After working as an investment banker in Canada for a decade, Halima Iqbal moved back to Pakistan in 2017 and quickly realized how difficult it is for women to access financial services. “I had a really hard time opening up a basic bank account. It took me about three and a half months,” Iqbal told […]
Aspire raises $158M Series B to build a full-stack “financial operating system” for Southeast Asian businesses
Aspire, the Singapore-based neobank that wants to become an “end-to-end financial operating system” for Southeast Asian businesses, is moving closer to its aspirations with a $158 million Series B. The round consisted of $58 million in equity and $100 million in debt, and was led by an undisclosed global fintech-focused growth equity investor, with participation […]
Ocrolus lands $80M at a $500M+ valuation to automate document processing for fintechs and banks
If you’ve ever had to take out a loan, you know just how many documents are involved in the approval process. It’s a lot. The process is tedious and time-consuming, and in many more cases than you’d expect — still manual. Ocrolus is a startup that is hoping to change that with an automation platform […]
Koa is helping African consumers make better money moves
While Delila Kidanu grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, mobile money platform M-Pesa was the go-to fintech platform for her and most Kenyans. The Safaricom-owned product provides basic access to financial services like sending and receiving money and purchasing airtime. Yet, some Kenyans still lack other digital financial services from savings to investments. Last year, people […]
Toast raises IPO price range, providing a Monday bump to fintech valuations
Toast will have to post pretty damn strong growth numbers for it to keep its multiple up. But the market appears willing to take that risk.
The surge in ‘buy now pay later’ – and why we should be worried
Fintech firms are jostling to offer millennials interest-free payment plans as they shop online. Retailers love it of course, but all this unregulated lending is ringing alarm bellsShoppers tempted by Boohoo’s bestselling satin skater dress are bombard…
野生生物のデジタルアイデンティと「異種間通貨」が地球の生物多様性を守る
少なくとも人間以外の生物にとって、今後10年間は有史以来、最も絶滅の進む期間となる。その再生のため、動物や木やその他の野生生物が「自らの存在を代替する手段」として異種間通貨をもつ未来はどうだろう？ 生物種のデジタルツインからフィンテックまで、生物多様性を維持するインセンティヴ・システムを構築するためのテクノロジーはもう整っている。マルチスピーシーズの持続的な存続に根差したコモンズの繁栄を探る提言。
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SpotOn raises $300M at a $3.15B valuation and acquires Appetize
Last year at this time, SpotOn was on the brink of announcing a $60 million Series C funding round at a $625 million valuation. Fast forward to almost exactly one year later, and a lot has changed for the payments and software startup. Today, SpotOn said it has closed on $300 million in Series E […]
BNPL is not a winner-takes-all game
Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture-capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Natasha and Mary Ann took over this week’s show with Chris and Grace, which meant that our overdeveloped senses of curiosity filled up the script just fine (even on a somewhat short week). Unintentionally, today’s episode was built around […]
Nuula raises $120M to build out a financial services ‘superapp’ aimed at SMBs
A Canadian startup called Nuula that is aiming to build a superapp to provide a range of financial services to small and medium businesses has closed $120 million of funding, money that it will use to fuel the launch of its app and first product, a line of credit for its users. The money is […]