Global FinTech | 2021 #44
Weekly news up to Wednesday, December 15th 2021
REPORT
Women who use Klarna's buy now pay later service spend less than men, while the average age of the alternative payment method is growing in the UK, new data shows.
The data compiled by 'buy now, pay later' giant Klarna shows that on average women spend £76 per order, compared to £98 spent by men.
Klarna says this busts a popular misconception that its female consumers spend more than its male consumers.
Buy now, pay later has become an increasingly popular form of alternative payment both online and on the high street.
Critics, however, say that buy now, pay later encourages users to get into debt who can't afford to.
The data also show that when it comes to early repayments 23 percent of women make their Klarna payments more than nine days early, compared with 19 percent of men.
👉Read the full article written by John Reynolds from Altfi here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
GoCardless is partnering with Klarna in the US to offer account-to-account bank debit payments to the latter's 21 million US customers.
Klarna will use GoCardless to power its 'Pay in 4' offering, with permission from the user to pull funds automatically from their bank account.
The B2B payments fintech, which has set up in 2011, has been working with Klarna in the UK for the past three years but now has access to a huge seam of new business in the US where Klarna is seeing a rapidly growing customer base.
👉Read the full article written by Daniel Lanyon from Altfi here.
📰 ARTICLE
Meta has got big plans to take on its ‘frenemy’ Shopify as it aims to get more users to do shopping through its platform.
Facebook’s parent company is changing its direction to focus on selling more products directly through its already existing apps Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, according to leaked documents seen by Business Insider.
Meta’s vision is to control a plethora of apps that are “a primary destination for commerce,” Meta Ads and Business Platform vice president Dan Levy wrote.
The company’s newfound priorities come at the expense of commerce in the metaverse or growing offsite partnerships, the document, which was called ‘Commerce Guidance and Priorities for 2022’ read.
👉 Read the full article written by George Iddenden here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ ImaliPay, Africa’s financial services platform for gig economy workers has named Stitch, a pan-African API fintech startup as payments and open banking partner as part of its South African expansion. Link here.
⭐️ Ledger is the latest crypto company working on a debit card that connects directly with a crypto wallet. The company unveiled at its Ledger Op3n conference plans to launch its own debit card called the Crypto Life card. Link here.
⭐️ Butter is bidding to put a nail in the coffin of the credit card with the launch of its own BNPL card. Link here.
⭐️ Meta (formerly Facebook) has extended the pilot for its Novi digital app to WhatsApp, using a stablecoin to enable participants to send and receive money from within chats. Link here.
PAYMENTS
i2c Inc., a leading provider of digital payment and banking technology, announced its partnership with Ooredoo, a global leader in telecommunications. By leveraging i2c’s agile payments technology, Ooredoo will launch modern payment solutions for their users in Qatar, including digital-first prepaid cards and mobile wallets. Link here.
Spanish fintech Pecunpay, trademark of E-money institution Pecunia Cards EDE, specialized in innovative payment and E-money processing solutions, and UnionPay, the card scheme with the world’s largest cardholder base, have signed a strategic partnership that sees Pecunpay become the first Spanish issuer in Europe to issue UnionPay cards in Spain. Link here.
S-Kreditpartner, a member of the savings banks finance group and one of the leading consumer finance companies in Germany, has chosen SIA, a leading European hi-tech company in payment services and infrastructures, controlled by CDP Equity, to support the launch of its new FlexiGeld card and to contribute to the digitalization of the cardholder’s experience. Link here.
Vitesse announced it is working with Mastercard as a network provider for its Pay-to-Card solution, allowing insurers to pay claims directly to debit and credit cards - in a matter of minutes. Link here.
B2B payments fintech Topi has raised a $4.5m pre-seed round co-led by Index Ventures and Creandum. The Berlin-based company was founded by former employees of Apple and Goldman Sachs, Estelle Merle, and Charlotte Pallua in 2021. The two met during their MBA at the Harvard Business School in Boston. Link here.
Last year, Amsterdam-based fintech company Payaut launched an automated payment solution for online platforms and marketplaces. And now, the company has obtained a license from De Nederlandsche Bank (Dutch central bank – DNB) to provide payment services. Link here.
Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, announced the launch of its new e-commerce service, Flutterwave Market – an extension of its Flutterwave Store service – that will bring together a collection of merchant stores in one place. Link here.
Canadian Fintech startup Payment Rails revealed that it has rebranded as Trolley—the payouts platform for the internet economy. The newly renamed Trolley also announced its recent $7M Series A funding round led by Pace Capital. Link here.
Moss is a payment and credit card platform that enables companies to optimize their finances. The startup’s mission is “to digitize the expense management of small and medium-sized businesses and help them tap into their full potential.” In a recent development, the Berlin-based fintech company has announced its expansion to the Dutch market. Link here.
BNPL
Opera is collaborating with Butter.co.uk, one of only two Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) platforms regulated by the FCA, to make the user experience more seamless for UK based shoppers in the Opera browser. Link here.
UK-based buy now, pay later provider, Bumper, raised $12m in Series A funding that will help the company expand its car repair financing platform across Europe. The latest round, which brought total funding to $17.5m, was led by Silicon Valley-based Autotech Ventures, with participation from Jaguar Land Rover’s fund InMotion Ventures, Porsche Ventures, and a group of prominent angel investors, the press release said. Link here.
Klarna is launching a desktop browser extension that provides many of the features that you can find in the company’s mobile app — but on your computer. In addition to the ability to manage your Klarna payments, the extension automatically applies coupon codes when you’re on a checkout page. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
Open Banking payments platform Plaid has introduced a new product to the UK called ‘Payouts’, following the launch of ‘payment initiation’ for its UK customers last year. Plaid’s payment initiation product enables users to make instant bank payments within their app, with Kraken, Moneybox and PensionBee among its customers. Link here.
CRYPTO
Finastra and Liquid have announced plans to make Liquid’s Quick Exchange (QEX) app available through Finastra’s open developer platform and app store, FusionFabric.cloud. Through integration with Finastra’s Fusion Essence core banking solution, QEX will enable banks to meet rising interest in cryptocurrency by offering services including buying, swapping, and payments. Link here.
Canadian payments firm Nuvei is to roll out crypto-friendly debit cards across Europe and the UK through its recently-acquired subsidiary Simplex. Nuvei agreed a $250 million cash deal to acquire Simplex in May. Founded in 2014, Simplex provides a fiat-cryptocurrency gateway connecting market participants including exchanges, brokers, wallet, and liquidity providers. Link here.
Wirex, a crypto-friendly digital payments company, unveiled its mass-market non-custodial Wirex Wallet, solidifying the company’s leading position in the crypto and DeFi spheres. With the mass adoption of DeFi on the horizon, Wirex believes their cross-chain, keyless, highly secure Wallet will finally break down the barriers to mainstream adoption. Link here.
Malaysian digital asset exchange Luno announced that it had garnered more than 600,000 customers at the end of November 2021. Luno said in a statement that this is a marked increase of over 233% year-on-year (YoY) from around 180,000 customers recorded at the end of November 2020. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
MoonPay, the global payments solution for cryptocurrency, has announced the appointment of JD Millwood as VP of Growth. JD joins MoonPay at a crucial growth period for the company, as it announced its $555 million Series A funding round, which was led by Tiger Global Management and Coatue. Link here.
Clair, a New York-based financial technology company, announced the promotion of its Head of Growth, Lance Katigbak, to Chief Revenue Officer. The promotion follows recent announcements of new partnership deals with a number of leading HR tech companies, including When I Work and Workwell. Link here.
Global fintech Curve has appointed formerly Improbable and Amazon VP Eric Molitor as Chief Technology Officer to lead tech advances worldwide. Eric has joined Curve, a fast-growing financial super app, to accelerate tech advances at Curve. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
At present, Amsterdam is the centre of the Dutch banking sector and a force in fintech, making it one of Europe’s leading financial centres, says I amsterdam. In 2021, numerous Amsterdam-based startups have raised fundings and a handful of them have raised more than €1M. Silicon Canals - European Technology News has compiled a list of 15 such Amsterdam startups that raised capital and are currently hiring talents. Check the full list here.
Amsterdam-based Mollie, a payments platform that offers a process for integrating payments into a site or app, announced that it will open a new fintech Centre of Excellence in the city of Maastricht, Netherlands. Vice Mayor of Maastricht Vivianne Heijnen says, “Maastricht is positioned in the heart of Europe with its strong work-life balance, leading universities, and diverse population of multilingual citizens who bring different perspectives and skills to bear.” Link here.
FINTECH MAPS
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.