Michele Mattei

Fintech expert, manager, advisor, investor.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Citi and Coinbase expand their partnership, starting in the US.

Citi's corporate clients can accept stablecoins at checkout through Spring by Citi, powered by Coinbase Payments and settled in fiat by Citi. Coinbase Virtual Accounts will run on Citi's Virtual Account Wallet.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Valley National Bancorp agrees to acquire Bluevine for $340M, 75% cash, 25% stock.

Bluevine brings 175,000 small business customers and $2.1B of deposits, 99% from customers who don't borrow. CEO Eyal Lifshitz will run Valley's small business banking. Closes early 2027.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Aljazira Bank selects Thunes to power international remittances from Saudi Arabia. Retail customers get real-time transfers to bank accounts and mobile wallets worldwide, across Asia Pacific, Europe and the GCC. 56% of Saudi residents sent money abroad in the past year.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

The ECB and Banco Central do Brasil are assessing whether TIPS, the Eurosystem's instant payment service, can be linked with Pix. Pix handles about 250M instant payments a day. The study covers technical, legal and business aspects; no launch date is set.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Humanos raises a $3.2M seed led by Anthemis, with Springbank, Critical Ventures and Start Ventures. The Lisbon startup gives each AI agent a live 0-100 risk score in a risk passport that insurers and lenders use to underwrite it. It says it is deployed at 350+ companies.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

CoinMarketCap acquires Coinglass, the crypto derivatives data platform tracking open interest, funding rates and liquidations across 28 exchanges. The deal has closed; terms were not disclosed. Coinglass keeps its brand, team and pricing and reaches CMC's 115M monthly users.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Former Nubank CFO Guilherme Lago joins Kaszek as a partner. Kaszek, one of Nubank's earliest backers, is closing its seventh fund, which NeoFeed reports at about $600M, above the $540M of its 2023 vehicle. Kaszek has not confirmed the size.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Stay raises R$30M (about $5.8M) in a Series A led by Citrino, with Norte, 17Sigma and BTV. It sells private pension plans to employers as a benefit and expects 100+ corporate clients by year end, including iFood and Claro. Under 3% of Brazilian workers have one.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Promenaut launches with $8.9M in total funding, including a strategic investment from HSBC. The bank is also a design partner, and its chief AI officer David Rice joins the board. Founded in 2025 by ex-HSBC Stephen Murphy, it runs people and AI agents as one governed workforce.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

https://t.co/GB6w9MZ6tw

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Weekly update #151 is out. This week: Nubank in talks for Monzo, Bessemer's $5.75B in new funds, Revolut cleared to buy Banco Cetelem in Argentina, Numeral's $100M Series C. Full edition on Substack - link below.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

PhonePe gets in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for payment services and stored value licences, its first market outside India.

It needs final approval before launching and plans to explore UAE rails Aani and Jaywan.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Energy Revolution Ventures holds the first close of ERV Fund II, anchored by a $13.5M commitment from Centrica.

The London firm targets $50M, up from its $18M Fund I, for seed and Series A bets on energy storage, grid tech and advanced materials.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Pulse Fund closes its debut fund at $63M to back early-stage climate companies across energy transition, infrastructure, food and agriculture, and mobility.

Solo GP Tenzin Seldon leads it; Beneficient is among the first institutional LPs.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

DTCP holds a €455M first close for DTCP Defence Fund I, backed by Deutsche Telekom, Porsche SE, EIFO, Danica and SmartCap.

The Hamburg firm targets Series B+ European defence, security and resilience tech. First bets: Six Robotics and Kraken Technology Group.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Lightspeed targets $250M for Lightspeed India Partners V, half the size of its $500M 2022 fund, with 80% already committed per a letter seen by TechCrunch.

The fund focuses on early-stage AI in India and Southeast Asia.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Kredete acquires Gravv, an agentic stablecoin infrastructure platform with $3B+ in annualised volume for 1,000+ businesses in 100+ countries.

The diaspora fintech brings settlement, FX and payment rails in-house and opens Gravv to banks and fintechs in emerging markets.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Crux Analytics raises a €1.9M ($2.2M) seed led by Castle Creek Launchpad, a fund with 34 community banks as LPs, with credit union funds Chartway Ventures, One Washington Financial and Curql.

It helps banks win and keep small business clients.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Fortum joins Norrsken Evolve as an LP through its venturing arm, backing the €62M pre-seed fund that closed oversubscribed this summer against a €40M target.

The fund has backed 80+ companies; 75% went on to raise follow-on rounds.

[Michele Mattei @MicheleMat7]

Duqu raises a €1.5M pre-seed from Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures.

The Amsterdam startup advances cash against unpaid B2B invoices without buying them, and licenses its AI underwriting engine, which automates about 95% of credit assessment, to banks and lenders.