From Brex exec to venture capitalist

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at a Brex exec’s jump to join venture firm a16z, Klarna selling off its payments unit and some mega-raises.

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The big story

Ali Rathod-Papier has stepped down from her role as global head of compliance at corporate card expense management startup Brex to join venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a partner and compliance officer, TechCrunch exclusively learned. The hiring comes at an interesting time for a16z, which had invested in Synapse, the banking-as-a-service startup that filed for bankruptcy in April and has since been under fire for an estimated $85 million worth of missing customer funds. Another Brex exec, Sam Blond (former chief revenue officer), also left the company to become a venture capitalist. But he ended up stepping down from his role at Founders Fund earlier this year, saying at the time “full-time investing / being a VC isn’t the right fit for me.” 

Analysis of the week

Gynger, a platform that lends capital to companies for technology purchases, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by PayPal Ventures. There are plenty of companies out there to help startups fund technology purchases through a variety of methods. Gynger’s model stood out in that it works with both buyers and sellers of technology. The startup offers vendors that are selling technology a way to offer embedded financing through an accounts receivable platform that provides “flexible” payment terms. To date, Gynger has facilitated thousands of payments for its customers across hundreds of vendors, including AWS, Google Cloud, and Okta. 

Dollars and cents

Finbourne, which has built a platform to help financial companies organize and use more of their data in AI and other models, raised $70 million at a just over $356 million post-money valuation. 

Cadana, whose APIs and white-label products allow global workforces to integrate payments and payroll management into their existing systems, has emerged from stealth with a total of $7.4 million in funding.

Paris-based Hero, which is building an ambitious banking product for small companies, has raised a $12.2 million all-equity funding round led by Valar Ventures.

Materia, which integrates into a firm’s existing workflow software and applications to help break down the silos that exist in accounting firms’ troves of unstructured data, has emerged from stealth with $6.3 million in funding.

What else we’re writing

Four years after acquiring Shine, a French fintech startup that offers bank accounts to freelancers and very small companies, Société Générale has announced plans to sell Shine to Ageras. In 2020, TechCrunch reported that Société Générale spent around €100 million to acquire Shine. It wasn’t a huge acquisition but it attracted quite a bit of coverage at the time, as it was more than just a tech or talent deal. Romain Dillet gives us the scoop here.

High-interest headlines

Klarna to exit checkout business after finding conflict of interest with rivals Adyen and Stripe

Elon Musk’s X revenue has officially plummeted, new documents show 

Revolut seeks valuation of more than $40bn in employee share sale

Celcoin raises $120.5  million for new M&As

Mexican fintech unicorn Clip lands $100m investment

Amplify Life Insurance raises $20M in Series B funding

Klarna rival Zilch raises $125 million with aim to triple sales and accelerate path to IPO

Verituity raises $18.8M for payout verification

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