Russia has a new tech billionaire. The $500 million raised by financial platform Revolut this week not only establishes the U.K.-based business as the country’s most valuable fintech. It also makes its founder and CEO, Moscow-born Nikolay Storonsky, the latest fintech billionaire to come from the Russian Republic.
The investment was led by Technology Crossover Ventures – a U.S. firm – and takes Revolut’s total capital to $836 million. Revolut now sports a valuation of $5.5 billion.
Storonsky’s net worth figure – on paper, at least – is based on a Forbes report from last February in which he noted that his stake in Revolut was being diluted to 30%.
As part of this big week for U.K. fintechs, SME lender iwoca picked up $109 million funding and expansion into Germany. B-Social, a social payments app based in London, raised $10 million ahead of its transformation into a fully-licensed challenger bank later this year. And Azimo partnered with fellow Finovate alum Ripple to facilitate cross-border payments to the Philippines.
This week on Finovate.com, we featured a profile of Innovate Israel founder and CEO Itai Green and his thoughts on open innovation and collaboration between corporates and startups. We also highlighted Finovate newcomer Sonect, a Swiss company that demonstrated its Best of Show winning virtual cash network at FinovateEurope earlier this month.
Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
- Indian fintech PhoneParLoan announces new investment from accelerator MOX. The amount of the funding was not disclosed.
- Bengaluru-based digital billpay company XPay Life goes live in India.
- Envestnet | Yodlee acquires Indian data aggregator FinBit.io.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- AlphaCredit, a Mexico City-based fintech, raises $125 million in round led by the SoftBank Innovation Fund.
- Mexico issues its first license – to NVIO Pagos Mexico – under its new fintech law.
- U.S. Bancorp’s merchant acquirer subsidiary, Elavon, sells its Mexican operations to banking group Santander.
Asia-Pacific
- Azimo taps Ripple for cross-border payments to the Philippines.
- Philippines-based Tonik Financial raises $6 million ahead of the launch of its new digital offering.
- Malaysia’s biggest telecom, Axiata Group, is the latest company in the country to announce plans to pursue a digital banking license.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- South Africa’s Jumo raises $55 million in combined debt and equity funding.
- Nigeria’s The Nation looks at how fintech empowers startups.
- Kenyan B2B e-commerce platform Sokowatch locks in $14 million Series A funding.
Central and Eastern Europe
- Mastercard expands its partnership with Rakuten Viber to bring P2P payments to Romania.
- A new $500 million funding round for Revolut makes the company’s founder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky Russia’s latest tech billionaire.
- Apple Pay goes live in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Kashat, an Egyptian mobile app that offers short-term loans of up to $95 to the underbanked, goes live in Cairo and Alexandria.
- Jordanian SME lending marketplace Liwwa raises $5 million in growth funding.
- A new agreement between Tencent Holdings and Network International will expand WeChat Pay’s presence in the UAE.