Global FinTech | 2022 #2
Weekly news up to Tuesday, January 11th, 2022
MVO BLOG
REPORT
While Turkish fintech startups are rarely mentioned on the global stage, given the challenges of regulatory adaptations from country to country, quite a few local champions have emerged from within the ecosystem.
In 2021, a new record for fintech investments was broken, both in terms of total deal size ($64M YTD) and the number of deals made.
👉Read the full report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
PayPal Holdings is exploring the launch of its own stablecoin as part of its cryptocurrency push, the company has said, confirming the development after evidence of the move was discovered inside its iPhone app.
Hidden code and images show work on what is dubbed a “PayPal Coin”. The code indicates such a coin would be backed by the US dollar.
👉 Read the full article here.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
If there’s one lesson that 2021 has unearthed for the world, it is that moving forward, there’s no time to shy away from integrating novelty into existing business models.
The finance industry in itself has undergone some mind-bending shifts in the past few years, accounting for new terms by the hour for us to wrap our heads around.
👉 Read the full WhiteSight article by Kshitija Kaur and Risav Chakraborty here.
📰 ARTICLE
One of Europe’s largest FinTechs, London-based Wise, has accused Australian banks of anti-competitive behavior in refusing to provide it with banking services over several years, as the Council of Financial Regulators begins an investigation into “debanking” in response to concerns raised by Treasury and AUSTRAC.
👉 Read the full article here.
👨💻 BLOG
💬 INTERVIEW
The CEO of payments processing giant Visa, Al Kelly, recently visited his mother just after she’d finished buying her groceries online — something she’d never done prior to COVID-19.
“She said to me ‘I cannot believe I wasn’t doing this before the pandemic,’” Kelly said in an interview with The Associated Press.
👉 Read the full Associated Press article written by Ken Sweet here.
💡INSIGHTS
The cryptocurrency market witnessed a mega bull run during the last year of 2021. On Tuesday, January 4, institutional crypto investing platform CoinShares shared annual stats regarding institutional inflows in the crypto space last year.
👉 Read the full Binance article written by Bhushan Akolkar here.
🎤 PODCAST
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ The Financial services of the Moscow Exchange and Sravni.ru have announced they will take part in pilot projects of the Russia FinTech Association (RFA) to create services using open APIs. Link here.
⭐️ Nigerian ethical credit-recovery fintech Bfree secures $1.7M, expands to Asia, Europe, South America, and across Africa. Link here.
⭐️ 2021 established new records across global private FinTech company financing, IPOs and SPACs. Link here.
⭐️ The NFT craze has minted its first billionaires. Link here.
⭐️ Goldman Sachs says bitcoin could reach $100,000. Link here.
⭐️ The latest FinTech map by FintechNews from Singapore🇸🇬 is out now! Link here.
PAYMENTS
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) is now expecting to launch its new payments system, the Tanzania Instant Payment System (TIPS) in February, the Citizen reports. Link here.
The Jamaican central bank has completed the pilot testing of its central bank digital currency, with the participation of only one payment service provider. Link here.
NymCard partners with Netbank to assist its fintech clients’ expansion plans across Southeast Asia and MENA regions. Link here.
PayFit announced that it closed a new $289 million Series E round (€254 million) before the holidays. Following this round, the startup has reached a post-money valuation of $2.1 billion (€1.82 billion). Link here.
A tax law that takes effect in January will require third-party payment processors like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App to report a user’s business transactions to the Internal Revenue Service if they exceed $600 in a year. Link here.
Pipit Global and pan-African payments company Cellulant have extended their partnership agreement to now include eighteen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Link here.
Penfold says it now has over 40,000 customers, after more than trebling the number of pension transfers to its platform over the last 12 months. Link here.
Adyen announced the launch of mobile Android point of sale (POS) terminals in the EU, UK, and the United States. Link here
B4B Payments announced that the company will join Mastercard Fintech Express Programme. According to the details shared by the company, the joining will further cement its relationship with Mastercard. Link here.
Mastercard has launched a next-generation Pay by Bank app (PbBa) service which makes instant bank transfers completely frictionless for consumers and businesses. Link here.
Stripe is getting ready for its launch in Israel with the opening of sales and support operations ahead of research and development. Link here.
BNPL
LazyPay announced its partnership with SBM Bank India to launch LazyCard, a prepaid payment instrument backed by a credit line, foraying into the card segment. Link here.
In Singapore, the COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for fintech adoption, driving demand for digital payment capabilities, virtual banking experiences, and buy now, pay later (BNPL) arrangements. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
Following an announcement from HMRC in December, Ecospend can confirm it has initiated £2.4bn worth of open banking transactions through its ‘pay by bank’ services across its client portfolio. Link here.
CRYPTO
The global fintech giant, NIUM, announces its partnership with Alchemy Pay (ACH), a fiat-cryptocurrency gateway solutions provider. Link here.
The buying and selling of crypto assets will be zero commission at the release of cryptocurrencies in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, and Spain. Other markets will follow soon. Link here.
Signal announced that it would add a payments feature in beta for its users in the UK, testing out integration with a relatively new, privacy-focused cryptocurrency called MobileCoin. Link here.
China has launched the digital wallet pilot for its digital yuan (e-CNY) on Android and iOS platforms. The latest development comes as the world awaits an official public launch for the country’s native CBDC. Link here.
Airbnb could soon accept cryptocurrencies for payments, CEO Brian Chesky has hinted. Link here.
Wirex, a leading digital payments platform, has added six new stablecoins to their platform as they continue their mission to bring crypto to the mainstream. Link here.
OpenSea had a blockbuster 2021 and as a result is seeing its private valuation grow more quickly than almost any other startup. Link here.
REGTECH
ComplyCloud announced that it has raised €4.5M in a fresh round of funding from Seed Capital. Link here.
FRAUD PREVENTION
PassFort announced a new partnership with Trulioo, a leading global identity verification company. Through this partnership, PassFort, a global provider of software-as-a-service regulatory technology solutions, and Trulioo will offer regulated businesses a way to digitally transform Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) processes, no matter where in the world the business or their customers are based. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
U.S. fintech company Brex, the company reimagining finance for growing businesses, today announced the appointment of Karandeep Anand as the company’s Chief Product Officer. The company also announced it has raised an additional $300 million in a Series D-2 round led by Greenoaks Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV).
👉 Read the full Finance Yahoo article here.
FINTECH MAPS
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.