Startups Magazine’s Post

Payments comparison startup Tuza (formerly Statement) just raised $4 million to support SMEs #Tuza, the business payments comparison #fintech startup, has just secured £4 million in seed funding to fuel its rapid growth. Founded by Olivia Stannah and Ed Hardy, Tuza is revolutionizing the way small businesses manage their payment services. With a mission to combat inertia among SMEs in the £205 billion payments sector, Tuza empowers businesses to make informed decisions about their payment providers. Investors backing Tuza include Connect Ventures, Northzone (early investor in Spotify), Triple Point, and Entrepreneur First. In just eight months since its launch, Tuza has already compared £1.5 billion in SMEs' card turnover, showcasing its impactful presence in the market. By utilizing cutting-edge pricing technology, Tuza displays rates from major providers like Barclaycard, Revolut, and Worldpay, giving small businesses unprecedented transparency and control over their payment options. According to Tuza's CEO, Ed Hardy, "Businesses shouldn't bear high costs due to a lack of understanding about where or how to find better deals. Our platform provides instant, transparent access to the best solutions for each business." And the impact speaks for itself – with typical businesses potentially saving over £5,000 per year simply by switching payment providers. Join us in celebrating Tuza's commitment to revolutionize the payments industry, one business at a time. Stay tuned as Tuza aims to onboard 100,000 merchants onto its platform, bringing pricing fairness and efficiency to businesses across the UK. The article on Sky Media UK in the first comment. Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://t.ly/s541W   - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW

Choosing a #payments provider is one of the most important decisions tech #startups need to make. #Paysafe's Chief Growth Officer, Nicole Carroll recently shared her expertise on the topic with Startups Magazine. In this article, she highlights five key areas businesses should look for in a payments partner. They include a growth mindset, real-time analytics, and localized payment options with global scale. Get the full list: https://brnw.ch/21wLcM3 #ItStartsHere #Fintech

Stripe acquires payment processing startup Lemon Squeezy Payments giant Stripe has acquired a four-year-old competitor, Lemon Squeezy, the latter company announced Friday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As a merchant of record, Lemon Squeezy calculates and pays global sales tax for digital products, handling legal processing and fees in every country. It primarily serves SaaS and software businesses. In a post on X, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison announced the acquisition, saying, “Welcome @lmsqueezy! We’re going to scale merchant of record selling in a big way.” And Chief Product Officer William Gaybrick shared in his own post: “When asked “what should Stripe ship next?” many of you’ve said merchant of record. The Lemon Squeezy team has built an excellent MoR product, and we’re excited to work together with them to help more of you launch to grow!” In a blog post, Lemon Squeezy co-founder and CEO J.R. Farr noted that since his 13-person company’s public launch in 2021, that it received “many acquisition offers and (Series A) term sheets from investors.” In one podcast, Farr specifically discussed turning down a $50 million Series A term sheet. (It’s not clear how much, if any, venture funding the startup has raised.) He added: “But despite the allure of these opportunities, we knew that what we had built was truly special and needed the right partner to take it to the next level. We’re proud to say that we’ve found that partner in Stripe and have gone from idea to acquisition in under three years.” While he did not share current revenue figures, Farr said that Lemon Squeezy surpassed $1 million in annual recurring revenue nine months after its public launch in 2021. The founder also said that Lemon Squeezy has been processing payments on Stripe since its inception. This isn’t Stripe’s first acquisition this year. In March, the payments giant completed an “acqui-hire” of the four-person team from Supaglue for an undisclosed sum. Supaglue raised a $6.8 million seed round in November 2021, led by Benchmark general partner Chetan Puttagunta. (Puttagunta did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.) Supaglue, formerly known as Supergrain, was an open source developer platform for user-facing integrations. And last summer, Stripe picked up Okay, a startup that developed a low-code analytics software to help engineering leaders better understand how their teams are performing. Okay was a small startup, with just seven employees, that over time had raised $6.6 million from investors such as Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins after graduating from Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 cohort. 👉More news https://lnkd.in/d94JgWBU Source Techcrunch #fintech #payments #cards

continuation of previous post. The startup was backed by investors such as PayU, Ribbit Capital, Omidyar Network, and Others. It raised around $125 million in funding to date. As approximately USD 2 million in its seed round in September 2015, a year before its officially launch. It wasn't valued at a specific amount in 2016 since it hadn't secured any major funding rounds that year. The company launched in January 2016, and its first major funding came in February 2017 with a Series A round of $6.5 million. The funding in 2017 was its Series A round, led by PayU in February 2017. The company's valuation, the funding amount was USD 6.5 million. It did not receive a specific valuation announcement in 2018. However, they did secure funding in August 2018 through a Series A2 round led by Xiaomi. This funding round increased their total funding to $22 million, but the company's valuation at that time wasn't disclosed. It funding in 2019 resulted in a valuation of $183 million. This Series B round, which closed in April 2019, was led by Quona Capital, a venture capital firm focused on financial technology products. It valuation details for funding rounds in 2020 haven't been disclosed. However, they did secure funding in 2021 that placed their valuation around USD 435 million. The funding in 2021 was a success. They closed their Series C funding round in September 2021, led by Australian BNPL firm Zip Co. Ltd., for a valuation of USD 435 million. This marks a significant point in their growth trajectory. As PhonePay about to acquire the company for $90 million but zestmoney secure $18 million loan from PhonePay to run the operation in 2022 but unfortunately, the company faced challenges in 2022 including regulatory changes and a tough funding environment. This led to a decline in valuation. It's valuation in 2023 unfortunately wasn't a positive one. The company had a significant drop from its peak valuation in 2021.By 2023, however, the company faced challenges and secured a much smaller emergency funding round of up to USD 7 million. This came after a failed acquisition deal and a write-off from a major investor. ZestMoney ultimately ceased operations by the end of 2023.

Paymob Secures $22M Series B Extension, RaisingTotal Funding to $72M as It Expands Across MENA. The funding was led by EBRD Venture Capital with participation from Endeavor Catalyst. Existing investors PayPal Ventures, BII, FMO, A15, Nclude and Helios Digital Ventures participated in the round, reaffirming their endorsement of Paymob’s business model, strategy and leadership in the regional fintech sector. Islam Shawky, Co-founder and CEO of Paymob, said, “We are very excited by our strong prospects in Egypt – where we hold a market-leading position – and the significant traction experienced in the UAE since launching operations there. This funding will help Paymob fully capitalize on the momentum in our established markets, as we accelerate our GCC roll-out. We remain committed to creating a cutting-edge infrastructure enabling SMEs across the region to thrive in the digital economy and are proud of our continued impact.” Bruno Lusic, CFA of EBRD Venture Capital, added, “We are extremely excited to support Paymob as it embarks on the next chapter in its journey to create a market leading, omni-channel, and multi-jurisdiction payment solutions provider in the MENA region. The payments landscape in Egypt and the broader MENA region is hugely exciting and is seeing rapid growth as economies transition to non-cash payment methods. We are convinced that Paymob is uniquely positioned to capitalize on that trend with its advanced technology and strong management team.” Allen Taylor, Managing Partner at Endeavor Catalyst, stated, “At Endeavor, we have witnessed fintech in the Middle East gain increasing global attention. Building on this momentum, we are thrilled to support entrepreneurs Islam Shawky, Alain El Hajj, and Mostafa Menessy in this new round of regional expansion for Paymob, advancing their goals of enabling businesses to thrive in the digital economy. Since their selection as Endeavor Entrepreneurs in 2022, we have been dedicated to supporting their growth and are excited to see their journey unfold further.” https://lnkd.in/dddTwNeG

Revenew raises from stealth closing a $4.55 million funding round Uk based #fintech startup #Revenew, a startup founded by former Checkout.com executives, has successfully raised $4.55 million in funding. The round was led by Los Angeles-based Fika Ventures, with additional investments from Dash Fund and TTV Capital. Revenew, co-founded by Ben Foster, ex-senior vice president of engineering, and Nicholas Thomson, former head of product at Checkout.com, aims to revolutionize payment operations for platform companies such as Uber and Spotify. Revenew’s mission is to provide an advanced operating system that allows businesses to manage, streamline, and optimize their payment stacks. Unlike traditional payment processors, Revenew offers an additional layer of visibility, enabling companies to track critical metrics such as payment margins and identify their most profitable customers. This insight is designed to empower platforms to enhance revenue generation and profitability. The startup already has 10 to 15 companies signed up for its early access product, spanning various sectors including hotel booking, gym memberships, and car rental marketplaces. The company plans to offer its core product for free initially, with future plans to introduce a paid Pro version that will include actionable tools to help clients further improve their payment operations. The article on Sifted in the first comment. Want to stay up to date with the market? Here my newsletter: - Linkedin: https://lnkd.in/d4h8zqKA  - Substack: https://lnkd.in/dzfGJzmW

San Francisco based fintech Cardless raises $30 million for its co-branded credit card solution #Cardless, a San Francisco-based #fintech startup, has secured $30 million in funding to revolutionize co-branded credit cards through innovative embedded finance solutions. Founded by Michael Spelfogel and Scott Kazmierowicz, the company is gaining traction with a platform that enables brands to design and launch customized credit card programs with unprecedented speed and flexibility. The funding round was led by Activant Capital, with participation from Mischief (co-founded by Plaid's Zachary Perret), Industry Ventures, Thayer Ventures, Assurant Ventures, and strategic investor Amex Ventures. This demonstrates strong confidence from prominent fintech-focused investors in the startup's potential to disrupt the $77 billion co-branded card industry. Cardless focuses on the U.S. market, partnering with notable brands like Qatar Airways and Alibaba, the latter targeting SMBs purchasing goods for resale. Unlike traditional providers, Cardless streamlines the onboarding process, integrates card management into existing apps, and offers advanced analytics, fraud detection, and adaptable reward programs. The platform’s efficiency is a key differentiator, with the ability to launch card programs in weeks rather than months. With fivefold revenue growth over the past year, Cardless is poised to address a significant gap in the market, particularly for brands entering the credit card space for the first time. Backed by strategic investments and a growing client base, it aims to challenge legacy providers while exploring future opportunities like lending and tax-related tools tailored to SMBs. The article on TechCrunch in the first comment.

Whether you're just starting out or scaling up, a payment gateway is essential for secure and efficient payment processing. It's not just for big businesses! With a payment gateway, startups can: - Offer multiple payment options - Protect customer data - Automate transactions - Scale with growth - Reduce costs Don't wait until you're big to get a payment gateway. Get one now and start growing your business with confidence! #spaybusinesssolution #PaymentGateway #Startups #MythVsFact #Ecommerce #OnlineBusiness

How big (headcount) should your e-commerce org be for your high-growth startup? ($50MM GMV and below)