Weekly Fintech Newsletter | 2021 #3
SuperApps, Investments, Payments, Open Banking, Crypto, Funding, and other topics.
🇺🇸Paypal’s expected launch of its Super App has caught everyone’s attention. The company is planning to offer a Super App with FinTech services like Crypto, Payments, Investing, and Rewards, all accessible via a common interface. Omar Faridi’s article on CrowfundInsider covers the ins and outs of what’s to come for the fintech giant.
For example, last year, Paypal introduced its cryptocurrency investing service in October. Due to its categorical success, they will be expanding the options to purchase, sell, and hold digital currencies to new global markets. Furthermore, they will be offering more investment options without limiting themselves to cryptocurrencies. This means that stock trading remains a possibility.
Also, the use of digital currencies as a funding source for payments will be supported later this quarter. The future of Paypal might reside in it becoming a digital wallet to store and manage funds. But we can also expect day-to-day transactions such as bill payments, savings, and budgeting tools, to form part of its anticipated Super App.
There are several exciting products expected to roll-out this year. Read more here.
FINTECH MAPS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S FINTECH SPACE
FINTECH SPOTLIGHT
Sifted created a European Capital Map in 2021, that provides insights into the European Venture Ecosystem.
Below some of their takeaways:
The UK is home to Europe’s ‘most powerful’ VCs
DACH launched the highest number of funds in 2019 and 2020
The UK & Ireland has the most crowded investment scene
Swedish and Norwegian VC firms dominate in the Nordics
The Netherlands is leading the Benelux ecosystem
Half of the most active funds in southern Europe are based in France
Eastern Europe is the most underfunded region
Read more here.
FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
According to EY, LATAM is one of the regions with the fastest consumer Fintech adoption index, with an average of 64%. Link here.
🇺🇸Shopify partnered with Facebook to expand its payment option, Shop Pay, to all Shopify merchants selling across both Facebook and Instagram. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Starting immediately, users who sign up for 🇺🇸Clair will receive the Clair Debit Mastercard, which hourly workers can use to access their free daily wage advances. These advances, which have no interest payments or other fees, are based on the hours they’ve worked each day. Link here.
Money transfer group 🇬🇧TransferGo has joined forces with fellow fintech 🇬🇧Thought Machine to help it accelerate its global expansion plans. Link here.
🇺🇸Mastercard and 🇮🇪CleverCards have signed a strategic partnership to expand the usage of digital cards across Europe. The deal comes as 🇮🇪CleverCards also joins Mastercard’s Fintech Express program, propelling 🇮🇪CleverCards to simplify the payments value chain across Europe to enable anyone, anywhere, anytime to be paid instantly by businesses. Link here.
BNPL
The 🇸🇬Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, is reportedly “reviewing” its “regulatory approach” to buy now, pay later (BNPL) firms. Link here.
Swedish fintech 🇸🇪Klarna has taken its first steps towards creating its own ‘super app’, introducing bank accounts for a limited number of German users. Klarna will provide the select group of users with a 🇺🇸Visa debit card and a bank account with a German IBAN, enabling them to set up direct debits and deposits. The move comes just over six months after the fintech launched its first savings accounts in Germany, in partnership with fellow fintech Raisin, taking its first tentative steps into the world of digital banking. Link here.
Also, 🇸🇪Klarna is allegedly closing a new $500m fundraise with a valuation of between $25-30bn. The report comes at a crucial time for the buy-now-pay-later sector with soaring demand for its services but Klarna and other BNPL fintechs have been under the microscope as of late as more people join the call for tighter regulation in the sector. Link here.
🇺🇸Affirm, Inc. on Thursday forecast weaker sales volume for the current quarter, signaling a slowdown in the pandemic-induced boom in online shopping that helped it narrow its loss in its first results as a publicly-traded company. Link here.
Fintech 🇬🇧Tymit is disrupting the UK credit card market with a new offering that protects customers from getting caught up in a spiral of credit card debt. The Tymit credit card puts consumers in full control of their repayments, ensuring they never get trapped on a revolving balance that continues to grow with compound interest payments. Link here.
EPP - EMPLOYMENT PAYMENTS PLATFORMS
🇺🇸Playter Pay is one of a large and growing number of companies looking to make scaling a business more accessible and affordable. Link here.
CRYPTO
🇺🇸Amazon’s grip on the internet economy appears to be coming for currency next, with the e-commerce giant preparing to launch a “digital currency” project in Mexico. The yet-to-be-announced project, which Amazon sketched out across a series of recent job posts, appears to be an effort to keep lucrative Prime customers eternally plugged into Amazon’s platform. Link here.
🇺🇸Mastercard is preparing for the future of transactions by planning to support cryptocurrency transactions across its network. Mastercard expects this to create a lot more possibilities for shoppers and merchants, allowing them to transact in an entirely new form of payment. Link here.
Bitcoin's big week got bigger with an announcement from rapper Jay Z and 🇺🇸Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that the pair are establishing a bitcoin development fund. Dorsey tweeted the news Friday, writing that they are taking applications for a "blind irrevocable trust" focused on Africa and India. Link here.
🇺🇸BitPay said on Friday its bitcoin cards could be added to their Apple Wallet, giving cryptocurrency holders a new way to spend via Apple Pay. BitPay said it would also add the cards to Google and Samsung Pay. Customers were "always looking for new places and ways to spend their crypto," said BitPay. Link here.
INSURTECH
🇺🇸Marble, the first digital wallet and loyalty platform for insurance, announced $2.5 million in seed round funding. 🇺🇸Marble, founded and launched in private beta in 2020, acts as a one-hub, digital wallet where customers can seamlessly manage all of their personal insurance details and payments. Link here.
INVESTMENTS
Nigerian fintech, 🇳🇬Xend Finance, a decentralized finance platform for credit unions and cooperatives, has topped up its funding round to $2 million as it announces a key partnership. Xend Finance has developed a platform that gives everyone access to the global money market so members can save and invest in stable currencies. Link here.
Digital pension provider 🇬🇧PensionBee saw strong growth in revenues in 2020 to £6.3m, an increase of 77 percent, according to numbers released by the fintech. Link here.
🇬🇧Freetrade has joined the ever-growing list of UK fintechs setting up shop in Australia. The investment platform is set to open an office in Brisbane imminently. Link here.
FUNDING
Across Europe, dozens of the youngest minds are already learning the VC ropes at major firms. So, who are the most exciting and youngest VCs to watch in Europe? Sifted shortlisted 30 of the next big names in European VC, highlighting those aged 26 or younger. Link here.
Overall, venture capital investment hit a record €14.1bn in the UK in 2020. But who were the most active UK angels in 2020? Given that many angels do not publicly disclose their deals, it’s far harder to track angel investments than VC investments. So, Sifted contacted dozens of prominent angels to find out how many startups they backed last year. Here's their list of the 13 most prolific angels in the UK in 2020. Link here.
Want to co-invest alongside me in the most promising FinTechs? Join my Angel Investors Syndicate. Link here.
“We’re hyper-focused on providing the highest real-time data coverage on credit-invisible customers, something that no other API is offering in our markets,” said 🇺🇸Pngme Founder, Brendan Playford. The financial data platform closed a $3M seed round to accelerate growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Link here.
🇫🇷Libeo, a B2B payments fintech, has raised €20m in a funding round led by partners at DST, an investor in Revolut and Funding Circle among others. Link here.
🇺🇸TomoCredit, the US startup behind a credit card designed to help first-time borrowers build a credit history, has raised $7 million in a seed funding round joined by 🇬🇧Barclays. Link here.
🇬🇧Longevity Card launched a crowdfunding campaign on one of the UK’s biggest crowdfunding platforms, Seedrs. Link here.
🇳🇱Finch Capital announced the first close of its EUR150M fund, Europe III, which will invest in European technology companies that shape the future of finance by using technology such as artificial intelligence. Link here.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS:
🇺🇸Pagaya Investments, a global, data-driven financial technology company reshaping asset management, announced the hire of Peter Silberstein as Head of Capital Development, further fueling the firm’s growth. 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.
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