Perspectives

Early stage fintech investors looking for the next PayTM need to focus on four key factors – Seasoned founders, proven monetization, a real ‘moat’ around the product and a full technology stack are key considerations.

TechCrunch Live (formerly Extra Crunch Live) is coming back this February, and we have a fantastic lineup to start the new season. Changes are coming to the show, too. In 2022 look for more pitch decks, more pitch-offs and more of the best founder/investor combos.

The capital injection has now taken the total funding secured by Kaleidofin to $18 million. Existing institutional investors, Oiko Credit, Flourish Ventures, Omidyar Network, Blume Ventures and Bharat Fund also joined the investment round.

Many people are in a better financial position than before the pandemic.

At least by some metrics.

They’ve paid down debt. Perhaps they’ve padded their savings cushions with funding from the waves of stimulus payments. And yet the pressures of daily life remain.

2021 was a transformative year for fintech. What felt like a corner of the technology industry a decade ago, is today the largest funded category globally: fintech received over $130b in capital representing 20% of all capital invested in 2021.

ShopUp, the Dhaka-based full-stack B2B commerce startup digitizing neighborhood shops with an ecosystem of solutions from marketplace to logistics to capital, has closed a $34-million Series B extension round led by Tiger Global Management.