Solaris seeking €100 million

1 big thing: Solaris' struggle

Illustration of a nervous piggy bank with a sweat drop on its face.

2. The BFD: Financing cross-border trade

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3. Varo's new payments service

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4. Credit score

Illustration of an exam answer sheet with the words "credit score" hand written in red ink.

5. Deals!

6. It's personnel

Good morning, fintech friends. It's Monday. Wishing an easy fast to everyone observing Yom Kippur.

Situational awareness: Former UBS Chairman Axel Weber will join the board of German fintech Raisin.

🏈 @Ryan is ready for Monday Night Football.

Thanks to George Moriarty and Rob Reinalda for today's edits.

And thanks to you for reading. Please tell your fintech friends about this newsletter. They can sign up here.

Fintech Deals

Standard

1 big thing: Celsius creditors approve restructuring

Illustration of the Celsius logo frozen, with icicles.

2. The BFD: A growing m-ICHRA-cosm

Illustration of a red cross spinning to reveal money

3. Credit score

Illustration of a dart in the bullseye of a dartboard that says "credit score."

4. Deals!

5. It's personnel

🗽Situational awareness: Just 16 days remain until Axios BFD in New York, featuring Blackstone president Jonathan Gray, Inflection AI co-founders Reid Hoffman and Mustafa Suleyman, and many more. Request your invitation.

🦅  @Ryan was not disappointed by Monday Night Football. Fly, Eagles, fly.

1 big thing: Apex revenues

Photo illustration of Bill Capuzzi with geometric shapes and the Wall St. bull.

2. The BFD: VCs bet on investing in VCs 

Illustration of hands placing coins into an arrangement creating a one hundred dollar bill

Illustration of a credit card headed towards a goal post to score a touchdown.

🚨 Situational awareness: Reid Hoffman will be part of the Axios BFD event in New York on Oct. 12, joining our discussion of AI investments. Request your invitation.

😭 @Ryan enjoyed Celine Song's "Past Lives."

1 big thing: Captivating SMB insurance funding

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2. The BFD: Sixth Street on GreenSky 

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3. $5.5 million seed for pharmacy payment startup

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7. One fun thing

📉 Situational awareness: Apple and Goldman Sachs have nixed plans to add a stock-trading feature to iPhones, CNBC reports.

👋 @Lucinda will be hanging around the Messari Mainnet conference. Say hi!

 📘@Ryan attended a book launch party at a local Philly coworking space last night.

1. What's next for GBTC

2. Jack Dorsey's new role

3. Blockchain Capital's new funds

Illustration of a crypto block with an image of a one hundred dollar bill on one side.

4. Captivating SMB insurance funding

5. 📈 Apex revenues

6. VCs bet on investing in VCs

Happy Friday, Fintech readers. Research associate Natalie Breymeyer here with your weekly digest.

This week, we have Ryan's recaps from Future Proof, several funding exclusives and two CEO interviews. 

🧩 Natalie's goal this weekend is to complete the puzzle that's taken over the living room coffee table.

Special thanks to Rob Reinalda for his careful edits today and every day.

Mundi, a fintech platform for Mexican importers and exporters, raised $15 million led by Haymaker Ventures, the company tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Though cross-border trade has grown, access to capital remains a pain point for importers and exporters in Mexico.

Details: The new funding is a Series A extension and includes participation from Union Square Ventures, which led the initial financing.

GMO Ventures, Upper90, Colibri Ventures, Base10, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Gaingels, Mana Ventures and GSBackers also participated.

Background: Mundi launched in January 2020 to provide financing to Mexican companies participating in cross-border trade.

Since then, the company has expanded its product suite to include payments and collections, foreign exchange trading and hedging, and cargo insurance.

"Originally, we were just trade finance; then we started adding solutions one by one ... and now we are more a one-stop shop of financial services for cross-border trade," Mundi founder Martín Pustilnick says.

Zoom out: Since Mundi's launch, Mexico has grown to become the largest trade partner of the U.S.

But it's not just focusing on trade with the U.S. According to Pustilnick, Mundi has facilitated cross-border trade with over 40 countries worldwide.

Between the lines: Though it started in trade finance, Mundi's non-lending revenue has grown dramatically this year.

"We started the year doing around $3 million a month in TPV of non-lending products, and now we're doing around $14 million a month," Pustilnick says.

The company is on track to surpass $1 billion in total payment volume by year-end.

The intrigue: Mundi wasn't planning on raising additional funding until the fourth quarter, Pustilnick says, but Silicon Valley Bank's collapse this year accelerated that effort.

"We bank with SVB, and SVB is our main lender. ... So when the SVB crisis happened, we started getting inbound interest from people that wanted to see if we had survived," Pustilnick says. "That crisis made some equity conversations happen earlier than they would have."

Mexico trade financing startup Mundi raises $15M

Access to capital is a pain point for Mexican importers and exporters.

Fintech

Mundi, a fintech platform for Mexican importers and exporters, raised $15 million led by Haymaker Ventures, the company tells Axios exclusively.Why it matters: Though cross-border trade has grown, access to capital remains a pain point for importers and exporters in Mexico.

Crypto-focused VC firm Blockchain Capital has closed two new funds for a total of $580 million.

Why it matters: Despite a global slowdown in crypto dealmaking, LPs continue to back firms focused on the sector.

Details: The two new vehicles, first reported by TechCrunch, are Blockchain Capital's sixth early-stage fund and its first opportunity fund.

Roughly two-thirds of the $580 million will be allocated to backing early-stage startups, and one-third will go toward late-stage vehicles.

Context: Due to the collapse of firms like FTX — and increased regulatory scrutiny in the sector — VC funding for crypto startups has fallen dramatically in recent quarters.

According to data from Architect Partners, crypto investment in the second quarter was down 71% from the same period in 2022.

That was also its lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2020.

State of play: Despite that, VC firms in the sector continue to raise new funds.

Last week, an SEC filing disclosed that Electric Capital is raising $300 million for its third investment vehicle.

In July, Polychain Capital raised $200 million in the first close of its fourth fund, and CoinFund raised $158 million for its fourth fund.

Race Capital, an early-stage fintech investor that backs crypto startups, raised $150 million for its second fund in late June.

Earlier in the year, former Binance former head of M&A Bill Qian told Lucinda he was raising $100 million to invest in crypto startups.

What we're watching: Just how long it might take for crypto investment to rebound, considering the amount of dry powder available across these new funds.

Of note: Blockchain Capital last raised $300 million for its fifth fund in mid-2021, just before the onset of this latest crypto winter.

Its portfolio includes investments in companies like Coinbase, Circle, Ripple, Anchorage Digital, OpenSea and Aave.

Crypto VC firm Blockchain Capital closed $580M for two new funds

LPs continue to back crypto-focused VC firms.

Crypto-focused VC firm Blockchain Capital has closed two new funds for a total of $580 million.Why it matters: Despite a global slowdown in crypto dealmaking, LPs continue to back firms focused on the sector.

A consortium led by Sixth Street Partners has entered exclusive talks to acquire installment lending platform GreenSky from Goldman Sachs, according to multiple reports.

Why it matters: The sale signals a further retreat from mass-market and consumer businesses by Goldman.

Details: Reports say the deal could fetch up to $500 million — less than a third of what Goldman paid for GreenSky less than two years ago.

The Sixth Street consortium, which includes Pimco and KKR, prevailed over a rival bid led by Apollo Global Management.

The big picture: As profits have sunk in recent quarters, Goldman CEO David Solomon has been pressured to exit some non-core businesses.

Earlier this year, Goldman disclosed that its consumer-lending business had lost about $3 billion since 2020 on a pretax basis, which grew to about $4 billion by the end of the second quarter of 2023.

In July, the firm wrote down $504 million related to the $1.7 billion GreenSky acquisition as a result.

Of note: Last month, Goldman also exited the financial advisory business by selling its Personal Financial Management (PFM) unit.

That deal unwound its $750 million acquisition of United Capital Financial Partners in 2019.

Sixth Street consortium in talks to acquire Greensky from Goldman

Goldman Sachs retreats further from mass-market businesses

A consortium led by Sixth Street Partners has entered exclusive talks to acquire installment lending platform GreenSky from Goldman Sachs, according to <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="multiple" data-vars-click-url="https://link.axios.com/click/32774361.13/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud3NqLmNvbS9maW5hbmNlL2JhbmtpbmcvZ29sZG1hbi1zYWNocy1pbi1hZHZhbmNlZC10YWxrcy10by1zZWxsLWdyZWVuc2t5LWluLWJpZy1zdGVwLWluLWNvbnN1bWVyLXJldHJlYXQtYzAyMjFmNjc_bW9kPXJzc19tYXJrZXRzX21haW4mdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19wcm9uZXdzbGV0dGVydGVzdCZzdHJlYW09dG9w/61b8a591584bc520355bcf4eBef1d3239" data-vars-content-id="81c88f34-eddd-494d-8065-c0bffdbf5320" data-vars-headline="Sixth Street consortium in talks to acquire Greensky from Goldman" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://link.axios.com/click/32774361.13/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud3NqLmNvbS9maW5hbmNlL2JhbmtpbmcvZ29sZG1hbi1zYWNocy1pbi1hZHZhbmNlZC10YWxrcy10by1zZWxsLWdyZWVuc2t5LWluLWJpZy1zdGVwLWluLWNvbnN1bWVyLXJldHJlYXQtYzAyMjFmNjc_bW9kPXJzc19tYXJrZXRzX21haW4mdXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19wcm9uZXdzbGV0dGVydGVzdCZzdHJlYW09dG9w/61b8a591584bc520355bcf4eBef1d3239" target="_blank">multiple</a> <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="reports" data-vars-click-url="https://link.axios.com/click/32774361.13/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmV1dGVycy5jb20vbWFya2V0cy9kZWFscy9zaXh0aC1zdHJlZXQtbGVkLWNvbnNvcnRpdW0tZXhjbHVzaXZlLXRhbGtzLWJ1eS1nb2xkbWFucy1ncmVlbnNreS1zb3VyY2UtMjAyMy0wOS0yMC8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19wcm9uZXdzbGV0dGVydGVzdCZzdHJlYW09dG9w/61b8a591584bc520355bcf4eBf345d2df" data-vars-content-id="81c88f34-eddd-494d-8065-c0bffdbf5320" data-vars-headline="Sixth Street consortium in talks to acquire Greensky from Goldman" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://link.axios.com/click/32774361.13/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucmV1dGVycy5jb20vbWFya2V0cy9kZWFscy9zaXh0aC1zdHJlZXQtbGVkLWNvbnNvcnRpdW0tZXhjbHVzaXZlLXRhbGtzLWJ1eS1nb2xkbWFucy1ncmVlbnNreS1zb3VyY2UtMjAyMy0wOS0yMC8_dXRtX3NvdXJjZT1uZXdzbGV0dGVyJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPXNlbmR0b19wcm9uZXdzbGV0dGVydGVzdCZzdHJlYW09dG9w/61b8a591584bc520355bcf4eBf345d2df" target="_blank">reports</a>.Why it matters: The sale signals a further retreat from mass-market and consumer businesses by Goldman.

Creditors in the Celsius bankruptcy case voted overwhelmingly in favor of its proposed restructuring plan, according to a voting declaration filed by restructuring agency Stretto.

Why it matters: The vote brings the firm closer to exiting the bankruptcy process and moves creditors closer to recovering most of their assets.

Driving the news: Most classes in the bankruptcy claim voted more than 98% in favor of the reorganization plan, which is expected to return between 67% and 85% of their holdings.

The intrigue: Creditors approved the plan despite objections from the U.S. Trustee, the DOJ-backed entity overseeing bankruptcy cases.

The SEC has also filed a limited objection to the plan, questioning Coinbase's proposed involvement in distributing assets to Celsius' international customers.

Details: Under the plan, Celsius' assets would be sold to a consortium called Fahrenheit Holdings, which includes Arrington Capital and bitcoin miner U.S. Bitcoin Corp.

The consortium would distribute about $2 billion worth of bitcoin and ethereum back to creditors.

In addition to a return of their assets, creditors will get equity in a newly formed entity, temporarily referred to as NewCo.

NewCo is expected to take charge of and expand the debtors' bitcoin mining operations, engage in ethereum staking, and monetize some of the debtors' less liquid assets, according to a disclosure statement filed Aug. 17.

What's next: The plan still requires approval from the bankruptcy court, with a hearing scheduled for Oct. 2.

Catch up fast: Celsius filed for bankruptcy over a year ago, on July 13, 2022.

The Fahrenheit consortium won a bid to acquire the Celsius assets in May.

In July, former CEO Alex Mashinsky was indicted and charged with fraud related to the firm's collapse.

Celsius creditors vote in favor of restructuring plan

The plan will get return between 67% and 85% of creditors' holdings.

Bankruptcy

Creditors in the Celsius bankruptcy case voted overwhelmingly in favor of its proposed restructuring plan, according to a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="voting declaration" data-vars-click-url="https://cases.stretto.com/public/x191/11749/PLEADINGS/1174909252380000000182.pdf" data-vars-content-id="d519ec31-6c7c-4779-bce8-26a50dee8fa3" data-vars-headline="Celsius creditors vote in favor of restructuring plan" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://cases.stretto.com/public/x191/11749/PLEADINGS/1174909252380000000182.pdf" target="_blank">voting declaration</a> filed by restructuring agency Stretto.Why it matters: The vote brings the firm closer to exiting the bankruptcy process and moves creditors closer to recovering most of their assets.

Grayscale is hoping for a quick resolution to its ongoing fight with the SEC and conversion of GBTC into a spot bitcoin ETF, chief executive Michael Sonnenshein told Ryan at Future Proof last week.

Why it matters: In his best-case scenario, Sonnenshein believes the SEC could soon open the floodgates by approving multiple spot bitcoin ETF products to come to market.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

It was very, very disappointing to do the work that we've been doing with the SEC since 2015 from an educational perspective to eventually reach a point where they were not ready to approve a Bitcoin ETF and actually gave us a denial.

The decision to initiate litigation against the SEC is not a decision that we took lightly. … But as a fiduciary, this is the only option that we were left with.

We had a three-judge panel that unanimously voted in favor of us. … Now we find ourselves in a spot where we would like to accelerate the conversion of GBTC, but we have to abide by the federal rules of appellate procedure during this 45-day period.

One thing we've been very public about is that it would be adding insult to injury for the SEC to take action that would further harm GBTC investors ... by greenlighting other products to come to market before [it]. So we've been advocates of saying, if you're going to act, you need to let all of these products into the market simultaneously.

You mentioned all the work you've done with the SEC previously, but was it the new administration that just seemingly changed things overnight?

A lot of the folks we previously were engaging with are not really working on crypto initiatives at the SEC as publicly as they had previously. There had been offices within the SEC that were devoted to new and emerging technologies that have since gone away.

I do think back, though, to the announcement and appointment of chair [Gary] Gensler, which is something that the crypto community was actually very excited about because of his background.

So it's been very disappointing to [see] somebody that has more than a working knowledge of crypto come into that seat … and then repeatedly take action that keeps assets like bitcoin from being further brought into the regulatory perimeter.

How do you see the competition now that major asset managers like Blackrock are also applying for spot bitcoin ETFs? What does that mean for GBTC?

On a macro level, it means our convictions were right all along. To see some of the world's largest asset managers publicly advancing their crypto-specific plans is another moment of validation. It reminds us that the asset class is here to stay, and investors want access.

We have long been ready for a world in which there are multiple spot products on the market, the [same] way that there are multiple bitcoin futures products on the market.

Investors want products that are liquid, they want products that have a track record, and they want products that have a demonstrable operational track record of success the way that GBTC does.

Do you feel Grayscale's position within DCG complicates the picture because of other parts of the organization that aren't doing well and have come under increased scrutiny?

Quite simply, no. While Grayscale is a wholly owned subsidiary of DCG, it is a company that has its own leadership team, its own governance, its own entities as a broker-dealer, RIA, etc. We operate very distinctly from one another and have no operational reliance on DCG or any of the other businesses.

We work for our investors, not for DCG. I think it's a really important distinction, and I think our actions reflect that more than anything.

So, you believe the collapse of Genesis has no impact on what's happening with GBTC?

No. As I reflect on this most recent crypto winter and some of the businesses that have shut down operations. ... It's been another reminder for us, [that this is] our third crypto winter as a company and to just not get distracted and focus on the priorities of the firm.

Priority No. 1 is GBTC, and continuing to focus on that has been really key to our successfully navigating another crypto winter and coming out on the other side of it with this great victory in the court ... and now hoping to work on next steps.

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein on the future of GBTC

"If you're going to act, you need to let all of these products into the market simultaneously."

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein. Photo: Jeenah Moon via Getty Images

Grayscale is hoping for a quick resolution to its ongoing fight with the SEC and conversion of GBTC into a spot bitcoin ETF, chief executive Michael Sonnenshein told Ryan at Future Proof last week.Why it matters: In his best-case scenario, Sonnenshein believes the SEC could soon open the floodgates by approving multiple spot bitcoin ETF products to come to market.

Ryan Lawler

Stories

Celsius creditors vote in favor of restructuring plan

Mexico trade financing startup Mundi raises $15M

Sixth Street consortium in talks to acquire Greensky from Goldman

Crypto VC firm Blockchain Capital closed $580M for two new funds

Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein on the future of GBTC

Newsletter editions

Fintech: 👀 ICHRA trending

Fintech: Mexico trade exclusive

Fintech: 🗞 Catch up quick

Fintech: 📈 Apex performance

Fintech: 💡 Goldman's GreenSky idea