Jobs Report Surprise; Erebor Opens Its Doors; Stripe Hits $140Bn Valuation

Job report surprises to the upside. Household delinquencies hit nearly 10-year high. Erebor opens its doors. Bretton AI, Levl raise rounds. Stripe could hit $140Bn valuation on tender offer. Private equity group mulls BILL buyout. MrBeast is acquiring teen banking app Step.

We’re excited to announce that we have upsized our revolving credit facility with Upgrade to $250M, structured by our Principal Finance Group. This upsize enables the continued expansion of Upgrade’s consumer lending platform and builds on our multi-year collaboration.

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Jobs Report a Pleasant Surprise

January’s jobs report was a pleasant surprise. The BLS data, delayed due to the partial government shutdown, shows the U.S. economy added 130,000 jobs in the first month of the year, substantially exceeding analysts’ expectations. Caretaking jobs, such as providing social and healthcare assistance, contributed to the stronger-than-expected increase. Manufacturing added more than 30,000 roles, largely driven by investment in data centers amid the booming interest in AI. The unemployment rate dipped slightly, from 4.4% to 4.3%, per the latest data. However, previously scheduled revisions show that, in 2024, the U.S. only added 1.5Mn jobs, rather than the previously estimated 2Mn. The revision for 2025 was even starker, showing the economy added only 181,000 jobs vs. an earlier estimate of 584,000.

Meanwhile, consumer credit delinquencies have jumped to their highest level in nearly a decade. Some 4.8% of all outstanding household consumer debt is in some stage of delinquency, meaning 30 or more days past due. That’s the highest the metric has been since 2017. Younger and lower-income borrowers are driving the trend. The share of newly delinquent credit card debt, though, is relatively stable, per new data from the New York Fed. Between 8.5%-9% of aggregate card balances have transitioned from current to delinquent each quarter. But, with overall credit card borrowing increasing, the absolute amount of delinquent debt has continued to rise.

Erebor Opens its Doors

Erebor, less than four months after filing its application, has gotten sign off from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on its de novo bank. The firm, backed by Silicon Valley names that include venture capitalist Peter Thiel and defense startup founder Palmer Luckey, intends to try to fill some of the gaps left by the 2023 failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Erebor’s business plan states the bank will aim to serve high-income and high-net-worth individuals, crypto firms, and startups in the AI, manufacturing, and defense sectors. The bank raised $635Mn in capital and officially began operating last Sunday, February 8th. Luckey commented to the Wall Street Journal, saying, “You can think of us like a farmers’ bank for tech. I think most farmers’ banks won’t claim that they’re the best bankers in the world, but they do understand farmers.”

Bretton AI Raises $75Mn Series B

Bretton AI, formerly known as Greenlite AI, announced it has raised a $75Mn Series B. The funding was led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from existing investors that include Greylock, Y Combinator, Thomson Reuters Ventures, and Canvas Ventures. As part of the deal, Sapphire Ventures’ Rajeev Dham will join Bretton AI’s board. Bretton AI offers an AI-powered compliance platform, including agents that power critical financial crimes investigations and compliance workflows. Bretton AI cofounder and CEO Will Lawrence commented on the news, saying, “Financial crime is the breakout use case for AI in financial services. This work is complex, unstructured, and deeply scrutinized. We’ve proven that AI agents can operate in production inside the world’s most regulated institutions when built with the right trust and governance foundations. Bretton AI represents the next chapter of that ambition.”

Levl Scores $7Mn In Seed Funding

Stablecoin infrastructure platform Levl, spun out from crypto firm Galaxy Digital, announced it has raised $7Mn in seed funding. The round was led by Galaxy Ventures, with participation from Deus X, Blockchain Builders Fund, OpenFX, FalconX, CMCC, and a number of high-profile angel investors. Levl aims to win a piece of the $320Tr global cross-border payments market by offering faster and cheaper money movement via stablecoins. The Levl platform enables business to collect, hold, convert, and move currencies across borders. Levl supports fiat, USDC, and USDT. In just four months of operations, Levl has seen payment volume grow to an annualized rate of $1Bn. Levl founder Jaisel Sandhu commented, saying, “Our mission is to democratise access to modern financial infrastructure by bridging traditional payment systems with these new digital rails. We handle all the technical complexity of blockchain infrastructure behind the scenes, so businesses can process payments and move money instantly across major markets, limiting risk and increasing efficiency.”

Stripe Could Hit $140Bn Valuation

Payments giant Stripe is looking to arrange a tender offer at a new valuation that could reach as high as $140Bn, per reporting in Bloomberg. That would be a jump of more than $30Bn from Stripe’s last known valuation number. Tender offers allow existing shareholders to sell shares to new buyers and are often used as a mechanism for early investors or employees to gain access to liquidity while a company remains private. Analysts speculate the tender offer suggests that a Stripe IPO is unlikely in the near term.

H&F Mulls Acquisition of BILL

Buyout group Hellman & Friedman is in talks to acquire Bill Holdings, Inc., commonly known as BILL or BILL.com. The company’s share price spiked nearly 50% on news of the potential acquisition. Still, discussions are ongoing, and there is no certainty if or when there could be a deal, or at what price point.

MrBeast Is Acquiring a Teen Banking App

Social media was abuzz last week with news that MrBeast, the most popular YouTuber, had “bought a bank.” More specifically, MrBeast Industries announced it will acquire teen banking app Step, which partners with Evolve Bank & Trust to provide banking services. Step has raised about half a billion in funding and claims to have more than 7Mn users. The news isn’t entirely surprising, as reports circulated last year that MrBeast had filed trademark applications related to offering financial services. MrBeast, whose legal name is Jimmy Donaldson, commented in an X post, writing, “Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up. I want to give millions of young people the financial foundation I never had.” Whether or not MrBeast is able to turn the reach of his audience into banking customers, however, will remain to be seen.