Weekly Fintech Newsletter | 2021 #42
BLOG
INTERVIEW
The CEO of 🇸🇪 Klarna says he shouldn’t be compared to Tesla boss Elon Musk and encourages people to not hold their breath waiting for his buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) quadradecacorn to go public.
Speaking with Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri, Sebastian Siemiatkowski said the company is better placed than ever to file for an initial public offering (IPO), but that it hasn’t started the work to do so in earnest.
The CEO has also said Klarna may not even opt for an IPO, instead opting for a direct listing. A direct listing would mean Klarna wouldn’t use the float to raise more money.
👉Read more here.
Also, 🇸🇪 Klarna has lost $344 million due to costs sharply increasing amidst the rising demand for buy now pay later services. Link here.
Furthermore, Klarna, a leading global retail bank, payments, and shopping service, announced the addition of 'Pay Now' to its range of payment services in the US. Link here.
REPORT
Current statistics about financial literacy among adults portrait a shocking picture. From the 2014 S&P Global FinLit Survey, two-thirds of the global population is financially illiterate. And, only 28% of accounting-owning adults are financially literate.
Financial inclusion comes from education. The need for financial education starts from early childhood. Children as young as 3 years old can grasp the basic idea of money, and by 7 their money habits are already set. Basically, the weight of delivering financial education rests on the individual (and their family).
👉Read more here.
ARTICLE
Across Europe, banks are moving beyond open banking and PSD2 requirements, steadily transitioning towards open finance, a new report by open banking startup Salt Edge says. The paper, titled State of open banking payments in Europe in 2021, draws on the testing of more than 2,500 PSD2 APIs from 31 European countries.
The analysis found that, as mandated by law, the UK’s CMA9, or the country’s nine largest banks, are mostly the ones in the region that share data about more types of accounts.
👉Read more here.
FINTECH MAPS
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S FINTECH SPACE
NEWS HIGHLIGHT
More than a quarter (28%) of shoppers are now regularly using Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to spread the cost of purchases, and this figure is only going to grow as more people find the service necessary in order to ‘afford Christmas’.
Once again it is 18-34-year-olds that are expected to lead the charge, a quarter (25%) of them plan to use BNPL this Christmas, compared to 10% of 35-54 year olds and just 2% of over 55s.
One in five (22%) people planning to use BNPL say they feel pressure to buy presents for family and friends, and over a quarter (27%) say they would struggle to afford Christmas without its help.
👉 Read more here.
FINTECH HIGHLIGHTS
While we often consider European fintechs to be world-leading, down in Latin America 🇧🇷 Nu is undoubtedly pushing boundaries. Link here.
A Harvard graduate and the son of a Malaysian auto-conglomerate owner, Anthony Tan started 🇲🇾 Grab as an alternative to Malaysia's infamous public taxis, which were once ranked the worst cab service in the world. Link here.
🇬🇧 Revolut is expanding its fintech offering for businesses in the hospitality sector, snapping up a company that provides point-of-sale software. Link here.
So who stands to lose the most from the 🇬🇧 Bulb collapse? Link here.
Fintech use has become a daily habit across all demographic segments and is integrating into nearly every aspect of life. Link here.
China is known as one of the most dynamic FinTech markets in the world, which holds the largest population of 1.4 billion people. Link here.
PAYMENTS
🇺🇸 Stripe Inc.’s president said the digital payments company that was last valued at $95 billion has no “immediate” plans to go public. Link here. Also, Stripe has brought its point of sale ‘terminal’ to the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands allowing payments to be taken in the physical world. Link here.
🇷🇺 Tinkoff has procured a controlling stake (51%) in Just Look, the designer of Jump Finance, a monetary technology service that robotizes interactions with consultants, including payments. Link here.
🇮🇳 Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL), which is India’s homegrown payments bank, has today announced the launch of the Paytm Transit Card, bringing together the power of One Nation, One Card. Link here.
The ability to purchase something at the point of discovery from digital content exists, but checkout technology company 🇺🇸 Bolt has the opportunity to give that its “one-click” treatment. Link here
🇳🇱 PayU, leading online payments solutions provider, announced that it has been fully certified by Mastercard and Visa as a token requestor and token provider. Link here.
Global Fintech disruptor, 🇦🇺 Till Payments (Till) has secured its acquiring license in New Zealand, making it just one of five non-bank merchant acquirers in the country. Link here.
Global payments and card issuance leader 🇸🇬 Nium and Japanese payments company 🇯🇵 Queen Bee Capital Co., Ltd (QBC) have partnered to enhance international transfer offerings for both corporate and individual QBC customers across Japan. Link here.
🇬🇧 Volume, a fintech startup founded by former WorldRemit, Mastercard, and HSBC employees, Simone Martinelli and Chris Tarnawski, has launched an account-to-account one-click payments product for online merchants. Link here.
GREEN FINANCE
🇬🇧 Dodo, an all-in-one platform that helps companies to rapidly measure their emissions and access green, affordable finance, has won the inaugural Climate Fintech Cards Payments Challenge. Link here.
BNPL
Australian BNPL stocks are down an average of 79% in 2021. Australia has 12 listed BNPL stocks - that's more than the rest of the world combined! Link here.
🇺🇸 Credova, a buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution emerging in the increasingly popular outdoor recreation, farm, home, and ranch markets, announced an exclusive agreement with Cornerstone Banks. Link here.
Alice Deng and Lawrence Lin Murata were working at artificial intelligence companies when they found inspiration from their respective family’s businesses to create 🇺🇸 Slope (YC S21), which enables businesses an easy way to offer buy now, pay later services. Link here.
🇬🇧 TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, announced its collaboration with innovative Spanish broker 🇪🇸 Ninety Nine to deliver an improved investor experience using open banking payments. Link here.
🇬🇧 Monzo Bank's buy now, pay later product, Flex, will come with a virtual card that lets users make contactless Apple Pay or Google Pay payments in-store. Link here.
Australian fintech 🇦🇺 Zip Co has launched an in-store Tap and Pay function to its buy now, pay later offerings in the UK, claiming to steal a march on rivals. Link here. Also, Zip Co announced an exclusive partnership with 🇨🇦 Newegg Commerce, Inc., an online retailer of computer hardware and consumer electronics, to give Newegg customers in Canada access to Zip's innovative Buy Now, Pay Later installment payment service. Link here.
🇦🇷 Wibond, the Argentinian digital payments platform, announced a partnership with 🇦🇷 Tiendanube to offer buy now, pay later to the e-commerce platform’s merchants. Link here.
“Buy now, pay later” company 🇺🇸 Afterpay announced Wednesday that it was going after the $1.5 trillion global subscription payments market by offering to its U.S. customers payment installments for subscriptions, like gym memberships, entertainment subscriptions, and online services. Link here.
OPEN BANKING
🇮🇳 Open Financial Technologies has launched a do-it-yourself (DIY) fintech service platform Zwitch for fintechs and enterprises. Link here.
🇬🇧 Tide, a London-based mobile-first bank for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB), uses Open Banking to enable companies to connect existing accounts to their financial services platform. Link here.
API developer 🇨🇦 Flinks is launching a new product called the Open Banking Environment (OBE) in collaboration with the 🇨🇦 National Bank of Canada, which will allow FinTech startups to securely access consumer data from financial institutions without the need for screen-scraping. Link here.
🇬🇧 Azimo, Europe’s leading digital money transfer service, has partnered with open banking payment provider 🇸🇪 Trustly to meet growing demand for cross-border payments in Europe. Link here.
Business-driven and passionate about the world of Open Finance, Guilherme Wenceloski is a true challenge seeker, who is always looking for ways to improve but who also challenges 🇲🇽 Belvo “to be better every day”. Link here.
🇺🇸 Visa has invested in 🇦🇺 Basiq, the API platform powering some of Australia’s most innovative banks and FinTechs with financial data. Link here.
CRYPTO
El Salvador's crypto enthusiast president is planning to build a "Bitcoin City" that will be partly funded by a bitcoin bond. Link here.
Coinbase acquires crypto wallet provider 🇨🇭BRD’s team as utility token price surges 500%. Link here.
India is set to go ahead with its plan to ban most cryptocurrencies in the country under a long-awaited bill. Link here.
🇲🇽 Bitso, a top crypto platform in Latin America that reports over 3.3 million users, has launched “Bitso Shift,” a service that allows Mexican people and companies to send and receive payments between Mexico and the United States. Link here.
Despite regulatory uncertainty and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s concerns, India now has close to 400 cryptocurrency-based start-ups offering various services to the crypto ecosystem. Link here.
🇺🇸 Stripe isn't ruling out accepting cryptocurrency as a method of payment in the future, according to co-founder John Collison. Link here.
A pair of paintings from contemporary artist Banksy have sold for a combined 3,093 ETH in an auction at Sotheby’s on Thursday night. Link here.
Mercado Libre Inc. is stepping up its foray into the crypto world through its digital payments app. Link here.
INVESTMENT
🇬🇧 AJ Bell has thrown its hat into the competitive ring of digital zero-commission stock trading with plans for a new standalone app 🇬🇧 Dodl to be launched in 2022. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
🇬🇧 TrueLayer announces the appointment of Jodi Ross to the position of Regulatory Lead in Australia. Link here.
🇬🇧 Paysend, the card-to-card pioneer and international payments platform, announces the appointment to its board of former President Mastercard Europe, Javier Perez, as a non-executive director. Link here.