REPORT
More than 170 million U.S. consumers say they’d like a single app to consolidate at least three of the 10 distinct activities that represent their digital lives today.
In the first of PYMNTS’ monthly data briefs on the topic, PYMNTS surveyed 3,100 consumers in November to examine how they use (and want to use) their connected devices to change how they bank, pay, shop, eat, work, travel, live, have fun and stay healthy.
A few highlights from the report:
⭐️ 27M: Number of U.S. consumers who want to integrate their entire lives online into a single app
⭐️ 45%: Share of millennials who want to integrate all aspects of their online lives into one app
⭐️ 40%: Portion of U.S. consumers who use sites or apps to track their personal health information
👉 Download the full report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
MoneyLion is to buy embedded finance marketplace Even Financial for a total consideration of $440 million.
Even digitally connects and matches consumers with real-time personalized financial product recommendations. Also, Even's marketplace network includes over 400 financial institutions and 500 channel partners.
Dee Choubey, co-founder and CEO of MoneyLion, comments: “Combining Even’s best-in-class recommendation engine with MoneyLion’s powerful first-party products and open architecture marketplace expands the range of products and services available within our platform, while delivering a new distribution channel for Even’s financial partners."
👉 Read the full Finextra article here
📰 ARTICLE
GoCardless is partnering with Klarna in the US to offer account-to-account bank debit payments to the latter's 21 million US customers.
Klarna will use GoCardless to power its 'Pay in 4' offering, with permission from the user to pull funds automatically from their bank account.
The B2B payments fintech, which has set up in 2011, has been working with Klarna in the UK for the past three years but now has access to a huge seam of new business in the US where Klarna is seeing a rapidly growing customer base.
“We’ve been proud to work with Klarna in the UK since 2018. From the start, it was clear one of our value-adds was our global bank debit network, enabling Klarna to access multiple markets through a single platform," said Hiroki Takeuchi, co-founder, and CEO of GoCardless.
👉 Read the full article written by Daniel Lanyon from Altfi here.
💡INSIGHTS
DeFi is beginning to expand beyond a niche market. The high interest available via saving and lending products, and multiple investment opportunities have begun to motivate people to enter the space. New York-based challenger bank Current is among those dedicated to the bridging process in the US.
The emerging concept of Hybrid Finance, or HyFi, refers to a mechanism that bridges the gap between traditional finance and decentralized finance.
If hybrid is the future of finance, Current aspires to be the key that unlocks it
According to Trevor Marshall, CTO at Current, the DeFi space offers better returns than traditional finance, and investors are eager to participate.
👉 Read the full tearsheet article here.
🎤 PODCAST
The podcast recommendation of the week belongs to the third episode of Crypto Talks’ second season. In this episode, Nethone’s CEO Hubert Rachwalkski is joined by Vanina Ivanova, an expert in blockchain technology, and CMO at Ambire.
They discuss the future of blockchain in the context of advertising and monetization of traffic.
Listen in to learn more about:
Transparency of earnings and privacy at the advertisement.
The link between NFT and ad-tech.
The rapid growth of blockchain during the past couple of years.
Poor UX is one of the reasons for the problem with the mass adoption of crypto.
Obstacles preventing mass adoption of decentralized technology.
Distinguishing valuable projects from fraud.
👉 Listen to the full podcast here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Dave Inc. will use $450 million it’s expected to raise in its upcoming initial public offering to make acquisitions, launch new products and possibly invest in cryptocurrency. Link here.
⭐️ Papaya is announcing it has raised $50 million in a Series B round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Link here.
⭐️Quo.com raises $7.2M seed round led by SignalFire to broaden access to mortgages. Link here.
⭐️ Chime customers can now deposit cash at Walgreens locations around the country. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Whym wants to make it easier for consumers to shop online via their mobile devices. Instead of filling out long checkout forms and entering in payment card details by hand, Whym’s solution offers a single-tap checkout experience where customers can pay via Apple Pay or Google Pay or even over a text message. The startup is now announcing $4.3 million in new seed funding, following its early traction with CPG, wellness, and beauty brands. Link here.
Corporate spend and cash management company Rho announced that it has raised a $75 million Series B funding round led by Dragoneer Investment Group. Participants included existing investors Inspired Capital, M13, and Torch Capital, as well as new investors such as DFJ Growth. Link here.
CRYPTO
Crypto lending firm Ledn announced Wednesday that it has raised $70 million in a Series B funding round and is now valued at $540 million. Dan Tapiero's 10T Holdings led the round. As part of the deal, Tapiero is joining Ledn's board of directors. Link here.
As interest in cryptocurrency and digital assets continues to rise, a new cohort will join the Mastercard Start Path Crypto startup engagement program dedicated to exploring and solving real world problems for people and businesses around the world using blockchain technology. Mastercard announced the five new startups joining the program are Ava Labs, Envel, Kash, LVL, and NiftyKey. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
NorthOne, one of America’s leading banking apps for small businesses, announced that Sarah Livnat has joined the company as Head of People.
In this executive leadership role, Livnat will help propel NorthOne’s growth by preserving and scaling what has already made it successful and well-loved by its team members — its high-ownership, feedback-rich culture, and talent-dense, collaborative teams. She will also drive the company’s adaptation to a highly efficient yet flexible post-COVID hybrid work model.
👉 Read more here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.