The FinTech & PropTech Weekly Round-Up: Week 2
Pi Labs’ lucky #7, Starling is plotting European expansion, and Ant Financial continues its march. Plus a couple other bits and pieces we came across.
Starling is plotting European expansion
Starling Bank raised an impressive £75m this week, following hot-on-the-heels of N26 and Monzo, who also recently closed sizable rounds in the neo-banking space. Improving its product offering and European expansion are where the funds are to be spent. No surprise, as Starling recently announced it is preparing for a European banking license application in Ireland.
Our verdict: This space is getting very crowded (N26, Monzo, Atom, et al). However, Starling is near the front of the pack, so will probably do okay.
Investors: Merian Global Investors & Harald McPike (QuantRes)
Source: Nicholas Megaw, Financial Times
Pi Labs’ lucky #7
Pi Labs, possibly Europe’s leading PropTech investor and accelerator, has announced its most recent cohort of seven startups (listed below). They will be put through their paces over the next 15 weeks, as they develop their products and get to know some of London’s other leading PropTech companies and investors. Good luck to each of the teams.
Our verdict: Pi Labs has a great track record with the likes of AirSorted, Hubble & Trussle, so we are sure we will see some of the cohort doing well.
Companies: CRIBZ, Decology, GroupLadder, Pop & Rest, RenterBuyer & Track
Source: Nicola Byrne, PlaceTech
Ant Financial continues its march
Ant Financial is a payments behemoth (they raised a $14bn Series C round last year!), yet not too many people are familiar with the name here in Europe. However, this may shortly change, as they announced their $700m acquisition of UK international payments company WorldFirst. Interestingly, this follows Ant Financial’s blocked acquisition of MoneyGram in the US.
Our verdict: With their blocked $1.2bn acquisition of MoneyGram in the US (national security concerns), it looks as though Ant is refocusing its efforts.
Source: Lulu Yilun Chen, Bloomberg
Rapyd. Erm, who are they?
Rapyd, a FinTech we have never heard of before, just raised $40m from a group of notable investors and some ‘undisclosed’ strategic payments and FinTech partners. The company does pretty much everything FinTech, think IDNow, Adyen, CurrencyCloud and WireCard all rolled into one impressive API offering. This is definitely not the last we have heard from Rapyd.
Our verdict: Why have we not heard of Rapyd? This company sounds amazing, and of course if Stripe thinks so, so do we.
Invetors: Stripe, General Catalyst, Target Global, IGNIA & A Bunch of Other Secret Investors?
Source: Ingrid Lunden, TechCrunch
Remine finds a $30m gold mine
Now to the US, where Remine raised $30m to grow its already successful MLS (Multi-Listing Service) platform integration. Ever more demanding real estate agents just can’t get enough of Remine’s consumer and property data, which it offers via its comprehensive platform to over 825,000 of them. Remine is proving that it sits nicely within the Agent / MLS / Consumer ecosystem.
Our verdict: Everyone loves data (infographic anyone?), and when it can generate better leads and end sales, they love it more.
Investors: Stripes Group
Source: Ben Lane, HousingWire
Yes, we even have an epilogue
As you might have guessed, this article is somewhat of a plug for us and our startup, mietwise. Even so, we are two founders going through the (sometimes testing) steps of founding and running a new PropTech / FinTech company in Germany. As such, we intend to share our experiences and knowledge in the hope that we can help others do the same.
Don’t forget to take a look at mietwise, and if you ever want to get in touch, we love good coffee!
The Mietwise Team,
Jonathan
