Mary Ann Azevedo

Senior Reporter, Fintech, TechCrunch

Mary Ann Azevedo has more than 20 years of business reporting and editing experience for publications such as FinLedger, Crunchbase News, Crain, Forbes and Silicon Valley Business Journal. Prior to joining TechCrunch in 2021, she earned numerous awards including the New York Times Chairman’s Award and others for breaking news coverage. She holds a Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas in Austin, where she currently lives.

Mary Ann Azevedo

Latest from Mary Ann Azevedo

AI was prominent in the news cycle this week — yet again. In this Friday’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo…

Maybe it’s a good thing that we’re not seeing too many AI unicorns

In today’s episode of Equity Podcast, Mary Ann Azevedo talked to Flourish Ventures co-founders Tilman Ehrbeck, Emmalyn Shaw and Arjuna Costa about a variety of…

Flourish Ventures on repeat founders, emerging markets and when not to hop on the AI bandwagon

New York-based fintech Payoneer has acquired Skuad, a Singapore-based global HR and payroll startup, for $61 million in cash, the company exclusively told TechCrunch.  Payoneer said it could also pay…

Fintech Payoneer is buying 5-year-old global payroll startup Skuad for $61M in cash

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Revolut’s reported valuation hike, fintech unicorns, the Disrupt Fintech Stage, and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most…

Europe’s most valuable fintech, and which startups became unicorns this year

Global startup funding was up 16% in the second quarter, according to Crunchbase data, led by an uptick in mega-rounds. That increase was led, unsurprisingly,…

Global startup funding is picking up with AI still in the spotlight

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Stripe’s easy-peasy acquisition, the role fintech played in Clio’s latest raise, the latest with digital banking startup Mercury, and more.  To…

Fintech giant Stripe keeps on buying

Historically, passive income has been associated with investing in real estate such as rental properties. FranShares is a Chicago-based startup that wants to offer investors another form of passive income:…

FranShares has a new approach to passive income, letting people invest in franchises for as little as $500

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is packed with some significant fundraises, a potentially…

Alphabet is clearly looking to buy, so who’s selling, and why did Wiz say no?

Maven Ventures general partner Sara Deshpande has been investing in the consumer tech space for a decade. Over time, the seed-stage venture firm has backed…

Cracking the AI and consumer code with early Zoom-backer Maven Ventures

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Human Interest’s path toward an IPO, fintech’s newest unicorn, a slew of new fundraises, and more. To get a roundup of…

The next fintech to go public may not be the one you expected

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Legal tech Clio raises $900M at a $3B valuation, plans to double down on AI and fintech

Clio, a Canadian software company that aims to help law practices run more efficiently with its cloud-based technology, has raised $900 million in a Series F round that values the company at $3 billion. The valuation is nearly double the $1.6 billion valuation the Vancouver, British Columbia company achieved in…

Legal tech Clio raises $900M at a $3B valuation, plans to double down on AI and fintech

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is packed with deals, antitrust musings, AI and…

Silicon Valley’s impact on the election and an acquisition making our HeadSpin

Coast, a startup that describes itself as “a financial services platform for the future of transportation,” has raised $40 million in Series B funding — just four months after announcing…

Fintech startup Coast lands $40M just 4 months after its last $25M raise

To say that Pix, the instant payment system created by the Central Bank of Brazil, has been a resounding success is an understatement. With Pix, money moves directly between core…

Matera raises $100M from Warburg Pincus to help the US catch up to Brazil in instant payments

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Sequoia Capital’s effort to give its LPs liquidity on the firm’s investments in Stripe, how LatAm fintechs are still catching investors’…

Sequoia bets big on Stripe, LatAm fintechs clean up and one African startup’s outsized Series A

Payments giant Stripe has delayed going public for so long that its major investor Sequoia Capital is getting creative to offer returns to its limited partners. The venture firm emailed…

Major Stripe investor Sequoia confirms $70B valuation, offers its investors a payday

Here is a timeline of Synapse’s troubles and the ongoing impact it is having on banking consumers. 

Synapse’s collapse has frozen nearly $160M from fintech users — here’s how it happened

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HeadSpin, whose founder is in prison for fraud, sold to PE firm in fire sale, sources say

In total, HeadSpin raised $117 million since its 2015 inception and was last valued at $1.1 billion in 2020.

HeadSpin, whose founder is in prison for fraud, sold to PE firm in fire sale, sources say

Mike Maples Jr. is a prolific angel investor and co-founder of early-stage venture firm Floodgate. Over the years, he’s taken a lot of bets. Some…

Floodgate’s Mike Maples explains how startups that most people ‘don’t like’ are the best ones to back

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! Last week was a holiday in the United States, so news was a bit lighter than normal. But there was still fintech-related items to report, including…

Should venture capitalists be held accountable when startups screw up?

The situation around a data breach that’s affected an ever-growing number of fintech companies has gotten even weirder. Evolve Bank & Trust announced last week that it was hacked and…

Newsletter writer covering Evolve Bank’s data breach says the bank sent him a cease and desist letter

A group of senators has banded together to urge Synapse’s owners and bank and fintech partners to “immediately restore customers’ access to their money.” As part of their demands, the…

Senators urge owners, partners and VC backers of fintech Synapse to restore customers’ access to their money

Plaid’s expansion into being a multi-product company has led to real traction beyond traditional fintech customers.

Plaid, once aimed at mostly fintechs, is growing its enterprise business and now has over 1,000 customers signed on

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is jam-packed with deals, hot topics and the…

AI-powered drug development, VW teams up with Rivian and DEI is ‘bad’

We’re incredibly excited to announce that we’ve added a dedicated Fintech Stage to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. It joins Space, SaaS and AI as the other industry-focused stages — all under…

Announcing the agenda for the Fintech Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Rainforest, a startup that embeds payment processing into other software platforms, has raised $20 million in Series A funding — less than a year after announcing the close of its…

Rainforest lands $20M to challenge Stripe with embedded payments for SaaS providers

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at a Brex exec’s jump to join venture firm a16z, Klarna selling off its payments unit and some mega-raises. To get a roundup…

From Brex exec to venture capitalist

Get ready for a jam-packed episode of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups! This week, co-hosts Mary Ann Azevedo and Haje Kamps…

Ilya Sutskever’s new AI venture, and time to BeReal about bankruptcy

Ali Rathod-Papier has stepped down from her role as global head of compliance at corporate card expense management startup Brex to join venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a partner…

Brex’s compliance head has left the fintech startup to join Andreessen Horowitz as a partner

Gynger, a platform that lends capital to companies for technology purchases, has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by PayPal Ventures, it told TechCrunch exclusively. The financing…

PayPal Ventures leads $20M round into Gynger, which offers companies ‘buy now, pay later’ for technology purchases