This is at TechCrunch Fintech, welcome! This week, we’re examining a number of topics, including Klarna’s new credit card, Mercury’s entry into personal banking, Ramp’s significant valuation increase, and more!
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The main narrative
Rivaling companies like Brex, Navan, and Airbase, Ramp is a spend management startup that last week exclusively disclosed to TechCrunch that it has raised $150 million at a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion. The round, which saw a 31.9% increase in valuation from its August 2023 raise, was co-led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund. In a difficult market with many downturns, this is a remarkable accomplishment. Notably, Ramp is one of the few bigger fintech companies that hasn’t had to let go of employees. Why are investors showing such a strong interest in Ramp? It’s the company’s ongoing expansion and focus on AI, according to CEO Eric Glyman.
Week-end analysis
Mercury, a startup in business banking, is branching out into consumer banking. Through its B2B practice, the seven-year-old company currently serves over 100,000 businesses, many of which are startups. Rather than targeting the general public, Mercury aims to turn many of its business clients into customers, according to CEO and co-founder Immad Akhund, who speaks with TechCrunch. With a comparable offering, Onyx Private recently made the opposite shift, going from B2C to B2B. Business and personal banking are “two different beasts,” according to industry experts I spoke with, but Mercury is not starting from scratch.
The Equity team’s discussion of this week’s fintech news can be heard here:
Cents and dollars
A Series A round valued at $107 million post-money, Berlin-based embedded fintech startup finmid has raised $24.7 million to expand its product and reach new markets.
The Kenyan insurtech company Pula has been working hard to increase small-holder farmers’ access to agricultural insurance in emerging markets since 2015. The insurtech has helped 15.4 million farmers in Latin America, Asia, and Africa obtain insurance so far, and it hopes to insure many more after completing a $20 million Series B funding round.
The fintech company Midas, which enables investors in Turkey to purchase both Turkish and American stocks, has announced that it has raised $45 million in a funding round headed by Portage of Canada.
There are rumors that the HR/fintech startup Rippling is trying to raise $200 million, and that current investors are selling their shares for an additional $670 million.
What else we have written
The Swedish fintech behemoth, Klarna, confirmed to TechCrunch in an exclusive interview that it has launched its credit card in the US. The company is now in competition with rival BNPL player Affirm, as well as major players in the market for credit cards in the US, including Apple and, more recently, Robinhood, with the Klarna credit card.
A few more tales for you:
Google Wallet makes an appearance in India with regional integrations, but Pay will continue
India is frantically trying to stop Google and PhonePe from dominating the mobile payment market.
BlackRock and Jio Financial to enter the Indian wealth management market
Inside LemFi’s attempt to appeal to the diaspora of the Global South as fintech
Captivating headlines
Pipe offers embedded capital for small businesses as a service.
Ecuador’s largest pre-seed round sees Kamina raise $3.2 million.
To assist merchants in accepting payments, Finix has released a tool.
Finance for the middle class is the goal of this fintech. R$40M was “lent” to the concept by SRM Ventures.
TC previously covered Forage here. Forage and Uber Eats are partnering on SNAP EBT grocery delivery.
Stocktwits trading accounts are acquired by the public
Bolt co-founder allegedly pulled strings on an atypical stock buyback, according to a lawsuit
Discussion
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