The firm is reportedly planning for a joint listing in the U.S. and Canada with Goldman Sachs as the lead underwriter. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: The IPO is expected to net a higher valuation than the US$2 billion it was valued at in December 2019 when Nuvei raised US$270 million. Nuvei has grown rapidly since 2017, when the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Novacap purchased a majority stake at a valuation of $525 million. The company has had a busy few months. It hired a chief commercial officer, completed its US$889 million acquisition of SafeCharge and obtained approval to process sports bets payments in Indiana. This is potentially another lucrative tech IPO for the Caisse, a major beneficiary of Lightspeed’s $276 million IPO in 2019.

Boston-based Mendoza Ventures led the round along with San Francisco-based Breakaway Growth. Several Canadian investors, including Inovia Capital and the Business Development Bank of Canada, also participated. (The Logic)

Talking point: Senso helps financial institutions manage their retail portfolios, with a particular focus on the U.S. market. The company is looking to more than double its team of 25 over the next year and a half, with its sales team growing in the U.S. while research and development remains at its Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo offices. Senso is the latest in a string of Canadian fintechs that are looking south in a bid to expand. Earlier this week, Nest Wealth raised up to $50 million, which it plans to use for a US expansion. In January, The Logic reported that d1g1t was looking to the U.S. after passing $50 billion in assets.

Luge Capital, Panache Ventures and Intact Ventures also invested in Flinks, which is looking to open a U.S. office with the funds and double its 65-person staff in the next few months. (Betakit)

Talking point: Flinks is also planning to use the funds for a new wealth management product. That’s a crowded, but lucrative, area of focus for a number of Canadian fintechs. In January, The Logic reported that Toronto fintech d1g1t was expanding to the U.S. after passing $50 billion in assets under management in part by partnering with large financial institutions. Flinks is taking a similar approach, and has relationships with several members of the Big Five banks in addition to projects it’s working on with National Bank. Flinks’s raise is the latest example of how fintechs continue to attract investors despite the pandemic. In London, for example, 39 per cent of all tech investment in 2020 so far went to fintechs.

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) gave a conditional OK to the San Francisco-based firm to operate Square Financial Services in Utah. The company will offer small-business loans to those who use Square payment devices. (The Wall Street Journal)

Talking point: Square Financial Services isn’t a traditional bank, per se, but an “industrial-loan company”—essentially allowing it to operate as a bank while being part of a corporation that has non-banking activities. Square’s move into banking irked some at the FDIC, and previous attempts to secure an ILC by Walmart were foiled. Yet the majority of comment letters received by the regulatory agency supported Square’s bid.

Neo Financial, helmed by Andrew Chau and Jeff Adamson, intends to offer a credit card and savings account, and has over 17,000 people on its waitlist. (The Logic)

Talking point: Chau and Adamson helped grow SkipTheDishes into a made-on-the-Prairies tech success story—with 4.4 million customers and over 2,300 employees—that was purchased by Just Eat for $186 million in 2016. The two plan to build this 50-person company in Western Canada, as well, launching first in Calgary in the next few months. It’s partnering with a bank outside the Big Five for its savings account before rolling out Canada-wide. Neo is the first portfolio firm under Harvest Venture Builder, an accelerator for Prairies-based startups that hopes to build multiple tech successes in the region. However, Neo plans to focus on consumer financing, an increasingly crowded market. Koho and Wealthsimple are offering bank accounts, and U.K.-based fintechs TransferWise and Revolut have been granted money-services business licences in Canada. Acquiring customers for this kind of business can be costly. Wealthsimple, for example, spends an estimated $20 million a year on marketing. Neo thinks it can compete by offering an easy user experience, a loyalty program and partnerships with smaller merchants.

The announcement comes after the company’s successful US$500-million Series D funding round led by U.S. fund TCV, an early backer of companies like Airbnb, Netflix and Spotify. The new valuation is three times greater than what it was at the company’s 2018 fundraising round. (Financial Times)

Talking point: Despite not yet having made a profit, Revolut is now the U.K.’s most valuable financial technology startup after this funding round. “Our focus is on rolling-out banking operations in Europe, increasing the number of people who use Revolut as their daily account, and striving towards profitability,” CEO Nik Storonsky said in a statement. The startup wants to build a global financial service to replace traditional bank accounts. It has 23 offices worldwide and employs about 2,000 staff, serving over 10 million customers, with a goal to expand that to 100 million in the next five years. The company said its user base grew 169 per cent in 2019. Last fall, it made a deal with Visa to enter the North American market, where competition is increasing after rival app Monzo launched in the United States last year.