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: Brazilian Fintech Pismo In Play, Mastercard, Visa Likely Suitors
Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and Visa (NYSE: V), two of the largest payment processing companies in the world, are reportedly in negotiations to purchase Brazilian fintech firm Pismo. The company provides cloud-based payment and banking platforms and is currently valued at around $1 billion. According to sources familiar with the matter, Pismo is working with Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) on a sale, and the interested parties include a bank and private equity funds.
FinTech: Mambu And Purpl Unveil Digital Wallets For Lebanese Citizens
Purpl, a remittance and cash out aggregator, has announced its successful launch on Mambu’s cloud-native banking platform. This new offering provides Lebanese citizens, both domestically and abroad, with seamless ways of transacting.
FinTech: Shoppers On ChatGPT Can Link Up To Klarna Products
Klarna, the global retail bank, payments, and shopping service, has announced a collaboration with OpenAI to provide a highly personalized and intuitive shopping experience through ChatGPT. Klarna’s engineering teams have collaborated with OpenAI to build an integrated plugin for ChatGPT, enabling curated product recommendations for users who ask the platform for shopping advice and inspiration, along with links to shop those products via Klarna’s own search and compare tool.
FinTech: Feared Hindenburg Research Targets Block, Stock Plunges 17%
Hindenburg Research, a financial research firm, has accused Block (NYSE: SQ) (formerly known as Square) of facilitating fraud for criminals and inflating user metrics by failing to enact mandatory know-your-customer (KYC) procedures.
FinTech: South-Asian Lender Kredivo Closes $270M Oversubscribed Round
Kredivo, a company that provides buy now, pay later and credit services to individuals with limited access to banking in Indonesia and Vietnam, has successfully raised $270 million in a Series D funding round.
FinTech: Rain Closes $116M For Its Earned Wage Access Product
Rain, a provider of financial wellness products that empower and engage employees, has raised $116 million in funding, including $66 million in equity and $50 million in debt, making it the largest HR tech funding round in history, based on Crunchbase data.
FinTech: Users Can Now Receive Western Union Remittances Into Vietnam’s Highly Popular MoMo App
Western Union and MoMo have announced a collaboration enabling MoMo’s 31 million customers to receive Western Union money transfers through the MoMo app. This is the first time Western Union’s services have become available on a leading super app in Vietnam.
FinTech: Aeropostale Launches Brand Presence On the Metaverse
Fashion brand Aéropostale has partnered with MetaversePlus and Authentic Brands Group to create an immersive experience for its fans in the metaverse. The partnership will use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual experiences to build community and offer members-only perks and promotions.
Venture Capital: Saudi Arabia’s Venture Arm To Invest $80M In Fintech VC Firms
Saudi Venture Capital Company (SVC) has partnered with the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the Financial Sector Development Program to launch a new investment program called “Investment in Fintech VC Funds”. The program aims to stimulate the establishment of venture capital funds in the financial technology (FinTech) sector. Around SR300 million ($80 million) has been earmarked from SVC’s investment portfolio for this new initiative, which was launched at the Financial Sector Conference 2023 in Riyadh.
FinTech: PhonePe, India’s Highly Popular Payment Network, Raises $200M From Majority Owner Walmart
PhonePe, a fintech platform, has raised an additional $200 million in primary capital from Walmart (NYSE: WMT) at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. The company is in the process of raising $1 billion following its move to domicile in India, and has raised $650 million from several global investors so far.
FinTech: E-Commerce Focused, Corporate Credit Card Issuer Parker Raises $157M
Parker, a charge card built specifically for e-commerce, has raised $157 million in total funding to support the growth of online brands. The card offers differentiated features such as limits based on business performance, rolling terms, emphasis on credit duration over rewards, and software tools to help business operators invest in their best projects.
FinTech: Stripe Raises $6.5B At A Heavily Truncated Valuation Of $50B
Payment processor Stripe raised $6.5 billion in a non-dilutive Series I financing round, valuing the company at $50 billion, down almost 50% from the record valuation of $95 billion in garnered in a 2021 funding.
FinTech: Lenovo and Tabit Tie-Up To Offer BNPL To Small Businesses In Canada
Lenovo (HKG: 0992) has partnered with Tabit, Canada’s first B2B Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) solution available at Point-of-Sale, to offer their business customers financing options of up to 12 months, including a 30-day interest-free option. This partnership will help small businesses access immediate and fully automated financing at the point of sale, relieving cash flow pressure while benefiting from attractive payment terms and a seamless customer experience.
FinTech: Indonesian Fintech Broom, Which Finances Auto Dealers, Nabs US$10M
Indonesian automotive SME solutions startup Broom has secured $10m in a pre-Series A funding round led by Openspace Ventures, with participation from MUFG Innovation Partners, BRI Ventures and existing investors AC Ventures and Quona Capital.
Digital Assets: Federal Support Action For Resolving SVB And Signature Bank Crises
The US Government has taken swift action to stem the economic backlash from the failures of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank. While Silvergate and Signature were both crypto-focused banks, Silicon Valley was the go-to bank for the venture capital industry. Silvergate, however, voluntarily chose to down shutters. A statement from the Department of Treasury detailed a concerted strategy to protect depositors at SVB and Signature.
FinTech: Depositors Relieved After HSBC Acquires SVB UK For £1
HSBC has acquired Silicon Valley Bank UK for £1 in a rescue deal that was confirmed by the UK Treasury. HSBC will take on the accounts of SVB UK’s 3,500 customers with deposits worth more than £6.7bn, and the customers will be able to access their deposits and banking services as normal.
FinTech: Worldline Launches White-Label Shopping Mall In The Metaverse
Global payment services provider, Worldline, has launched a shopping mall in Decentraland to help companies across all industries get an easy entry into the Web 3.0 world, and create an initial presence in the Metaverse. The white-label solution provides retailers, service providers, and banks with an opportunity to prepare for the Metaverse now and gain initial experience ahead of the estimated global market volume of Metaverse commerce of between $2 and $2.6tn by 2030.
FinTech: Uber May Hive Off Uber Freight, Its Truck Broking Business
Uber (NYSE: UBER) is considering spinning off its Uber Freight logistics unit in a sale or as a separate publicly traded company in order to focus on its core ride-hailing and food delivery businesses. The company is discussing options with advisers, but no decision has been taken and plans could change, according to a Bloomberg report, which cited confidential sources.
FinTech: Alternative Credit Firm Evolution Credit Raises Over $1B
Boston-based alternative credit firm, Evolution Credit Partners Management, has announced the final close of its opportunistic credit strategy, Evolution Credit Opportunity Fund II, L.P. (ECO II). With approximately $1.05 billion of investable capital, the Fund will invest opportunistically across Evolution’s entire credit platform, including leveraged finance and trade finance strategies.
Fintech: Stripe Raising Funds To Buy Employees’ Shares And Cover Their Tax Bill
Stripe, a payments company, plans to use the funds it raises in its latest round of fundraising to cover a $3.5 billion tax bill. The company is aiming to raise $2.3 billion to cover tax withholdings in Q1 and an additional $500 million and $700 million in taxes later this year and next year respectively, according to a Bloomberg report.
Venture Capital: UK Fintech Abound Lands $601M
Abound, a UK-based consumer lending service, has raised £500m ($601m) in equity and debt funding to expand its open banking business. The start-up, which uses open banking data and machine learning algorithms to offer lower interest loans and develop “better credit scores”, will use the funds to finance loans, bring in more customers and invest in its technology.
FinTech: WhatsApp Gets Brazil’s Nod For Payments To Small Businesses
Guilherme Horn, PhD, Head of WhatsApp, Latin America, announced that Brazil’s Central Bank has authorized the launch of the payment service for small and medium-sized enterprises through WhatsApp.
FinTech: Klarna Reports Record $1B Loss In 2022
Klarna, the Swedish fintech company that was once Europe’s most valuable private tech firm, has reported its largest annual loss to date in 2022, but is optimistic about its prospects for returning to profitability. The company’s annual losses increased by 47% to SEK10.4bn ($1bn) in the 12 months to December 31, 2022, up from SEK7.1bn ($680m) in the previous year.
FinTech: Zenus Bank Ties With Visa To Issue Debit Cards Across 46 Countries
Zenus Bank and Visa (NYSE: V) have extended their partnership, and Zenus has become the first bank to launch a single Visa Infinite Debit Card to customers across the globe. Zenus offers true US bank accounts remotely to people in over 46 countries and provides a virtual Visa Infinite debit card, and a physical card can be received in under 10 days.