Vestwell Doubles Valuation to $2B with $385M Raise
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Vestwell just raised $385 million in a Series E.
Valuation: $2 billion. That’s double the $1 billion mark from December 2023.
Total capital raised now stands at $660 million since 2016. Annual recurring revenue is above $200 million. More than 2 million active savers. Over $50 billion in assets administered.
The company grew nearly 50% year over year.
And it’s doing it “profitably,” according to the CEO at Vestwell, Aaron Schumm. Strong unit economics. Improving margins.
Schumm says the mission is to fix “fragmented” savings. Separate systems for retirement, emergency, and education. Too many vendors. Too many barriers. Vestwell connects them into “one interoperable platform.”
Funding into wealth management startups hit $1.9 billion in 2025. Flat versus 2024. Still far below the $3.8 billion peak of 2021.
Scale, profitability, and distribution are converging in workplace FinTech. That’s the real signal here. We’re only scratching the surface.
Want to stay on top of the FinTech industry? Keep scrolling. 👇 I’ll be back tomorrow with the stories that matter most.
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
📰 Speed Meets Trust: The Evolution of Money from Paper Bonds to Programmable Dollars by Noah. Stablecoins mark the next step in money movement, combining instant settlement with programmable transparency. Unlike bearer bonds, which enabled borderless speed through anonymous physical certificates, stablecoins provide fast digital transfers with an auditable trail, aiming to balance efficiency with accountability. Read the full article here
FINTECH NEWS
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🇨🇱 Chilean FinTech Global66 seeks an international banking license to expand its financial services in multiple countries. CEO Tomás Bercovich said the firm is exploring an overseas banking licence to expand regionally and has begun using stablecoins as part of its technology-driven growth strategy.
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PAYMENTS NEWS
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🇮🇹 Nexi Group announced the launch of Nexi Ready, a new category of fully managed, plug-and-play digital issuing solutions. Nexi Ready alleviates a significant burden for banks, corporates, and FinTechs, enabling them to quickly deploy modern, compliant, and scalable digital issuing services without having to build and operate their own infrastructure.
🇪🇺 ECB and ONCE Foundation launch collaboration. The ECB is collaborating with the Spanish financial inclusion agency, the Once Foundation, to get technical advice on the accessibility requirements and features of the digital euro app, and testing once the first prototypes are available.
🇫🇷 Societe Generale - FORGE has officially launched its euro-denominated stablecoin EUR CoinVertible on the XRP Ledger. With this integration, SG-FORGE intends to increase adoption and benefit from the scalability, speed, and low cost of the XRPL, a secure and decentralized Layer 1 blockchain.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
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🇪🇺 Revolut Bank has begun checking old transfers from Russians living in the EU. The checks specifically concern SWIFT transfers, card number transfers, and transactions through Sberbank. Several clients were asked to confirm the origin of funds transferred from Kazakhstan or other CIS countries.
PARTNERSHIPS
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🇦🇺 MYOB taps Mastercard to boost SME open banking feeds. The new connections will feed banking data into MYOB's cloud products, including MYOB Business and AccountRight. They add another way for customers to connect bank feeds alongside existing methods.
🇨🇦 Nautilus Plus selects Nuvei to power omnichannel payments across its gym network and Ultimate Fit digital platform. With Nuvei’s platform, Nautilus Plus and Ultime Fit now offer a consistent and streamlined omnichannel payment experience across point of sale, mobile, and online channels.
🇺🇸 Bakkt announces partnership with Nexo. Through the partnership, Nexo will leverage Bakkt’s U.S. trading infrastructure to support its return to the United States market and enable compliant access to digital asset trading services for its clients.
🇮🇳 NPCI collaborates with Nvidia to advance India's sovereign AI infrastructure for digital payments. The initiative will support the evolving requirements of large-scale, real-time payment systems, with an emphasis on trust, resilience, security, and ecosystem enablement, NPCI said in a statement.
🌍 Mesh partners with Adyen to accelerate the scale of its European and U.K. operations. This collaboration is designed to aggressively scale Mesh’s established operations across the United Kingdom and Europe, supporting the company’s rapidly expanding roster of global enterprise clients.
🇦🇪 eNovate and Cobi launch large-scale AI-powered digital payment infrastructure. The partnership combines eNovate’s digital payments product suite and Cobi’s AI-powered engagement platform to give financial institutions a new level of intelligence, personalisation, and behavioural insight across their customer base.
🌍 Salt Edge and NoCFO to bring Pay by Bank to entrepreneurs in Finland and Germany. The collaboration integrates Salt Edge’s payment initiation capabilities directly into the NoCFO platform, transforming the user experience by enabling complete financial workflows, including Pay by Bank, without users having to leave the app.
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DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
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🇺🇸 Delaware-based Rizon has secured $2 million in pre-seed funding as demand for borderless U.S. dollar banking accelerates worldwide. The fresh capital will help Rizon scale its user base globally and deepen its footprint in new markets where access to reliable dollar banking remains limited.
🇧🇷 Listo, a Brazilian automotive FinTech company, raises US$191.5M through an FIDC to expand its portfolio and strengthen its operations. The funds will be used to expand the portfolio and strengthen operations. Read more
🇲🇦 Moroccan regtech Charikaty raises $150K on national investment show. The company will use the funding to enhance its technology, expand operations across Morocco, and scale services for SMEs and the Moroccan diaspora, as it aligns with the country’s “Maroc Digital 2030” strategy.
🇺🇸 Digital savings startup Vestwell lands $385M, and doubles valuation. The company plans to use its new capital to expand its distribution. The company is working to embed savings more deeply into payroll, benefits platforms, financial institutions, and government-led public programs.
M&A
🇿🇦 Araxi has agreed to acquire an 80% stake in Pay@ Holdings and its affiliate IHPL for R1 billion through its subsidiary African Resonance. Araxi said that the acquisition of the Pay@ Group will significantly strengthen its payment capabilities, enabling the group to deliver an expanded, more competitive offering to customers.
🇺🇸 Kraken acquires token manager Magna as crypto exchange prepares for IPO. Magna helps startups manage token distribution to investors and other stakeholders. Kraken said the acquisition will allow it to engage with issuers earlier in their lifecycle, ahead of liquidity and market launch decisions.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇺🇸 Winklevosses’ Gemini says executives leave months after IPO. Marshall Beard, Dan Chen, and Tyler Meade are all leaving the company effective immediately, the crypto exchange said in a filing. Continue reading
🇬🇧 CoinCover appoints Jeremy Verba as CEO, succeeding co-founder David Janczewski. In the new position, CoinCover says Verba will accelerate the delivery and growth of the company. Verba brings over 25 years of leadership experience to the role, having previously served at many large corporations across various industries
🇺🇸 Tech billionaire Peter Thiel exits Ether Treasury firm ETHZilla. Entities managed by Thiel now report owning zero shares in the company, the filing released late Tuesday shows. ETHZilla is a digital asset treasury, a company that primarily holds cryptocurrencies, and raises funds by selling investors stocks and bonds.
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