MVO BLOG
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Popular mobile payments service Cash App has integrated the Bitcoin Lightning Network as a part of an update, allowing faster and cheaper Bitcoin (BTC) transfers using the layer-two (L2) payments protocol.
The Lightning Network protocol addresses the noted limitations of the Bitcoin blockchain to improve speeds while reducing transaction fees.
Just last month, Dorsey featured in a video with Lightning Development Kit (LDK), a service developed by Spiral, a Square subsidiary focused on developing the Bitcoin ecosystem. LDK allows developers to integrate Lightning protocols into Bitcoin wallets and related services.
👉 Read the full Coin Telegraph article here.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
Apptopia’s annual leader charts are ready!
As it pertains to US banking apps, there is a good mix of mobile-first banks on the list with Chime leading all apps for the second year in a row.
👉 Read the full article, with more stats, here.
📰 ARTICLE
Travel finance firm Fly Now Pay Later has secured $75m in debt funding from Atalaya Capital Management, which it says it will use to ramp up its US expansion.
“To have secured another landmark amount during one of the worst slowdowns in travel history after it ground to a halt is testament to the efforts of the whole team,” said founder and chief executive Jasper Dykes.
👉 Read the full Altfi article written by Oliver Smith here.
👨💻 WEBINAR
Have you ever been placed in the position of choosing sales growth and customer satisfaction over fraud management concerns?
Then Nethone’s latest #webinar is the right one for you. Sign up to learn how advanced fraud solutions backed up by machine learning models can ensure a positive customer #UX and effectively prevent fraud.
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💡INSIGHTS
Robinhood’s shares have tumbled 80% from their peak, but its 22 million users are worth something, even if the average account balance is only $3,500.
👉 Read the full Bloomberg article here.
🎤 PODCAST
This week’s podcast recommendation belongs to “A Chat with Hank” and his discussion with Adam Green. Adam is the CEO at YieldX which he co-founded with the present CIO, Steve Gross.
Learn more about his start as an entrepreneur, what makes YieldX unique as a fixed income resource available to financial professionals, and his thoughts on the growth of fintech and the future of YieldX.
👉 Listen here.
👀 Looking for funding news? We've moved them to their own special weekly newsletter here.
👉 Read all about M&As, VCs, Down Rounds, IPOs, Funding Rounds, etc.
Subscribe to our #DoneDeal Newsletter and never miss an important update again.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Zero Hash raises $105 million in a Series D funding round. Link here.
⭐️ Azibo, a Reno, Nev.-based one-stop-shop financial services platform for the rental property market, raised $19M in Series A funding. Link here.
⭐️ Novo has raised $90 million in a Series B round. Link here.
⭐️ TrueAccord Corporation announced a partnership with Synapse as an expansion of its Collections-as-a-Service offering. Link here.
⭐️ The future of Black banking in the US. Link here.
PAYMENTS
DailyPay, featured in TIME's "Best Inventions of 2021," announced their one-of-a-kind digital wallet solution. DailyPay's digital wallet solution is designed for everyday working Americans, many of whom are facing unprecedented financial challenges with the resurgence of the pandemic. Link here.
A tax law that takes effect in January will require third-party payment processors like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App to report a user’s business transactions to the Internal Revenue Service if they exceed $600 in a year. Link here.
CRYPTO / BLOCKCHAIN
PayPal Holdings is exploring the launch of its own stablecoin as part of its cryptocurrency push, the company has said, confirming the development after evidence of the move was discovered inside its iPhone app. Link here.
The founders of buzzy blockchain startup OpenSea have joined the three-comma club following a fresh funding round announced Tuesday that values the company at $13.3 billion—up from $1.5 billion just six months ago. Link here.
Goldfinch is a crypto startup building a decentralized lending protocol that allows organizations to receive crypto loans without owning massive amounts of crypto already. The startup has closed $25 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.