Top Insights
The tone of the market shifted from caution to conviction as investors poured into credit, embedded finance, and DeFi infrastructure. The deals below mark not just capital raises, but renewed belief in fintech’s ability to scale profitably across regions and use cases.
The Big Five
Moniepoint
$200M Series C (Nigeria)
Raised more than $200M led by Development Partners International, with LeapFrog Investments, Visa, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, and IFC participating – among Africa’s largest fintech equity rounds this year.
Moniepoint (formerly TeamApt) serves 10M+ active users, processes $250B+ in annual transaction value, and remains profitable at scale.
Proceeds support expansion across Africa and beyond, plus products including MonieWorld (remittances) and a bookkeeping tool for micro and small businesses.
Upgrade
$165M (United States, equity round)
U.S. consumer-finance fintech offering credit cards, loans, and savings tools; preparing for IPO. Raised $165M at about $7.3B pre-money; lead investors not fully disclosed.
Campfire
$65M Series B (United States)
AI-enabled accounting/fintech startup raising to accelerate embedded-finance growth and scale its platform. Accel led the $65M round.
Yendo
$50M Series B (United States)
Dallas-based fintech focused on vehicle-secured credit, transitioning toward a broader digital bank for underserved Americans.
Raised $50M from Spice Expeditions, Autotech Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Mark Cuban, and others.
Jito Foundation
$50M (United States, token sale/funding)
Solana ecosystem infrastructure raise to expand DeFi rails and crypto wallet/settlement platforms. Amount raised: $50M; a16z crypto led.
Startups on the Radar
Basis Theory – $33M Series B (United States)
Fintech infrastructure enabling commerce/finance use-cases with APIs; raised $33M led by Costanoa, with participation from other VCs.
Riverchain – $5M Series A (Hong Kong)
Working-capital solutions for construction-industry SMEs.
Raised $5M Series A led by Betatron Venture Group to expand across Hong Kong and Southeast Asia and invest in origination/distribution technology. Since Jan 2024, deployed $100M+ across 115 public and private projects in Hong Kong (including Northern Metropolis and Kai Tak Sports Park).
Plans include enhancing a proprietary credit underwriting model, embedded financing, and distribution with partners such as Chong Hing Bank, ARTA TechFin, Abound Capital, and Olea.
This week’s money clustered around practical rails: profitable SME banking at scale (Moniepoint), consumer credit and embedded finance in the U.S. (Upgrade, Campfire, Yendo), crypto infrastructure (Jito), and sector-specific working capital (Riverchain).
Different lanes, same direction: financing the systems that already move money.
Disclaimer: This digest is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
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