According to the #DealMonitor of Deutsche Startups, the German-British FinTech SumUp is about to close a finance round for $400 million at a value of $6.5 billion. The Fintech was founded in 2011 by Daniel Klein, Marc-Alexander Christ, Stefan Jeschonnek, and Jan Deepen. SumUp, a European-based competitor to Square or PayPal, provides mobile-powered card readers and other sales technology to merchants. It was most recently valued at between €4 billion and €4.5 billion. However, SumUp is also cutting jobs. Around 100 employees in Brazil have to leave.
SumUp co-founder and CEO Marc-Alexander Christ confirmed the layoffs and justified them with “economic instability” in Brazil, the online portal Finance Forward reported. The fintech industry is also struggling with the many consequences of the Ukraine war. Declines in stock market values, more difficult financing, the end of the Corona stimulus, and fears of a recession are causing problems for companies.
Several financial startups recently had to lay off employees in this country, including Swedish payment provider Klarna, banking startup Kontist, and cryptocurrency specialist Nuri (formerly Bitwala). After a period of hype over the past two years, fintech startups are currently under particular pressure. They need to show that they can also be profitable.
