Weekly Fintech Newsletter | 2021 #39
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Among the world’s largest nations, the U.S. has by far the highest rate of startup investment relative to population.
Over the past year, venture investors put nearly $270 billion to work—averaging out to around $800 for every person in the country. But among all countries, the U.S. ranks fourth in per capita startup investment.
Those are findings from Crunchbase latest survey of per capita venture capital investment across a sample set of 24 countries that pulled in more than $1 billion in the past 12 months.
FINTECH MAPS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S FINTECH SPACE
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
🇦🇺 Afterpay has officially launched its Money app in Australia, granting 3.6 million users access to savings accounts, a debit card, and a suite of features designed to bind the buy now, pay later giant with even more everyday spending.
Money by Afterpay sees FinTech move beyond pay-in-four transactions and towards ‘traditional’ banking, thanks to its massive partnership with Westpac.
FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
The race is on to build a true global real-time payment network. Banks, payment companies, SWIFT, and the card networks are all building different offerings. Link here.
Each year, 🇵🇹 Portugal Fintech launches a publication that aims to portray the state of the Portuguese Fintech landscape. Link here.
Many investors were excited by the announcement of an upcoming IPO of 🇵🇹 Rappi, the main delivery platform in Latin America and the second Colombian unicorn. Link here.
Vikram ‘Vikkstar’ Singh Barn has become a ‘part-owner’ of 🇬🇧 VibePay. Link here.
The global transaction volume of in-store and e-commerce digital wallet payments will exceed US$10tn by 2025, according to a forecast commissioned by 🇺🇸 Discover Global Network. Link here.
PAYMENTS
🇿🇦 Stitch started its journey by providing fintech companies with access to financial account data. Over the past several months, it has grown its API volumes by over 40% month-on-month and launched Account to Account (A2A) payments. Link here.
B2B payments platform and currency exchange marketplace for SMEs 🇬🇧 Verto has partnered with 🇬🇧 ClearBank for the underserved UK and European businesses, according to FF News | Fintech Finance. Link here.
New Paytech company 🇬🇧 WondaPay, has announced the launch of a new payment solution platform for freelancers. Link here.
Introducing 🇺🇸 Stripe Reader. Stripe Reader M2 is an easy-to-use mobile card reader designed for fast, secure payments. Link here.
🇳🇱 ING is to shut down Payvision, the controversial international card acquirer and payments platform that the Dutch bank acquired in 2018 for €360 million. Link here.
Belvo is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with Visa to support the acceleration of open finance products and solutions across key markets in Latin America. Link here.
BNPL
🇸🇪 Klarna is to roll out its in-app shopping feature globally, enabling users to pay in three monthly instalments for purchases at any online retailer, regardless of whether they’re partnered with the BNPL giant or not. Link here.
🇬🇧 Virgin Money is preparing to jump on the buy now, pay later bandwagon through the development of a digital wallet in collaboration with Global Payments Inc. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
Australian Open Banking provider 🇦🇺 Frollo has published the second edition of its yearly industry report, ‘The State of Open Banking 2021’. The report shows an industry that’s ready for take-off, as data availability has accelerated, APIs have proven to be fast and reliable, and people are more excited than ever to get started with Open Banking. Link here.
Fintech 🇬🇧 Currensea, which has created the UK’s first open banking powered direct debit travel card saving users at least 85% on the foreign exchange (FX) charges, is launching a first-of-its-kind concept to allow cardholders to convert these savings into donations. Link here.
CRYPTO
Coinbase is acquiring the startup 🇺🇸 Agara, which operates an AI-powered customer support platform, as the cryptocurrency exchange looks to make it easier for users to join the service and seek assistance. Link here.
France FinTech, a leading non-profit association whose mission is to promote FinTech excellence in France, and Binance, the world's leading blockchain ecosystem, and cryptocurrency exchange, announced the launch of a EUR100 Million initiative to support the development of the French and European blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem. Link here.
🇺🇸 Mastercard is working to allow thousands of banks and merchants on its payments network to soon integrate cryptocurrency into their products. Link here.
Israel-American crypto company 🇺🇸 Celsius is acquiring Israeli cybersecurity company GK8 for $115 million, Calcalist has learned. Link here.
INVESTMENTS
🇦🇪 Wealthface, an Investment management company, announced the launching of its online trading platform for active investors in the Middle East and the United States with the option of allowing clients to build their own portfolio, powered by a factor investing advanced algorithms. Link here.