Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech!This week, were looking at just how much fintech startups raised in 2024, a slew of fundraising deals, Plaids reported revenue growth last year, and more!To get a roundup of TechCrunchs biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.The big storyGlobal funding to fintech startups continues to decline. According to CB Insights State of Fintech 2024 Report, fintech startups globally raised a combined $33.7 billion in funding last year down 20% from the year before. Deal volume also dropped by 17% to 3,580. But there are at least a couple of bright spots: The annual decline in funding was fintechs smallest in three years. Plus, funding rebounded to close the year strong, reaching $8.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2024 up 11% compared to the 2024 third quarter. CB Insights also reported a 33% annual increase in median fintech deal size to $4 million.Dollars and centsImage Credits:LemFiLemFi, a London-based financial services platform designed for immigrants, raised $53 million in new funding, which it will use to fuel efforts to acquire more customers and further expand into more countries.Recharge, a key European player in online prepaid payments, has secured a 45 million debt facility with ABN AMRO to look at rolling up the market with a round of M&A, as well as moving into fintech-style services.French startup Hyperline wants to build the next-generation Chargebee. It raised an initial 4 million funding round from Index Ventures back in 2023 ($4.1 million at todays exchange rate). And Index Ventures is doubling down on this investment as it is investing another $10 million in the startup.Bench, the accounting startup that imploded over the holidays, filed for bankruptcy in Canada on January 7 revealing massive debts, documents seen by TechCrunch show. The filings one for Bench and another for 10Sheet, Benchs original name show that Bench had $2.8 million in cash on hand by the end of its life but $65.4 million in liabilities. Charles Rollet does a deep dive here.More fintech IPOs?! Trading platform eToro has reportedly filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO that could value the company at over $5 billion. Israel-based eToro, which competes with the likes of Robinhood, told TechCrunch it is not commenting on IPO rumors.Amazon has agreed to acquire Indian buy now, pay later startup Axio, deepening its push into financial services in one of its fastest-growing markets.Ex-SoftBank veteran Akshay Nahetas Switzerland-based startup, Distributed Technologies Research (DTR), is attempting to bridge the gap between traditional banking and blockchain technology, joining an army of companies trying to modernize the global payments infrastructure.Barclays Rise is shutting down in 2025.People movesSynctera has hired its first CFO, Matias Pino.Mark Fiorentino announced hes left Index Ventures to join Bain Capital as the newest partner charged with helping to guide the next generation of growth-stage AI-native, vertical SaaS and fintech startups.Last year was a good year for Plaid. Bloomberg reports that revenue at Plaid Inc., which provides infrastructure to connect fintechs and banks, spiked by over 25% last year.Cryptocurrency-wallet provider Phantom Technologies raised $150 million in a funding round at a $3 billion valuation. Sequoia Capital and Paradigm co-led the round.Thanks for reading. Well see you again next week!