糖心视频

Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the Crunchbase News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

London-based payments platform Rapyd raises $300M

London-based payments platform raised $300 million in a Series E round led by .

Founded in 2016, Rapyd previously raised at least $470 million in known funding, per Crunchbase data. That total includes a $300 million Series D announced this past January.

Rapyd describes itself as a local and cross-border payments solution for online commerce. Its latest financing comes just one month after the company acquired , an Iceland-based payments provider, for $100 million.

Palta lands $100M for wellness apps

London-based , a provider of health and wellness apps, raised $100 million in a Series B round led by . The round brings total funding to date for the 5-year-old company to $139 million, per Crunchbase data.

Nozomi Networks closes $100M ‘pre-IPO’ round

San Francisco-based raised what it is calling a $100 million 鈥減re-IPO鈥� round. The round 鈥� its Series D 鈥� was led by growth investor .

Nozomi Networks, founded in 2013, now has raised approximately $152.5 million to date, according to Crunchbase. The operation technology and IoT security provider helps industrial companies monitor and secure devices and equipment, as well as gives them better visibility into operations.

The round 鈥� which will be used for product development and to scale a global go-to-market approach 鈥� had a record year of growth in 2020, increasing annual recurring revenue 100 percent, the company said.

鈥� Chris Metinko

Newtopia closes $50M fund for early-stage LatAm startups

Newtopia VC, a new venture capital firm based in Latin America, said it has closed its first fund, a $50 million investment vehicle targeted at early-stage startups.

The fund is led by:

• , co-founder at workplace collaboration tool
• Mariano Mayer, Argentina’s former national secretary for entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises and founder of Marea Venture Partners;
• Sacha Spitz, co-founder and partner at Yavu Ventures and former director at the incubation program;
• Jorge Aguado, Argentina’s former national science, technology and innovation secretary; and
• Juan Pablo Lafosse, founder and former CEO at travel company

The firm also for its inaugural 10-week Newtopia program, which includes $100,000 in capital, mentoring and workshops for the selected pre-seed startups. The firm said that beyond that program for pre-seed companies, it will write checks of between $250,000 and $1 million for seed-stage startups working toward Series A.

Newtopia’s launch comes as global venture investors are increasingly backing Latin America startups. The region now has at least 23 unicorn startups.

鈥� Marlize van Romburgh

Property tech

鈥� Plant Prefab raises $30M: , a Rialto, California-based prefabricated custom homebuilder focused on sustainable design, materials and operations, announced it has raised $30 million in a Series B round co-led by and .

— Joanna Glasner

Illustration: