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: HSBC, Western Union Announce Global, Real-Time Payments
Both HSBC USA, a part of the HSBC Group (NYSE: HSBC), and Western Union (NYSE: WU) reported rapid growth in the usage of services such as mobile banking, digital transactions, and app downloads during the pandemic afflicted quarters. Encouraged, the finserve giants launched global, borderless real-time payments.
FinTech: Western Union Acquires 15% Of Saudi Fintech stc pay For $200M
Western Union (NYSE: WU) has taken a 15% stake in stc pay for $200 million, valuing the Saudi fintech at $1.3 billion. Western Union is the world’s largest remittance company, while stc pay is a fully owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s stc Group.
FinTech: Klarna’s Pedal-To-The-Metal In The U.S.
Klarna, the fourth-largest private fintech in the world, announced Thursday that it had amassed a record 11 million customers in the US, a surge of 106% year-on-year. It also said its newest one million customers were added in just three weeks.
FinTech: Financial Fraud Detecting Platform Verafin Sold To Nasdaq
Global technology company Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ) announced today its acquisition of Canada-based Verafin for $2.75 billion payable in cash. Verafin’s cloud-based software platform serves customers with fraud detection, money laundering protection, and high-risk customer management. The 2003-founded firm counts more than 2,000 financial organizations as its customers.
FinTech: Heavyweights Are Match-Making In Global Cards And Payments
The rapid and global pivot towards digital payments as a result of the virus pandemic appears to have unleashed another trend. Biggies in the payment and card sectors are forming strategic partnerships to draw in a larger share of the transactions pie. Card issuing company Marqeta has partnered with Uber (NYSE: UBER) on a global cards and payment system. Mastercard (NYSE: MA) enabled Google Pay for its cardholders in a host of European countries.
FinTech: Now Use PayPal And Venmo QR Codes For Contactless Payments At 8,200 CVS Pharmacy Stores
Customers at 8,200 locations of CVS Pharmacy across the country can now safely make contactless payments using the QR codes of PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) and Venmo. Announcing this on Monday, the retail chain, a division of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), said customers need no longer touch a keypad or sign a receipt at the checkout points-of-sale at its standalone locations.
FinTech: Glint Pay Raises £2.5 Million
Glint Pay, a currency fintech that encourages people to ‘buy, sell, spend and share’ their physical gold through its app, announced Friday its fundraise of an additional £2.5 million. Of this amount, the startup received £1.25 million as a private investment, with a matching amount contributed by the U.K. Government’s Future Fund.
FinTech: U.K.’s iwoca Aims To Lend Over £200M To Small Businesses
Lender to small businesses, iwoca, has determined to lend another £ 100 million to U.K.’s small businesses under the CBILS scheme, it announced today. With £ 100 million already lent, that would bring iwoca’s loan total to over £ 200 million by January 31, 2021.
FinTech: Blockchain-Based Financial Services Provider Figure Tech Eyes Banking Charter
San Francisco-based Figure Technologies offers financial services using the blockchain. These include home equity lines, mortgage refinance, a marketplace for buying and selling loans, digital fund services, asset management and cap table management. Figure said it had applied last week for a national bank charter from the Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC).
Digital Assets: Cerealia’s Blockchain-Based Platform For Trading Crops Is Live
Traders of physical crops such as wheat, sorghum, corn, and barley, conducting their trades by telephone in Russia and Europe, now have a digital platform as an alternative. Cerealia SA, based in Pully, Switzerland, has thrown open its blockchain-based physical agriculture trading platform for commercial use.
FinTech: India’s Competition Commission Orders Probe Against Google Pay
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has ordered its investigation arm, the Director-General, to conduct a detailed probe against Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) for indulging in allegedly anti-competitive practices to promote its Google Pay online payment system and digital wallet platform.
FinTech: Ant Group May Lose Half Its Value Following IPO Debacle
A Bloomberg report estimates that Ant Group’s valuation could plummet by about $ 140 billion.
Last week, what was to be the world’s largest IPO turned out to be a nightmarish fiasco for Ant Group and Jack Ma. Chinese authorities did not allow the Group’s IPO to proceed and proposed regulatory changes that the fintech, valued around $ 280 billion, would have to comply with.
FinTech: Facebook’s WhatsApp Cleared To Roll Out UPI Payments In India
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) said today in a video message that WhatsApp is now cleared to offer a payment service in 10 Indian regional languages using the United Payments Interface (UPI).
FinTech: Clarity AI Raises $15M For ESG Platform
Clarity AI is a fintech whose proprietary technology platform enables investors to understand the social and environmental impact of their portfolios. It is, therefore, a useful tool in the current times when ESG is front-of-mind for both retail and institutional investors.
FinTech: Of Jack Ma’s Foot-in-Mouth, Irate Chinese Regulators, And A Non-Starter $37B IPO
Chinese authorities pulled rank on Jack Ma following his abrasive comments at the Bund Summit in Shanghai last month, and Ant Group pulled its IPO.
Alternative Investments/ESG: The Wealthsimple Shariah World Equity ETF To Debut in Early 2021
Wealthsimple will unveil an ETF that will offer investors, particularly Muslims, exposure to a diversified index of Shariah-compliant stocks. Dubbed the Wealthsimple Shariah World Equity ETF, it will be managed by Toronto-based Mackenzie Investments, and is expected to list in early 2021.
FinTech: BSM Company Coupa Acquires AI-Powered Supply Chain Company Llamasoft For $1.5B
Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP) announced Monday its acquisition of Llamasoft, a supply chain software company for $1.5 billion. Llamasoft’s AI-powered, cloud platform helps companies make better informed and faster crucial supply chain decisions.
Venture Capital: Conductor, The Brazilian Payments Processor, Lands $150M
Conductor, the Brazilian startup that has become the leading payments & banking as a service (BaaS) platform in Latin America, announced Monday its raise of $150 million. The funding was led by Viking Global Investors , with additional participation from investors such as Sunley House Capital Management, an affiliate of Advent International.
FinTech: NerdWallet Buys Fundera To Reach Small And Medium Businesses
Financial guidance app Nerdwallet announced Friday its acquisition of Fundera, which provides financial advice and comparisons to nearly 28 million small and medium-sized businesses in the U.S. Terms were not disclosed, except that Fundera will become a Nerdwallet subsidiary. All of Fundera’s employees will join Nerdwallet.
FinTech: Alliance Data Buys BNPL Fintech Bread For $450M
Alliance Data Systems (NYSE: ADS) said Thursday that it will acquire Bread and its digital platform for $450 million of which $100 will be paid through Alliance stock. The transaction would expand Alliance Data’s own digital offerings by including buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) products.
FinTech: UK Development Lender CrowdProperty Notches £100M Of Loans
CrowdProperty, a leading crowdfunder/lender to the U.K. SME property sector, has lent over £100 million to development professionals. The funding had a beneficial impact on the UK economy because it catalyzed an expenditure of over £ 80 million on construction-related labor, materials, and services. Notably, all of the funded projects have been fully repaid, with platform investors earning, on average, 8% per annum.
FinTech: UBS Makes $200M Splash In Burgeoning Fintech Industry
UBS Group (SWX: UBSG) announced Tuesday a strategy to increase its interaction with the fintech industry, particularly digital ventures. UBS Next, its new venture arm, will invest US$ 200 million in direct equity investments into early-stage fintechs and other tech companies.
FinTech: PrimaryBid Snags $50M
London-based PrimaryBid allows retail investors to digitally access share offerings on the same terms as institutions on its internet-based investment platform. It partners with the London Stock Exchange to cater to retail investors, which it says “is an important constituency in any capital raising activity.” The company announced Monday its close of a $50 million Series B investment round.