Friday Fundings: Wave, Snyk, and Scalapay
Mobile Money Startup Raises $200 Million
Wave, a mobile money provider based in the US and Senegal, raised $200 million in venture funding. The Series A round, which was led by Sequoia Heritage, Founders Fund, Stripe, and Ribbit Capital, values Wave at $1.7 billion. It marks the biggest Series A round for a sub-Saharan Africa startup in history.
The investment comes as the mobile money market in sub-Saharan Africa is booming. So far in 2021, $500 billion has moved between 300 million mobile money accounts in the region. Proceeds from the fundraising round will be used to expand in Senegal and Ivory Coast and to grow the company’s headcount of product developers, engineers, and business support staff. Wave also wants to enter new markets, including Uganda.
Security Scan SaaS Obtains a $8.5 Billion Valuation
Snyk, a security scanning platform for developers, raised $530 million in a Series F round, giving it a valuation of $8.5 billion. Snyk raised $300 million in new capital, with investors buying existing shares for the remaining $230 million. The startup’s Software-as-a-Service platform enables developers to spot security holes and license violations in their code. The platform is used by developers at Google (GOOG), Intuit (INTU) , and Salesforce (CRM), among others.
What makes Snyk unique is its ability to spot problems in real time as developers write code. Snyk plans to use proceeds from the fundraising round to develop new products and enhance its existing technology.
BNPL Startup Raises $155 Million
Scalapay, a buy-now, pay-later startup out of Italy, raised $155 million in funding. The Series A round was led by Tiger Global and included participation from Baleen Capital and Woodson Capital. Scalapay is among the BNPL startups riding the popularity of paying for online items in interest-free installments. Earlier this week, PayPal (PPYL) paid $2.7 billion for Paidy, a Japanese BNPL startup.
Scalapay plans to use the funding to expand its headcount and operations. It will also use the money to scale in international markets and to land merchants in luxury, fashion, and travel.
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