Lightspeed Venture Partners leads $4.3M seed in automated financial reporting FinTech InScope
Weekly news up to Thursday, 13th of June 2024.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
FinTech startup Brex has restructured its leadership team in preparation for a potential IPO. Henrique Dubugras, previously co-CEO, has transitioned to the role of chairman of the board.
Pedro Franceschi, who has been co-CEO alongside Dubugras since Brex's founding in 2017, will now serve as the sole CEO of the company. Dubugras stated that these changes are essential as Brex moves “closer to an eventual IPO.” Earlier this year, Brex experienced significant shifts, including laying off approximately 20% of its workforce and the departure of both the chief operating officer and chief technology officer.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ A Comprehensive Analysis Of Bank-FinTech M&a.
⭐️ Lightspeed Venture Partners leads $4.3M seed in automated financial reporting FinTech InScope.
⭐️ Apple announced "Tap to Cash" at it's annual WWDC event.
⭐️ Debt Markets Are Fueling Buy Now, Pay Later Resurgence.
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FINTECH
AI firm YourStake has agreed to provide API integrations to custodian Apex FinTech Solutions. The first such API will be YourStake’s Document-to-Portfolio, which aims to allow users to upload images or PDF files of account statements from brokerages and banks.
Toronto-based corporate card and expense management technology startup Float has begun rolling out a pair of new offerings: bill pay and reimbursements. With these products, Float aims to make it easier for Canadian businesses to pay bills and ensure their employees are reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses.
PAYMENTS
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider Affirm has launched two new payment options designed to offer customers more flexibility and affordability. As the name suggests, the new offerings let consumers split the cost of their purchase into two interest-free payments each month, or to pay in full interest-free within 30 days of their purchase.
Zip Co. Announces WNBA Superstar Kelsey Plum as First Brand Ambassador. Together, they will spotlight Zip's commitment to providing accessible payment options that open doors to new experiences, events, and possibilities for customers across all economic backgrounds.
Utah-based healthcare payments software company Waystar envisions $20B healthcare payments market. The software provider offered its outlook as it seeks to take the company public and expand its business.
Cash use persists in US beyond pandemic. Consumers remained committed to cash use last year, even as the share of card payments rose and online payments increased, according to an annual Federal Reserve study.
OPEN BANKING
Plaid launches Consumer Report, a new solution that brings businesses real-time, cash flow data and credit risk insights through Plaid Check. A new solution that brings businesses real-time, actionable cash flow data along with credit risk insights through Plaid Check, our consumer reporting agency (CRA).
CFPB to Consult Consumers and Small Businesses on Open Banking Standards. The CFPB’s June announcement comes as PYMNTS Intelligence has found that 46% of consumers are highly willing to use open banking payments for at least one product or service.
Ninth Wave, a leading enabler of secure data connectivity between financial institutions and third-party applications, recently announced an expanded relationship with Axos Bank to deliver Open Finance solutions to Axos’ customers via Ninth Wave’s Platform.
Mastercard announced the integration of Deposit Switch and Bill Pay Switch with Mastercard’s Open Banking platform, enabling consumers to automatically switch their direct deposits and update their recurring bill payments, both when opening a digital account or when updating information on an existing account. The solutions will be delivered in partnership with Atomic.
Bud a data intelligence platform, has announced it is connected to Akoya, a FinTech in the growing U.S. open banking ecosystem, to enhance financial services with hyper-personalized digital experiences, cashflow analytics, and new growth opportunities.
DIGITAL BANKING
The FDIC has issued a new warning to consumers about using neobanks and FinTech companies for banking. Specifically referring to third-party banking apps and nonbank companies that offer banking services, the FDIC says “you may want to be particularly careful about where you place your funds, especially money you rely on to meet your regular day-to-day living expenses.”
U.S. Bank, Greenlight Partner to Bring Financial Empowerment to Families. U.S. Bank announced a partnership with Greenlight® Financial Technology, Inc., the leading family FinTech company on a mission to help parents raise financially-smart kids, to provide an innovative banking solution for families.
BNY Mellon rebrands as BNY. To improve familiarity with who we are and what we do, we are updating our logo and simplifying our company umbrella brand to BNY.
CRYPTO
Digital assets outfit Paxos has laid off 20% of its staff. A Bloomberg report says the company will have an increased focus on tokenization. The company took a hit last year when the New York Department of Financial Services forced it to stop minting Binance's BUSD in early 2023, which had a market cap of $16 billion at its peak.
DONEDEAL
Torpago Announces $10 Million Series B Funding Round. Torpago will use the Series B funding to enhance implementation and compliance resources while continuing to expand Torpago’s product suite.
Kleiner Perkins leads $14.4M seed round into Fizz, a credit-building debit card aimed at Gen Z college students. They wanted to make using the card a way to establish credit and become more educated about finances generally and ultimately be financially independent.
Brightwave, an AI-powered financial research assistant that generates financial analysis on any subject, announced $6 million in seed funding. Brightwave builds and trains proprietary AI systems that synthesize trustworthy, insightful analysis from a corpus of hundreds of millions of documents.
Pipe Aims $100 Million at Embedding Working Capital Solutions Into Business Software. Karen Webster sat down with Luke Voiles, CEO at Pipe, and Thomas Welch, partner at Victory Park Capital, to take a closer look at how embedded capital-as-a-service offerings are disrupting the status quo for SMBs by enabling more frictionless access to capital
M&As
Robinhood will acquire crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million, making this its largest acquisition to date. This acquisition will bring Bitstamp’s globally-scaled crypto exchange to Robinhood, with retail and institutional customers across the EU, UK, US and Asia.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Curve Strengthens US Leadership by Appointing Nancy Yaffa as USA CEO and Reeta K. Holmes as Board Member. Nancy brings the calibre and credentials to lead Curve’s ambitious next phase of growth, and Reeta joins Curve as a Board Member, bringing over 25 years of senior investment experience to the team.
Alkami Technology has appointed industry veteran Gagan Kanjlia as its new chief product officer (CPO). Commenting on the firm’s latest C-suite addition, Alex Shootman, Alkami’s CEO, states that Kanjlia brings an “entrepreneurial mindset with the proven ability to develop, commercialise, and scale market-leading products in the financial sector”.
MoneyGram Announces Gary W. Ferrera as Chief Financial Officer. In this role, Ferrera will lead all aspects of finance, accounting, tax and treasury, in support of the continued growth and digitization of the business.