REPORT
Great tech companies often arise from challenging market conditions.
👉 Read Silicon Valley Bank’s new State of the Markets report to look at why the 2022 downturn could spur a wave of innovation here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Moneyflow Group, the Nordic embedded finance startup, announced it has entered into a debt financing agreement with Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider Aion Bank.
Moneyflow intends to provide up to €250 million of receivables-backed financing to accelerate the roll-out of its embedded finance services across platform partners in the Nordics and broader Europe.
👉 Read the full article here.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
The landscape of U.S. merchant payments assets.
The U.S. payments acquiring market has experienced significant consolidation, yet we see a large pool of small and mid-sized assets available in the market.
👉 Read the Flagship advisor analysis by Scott Dehaven and Stephen Ford here.
📰 ARTICLE
Brian Brooks – Chief Executive Officer of the crypto infrastructure provider Bitfury – thinks the Federal Reserve’s approach to tackling inflation is one reason for the current downturn.
He also criticized the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), claiming that it prefers to sue individuals and companies rather than outline appropriate guidelines beforehand.
👉 Read the full article here.
💬 INTERVIEW
Dave founder and CEO Jason Wilk hosted a Town Hall for retail investors on the Public.com app following the company’s Q2 earnings.
Wilk provided insights into Dave’s product strategy, takeaways from itsQ2 earnings report, and the latest operating plans.
👉 Read the full article here.
💡INSIGHTS
42% of customers use debit to pay for groceries vs. 6% for digital wallet use.
👉 Read the full article here.
🎤 PODCAST
Rex Salisbury is the Founder of Cambrian and GP of Cambrian Ventures. Rex is a key figure in the Fintech ecosystem, having started Cambrian as a product meetup in 2015 and ultimately growing it into a community of 15,000 newsletter subscribers, 5,000 meetup members, 1,300 founders, and now an early-stage venture fund.
👉 Link to the full Rebank episode here.
🧐 ANALYSIS
Consumers’ trust in digital banking is shifting from their primary financial institution.
👉 Read the full article here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️Solid raised a $63 million Series B round of funding to continue providing its fintech-as-a-service. Link here.
⭐️Better.com is conducting its fourth round of layoffs since December 1, 2021. Link here.
⭐️Real estate tech startup Reali to shut down after raising $100M one year ago. Link here.
⭐️Block is facing a class action lawsuit over a Cash App investing data breach last year that impacted 8.2 million customers. 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
Inter&Co seeks to expand its super app to the US following the NASDAQ listing. Link here.
LevelField Financial is set to announce the acquisition of registered broker-dealer Netshares Financial Services LLC. Link here.
PAYMENTS
PayPal, in partnership with National Philanthropic Trust and Vanguard Charitable, announced Grant Payments. This new product enables Donor-Advised Fund sponsors, community foundations, and other grantmakers to deliver grants to charities quickly and electronically via PayPal. Link here.
As a Stripe investor cuts the value of its stake, more evidence of FinTech valuation pressure. Link here.
Nitra lands a $62m seed round. Link here.
Entrust teams with Mastercard to simplify digital payments. Link here.
The Federal Reserve is expected to launch an instant payment system throughout the US in 2023. Link here.
BNPL
Affirm is on the lookout for acquisitions now that prices for targets have declined amid market turmoil. Link here.
Klarna VS. Affirm. Klarna’s revenues are almost 2x the size of Affirm’s but growing half the speed. Link here.
A group of Democrat lawmakers has written to BNPL firm Credova Financial expressing "strong concerns" about its facilitation of online gun purchases. Link here.
CRYPTO
Bitcoin Depot reached a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company that values the cryptocurrency ATM firm at roughly $885 million and would take it public. Link here.
INVESTMENT
Landa can make you a landlord with just $5. Link here.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
Givers, launching out of beta, unearths savings for caregivers through tax credits, state programs, health insurance benefits, and more. Link here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Dave appoints brand marketing and digital product expert Tesa Aragones to the board of directors. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions, send me an email. Maybe I can answer a few.