1. Signature's closing pushes out VC's crypto predictions

Screenshot of Axios' Lucinda Shen and Bain Capital's Matt Harris online conversation

2. Payments startup raises $8M

Illustration of a hand cursor holding hundred dollar bills.

3. SVB repeats history

Illustration of Benjamin Franklin from a $100 dollar bill surrounded by clock imagery 

4. JPM backs metaverse payments startup

Illustration of a person walking along a gridded hallway towards a bright light

5. With crisis comes opportunity

Illustration of a hand holding a bank building.

Congratulations on reaching the end of a long, long week. Lucinda kicks us off this Friday, recapping her conversation with Bain Capital's Matt Harris. 

Situational awareness: SVB Financial Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this morning. 

Don't miss: Join Dan Primack and George Moriarty today at 1pm for a subscriber-only event discussing SVB, one week later. Register here.

🙏 Thank you for reading this week, and special thanks to editor Mike Flaherty and copy editor Rob Reinalda for so much great support this week. 

Have a great weekend and a happy St. Patrick's Day. Sláinte! ☘️

Fintech Deals

1 big thing: SVB creditors want bankruptcy filing

Illustration of a rolling steel door partially covering a hundred dollar bill.   

2. The BFD: Payments startup Payabli raises $8M

3. Credit score

Illustration of a credit score meter with emoji faces showing sad, neutral, and happy emotions.

4. Deals!

5. It's personnel

What a week, huh? Friends, it's Wednesday.

Situational awareness: Join Lucinda tomorrow at 4 pm ET for an exclusive conversation with Bain Capital Ventures partner Matt Harris on the current state of fintech investing. Register here to attend.

Please tell your fintech friends about this newsletter. They can sign up here.

1 big thing: Former FDIC chief says SVB should've known better

2. The BFD: Stripe raises $6.5B

3. SVB ignored history

Illustration of a scoreboard with lights that spell out Credit Score

Situational awareness: FDIC regulators have asked banks interested in acquiring SVB and Signature Bank to submit their bids by tomorrow, Reuters reports.

Final reminder: Lucinda will be speaking with Bain Capital Ventures partner Matt Harris on the state of fintech investing, starting at 4 pm ET today. Register here to attend.

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.

1 big thing: Between the lines of NYCB's Signature buy

Illustration of a close up hundred dollar bill disintegrating into nothing. 

2. The BFD: UBS buys Credit Suisse for $3.2B

Illustration of a Scrabble board with letter tiles spelling "credit."

5. One fun thing

f Credit Suisse is getting acquired for 2 billy there’s a strong chance you’re not the fintech unicorn people have told you that you were.

Situational awareness: The Federal Reserve — along with the European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Canada, Bank of Japan, and Swiss National Bank— announced a joint action to make dollar swap lines more readily available, Axios' Neil Irwin writes.

@Ryan is recovering from a tough couple of weeks.

@Lucinda attended her first BBQ of this "spring."

Thanks to Michael Flaherty and Rob Reinalda for today's edits.

1 big thing: Catch up quick

Illustration of a business person standing in front of a collapsed column. 

2. The BFD: JPM backs metaverse payments startup

Situational awareness: Join Lucinda on Thursday, March 16, at 4 pm ET for an exclusive conversation with Bain Capital Ventures partner Matt Harris on the current state of fintech investing. Register here to attend.

@Ryan is thrilled Jason Kelce is coming back for another season.

@Lucinda is getting texts from non-finance friends about SVB.

Payabli, a payments infrastructure firm focused on vertical SaaS platforms, raised $8 million in new funding, the company tells Ryan exclusively.

Why it's the BFD: Vertical SaaS companies are increasingly becoming payments companies and need better technology to make payments a revenue driver.

Driving the news: The Miami-based payments startup raised a seed extension from established investors TTV Capital, Fika Ventures and Bling Capital.

Between the lines: Payabli co-founders William Corbera and Joseph Elias Phillips worked on both sides of the payments problem SaaS platforms face.

Corbera founded an early fintech startup called RevoPay, which grew to provide multiple payment options for over 40,000 merchants before being acquired by OSG Billing Services, an Aquiline Capital-backed payments firm.

Meanwhile: Phillips worked in sales for companies like Seamless and ServiceTitan. At ServiceTitan, Corbera advised the company on updating its payments infrastructure.

"We were looking for ways to accelerate our revenue growth ... and we stumbled upon payments," Phillips says. "We were doing billions of dollars in volume, but we weren't really monetizing it well."

How it works: Payabli works with developers at vertically focused SaaS platforms — think companies like Toast or ServiceTitan — that are increasingly becoming payment processors.

"We started Payabli as an API-first payment infrastructure ecosystem to help software companies become payment companies and monetize their money movement," Corbera says.

The company embeds payment acceptance, issuance and operations through a unified API, reducing the need to manage multiple vendors and payment processors.

Unlike legacy payment providers that take a fee for transactions, Payabli offers a revenue share with its SaaS customers, allowing them to gain revenue from payments processed.

Of note: The new funding follows $4 million in seed funding it raised last May.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the round of financing as a seed extension and to clarify Corbera's work with ServiceTitan.

Exclusive: Payments API provider Payabli raises $8M

Its tech helps SaaS companies monetize payments services.

Fintech

Payabli, a payments infrastructure firm focused on vertical SaaS platforms, raised $8 million in new funding, the company tells Ryan exclusively.Why it&#x27;s the BFD: Vertical SaaS companies are increasingly becoming payments companies and need better technology to make payments a revenue driver.Driving the news: The Miami-based payments startup raised a seed extension from established investors TTV Capital, Fika Ventures and Bling Capital.Between the lines: Payabli co-founders William Corbera and Joseph Elias Phillips worked on both sides of the payments problem SaaS platforms face.<ul><li>Corbera founded an early fintech startup called RevoPay, which grew to provide multiple payment options for over 40,000 merchants before being acquired by OSG Billing Services, an Aquiline Capital-backed payments firm.</li></ul>Meanwhile: Phillips worked in sales for companies like Seamless and ServiceTitan. At ServiceTitan, Corbera advised the company on updating its payments infrastructure.<ul><li>&quot;We were looking for ways to accelerate our revenue growth ... and we stumbled upon payments,&quot; Phillips says. &quot;We were doing billions of dollars in volume, but we weren&#x27;t really monetizing it well.&quot;</li></ul>How it works: Payabli works with developers at vertically focused SaaS platforms — think companies like Toast or ServiceTitan — that are increasingly becoming payment processors.<ul><li>&quot;We started Payabli as an API-first payment infrastructure ecosystem to help software companies become payment companies and monetize their money movement,&quot; Corbera says.</li></ul><ul><li>The company embeds payment acceptance, issuance and operations through a unified API, reducing the need to manage multiple vendors and payment processors.</li><li>Unlike legacy payment providers that take a fee for transactions, Payabli offers a revenue share with its SaaS customers, allowing them to gain revenue from payments processed.</li></ul>Of note: The new funding follows $4 million in seed funding it raised last May.Editor&#x27;s note: This story has been updated to clarify the round of financing as a seed extension and to clarify Corbera&#x27;s work with ServiceTitan.

Dealmaking has picked up in the embedded finance space, where venture investors and potential acquirers are seeking out fast-growing startups that are building more modern tech infrastructure for fintechs and legacy financial institutions alike.

Treasury Prime, a San Francisco-based embedded finance startup, raised $40 million in Series C funding led by BAM Elevate.

Publicly traded card issuing firm Marqeta agreed to acquire Power Financial, which built its own full-stack card issuing platform, for up to $275 million.

Moov, which provides an open-source platform for accessing payments and banking services, announced in late January that it had raised a $45 million Series B.

State of play: Embedded finance

Venture investors and potential acquirers are seeking out fast-growing startups.

Illustration of dollar bills sticking out of a vault door.

Last updated Feb. 1, 2023Dealmaking has picked up in the embedded finance space, where venture investors and potential acquirers are seeking out fast-growing startups that are building more modern tech infrastructure for fintechs and legacy financial institutions alike.<ul><li>Treasury Prime, a San Francisco-based embedded finance startup, raised <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="$40 million in Series C" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2023/02/01/treasury-prime-raises-40m" data-vars-content-id="1275f8ea-fb28-408e-8c6b-18500e960d0c" data-vars-headline="State of play: Embedded finance" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2023/02/01/treasury-prime-raises-40m" target="_self">$40 million in Series C</a> funding led by BAM Elevate.</li><li>Publicly traded card issuing firm Marqeta <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="agreed to acquire" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2023/01/30/marqeta-buying-power-finance-275m" data-vars-content-id="1275f8ea-fb28-408e-8c6b-18500e960d0c" data-vars-headline="State of play: Embedded finance" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2023/01/30/marqeta-buying-power-finance-275m" target="_self">agreed to acquire</a> Power Financial, which built its own full-stack card issuing platform, for up to $275 million.</li><li>Moov, which provides an open-source platform for accessing payments and banking services, announced in late January that it had raised a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="$45 million Series B" data-vars-click-url="https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2023/moov-financial-raises-45-million-dollars-grow-money-movement-platform/" data-vars-content-id="1275f8ea-fb28-408e-8c6b-18500e960d0c" data-vars-headline="State of play: Embedded finance" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2023/moov-financial-raises-45-million-dollars-grow-money-movement-platform/" target="_blank">$45 million Series B</a>.</li></ul>

Monnai, a startup providing consumer data insights for fintechs, raised a $6.5 million Series A, the company tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Financial institutions are increasingly turning to alternative data sources to guide their decision-making, particularly in regions where financial data is hard to come by.

Details: Tiger Global led the round, and was joined by Better Tomorrow Ventures, which led the company’s seed round, 500 Global and Emphasis Ventures.

The company has raised a total of $10 million since being founded in August 2021.

How it works: Through a single API, Monnai gives customers access to more than 350 different contextual insights from various alternative data sources.

That includes data like social activity, employment, email, IP, payments, and e-commerce, according to founder and CEO Pierre Demarche. 

The company seeks to be a "single source of truth" for data that can be used for KYC/AML, trust and fraud risk, credit decisioning and collections optimization. 

State of play: Monnai's business is global in nature, as it hopes to provide data insights in regions where financial data is particularly hard to come by.

"Especially in emerging markets, the coverage of [credit] bureaus is very limited, let's say around 50% of the population," Demarche says. 

"That coverage is actually decreasing over time because new generations — like Gen Z and millennials — are all going online first and they don't necessarily open bank accounts."

Between the lines: The company already has customers in seven markets across Southeast Asia, India, Latin America and the U.S., which is one reason it decided to take investment from Tiger Global.

"Tiger is one of the largest investors in fintech, and when it comes to markets like India, Southeast Asia and LatAm they are a very large investor, [so] we can definitely benefit from that," Demarche says. 

Exclusive: Tiger Global leads $6.5M Monnai deal

The company serves fintechs in regions where financial data is hard to find.

Illustration of a hand holding a cell phone displaying a $100 bill on the screen surrounded by social media icons.

Monnai, a startup providing consumer data insights for fintechs, raised a $6.5 million Series A, the company tells Axios exclusively.Why it matters: Financial institutions are increasingly turning to alternative data sources to guide their decision-making, particularly in regions where financial data is hard to come by.Details: Tiger Global led the round, and was joined by Better Tomorrow Ventures, which led the company’s seed round, 500 Global and Emphasis Ventures.<ul><li>The company has raised a total of $10 million since being founded in August 2021.</li></ul>How it works: Through a single API, Monnai gives customers access to more than 350 different contextual insights from various alternative data sources.<ul><li>That includes data like social activity, employment, email, IP, payments, and e-commerce, according to founder and CEO Pierre Demarche. </li><li>The company seeks to be a &quot;single source of truth&quot; for data that can be used for KYC/AML, trust and fraud risk, credit decisioning and collections optimization. </li></ul>State of play: Monnai&#x27;s business is global in nature, as it hopes to provide data insights in regions where financial data is particularly hard to come by.<ul><li>&quot;Especially in emerging markets, the coverage of [credit] bureaus is very limited, let&#x27;s say around 50% of the population,&quot; Demarche says. </li></ul><ul><li>&quot;That coverage is actually decreasing over time because new generations — like Gen Z and millennials — are all going online first and they don&#x27;t necessarily open bank accounts.&quot;</li></ul>Between the lines: The company already has customers in seven markets across Southeast Asia, India, Latin America and the U.S., which is one reason it decided to take investment from Tiger Global.<ul><li>&quot;Tiger is one of the largest investors in fintech, and when it comes to markets like India, Southeast Asia and LatAm they are a very large investor, [so] we can definitely benefit from that,&quot; Demarche says. </li></ul>

Two, a payments startup specializing in B2B commerce transactions, raised €18 million in Series A funding led by Shine Capital and Antler

Why it matters: Two wants to make purchases between businesses seamless by taking care of the fraud and underwriting risks inherent in large B2B transactions, while also paying sellers upfront.

According to Two founder Andreas Mjelde, the business has three main components: fraud detection, credit decisioning and managing the money flows between buyer and seller.

"We don't think a merchant that sells B2B should need to manage working capital or risk or any of these processes," Mjelde says.

The company partners with banks and other capital providers to pay sellers while buyers pay on terms similar to consumer BNPL services. 

Two works with small and medium-sized merchants in the UK, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. And through a partnership with Allianz and Santander, it can support large, multinational merchants across Europe and North America,

Between the lines: Before Two, Mjelde was the founder and CEO of Linio.com, one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in LatAm.

It was there that Mjelde got to know the pain points of B2B payments, as about 20% of its sales were to business customers.

"B2B customers really want to move online. But you cannot serve them with a manual, old-school way of doing business," he says.

Of note: Other investors in Two include Sequoia Capital, Day One Ventures, Alumni Ventures, LocalGlobe, The Visionaries Club and Alliance VC.

B2B buy now, pay later startup Two raises €18M

Investors include Sequoia Capital, Day One Ventures

Illustration of a hand making a thumbs up with hundred dollar bills sticking out of the sleeve

<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Two" data-vars-click-url="https://www.two.inc/" data-vars-content-id="90730dea-4400-441a-b9e9-82b27980bbbe" data-vars-headline="B2B buy now, pay later startup Two raises €18M" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.two.inc/" target="_blank">Two</a>, a payments startup specializing in B2B commerce transactions, raised €18 million in Series A funding led by Shine Capital and AntlerWhy it matters: Two wants to make purchases between businesses seamless by taking care of the fraud and underwriting risks inherent in large B2B transactions, while also paying sellers upfront.<ul><li>According to Two founder Andreas Mjelde, the business has three main components: fraud detection, credit decisioning and managing the money flows between buyer and seller.</li><li>&quot;We don&#x27;t think a merchant that sells B2B should need to manage working capital or risk or any of these processes,&quot; Mjelde says.</li><li>The company partners with banks and other capital providers to pay sellers while buyers pay on terms similar to consumer BNPL services. </li><li>Two works with small and medium-sized merchants in the UK, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. And through a partnership with Allianz and Santander, it can support large, multinational merchants across Europe and North America,</li></ul>Between the lines: Before Two, Mjelde was the founder and CEO of Linio.com, one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces in LatAm.<ul><li>It was there that Mjelde got to know the pain points of B2B payments, as about 20% of its sales were to business customers.</li><li>&quot;B2B customers really want to move online. But you cannot serve them with a manual, old-school way of doing business,&quot; he says.</li></ul>Of note: Other investors in Two include Sequoia Capital, Day One Ventures, Alumni Ventures, LocalGlobe, The Visionaries Club and Alliance VC.

Tilia, a payments firm focused on serving metaverse projects and digital world platforms, raised $22 million in strategic funding from JPMorgan and others.

Why it matters: Microtransactions on metaverse and gaming platforms are a huge business, and Tilia has the expertise of managing payments for one of the longest-running digital worlds out there. 

Context: Tilia got its start in 2019 as the payments platform powering the marketplace and digital economy of Linden Lab's long-running digital world Second Life.

But the San Francisco-based payments firm, which is a registered money services business and fully licensed money transmitter, recently spun out on its own to begin serving other metaverse and digital world projects.

The company hopes to solve the problem of converting fiat into various virtual currencies different metaverse platforms use and facilitating microtransactions between users on those platforms.

Between the lines: "Second Life is an $80 million revenue business, but it's a $650 million dollar economy," Tilia CEO Brad Oberwager says.

Tilia processes about 1.6 million transactions each day, but the average transaction size is only about $1 or $2, Oberwager says, which poses unique challenges for companies running digital worlds.

Details: Tilia raised its funding from a series of strategic investors, including JPMorgan and Korean blockchain firm Dunamu, among others.

With JPMorgan's backing, the company gained a major banking partner to help power its payments business.

Meanwhile, Dunamu runs a crypto exchange and has powered NFT projects for stars like BTS and Justin Bieber.

Of note: Oberwager, the executive chair at Tilia and Linden Research, took over as CEO of the payments firm as part of the spinout, with former CEO Aston Waldman moving into the CFO role. 

The company also hired Catherine Porter, a former Meta business development executive who was a key part of the firm's payments and blockchain team, as its chief business officer.

JPM backs metaverse payments firm in $22M round

The company spun out of Second Life creator Linden Lab

Tilia, a payments firm focused on serving metaverse projects and digital world platforms, raised $22 million in strategic funding from JPMorgan and others.Why it matters: Microtransactions on metaverse and gaming platforms are a huge business, and Tilia has the expertise of managing payments for one of the longest-running digital worlds out there. Context: Tilia got its start in 2019 as the payments platform powering the marketplace and digital economy of Linden Lab&#x27;s long-running digital world Second Life.<ul><li>But the San Francisco-based payments firm, which is a registered money services business and fully licensed money transmitter, recently spun out on its own to begin serving other metaverse and digital world projects.</li><li>The company hopes to solve the problem of converting fiat into various virtual currencies different metaverse platforms use and facilitating microtransactions between users on those platforms.</li></ul>Between the lines: &quot;Second Life is an $80 million revenue business, but it&#x27;s a $650 million dollar economy,&quot; Tilia CEO Brad Oberwager says.<ul><li>Tilia processes about 1.6 million transactions each day, but the average transaction size is only about $1 or $2, Oberwager says, which poses unique challenges for companies running digital worlds.</li></ul>Details: Tilia raised its funding from a series of strategic investors, including JPMorgan and Korean blockchain firm Dunamu, among others.<ul><li>With JPMorgan&#x27;s backing, the company gained a major banking partner to help power its payments business.</li><li>Meanwhile, Dunamu runs a crypto exchange and has powered NFT projects for stars like BTS and Justin Bieber.</li></ul>Of note: Oberwager, the executive chair at Tilia and Linden Research, took over as CEO of the payments firm as part of the spinout, with former CEO Aston Waldman moving into the CFO role. <ul><li>The company also hired <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Catherine Porter" data-vars-click-url="https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherineclayporter/" data-vars-content-id="ea8781d3-da8e-4cab-8cfb-7c7f8e7fc99b" data-vars-headline="JPM backs metaverse payments firm in $22M round" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherineclayporter/" target="_blank">Catherine Porter</a>, a former Meta business development executive who was a key part of the firm&#x27;s payments and blockchain team, as its chief business officer.</li></ul>

Ryan Lawler

Stories

B2B buy now, pay later startup Two raises €18M

Exclusive: Payments API provider Payabli raises $8M

JPM backs metaverse payments firm in $22M round

State of play: Embedded finance

Exclusive: Tiger Global leads $6.5M Monnai deal

Newsletter editions

Fintech: Signature minus crypto

Fintech: Crypto's new reality

Fintech: SVB repeats history

Fintech: SVB creditors pounce

Fintech: JPM metaverse bet