Because it’s been difficult to concentrate owing to world events in the latter part of this week, please pardon me if my tone isn’t as cheery as usual. My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Ukraine, as well as our TechCrunch readers there. This week, I discussed a few examples of fintech businesses taking a horizontal strategy to their business. Pipe, which aspires to be the “Nasdaq for revenue,” has announced that it will enter the media and entertainment space. Ramp, a corporate expenditure firm, has revealed to TC exclusively that it is expanding into the travel industry.
Pipe’s entrance into media and entertainment was unexpected, and it will be fascinating to see if it proves to be a profitable one. The business appears to believe that its approach can be applied to a wide range of industries outside SaaS, which is where it began. Meanwhile, Ramp’s entry into travel pits it against TripActions, which made the opposite move when the pandemic struck, switching from helping firms control travel spending to helping them manage corporate spend in general. You may recall that I looked at this increasingly crowded and competitive market a few weeks ago. It’s evident that things are only going to grow hotter, and you can bet I’ll be watching closely.
We seem to be witnessing an increase in the number of female-led fintech firms, and I’m all for that. I wrote last week about two firms with female co-founders and CEOs, and I was blown away by each of them. Gloria Lin’s history as Stripe’s first product manager and a member of the team that helped create ApplePay set the road for her to ultimately help launch Siteline, a fintech geared at making it easier and faster for commercial trade contractors to be paid. Her purpose is both personal and professional. While she was growing up, her father had a trade contracting firm, and she witnessed firsthand the difficulties he experienced due to having to wait months for payment.
Construction is one of the least technologically advanced businesses. So it was exciting to see that Siteline has come out of stealth with $18.4 million in investment – $15 million in a Series A headed by Menlo Ventures and $3.4 million in a seed round led by Brick & Mortar Ventures and First Round Capital – to continue its mission to “reimagine construction finance.” This is at least the fourth construction tech startup with a female co-founder that I’ve written about in the last year. I’d want to see it!
I also wrote about Piata, a firm co-founded by Lily Liu that aims to assist tenants to get rewarded for paying their rent on time while simultaneously building their credit, which just acquired $13 million in Series An investment led by Wilshire Lane Capital. I’ve previously written about other firms that aim to assist tenants in establishing a credit history (because, frankly, how unjust is it that on-time rent payments have historically been ignored?). Piata claims that its unique selling point is that it is free to renters. Property management businesses and landlords that join up for the company’s service pay a monthly fee for a premium customisable package.
On the business development side of what it does, it makes income through fees from brands and partners. Still, there is a long way to go in terms of equitable female representation in fintech leadership positions. “In the realm of startups, the worldwide fintech founder community was still dominated by men, with women making up only 7% of the overall pool,” according to Deloitte in 2020.
