Welcome to TechCrunch FinTech! This week, we cover Ramp's big raise and soaring valuation, Mercury's expansion into personal banking, Klarna's new credit card, a global funding round, and more.
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big story
Ramp, a spend management startup that rivals the likes of Brex, Navan, and Airbase, told TechCrunch exclusively last week that it had raised $150 million at a post-money valuation of $7.65 billion. Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund co-led the round, which represents a 31.9% valuation increase since the August 2023 raise. This is an impressive feat in a tough market with many down rounds. Also noteworthy, Ramp is one of the few major fintech companies that hasn't had to lay off staff. What's driving investor interest in Ramp? CEO Eric Greiman believes it's about the company's continued growth and focus on AI.
This week's analysis
Business banking startup Mercury is expanding into consumer banking. The seven-year-old company now serves more than 100,000 businesses through its B2B operations, many of which are start-ups. CEO and co-founder Imad Akhund told TechCrunch that instead of going after the masses, Mercury wants to convert many enterprise customers into customers. Onyx Private, which offers a similar service, recently made the opposite move and pivoted from B2C to B2B. Industry experts I spoke to emphasized that business and personal banking are “two different beasts,” but at the same time Mercury isn't starting completely from scratch.
You can listen to the Equity Crew discuss this week's fintech news here.
dollars and cents
Berlin-based embedded fintech startup finmid has raised $24.7 million in a Series A round at a post-money valuation of $107 million to further strengthen its product and enter new markets.
Since 2015, Kenya-based insurtech company Pula has been working diligently to strengthen access to agricultural insurance for smallholder farmers across emerging markets. So far, the insurtech has helped 15.4 million farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America get insurance, and with a $20 million Series B funding round is paying attention to.
Midas, a fintech startup that allows people in Turkey to invest in US and Turkish stocks, announced it has raised $45 million in a funding round led by Canada's Portage.
Rumor has it that HR/fintech startup Rippling has raised $200 million, with an additional $670 million worth of shares to be sold by existing shareholders.
what else are you writing?
Swedish fintech giant Klarna has launched a credit card in the United States, it told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. With the Klarna credit card, the company now competes with the likes of Apple and more recently Robinhood, as well as rival BNPL player Affirm, in offering credit cards in the US.
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