Blazer’s Weekly Roundup #1:
AirBnb IPO + Teen Banking app, Step raises $50 million
Welcome! So much has happened going into this last month of the year. Airbnb (ABNB) has finally made its long-anticipated debut on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange (NASDAQ). Blazer sends a celebratory congrats to all the early-stage VCs that saw past the awkard idea of a couch-surfing marketplace. It somewhat ironic in sense that Airbnb, which launched in 2008 during a time of economic downturn as a result of the Great Recession has now gone public under similar circumstances.
Happy reading,
Blazer.
LATEST DEALS
Teen banking service, Step raises $50M, adds TikTok star Charli D’Amelio to investor list. (Techcrunch)
Step, a mobile banking service aimed at teens, announced this morning it has raised $50 million in Series B funding after growing to over 500,000 users only two months after its official launch. The round was led by Coatue, with returning investors from Stripe, Crosslink Capital, Collaborative Fund and Will Smith’s Dreamers VC. The startup also added some celeb investors to this round, including Charli D’Amelio, Justin Timberlake and The Chainsmokers, as well as big names from the world of sports, like Eli Manning, Kelvin Beachum, Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Iguodala.
Heru Raises $1.7M in Seed Financing (FINSMES)
Heru, a Mexico City-based startup that provides of a comprehensive digital worker service platform in Mexico, raised a $1.7m in pre-seed venture financing. The round was led by Mountain Nazca with participation from Flourish Ventures, YCombinator, Magma Partners, Xtraordinary Venture Partners and angel investors Jason Evans, Nicolas Girard and Alejandro Galvez. The company intends to use the funds to expand the team, continue building B2B2C partnerships with key gig-work-based platforms in Mexico, and develop Heru digital services so they can reach a broader audience.
Founded by Mateo Jaramillo and Stiven Rodriguez, Heru provides an app that allows independent contractors to find access to tailored insurance policies, working capital and credit, tax-declaration products, financial guidance, cell phone data plans and more.
Mexican challenger bank albo raises $45M to expand (FinanceFeeds)
The fundraising rounds continue for challenger and neo banks, this time Mexico’s Albo being the subject of fresh investment. The business, which describes itself as Mexico’s leading challenger bank, secured $45 million in new funding from investors such as Valar Ventures, Greyhound Capital and Flourish Ventures. Albo has raised a total of $72.10 million through 5 funding rounds. The banking start-up has amassed almost half a million customers and has established a network of 30,000 retail locations, where its representatives can take deposits from Albo customers.
Albo’s business model is aimed at exploiting a liberalisation of the banking and fintech sectors in Mexico along with initiatives which are designed to increase access to such services in an economy in which half the population does not have a bank account.
LATEST INTERVIEWS
Founders of MIDAS | Cash-based loyalty rewards
Elliott Potter — CEO/Founder of Linq | The Better Way to Network
OTHER NEWS
Pharrell Launches Black Ambition, An Accelerator For Black And Latinx Entrepreneurs (Forbes)
Producer and rapper Pharrell Williams is coupling his entrepreneurial spirit and activism with the launch of Black Ambition, an incubator for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs launching startups in tech, design, healthcare and consumer products. Williams, 47, is the frontman for the initiative that awards grand prizes ranging from $1 million for a national competition to a $250,000 Historically Black College or University (HBCU) prize.
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SEE YOU NEXT WEEK 😎
