MVO BLOG
REPORT
As we progress through life stages and our earning power changes, our finances will naturally evolve. In this graphic from Personal Capital, we look at a breakdown of financial assets by age. It’s the second in a three-part series that explores the spending and saving of Americans.
👉 Read the full report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Chase, the largest co-brand card issuer in the U.S., and Instacart, the leading online grocery platform in North America, today announced an expansion of their existing partnership to make Chase the exclusive issuer of Instacart’s first credit card. As a part of this partnership, Mastercard will become the exclusive payments network for the new offering.
“The adoption of more convenient digital services has accelerated, and consumers’ habits have clearly evolved”
The new Instacart Mastercard® credit card will be the first Chase co-branded card offering in the on-demand grocery delivery space. The card will allow consumers to earn accelerated points on purchases across the Instacart marketplace, which today includes more than 700 beloved national, regional and local grocers and retailers. The card is expected to launch in 2022 and will also offer a number of other benefits, perks, and savings.
👉Read the full Businesswire press release here.
😎 SPONSORED CONTENT
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📊 INFOGRAPHIC
👉 Learn more about the five payments trends to watch in 2022: https://vi.sa/3FKv9zb
📰 ARTICLE
Robinhood cofounders Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt are no longer billionaires according to Forbes’ calculations, as shares of their popular stock trading app continue to move lower in recent months and have now lost half their value since the company went public last year.
Robinhood went public to much fanfare in July 2021 at a $32 billion valuation. While the stock closed down 8% from the IPO price of $38 a share on its first day of trading, Robinhood’s public offering made its two founders a fortune, boosting their net worths to more than $2 billion each. By Forbes’ calculations, the pair first became billionaires in September 2020 after a private funding round valued Robinhood at $11.7 billion.
👉 Read the full Forbes article here.
💡INSIGHTS
Klarna teams up with the Chicago Bulls to launch a multi-year experiential partnership.
The partnership will promote Klarna’s all-in-one shopping service and popular interest-free Pay in 4 option to Chicago Bulls fans, with the aim to bring audiences closer to the game through unique co-branded in-stadium experiences, shoppable content, exclusive offers, limited edition merchandise, and more.
👉 Read the full press release here.
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NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHT
⭐️ Google prepares for a foray into crypto, plans to expand payment division. Link here.
⭐️ Plaid, a FinTech unicorn known for its APIs that connect consumer bank accounts to financial applications, announced today that it is buying Cognito. Link here.
⭐️ Routefusion raises $10.5M round to simplify cross-border payments. Link here.
⭐️ Affirm reached a deal to put its “buy now, pay later” options on millions of Verifone payment devices and online checkout systems. Link here.
⭐️ Coatue-backed HR startup Deel just made its first acquisition since the New York hedge fund invested in the company at a $5.5 billion valuation. Link here.
DIGITAL BANKING
First Internet Bank announced a formal agreement with Synctera, a leading consultant, technology platform, and matchmaker for bank/fintech partnerships. Link here.
SoFi., the financial firm led by former Twitter Inc. executive Anthony Noto, surged after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted it a U.S. banking charter. The online lending platform acquired Golden Pacific Bank as a path to getting a full-fledged banking license. Link here.
Acorns, the popular spare-change investing and checking account app, and Pioneer Merger Corp. are canceling their $2.2 billion blank-check deal for the app to go public. Link here.
Chime started spotting customers if they went overdrawn in 2018, as U.S. banks clung to revenue from overdraft fees. Now, the startup’s co-founder is predicting an end to the charges altogether, as the likes of Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. ease up on the penalties. Link here.
Six months after its $20 million Series A, payroll connectivity platform Pinwheel just announced that it has nabbed another $50 million in a round led by new investor GGV Capital. Link here.
A group of U.S. state banking regulators dropped its lawsuit seeking to block the federal government from granting bank charters to fintech companies on Thursday, after the company that was first in line modified its business plan. Link here.
Seashell, a Seattle, WA-based fintech company dedicated to building a modern banking and investment experience, emerged from stealth with $6M in seed funding. Link here.
As competition amid digital banks heats up, U.S. fintech Current is rolling out a new product designed to make its banking service more appealing. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Intuit, the global technology platform that makes TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mint, Credit Karma, and MailChimp, announced a new feature: Bill Negotiation in Mint/ Bill Negotiation can help cut down users’ monthly bill and subscription payments by hundreds of dollars. Link here.
Checkout technology company Bolt continues to make quick work of attracting new capital. The company announced Friday $355 million in Series E financing to give Bolt an $11 billion valuation, according to sources close to the company. Link here.
Retailers often build their own “orchestration” platforms for payment processing and routing, but these can be complex to maintain. Spreedly plays in this space, and, last year, new startup Gr4vy launched in the U.S. to do this in an even more fleet-of-foot manner, it claimed. Link here.
Consumer spending trends look "relatively positive" so far this year, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach told CNBC on Thursday. The comments come as some retailers say the Covid omicron variant is having an impact on business operations. Link here.
BNPL
Accrue Savings, founded in June 2021 by CEO Michael Hershfield, aims to get people saving again with its merchant-embedded shopping experience that rewards consumers for saving up for the things they want to buy. Link here.
Apexx Global is bringing its payments orchestration and processing platform to the US as it bids to take advantage of the country's fast-growing BNPL market. Link here.
CRYPTO
Milo said its 30-year, low-interest rate US crypto mortgage will allow potential borrowers to pledge their bitcoin to purchase property and qualify in financing 100% of the purchase with no dollar down payments required. Link here.
Burnt Finance, an NYC-based fully-decentralized NFT auction protocol built on Solana, raised an $8M Series A round of funding. Link here.
Five US banks have come together to launch a bank-minted alternative to non-bank-issued stablecoins. Link here.
Gemini, the $7.1 billion crypto exchange, is getting into wealth management with the acquisition of a digital asset platform for financial advisors. Link here.
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. Link here.
INVESTMENT
Revolut is rolling out stock trading in its app in the U.S. The company already lets you buy and sell shares if you’re a British user. And now, Revolut has received approval to become a licensed U.S. broker-dealer in the U.S. Revolut users will be able to trade 1,100 securities, such as shares on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Link here.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
April (April Tax Solutions Inc.), a tech-powered tax platform that simplifies the filing process and integrates tax preparation into broader financial wellness, was launched in partnership with leading financial institutions such as Propel. Link here.
Mercury Financial, a financial inclusion technology provider, announced today it reached over one million accounts in the fourth quarter of 2021, marking an important milestone in the Company’s growth. The Company now extends more than $3 billion in credit access to the near prime market in its continued pursuit for greater financial inclusion. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.