Weekly Fintech Newsletter | 2021 #28
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!
ARTICLE
In May 2020, a trio of friends rented a home in Tulum, Mexico, and invited their internet friends. The project was dubbed The Launch House, and the 18 entrepreneurs who came to live there had to do the following: pay rent, launch projects, and build their company in public.
Over a year later, Launch House has expanded its physical and digital presence beyond a one-off project. The trio — Michael Houck, Brett Goldstein, and Jacob Peters — announced that they’ve raised $3 million to expand their residency program, physically and digitally.
Next fall, Launch House will launch LA and NYC-specific programs, as well as residencies built to gather people within Web 3.0, fintech, B2B enterprise, and the creator economy.
👉 Read more here.
REPORT
At the height of the pandemic, the US government extended a lifeline in the form of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), doling out forgivable loans worth anywhere between $150K and $10M to businesses that applied and met the required criteria. As of July 30, the US Small Business Administration has distributed nearly $800B across 11.5M loans.
Among these, more than 9,600 companies (9,674 to be exact) were backed by venture capital, private equity, and other investors.
CB INSIGHTS looked at how many have since exited, raised rounds, and become unicorns. Link
👉 Read more here.
FINTECH MAPS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S FINTECH SPACE
FINTECH SPOTLIGHT
🇬🇧 WorldRemit has become Zepz and simultaneously closed a colossal funding round.
Now valued at $5bn, making it one of the UK’s most valued fintech unicorns along with Revolut and Checkout.com, Zepz last night confirmed a $292m funding round.
“Today’s announced raise is another important step in the execution of our strategy,” said Zepz CEO Breon Corcoran.
👉 Read more here.
FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
This summer 🇸🇪Klarna is proud to celebrate a major milestone: 20 million US customers! Link here.
See all of this week’s FinTech deal activity in FT Partners report: 44 Financing and 29 M&A transactions. Link here.
A few years ago, 🇦🇺 AirTree published the first iteration of the Australian tech companies with $100M+ valuation chart. Since then, things have only accelerated, and we’ve got the numbers to back this up. Link here.
Traditionally, FinTech unicorns made rare sightings across the globe, but it’s becoming a common breed in today’s FinTech ecosystem – with nearly 157 FinTech unicorns in the world. Link here.
The 🇬🇧 Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE) compiled a list of the 157 fintech unicorns to date (those valued over $1 billion), per its blog post. Unsurprisingly, the 81 unicorns in the US are more than in all of the other countries combined. Link here.
INSURETECH
Choosing an insurance policy is one of the most complicated financial decisions a person can make. 🇮🇩 Lifepal wants to simplify the process for Indonesians with a marketplace that lets users compare policies from more than 50 providers, get help from licensed agents, and file claims. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
🇦🇺Acacia is emerging from stealth mode with the launch of its money management app that uses open banking and data analytics to give useful insights into their financial and environmental arrangements. Link here.
The pace of adoption of open financial data — commonly known as “open banking” — varies in Asia, with Malaysia still at an early stage and South Korea and Singapore more advanced, according to McKinsey & Co. Link here.
🇬🇧 Finastra announced its collaboration with 🇺🇸 Salt Edge to improve the speed of compliance with PSD2 and other global open banking standards, for banks and Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) worldwide. Link here.
CRYPTO
Coinbase that it would add $500 million of cryptocurrency to its balance sheet, while also allocating 10% of its quarterly net income to a portfolio of crypto assets. Link here.
Payments technology company Visa announced that it has bought a CryptoPunk as it enters into the world of non-fungible token (NFT) commerce. Visa bought CryptoPunk 7610, one of 3,840 female punks, for around $150,000 last week. Link here.
Global crypto adoption has taken off in the last year, up 881%, with Vietnam, India, and Pakistan firmly in the lead, according to new data from Chainalysis. Link here.
🇺🇸 Facebook is prepared to launch the Novi digital wallet tied to Diem blockchain-based payment system, said the head of the social media giant's payments project that's seeking necessary regulatory clearances. Link here.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance was providing its services in the Netherlands without the required registration, the Dutch central bank (DNB) said in the latest regulatory hurdle for the company. Link here.
🇺🇸 Robinhood said crypto accounted for more than half of all transaction-based sales in the second quarter, and 62% of crypto revenue came from dogecoin, a meme-inspired digital coin originally started as a joke. Link here.
🇺🇸 Walmart is looking to hire a cryptocurrency expert to help develop and lead its digital currency strategy and identify crypto-related investment and partnership opportunities, according to a job posting. Link here.
🇬🇧 Ziglu is advising cryptocurrency investors to plan for the long-term as valuations recover across the market following the recent sell-off. Bitcoin prices have climbed more than 40% in the past month with other cryptocurrencies including Ether, Litecoin, and Dogecoin also recording strong gains while remaining on the whole well below previous record highs. Link here.
Crypto exchange Coinbase is entering the Japanese market through its partnership with Japanese financial giant 🇯🇵 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG). Link here.
The 🇸🇨 BitMEX brand will feature on the sleeve of both the men’s and women’s team playing kit in all competitions, including the UEFA Champions League, and on the sleeve of the Rossoneri’s eSports team, AQM – marking another first for the Club. Link here.
Venture Capital funds have invested a yearly record into the crypto market, eclipsing over $17 billion in 2021 already. Link here.
PAYMENTS
🇳🇱 Adyen saw a 67 percent increase in processed volume during the first half of 2021, the payments company said in its earnings report. Link here.
🇺🇸 Walgreens (WBA) is launching a new credit card program, with two cards focused on rewards for pharmacy purchases as well as swipes and taps for other health and wellness bills. Link here.
🇬🇧 Swapi, the global digital loyalty wallet, has revealed the latest feature as part of its industry-first app which is set to launch later this autumn - Swapi Points. Link here.
Digital payments in India reported a record high in 2020 with all channels from the Unified Payments Interface to the Aadhar-enabled Payment System (AePS) registering significant growth. Link here.
🇦🇪 SimpliFi, the UAE-based fintech start-up which launched its ‘cards-as-a-service’ platform earlier this month, is gearing up to enter into a series of partnerships across the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan (MENAP) as the company targets to go live commercially across the entire region by next year, the top executive of the venture said. Link here.
BNPL
🇸🇬 hoolah, Asia’s omnichannel Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) ecosystem has announced a regional partnership with Jumper.ai, the world’s first end-to-end conversational commerce and shopper engagement platform, to offer merchants across Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong the opportunity to let their customers pay later in a way that is convenient, flexible and transparent through conversational commerce. Link here.
🇬🇧 Butter, a Buy Now, Pay Later platform, has unveiled a new 10-month interest-free installment payment option. Link here.
🇺🇸 PayPal will no longer charge customers late fees when they miss payments on buy now, pay later (BNPL) purchases globally, as competition heats up in the fast-growing sector. Link here.
FUNDING
🇺🇸 Sightline Payments announced the completion of a $244 million round valuing the company at over $1 billion. Link here.
🇳🇬 OPay raised $400 million in new financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, valuing the company at $2 billion. Link here.
🇺🇸 Branch, which has built a flexible workforce payments platform, announced it has raised $48 million in Series B funding and closed on a $500 million credit facility. Link here.
🇺🇸 Biller Genie, a cloud-based e-invoicing platform for businesses, will scale its operations and accelerate the distribution of new products after closing a $3.5 million seed financing round. Link here.
🇧🇷 Kovi is announcing it has raised $104 million in a Series B round of funding co-led by Valor Capital Group and Prosus Ventures. Link here.
FinTech infrastructure firm 🇺🇸 Plaid raised new funding in an additional Series D round led by new investor J.P. Morgan Private Capital Growth Equity Partners and existing investor Amex Ventures, Plaid Co-Founder and CEO Zachary Perret said in a Tuesday (Aug. 17) blog post. Link here.
E-commerce roll-up company 🇮🇳 UpScalio said it has raised $42.5 million in Series A funding. This move highlights the new investor rush towards the Thrasio style-business model in India. Link here.
FOUNDERS & INVESTORS
🇺🇸 Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, announced a new initiative today to offer customers the choice to issue physical cards made from recycled plastic through its platform, alongside a partnership with 🇺🇸 rePurpose Global to offset its plastic footprint. Link here.
🇺🇸 PayPal and 🇺🇸 Fiserv announced a new partnership allowing gig economy workers to get paychecks deposited into a 🇺🇸 PayPal or 🇺🇸 Venmo account. Link here.
London-based payments company 🇬🇧 Paysafe has agreed to acquire 🇺🇸 SafetyPay in a $441 million deal, its second acquisition in the space of a month. Link here.
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.
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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