San Francisco-headquartered B2B e-invoicing and accounts payable automation company Tradeshift has raised over US$200 million in funding from existing and new investors. Tradeshift raised the funding, which includes debt, from Koch Industries, as well as IDC Ventures, LUN Partners, Private Shares, and Fuel Capital. The funding will help to optimise Tradeshift growth and balance sheet to continue scaling, a statement said, and also accelerate product development. The company has cumulatively processed over US$1 trillion in transactions. Annual charge volumes on Tradeshift Go, the company’s spend management solution for B2B virtual credit cards, are expected to surpass US$2.5 billion this year,…

US blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs has raised US$60 million in a Series B funding round. Tiger Global was the lead investor in the Series B, according to a statement. The round also saw participation from American Express’ Amex Ventures, Visa, Citi Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Jump Capital, Marshall Wace, Block (formerly Square, Inc.) and PayPal Ventures. Other participating investors include B Capital Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, Blockchain Capital, Cap Table Coalition, Castle Island Ventures, Initialised Capital and Operator Partners. Furthermore, 50 angel investors including Emilie Choi, President and COO of Coinbase, Frank Slootman, Chairperson and CEO of Snowflake, and…

US-based online mobile payments and identity verification company Jumio is acquiring strategic partner and KYC, compliance and fraud prevention solution provider 4Stop. The deal is expected to close early next year. The acquisition of the Germany-headquartered company will help Jumio advance “ end-to-end identity” solutions, a statement said. The two companies will provide a customer identity lifecycle management offering within a single, unified platform, including configuration and integration through an API. 4Stop was founded in 2016 and acts as a global data marketplace and orchestration hub, with over 650 data sources across 195 countries. “Today’s pace and sophistication of cybercrime…

US-based private investment platform Republic will be acquiring European online private investment platform Seedrs for about US$100 million. The deal is expected to close in early 2022. The deal also saw participation from global institutional investment management firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management. The firm will hold a stake in Republic by acquiring approximately 30% of Seedrs. According to a statement, the acquisition will help to build the first global private investment marketplace, with offerings across North America and Europe. Republic expects to grow their presence in Europe through the deal, expanding Seedrs reach in the region. The deal comes on…

Global integrated risk assessment firm Moody’s Corporation is acquiring two European providers of onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC) technology solutions. Moody’s has completed the acquisition of PassFort Limited and has signed an agreement to acquire 360kompany AG (kompany), according to a statement by the company. PassFort’s acquisition was funded with cash, while the acquisition of kompany will be funded with a mix of cash and shares of Moody’s common stock. kompany’s acquisition is expected to close in Q1 next year subject to conditions. Neither acquisitions are expected to impact the company’s 2021 financial results. Both companies will be integrated…

In Colombia, underdeveloped fintech segments including investment management/wealthtech and banking infrastructure represent a market opportunity for Swiss fintech companies, which have over the years build up expertise and competencies in both areas, a new report by Swiss governmental agency Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE) says. With more than 320 companies, Colombia has the third largest fintech ecosystem in Latin America (Latam), a burgeoning industry that has been driven by the country’s young population of digital natives, rising demand for digital financial services, and stable legal and political environment. This landscape has fueled the rise of a fintech industry that’s now largely…

Blockchain.com has acquired SeSocio, one of the largest crypto companies in Argentina and one of the most prolific across Latin America. With its largest acquisition to date, Blockchain.com accelerates its rapidly growing footprint across Latin America, armed with a team committed to crypto adoption across the continent. Blockchain.com will launch its physical presence in the countries, by opening offices and local hiring. Blockchain.com will also welcome SeSocio’s 100 employees into its ranks, immediately bringing its global headcount to 400. Together, the teams will focus on making it easier for unbanked, underbanked and crypto-forward customers to gain access to Blockchain.com’s global…

In Guatemala, incumbent banks are teaming up with fintech startups to benefit from their technological advancements, enable a seamless digital customer experience and access new market segments. Banco de los Trabajadores (Bantrab) is among the prominent financial group in the country that’s eyeing partnership opportunities with startups. It’s currently exploring a tie-up with home delivery app Hugo that would focus on offering financial services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). “We, as banks, have a market to serve and certain capacities,” Michel Caputi, corporate general director of Bantrab, told Forbes Centroamerica in an interview. “Fintech companies give us greater scalability…

Founded by former Citi’s head of structured products Matt Zhang, crypto-focused investment firm Hivemind Capital Partners has launched its debut US$1.5 billion multi-strategy investment venture for the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem. The New York-headquartered firm will invest in crypto companies, trade digital assets, and offer a dedicated “play-to-earn strategy” in the gaming space, according to a statement. Funds will be employed across crypto infrastructure, blockchain protocols, open internet, programmable money, virtual world, and more. The firm has selected layer-1 blockchain infrastructure provider Algorand as its strategic partner for tech and network ecosystem infrastructure capabilities. Further, Hivemind Capital Partners is also…

Bitcoin and blockchain investor Digital Currency Group (DCG) will be relocating its headquarters from New York City to Stamford, Connecticut. The office of the Governor of Connecticut Ned Lamont announced that the move is expected to create over 300 jobs in the state over the next five years. Along with the 2015-founded DCG, a few of its seven wholly owned subsidiaries will also be relocating their headquarters. These include Grayscale Investments, a digital currency asset manager with over US$50 billion in assets under management, institutional trading platform TradeBlock, DCG Real Estate, and DCG’s new wealth management business HQ. DCG and its…

Mastercard has acquired Mexico-based Arcus Financial Intelligence to support bill pay solutions and other real-time payment applications across Latin America. Arcus provides bill pay and cash-in, cash-out services for billers, retailers, fintechs and traditional financial institutions in the US and Latin America. The acquisition will enable Mastercard to boost the roll out of its Mastercard Bill Pay service in Latin America. The service allows users to view, manage and pay their household and personal bills from their preferred financial service provider’s app. In the US, it is live as Mastercard Bill Pay Exchange with banks and credit unions and a…

MoonPay, a crypto payments infrastructure provider, announced it has closed a $555 million Series A financing round led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue, bringing its post-money valuation to US$3.4 billion. The funding round also saw participation from Blossom Capital, Thrive Capital, Paradigm, and NEA. The funds will enable MoonPay to rapidly accelerate its global footprint, further invest in its world-class team, and underwrite an expanding number of innovations in the crypto economy. MoonPay is trusted by cryptocurrency, digital asset and blockchain technology companies including Bitcoin.com, which deployed MoonPay to help scale revenue by more than 500%. The company’s fiat-to-crypto…

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced plans to build a world’s first “Bitcoin City” situated near a volcano that will be funded by the cryptocurrency according to Reuters. Bukele seems to be doubling down on his crypto push as El Salvador had only recently emerged as the first country to use Bitcoin as legal tender. The Bitcoin city’s construction will begin in 2022 and it will be built in the south-eastern region of La Unión where it would leverage Conchagua volcano’s geothermal energy to power the crypto’s mining. The city will reportedly be circular featuring a central plaza that would…

Gemini, a cryptocurrency platform, announced a US$400 million growth equity round which is its first-ever outside financing, pushing the company’s valuation to US$7.1 billion. The fundraise was led by Morgan Creek Digital with participation from 10T, ParaFi, Newflow Partners, Marcy Venture Partners, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, among others. With this round of financing, Gemini said that it will continue to bring simple, innovative, and secure products to market, and advance its geographic expansion. Launched in 2015 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Gemini supports more than 60 cryptos for trading and has US$30 billion in crypto assets in its…

Peru’s fintech industry has been growing consistently these past years, surging to 171 fintech companies operating locally, as of September 2021. The figure represents a 16% from 2020, and an annual average growth rate of 20% over the last seven years, according to a new report by EY Law. Despite notable growth, these figures indicate that Peru’s fintech industry remains fairly nascent compared to regional leaders Brazil and Mexico, but a growing economy, rising affluent middle class, large population of unbanked and high mobile penetration rate are setting the stage of strong growth, according to a new paper by Swiss…

Mastercard announced it has completed its acquisition of Aiia, a Danish open banking technology provider that offers single and secure API access to banks and fintech companies, and enables users to easily perform account-to-account payments. Details of the deal which was announced in September was not disclosed. The acquisition of Aiia is said to further advance Mastercard’s existing distribution channels, technology, data practices and global multi-rail and open banking strategy. Aiia’s open banking platforms and infrastructure – including its strong API connectivity to over 2,700 banks across Europe – enables Mastercard to continue to build applications through a developer-first approach…

Blockchain firm ConsenSys announced the close of a US$200 million financing round, bringing its valuation to US$3.2 billion. New investors Marshall Wace, Third Point, ParaFi Capital, and Think Investments contributed to the round alongside new partners that include Dragonfly Capital, Electric Capital, Spartan Group, DeFiance Capital, Animoca Brands, Coinbase Ventures, and HSBC. ConsenSys said that the funding will support the rapid expansion of its products MetaMask, a crypto wallet and gateway to blockchain apps, as well as Infura which anchors the company’s developer tools and infrastructure. MetaMask currently has approximately 21 million monthly active users which is a 38x increase…

Upgrade, Inc., a fintech company that offers affordable and responsible credit and mobile banking to mainstream consumers, announced that it raised a US$280 million Series F round at a US$6 billion pre-money valuation. Upgrade said that it has raised US$600 million in equity capital since inception. The round was led by Coatue Management and DST Global. Dragoneer Investment Group and existing investors including Gopher Asset Management, G-Squared, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Old Well Partners, Ribbit Capital, Sands Capital, Ventura Capital and Vy Capital also participated in the round. The Upgrade Card is touted to promote responsible credit by turning every balance…

US-based neobank MoneyLion announced that it has acquired MALKA Media Group, a rapidly growing creator network and content platform. The acquisition builds on a four-year partnership between both entities. MALKA’s content engine as well as MoneyLion’s personalization technology and financial products will be paired to power consumer advice and decision making at scale inside the app and accross all digital media. Additionally, MALKA’s network will also be tapped to drive new audiences to MoneyLion to acquire customers more efficiently. MoneyLion’s customers will also be able to activate financial solutions and purchase products while consuming hyper-personalized content that engages and educates…

Paradigm, a crypto-focused investment firm based in San Francisco, announced a new US$2.5 billion venture fund to continue funding next generation crypto companies and protocols. The firm said that the size of the fund is reflective of crypto being the most exciting frontier in technology. Coinbase’s Co-founder Fred Ehrsam and Sequoia Capital’s former partner Matt Huang said in a joint statement that the new fund will invest alongside its existing flagship fund across all stages and geographies. Paradigm added that it will continue supporting companies at all stages from even “when there’s just a glimmer of an idea”. Fred Ehrsam and…