Savings and investments tech platform Smart receives backing from Chrysalis

This week, retirement, investments and personal finance technology piqued investor interest, and a Latin American cryptocurrency exchange had the largest series B round in Latin America’s history. Bank Automation News explores some of the week’s notable funding rounds here. [caption id="attachment_218836" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo by Pexels[/caption] Smart Smart , a London, England-based savings and investments technology platform provider, announced on Monday a $228M series D funding round, led by Chrysalis Investments. Chrysalis’ portfolio includes buy-now-pay-later fintech Klarna , money transfer company Wise , and the $1.7 billion Starling Bank. “Fintech disruption has happened at pace over the last couple of decades, but we identified that the $55 trillion global retirement market lagged behind in this respect,” Jodan Ledford, Smart U.S. CEO, told BAN . Smart, which was launched in 2015, currently has $2.5 billion AUM and close to 1 million savers on its retirement technology platform, he noted. Founded in 2014, the recent raise will help fuel the expansion of the fintech’s retirement technology platform across the U.S. market, and Ledford said the funding will be split across the regions Smart serves including the U.K., U.S., Australia and the Middle East. “What Smart has achieved in the last 12 months alone was a real catalyst for our support and we believe that together we can help Smart achieve their global ambitions,” Richard Watts, head of strategy and co-manager of Chrysalis Investments said in a statement. Read Kikoff receives $42M in funding, Steph Curry backing

Mercado Bitcoin 2TM Group, parent company of Latin American cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin , announced Thursday that Mercado Bitcoin had raised $200 million from the SoftBank Latin America Fund. “The fundraise represents the largest series B round in Latin America’s history and SoftBank’s largest investment in a Latin America crypto company,” according to a 2TM statement. The recent funding round gives the company a valuation of $2.1 billion. Funds will go to increasing the Sao Paulo, Brazil-based company’s scale, expanding its offerings and investing in infrastructure. The latest round brings the valuation of the 2TM Group to $2.1 billion. In the first five months of 2021, Mercado Bitcoin processed transactions totaling almost $5 billion in volume, according to a company statement. A spokesperson for the company told BAN that the new funding round will also enable Mercado Bitcoin to grow its team to 700 by the end of 2021, as well as accelerate growth across 2TM Group’s portfolio, which will also include digital wallet provider MeuBank, subject to regulatory approvals. In 2021, 2TM Group will also launch Bitrust, the first digital custodian in Latin America, subject to regulatory approval. Founded in 2013, Mercado Bitcoin is capitalizing on the “surging interest in cryptocurrencies in both Brazil and Latin America more broadly, resulting in the significant expansion of our market share in the past year and paving the way for continued growth,” Gustavo Chamati, co-founder and board member of Mercado Bitcoin, said in a statement. “We’ve been impressed by 2TM Group’s understanding of the Brazilian ecosystem, as well as their contribution to the evolving regulatory framework in Brazil, all of which have positioned it at the forefront of the Latin American blockchain revolution and as a defining player in the cryptocurrency explosion in Brazil,” said Marcelo Claure, CEO of SoftBank Group International and COO of SoftBank Group. Read Moveworks raises $200 million, $2.1B valuation

itsme itsme , a digital identity app, announced Thursday a $17.2 million investment from the Federal Holding and Investment Company, a Belgium sovereign wealth fund, taking a participation stake of 20%. Six other shareholders will each be injecting another $2 million into itsme. Founded in 2017, the Brussels-based itsme is a consortium of seven private companies that include $204 billion Belfius Bank, $371 billion BNP Paribas Fortis, $163 billion ING Belgium, $354 billion KBC Bank, Orange Belgium, Proximus and Telenet. CEO Stephanie De Bruyne told BAN that 45% of Belgian citizens currently have an itsme account. The company will use the recent funds raised for “improvement of the product and scalability of the solution,” as well as for “new features and enlarging of the offering.” The company is currently working on data-sharing possibilities and digital wallet functionalities. Bank Automation News would like to know what our readers think about bots. We invite readers to take part in a short BAN reader survey .

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Savings and investments tech platform Smart receives backing from Chrysalis

Klarna and Wise investor Chrysalis led the $228M fundraise

Ant Group-backed Kakao Pay seeks up to $1.4 billion in IPO

Deutsche Bank to slash Ireland jobs by half amid cost-cut drive

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