The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | Oct 19th

By Gaia Lamperti

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

New funds on the horizon

Just a few months after becoming a paper billionaire, neobank Revolut’s CEO, Nik Storonsky, has opened a family office in London to manage his £7 billion wealth. The new fund, “Storonsky Family LTD” will focus on tech startups, following Storonsky support to companies like Sweden’s Tink. It seems that Revolut’s funder set up the office to “professionalise” its angel investments but more detailed plans are still unknown.
The View: “Money spoils children.” – Storonsky to the Evening Standard when explaining why he doesn’t believe in inheritance.

Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) new crypto VC “Crypto Fund II,” has raised a total of $515 million, more than the original $450 million target. The venture will focus entirely on cryptocurrency and blockchain projects and follows the VC’s first crypto fund, which launched back in the summer of 2018 with initial funding of $300 million.
The View: “Andreessen Horowitz has shown an impressive dedication to advancing the entire crypto ecosystem over the past decade, and we jumped at the chance to join their premier team and provide technical support to their rapidly-expanding portfolio.” – Riyaz Faizullabhoy, CTO at Crypto Fund II and formerly in Facebook’s Novi team.

Money management apps going big

Money management app Chip has raised £11.5 million after closing the biggest ever equity crowdfunding on Crowdcube. The FinTech firm has grown revenues by 500% over the past year and a series of new product launches has attracted 400,000 customers.
The View: “This is a huge validation of the strong position Chip is in, and our ambitions to build the next fintech unicorn.” – Simon Rabin, CEO and Founder of Chip.

Plum, Europe’s ultimate money management app, has closed a $14 million round of funding part of an anticipated $24 million-worth Series A. The round was led by investors like dmg ventures and Ventura Capital with the participation of previous Plum-backers like Global Brain, VentureFriends and 500 Startups. The company is also planning to give customers a chance to share its success with a new crowdfunding round opening on Crowdcube later in October.
The View: “The appetite for smart and intuitive investment products is enormous, particularly in other parts of Europe, where often old-fashioned banks are the only option for growing your money.” – Victor Trokoudes, CEO & Co-Founder of Plum.

Where’s the buzz

Klarna just launched a series of changes in its UK offering, basically aimed at change BNPL sceptics’ minds. The new features include ‘Pay Now’ the possibility for consumers to pay in full at the checkout, stronger credit and affordability checks, clearer checkout language, improved complaints handling and removal of last remaining late fees. The company is looking at expanding and strengthening its UK offering to give consumers more choice, clarity and control over how they pay. “We’re doing this because we believe that most of the time, people should pay with the money they have – and we want to make sure they always have that option,” Klarna said in a statement.