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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Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) has launched its Crypto app in the European Union (EU), allowing eligible customers to engage in crypto trading with the added incentive of earning Bitcoin rewards. Customers stand to receive up to 1 BTC as a reward when signing up and can earn an additional 1 BTC for each successful referral. The platform claims to be the sole custodial crypto platform in the EU offering customers a percentage of their trading volume back every month, paid in Bitcoin.
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More Stories on FinTech
FinTech: Klarna Trims Workforce…Again
Klarna’s chief operating officer, Camilla Giesecke, sent a live video message to employees on Monday afternoon, announcing that the company would be implementing additional layoffs. The message went out to about 500 employees in three departments, and justified the action on “the more focused nature of today’s Klarna.”
FinTech: Metoda Finance And Mambu Join To Offer Banking Solutions That Are Regulation Compliant In Italy
Global cloud banking and SaaS platform Mambu and Metoda Finance, an Italian provider of compliance and financial services have teamed to offer a suite of Italian regulation-driven banking technology solutions, integrated with Mambu’s SaaS banking platform.
FinTech: Cannabis Wholesale Platform Leaflink Clocks Over $1B In Payments Transactions
Leaflink, a wholesale platform for the cannabis industry that offers payment solutions, announced Wednesday that it had processed over $1 billion in transactions since the company’s inception to date across 1700 active operators and 22 markets.
FinTech: U.S-based Kenyan Fintech WayaPay Launches Digital Bank And App In The US
WayaPay, which has been co-founded by Dr. David Wachira and Hempstone Maroria, both Kenyans living outside of their home country, secured all the necessary regulatory approval in the U.S. for the bank and app. The WayaPay app users can open digital accounts, send money go other Waya users without charges, spend on the cards linked to their Waya account, and make foreign remittances to more than 10 countries in Africa to recipients’ mobile wallets and bank accounts.
FinTech: Travel Technology Company Amadeus Joins With Uplift To Offer BNPL For Travel
Uplift, a provider of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) solutions to enterprises, is joining hands with Amadeus, a leading travel technology provider, for bringing BNPL services to customers in the US and Canada via the Amadeus Xchange Payment Platform (XPP). Amadeus XPP helps travel companies access the latest fintech innovations to improve the payment experience for travelers.
FinTech: The 2022 Finovate Awards Winners
At a glittering event in New York City made up of cocktails, dinner, and entertainment, Finovate celebrated the winning companies and individuals in each category, listed in alphabetical order.
FinTech: Walmart To Foray Into Banking Via Fintech Startup One
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) the retailer with 1.6 million employees at 5,335 store locations across the U.S. and 150 million weekly customers, is finally making serious inroads into banking. One, a fintech startup that is majority owned by the retail giant, will be the vehicle for the new venture, which envisages, in a beta phase, offering checking accounts to its employees and some of its online customers, says a report by Bloomberg.
FinTech: India’s Cashfree Payments Empowers Marketing Platform DASH With Android-Based POS
Indian fintech Cashfree Payments’ POS solution softPOS allows delivery partners, sales agents and field service professionals to collect payments from the customer’s doorstep. DASH, a tech-driven marketing company that helps brands in the FMCG and food commodities segment via its network in the country’s Tier-3 (semi-urban) towns, has deployed softPOS to collect payments using Android phones doubling as POS terminals.
FinTech: JPMorgan Acquires Payments Fintech Renovite
J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) has taken another step towards further enhancing its payments technology and to build out its next-generation merchant acquiring platform. The banking giant announced the acquisition of Renovite, a payments fintech offering a high-tech suite of payment solutions, for an undisclosed amount.
FinTech: Home Improvement Retailer Lowe’s Ties With Instacart For Same Day Delivery
Lowe’s (NYSE: LOW) is now offering same day and scheduled delivery, even for large items weighing up to 60 pounds, through the Instacart App. This fall, holidays will be even more memorable with items such as small Halloween inflatables, fire pit essentials and even small portable grills landing up at home with a few clicks on the App.
FinTech: Mike Cagney-Led Figure Tech To Offer Banking-As-A-Service Via New Subsidiary
Figure Technologies, which is led by CEO and co-founder Mike Cagney, announced it will offer Banking As A Service (BaaS) through Figure Payments Corp, a subsidiary to be known as Figure Pay. Figure Pay, a scalable and rapidly deployable API-driven platform, offers two alternatives – one focused on fintech, non-banks, and retailers, and the other for banks.
FinTech: US Bank Subsidiary Elavon Launches Talech Register, An All-In-One Payments And Analytics Platform
U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB) subsidiary Elavon announced the launch of talech Register, a next generation Point-of-Sale platform suitable for small businesses in North America. Talech Register is an all-in-one payments and business analytics platform that frees up business owners to better manage their operations.
FinTech: Balance Money, A Fintech, Launches Digital Banking
Fintech company Balance Money has debuted a new digital banking service that also provides real-time spend management, thereby providing the additional benefit of budgeting and financial discipline alongside banking functions. Said to be a solution ideal for Millennials and GenZ’rs, it automatically calculates in real time what amount is safe to spend, saving them the “mental gymnastics’ of working it out by checking their bank account each time.
FinTech: Africa-Focused Payments Company Flutterwave Wins Nigerian Payments Processing License
Widely regarded as the CBN’s most valuable payment processing license, it allows the company to offer transaction switching and card processing services to its customers, including the ability to effect transactions between banks, fintechs and other financial institutions.
FinTech: Jupiter Fund Management Looking To Offload Its 10% Stake In Profitable Digital Bank Starling
UK-based Jupiter Fund Management has reportedly asked Citi to find a potential buyer for its 10% holding in Starling Bank, one of the first challenger banks and fintech to become profitable. The stake, said to be worth more than £ 200 million, is held by Jupiter in its UK Mid Cap Fund, as well as other funds.
FinTech: Klarna’s First Half Result Sees Losses Triple From Last Year
Higher employee costs, an increase in credit losses, and investments in growth pushed Klarna to a loss of 6.17 billion Swedish crowns ($578.52 million) in the first half of the year, more than 3X of its loss of 1.76 billion crowns in the corresponding period last year.
FinTech: PayPal Launches “Grant Payments” For Electronic Payments To Charities
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL), in partnership with National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) and Vanguard Charitable, announced Grant Payments, aimed at the faster and electronic processing of charitable donations.
Digital Assets: Latam Crypto Exchanges To Launch Crypto Cards
Ripio, a crypto exchange located in Argentina, and Bitso, a Mexican exchange, have tied up with Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) respectively, for the proposed launch of crypto currency debit and credit cards.
FinTech: Square Eyes UK BNPL Market With Clearpay Integration
Square has leveraged its acquisition of fintech Clearpay by integrating the latter’s BNPL functionality in all its platforms at the same time, including in-store, online, and integration by Square’s developers and partners. Square sellers in the UK can now offer a pay-later solution that allows their customers to pay for their purchases in four interest-free instalments over six weeks. Merchants, however, get paid right away.
FinTech: Saudi-Based BNPL Firm Tamara Scores $100M Round
A report by Reuters says Tamara, a Saudi-based BNPL fintech, raised $100 million in a Series B round. Investors included Sanabil Investments, which is owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF. “We believe the region has a different situation today than globally. The region is thriving with high oil prices,” Chief Executive Abdulmajeed Alsukhan told Reuters. “We want to make sure our customers find the right products that suit them and find amazing deals.”
FinTech: Indian Savings App Jar Lands $22.6M Series B At A $300M Valuation
Jar, an Indian fintech app that wants to “reintroduce this generation to the concept of piggy banks by helping them save in digital gold,” has raised $22.6 million in its Series B round, led by existing investor Tiger Global. Existing investors Arkam Ventures, Eximius Ventures, Force Ventures, LetsVenture, Rocketship Venture Capital and WEH Ventures also participated in the funding. New investors included 1Finance, Capier Investments, Cloud Capital, Folius Ventures, Panthera Capital, Prophetic Ventures and others.
FinTech: eToro To Acquire Options Trading Platform Gatsby For $50M
Social investment network eToro has signed a definitive agreement to acquire options trading platform Gatsby for $50 million. Founded by Co-CEOs and Co-founders Jeff Myers and Ryan Belanger-Saleh in 2018, Gatsby aims for a clientele among younger US investors.
Alternative Investments/Fintech: BlackRock Launches Another ‘Megatrend’ ETF Focused On Disruptive Fintech
BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) announced the expansion of its Megatrends suite with the launch of the BlackRock Future Financial and Technology ETF (NYSEARCA: BPAY), an ETF that invests in companies delivering innovative and emerging technologies that are driving disruption within the financial services industry. The actively managed fund will be run by Lead Portfolio Manager Vasco Moreno of BlackRock’s Fundamental Equity (FE) franchise.
FinTech: Dutch Payments Giant Adyen Disappoints On Earnings
Shares of payments technology provider Adyen NV (AMS: ADYEN) plunged by over 15% to a low of 1544.20 EUR after its earnings report for the first half underwhelmed against market expectations. The company reported revenues of 609 million EUR against expectations of 615 million EUR. Net income was 9.09 EUR per share against a consensus of 9.11 EUR. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) came in at 356.3 million EUR versus the FactSet consensus.