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: Marqeta To Power Klarna’s Physical Visa Card For BNPL
Global card issuing platform Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) and BNPL fintech Klarna are working together on the issue of a physical Visa (NYSE: V) card – the Klarna Card – that Klarna customers can use to avail the facility to pay over time in four equal, interest-free payments for any in-store or online purchase
FinTech: Stripe To Offer Its Users Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout For BNPL
The two companies announced their strategic partnership on Tuesday. Stripe and Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM) have agreed that Affirm’s Adaptive Checkout™ would be made available to businesses using Stripe’s payments platform. These entities can now add the Adaptive Checkout technology to their own checkouts easily and quickly. (BusinessWire) The Affirm Adaptive Checkout for BNPL Affirm’s Adaptive…
Venture Capital: Fast-Growing Fintech And Mega Insurance Broker Acrisure Raises $725 Million
Acrisure, the fast-growing fintech and operator of a global top-10 insurance broker, has raised $725 million via Series B-2 Preferred Equity round led by a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). Also participating were Guggenheim Investments on behalf of certain clients and Oak Hill Advisors.
FinTech: B2B Fintech Mondu Scores $43M Series A Led By Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures
Mondu, a Berlin-based fintech startup eyeing a BNPL product for businesses, has raised $43 million in a Series A round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. Other participants in the funding included existing investors Cherry Ventures and FinTech Collective alongside angels from leadership at Klarna, Zalando and SumUp.
FinTech: National Australia Bank (NAB) Introduces ‘NAB Now Pay Later’
National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) is muscling into fintechs’ preserve with its own version of Buy-Now-Pay-Later. NAB’s pay later product is called “NAB Now Pay Later,” and gives Australians more control of their money, according to the bank.
FinTech: There’s That Term Again – “Impacted” (Read: Fired); This Time It’s Checkout Startup Bolt
Bolt Financial, the one-click checkout fintech, has kicked off employee layoffs, citing macro challenges and changing market conditions in the industry and tech sector.
FinTech: Klarna, Last Valued At $46B, Cuts Workforce By 10%
On Monday, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Klarna’s CEO and co-founder, told all his employees to work from home this week. The reason: to soften the blow, and “in consideration of the privacy of the people affected” by the fintech’s decision to lay off 10% of the workforce. The fintech, famous for “buy-now-pay-later,” said it was the “hardest” decision it ever made.
Venture Capital: Big-Ticket Funding Rounds In Fintechs
Fast-growing, Southeast Asia-focused payments infrastructure platform Xendit closed on a US$300 million Series D funding co-led by Coatue and Insight Partners with additional investment from Accel, Tiger Global, Kleiner Perkins, EV Growth, Amasia, Intudo, and Justin Kan’s Goat Capital. BaaS platform Unit announced a $100 million Series C led by Jeff Horing of Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors Accel, Better Tomorrow Ventures, and Flourish, as well as new investors Stepstone, Moving Capital (Uber alumni syndicate), and prominent fintech angels.
FinTech: Sam Bankman-Fried Led FTX.US Makes Inroads Into Stock Trading
FTX Stocks is an equity trading platform offered through the FTX US trading application. FTX US announced Thursday a private beta phase trading on the platform for US customers selected from a waitlist. These customers would get access to hundreds of US exchange-listed securities, including common stocks and ETFs, alongside the cryptos already available in the FTX US app.
FinTech: Block’s Square Acquires GoParrot For Its Restaurant Platform
GoParrot is an all-in-one digital ordering and marketing platform for restaurants. In a Wednesday blog post, Square, which is part of global fintech Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ), announced its acquisition of GoParrot, a digital ordering and marketing platform. GoParrot’s advanced marketing software and platform enable restaurants to easily connect and interact with their customers. However,…
FinTech: WhatsApp Adds ‘Pay’ Button To Contacts List For Quick And Easy Payments To Loved Ones
An exclusive report by PYMNTS reveals that WhatsApp, the messaging platform owned by Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB), has added a new “Pay” button for facilitating payments to persons in a user’s contacts list such as friends, relatives and family.
FinTech: UK Payments And BNPL Platform Zilch Launches In The US
Zilch set a solid growth trajectory in the UK, amassing over two million customers within 18 months of launch in the UK, and winning a valuation of over $2 billion in a Series C funding round that raised $400 million in debt and equity from investors including Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). Zilch has now entered the US, and is partnering with Experian, the credit reporting agency.
Venture Capital: Healthcare BNPL Provider Walnut Raises $110M
Yash Joshi, CTO, (left) and Roshan Patel, CEO, (right) founded Walnut in 2020 to make healthcare more affordable for patients by breaking up large medical bills into small, monthly payments without fees or interest. The startup fintech announced its $110 million Series A led by Gradient Ventures with strong participation from new and existing investors including Newark Ventures, Afore Capital, 2048 Ventures, CityRock Ventures, AngelList, Weekend Fund, Company Ventures, Banana Capital, Goodwater Capital, and Muse Capital. Founders and executives from Teachable, Clearbit, and Afterpay also participated.
FinTech: UK Households Resort To BNPL To Cover Surging Energy Bills
A survey in April by the Office for National Statistics in Great Britain showed that about four in 10 British households are finding it difficult to pay for gas and electricity and a similar proportion are buying less food. The survey reflected the impact of the change in the energy bill cap set by the UK regulator and the deepening cost of living crisis in the country. Furthermore, consumer groups are warning that households’ finances are stretched enough for them to resort to buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) schemes to pay energy bills.
Alternative Investments/Fintech: AXS Investments Launches Leveraged Innovation ETF
Alternative investment asset manager AXS Investments launched the AXS 2X Innovation ETF (NASDAQ: TARK), a 2X leveraged product focused on companies involved in transformational industries, such as fintech, autonomous vehicles, genomics and next-gen internet.
FinTech: Fast-Growing Neo Financial Raises $145M , Turns Canadian Unicorn
Canadian fintech Neo Financial has raised US$145 million dollars in its latest funding and attained unicorn status after achieving a valuation of over $1 billion. The new financing round was led by Valar Ventures and saw participation from Tribe Capital, Altos Ventures, Blank Ventures, Gaingels, Maple VC, and Knollwood Advisory.
FinTech: Shipping And Logistics Giant Maersk Turns To Stripe For International Payments
Maersk (CPH: MAERSK-B), the shipping and logistics giant founded in 1905, has a logistics network across 130 countries and moves many billions of dollars worth of shipments around the world annually. The company recognized earlier than peers that it needed to transform its operations to keep up with the rising trade volumes. A critical area was international payments.
FinTech: LatAm Fintech Xepelin Raises $111M Including From PayPal Ventures
Xepelin, a Latin American fintech for B2B payments and financial services focused on SMBs, has closed on a $111 million Series B round led by Avenir and Kaszek with participation from PayPal Ventures, Wellington, DST Global, Battery Ventures, MSA Novo, Endeavor Catalyst, FJ Labs, Picus, Amarena, Gunderson, Carlos Garcia, Cathay-Seaya Latam, Gilgamesh, among others.
FinTech: Banking Giant Truist Acquires Gamified Savings App Long Game
Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC) has acquired Long Game, a mobile savings gamification app that change how users engage with their bank by using prize-linked savings and casual gaming to motivate smart financial behavior, driving account growth and client retention. The result of a 2019 merger between BB&T and SunTrust, Truist is the sixth-largest bank in the US and has $488 billion of assets. Long Game, founded in 2015, is fintech startup with a team of 12 persons.
FinTech: Klarna Enables Block For Non-Card Gambling Payments
A gambling block helps customers keep in check their own urge to splurge on gambling sites. Gambling blocks were first launched by challenger bank Monzo in 2018, but applied only to card payments. Klarna announced April 28 that it had now enabled banks to extend voluntary gambling blocks to open banking-driven payments powered by its subsidiary, SOFORT. SOFORT is one of Klarna’s direct bank-to-bank payment methods, used by 75,000 merchants across Europe, including some online gambling and gaming sites.
FinTech: Virgin Money’s Digital Bank Launches ‘Lock Saver’ Savings Feature
After a lot of research, Virgin Money’s (ASX: VUK) digital bank has launched an innovative Lock Saver feature, the first of its kind in Australia, designed to help savers reach their goals sooner. The research found that 70% of Australian households saved towards a medium to long-term goal in the past six months, but disappointingly, less than a third stayed within their budget or spending allowance. Lock Saver is a digital solution to this problem.
FinTech: Berlin-Based Taxfix Raises $220M, Enters Unicorn Club
Taxfix, a Berlin-based startup that aims to take the pain out of tax filing, has raised a $220 million Series D round that valued it at over $1 billion. Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), part of the $242B Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), led the round. Existing investors Index Ventures, Valar Ventures, Creandum, and Redalpine also participated.
FinTech: In India, WhatsApp To Roll Out Cashback Rewards For P2P Payments
WhatsApp, which enjoys a user base of half a billion in India, is planning to offer cashback rewards on its peer-to-peer payments service in a bid to close the gap with rivals such as Google Pay. Insiders privy to information told Reuters that the app will offer up to 33 Indian rupees ($0.40) for transfers users make on its payments service, which allows contacts to send each other funds from within the messenger app.
FinTech: Amazon Japan Selects Adyen To Process Payments
Global payments platform Adyen (AMS: ADYEN) provides end-to-end payments capabilities, data-driven insights, and financial products in a single global solution. It announced today that it is now processing payments for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Japan.