👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Fast-growing finance automation and corporate credit card startup Ramp has hit an $8.1 billion valuation after closing a $200 million funding round led by Founders Fund.
The round sees Ramp's valuation more than double since its Series C round last August. The firm has also secured $550 million in debt financing from sources including Citi and Goldman Sachs. More than 5000 companies tap Ramp to manage their spending and build sustainable businesses. The startup saw its revenue grow by nearly 10x in 2021 and is powering over $5 billion of annualized payments volume on its platform.
👉 Check out the full article here
🔦 Would you like to bring your company/service to the attention of tens of thousands of FinTech enthusiasts?
👉 Sponsor my newsletters and/or podcast episodes!
😎 SPONSORED CONTENT
Facing high fees, payment delays, constant limitations, and fraud, while using traditional payment methods?
Mercuryo is here to reinvent the ease of payment. We take care of licensing, compliance, partnerships with acquirers, to let businesses focus on growth.
See how it works with Mercuryo
📰 ARTICLE
US banking app Dave has announced a strategic partnership with West Realm Shires Services, owner of crypto exchange platform FTX US. FTX US will become Dave’s exclusive crypto partner, with a view to introducing digital asset payments on Dave’s platform.
The partnership will also see FTX Ventures, the $2 billion venture fund arm of FTX Trading, invest $100 million in Dave.
Dave CEO Jason Wilk says: “We believe blockchain technology has the potential to level the financial playing field across the globe.”
👉 Read the full article here.
💡 INSIGHTS
One of the sneaky injustices of the American financial system is how it handles wages. If you think about it, every employee is secretly a lender. They go to work, expand their efforts, and then… wait. Fifteen days, thirty, perhaps even longer. Only then do they get compensated for their work; only then are they paid.
Few other parts of our economy work this way. You don't order a pizza and pay the restaurant a month later or fill up your gas tank, then post a check to the service station when you get around to it. The fact that "buy now, pay later" companies feel like a novelty illustrates that delayed payment is far from the norm, except for labor. The result is that the average worker effectively extends an interest-free loan to their employer.
Here is where FinTechs like Clair come in.
👉 Read the full article here
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Capitolis announced it has raised a $110 million Series D at a $1.6 billion valuation. Link here
⭐️ Jeeves has raised $180 million in a Series C round that values the company at $2.1 billion. Link here
⭐️ Bolt and Fanatics, Inc. are announcing a multiyear partnership whereby Bolt One-Click Checkout will soon power Fanatics e-commerce sites. Link here
⭐️ finally announced a $95 million Series A, including both equity and debt. Link here
⭐️ North American Bancard acquires PayTrace. Link here.
😇 Do you want to have access to the best deal flow in FinTech? And/or do you want to invest alongside me and 1000+ other FinTech Angel investors?
👉 Join my Angel Investors Syndicate!
DIGITAL BANKING
Cross River Bank, a regional lender that serves some of the biggest U.S. financial-technology startups, is close to a deal to raise more than $600 million, giving the company a valuation of more than $3 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said. Link here
Also, Cross River has teamed up with blockchain data platform Chainalysis to expand its crypto services. Cross River has taken advantage of the crypto industry's need for banking and payments services, signing up exchanges, NFT marketplaces, and wallet providers, helping them to scale quickly. Link here.
Trust Payments is launching Stor, an innovative e-commerce platform for small and medium businesses. Through the launch, Trust Payments is enabling ISOs, banks and other third parties to sell Stor direct to merchants in the USA. Link here
American Express has filed trademark applications to register its name, logo, and slogans for a range of banking services in the metaverse. Link here
PAYMENTS
Mastercard is introducing two new payment solutions to lower risks while improving costs, boosting speed, reducing friction, and making payments smarter. Link here.
Zitti, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a payment and credit platform built for food industry management and vendors, raised $4M in funding.
The round was led by Crossbeam, with participation from Vera Equity, and Broadhaven Ventures. Other investors included Donald Moore, Rodney Williams, Michael Tannenbaum, Jeff Cruttenden, Andy Cohen, Chris Camp, and more. The company intends to use the funds to grow the team and expand the capabilities of its proprietary technology. Link here
iink Payments, a Tampa, FL-based provider of digital payments network, raised $2.8M in Seed funding. Link here
PayPal is expanding its services to allow its users to send money to Ukrainians, the company announced. Link here
Robinhood has announced a new debit card, branded as the Robinhood Cash Card. The card will be linked to a spending account separate to users’ brokerage accounts, and work for in-person and online payments as well as ATM withdrawals. Link here
BNPL
ChargeAfter - The Buy Now Pay Later Platform, a NYC-based Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) consumer financing network, raised $44M in Series B funding.
The new funding follows a strategic investment and partnership with Visa, bringing the company’s total amount raised to $60m. The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach. Link here
CRYPTO
PayPal and Venmo are introducing a flat-fee structure on cryptocurrency trades of up to $200 in an effort to remove the "complexity of percentage-based calculations for the consumer.
"This change is part of our ongoing commitment to provide transparency, ease of understanding, and clarity to our customers," a PayPal spokesperson told FOX Business. Link here
Stripe announced that Blockchain.com has turned to Stripe to improve the process of exchanging fiat for crypto and radically simplify the experience for new crypto investors. Link here
Alviere announced a partnership with Coinbase Prime, a service of Coinbase Global Inc., to provide crypto services into Alviere’s embedded finance platform. Link here.
INVESTMENT
Robinhood has agreed a $640,000 settlement with Vermont's financial regulator over a series of outages at the trading app in 2020.
The settlement is the latest hit Robinhood has faced over the outages, which occurred during major stock market volatility in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The settlement also covers Robinhood’s wholly automated process for determining which investors should be approved for high-level option and margin trading. Link here
INSURTECH
Layr, an Atlanta, GA-based insurtech startup using artificial intelligence and machine learning to help brokerages and agencies manage their small commercial books, raised $10M in Series A funding.
The company intends to use the funds to double the team and grow its presence amongst insurance agents and brokers while adding new technology advancements that enable small businesses to access to the insurance marketplace. Link here
FRAUD PREVENTION
Mitek, a global leader in digital identity (ID) verification and fraud prevention, announced the acquisition of UK’s leading KYC (know your customer) technology pioneers, HooYu. The acquisition helps to ensure businesses know the true identity of their customers by linking biometric verification with real-time bureau and sanction database checks. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.