The Latest from Romain Dillet
French VC firm Breega raises $130 million fund
Breega, a VC firm based in Paris, has announced the final closing of its third fund. The firm has managed to raise $130 million (€110 million). This is Breega’s third fund and is officially called
Crypto wallet and exchange company Blockchain.com raises $300 million at $5.2 billion valuation
As Coinbase is about to go public in the U.S., another cryptocurrency company is having a blockbuster first quarter of 2021. Blockchain.com, the company behind a popular cryptocurrency wallet, an exch
Stock trading app Freetrade raises $69 million
U.K. challenger stockbroker Freetrade has raised a $69 million Series B round led by Left Lane Capital. The growth fund of L Catterton and existing investor Draper Esprit also participated. Freetrade
Revolut applies for bank charter in the US
London-based fintech startup Revolut has announced that it is applying for a bank charter in the U.S. The company has submitted a draft application with the FDIC and the California Department of Finan
Nvidia raises GeForce Now subscription plan to $10 per month
Nvidia’s cloud gaming service GeForce Now has announced some changes when it comes to subscription plans. Starting today, paid memberships now cost $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year — they are n
Crypto infrastructure provider Fireblocks raises $133 million
Fireblocks has raised a $133 million Series C funding round led by Coatue, Ribbit and Stripes. The company provides several products that let you store, transfer and issue digital assets. In particula
PayFit raises $107 million for its payroll and HR platform
French startup PayFit has raised a $107 million series D funding round (€90 million). Eurazeo Growth and Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund are leading today’s round. Existing investors Accel, Frst
Resilience is an ambitious bet to improve cancer treatment
Meet Resilience, a new startup that wants to help cancer treatment institutes as well as cancer patients at every step of the treatment journey. It’s an ambitious project founded by two well-known F
Mexican challenger bank Fondeadora adds $14 million to its Series A
Fondeadora, a fintech startup based in Mexico City and building a challenger bank, has extended its Series A funding round. I covered the company’s original round back in August 2020. And now, Fonde
Hugging Face raises $40 million for its natural language processing library
Hugging Face has raised a $40 million Series B funding round — Addition is leading the round. The company has been building an open source library for natural language processing (NLP) technologies.
Apple to invest $1.2 billion in silicon design center in Germany
Apple has announced that it plans to increase its corporate spendings in Germany. In particular, the company wants to set up a new facility in Munich, Germany. Called the European Silicon Design Cente
Fleex lets you allocate a monthly budget for work from home equipment
Meet Fleex, a French startup that was formally named Flexlab. The company wants to make it easier to give some cash to your employees so that they can spend it on a desk, an external monitor, some com
Detail wants to turn your phone into a software-optimized camera app for live video
Meet Detail, a new startup working on an app for iOS and macOS so that you can turn your iPhone into a software-optimized camera for live video. The startup wants to make it easy to use the phone that
PayPal to acquire cryptocurrency security startup Curv
PayPal has announced that it plans to acquire Curv, a cryptocurrency startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Israeli newspaper Calcalist originally reported the move. And PayPal has now made an official an
Bitfinex launches cryptocurrency payment gateway for merchants
Cryptocurrency exchange company Bitfinex is launching Bitfinex Pay, a cryptocurrency payment gateway. With this new product, online merchants can accept payments in various cryptocurrencies. It should
Revolut lets customers switch to Revolut Bank in 10 additional countries
Fintech startup Revolut has its own banking license in the European Union since late 2018. It lets the company offer some additional financial services without partnering with third-party companies. A
Vestiaire Collective raises $216 million for its second-hand fashion platform
Vestiaire Collective announced a new funding round. The company has raised $216 million, or €178 million — it has reached a valuation above $1 billion, making it a unicorn. French fashion and lux
Cappuccino lets you share short, intimate audio stories with your friends
You might call Cappuccino the anti-Clubhouse, but the company has been iterating on its app concept for a couple of years — its CEO doesn’t have any strong opinions on Clubhouse. And it’s true t
Crypto company Anchorage raises $80 million after getting federal banking charter
Anchorage has raised an $80 million Series C funding round led by GIC, also known as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, Lux and Indico are also participating
Maze raises another $15 million for its user testing platform
Maze has closed a $15 million Series A funding round led by Emergence Capital. The company lets you run user tests at scale so you can get feedback before rolling out a design update or test copy. Whe