REPORT
The rise of embedded finance: Embedded finance can unlock an opportunity bigger than the current value of all FinTech startups and the top global banks and insurers, combined.
👉 Read the full Dealroom.co and ABN AMRO Ventures report here
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
MoneyLion announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021.
“With triple-digit revenue growth, Q4 was a strong finish to a breakout year for MoneyLion on many levels,” said Dee Choubey, co-founder and CEO of MoneyLion.
“We reported record annual results, with net revenue of $171.1 million in 2021, up 115% year over year from $79.4 million in 2020 and strong growth in all of our key operating metrics, with triple digit increases in customers and originations in 2021. We finished the year with 3.3 million customers, up 129% year over year, $1.1 billion in originations, up 165% year over year, and a record 8.0 million total products used by our customers, up 79% versus the prior year.”
👉 Check out the full article here
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📰 ARTICLE
With consumers’ finances under pressure due to inflation, WalletHub, the personal-finance site, released two key reports highlighting additional hurdles to watch out for.
👉 Read the full fintech times article here
💡INSIGHTS
The Slovenian capital city of Ljubljana is by far the most crypto-friendly capital in Europe. With 72 shops and 33 sports venues accepting payments through digital currencies, travelers looking to leave their fiat at home could call this paradise.
Fast Private Jet, the business aviation company, has published research on the best destinations for crypto savvy travellers, indexing cities with the most venues accepting digital currency payments in places such as hotels, restaurants, and shops.
The research comes at a time when digital token popularity is at a high: cryptocurrencies are gaining hold in the mainstream world on their way to mass adaptation, and with this, comes the rise of locations to use these coins to pay for goods and services.
👉 Check out the article here
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ AiFi has raised $65 million in a Series B round of funding. Link here
⭐️ AutoFi announced it closed an $85 million funding round boosting its total valuation at almost $700 million. Link here
⭐️ Roofstock, an Oakland, CA-based end-to-end online platform for single-family rental investing raised $240M in Series E funding at $1.9 Billion Valuation. Link here
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DIGITAL BANKING
Stilt, the leading provider of financial services for immigrants, announced it has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by Link Ventures. Stilt also has closed on a new $100 million debt facility for lending to its loan customers, bringing its total raised to $375 million in equity and debt financing. Link here
Mercury, a well-funded, three-year-old startup that offers a host of banking services to startups, is today rolling out a new offering for its customers: venture debt. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Affirm, the leading U.S.-based “buy now, pay later” lender, delayed a proposed asset-backed securities sale after a good portion of it had already been sold to money managers. Link here
London-based FinTech Curve has launched in the US, offering Americans the option to combine all their debit, credit and loyalty cards into one. Link here
Cuentas Inc., a leading fintech provider of mobile banking, digital wallet and payment solutions serving Hispanic and Latino communities, has integrated Western Union's domestic and international money transfer capabilities into the Cuentas mobile banking app. Link here
Payments giant Stripe already powers a pretty major swath of the web’s financial infrastructure, now it’s launching crypto payments support to give customers an easier path to onboard web3 users and interact with cryptocurrencies. Link here
Stripe, a global technology company building financial infrastructure for the internet, announced a partnership with FTX, one of the world’s leading crypto companies. Link here
BNPL
US BNPL player Sezzle is to cut 20% of its workforce following confirmation of a takeover by Australian rival Zip Co. The job losses will cut across all business lines as the company bids to streamline its operations following a period of exceptional growth. Link here
OPEN BANKING
Visa announced it has completed its acquisition of Tink – an open banking platform that enables financial institutions, fintechs and merchants to build financial products and services and move money. Link here
Green Dot announced that it’s partnering with Plaid to offer open banking data sharing to customers of its in-house neobank, GO2bank. The deal involves integration with Plaid Exchange, an open banking solution that facilitates bank account data sharing with over 6,000 financial apps. Link here.
CRYPTO
Ethereum application and infrastructure builder ConsenSys has closed a $450 million funding round that values the New York City-based blockchain company at $7 billion. Link here
Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced that it has bought the rights to the intellectual property of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs. Link here
INVESTMENT
New York-based Capchase has closed an $80 million Series B as the company looks to expand its funding platform that offers founders nondilutive financing alternatives. Link here
Revenue-based financing platform Novel Capital has emerged from stealth with $115 million in initial equity and debt funding. The Missouri-based fintech allows entrepreneurs to leverage their recurring revenue to access non-dilutive capital. Link here.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
Onuu, co-founded by Austin entrepreneurs Felix W. Ortiz III and Ryan Wuerch, announced it had received $6 million in Seed A funding led by Latinx-led VC Leap Global Partners, with participation from Ulu Ventures, SV LATAM Capital, Jumpstarter Ventures, Verso Capital, and Capital Factory Ventures. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Michigan-based banking tech provider Bankjoy has hired André Jones as vice president of operations. Prior to this, Jones was the chief operating officer at Synthesio, a consumer intelligence platform. Link here
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.