Daily Fintech Newsletter | February 7th, 2021
Klarna is seeing uninterrupted growth
Hi!
In case you missed it, please see below today's most relevant fintech news.
The ongoing effects of the pandemic continue to shift buying behavior, and Klarna users are taking advantage of the ability to shop online anytime and tap interest-free payment options while also getting alerts about price reductions. The current tempo complements the strong year Klarna had in 2020, which saw a doubling of its user base to reach 15 million. More than 1 million new U.S. users have joined the platform every month since October 2020. By the end of 2020, the Klarna app topped 3.5 million monthly active users, an increase of 204 percent year over year. The year also closed out with the highest shopping volume in the same month. Link here.
Flink México attracted the attention of Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel, which just led a $12 million Series A for the company. Link here.
Digital payments firm Payoneer is the latest fintech to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) in a deal that values the merged entity at $3.3 billion. Link here.
Uphold Inc., the leading digital money platform, today announces its acquisition of Optimus Cards UK Limited, a leading debit and credit card issuer across the UK and Europe. Link here.
Balance, a digital checkout platform for B2B businesses has emerged from stealth mode with $5.5 million in seed funding from, among others, Max Levchin's SciFi VC and Stripe. Link here.
Israel-based venture capital investment firm FinTLV Ventures has raised its second fund called FinTLV II. Link here.
How VC can nurture more “green zebras”? Here are three suggestions. Link here.
ZEN.COM, and SIA S.p.A. announced their partnership to bring ZEN’s innovative digital financial solution to consumers and entrepreneurs in 32 European countries, including the UK. Link here.
ING-backed Open Banking vendor Yolt is to expand its Account Information Services to support UK mortgage lenders, the first step in a move to a more wide-ranging model of Open Finance. Link here.
sync., the smart open banking app, has launched Europe’s most advanced budgeting tools with more than 250 spending categories, in partnership with Nordigen. Link here.
This ends my Daily Fintech Newsletter. Let me know if there are any questions or news/insights worth mentioning in the next newsletter. Until the next!
Regards,
Marcel van Oost
marcelvanoost.com
My weekly newsletter
Sign up for my Weekly Digital Banking newsletter on Substack here.
My free daily newsletters
Sign up for my Daily Digital Banking newsletter here.
Co-invest alongside me in the most promising FinTech startups
Join our Angel Investors Syndicate. Link here.
Looking for funding?
If you are a startup looking for funding, sign up here.
Join our group
Do you have and use Telegram? Join our group and get the latest changes to the Fintech industry as they are happening.
Sign up to get my updates first!