Weekly Fintech Newsletter | 2021 #19
Hi, there! Welcome back to another Fintech Weekly Newsletter. In this newsletter, I cover all the major weekly news related to the fintech industry. The newsletter begins with recommended articles, reports, and Fintech maps. Thank you for subscribing!
I had a very insightful interview with Joe O’Connor of 🇮🇪 Leveris, through their interview series Core.
In this interview, we covered everything from BNPL, Open Banking, to what I am looking for in fintechs as an early-stage investor.
LEVERIS: Halfway through 2021, what do you think has been the biggest story in fintech so far this year?
Marcel van Oost: That has to be the news that regulators are actively forbidding fintechs from calling themselves a bank, like what happened with Chime in the US after the regulator cracked down on the practice followed by similar moves in France and the UK.
👉 Read more here.
REPORT
Check out Financial Technology Partners / FT Partners’ new research report “Youth-focused FinTech Platforms Attract Investor Attention”.
In this report, they discuss FinTech platforms offering financial services to younger consumers.
👉 Link here.
EVENT
Amsterdam Fintech Week, in short XFW, running from 4th to 11th of June, gathers all stakeholders and players active in the ecosystem of digital finance.
You can expect a week full of events, with several highly anticipated keynotes, expert panels, workshops, and startup pitches.
👉 Link here
NEWSLETTERS
The FinTech and digital banking businesses are fast-paced, so staying up to date on what's going on isn't always simple.
Newsletters, in my opinion, are an excellent way to stay up to date on what's going on in that industry. So, aside from my own newsletters, here's a list of FinTech and digital banking newsletters that I recommend.
👉 Read more here.
FINTECH MAPS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S FINTECH SPACE
FINTECH SPOTLIGHT
🇨🇦 Trulioo has completed a $394 million Series D round at a massive $1.75 billion valuation, joining the city’s growing stable of unicorns.
According to Steve Munford, Trulioo’s President and CEO, the new round of funding will accelerate Trulioo’s goal to become an end-to-end identity platform, The U.S. digital identity market alone is projected to increase to over $30 billion by 2023.
👉 Read more here.
FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
A series of high-profile fintech IPOs, including 🇬🇧 PensionBee last month and 🇬🇧Deliveroo the month before, have put 🇬🇧 PrimaryBid in very good stead. Link here.
🇺🇸 Mastercard has released its Mastercard Carbon Calculator for the Middle East & Africa. Link here.
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has announced his intention to send proposed legislation to the country’s congress that would make Bitcoin legal tender in the Central American nation. Link here.
Australia’s FinTech sector is growing rapidly and becoming a driving force for innovation in the region. Link here.
🇺🇸 PayPal has announced it will invest $135 million into financial institutions and management funds that help underserved communities of color to fight barriers to economic equity. Link here.
The massive popularity of the crypto-industry is visible in numbers. For example, the bitcoin market cap reached more than $1 billion and blockchain is expected to hit $23.3 billion. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
🇬🇧 Opaay has chosen ibanXS as their pan-European PSD2 / Open Banking platform. Link here.
CRYPTO
🇷🇺 Tinkoff Bank wants to offer cryptocurrency trading to its clients but says this will take time due to a tough stance from the country’s central bank. Link here.
🇲🇾 CoinGecko started out as a side project back in 2014 but has since grown into one of the biggest crypto data providers in the world, boasting 10 million users and 200 million page views monthly. Link here.
You can now use your Coinbase Card with Apple Pay and Google Pay to make it even easier to spend crypto at home and on the go. Link here.
🇨🇦 Perk Labs Inc. announced that it has partnered with BitPay to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Link here.
PAYMENTS
🇬🇧 Paysafe Group announced an expanded partnership with 🇺🇸 IntelliPay, a provider of an intelligent cloud-based payment platform and alternative payment models. Link here.
Also, 🇬🇧 Paysafe Group announced a new integrated payments partnership with 🇬🇧 SimplyPayMe, the global provider of payments technology and infrastructure. Link here.
🇫🇮 Enfuce is partnering with Visa to roll out a fast-track, eight-week program for European fintechs to launch their own payment cards. Link here.
🇺🇸 eBay’s planned removal of 🇺🇸PayPal as an option for paying sellers has come into effect. While eBay buyers can still pay with PayPal, sellers will be paid straight into their bank accounts. Link here.
🇬🇧 Wirex is partnering with 🇬🇧 Terra Virtua to bring the benefits of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to a mainstream audience. Link here.
🇬🇧 Wise has touched down in India, opening an office in Mumbai and enabling users to send and receive payments to 44 countries worldwide. Link here.
🇶🇦 Dibsy aims to revolutionize payment transactions in the MENA region. Link here.
🇬🇧 Tred has selected global B2B payments company - 🇸🇬 Nium - to be its card-issuance partner for its new sustainable product – the Tred green debit card. Link here.
🇪🇸 Pecunpay trademark of the E-money institution Pecunia Cards EDE, which is specialized in innovative payment solutions and E-money processing, has just launched FINTANK, the innovation center for digital payment methods. Link here.
BNPL
BNPL is tiny within the $1.3 Trillion retail payments market and after 7 years twenty-two BNPL apps have sales of $11 billion – or 84 basis points. Link here.
🇬🇧 Divido has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by both HSBC and ING. Link here.
FUNDING
🇲🇽 GBM Grupo Bursátil Mexicano announced it has received an investment of “up to” $150 million from SoftBank via the Japanese conglomerate’s Latin America Fund at a valuation of “over $1 billion.” Link here.
🇬🇧 Augmentum Fintech has disclosed that it is considering another public market fundraise in the coming months. Link here.
🇪🇨 Kushki, a Quito-based fintech, is bringing attention to the region with an announcement of an $86 million Series B and a $600 million valuation. Link here.
🇲🇽 PROSA is exploring a sale that could value it at more than $1 billion. Link here.
🇺🇸 Truebill brought in a $17 million Series C round, it is supporting the demand of its services with $45 million in Series D funding to give it a valuation of $500 million, Yahya Mokhtarzada, co-founder and chief revenue officer. Link here.
🇳🇱 Sentinels raised EUR5.7 million in a seed funding round. Link here.
🇺🇸 Capchase closed a $125 million Series A as it looks to expand its non-dilutive funding platform and offerings to founders. Link here.
🇵🇰 TAG has closed $5.5 million in a pre-seed round led by US VCs Quiet Capitaland Liberty City Ventures. Link here.
🇺🇸 Jeeves, an all-in-one expense management platform for global startups, announced today that it has raised $131M in total funding, including $31M in equity and $100M in debt funding. Link here.
🇨🇭neon has raised seven million CHF (£5.5M) from pre-existing investors and kicked off a crowdfunding round for customers. Link here.
🇬🇧 Clim8 Invest has secured a £2 million investment from the "media-for-equity" fund Channel 4 Ventures. Link here.
🇺🇸 Yieldstreet has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Tarsadia Investments. Link here.
FOUNDERS & INVESTORS
Every investor is looking for the next billion-dollar startup — the smash hit that will return their fund. Link here.
🇺🇾 dLocal, specialized in payment solutions, and which became Uruguay's first unicorn in September 2020 after reaching a valuation of more than $ 1 billion, went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS:
Some of the biggest FinTechs are breeding grounds for new entrepreneurs and 🇬🇧 Wise (formerly TransferWise) is no different. Link here.
🇺🇸 YieldX, the FinTech reimagining fixed income, announced two key appointments. Link here.
🇩🇰 Pleo, which offers simplified expense and bill management automation tools, and smart company Mastercards, has appointed Arun Manias its Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). 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
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