CheQ’s Post

CheQ's recent Rs 18.5 crore funding round highlights the growing interest in fintech solutions that streamline financial management. Founded in 2022, CheQ offers a unified platform for managing credit products, addressing a significant pain point for consumers. Despite being pre-revenue, with modest earnings of Rs 2 crore and losses of Rs 19.4 crore last fiscal year, CheQ’s innovative approach and strong investor backing underscore its potential. Competing against giants like CRED, CheQ's valuation of Rs 460 crore indicates confidence in it’s growth scenario. This investment will likely fuel further expansion and marketing, positioning CheQ as a formidable player in the world of financial technology. The focus on growth despite financial losses reflects a strategic gamble on long-term market capture and technological advancement. https://lnkd.in/gDAFhKcM #Fintech #FinancialTechnology #Investment #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #CreditManagement #FinancialManagement #GrowthHacking #DisruptingTheIndustry #UnifiedPlatform

🚀 How We Bootstrapped Zūm Rails from $0 to Seven Figures in ARR 💸 We're thrilled to share our journey of growth at Zūm Rails from concept into a thriving business with $10M in ARR—all without initial investor backing! In just five years, co-founders Miles Schwartz and marc milewski have taken Zūm Rails to new heights, leveraging the power of open banking and instant payments to revolutionize the fintech industry. 👉 Key Takeaways: - Innovative Approach: Zūm Rails merges open banking with instant payments, streamlining processes for businesses. - Initial Pitch Rejection: Miles pitched the idea to his former employer, but they weren’t ready for it. - Comprehensive Solution: Our platform can replace up to seven different service providers. - Bootstrapping Success: We became profitable before securing our first investment. - Visibility Boost: A LinkedIn post by Miles about our growth journey changed external perceptions dramatically. From bootstrapping around a kitchen table to closing a $10.5M Series A round, our story is one of perseverance, innovation, and strategic growth. We're grateful for our dedicated team and partners who have helped us every step of the way. Discover more about our journey and how we're transforming the payments industry: Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/et6FU79V #Fintech #StartupStory #Bootstrapping #Entrepreneurship #OpenBanking #InstantPayments #GrowthJourney #LinkedInSuccess #ZūmRails #Payments #Paytech #Fintech #Business #Innovation Founder Reports

“Most hard problems of scale are solved with boring discipline versus random brilliance.": wrote CRED’s Kunal Shah on X. Reacting to his post, an X user said, "While discipline is the workhorse, a sprinkle of creative thinking can lead to elegant solutions. Both play a crucial role 🤔". One user replied: Long-term success comes from consistency and dedication. What are your thoughts on this, share in the comments. #startuppedia #kunalshah #cred #startup

What do you do when you find founders who have deep experience in a traditional domain like construction tech and have spent years honing their insights in the domain. Combine that with Co-founders experience being founding engineers of giants like Rippling and spent time on building banking and fintech infrastructure at companies like Niyo. We at Neon love working with such domain experts who come together to startup. Construction tech is a domain that deserves founders like Merlin to disrupt it. As I say it can’t get better that this founding team. Read more about Neon’s portfolio Merlin and our founders Sneha, Siddhartha and Ayantika here: https://lnkd.in/g4m9su-e

Empire Startups - Everything FinTech Empire FinTech Conference has kicked off! And what a way to start with Nicole Casperson once again at the heart of the action, hosting the first panel alongside Amy Nauiokas, Johnny Ayers & Tommy Nicholas. If you're in attendance at the conference drop me a message, happy to meet up for a chat about all things FinTech hiring & talent!

Braid, the fintech startup, raised $10m from big VCs like Accel. 4 years later, Braid shut down in 2023. Why? Here's what happened 👇🏻 Braid was a consumer payments startup founded in 2019 to provide a money pool (a multi-user financial account) to help users simplify the process of pooling, managing and spending money collectively. It was a brilliant idea back then because multi-user financial accounts from banks - simply sucked. Guess what? Consumers loved what Braid was building! Braid’s payment volume grew ~5% a week and they went from processing less than $10K a day to having multiple $100K+ days, in the span of around five months. Braid was on track to pass $10 million in monthly volume by Q4 2022. Well, in July 2022, everything changed. Suddenly, Braid's sponsor bank stopped replying to emails and ignored Braid. It was an existential crisis to Braid because no payments could be processed without a sponsor bank (welcome to fintech 😂). The result? Braid was in a coma until January 2023. Luckily, Braid found a new sponsor bank, but they still struggled. The tech migration and integration were a pain in the arse. The biggest blow to Braid was when a critical third-party software informed them that they’d changed their mind on a key technical decision. It’s like you migrated your software to a new ecosystem, but all the pieces were falling apart, and this is what happened to Braid. Finally, in April 2023, Peyton decided to shut it down, and Braid was gone. From a successful fintech startup to the collapse of Braid, there are many mistakes made, there are also many lessons learned for founders. Which lessons did we miss? 🤝🏻 *** This Saturday, we'll break down 2 costly mistakes made by the founder (Peyton) and lessons learned for founders in our newsletter, join us here if you want to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gN4ySaEf

Braid, the fintech startup, raised $10m from big VCs like Accel. 4 years later, Braid shut down in 2023. Why? Here's what happened 👇🏻 Braid was a consumer payments startup founded in 2019 to provide a money pool (a multi-user financial account) to help users simplify the process of pooling, managing and spending money collectively. It was a brilliant idea back then because multi-user financial accounts from banks - simply sucked. Guess what? Consumers loved what Braid was building! Braid’s payment volume grew ~5% a week and they went from processing less than $10K a day to having multiple $100K+ days, in the span of around five months. Braid was on track to pass $10 million in monthly volume by Q4 2022. Well, in July 2022, everything changed. Suddenly, Braid's sponsor bank stopped replying to emails and ignored Braid. It was an existential crisis to Braid because no payments could be processed without a sponsor bank (welcome to fintech 😂). The result? Braid was in a coma until January 2023. Luckily, Braid found a new sponsor bank, but they still struggled. The tech migration and integration were a pain in the arse. The biggest blow to Braid was when a critical third-party software informed them that they’d changed their mind on a key technical decision. It’s like you migrated your software to a new ecosystem, but all the pieces were falling apart, and this is what happened to Braid. Finally, in April 2023, Peyton decided to shut it down, and Braid was gone. From a successful fintech startup to the collapse of Braid, there are many mistakes made, there are also many lessons learned for founders. Which lessons did I miss? 🤝🏻 *** This Saturday, I'll break down 2 costly mistakes made by the founder (Peyton) and lessons learned for founders in my newsletter, join us here if you want to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gKDxanMK

Reposting Kunal Shah's insightful thoughts on the disconnect between fame and skill. This trend can deter youth from valuing real skills, impacting their future prospects. Let's encourage skill development for long-term success. #SkillOverFame #YouthDevelopment #FutureSkills #Entrepreneurship #LongTermSuccess #WorkEthic #CareerGrowth

People always talk about how small the payments space is, but what does that really mean? Reflecting on last week at ETA Transact, here’s what that statement means to me: 1. After being in payments my entire career, a show like ETA feels like homecoming. It’s impossible not to run into folks I know in the elevator, walking the halls, hanging at the booth, at dinner, at the airport (you get the idea). 2. You never know who is coming back next year with a different company. One day you’re competitors, the next your partners. It was incredible to see how many of my friends have switched roles but are still playing this crazy game we call payments. 3. Expanding on number 2, don’t sleep on the value of your reputation. How you treat people matters, and you never know whose help you will need in the future. A little kindness goes a long way. 4. “Your network is your networth” (or something like that 🤷♂️). I was amazed at how many quality introductions I recieved this year to potential partners, vendors, employees, and investors from folks in my network. 5. Word of mouth is powerful when done right. Everybody knows everybody in payments so doing right by your partners and building a strong brand can create network effects very quickly in this space. What did I leave out? 👀 #payments #eta #startups #smallworld

It takes 5.9 years on average to get to $1B+ valuation in fintech. It’s exciting, but with over 1,250 unicorns globally, it’s not as rare as it used to be. Unicorns are cool, but Gorillas are built to last. 🦍 The real question now isn’t just: can you become a unicorn? It’s: can you stay there? Valuation alone doesn’t cut it anymore. You need the fundamentals — and that’s where the Gorilla comes in. From definition by Susa Ventures - Gorilla isn’t just worth $1B+. It’s also generating $100M+ in net revenue. Good examples are Revolut, Wise or Monzo. There’s no shortage of unicorns in fintech. But the companies that combine big valuations with real, sustainable revenue will stick around. So, who do you think is next in line to become a Gorilla? Sources/credits: Team8, Susa Ventures #fintech #banking #vc #venturecapital