged to buy this fintech, which was supported by companies like Shopify and Capital Bath. A treat: the move was so sudden that a customer who has kept years of data on the Bench website, and was even presented on their first page before its offline, only learned when closed when Techcrunch called it for a reaction.
Dollars and cents
We launched the new year with a news that Thomson Reuters had Acquired tax automation company Safesend In an all craft transaction worth $ 600 million. Founded in 2008, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Safesend, based in Michigan, desserts a cloud-based platform designed to rationalize the processing and sharing of sensitive financial documents.
Techcrunch Eic Connie Loizos interviewed Robin CEO and Co-founder Vlad Tenev about his business “Comeback Stoc of Yahoo Financek“Of the yearAnd much more. Catch up here.
Imymi
Exclusive bank of Uzbekistan mobiles, TBC Bank Uzbekistan,, lifted $ 37 million In new funding to strengthen its dominant digital presence in the Central Asian nation by developing new AI and technology products and attracting more experienced customers to technology.
Tyme groupA South African fintech, obtained $ 250 million In a series D, pushing its evaluation to $ 1.5 billion. In particular, the funding was led by Nu Holdings – which has the most precious fintech in Latin America, Nubank – investing $ 150 million for a 10%stake.
What do we write elsewhere
Last week was not great for Paypal. First, Dominic-Madori Davis announced that Paypal is be prosecuted By the founder of the venture capital company Andav Capital, Nisha Desai, who affirms that she was excluded from the program of diversity and actions of the payment giant because she is Asian. Then another New trial alleys that the navigator extension honey belonging to Paypal deceives the creators of money.
Meanwhile, Zack Whittaker reported that an American online gift card store, Mygiftcardsupplyhas secured an online storage server that was public exhibition Hundreds of thousands of identity documents issued by the government of Internet customers.
And, Tage Kene-Okaor wrote on the way in which Africa’s technological ecosystem recently obtained a stimulation of attention, with South Africa Tymebank And Nigeria Moniepoint both raise funds In recent weeks to evaluations of more than a billion dollars, joining the coveted unicorn pantheon.
IPO News
Is 2025 the year for the IPTRIFICATION on Fintech?
Before the end of 2024, Manish Singh wrote on how the actions of the digital payment company Mobikwik jumped from 82% to 507.5 ₹ ($ 6) on their first day of negotiation And how the IPO of $ 69 million from India Fintech is involved in the middle of the fierce competition from greater competitors. He also looked at the fact that Aye FinanceA lender targeting small and medium -sized enterprises in India, seeks to raise $ 171 million Initial public import.
Meanwhile, Julie Bort reported how the digital bank Carillon has dropped off Paperas of confidential With La SEC, a moment when the company has been preparing since it hired the Morgan Stanley banker last September, with an eye on the IPO in 2025.
High interest titles
- While Fintechs still hire, many of them do not have as many open roles as they did it just a few months ago. However, there is still Lots of open positionsAnd there are companies that even hire for more roles last summer.
- Three crypto industry groups – DEFI Education FundTHE Blockchain associationand the Texas blockchain advice – are pursuit The Internal Internal Service to block the new regulations requiring decentralized financing entities (DEFI) to report customer information.
- Mike Butcher examined how income -based financing startups continue to raise capital In Mena, where the model simply seems to work.
Thank you for reading. We will see you again next week!