Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we look at Stripe’s big product announcements, a valuation increase for a Brazilian fintech startup, and more!
To get a collection of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00am. PT, register here.
The big story
Film announced that it will decouple payments from the rest of its financial services stack. This is a big change, given that in the past, even as Stripe grew its list of services, it required businesses to be payments customers to use any of the others. At the same time, the company is adding a number of new built-in financial features and a new wave of artificial intelligence tools. The fintech giant also announced that after a six-year hiatus, it will allow customers to accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with a single currency in particular, the stablecoin USDC, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon.
Analysis of the week
Brazil got a new fintech unicorn last week. Launch banking as a service QI Tech achieved unicorn status after raising an undisclosed amount of capital in an investment led by General Atlantic that was an extension of its $200 million Series B raise that TechCrunch covered last October. QI Tech also said it is preparing to close its acquisition of Singulare, a Brazilian fund management services provider, in the third quarter. Meanwhile, another Brazilian startup, Vixtra, secured $36 million in debt and equity financing — another example of companies in the region that continue to attract business dollars.
Dollars and cents
Hit, a platform that helps creators manage and grow their businesses, announced a $3 million seed round, with investments from ImpactX, Capitalize and Serac Ventures. Bump allows creators to track income and market value, which can help them negotiate better deals and see how much money partners owe them.
Y Combinator alum and B2B fintech startup Fintoc raised a $7 million Series A funding round to strengthen its presence in its home country of Chile and Mexico, where it expanded a year ago.
Pomeloa startup launched in the Philippines in 2022 — allowing people in the United States to send money to the country while simultaneously building their credit — has raised $35 million in a Series A round led by Dubai venture capital firm Vy Capital with participation from Founders Fund.
You can hear the Equity crew talk about this deal and more here:
What else are we writing?
Based in Bangalore CREDworth $6.4 billion, has received in-principle approval for a payment aggregation license in a boost to the Indian fintech startup that could help it better serve its customers and launch new products and experiment with ideas faster.
Shutting down a startup can be bittersweet for the founders. In case that Fundid, rising interest rates killed start-up business financing. But VCs and partners are hurting it, too, says founder Stefanie Sample in this fascinating read by Christine Hall.
After a tumultuous year, the banking-as-a-service (BaaS) startup. Synapse has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and its assets will be acquired by TabaPay.
High interest titles
401Go raises $12M Series A to fuel next phase of growth
Ramp vs. Brex risks becoming Fintech’s Uber vs. Lyft, some VCs warn
Want to get in touch with a tip? Email me at maryann@techcrunch.com or send me a message on Signal at 408.204.3036. You can also send a note to the entire TechCrunch crew at tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure communications, click here to contact uswhich includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and links to encrypted messaging applications.
