BlackFin Tech Weekly — March 20th
Hi fintech folks,
Once again, past week was breath-taking ! Austria welcomes its first unicorn, congrats Bitpanda!
Almost €490m were raised through 18 deals. Congrats to Bitpanda, past week biggest fundraising with its $170m Series B. PayFit wins the second place with its €90m Series D. Last one on the podium is Casavo, with its €50m Series C.
Geography-wise, the UK accounts for 7 of the 18 fundraisings, followed by France with 4. Otherwise, last week deals were fairly well distributed throughout Europe with 1 deal in Austria, Italia, Finland, Norway, Luxembourg, Spain, and Hungary.
Subsector-wise, there were respectively 6 deals in Banktech and Investment Banking. 3 deals were recorded in the Payments secot, 2 in the Wealth Management and 1 in insurtech. Also, there was 1 deal in real estate.
Let’s have a closer look:
Bitpanda raises a $170m Series B:
- Founded in 2014 in Austria Bitpanda is a trading platform specialising in cryptos. Bitpanda became Austria’s first unicorn, with a $1.2bn valuation.
- This round was funded by Valar Venture and DST Capital.
- Bitpanda’s ambition is to expand into products other than crytpos. New investment options such as ETFs are expected to be added to the offering in April. In addition to Austria, Bitpanda is present in France, Spain, Turkey, Italy and Poland, and plans to expand to other markets this year, building hubs in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Paris and Berlin.
PayFit raises a €90m Series D:
- PayFit, a SaaS solution created to digitalise all the complex aspects related to payroll and human resources, was launched in 2015 in France.
- PayFit’s €90m Series D was founded by Eurazeo Growth and BPI France Large Venture.
- PayFit targets small and medium-sized companies that do not want to sign expensive contracts. It has attracted 5,000 customers with a total of 100,000 employees — an average of 20 employees per company. The company currently operates in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK.
- It currently has 550 employees and plans to hire another 250 in 2021 to support its growth. PayFit has raised €180 million in total funding since 2016.
Casavo raises a €50m Series C:
- Casavo is an Italian PropTech launched in 2017. It operates in the real estate sector, having developed an innovative and unique business model: a technological Instant Buyer platform that submits direct offers to buy homes, and, after renovation, finds the final buyers.
- Casavo closed 2020 with triple-digit growth thanks to the development of a fully digital user experience, reducing the average sale time from 6 months to 30 days and creating an inclusive model that generates value for all players in the real estate ecosystem.
- The new round was funded by Greenoaks Ltd, Project A, 360 Capital, and Picus Capital.
- It will allow them to accelerate growth both in the markets they are already active in, such as Italy and Spain, and in other European countries, helping to revolutionise the home buying and selling experience for thousands of people. The new funding will also allow them to continue to invest in the team and technology to create the best digital experience.
Congrats also to Pollinate, Genesis, Level, Invstr, Pledg, Seon, Boson Protocol, Exabel, MiiMOSA, Capdesk, Golem.ai, Enfuce, Diem, Stokr, and Taxdown.
See you next week !
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