New week – new closed funding rounds! This week’s funding highlights cover personal finance, AI software, data, security, and many more! Take a look at some major investments of this week.
MNT-Halan secures USD 400 mln in funding
Egypt-based fintech ecosystem MNT-Halan has received USD 400 million in funding, of which USD 200 million in equity came from Chimera Abu Dhabi in exchange for 20% of the company. In addition to this funding, the company is in advanced stages with leading international investors to raise USD 60 million of primary capital. Following the completion of these investments, MNT-Halan’s valuation will exceed USD 1 billion. These investments demonstrate confidence in MNT-Halan’s value proposition and technology and will also enable international growth. This funding follows a USD 120 million investment in Q3 2021 by other global and regional growth investors, including Development Partners International (DPI), Apis Growth Fund II, and Lorax Capital Partners. Read more
Zopa bank Raises £75M
Zopa bank, a London, UK-based fintech company providing digital first credit cards, loans, and saving products, raised £75 million ($93m). The company intends to use the funds to meet the capital requirements of its balance sheet, and to support M&A dealmaking. Launched in 2020, by Jaidev Janardana, CEO, Zopa bank provides fixed term savings backed by FSCS protection and a credit card to help customers take control of their finances. They added to existing peer-to-peer (P2P) lending services, giving customers access to loans built for real-life and intelligent investments backed by tech. The company has attracted £3 billion in deposits, more than £2bn of loans on balance sheet, and issued more than 400,000 credit cards. Read more
Grocery JOKR secures USD 50 mln at USD 1.3 billion valuation
Germany-based Grocery delivery platform JOKR has raised USD 50 million in its Series C investment round, reaching a USD 1.3 billion valuation. The new investment was buoyed by existing investors, with G Squared leading the round and GGV Capital, Tiger Global Management, and HV Capital participating. In total, JOKR has raised USD 480 million in equity and debt since being founded in 2021. Company officials went after the new funding to make sure that they have a fully funded business plan and that they can become fully self-sustainable and don’t have to be more dependent on external capital. Read more
Digital banking platform Oxygen secures $20m
Digital banking platform Oxygen has secured $20m in its Series B funding round, which was led by return investors. With the fresh capital, Oxygen will bolster the investment into product development and user experience. It also plans to hire more staff to meet rising demands. Y Combinator, 1984.vc, Rucker Park and Possible Ventures were among the investment firms to join the Series B. Multiple notable angel investors also committed capital, including all-time NFL great Larry Fitzgerald, Deutsche Bank Global CEO Frank Strauss, Plaid co-founder William Hockey and Teachable founder and CEO Ankur Nagpal. In addition to the Series B, Oxygen announced the appointment of David Rafalovsky as CEO. As part of this, Rafalovsky has become a major equity shareholder. He takes over the role from Oxygen founder Hussein Ahmed, who will now serve as chief product officer. Read more
Portugal’s Coverflex raises a €15M Series A to make employee benefits more flexible and engaging
Coverflex, a startup out of Portugal, thinks it has at least part of the answers. In the current environment, startups are having to do a couple of seemingly contradictory things at the same time. First, they have to keep employees (the ones they want to keep, at least) happy. Then, they have to attract new employees in a market where there remains fierce competition for talent. In their armory to address this, they have “employee benefits,” whether it be mental health sessions or restaurant vouchers. However, many of these schemes leave something to be desired. The “employee benefits & well-being” market is said to be worth €200 billion, and Europe makes up more than 40% of that market. However, employee benefits engagement hovers around 20%, meaning companies waste a lot of money on unused packages. Read more
Resilience Lab Raises $15M in Series A Funding
Resilience Lab, a New York-based mental health-tech company, raised $15M in Series A funding. The round was led by Viewside Capital Partners and Morningside. The company intends to us the funds to accelerate growth and expand operations. Co-founded by Christine Carville and Marc Goldberg, and technology entrepreneur Marc Goldberg, Resilience Lab is a community of clinicians working collaboratively to produce better mental health access. Clinicians are trained in the Resilience Institute, an online platform for the modern mental health clinician, offering continued learning to guarantee clients receive service and care. In addition, a technology platform powers its care delivery, automating all non-clinical work to foster therapeutic alliance and team-based care.
Former Apple employees founded Dutch startup grabs €5M funding
According to a study, 28% of would-be entrepreneurs in the UK ended up not starting their own businesses as a result of the complexity involved. By putting everything founders need to run a business in one place, The Netherlands-based Vev aims to relieve that burden. Founded by former Apple employees, Vev has raised €5 million from European VCs Notion Capital (which backed Apperio and Mews) and Point Nine Capital. As a result of this funding, Vev‘s catalog is expected to expand rapidly to over 250 business types. They have also introduced Vev+, a paid subscription service that will be available in the spring to further simplify the way people work. Read more
This German SaaS raises €2.2M to help companies manage pension plans as easily as shopping online
Degura, a Berlin-based fintech SaaS platform transforming pension plan solutions, has secured €2.2M in a Seed funding round led by Swiss VC firm btov Partners (also backed SumUp and Chattermill). In addition, prominent angel investors joined the round, including Dr. Patrick Dahmen, (former AXA and HDI Executive) and Dr. Gerhard Cromme, as well as logistics platform founders David Nothacker, Nicolaus Schefenacker, and Julius Köhler (sennder). The German startup will use the funds to expand its core team and further upscale its digital services. Read more
Spanish cash management startup Snab raises €1.1 million
Snab, a Spanish business-to-business payments and cash management startup, has raised €1.1 million in pre-Seed funding. YCombinator led the round, with contributions from 4Founders Capital, Glenfarne Group, and business angels from Kantox and Belvo. Snab’s platform scans invoices as they arrive and enables users to establish approval workflows based on parameters such as departments, quantities, roles. Once the process is completed, the user simply clicks to pay the invoice without leaving the platform. In addition, businesses can connect their bank accounts to monitor transaction flows in real-time from a single dashboard, providing a consolidated view of the business and cash management status. Read more
Staxxer raises more than 1 million euros to automate VAT for e-commerce companies
Staxxer, the scale-up based in Groningen and Nijmegen, has raised more than one million euros in an investment round. The company develops software to help e-commerce entrepreneurs grow without limits. They do this by automating VAT obligations within Europe. With the investment, Staxxer will further develop their technology and expand it internationally. This means that new marketplaces and webshops will be added to the software, Staxcloud, so that every e-commerce entrepreneur can use it. Financial tools are also being developed to gain more insight into sales via these channels. In addition, there is close cooperation with existing accounting packages to connect to the total administration. Read more
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