INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Hello and welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week noteworthy startups and venture capital news
Before I jump into today topic, let catch up a bit
Last week, I wrote about how SoftBank is screwing up
Before that, I noted All Raise expansion, Uber the TV show and the unicorn from down under.
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feedback to kate.clark@techcrunch.com or on Twitter@KateClarkTweets
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Uber Head of Payments Peter Hazlehurst addresses the audience during an
Uber products launch event in San Francisco, California, on September 26, 2019
(Photo by Philip Pacheco / AFP) (Photo credit should read PHILIP PACHECO/AFP/Getty Images)
The sheer number of startup players moving into
banking services is staggering,& writes my Crunchbase News friends in a piece titled &Why Is Every Startup A Bank These Days.&
I&ve been
asking myself the same question this year, as financial services business like Brex, Chime, Robinhood, Wealthfront, Betterment and more
raise big rounds to build upstart digital banks
North of $13 billion venture capital dollars have been invested in U.S
fintech companies so far in 2019, up from $12 billion invested in 2018.
This week, one of the largest companies to ever emerge from the
Silicon Valley tech ecosystem, Uber, introduced its team focused on developing new financial products and technologies
In a vacuum, a multibillion-dollar public company with more than 22,000 employees launching one new team is not big news
Considering investment and innovation in fintech this year, Uber now well-documented struggles to reach profitability and the company hiring
efforts in New York, a hotbed for financial aficionados, the &Uber Money& team could indicate much larger fintech ambitions for the
ride-hailing giant.
As it stands, the Uber Money team will be focused on developing real-time earnings for drivers accessed through the Uber
debit account and debit card, which will itself see new features, like 3% or more cash back on gas
Uber Wallet, a digital wallet where drivers can more easily track their earnings, will launch in the coming weeks too, writes Peter
Hazlehurst, the head of Uber Money.
This is hardly Uber first major foray into financial services
The company greatest feature has always been its frictionless payments capabilities that encourage riders and eaters to make purchases
Uber even launched its own consumer credit card to get riders cash back on rides
It no secret the company has larger goals in the fintech sphere, and with 100 million &monthly active platform consumers& via Uber, Uber
Eats and more, a dedicated path toward new and better financial products may not only lead to happier, more loyal drivers but a company that
actually, one day, able to post a profit.
VC deals
IoT security startup Particle grabs $40M Series C
Video news business Brut launches in
with $40M
Crunchbase nabs $30M to become the ‘LinkedIn for company data&
Muy raises $15M to expand its cloud kitchen concept
Modus raises
$12.5M for Pete Flint and others
Quill gets $12.5M Series A to compete with Slack
Fem tech business Inne secures $8.8M
Oliver Space raises
$6.8M to furnish your apartment
Forecast raises $5.1M for its AI-powered project management software
Capital gets $5M to help startups
secure venture debt financings
Meet me in Berlin
The TechCrunch team is heading to Berlin again this year for our annual event, TechCrunch
Disrupt Berlin, which brings together entrepreneurs and investors from across the globe
We announced the agenda this week, with leading founders including Away Jen Rubio and UiPath Daniel Dines
Take a look at the full agenda.
I will be there to interview a bunch of venture capitalists, who will give tips on how to raise your first
Buy tickets to the event here.
Listen to Equity
This week on Equity, I was in studio while Alex was remote
We talked about a number of companies and deals, including a new startup taking on Slack, Wag woes and a small upstart disrupting the $8
billion nail services industry
Listen to the episode here.
Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us oniTunes,Overcastand all the casts.
