Hey Fintech'ers 👋

📰 Fintecher Stories – June 1st, 2025 has officially landed — your fintech fix, freshly brewed for the Sunday scroll and packed with the week's biggest shifts. ☕📱

Whether you're recovering from a sun-soaked Saturday, squeezing in one last productive hour, or just easing into a slower Sunday rhythm, your 5-minute download of fintech's most important headlines is here.

This week: Chime’s $31/share valuation puts IPO talk back on the table, Rillet raises $25M to automate the accounting back office with AI, Mastercard teams up with Habito for SMB mortgage support, MPowered debuts “Uber-style” case tracking for brokers, and Velocity hits $10M pre-seed to power cashflow for small firms.

So settle in, scroll on, and step into the new week already ahead of the game. 🚀

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Delving into the leading 5 fintech stories of the week:

🗞️ Story 1: "Chime's IPO Targets $11B Valuation Amid Market Resurgence" 📈💳

🗞️ Story 2: "Rillet Raises $25M to Modernize Accounting with AI" 🤖📊

🗞️ Story 3: "Mastercard x Habito Team Up for SME Mortgage Support" 🏠🇬🇧

🗞️ Story 4: "MPowered Debuts Real-Time Case Tracking for Brokers" 📱🔍

🗞️ Story 5: "Velocity Raises $10M to Power Stablecoin Infrastructure" 🌐💸

🗞 Story #1

Chime is preparing for a long-anticipated IPO, aiming for an $11 billion valuation—well below its previous $25B peak in 2021. The neobank reported $1.67 billion in revenue last year, up 30%, while also slashing net losses by over 80%. It’s riding a broader fintech market recovery and has tapped Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorganChase as lead underwriters. Investors are watching closely as this listing could reset fintech valuation expectations across the board. Chime’s performance will likely shape sentiment for peers like Stripe, Klarna, and Plaid that are waiting in the wings.

💡 Why It Matters: Chime’s IPO marks a crucial test for public fintech appetite. After years of inflated private valuations and market recalibrations, a successful listing at a more grounded valuation could restore investor confidence and reopen the IPO window for late-stage fintechs. It’s also a signal that fintechs with sustainable growth and reduced burn rates are back in vogue. If Chime navigates this moment well, it will shift the conversation from inflated dreams to durable, scaled fintech execution.

📰 Read full story here

🗞 Story #2

Rillet , a London-based startup, raised $25 million from Sequoia Capital to automate general ledger workflows using AI. Their platform integrates with CRMs and payments platforms (like Salesforce and Stripe) to help finance teams close books faster and with fewer errors. Targeting the underserved mid-market, Rillet aims to modernise accounting software and challenge legacy players like Oracle NetSuite. Their solution turns data entry, reconciliation, and reporting into a real-time, automated process that reduces month-end close timelines from weeks to days.

💡 Why It Matters: Mid-market finance teams are often stuck between basic tools and enterprise giants. Rillet brings AI automation where it’s desperately needed: to simplify ops without losing rigor. It’s also a signal that infrastructure fintech—especially in back-office and B2B—has become a VC favourite again. As AI becomes embedded in core finance, Rillet is positioning itself as a next-gen system of record.

📰 Read full story here

🗞 Story #3

Mastercard has teamed up with digital mortgage platform Habito to offer personalised mortgage advice to UK small business owners through its Business Bonus initiative. This partnership will enable entrepreneurs to access tailored property financing solutions, whether for home buying or investment. The service is free, aiming to break down complexity for SME customers—often underserved in mortgage markets—and simplify application hurdles. Mastercard continues to broaden its support for small business ecosystems beyond payments and into core life decisions like home ownership.

💡 Why It Matters: SMEs make up the backbone of the UK economy but often lack access to advisory services tailored to their financial complexity. This initiative reflects a growing trend: ecosystem players extending vertically into deeper service layers, especially for underserved groups. Mastercard isn't just a payments rail anymore—it’s becoming a full-stack SME ally.

📰 Read full story here

Story #4

MPowered Mortgages launched a new timeline tool for mortgage brokers that offers real-time tracking of every application stage—much like delivery or ride-hailing apps. Brokers can now follow affordability checks, property valuations, and approvals in a single dashboard, boosting transparency and response times. It's part of the firm's larger tech-led push to modernise the UK mortgage experience, and ease friction in broker-client interactions.

💡 Why It Matters: UK mortgage brokers handle a huge chunk of volume but often face outdated systems. By bringing UX best practices from consumer tech into broker tools, MPowered is bridging the gap between speed, transparency, and compliance. This is mortgage servicing built for the post-Uber age.

📰 Read full story here

🗞 Story #5

Velocity, a new fintech infrastructure startup out of London, has raised $10M in pre-seed capital from Activant Capital, Fuel Ventures 🚀 and angels from Stripe, Visa, and PayPal. The company is building settlement rails specifically designed for stablecoin transactions in B2B and treasury contexts. While much of crypto is still speculative, Velocity is betting on regulated, dollar-backed stablecoins as a bridge between Web3 and traditional banking, helping corporates use them for real-time global payments and liquidity management.

💡 Why It Matters: Stablecoins are moving out of the crypto sandbox and into enterprise use cases. With support from payments industry veterans, Velocity is betting that infrastructure—not consumer hype—is where digital assets can prove their staying power. This is about making stablecoins boring, safe, and fast—and that's a good thing.

📰 Read full story here

And that's a wrap fintech'ers, till next week. 🎬👋

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Disclaimers: (1) Please be aware that the opinions I express in this newsletter are my own and do not represent the viewpoints of any organisation I am associated with. (2) This newsletter is intended solely for educational purposes, and none of its content should be interpreted as any form of investment or financial guidance.

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