Weekly Fintech Newsletter | 2021 #11
Hi, there!
Did you know that 18 to 24-year-olds list social media as one of the most popular sources for financial information, tips, and advice?
Although 37% of Americans said their main source of financial advice comes from friends and family, Gen Zers cited social media as a go-to source.
Twenty-eight percent of Gen Zers said they sought advice from social media platforms and influencers, while only 24% of millennials, 10% of Gen Xers, and 4% of boomers said the same.
👉 Read more here.
PODCAST
The podcast recommendation of the week belongs to the National Retail Federation and their show Retail Gets Real. Episode 214 with 🇸🇪Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, covers how 🇸🇪Klarna accelerated new retail partnerships during the pandemic.
“Those relationships [with retailers] nowadays are not only with the payments team, but are actually more across the whole organization, because what we really love doing is iterating, and experimenting, and pushing the product forward with our retail partners.”
👉 Listen here.
FINTECH MAPS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S FINTECH SPACE
FINTECH SPOTLIGHT
SPACs have had a lot of media attention in the last few months, but what are SPACs after all?
A SPAC, also known as a “blank check company”, is a shell company with the sole purpose of raising capital through investments in an IPO to merge with an existing company. Private-owned companies found that SPACs are a quicker (and most times better) way to go public than going for the whole IPO process.
👉 Learn more here.
FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
Fintech companies are set to win significant market share from banks says 🇺🇸 J.P. Morgan's Chase chief Jamie Dimon. Link here.
🇺🇸 Ramp becomes the fastest company in NY to reach Unicorn status after a $115m Series B. Link here.
While the majority of live adventures are under lockdown, ROCKIT Vilnius invites you to the digital Cyber Security Hackathon. Link here.
Numerous studies have revealed that young Indians don’t manage their finances until the age of at least 24 when they finish college and start earning. Link here.
Colombia Fintech shares what 2020 was like for some of their members during a year of financial digitization for the country. Link here.
CRYPTO
Nas is among the fortunate few to have made early investments in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange expected to reach over $100 billion in valuation when its COIN stock lists on Wednesday. Link here.
🇺🇸Robinhood shared some stats providing more evidence that the crypto boom is more than just hype. 🇺🇸Robinhood’s head of crypto operations revealed that in the first quarter of 2021, 9.5 million of its customers traded crypto via the company’s platform. Link here.
🇺🇸MoneyLion has announced that the firm will introduce new capabilities enabling members to buy, sell and earn digital currencies. MoneyLion’s strategic investment in 🇺🇸Zero Hash is expected to complement the move. Link here.
🇬🇧 Ziglu, the cryptocurrency challenger and fully FCA authorized Electronic Money Institution, has made tez (XTZ), the native digital coin of blockchain network Tezos, available to the Ziglu community. Link here.
🇳🇱 BUX Crypto, the crypto platform of neo-broker 🇳🇱 BUX, has received registration from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) as a provider of crypto services. Link here.
PAYMENTS
🇺🇸 Facebook has begun trialing QR code-based person-to-person payments and personalized payment links. As first picked up by MacRumours, some US users are now seeing a new "Scan" button on the Facebook Pay carousel. Link here.
🇿🇦Ukheshe has partnered with Infobip to launch South Africa’s first WhatsApp payment gateway which allows Telkom customers to send money to anyone with a mobile number quickly and securely with no need for another app or any additional software. Link here.
🇬🇧 PPS, formerly PrePay Solutions and an Edenred company, announced that it has been selected to be the partner to 🇩🇪 pockid, the first German Neobank for Generation Z (15–24-year-olds). Link here.
🇺🇸 Clubhouse, the audio-based app valued at around $1 billion, has launched a tipping option so content creators can make money on the platform. Link here.
🇺🇸 Mastercard has teamed up with 🇸🇪 Doconomy to develop a carbon calculator that banks can integrate into their apps to give customers a snapshot of the emissions generated by their purchases across spending categories. Link here.
🇳🇱 Paynote launched its personal financial management (PFM) app in beta at the end of last month. Link here.
BNPL
🇬🇧 Zilch is rolling out a 'tap and pay-over-time' feature that lets shoppers make in-store payments with a wave of their digital wallet, with the cost spread over a six-week period. Link here.
🇺🇸Payflex has launched its buy now pay later online retail service to South Africa. The company – which has seen extraordinary popularity in Australia, the USA, and Europe – lets users shop online and pay later, interest-free over six weeks. Link here.
🇺🇸 Square, the globally trusted software, payments, and hardware solution for businesses of all sizes, announced an Early Access Programme in Ireland, offering exclusive access to an integrated suite of tools to seamlessly sell in-person and online. Link here.
🇺🇸 Afterpay has teamed up with payments platform Adyen to offer its installment payments to retailers around the world, according to a press release Thursday (April 8). Link here.
INVESTMENTS
🇺🇸Instinet and 🇺🇸Credit Suisse have conducted the first live trades of US-listed equities on a T+0 settlement timeframe using blockchain technology from Paxos. Link here.
Millennials-focused investment app 🇮🇳Groww has raised $83 million in a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global. Existing backers Sequoia India, Ribbit Capital, YC Continuity, and Propel Venture Partners also participated in the round. The five-year-old company has turned into a unicorn with this new round. Link here.
🇺🇸 DriveWealth announced a new partnership with the financial data network 🇺🇸 Plaid to give customers of both services simplified online investment account funding. Link here.
The federal government has declared the activities of Fintech companies such as 🇳🇬Bamboo and 🇳🇬Trove, illegal. The Security and Exchange Commission, in a post titled “Proliferation of Unregistered Online Investment and Trading Platforms facilitating access to trading in Securities listed in Foreign Markets”, urged these platforms to desist from enabling Nigerians to access securities listed by foreign companies in other countries. Link here.
🇬🇧 Clim8 Invest, a sustainable investing platform, has launched its app after an eight-month beta testing period with a promise to help fix the “dysfunctional” landscape for ethical investing. Link here.
🇸🇪 Trustly has confirmed plans for an IPO that could value the company at up to €9 billion. Link here.
Saving and investing app 🇺🇸 Acorns has acquired 🇬🇧 Pillar, an AI-powered startup built to help manage student loan debt, in its second acquisition of 2021. Link here.
Darian Bhathena, Jack Phifer, Michael Liu, and Roger Cawdette believe that as the younger generation’s involvement in the stock market increases, they will need a dedicated investing platform built around their communication habits, leading them to create 🇺🇸 Finary (YC W21). Link here.
FUNDING
🇺🇸 Orum, a New York startup with about 40 employees, aims to shrink money movement times down to 24 hours. It has raised $21 million in “Series A” funding led by Bain Capital. Link here.
🇬🇧 TrueLayer has raised $70 million in a Series D round bringing the fintech’s total capital raised to $142 million. The funding is expected to accelerate 🇬🇧 TrueLayer’s expansion particularly in the areas of engineering, product, and commercial teams. Link here.
🇵🇱 SPOKO.app, a fintech operating on the international money transfer market, has obtained financing of EUR 5m from its strategic investor - 🇵🇱 FinTech Ventures S.A. Link here.
🇪🇸 Ritmo, the Capital as a Service company that offers non-dilutive investment to digital entrepreneurs, has closed its first round of financing, led by 🇪🇸 Sabadell Venture Capital, Inveready, and FinRebel, worth 3 million euros. Link here.
🇺🇸 Plaid has raised $425 million in Series D financing at an estimated valuation of $13.5 billion. The valuation is a big step up from a recently aborted $5.3 billion Visa deal, blocked by the US Justice Department over competition concerns. Link here.
🇺🇸 Ensemble is coming out of stealth with $3 million in seed funding from TTV Capital, Lerer Hippeau and Citi Ventures. Link here.
FOUNDERS & INVESTORS
🇺🇸 🇬🇧 Index Origin, a $200 Million Seed Fund Investing in Entrepreneurs from Day One. "Index Origin offers founders the focus and community of a dedicated seed fund, with the resources, network, and reach of a multi-stage global firm. Link here.
Grab is going public in New York via a blank check merger with Altimeter Capital in a deal that gives Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup a valuation of about $35 billion. Link here.
🇺🇸 Avant, a leading financial technology company that gives underserved consumers access to the credit they deserve, announced that it has completed the acquisition of 🇺🇸 Zero Financial, Inc. and Level, the company's neobank and design-forward banking app assets. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS:
Talos, an end-to-end technology infrastructure provider that supports the institutional trading of digital assets, announced the hire of Justin Schmidt as Head of Strategy. Schmidt comes to Talos from Goldman Sachs, where he served as Head of Digital Asset Markets since 2018. Link here.
Freetrade, the investment platform that is on a mission to get everyone investing, announces the appointment of a senior team of executive and non-executive leaders to guide the company on its European expansion. Link here.
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This ends my weekly digital fintech newsletter. Thank you for reading to the end! If you liked it, I invite you to like, share and/or leave a comment below. You may find more information regarding my newsletter here.
If there is anything else you think I’m missing, please don’t hesitate to reach out by email at bonjour@marcelvanoost.nl.
If you are looking for my weekly digital banking newsletter (the one divided by regions), you may find it here.
Let me know if there are any questions or news/insights worth mentioning in next week's newsletter. Until the next!
Regards,
Marcel van Oost