Weekly Fintech Newsletter | 2021 #12
A study of 2,000 global consumers released by 🇩🇪 Mambu, revealed that a significant misunderstanding of open banking is hampering its adoption.
Open banking has witnessed an increase in adoption globally as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the research indicates a marked change in attitude and priorities as a result of the crisis.
However, existing concerns remain with 48 percent of consumers claiming they are ‘scared’ to use open banking and 53 percent still believing that open banking is a dangerous use of data sharing.
Key Takeaway: demonstrating the opportunity for open banking, the survey revealed that 57 percent said they would be more likely to use it if their bank had more successfully implemented and promoted it.
👉 Read more here.
FINTECH MAPS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S FINTECH SPACE
FINTECH SPOTLIGHT
Active traders are often portrayed as gambling rubes or lucky opportunists. But the steady growth of platforms like eToro and Robinhood, coupled with the acceleration of investing communities like WallStreetBets, has tipped the power from institutions back to individuals and created a renewed interest in active trading.
In recent years we’ve seen momentum start to shift back towards active investing. The status-quo—passive-only investing strategies—is being challenged by newer generations of investors entering the market. The reasons behind this shift are part psychological, part structural.
👉 Read more here.
FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
Football star Louis Saha knows a thing or two about partnerships on the pitch. But what about in business? Link here.
Andreessen Horowitz is looking into and investing in Latin American Fintech, and so should you! Link here.
With the FinTech sector’s recent boom in the UAE and across the wider region, Irish start-up 🇮🇪 DX Compliance has formally launched its operations in the Middle East from its new base in the UAE. Link here.
Paynote, a Netherlands-based start-up, launched its personal financial management (PFM) app in beta at the end of last month. Link here.
CRYPTO
Venture capital investment in cryptocurrency and blockchain startups hit a record $3 billion in Q1 2021 across 239 deals. The flurry of dealmaking showed once again how a bitcoin bull market can trigger a boom time for startup investment. Link here.
🇭🇰The Hong Kong Digital Asset Exchange (HKD.com), the first combined online and physical exchange in Hong Kong, has announced its plans for Hong Kong's first one-stop trading platform for NFT (Non-Fungible Token) digital artwork. Link here.
🇲🇾 Luno, a digital asset exchange in Malaysia approved by the Securities Commission, announced that the company is now managing more than RM 1 billion of digital assets less than two years since the company relaunched in Malaysia in 2019. Link here.
🇺🇸Coinbase Global Inc. fetched an $85 billion valuation in its stock market debut Wednesday, a watershed moment for an industry that began a decade ago as an experiment in digital money. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
Credit monitoring and building platform 🇺🇸Credit Karma has picked Bud's Open Banking stack to help its UK members find better financial products and make smart money decisions. Link here.
PAYMENTS
🇬🇧Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the international conservation charity behind London and Whipsnade Zoos, is unveiling the trial of a new digital fundraising technology that will allow visitors to make effortless contactless donations to support the Zoo’s 30,000 resident animals and their global conservation projects. The partnership between ZSL and UK-based payments provider SumUp is a three-month trial which will see specially designed donation points installed at four locations across ZSL London Zoo, and three points soon to be available at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, will allow visitors to donate via contactless payment, Apple Pay, or Google Pay – in order to ‘feed’ their favorite species. Link here.
Digital payments expert 🇬🇧 PayPoint plc has completed the acquisition of RSM 2000 Ltd, a leading provider of innovative digital payment services. Link here.
🇸🇪 Fidesmo enters Russia together with the company ISBC and reaches millions of potential users as eight leading Russian banks now offer the wearable payment service Fidesmo Pay. Link here.
The foreign exchange company 🇬🇧 Travelex has partnered with the global payments platform NIUM to extend digital remittance services to their users. Link here.
🇺🇸 MoneyGram International, Inc., a global leader in the evolution of digital P2P payments, announced a partnership with Sigue Corporation, a leading U.S. based transnational P2P and B2B payment company. Link here.
🇬🇧 Modulr, a UK-based Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider, has landed an undisclosed strategic investment from FIS Ventures, the venture capital (VC) arm of major US financial services firm FIS. Link here.
🇬🇧 Barclays Bank has confirmed the closure of mobile P2P payments app Pingit, almost ten years after its pioneering launch in 2012. Link here.
BNPL
🇬🇧 Zilch, a London startup that has built an “over the top” buy now, pay later (BNPL) business out of cutting deals directly with consumers — bypassing the need for integrating anything new into an e-commerce site’s check-out process, as many of the leading providers have done — has raised $80 million, an all-equity Series B that values the company at over $500 million. Link here.
INSURETECH
🇲🇾 FatBerry.com, a Malaysian B2C insurance online supermarket, has raised a RM2.5 million (approximately US$600,000) during a pre-Series A funding round. The round was led by strategic investor Stockholm-based publicly traded venture builder Abelco Investment Group AB. Link here.
FUNDING
🇯🇵 SoftBank’s Vision Fund II is in the process of leading a $250 million (Rs 1,874 crore) Series D round in Bengaluru-based Zeta Suite that is likely to value the fintech firm at over $1 billion (Rs 7,495 crore). Link here.
🇺🇸 Level, a startup that aims to give companies a more flexible way to offer benefits to employees, has raised $27 million in a Series A funding round led by Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Link here.
Belfast-based fintech company 🇮🇪 loyalBe has secured $1m investment in an oversubscribed funding round led by Techstart Ventures LLP with support from Co-Fund NI and angels. 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.
Javier Perez, the former president of Mastercard Europe, has invested €8 million in Danish fintech 🇩🇰 Cardlay A/S through his Global PayTech Ventures fund. Link here.
J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and UBS have joined a $65 million funding round for blockchain software engineering firm ConsenSys. 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
Top VCs increasingly want to invest in earlier rounds. 🇺🇸 Sequoia Capital recently closed a $195M seed fund. Last year, Kleiner Perkins raised a $700M fund to invest in early-stage companies.
Not to be outdone, the hedge fund 🇺🇸 Coatue Management also closed a $700M early-stage fund.
It’s easy to see why: Q4 2020 was the best quarter ever for early-stage startups in terms of markups. With more top VCs investing at seed, angel investors now have a clearer signal on which seed deals are the “best." Right? Not necessarily…
👉 Find out why here.
🇨🇦 Nuvei Corporation, the global payment technology partner of thriving brands, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MazoomaTechnical Services Inc. Link here.
🇷🇺 OZON.ru Holdings PLC, a leading Russian e-commerce platform, announces that Ozon has entered into a sale and purchase agreement to acquire OneyBank LLC. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS:
Digital services firm Mobiquity Inc. has hired former BNP Paribas chief operation officer Howard Moore to spearhead a global expansion strategy. Link here.
Fortu Wealth – The WealthTech providing an all-in-one personal finance platform for high-net-worth individuals and a B2B banking-as-a-service (BaaS) solution for private banks and wealth managers – have today announced that Suresh Vaghjiani has joined their advisory board. Link here.
Volt.io, the open payments platform, announced the appointment of Gabriel de Montessus as Non-Executive Director. Link here.
Ian Fuller announced his departure from Freetrade no more than two weeks ago and has already found himself a new home in WeGift. Link here.
Before 2020, I used to travel around 50% of the time to all kinds of events and meet people in person all over the globe. I attended several FinTech events and had a great time networking. I'll still refer to 2020 as a "Virtual Year" when I reflect on it.
Sometimes I find myself really missing the hustle and bustle of physical events and the kind of networking that only a face-to-face meeting can provide.
👉 Read more here.
Sponsored Content: Fintech Meetup cuts straight to the most important part of an event: building connections. Sign up and meet with 1,000+ other knowledgeable & influential industry professionals.
👉 I can’t wait to see you there.
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