1. Sweater closes $12 million in new funding to fuel the venture capital revolution 

Sweater, a fintech company building the first fully-managed venture capital fund that is open to everyday investors, closed a monumental $12 million series seed round of funding. The round was co-led by Motivate VC and Akuna Capital, with participation from Jeffrey Cruttenden (Co-founder of Acorns), Eli Broverman (Co-founder of Betterment), Litquidity, MRTNZ Ventures, Bison Venture Partners, Spacestation, First Chair Ventures, Zilliqa Capital, Monsen Ventures, Nick Perez, Jeb Bush Jr., Ryan Holtzman, Aaron Wolko, as well as YouTube creators Peter Hollens (2.6M subscribers), Andrei Jikh (1.9 M subscribers), Nate O'Brien (1.2M subscribers), and Jake Tran (924K subscribers), among other super angels.

2. Fintech NayaPay secures $13 million as it polls out digital payments revolution in Pakistan 

NayaPay, a Pakistan-based fintech platform, has raised $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in South Asia. Bringing together a diverse mix of leading global institutional and angel investors, the round was led by Zayn Capital, global fund manager MSA Novo and early-stage VC Graph Ventures from Silicon Valley. Singapore-based Saison Capital, Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital, and Warren Hogarth, CEO Empower Finance, also participated in the round, alongside a major investment from the sponsors of the Lakson Group – a Pakistani conglomerate with interests in media, telecom, industrials, financial services as well as controlling stake in Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan and McDonald’s Pakistan.

3. Niyo raises $100 million in series C round led by Accel and Lightrock

Niyo, the consumer neo-banking platform, has raised $100 million in its Series C round of funding. The company will be using the funds to accelerate its mission to transform banking in India and to provide convenient and hassle-free financial services to digital native customers. This Series C round of funding was led by Accel & Lightrock India with participation from Beams Fintech Fund. Existing investors Prime Venture Partners, JS Capital are also participating in this round along with others.

4. Skale-based 3air and K3 Telecom secure $10 million investment to expand in Ethiopia

Shortly after announcing its move to the SKALE network, a fully EVM-compatible multichain solution based on the Ethereum blockchain, 3air followed with news about the next step in its rollout in Africa. 3air and telecom partner K3 Telecom are going to expand operations to Ethiopia. An MOU was signed on February 17 which includes an investment of $10 Million USD to build out K3’s Telecom infrastructure in Ethiopia, starting with its capital Addis Ababa.

As the official partner of K3 Telecom, 3air is contributing to this expansion and is looking forward to the large potential this new market represents.

5. Weavr closes $40 million in Series A funding to accelerate expansion of Plug-and-Play Finance

Weavr, a London-headquartered technology provider that enables businesses with Plug-and-Play financial solutions, announced the close of a $40 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global. The company is disrupting the current banking-as-a-service (BaaS) model -- which can serve only a limited audience because of its heavy costs, compliance, and technical burdens as well as long implementation times--by making embedded financial services available to any business with a digital presence. The financing will support Weavr’s international expansion plans, beginning with an official U.S. market launch and including continued growth in the UK and Europe.

6. Automata raises $50 million in Series B financing to accelerate automation in life sciences 

Automata – the automation company helping life sciences rapidly innovate, diagnose and discover at scale – announces it has raised US$50 million in Series B funding. The investment round was led by Octopus Ventures with participation from returning investors Hummingbird, Latitude Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures, Isomer Capital as well as strategic investors such as In-Q-Tel, amongst others. This investment will enable significant development, in the UK and beyond, of Automata Labs for scientists working across diagnostic, drug discovery, and biotech.

7. Blend Network secures from top business and finance figures in latest £10 million funding round 

Market-disruptive property lender Blend Network has secured £10 million in funding in its latest investment round. The funding round was capped at this level following an oversubscription. Blend’s backers in this funding round are led by emerging VC investor Nico Paraskevas, a former senior executive at Glencore, while existing investors, who also participated in this round, include Cyrus Ardalan, former Barclays Vice Chairman and current Chairman of both OakNorth Bank and CAF Financial Solutions Limited, and Jean-Philippe Blochet, co-founder of macro hedge fund Brevan Howard, which as of October 2021 has $20bn in assets under management.

8. Relief secures $15 million in Series A funding to help consumers combat the credit card debt crisis 

Relief, the personal finance startup committed to helping everyday people achieve financial freedom by eliminating credit card debt, announced it has raised $15 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to date to $17 million. The round was led by Nava Ventures and includes a range of strategic investors, including Ken Chenault, former CEO and Chairman of American Express; Vikram Pandit, former CEO of Citigroup and The Kraft Group. Other leading venture capital groups include Interplay, Animal Capital, Necessary Ventures, and Brand Foundry Ventures, among others.

9. B2B fintech unicorn Tipalti raises $270 million at a valuation of $8.3 billion

Tipalti, the leading global payables solution, announced it has raised $270 million in series F funding at a valuation of $8.3 billion, bringing the total funding raised to date to just over $550 million and placing Tipalti among the most valuable private fintech companies in the world. Tipalti will use the funding to accelerate its product roadmap and customer operations, as well as expand globally to transform global financial operations for high-velocity customers.

Led by G Squared, the Series F round also includes significant investments from new investors Marshall Wace and funds and accounts managed by Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), in addition to current investors Zeev Ventures, Durable Capital Partners, 01 Advisors and others.

10. OCR Labs secures $30 million in Series B round led by Equable Capital

OCR Labs has announced a $30 million Series B round led by New York-based Equable Capital to expand its team in North America and EMEA. OCR Labs is headquartered in London. Viewed as a technology leader in the digital identity verification space, OCR Labs solves major challenges including identity fraud and regulatory compliance, using its proprietary technology. The end-to-end solution supports Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations and improves customer identity verification while reducing fraud.

11. Cryptocurrency firm Amber gets funding from Singapore’s Temasek at $3 billion valuation

Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings was among investors in a funding round that valued cryptocurrency-trading platform Amber Group at US$3 billion, just weeks after the city-state cracked down on marketing by crypto firms. Existing shareholders, including Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, and Tiger Global Management, also took part in the US$200 million financings, Singapore-based Amber said in a statement on Tuesday.

12. Nigerian fintech Canza Finance raises $3.27 million seed round to empower underserved Sub-Saharan Africa SMEs

Canza Finance, an emerging markets neobank that is building the world’s largest non-institutional-based financial system, announced the completion of its $3.27M seed round. The fundraising round was led by Fenbushi Capital, with participation from Dominance Ventures, Bixin Ventures, Consensys, Protocol Labs, Emergo Ventures, MEXC Global, NGC Ventures, XanPool, Hashkey, the founders of Celo, and others. This funding enables Canza to continue headcount growth and expand its service offering in Nigeria and other growth regions including  South America and Asia.