The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | March 22nd

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements. For Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Sahil Anand-led Cedar Capital (Owned in India by SEBI-registered trust, Cedar-IBSi Capital. Registration No. IN/AIF2/22-23/1185), the FinTech-focused Venture Capital brainchild of global consulting and research group, Cedar and IBS Intelligence, has marked the First Close of its Rs 240 crore ($30 million) early-stage fund. The fund is structured to follow a classic LP-GP model.

The fund has gathered commitments in the range of Rs 50-75 crores ($6-9 million). LPs include leading family offices and institutional investors in India and the Middle East, including a leading Indian Financial Services institution that has backed the fund. For the next phase of the fundraise, there is a strong pipeline of investors currently evaluating the fund in light of its uniqueness and BankTech sector expertise and focus.

“Despite the negative venture capital environment, we have had success in attracting interest for our fund in light of our BankTech and B2B sector-specialist focus and our global research and consulting reputation over 60+ years.” said Sahil Anand, the fund’s Founder and Managing Partner, who has prior investing experience in Everstone Capital’s PE team.

Deals of the week

• AccessPay closes $24m funding round led by True Ventures
• Lloyds Bank and PayPoint expand card payment partnership
• Zone raises $8.5m to scale its decentralized payment infrastructure
• MoneyGram selects Trustly to launch cardless payments in Europe
• Micropayment and Tink partner to launch Pay by Bank at checkout
• Nationwide Building Society to acquire Virgin Money in $3.7b deal
• Link Money & Silicon Valley Bank to expand pay by bank solution
• Zeller and Oracle team up to power restaurant payments
• FinTech Moove secures $100m Series B funding round
• BaaS provider Solaris secures €96m in extended Series F round

Be on the lookout for

Join us for an exclusive evening of networking and camaraderie at the Cedar Capital and Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab’s Happy Hour in Bengaluru! Presented by the Cedar Consulting and IBS Intelligence group platform.

Following two successful events in Mumbai, we are excited to bring our gathering to the startup hub of India, Bengaluru! Our previous Happy Hours held in October 2023 and February 2024 drew over 120 industry leaders, including FinTech & BankTech Founders, VC & PE Investors, CXO Executives at BFSI institutions, and Cedar-IBSi FinTech Lab Members. These events buzzed with innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, resulting in at least 10 new FinTech collaborations.

Join us to:

• Engage with Cedar Capital’s VC team to discuss your fundraising plans
• Learn about our 7-year-old BankTech Lab and strategies to enhance your GTM (Go-to-Market)
• Connect with Financial Services technology buyers and collaborators
• Explore partnership opportunities with other BankTech and FinTech companies

Please note this is an exclusive invite-only networking event:

• Date: Friday, Apr 19th
• Time: 6:00 PM
• Venue: Central Bengaluru