Yotpo
New York-based Yotpo, the platform powering customers reviews for brands, said it had raised $230 million in Series F funding with a new post-money valuation of $1.4 billion. The round comes less than a year after the e-commerce marketing company raised a $75 million Series E round in August. Yotpo made between $5 million and $7 million five years ago but is now bringing in $100 million in annual recurring revenue. The company’s software also lets brands integrate with e-commerce platforms operated by Walmart, Shopify, Google, Instagram, Mailchimp, Pinterest, and Twitter. https://bit.ly/3rcx4Fw
Aldea Ventures
Aldea Ventures creates a ‘hybrid’ European €100M fund to invest in Micro VCs, plus follow-on. The idea is to invest in 700 startups across Europe but with an unusual strategy. First, it will operate as a fund-of-funds, investing in up to 20 early-stage ‘micro VC funds’ across Europe. Second of all, it will act as a co-investment platform from Series A upwards. https://tcrn.ch/3f3IpFq
Flux
The undergraduates left university to build Flux, a payments startup now in YC. Flux differences from other crypto remittance startups thanks to the ease and speed of the platform’s transactions. The facilitating payments on Flux are 100x faster than fiat and are cheaper too. In May 2020, Flux got accepted into Pioneer, an accelerator launched by ex-YC partner Daniel Gross. Pioneer gives founders access to funding streams and talent hardly found outside Silicon Valley. https://tcrn.ch/3lBHAFj
Zaver
Zaver, a Swedish fintech that enables merchants to accept cardless payments and offer buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) as an option, has raised $5 million in new funding. https://tcrn.ch/2QnHJQZ
