Welcome to The Interchange! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you’re reading this as a post on our site, sign up here so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I’ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon. There’s a lot of fintech news out there and it’s my job to stay on top of it — and make sense of it — so you can stay in the know. — Mary Ann
Wow, I take off one week and come back to all hell breaking loose in the fintech world.
Sadly, it felt like we got news of layoff after layoff.
I’ll attempt to round up as many of them as I can here:
I wrote this newsletter on November 3 because I’m leaving on a trip to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary, so it’s possible that more layoffs took place between then and now. 🙁 What this means for the broader fintech world is not yet clear, but when well-funded companies such as Chime, Stripe and Pleo are cutting staff, it is no doubt sobering for all the players — small or large — in the space.
Special thanks to TC senior reporter and very nice guy Kyle Wiggers for helping me draft the Weekly News and Fundings and M&A sections below so I could get offline and pack for my trip!
Jeeves, the fintech startup that recently raised $180 million at a $2.1 billion valuation, told TechCrunch via email that it has launched a service called Jeeves Pay that it’s billing as a “credit-backed business payments solution” for enterprise customers. At a high level, Jeeves Pay lets customers use their existing credit line to send wires or pay vendors, ostensibly solving the problem of having to rely on cash or revenues to fund local and cross-border business and vendor payments. Jeeves Pay is available now to all Jeeves customers “where permitted by applicable local laws and regulations,” the company says.
Brex sees startups as one of the key avenues to growth in the corporate card and spend management market. To that end, the company on Wednesday announced a partnership with Techstars to extend Brex services to companies within the accelerator, following similar tie-ups with Y Combinator and AngelList. For the duration of the accelerator, Techstars participants will get a Brex platform support team, access to exclusive Brex events and free use of Brex’s Pry financial forecasting platform. In an interview with TechCrunch, Brex CEO and co-founder Henrique Dubugras described the move as a customer acquisition play.
At Disrupt, TechCrunch interviewed Brex’s Dubugras onstage about the company’s recent change in strategy, which involves a stronger emphasis on software and the enterprise. A piece for TC+ breaks out the juicy highlights from the conversation, including why Brex decided to stop serving businesses funded outside the venture capital structure and the implications of the company’s layoffs earlier this year.
Also at Disrupt, Ramp CEO Eric Glyman, Airbase CEO Thejo Kote, and Anthemis partner Ruth Foxe Blader participated in a roundtable about competing in the increasingly crowded spend management space — a space, it’s worth noting, that’s estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars. Glyman and Kote shared how they’re working to preserve capital, while Blader offered up some of the advice she’s giving to her portfolio companies. Our TC+ recap has the highlights.
How can finance-focused proptech startups survive the downturn? In an exclusive for TC+, we asked three seasoned investors to give their perspectives. One of the major takeaways: The chances of survival are higher for proptech startups that let consumers fractionally invest in properties and increase access for those seeking a rent-to-own approach. Another: Companies that help others navigate tough times seem to be in special demand.
Are landlords and tenants finally ready to ditch paper checks? JPMorgan Chase is betting that they are. The bank this week launched a pilot platform for property owners and managers that automates the invoicing and receipt of online rent payments. The market is enormous — JPMorgan estimates that more than 100 million Americans pay a combined $500 billion annually in rent to 12 million property owners — but convincing landlords to move from checks and money orders won’t be an easy feat. Only 22% of rent payments are made digitally today, according to JPMorgan.
And other news
Capchase expands to Germany, to close the funding gap for German SaaS companies.
Ramp announced a new global reimbursement feature so that its customers can pay global employees in more than 175 countries and 80 currencies.
Digital homebuying platform Prevu acquires mortgage technology of Reali, a real estate tech company that announced earlier this year it was shutting down after raising $100 million in 2021.
Marqeta announces Marqeta for Banking, expanding its platform with new banking capabilities.
Seen on TechCrunch
Digital card and gifting platform Givingli nabs $10M
Retirable secures $6M to plan retirement for those without millions in savings
Money Fellows, an Egyptian fintech digitizing money circles, raises $31M funding
Fintecture wants to replace paper checks or manual transfers for B2B payments
Troop rallies retail investors to get out the proxy vote
Eric Schmidt backs former Google exec’s digital family office platform in $90 million funding
Crowded’s app gives clubs, associations banking flexibility
Loop lassos ex-Uber talent and money to finally fix freight invoicing
Treasury management startup Vesto wants to help other startups put their idle cash to work
WeTravel books $27M to build fintech and more for bespoke group travel
Uber alum rakes in $9.7M to curb finance-related fights between co-parents
Orum raises $22M to inject AI into the sales prospecting process
Kudos raises $7M to recommend the right credit card for shopping rewards
And elsewhere
InterPrice Technologies, a treasury capital markets funding platform, announces a $7.3M Series A co-led by Nasdaq Ventures and DRW Venture Capital
Vesttoo valuation more than triples to $1 billion after latest funding
Zest AI raises over $50M in growth funding
That’s it from me for this week. Thanks once again for reading!! See you next time, hopefully with more uplifting news. xoxo Mary Ann
Source @TechCrunch
