Venture capital

The crypto custodian Copper Technologies has obtained $196 million in fresh funding this year, as part of an ongoing series C investment in the business.

Citigroup's venture capital investing group made its first digital-asset seed investment in a Hong Kong-based digital-asset management firm. 

Tally Technologies, a startup that automates credit card payments, has tripled its valuation to $855 million in a funding round led by Sway Ventures.

The parent company of Silicon Valley Bank has hired a law firm to assess its "Access to Innovation" effort. That program aims to provide support, including more funding, to startups and venture firms that were started by women and members of certain minority groups.

The neobank combines digital banking with community-based assistance.

Flow Traders and Hudson River Trading have backed Sei Labs, a crypto startup founded by Goldman Sachs and Robinhood Markets veterans that is developing a blockchain aimed at speeding up decentralized finance transactions.

BankTech Ventures, which is the product of five firms including two community banks, finds fintechs that its bank partners could work with and invest in.

Goldman Sachs Group has extended a $150 million credit line to the Mexican startup Clara, which lends to corporations and helps manage their spending, the latest Latin American fintech to receive support from the New York-based banking giant.

The digital commercial bank has been fleshing out its business lines and technology over the past year. Its new capital raise will help further those efforts.

The payments giant Visa is in talks to join an extension of the fintech startup Airwallex’s latest funding round, according to people familiar with the matter.

Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, who led the Israeli bank for seven years, now funds and helps build fintechs that work with other fintechs and banks.

Mobile payments got an early start in parts of Africa more than a decade ago, but the continent's overall banking infrastructure lags far behind, creating a void for companies like AZA and WorldRemit to fill.

Starling Bank Ltd. is weighing plans for a fresh funding round that could value the U.K. challenger at around 2.5 billion pounds ($3.4 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.

Taavet Hinrikus turned his startup into the one of the world’s biggest digital-payment firms, giving returns of about 35,000% to early investors including Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.

Valuations for payment technology companies skyrocketed over the past year, pushed by a wave of public listings and record venture capital investments. Some potential acquirers are waiting for prices to cool.

The funding is tied for the second-largest crypto- or blockchain-related venture capital deal of the year with FTX Trading’s $1 billion round in July, after Robinhood Markets' $3.4 billion raise in January, according to PitchBook data.

These venture capital firms are investing in young companies that could help small financial institutions meet their growing technology needs.

Maxwell, a startup that operates an online platform catering to mortgage loan officers and smaller lenders, raised $28.5 million in equity funding from investors led by the venture firm Fin VC and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.

Companies like Ally are mimicking the approach of fintechs by curbing overdraft charges and instituting other changes. It is a sign that startups’ efforts to improve customer experience were successful and that competition in digital-first banking will intensify.

Bilt Rewards, which offers a loyalty program and credit card that converts rent into reward points, raised $60 million from investors including Mastercard and Wells Fargo, giving the startup a $350 million valuation.