REPORT
VC’s view on FinTech and B2B Payments Infrastructure startups:
In the last 15 months FinTech infrastructure has become a truly hot topic, with a slew of funding rounds (see picture below👇).
First of all, let’s start with the definition: FinTech infrastructure is a combination of startups that empower banks to go digital and enable other startups to launch FinTech products.
Essentially, SaaS for banks and so-called embedded finance providers fall into this category.
👉 Read the full article by Gleb Onishchenko 🇺🇦 here
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Decacorn Brex revealed that it is making a big push into financial software with the release of a new spend management product called Brex Empower. And it’s making the leap with one high-profile customer already signed up — DoorDash.
Now, normally, a startup announcing a new product is hardly fodder for a news story.
But in this case, it is.
Brex is one of a number of companies in the corporate spend management space that has grown increasingly crowded — and competitive — in recent years.
Originally, Brex was a startup focused on startups. Specifically, it provided corporate cards aimed mainly at startups and SMBs. Brex gradually evolved its model with the aim of serving as a “financial operating system” for companies. Historically, it has generated its revenue from interchange fees.
👉 Read the full Techcrunch article written by Mary Ann Azevedo here
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📰 ARTICLE
Plastiq, a rapidly growing Kleiner Perkins-backed fintech for Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs), announced the launch of its next-generation product - Plastiq Pay.
Plastiq Pay helps SMBs improve their cash flow at a time when inflation is threatening their very survival, saves teams precious time otherwise spent manually managing vendor payments, and connects SMBs instantly to affordable working capital.
A new companion mobile app rounds out the offering, enabling SMBs to run their business finances on the go.
👉 Read the full PR Newswire article here.
💬 INTERVIEW
McLean Roche’s Grant Halverson says the FinTech model is “growth at all costs” and “racking up enormous bad debts”.
A US corporate filing recently revealed Afterpay’s loss increased from $79.2 million to $345.5 million in the six months to December last year.
“The bigger these companies have got, the worse their bad debts are actually getting,” Mr Halverson told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood.
“My concern has been they are in a warfare for supposed scale but they are chasing the wrong customers and that is leading to bad debts just ballooning massively.”
👉 Watch the full interview here.
💡INSIGHTS
Venture capitalist Peter Theil has set his sights on an "enemies list" of people he claims are trying to stop bitcoin, including Jamie Dimon and “the sociopathic grandpa from Omaha" Warren Buffett.
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Thiel singled out Buffet, JPMorgan chief Dimon and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink as part of the "finance gerontocracy" holding back cryptocurrency.
On stage, the PayPal co-founder and libertarian Donald Trump-backer threw a wad of $100 bills into a baying crowd, which booed Buffet's name, and railed against government and "woke companies".
Said Thiel, according to Fox Business: "Even being in a stock, you're effectively being in something that's like a government-linked entity. Companies — woke companies — are sort of quasi-controlled by the government in a way that Bitcoin never will be."
👉 Read the full Finextra article here.
🎤 PODCAST
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Mastercard has filed 15 NFT and metaverse trademark applications as part of a wide-ranging plan to extend its payment processing system, slogans, and branding into the new virtual economy. Link here.
⭐️ This trio of Asian American twentysomethings wants to teach Gen Z how to invest. Link here.
⭐️ New savings app Lilly Funds is set to launch in the US, designed to help the more than 150 million underserved Americans who don’t have access to retirement services. Link here.
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DIGITAL BANKING
7shifts, an intuitive employee scheduling and management software designed for the restaurant industry, announced a partnership with Clair, a mission-driven, New York-based digital banking platform. Together they will offer free on-demand pay to restaurant staff across America. Link here.
Cards-as-a-service startup Deserve is moving beyond the consumer market to offer fintechs, banks, and B2B businesses a white label commercial card platform for their corporate customers. Link here.
In August 2021, Winden was born as a neobank that offers deposit banking, spend management, and other financial products for digital entrepreneurs. Specifically, Winden is gearing its products primarily toward single-person e-commerce businesses, but also digital freelancers and agencies. Link here.
Camino Financial, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-powered community lending platform offering affordable credit and wealth-building solutions to overlooked entrepreneurs, closed a $150m debt facility. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Bread Financial, a tech-forward financial services company that provides simple, personalized payment, lending, and saving solutions, announced the launch of a new consumer credit card – the Bread Cashback™ American Express® Credit Card. Link here.
Raistone announced a collaboration with Mastercard set to simplify business-to-business (B2B) finance payments and speed up access to working capital for small- and-medium-sized businesses ("SMBs"). Link here.
Tippy, the digital tipping system for the service industry, is collaborating with workforce payments platform Branch to launch a one-stop solution for disbursing cashless tips, Tippy announced Wednesday. Link here.
Credit-oriented fintech platform Liquidity Group is set to receive $775 million worth of capital commitments led by asset manager Apollo Funds and MUFG Bank. Link here.
American Express and i2c Inc, a provider of digital payment and banking technology, announced an expanded global, multi-product agreement that will enable fintechs and financial institutions around the world to develop and scale innovative payments solutions for consumers and businesses on the American Express global payments network. Link here.
Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, is working with Apple to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone for its U.S. customers later this year. Link here.
CRYPTO
Gemini, a cryptocurrency platform to buy, sell, earn, and store crypto, announced the Gemini Credit Card™ is now available in all 50 U.S. states. Link here.
FIS, a publicly-traded $62 billion fintech company that offers everything from payments services to wealth management, has joined up with New York-based infrastructure company Fireblocks to provide its more than 6,000 capital markets clients access to a full suite of crypto trading and lending services. Link here.
Dozens of famous faces, including Bruce Willis, Drake and Paris Hilton, have invested in MoonPay, buying into the crypto payments platform's promise of helping celebs reap the benefits of Web3. Link here.
Circle Internet Financial, a Boston, MA-based global internet finance firm and the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), entered into an agreement for a $400M funding round. Link here.
Bakkt Holdings, Inc., a trusted digital asset platform that enables consumers to buy, sell, send and spend a range of digital assets, announced that American Bank has selected the Bakkt® crypto connect solution to enable their bank customers to buy, sell and hold the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, bitcoin, and Ethereum. Link here.
Jack Mallers, CEO of the Bitcoin and payments app Strike, the charismatic founder is expected to announce a partnership between Apple and Strike to enable Bitcoin Lightning payments on the tech giant’s devices. Link here.
Binance US raised over $200 million in its first external funding round, putting its pre-money valuation at $4.5 billion as it builds out a roadmap for an initial public offering (IPO), its CEO Brian Shroder told TechCrunch. Link here.
INVESTMENT
Shares of Robinhood plummeted Friday after an analyst at Goldman Sachs, one of the investment banks underwriting the online brokerage's initial public offering last year, issued a bearish rating for the stock, extending a months-long decline that has wiped nearly $50 billion in value. Link here.
REGTECH
ComplyAdvantage, a global data technology company transforming financial crime detection, announced that Upgrade, a FinTech company that offers affordable and responsible credit, mobile banking, and payment products to mainstream consumers, has selected its award-winning Customer Screening and Monitoring and Transaction Risk Management solutions. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.