<p>Djamo is one of several digital banking startups targeting Africa’s underbanked. But unlike many that focus on large markets like Nigeria, Egypt, or South Africa, Djamo has carved out a niche in Francophone West Africa, specifically the Ivory Coast and, more recently, Senegal. It now serves over 1 million customers across both countries. The Y [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Circle, the issuer of USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, filed to go public on Tuesday. The company, which makes money from interest earned on its reserve assets, reported that its 2024 revenue and reserve income was $1.68 billion, up from $1.45 billion the year prior. Circle&#8217;s 2024 net income was $156 million, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Zelle is shutting down its stand-alone app on Tuesday, according to a company blog post. This news might be alarming if you&#8217;re one of the over 150 million customers in the U.S. who use Zelle for person-to-person payments. But only about 2% of transactions take place via Zelle&#8217;s app, which is why the company is [&hellip;]</p>

<p>As it gears up to go public, Chime is going all in on new features in an effort to attract more customers. The digital bank is offering customers who agree to have their paychecks directly deposited into a Chime savings or checking account an APY of 3.75%, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. For those who don’t [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Charlie Javice, the founder of student loan application startup Frank that was purchased by JPMorgan for $175 million, was found guilty on Friday of defrauding the bank by greatly inflating the customer count. After a five-week trial, the jury found Javice guilty, agreeing with prosecutors&#8217; claims that she fabricated the vast majority of Frank&#8217;s customer [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Mexico City-based Mendel has raised $35 million in a Series B round of funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. Corporate spend management platform Mendel last raised in December 2021 &#8212; a $15 million Series A round and $20 million in debt &#8212; after participating in Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 cohort. With this latest capital infusion, the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Abound, a go-to remittance app that was spun off by India&#8217;s Times Internet, has raised $14 million in a seed round.</p>

<p>Block just laid off 931 employees. Read the email from its co-founder Jack Dorsey for more details on why.</p>

<p>Over the past decade, Dubai-based Network International has become one of the dominant payment processors across the Middle East and Africa, thanks in part to a pair of acquisitions. However, many large incumbents can fall prey to slower innovation, opening the door for smaller, faster-moving startups. The latest development is Enza, a fintech founded in [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Charlie Javice’s high-profile fraud trial has become a showcase of embarrassing missteps on both sides, with eyebrow-raising details about how JPMorgan Chase was allegedly deceived into buying her startup, Frank, for $175 million when it had just 300,000 customers instead of 4 million. Per a new WSJ article, one pivotal moment came when former Frank [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Germany’s Munich Re has signed a definitive agreement to acquire digital insurance company Next Insurance for $2.6 billion, the firms announced on Thursday. Founded in 2016, Palo Alto-based Next Insurance is focused on providing insurance to small-to-medium-sized businesses. It was last valued at $2.5 billion in late 2023 when it raised $265 million. Next Insurance&#8217;s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Ribbit Capital is raising $500 million for a new fund, an SEC filing seen by TechCrunch has revealed.</p>

<p>After hitting record lows at the start of the pandemic, mortgage rates began to climb in 2022 and haven’t come down significantly since.&nbsp; With 30-year mortgage rates hovering at over 6.5% today (they were as low as 2.49% in 2020!), buying a home is simply not that attainable for many people. One Denver-based startup is [&hellip;]</p>

<p>While the rapid pace of funding has slowed, many fintechs are continuing to see growth and expand their teams.</p>

<p>On the heels of its IPO filing, Swedish fintech giant Klarna announced on Monday that it will exclusively provide buy now, pay later loans for Walmart. The partnership with Walmart is one that rival Affirm had previously owned. Klarna will provide the loans to Walmart customers through OnePay, a fintech startup in which it owns [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Swedish fintech Klarna took the next step in its highly anticipated U.S. IPO on Friday when it made its F-1 public. Here are the top take-aways.</p>

<p>The banking-as-a-service space took a hit last year when Synapse collapsed. But that hasn’t stopped BaaS startup Synctera from raising another $15 million in funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. Synctera works to provide companies “of all shapes and sizes with everything they need to launch and operate fintech and embedded banking products,” including: accounts, cards, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Worth, a company focused on helping fintechs, banks, and enterprises underwrite small and medium-sized businesses more easily, has raised $20 million in a seed funding round, the startup tells TechCrunch exclusively. It’s a large seed round, especially these days when capital is harder to come by. But the founders’ history may have something to do [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Zolve, a neobanking startup targeting global citizens seeking credit, has raised $251 million in a new round to expand into Canada and launch loans.</p>

<p>Ryan Breslow is once again the CEO of Bolt, the fintech company told TechCrunch on Wednesday. Bolt shared a communication that recently went out to investors in which Breslow wrote that “following a challenging few years,” he had been reinstated as Bolt’s CEO with “unanimous approval” of the board of the one-click checkout company. Justin [&hellip;]</p>