REPORT
Over the past decade, technological progress and innovation have catapulted the fintech sector from the fringes to the forefront of financial services. And the growth has been fast and furious, buoyed by the robust growth of the banking sector, rapid digitization, changing customer preferences, and increasing support of investors and regulators.
During this decade, fintechs have profoundly reshaped certain areas of financial services with their innovative, differentiated, and customer-centric value propositions, collaborative business models, and cross-skilled and agile teams.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
When a bunch of young traders on Reddit decided in January 2021 to go after leading hedge funds by pumping stocks such as GameStop and AMC, Wall Street shuddered as US armchair investors prompted wild market swings.
The traders benefiting from the huge surges in stocks that previously had been in the doldrums were sitting in their parents’ basements in the US, exchanging messages on social media. But wannabe traders in the UK fell behind, hampered by a lack of platforms that they could easily access.
📰 ARTICLE
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Coinbase and LHV Bank celebrate decade-long partnership.
⭐️ UAE Sees Growing Interest From UK Fintechs for Dual Listings.
⭐️ MessageBird is now Bird .
⭐️ Kriya FinTech secures £50m in debt financing to revolutionise B2B payments.
FINTECH
The Italian human fintech Opyn goes international and looks for M&A opportunities. Opyn Pay Later, its proprietary B2B Buy Now Pay Later solution, is now accessible for merchant in European Union, UK, and Switzerland.
LHV Bank launches into specialist landlord market. The Estonia-based lender currently offers commercial real estate investment loans and trading loans starting at £500,000 to small and medium-sized businesses.
Bitpanda launches high net worth wealth division. The product has been launched in response to rising demand as part of Bitpanda’s commitment to meeting the needs of every investor in the European Union.
MessageBird’s founder Robert Vis on acquisition hunt. This strategic move suggests MessageBird’s interest in expanding its reach and capabilities within the financial technology sector through targeted acquisitions.
Super app startup Paysme shuts up shop. Paysme aimed to ride the super app wave, delivering a combination of mobile payments, e-commerce, digital banking, accounting, lending, and insurance services in a single app.
Lendica and CSG Forte Partnership Ushers in New Era. It is estimated that embedded business loan origination is growing at roughly 125% year over year and will hit an annual $500bn origination by 2030.
PayPal’s AI project: Inside the First Look strategy. Days after promising to “shock” the industry with a series of AI-based announcements, PayPal released a prerecorded First Look keynote that saw CEO Alex Chriss unveil a six-point strategy for the brand.
WiseAlpha is expanding into the banking and wealth trading solutions arena. WiseAlpha’s proprietary tech platform made the whole process easy, and its Fractional Bond product reduces the minimum investment to just £100.
Chip Launches its First Cash ISA. The new account, powered by ClearBank, is fully flexible, allowing savers to instantly deposit and withdraw their money with no restrictions.
PAYMENTS
Viva.com partners with Conecs. By partnering with Conecs, Viva.com intends to improve the payment infrastructure in France and facilitate 600 million meal voucher transactions per year.
Mastercard Shares Touch All-Time High After Strong 4Q. Mastercard's fourth-quarter profit jumped to $2.79 billion from $2.53 billion last year.
Biometric card pioneer Zwipe backs out of payment card market. Zwipe is backing out of the payments market following disappointing uptake of its fingerprint-powered contactless cards.
OPEN BANKING
Clowd9 and Ozone API Reveal Partnership. Open API, as it names alludes to, provides open banking services to its clients. Clowd9 is a payments platform that will now be incorporated into the Ozone API offering.
Another one bites the dust: Kikapay goes under. The largely bootstrapped operation has raised 580K since inception. It's last funding round was for an undisclosed amount in February 2021.
Volt and Bumper partner to bring open banking to major car dealerships in the UK and Europe. This partnership comes amidst a rebound in UK car sales, as more were sold in the UK in 2023 than in any year since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tymit and Equifax UK partner to boost BNPL transparency. This partnership allows Tymit to improve the accuracy of affordability decisions with real-time insights and more granular transaction data.
Ecospend launches Pay-by-Bank on mobile with Hargreaves Lansdown. Following this announcement, the latest update of the Pay-by-Bank solution is expected to be rolled out to Hargreaves Lansdown’s ISA, SIPP, and general investment accounts.
DIGITAL BANKING
GoHenry urges Government to prioritise financial education from primary school age. GoHenry has worked with experts and industry campaigners to push for change and better equip the next generations with vital money skills.
€35bn of customer deposits across Europe now held by Electronic Money Institutions. The company announces a new report on the Electronic Money Institution (EMI) market in the UK and Europe.
DONEDEAL
London fintech firms KoinKoin and SR FINANZMANN close $2m funding round. The funding will support the growth and expansion of the technical FX across both businesses, especially in Africa.
M&As
Worldpay Begins Operating as Independent Company. The Company, a global industry leader in payments technology and solutions, announced that it has closed upon its previously announced sale.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
PayPal to cut %9 of Staff in companywidde layoffs. The layoffs affected people across multiple teams, including engineering and research and development, according to LinkedIn posts from employees who were laid off.
Tide appoints Rebecca Marriott as Chief Risk Officer. Rebecca will continue to provide the expanding fintech with global oversight of all risk classes, compliance, quality control, and enterprise risk management.
Griffin begins hunt for new COO with Maria Campbell set to depart. Griffin plans to task the successful applicant with leading its internal operations, vendor management infrastructure and operational resilience framework.
Leonardo Lins joins Mangopay. Leonardo has joined the growing Product team as Head of Fraud, bringing over ten years of fraud prevention knowledge with hands-on expertise in implementing robust strategies and safeguarding online businesses.
Fintech unicorn Brex set to close Israel R&D center as part of global layoffs. Brex announced last week that it was cutting 20% of its global staff, or 282 employees.
CryptoUK hires former FCA head Binu Paul. He has over a couple of decades of experience in the financial services and technology sectors and has also launched a number of fintech startups and other related initiatives.