Swedish payment service Klarna also feels declining investor interest in fast-growing and loss-making fintech companies. The company said in Stockholm on Monday it had secured $800 million in new financing, equivalent to a valuation of $6.7 billion. That means the company has lost about 85% of its value in a year.
The London-based banking-as-a-service (BaaS) startup Griffin (website) announced a fresh funding of around €15 million from FinTech bigshots. The startup is currently going through the bank authorization process with the PRA and FCA. Founded in 2017 by Silicon Valley engineers David Jarvis and Allen Rohner, Griffin aims to become the bank other fintechs can build on.
MarketWolf (website), an intraday options trading app, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Jungle Ventures and Dream Capital. Existing investors and others, including 9Unicorns, iSeed, Crescent, and Riverwalk, participated in the round, which brings the company's total capital raised since inception to $17.4 million.
Bengaluru-based fintech startup CheQ Digital announced Wednesday that it had received $10 million in a seed round led by Venture Highway and 3one4 Capital. Multiply Ventures, Marshot Ventures, and Veda VC also participated in the round. Naveen Kukreja, CEO of PaisaBazaar, and Shailaz Nag, CEO and founder of DotPe, are also investors in the startup. Founded in January 2022, the startup is currently in stealth mode and is in the pre-product phase.
The Swedish fintech Klarna was just Europe's most valuable startup, with a valuation of $46 billion. Now CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski is hoping for fresh capital for a valuation of just $6.5 billion. Not long ago, the "buy-now-pay-later" pioneer received money at a valuation of $46 billion.
Large financing rounds continue to occur amid the economic downturn and the FinTech cool-off. The 10-year-old London-based SumUp (website) has raised €590 million in new funding round at a €8 billion valuation. These are impressive numbers and a significant amount in times of cautious VC investors bringing the FinTech's total financing to €1.5 billion.
Ghanaian fintech Fido (website) has secured $30 million in Series A funding led by Fortissimo Capital and Yard Ventures to enable new products and future expansion. The investment will support the Accra-based company as it aims to launch new products and prepare for future expansion across Africa.
Backbase (website) already has some important partners, including the National Bank of Bahrain, ila Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi, Kuwait International Bank and Société Générale. Recently, Backbase raised €120 million in growth equity funding from Motive Partners. The banking platform provider also announced a partnership with the MENA fintech hub Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB) to accelerate the adoption of digital banking in the MENA region.
TechCrunch reported that the Singapore-based Stashfin (website) has raised $270 million in its Series C funding valuing the startup between $700 million to $800 million. Stashfin currently only serves customers in India. The fresh funds will be used to expand to Southeast Asia and other South Asian markets. The startup has received $70 million against equity and $200 million as debt.
