• FinTech unicorn announcements remain low in October 2022 with three announcements in total, an 83% drop from May’s peak of 17. It is clear that venture capital firms have been under pressure as huge companies that raise money frequently, such as Klarna, a buy now pay later service, dropped 85% in valuation to $6.7bn. Venture firms such as Softbank, Tiger Global and Insight Partners have been key drivers in huge deals during 2021 and early 2022 (The SoftBank Vision Fund participated in nine rounds of $1 billion or more in 2021). On May 12, SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son told investors that the company will have stricter investing criteria moving forward and a more defensive posture. This signals a continued lull in new FinTech unicorn announcements.
• Uniswap, a cryptocurrency exchange, was the highest valued new FinTech unicorn in October, valued at $1.7bn. The company joined the unicorn club after they raised $165m in their latest Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital. Uniswap said the funding would go toward expanding its existing product offerings and improving the user experience through new web applications, developer tools and a shift toward mobile. The company also plans on launching nonfungible tokens (NFTs) projects in the future.
The data for this research was taken from the FinTech Global database. More in-depth data and analytics on investments and companies across all FinTech sectors and regions around the world are available to subscribers of FinTech Global. ©2022 FinTech Global
