REPORT
👉 Check out this month's FT Partners’ FinTech Deal Activity here.
💰Read last week’s FinTech Deal Activity below👇
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Instagram will begin testing NFTs this week.
“I want to acknowledge upfront that NFTs and blockchain technologies and Web3 more broadly are all about distributing trust, distributing power,” Mosseri says.
👉Read the full article here.
😎 SPONSORED CONTENT
Today’s income investing market environment can be difficult to navigate for even the most experienced advisors and the steadiest of investors. But when it comes to powering personalized income investing at scale, YieldX offers an end-to-end, white-labeled tech solution, enabling you to select from the best capabilities to meet your clients’ needs.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
The COVID e-commerce bubble has officially burst, based on Q1 performance data coming into the market this month.
👉 Read the full Flagship Advisory Partners source article by Joel Van Arsdale and Pedro Giesta here.
📰 ARTICLE
Fundid founder and CEO Stefanie Sample recalls maxing out her personal credit card to purchase an expo booth for her first business.
👉Read the full Techcrunch article here.
💬 INTERVIEW
There’s no shortage of FinTechs claiming to build a more inclusive, mission-driven FinTech platform for lower-income individuals.
“The champions of people creating products? They were never themselves in financial harm the way I was or my family was,” said Akshay Krishnaiah, the founder and CEO of Line.
Read the full TechCrunch article here.
💡INSIGHTS
According to a recent consumer study from Cornerstone Advisors, 65% of Gen Zers (21 to 26 years old) and 67% of Millennials (27 to 41) have at least one credit card.
👉Read the full article here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️Apple deploys $25 million to entrepreneurs via social good fintech CNote. Link here.
⭐️Is the US$10bn Decacorn the new Unicorn for Fintechs? Link here.
⭐️US Banks will now have just 36 hours to report a cybersecurity incident. Link here.
⭐️Backflip raises $35M in funding. Link here.
⭐️Terry Angelos leaves for Softbank-backed brokerage start-up DriveWealth. Link here.
DIGITAL BANKING
KeyBank announced that it acquired GradFin. Link here.
Greenwood has announced the acquisition of The Gathering Spot. Link here.
Current partners with Plaid and plans to offer embedded banking. Link here.
VC FUNDS
Valar Ventures LLC Management is leading a US$185 million funding round for Canada’s Neo Financial Technologies Inc., propelling it to a valuation of more than US$1 billion 🦄. Link here.
Index Ventures is opening an office in New York. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Stripe announced a new product and its play to be the financial services layer for merchants. Link here.
First Bank has selected Finzly to offer a unified payment solution to send and receive payments on the automated clearing house. Link here.
Lev raises $170M in funding. Link here.
Visa and Mastercard have announced their latest earnings – Q1 2022 for Mastercard and Q2 2022 for Visa. Link here.
Qoins Technologies Inc. announces the launch of Qoins Card, a new debit card to help Americans get out of debt faster. Link here.
Paper raises $9.3M in seed funding. Link here.
Nacha reports that in 2021, the top 50 US banks originated around 25 Billion of ACH transactions. Link here.
BNPL
Fiserv and Affirm team up to feed growing BNPL demand. Link here.
For Block, BNPL is already paying off. Link here.
Zilch has joined the FTA in order to prioritize innovation through responsible products and services. Link here.
The BNPL crackdown hasn’t crushed Walnut and its latest $110M Series A. Link here.
BNPL is sending the TikTok generation spiraling into debt, popularized by San Francisco tech firms. Link here.
CRYPTO
Gucci is tapping into the crypto crowd. Link here.
The state of New York wants to ban new bitcoin mining operations, a move that some industry insiders fear could have a domino effect across the U.S. Link here.
TheUS continues to be a global leader in embracing the cryptocurrency industry thanks to the work of Sen. Patrick Toomey. Link here.
CryptoPunk bought for $1 million sells for $139,000 just 6 months later. Link here.
El Salvador bought the dip with a purchase of 500 BTC. Link here.
Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments. Link here.
Citigroup, Wells Fargo join $105 million round for Talos. Link here.
BLOCKCHAIN / DEFI
California governor signs blockchain executive order. Link here.
Masa finance raises $3.5M pre-seed funding. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
The Department of Finance Canada has named Abraham Tachjian the open banking lead. Link here.
Sean Horgan has been appointed Head of Investor Relations of MoneyLion. Link here.
Hawk AI appoints Steve Liu as US general manager. Link here.