Mary Ann<\/em><\/a><\/p>\nOn September 28, LinkedIn released its Top Startups list, which is its self-described annual ranking of 50 emerging U.S. companies \u201cgaining attention and recruiting top talent.\u201d The professional networking site takes into consideration a variety of criteria based on its own data when coming up with the list: employment growth, engagement with the company and its employees, job interest and ability to attract talent from companies.<\/p>\n
Now, we often take these sorts of lists with a grain of salt. In this case, I was admittedly (and naturally) less interested in their overall rankings and more intrigued by which fintechs made the list \u2014 and why.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what I found out: Seven fintech companies ranked in the top 50: Brex (No. 4), Ramp (No. 5), Gravy (No. 14), Esusu (No. 29), GPARENCY (No. 35), Deel (No. 43) and Masterworks (No. 47).<\/p>\n
Drilling down, I learned that among the seven fintech startups that made the list, there are 125+ open roles. An astounding 87% of those open roles are for remote positions.<\/p>\n
\u201cA majority of fintech startups on this year\u2019s list deal in the realms of building and managing credit for businesses and consumers \u2014 credit management is only becoming more important as interest rates rise and the economy slows, positioning these companies to play an even more relevant role in the lives of their users and customers,\u201d LinkedIn business and finance editor at large Devin Banerjee told over email.<\/p>\n
LinkedIn went on to offer further insights on each of the companies and some examples of the roles they are looking to fill. The summaries preceding the open roles were drafted by LinkedIn using survey responses from the honoree companies.<\/p>\n
Brex<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Brex is 100% remote. The company is looking for customer-focused skills and asks candidates to tell them about \u201ca time you learned something from a team member that changed your mind or widened your perspective.\u201d Among the positions it is hiring for are Real-Time Analyst and Lifecycle Marketing Manager.<\/p>\n
Ramp<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
The No. 1 skill Ramp is looking to hire for now is software engineering, as the company\u2019s main hiring priorities are for engineers and product managers, including entry-level and remote roles (the company is hybrid). Ramp doesn\u2019t require college degrees for all hires, and offers lots of \u201clearning opportunities, autonomy with a high level of ownership, and rapid advancement.\u201d Among the roles it is hiring for are Head of Data Science \/ Credit, Fraud, & Pricing\u00a0and\u00a0Partner Marketing & Enablement.<\/p>\n
Esusu<\/b><\/p>\n
Esusu is looking to hire those with engineering skills, and the company says critical thinking is the hardest skill to hire for. They\u2019re \u201cdoubling down on folks we call justice capitalists \u2014 people who have a head for business and a heart for the world. These people fundamentally believe that doing good and doing well are by no means mutually exclusive.\u201d Esusu advises candidates to \u201coutreach with intent\u2026It always grabs the attention of the recruiter when you reach out directly and have clearly researched the company and the role.\u201d Among the positions it\u2019s hiring for are Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer and Enterprise Account Executive.<\/p>\n
GPARENCY<\/b><\/p>\n
GPARENCY is looking to hire for sales, including entry-level roles, and says it is open to no experience \u2014 they\u2019ll train new hires in the skills they need, and in company culture. For example, it\u2019s looking for a Sales Executive.<\/p>\n
Deel\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Deel is looking to hire those with sales skills and says that candidates should be prepared to answer the interview question specifically to address this remote-first company: \u201cWhat would you need to be successful working in a highly diverse, global work environment with colleagues sitting in nearly 80 countries and being fully remote?\u201d From this question, the company looks to learn \u201chow will the candidate handle the challenges of collaborating and communicating within a hyper-growth startup with 1300 team members.\u201d Deel also says employee referrals are the best way a candidate can catch their attention. Among the positions it\u2019s hiring for are Partnership Manager and Senior DevOps Engineer.<\/p>\n
Masterworks<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Masterworks says it is looking to hire product managers and engineers with startup experience, and asks candidates, \u201cWhere do you hope to be in 5 years?\u201d The company says, \u201cThough there is no right answer, we hope to see how driven the individual is, and how their personality comes through when considering their futures. We also like to hire individuals who we, as a company, can grow with.\u201d The company is hybrid. Among the positions it\u2019s hiring for are Principle Product Designer and CRM Specialist.<\/p>\n
Weekly News<\/h2>\n\n
Image Credits:<\/strong> Getty Images \/ hanibaram<\/p>\n<\/div>\nThree letters we haven\u2019t heard in a long time came up last week: IPO<\/strong>. TripActions<\/strong> is said to have filed confidentially to go public in the second quarter of next year at a $12 billion valuation. Last October, TripActions raised $275 million in a Series F \u201cgrowth\u201d funding round at a $7.25 billion valuation. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, TripActions was primarily known for merging many aspects of corporate trip booking \u2014 flights, hotels and rental cars \u2014 with expense tracking. But the Palo Alto\u2013based company was among the startups that was hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the global crisis resulted in its revenue dropping to $0, according to CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen. But it has since leaned into its Liquid spend management offering, which puts it in direct competition with the likes of Brex and Ramp. Of course, the news had TC+ editor Alex Wilhelm and my Equity co-host super pumped. You can read his take here.<\/p>\nWhen layoffs occur, we often get the employer\u2019s side of the story \u2014 but not always that of the employees. For this article, Christine Hall and I talked extensively with several former Better.com<\/strong> employees. Warning: Many have said it was painful to read the detailed experiences of three former and one current employee. It took us weeks to write, as we wanted to be careful to protect our sources but yet still tell their stories.<\/p>\nFrom Ivan Mehta: \u201cBlock<\/strong>, the company behind Square and Cash App, now supports Apple\u2019s Tap to Pay for iPhone feature for merchants. Existing Square users or new businesses wanting to use Square can now use their iPhones to receive payments while using the fintech company\u2019s financial management software.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom Manish Singh: Samsung<\/strong> has launched two credit cards in India, entering a crowded category that sees more than 50 companies fiercely compete for consumers\u2019 attention in the world\u2019s second largest internet market. The South Korean giant said it has partnered with the Mumbai-headquartered Axis Bank and global payments processor Visa to launch the cards, which it is calling the Samsung Axis Bank Signature Credit Card. Consumers buying Samsung\u2019s products and services through either of the cards will get 10% cash back \u201cround the year,\u201d the company executives said at an event in New Delhi.<\/p>\nFrom Romain Dillet: Meet Solvo<\/strong>, a new mobile app that wants to make it easier to invest in cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency-related financial products. The two founders, Ayelen Denovitzer and Shailendra Sason, met while they were working for Revolut, in the crypto team more specifically. Earlier this year, Solvo raised a $3.5 million seed round from Index Ventures with CoinFund and FJ Labs also participating. Since then, the company has put together a small team of 10 people and started working on its iOS app.<\/p>\nFrom Anita Ramaswamy: Investment app Public.com<\/strong> (Public), a Robinhood competitor that pivoted away from the contentious payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) revenue model, is expanding its offerings in a big way. The three-year-old company purchased Otis earlier this year to allow consumers to buy and trade fractional shares in alternative assets. Today, the company announced that it has integrated Otis\u2019s offerings onto its own app, meaning its 3 million users can construct portfolios composed of both public stocks and alternative assets such as high-end trading cards and other collectibles.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom The Information: \u201cDivvy Homes<\/strong>, a property tech startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global Management, laid off about 12% of its staff Tuesday. The cuts affected about 40 people and are a reflection of how younger real estate firms are responding to rising mortgage rates that have battered the home-buying market\u2026Divvy Homes buys homes in the U.S. and rents them to people who don\u2019t have the credit history or savings to buy, but hope to eventually purchase the homes. The firm, valued last year at about $2 billion, has raised over $500 million in equity.\u201d I covered the company\u2019s February 2021 $110 million Series C raise here.<\/p>\nFrom Insider: \u201cHopscotch<\/strong>, a B2B payments fintech, aims to be a Venmo-like payment tool for businesses. Its 22-year-old founder was inspired after paying vendors for his apparel brand with paper checks. The company\u2019s new product, Hopscotch Flow, is the first step towards monetizing the platform.\u201d Via email, founder Reed Switzer told me: \u201cToo often, B2B invoicing\/bill-pay solutions are self-serving, with fragmented features, and offer few tools to help elevate hard-working modern freelancer\/small business owners. We\u2019re meeting a need. Even as small businesses struggled to survive in 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that business applications were up a record-breaking 43.3% over the same period in 2019 \u2014 small businesses are thriving and need support. We\u2019re trying to break barriers \u2014 I\u2019m a 22-year-old black founder in B2B payments (likely the youngest in the space) and my lead investors are also PoC (Peter Boyce II + Simeon Iheagwam).\u201d<\/p>\nChase and DoorDash<\/strong> announced plans to launch the \u201cfirst-ever\u201d DoorDash credit card, with Mastercard as the exclusive payments network for the new card. The companies said that the DoorDash Rewards Mastercard \u201cwill allow cardmembers to unlock benefits and earn rewards on purchases both on and off the DoorDash platform.\u201d Instacart recently teamed up with Chase as well, as noted by my colleague Kyle Wiggers, who pointed out that it seems \u201cChase is leaning heavily into co-branding these days.\u201d<\/p>\nRho<\/strong> last week announced Prime Treasury, \u201ca tailored treasury management service integrated with the Rho platform.\u201d Via email, a company spokesperson told me: \u201cThe Fed is expected to hike interest rates this week, putting more pressure on CFOs and other business leaders to protect their cash reserves from the effects of inflation\u2026Unless you are a Fortune 500 company, you likely don\u2019t have access to a sophisticated treasury management team that can develop and execute a unique investment policy to combat inflation.\u201d The move, according to the company, \u201cbolsters Rho\u2019s support for growth-stage companies and the middle market\u2026As interest rates continue to rise and alternative, risky assets like crypto continue to fall, the case for high-grade assets, including US Treasuries, strengthens.\u201d Read more on the company\u2019s blog post here.<\/p>\nLast week, Secfi<\/strong> launched Secfi Wealth \u2014 a fully independent RIA \u2014 to provide startup founders and employees with financial planning and investment management. A company spokesperson told me via email: \u201cWealth Management services at traditional financial institutions usually require $1M + of liquid assets which is not a reality for most startup employees even though they have huge financial decisions to make starting with their equity. Secfi believes that the big firms have this backward as they only advise clients after a major exit event, but when it comes to equity, the reality is that the impact that can be made pre-exit is magnitudes greater than what can be done for someone after an exit. Secfi wants to help startup employees today in the pre-wealth phase so they are better set up for life events and hopefully a life-changing exit down the road.\u201d<\/p>\nFrom Accounting Today: \u201cRoutable<\/strong>, a business payments platform, has added optical character recognition to automatically scan invoices to create payables and process hundreds of invoices at once. Routable says the new capability can save up to three minutes per invoice. For businesses processing 10,000 invoices per month, this can add up to 167 hours per week, saving an equivalent of $168,000 per year.\u201d I covered the company\u2019s $30 million Series B led by the Altman Brothers in April of 2021.<\/p>\nVirtual payment card company Lithic <\/strong>has launched Lithic Send, which CEO Bo Jiang describes in a blog post as \u201ca new suite of products designed for companies that need a faster, more flexible way to build out card disbursement programs.\u201d A spokesperson told me: \u201cCreating a card disbursement program traditionally takes months of development because of integrating with multiple vendors, mapping card transaction lifecycle to a ledger, and creating custom logic. With Lithic Send you can now do this in weeks or even days.\u201d The company, which used to go by the name Privacy.com, raised $43 million in May of 2021, which I covered here.<\/p>\nFundings and M&A<\/h2>\n![\"CVCs,](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/gp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/GettyImages-162749548.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Image Credits:<\/strong> Getty Images \/ REB Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\nSeen on <\/em><\/p>\nAfrica<\/em><\/p>\nYC-backed fintech Numida raises $12.3M led by Serena Ventures to extend loans to MSMEs beyond Uganda<\/p>\n
Europe<\/em><\/p>\nWinner for headline of the week! Why build a fintech any more when you can just raise \u20ac20M and white-label it to banks?<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s Satispay raises \u20ac320M at a \u20ac1B+ valuation with backing from Block, Tencent and more for its indy payment network<\/p>\n
Regate raises $20M to modernize accounting and financial tools<\/p>\n
United States<\/em><\/p>\nThis new app is helping Gen Z invest in cars, food, video games and other \u2018themes\u2019<\/p>\n
Tactic\u2019s $11M raise shows even when cryptocurrencies are down, companies still need to count \u2019em up<\/p>\n
EQT acquires Billtrust, a company automating the invoice-to-cash process, for $1.7B<\/p>\n
GlossGenius triples valuation, raises $25M to give beauty industry\u2019s tech stack a makeover<\/p>\n
And elsewhere<\/em><\/p>\nAtlanta credentialing startup Evident ID raises $14M<\/p>\n
Nova Credit lands $10 Million from HSBC, aiming to to build borderless, consumer-permissioned credit data or as American Banker describes it: HSBC deploys tech that helps it bank immigrants<\/p>\n
Dublin, Ireland\u2013based Yonder raises $2.6M in funding<\/p>\n
The company told me via e-mail: \u201cWe\u2019re a few 2nd-time founders who got fed up with how poor the health insurance and pensions were for employees, so we decided to rebuild the whole experience. We\u2019ve integrated into some of Europe\u2019s biggest insurers and pension providers to offer a delightfully quick and straightforward end-to-end experience for employers and employees. The platform removes barriers to access on a global scale, and our goal is to rebuild the rails so platforms can leverage our API.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just a note to say that it\u2019s much more fun to write about startups that are hiring than it is to write about those that are laying off. Here\u2019s to more hiring, and fewer layoffs, in Q4! Thanks again for your support in reading, and subscribing to, this newsletter. See you next week! xoxoxo Mary Ann<\/p>\n<\/div>\n