1. Eleven Ventures raises €60 million fund 

Eleven Ventures, a Bulgarian venture capital firm that focused on pre-seed and seed investing in South-Eastern Europe (SEE), announced the final closing of ‘Eleven Fund III’ at €60 million. The technology industry in SEE is reaching new heights, with reportedly €2.25 billion raised by regional companies in 210 deals over the last 12 months. Eleven Ventures has been at the heart of this huge growth and has already built an impressive track record of picking winners at the earliest stage. The firm is the first institutional investor in Payhawk, which recently raised a $112m at a $570 million valuation in November 2021; early backer of Gtmhub, which raised a $120m Series C in December 2021; and the only VC investor in SMSbump, which was acquired by US e-commerce marketing platform Yotpo in 2020.

2. Tuum announces €15 million series A round

Tuum, the next-generation core banking platform announced a €15 million Series A round of funding. Portage Ventures is leading the round, joined by existing investors Blackfin Capital Partners and Karma Ventures. The round will enable the core banking technology provider – formerly known as Modularbank – to continue investing in product innovation and support global growth, focusing initially on strengthening its EU and UK presence. The new funding announcement follows a robust year of growth, with Tuum’s contracted annual recurring revenue increasing more than 3 times in 2021 compared to the previous year.

3. SavvyMoney announces $45 million growth investment led by Spectrum Equity

SavvyMoney, a fintech innovator in the consumer credit score space serving 796 financial institutions, announced it has raised $45 million from Spectrum Equity, a leading growth equity firm. TransUnion, an existing investor, and strategic partner, also participated in the round. SavvyMoney enables banks and credit unions to better serve their customers with comprehensive credit score analysis, full credit reporting, monitoring, financial wellness tools, and personalized pre-qualified loan offers - all in one single dashboard. SavvyMoney's innovative analytics platform provides financial institutions with user credit score trends, market share analysis, and powers targeted lending campaigns.

4. Tanzanian fintech NALA raises $10M seed to build Revolut for Africa

NALA, a Tanzanian cross-border payments company that recently pivoted from local to international money transfers, announced that it has raised $10 million in a new fundraising round. The seed round is coming almost three years after NALA secured a seven-figure pre-seed round led by Accel in 2019. In that time, NALA built a mobile money service in East Africa and scaled it to more than 250,000 users. But in 2021, NALA started testing international money transfers after some users expressed interest in moving money from the U.K. to East African countries (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania), thus ushering the Tanzanian fintech into the remittance business.

5. Esusu becomes unicorn with SoftBank Vision Fund 2-led $130M funding

Esusu, a financial technology company that aims to help bridge the racial wealth gap by reporting rent payments to credit agencies, has become one of only a few Black-owned startups to reach a valuation of $1 billion after closing a Series B round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Just six months after its Series A, the New York-based company plans to use the $130 million of new capital it received to triple its number of employees and “turbocharge growth through product innovation,” Esusu said in a statement Thursday. Founded in 2018, the company reports on-time rent payments to major credit bureaus in an effort to help renters improve scores and qualify for financial products.  

6. Brazilian fintech Creditas hits $4.8bn valuation after funding round

SoftBank-backed financial technology firm Creditas, which operates a digital platform offering consumer loans, has reached a valuation of $4.8 billion in new funding round. Furio said Creditas decided to raise more capital to safeguard its growth this year and next year, as uncertainty mounts for tech companies amid concerns that the US Federal Reserve will become aggressive in controlling inflation.

7. British Business Investments commits £15m to Roma Finance

British Business Investments announced it has committed £15m to Roma Finance, a North West-based independent lender which specializes in property finance. This investment from British Business Investments will help increase access to finance for smaller-scale housing developers. British Business Investments, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, aims to increase the supply and diversity of finance for smaller businesses across the UK, by boosting the lending capacity of a range of finance providers. Since it was established in 2014, British Business Investments has committed more than £3.0bn to providers of finance to UK smaller businesses.

8. Pinwheel raises $50 million Series B

Pinwheel, announced that it raised $50M in a Series B round led by GGV Capital, with continued participation from Coatue, First Round Capital, and Upfront Ventures, as well as new investments from strategic partners including AMEX Ventures, Indeed, Kraken Ventures, Franklin Templeton, and more. Pinwheel's mission is to help create a fairer financial system by providing an API that makes it easy for businesses to securely connect payroll accounts to their applications with consumer permission. By establishing this layer of income connectivity, fintechs, financial institutions, and more can develop new tools or services that provide equitable access to financial services for everyone, including the 67% of Americans who are considered to be financially unhealthy.

9. Digital asset technology provider BCB Group raises $60 million

BCB Group, Europe’s leading provider of business accounts and trading services for the digital asset economy, announced today that it has closed a Series A funding round co-led by Foundation Capital with participation from BACKED VC, PayU (the fintech and e-payments business of Prosus), Digital Currency Group, Nexo, Wintermute, Menai Financial Group, Circle, Tokentus Investment, Cowa, Profluent Ventures, and LAUNCHub Ventures. Existing investors North Island Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Pantera, and L1 Digital also participated in the round. This is the largest Series A funding round for a company in the blockchain industry in the UK.