Global FinTech | 2022 #3
Weekly news up to Tuesday, January 18th, 2022
MVO BLOG
REPORT
Fintech companies raised $125B in 2021, an all-time high and 2.8x compared to 2020.
There are 433 fintech unicorns globally, 193 were born just in 2021. Also, last year, at least one unicorn was created every 2 days.
More on the unicorns, mega-rounds, SPACs, and IPO’s that made this year smash all previous records in Fintech investment in Dealroom.co’s latest report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Mastercard is among five payments firms that have been accused of operating a cartel in the prepaid cards market.
The Payments Systems Regulator imposed fines totaling £33m against five companies – Mastercard, Allpay, Advanced Payment Solutions, Prepaid Financial Services, and Sulion – which broke competition laws by agreeing not to compete or poach each other’s customers.
The regulator said that during its investigation all the firms admitted to breaking competition law and agreed to settlements.
👉 Read the full CityA.M. article here.
😎 SPONSORED CONTENT
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📊 INFOGRAPHIC
The open banking movement started in Europe and the United Kingdom but then spread around different parts of the world through regulation changes, technological shifts, new business models, and emerging consumer trends.
👉 Download the full Belvo report “The State Of Open Banking in Latin America” here.
💡INSIGHTS
Sylvia Jablonski, Defiance’s co-founder and chief investment officer, told Blockworks that NFTs will be bigger than the internet.
“NFTs are special; they have created this cultural revolution,” she said. “They are the key to everything that is or will be the metaverse, [and] digital tokens will represent land ownership in the metaverse.”
👉 Read the full Blockworks article written by Ben Strack here.
👀 Also, on that note, Coinbase and Mastercard partner to revolutionize the NFT purchase experience. Read more here.
🔦 Furthermore, according to venture capitalist Bill Tai, company stocks and real estate will be among the many things that get turned into non-fungible tokens in the future. Read the full CNBC article by Sam Shead here.
🎤 PODCAST
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NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🌎 FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ The volume of cryptocurrency transactions grew to $15.8trn in 2021, up 567% from 2020, another sign that the trading of digital assets is becoming increasingly mainstream. Link here.
⭐️ Nearly half of 16-to-24 year-olds in Britain used buy now, pay later services last year to help spread the cost of expensive fashion items and snazzy tech gear, new research suggests. Link here.
⭐️ In 2021 we counted more than 60 deals above €100m in Europe. Link here.
⭐️ Wahed debuts first Shariah-compliant and ESG-aware ETF on Nasdaq. Link here.
⭐️ Beauhurst has ranked the UK’s top 50 fintech companies by the total amount of equity investment received to date, including through rounds that remain unannounced to the public. Link here.
⭐️ Fintech Meetup’s Co-founder Jon Lear stopped by for a quick chat with Mike Lawson on next year's Fintech Meetup, taking place March 22-24, 2022. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Apple is now allowing dating app developers to use payment systems other than those owned by the iPhone maker itself. Link here.
VitraCash has opened its revolutionary debit card and app to beta customers, heralding a new era of simplicity for consumer payments even in the most remote global destinations. Link here.
Visa announced a new platform, Visa Acceptance Cloud (VAC), set to revolutionize the way businesses accept payments from their customers. Link here.
Consumer spending trends look "relatively positive" so far this year, said Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach told CNBC on Thursday. Link here.
The Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS), in close collaboration with Worldline and the local commercial banks, has implemented the basic infrastructure for Instant Payments (IP). Link here.
Visa partners with ConsenSys to help bridge CBDC networks with existing payment rails. Link here.
Zimpler announces a new partnership with Briqpay, a B2B payment platform that simplifies the flows for B2B payments within online sales. Link here.
Refyne, which allows working professionals to get a portion of their earned salaries in advance within 60 seconds, has raised $82 million in a round led by private equity firm Tiger Global. Link here.
BNPL
Zilch announced that it has expanded its partnership with Mastercard to bring Zilch’s popular over-the-top buy now, pay later (BNPL) digital card offering to Europe and enable deferred purchases across the EU. Link here.
Since it was launched in September 2020, Saudi-based buy now pay later (BNPL) platform, Tamara, has managed to attract over $116 million in total investment. Link here.
According to estimates from Cornerstone Advisors, consumer spend through BNPL grew from $24 billion in 2020 to nearly $100 billion in 2021. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
Are Australian Open Banking APIs up to the task? 2021 performance data reveals that most - but not all - Open Banking APIs are fast and reliable. Read the full Frollo article here.
January 13 marks the fourth anniversary of the Payments Services Directive 2 (PSD2) making open banking a regulatory requirement in the UK. Link here.
Nordigen has entered a partnership with personal finance management app Bilance to monitor incoming transactions. Link here.
CRYPTO
Gemini, the $7.1 billion crypto exchange, is getting into wealth management with the acquisition of a digital asset platform for financial advisors. Link here.
Robinhood stock closed 6% lower on Thursday after a report from Bloomberg revealed crypto exchanges FTX. US and Bitstamp USA may add stock trading to their platforms. Link here.
Latin American Crypto Exchange Bitso to sponsor São Paulo Football Club and becomes an official sponsor of Mexico’s national soccer team. Link here.
Check out Aakash Gupta’s breakdown of FinTech giant Coinbase here.
BLOCKCHAIN / DEFI
DeFi Alliance, the incubator of platforms ranging from Sushi to Olympus DAO, rebranded itself as “Alliance DAO” Thursday. Link here.
Crypto API provider Conduit wants to be the Stripe of decentralized finance. Link here.
INVESTMENT
Rakuten Trade announced the expansion of its Cash Upfront Trading Account to include access into foreign markets beginning with the US. Link here.
Freetrade has announced that it’s over 1.2 million UK users can invest in German listed stocks, including the likes of Deutsche Telekom, Adidas, Volkswagen, and BMW. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Australian start-up Cape, an expense management software provider, has appointed Julian Guppy as chief technology officer (CTO) and Andrew Fanner as chief product and marketing officer (CPMO). Link here.
PagoNxt, Banco Santander’s payments fintech, announces the appointment of Dean Nash as its new Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel. Dean Nash is coming from the online money payment company Wise where he spent the last two years as General Counsel. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
Robinhood is the latest company to go fully remote, embracing a “remote first” work culture. Link here.
Coinbase will be giving its employees one week off each quarter in 2022 to recharge after “long days and long weeks” of intense work. 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.