Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! In this edition, I’m going to look at some fintech real estate successes, Carta’s mistakes (again) and more!
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The big story
Stock management platform Carta has been in the news. . . again. And not for good reasons. Again. A prominent client has accused Carta of misusing sensitive information that startups entrust to the company to pursue its own goals. The allegation raises broader questions about how Carta operates, even as Carta argued the incident was isolated, and led the company to shut down its secondary trading operations. So what about Carta now? Rebecca Szkutak takes a deep dive. Meanwhile, Alex and Anna argued that Carta’s growth story is overshadowed by its stock trading snafu.
Analysis of the week
The real estate fintech space continues to have its ups and downs. We started the week by reporting the news that Here, a fractional short-term vacation rental marketplace we first reported on in 2022, had shut down its investment platform after just over two years in business. The company claimed it’s still alive, but we’re not sure exactly what’s left. Despite the fact that so many companies in the industry have struggled or closed, investors are not giving up.
Also this week I mentioned Downpayments’ mission to help investors buy new properties with interest-free down payments.
Finally, we looked at Overmoon, which also has a unique model that is a hybrid of Airbnb and hotels — but with the best of both worlds. Hear the Equity crew discuss Overmoon more here:
Dollars and cents
Latin American startups continue to attract venture dollars. We reported two out-of-region increases:
Conta Simples earns another $41.5 million for its spend management approach in Brazil
Prometeo raises $13M from PayPal, Samsung and more to bring open banking to Latin America
Meanwhile, in Africa, YC-backed African fintech Cleva, founded by Stripe and AWS alums, raises $1.5M pre-seed
And, here in the US, Pier has $2.4 million to launch ‘Stripe for credit’
What else are we writing?
Deal Dive: A Side Stripe Deal Worth Watching Out For: There has apparently been a flurry of buyers looking to acquire shares of the company in recent months.
Arc wants to make venture debt popular again: Arc is taking on the $30 billion venture debt industry with a new marketplace for startups.
GenAI Could Make KYC Effectively Useless: There’s no evidence that GenAI tools have been used to fool a real know-your-customer system — yet. However, some relatively convincing fake ID images are cause for concern.
Ladle: Treasure Financial lays off staff just months after reporting ‘explosive growth’: The layoffs affected about 60% to 70% of the company.
Other titles of high interest
Fintech-focused Vetamer Capital closes hedge funds
Fintech funding halved last year, but VCs are excited about these sectors and deals in 2024
The mission is raising $8 million in seed funding
PitchBook Analyst Note: Vertical Opportunities in a Reopening Window
Follow me on X @bayareawriter for breaking fintech news, coffee related posts and more.
