FinTech
Digital payments alone could become a $100 trillion industry, according to PwC. And that’s just one component of the global Fintech industry. This channel tackles the lenders and buyers, the obstacles and achievements, and the trends and trend makers leading the ongoing technological evolution in global finance.
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Digital Assets: Brazilian Fintech PicPay Launches Crypto Exchange With Paxos
PicPay, the well-known Brazilian payment app, has got its shoe in the crypto door in partnership with Paxos, a leading regulated blockchain infrastructure company. Picpay is opening crypto trading services for its over 30 million customers and Paxos will manage the trading and custody of the digital assets. To be opened up gradually, the crypto service will initially cover bitcoin, ethereum and USDP, the regulated dollar-backed stablecoin from Paxos.
FinTech: Telecom Behemoth BT Adds Barclaycard Payments To Partnership Network For Micro-Businesses
BT (LON: BT.A), the telecom major, announced that Barclaycard Payments had joined its partnership network seeking to help the growth of UK microbusinesses. BT customers with 0-5 employees would get extra benefits across broadband, mobile, connected devices, and digital marketing.
FinTech: Banking Solutions Provider Q2 And Rocket Mortgage Tie Up To Offer Home Loan Digitization To Banks
Q2 Holdings (NYSE: QTWO) and Rocket Mortgage announce a partnership to offer Q2 banks and credit unions Rocket Mortgage’s digital home loan application experience, with live mortgage assistance, inside of Q2’s online banking platform.
FinTech: German Bank Nuri Files For Insolvency Amidst Macro Environment And Crypto Bear Market
Nuri, a digital banking platform and app, offered users crypto transactions as well as normal banking activities including a debit card. The firm announced it had filed for insolvency on August 9, 2022 in view of a “lasting strain” on the liquidity of its business amidst “significant macroeconomic headwinds and the cooling down of public and private capital markets,” as well as a crypto bear market.
FinTech: Lord Philip Hammond, Former UK Chancellor, To Join New £1B Fund
A host of luminaries have been roped in to lend their weight to a new £1 billion fund that is envisioned to boost the growth of the UK’s promising fintechs. According to SkyNews, Lord Hammond (pictured above) will join the advisory board of the new fund, the Fintech Growth Fund.
FinTech: Revolut Expands Its UK Crypto List, Adds 22 New Cryptos
Digital challenger bank Revolut has expanded its list of tradeable crypto tokens to 82 by adding 22 new tokens including ApeCoin, Request, Sandbox, and Ethereum Classic.
FinTech: Some Emerging Market Fintechs In Hot Water As Central Banks Crack The Whip
After a months-long investigation, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has ordered Tag, one of the fastest growing startups in the country, to immediately refund all customer funds on grounds of “violations of SBP’s regulatory requirements and other concerns.”
FinTech: American Express Launches Global Pay For U.S. Small Businesses
A new digital money transmission solution from American Express (NYSE: AXP) will make life easier for small US businesses grappling with payments to vendors at home and abroad. American Express Global Pay will enable these firms to send payments funded from their business bank account to their suppliers in more than 40 countries, across a range of currencies, via an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly platform.
FinTech: Payments Software Provider Global Payments To Acquire EVO Payments For $4B
Payments software firm Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) has agreed to acquire payment technology and acquiring solutions firm EVO Payments (NASDAQ: EVOP) for $4 billion in an all-cash transaction valued at $34 per share. The acquisition will allow Global Payments to expand into new territories such as Poland, Germany, Chile, and Greece, as well as scale-up in existing markets, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
FinTech: Australia’s Up Bank Launches Savings Product To Avoid Buyer’s Remorse From BNPL
Up’s new BNPL-killer product seeks to answer the demand for a savings-based alternative to BNPL from more than half (57%) of young Australians. The new “Maybuy” product from Up lets people budget and save for a desirable item they’ve found online, and buy it when they achieve their savings goal.
FinTech: Plaid And Gemini To Collaborate On Crypto Payments
The market cap for cryptocurrencies surpassed $1T in 2021, and venture funding in the field surpassed $25B. The interest in digital assets has grown tremendously over the past few years, both for consumers, businesses, and institutions. However, despite interest in the ecosystem growing, the crypto world has a lot of entry barriers – especially for the new investor starting out. The process is hard, particularly for first-time crypto buyers, involving uploading the right documentation, opening an account, and funding it. Exchanges must provide an easy account-opening process for all users – therefore, Plaid and Gemini are building an easier bridge between traditional finance and crypto worlds.
FinTech: LendingClub Reports Blockbuster Q2 With Solid Growth In Loans And Interest Margins
“Our strong execution, marketplace bank model, member and data advantages, and our continued focus on prudent underwriting have all contributed to an incredible first half of the year with records set for both revenue and profitability,” said Scott Sanborn, LendingClub CEO, when announcing LendingClub’s (NYSE: LC) Second Quarter results. “Despite the more challenging economic backdrop and increased uncertainty, we are well positioned to navigate through this dynamic environment.”
FinTech: Virgin Money UK Launches Slyce, A BNPL Card
British bank Virgin Money (LON: VMUK) launches Virgin Money Slyce, a buy now, pay later credit card. The card will allow customers to spread their payments over several months. The bank will conduct credit checks on potential users before allowing them to use the card. The BNPL card also offers cash back for certain retail purchases, including H&M, Sweaty Betty, Space NK and more.
FinTech: With New BNPL Options, Dentistry Bills Become Painless
A third of U.S. consumers have gone without medical care, citing affordability as the main cause of the neglect. This is particularly acute in the case of dentistry, which can lead to sizable bills. New BNPL options are healthier for patients’ teeth, and dental practices.
FinTech: Australian Neo Bank Volt Returns Deposits, To Hand Back Banking License
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) notes that Australian digital bank Volt Bank (Volt) has refunded its customers’ deposits. The process began on June 29 when Volt declared it would no longer be a bank and that it would return its ADI licence to APRA.
FinTech: “No Credit History Required” Card Offerer Tomocredit Lands $122M
Tomocredit, a credit card provider that does not insist on a FICO score from borrowers such as credit-invisible immigrants and international students with no credit history in the U.S, announced its raise of $122 million in equity and debt. The oversubscribed round met with participation by Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund, MasterCard, and debt from Silicon Valley Bank. Major fintech investors and culture funds including GoldHouse, Asian Hustle network, and Hyphen Capital, also participated.
FinTech: UK Digital Bank Starling Clocks First Full Year Of Profitability
Starling Bank, the UK-based digital challenger bank, announced a maiden profit in its accounts for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022. Compared to a pre-tax loss of £31.5 million for the 16-month period to 31 March 2021, Starling earned a pre-tax profit of £32.1 million for the financial year ending 31 March 2022. Revenue for the latest year was £188 million, nearly doubling from the previous year.
FinTech: UK Online Bank Starling Ends European Ambitions, Pulls Banking Application
British digital challenger bank Starling told staff Monday that it had withdrawn its application for a European banking license from Ireland’s central bank after it spent four years on the process. The bank said in its memo to employees that it will focus instead on new opportunities in lending as well as selling its software-as-a-service product.
FinTech: Corporate Spend Management Platform Airbase Nabs $150M Credit Facility From Goldman Sachs
Airbase, a spend management platform catering to mid-market and enterprise companies, announced today the close of its $150 million debt financing round led by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). Airbase will apply the funding towards the expansion of its corporate charge card program, a component of the spend platform.
FinTech: Stripe Slashes Internal Company Valuation By 28% From $40 Per Share To $29
Stripe, the payments giant founded by the Collison brothers, has cut its internal valuation by 28% according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Stripe’s so-called 409A valuation is the fair market value of the common stock of a private company as valued by a third-party appraiser, and is used to grant employees stock options. According to WSJ’s sources, Stripe informed employees in an email Friday that this value was $29, compared with $40 in the most previous 409A assessment.
FinTech: African Fintech Wave Lets Go 15% Of Its Staff
Wave, the fintech aiming to make Africa a cashless continent, has laid off about 15% of its 2,000 staff amidst a global slump in the values of publicly listed fintech companies, and a massive down round in storied BNPL fintech Klarna.
Venture Capital: Insurtech wefox Lands $400M Round Series D At $4.5B Valuation
Berlin-based insurtech wefox has raised $400 million in a Series D equity round led by Mubadala Investment Company with participation from EDBI, Eurazeo, LGT, Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures and Target Global. In the present environment rife with down rounds (e.g. Klarna), layoffs and collapsing public market values of listed fintechs, wefox said it bucked the trend currently experienced in the insurtech market and more broadly across the tech sector.
FinTech: Agrotoken Backs Its Visa Alliance With Blockchain For Agro-Focused Card
Agrotoken, which is developing a tokenized infrastructure for trading agrocommodities, announced Monday its partnership with Pomelo (a provider of technological infrastructure for financial services) and Algorand (a layer-1 blockchain) to develop a card for the agrocommodity sector. Agrotoken previously entered an alliance with Visa (NYSE: V) to create a payment method allowing agricultural producers to use their grains as a form of payment through a card.
FinTech: Klarna Raises $800M At Slashed Valuation To Pursue US Expansion
It’s a monster down round (one in which the startup is forced to accept a lower valuation than that in a previous round) for Klarna, showing how risk averse venture firms have become in an environment that punishes tech companies first and asks questions later. It is also a pointer to the slowing allure of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), a fintech product that is Klarna’s bread and butter line. The fintech’s latest round received investment from existing investors including Sequoia, the founders, Bestseller, Silver Lake and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. New investors included the Mubadala Investment Company and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.