Checkbooks were opened this week as many fintechs announced impressive raises.
Canton Creator Digital Asset Raises $355 Million
Andreesen Horowitz’s crypto fund a16z crypto led a $355 million funding round for Canton creator Digital Asset this week. Additional participants include 7RIDGE, ABN Amro, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (through a wholly owned subsidiary), Alumni Ventures, Apollo Funds, BNP Paribas, Broadridge, Citadel Securities, CME Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Greenwulf Asset Management, Hanwha Investment & Securities, HSBC, iCapital, Liberty City Ventures, Optiver, Polychain, R136 Ventures, S&P Global, SBI Group, Smash Capital, SoFi, Tradeweb and William Blair.
Funds will be allocated to product development, developer and financial institution engagement, and network growth.
“One of the most compelling blockchain opportunities is no longer theoretical; it emerges as real-world assets and enterprise workflows move on-chain.” in question Ali YahyaGeneral partner of a16z crypto. “Digital Asset has created one of the clearest examples of a blockchain product market suitable for regulated finance. We believe Digital Asset is building the fundamental infrastructure for the next generation of financial markets.”
Canadian Fintech KOHO Raises $93 Million, Valuing It at $950 Million
KOHO has raised $93 million ($130 million Canadian) as it seeks a federal banking license. Participants included Abu Dhabi-based independent investor Mubadala; Savano Capital; Tobi LütkeFounder and CEO of Shopify; Michael LinfordAffirm’s COO; Portage Initiatives; Increase Capital; BDC Capital; HOOPP; and Eldridge.
The funding values KOHO at $1.33 billion CAD, making it Canada’s unicorn. The USD valuation is just under $950 million.
KOHO serves more than 2.5 million Canadians and has raised C$507 million to date.
$80 Million E Series Leaves Current Status with $1.5 Billion Valuation
Consumer fintech Current this week announced an $80 million Series E equity financing at a $1.5 billion valuation. Springcoast Partners led the round. Previous backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global Management, Avenir, Foundation Capital, Wellington Management, Sapphire Ventures and QED Investors.
Current simultaneously expanded its funding partnership with Cross River and expanded upon its existing multi-year commitment from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund.
Springcoast Partners has joined Current’s board of directors.
EDGE Markets Opens $29.2 Million Series A
EDGE Markets, a financial services company that creates products for alternative financial markets in gaming, crypto and prediction markets, has closed a $29.2 million Series A round led by CoinFund. Indicator Ventures, Mantis VC, Stepstone Group and Bullpen Capital also participated.
The funds will help introduce EDGE Pro, a high-yield deposit account for market makers that facilitates real-time deposits to all CFTC-regulated exchanges. They also support EDGE Connect, a payment channel for regulated gaming and prediction market ecosystems.
Earlytrade Raises $25 Million for Construction Payments Agentic AI
Earlytrade’s Series A round brings the fintech’s total raise to $25 million. S3 Ventures and Brick & Mortar Ventures led the round. The funds are earmarked for business expansion and AI expansion in the US.
general partner at S3 Ventures Charlie Plauche Joins Earlytrade’s board of directors Darren Bechtel Brick & Mortar Ventures; Scott WolfeFounder and former CEO of Levelset; Kevin HalterFormer revenue leader at PlanGrid; soul Ben Brahinskya mergers and acquisitions and private equity specialist.
Fintech Infrastructure Firm Vinyl Raises Capital by $20 Billion
Vinyl Equity, a financial technology infrastructure company and SEC-registered transfer agent for capital markets and corporate transactions, announced this week a $20 million Series A led by Jump Capital. Additional participants include MUFG Innovation Partners (MUIP, the corporate venture capital arm of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), Index Ventures, Spark Capital, Infinity Ventures and Cambrian Fintech.
Vinyl’s payment solutions are built with integrated document collection, KYC/KYB checks, tax filing, audit trails, and fraud prevention at the workflow layer.
Zaro.ai raises $5.1M Pre-Seed for Adaptive AI Workspace
The London-based firm has raised $5.1 million to create a single adaptive AI workspace. Cherry Ventures led the round. Participating angels included Thomas Wolf (Hugging Face), Thomas Dohmke (GitHub), mandeep singh (To create), Charlie Songhurst, Marvin Purtorab And Andy Toulis. Purtorab and Toulis co-founded Convergence, which was acquired by Salesforce. This group helped ship Agentforce, which now has $1.2 billion ARR, to Salesforce.
Zaro’s built-in app store includes projects and workflows that cover all business functions.
Entropy Ventures invests $3 million in AI banking platform Titan
Titan, a banking-embedded AI platform designed specifically for financial services, has raised $3 million in new funding led by Entropy Ventures. Titan debuted last October. New funds will be allocated to personnel and product development
The company’s models are trained on the language, data and workflows specific to financial institutions. Titan’s customer base includes community banks, regional and super regional banks, credit unions and fintechs operating in regulated environments.
This is Entropy Ventures’ first investment.
