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Portage ventures closes $788.5 million CAD for third FinTech fund (BETAKIT)
Power Corp’s Portage Ventures has secured the sixth close for its third FinTech investment fund. At $788.5 million CAD, Portage claims Portage Ventures III is one of the largest early-stage FinTech venture funds in the world.
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Meet Lendable, the London platform shaping future of consumer finance in the UK with £210 million (TECH EU)
Lendable is making consumer finance work better with AI and automation to offer customers better rates, transparency and service
A year after launch, Backbone Angels is closing gaps felt by underrepresented founders (BETAKIT)
One year after launching Backbone Angels, the group of current and former Shopify leaders are proving there is a market for investing in founders who are often overlooked. Over the past year, Backbone’s 10 angel investors have collectively invested $2.3 million USD across 42 companies, 56 percent of which are run by women of colour.
Acorns squirrels away $300M Series F after scrapping SPAC, now worth nearly $2B (TECHCRUNCH)
Savings and investing app Acorns has raised $300 million in a Series F funding round that values the company at nearly $2 billion.
Nuvei notes year-over-year revenue growth of 83% in Q4, 93% in 2021 (BETAKIT)
Montréal-based payment processing firm Nuvei saw strong growth in its latest earnings report—its first since the firm was hit by a short-seller report late last year. The company’s revenue and net income increased in the fourth quarter and 2021, as it beat its annual earnings outlook.
Proptech greets another unicorn with Roofstock’s $240 million Series E fundraise (COINTELEGRAPH)
Roofstock, a platform for investing in the single-family rental rental market, announced a Series E raise of $240 million, raising its valuation to $1.94 billion.
CEO of Unicorn Stax says she’ll go head to head with Stripe (BLOOMBERG)
Orlando-based Stax said in a statement it has raised $245 million from investors Blue Star, Harbourvest and Greater Sum Ventures in its latest funding round, valuing it at more than $1 billion.
Clio and Trulioo say not now to IPOs as CEOs discuss unicorn M&A strategies (BETAKIT)
At a recent event for BetaKit Patreon supporters, Clio CEO Jack Newton and Trulioo CEO Steve Munford revealed that they aren’t planning to take their companies public anytime soon, and shared an in-depth look at how the two BC tech unicorns tackle mergers and acquisitions.
Jack Ma’s Ant Group delays IPO as Beijing’s tech crackdown goes on (THE INFORMATION)
When Chinese regulators canceled Ant Group’s $37 billion initial public offering in late 2020, the question was how long the financial services behemoth, which was then valued on paper at more than $300 billion, would stay in regulatory purgatory.
DealMaker acquires Ridge Growth Agency to bolster capital raising platform (BETAKIT)
Ridge brings DealMaker closer to becoming a “one-stop-shop” for raising capital.
Better.com employees learned of layoffs when severance checks appeared in payroll app (TECHCRUNCH)
The mass layoffs at digital mortgage lender Better.com have reportedly started, according to employees and other sources at the company, and affected workers are finding out by seeing a severance check in their Workday account — the company’s payroll app.
Phoenix Fire launches angel fund focused on women entrepreneurs (BETAKIT)
A new group has launched an angel fund focused on investing in women entrepreneurs. The fund, Phoenix Fire, is part of the Archangel Network of Funds and is led by managing partner Danielle Graham and TD Bank executive Claudette McGowan.
Bitcoin price surges on Biden’s crypto executive orderk (WALL STREET JOURNAL)
Bitcoin’s price surged on President Biden’s executive order to study digital currencies, a move the industry welcomed and skeptics decried as delaying needed regulation.
This Texas town was deep in debt from a devastating winter storm. Then a crypto miner came knocking. (BUZZFEED)
A 2021 winter storm overwhelmed Denton’s power grid, pushing the city into crushing debt. Then a faceless company arrived with a promise to refill its coffers — and double its energy use.
