THIS WEEK’S FUNDING NEWS OVERVIEW
For the past week’s funding news overview, we recommend reading our weekly #DoneDeal newsletter 👇
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👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Robinhood is entering the retirement game. The company launched a waitlist for its new offering, Robinhood Retirement, which it describes as the “first and only” individual retirement account (IRA) with a 1% match on every eligible dollar contributed.
👉 Read the full TechCrunch article here.
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📰 ARTICLE
The 130-page report, the product of an 18-month investigation by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, is packed with startling details about how negligible government oversight and a rush to get cash out the door to help devastated businesses created conditions ripe for fraud.
Executives at Womply and Blueacorn, which facilitated millions of Paycheck Protection Program loans, flouted rules and themselves collected improper loans, investigators said.
👉 Read the full NY Times article here.
📰 ARTICLE
Fintech plans to double workforce, add bank partners in 2023:
Michael Nelskyla wants to give consumers the option to open a savings account that draws yields from the market instead of interest rates.
Save, a Houston-based fintech founded by Nelskyla, its CEO, closed on the largest round of funding, and first institutional capital, in its history.
👉 Read the full American Banker article by Catherine Leffert here.
💬 INTERVIEW
Most of us have to borrow at some point in our lives, and in Max Levchin’s mind, a society built on BNPL—even if used to finance staples such as food and fuel—is better than one stacked on credit cards.
Unsurprisingly, Levchin believes tech can save the day, saying Affirm’s machine learning algorithms will prevent overly risky loans.
👉Read the full WIRED interview by Lauren Goode (“Max Levchin’s War on Credit Cards“) here.
💡INSIGHTS
In her a16z Summit talk, Angela Strange shared her belief of how “every company will be a FinTech company” in the not-too-distant future. Starbucks has been masquerading as a FinTech company for a while now.
👉 Read this amazing WhiteSight article by Kshitija Kaur and Risav Chakraborty for the full story here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Plaid is laying off 260 employees, or about 20% of its workforce. Link here.
⭐️ Setpoint raised $43 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Link here.
⭐️ X1 raised an additional $15 million in funding. Link here.
⭐️ Intuit boosts Credit Karma unit with SeedFi acquisition. Link here.
⭐️ Teampay raised $47 million in Series B funding led by existing investor Fin Venture Capital. Link here.
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DIGITAL BANKING
Atomic collaborates with Jack Henry to unlock a digital banking evolution for banks and credit unions. Link here.
Wells Fargo unveiled a new digital banking platform, Vantage, to more effectively service its commercial, corporate, and investment banking clients. Link here.
PAYMENTS
Marqeta integrated Mastercard Track™ Instant Pay, a next-generation virtual card solution that uses machine learning and straight-through processing to enable instant payment of supplier invoices. Link here.
Airwallex partnered with Plaid to offer an integrated solution that can streamline Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments. Link here.
BNPL
Galileo Financial Technologies announced a BNPL solution with the issuance of single-use virtual cards and complete loan servicing. Link here.
CRYPTO
Signature Bank will shrink its deposits tied to cryptocurrencies by $8 billion to $10 billion, signaling a move away from the digital asset industry for the bank that until recently had been one of the most crypto-friendly companies on Wall Street. Link here.
Nexo is leaving the U.S. market. The firm has faced a legal dogpile from state and federal regulators within the U.S. as scrutiny on lenders ramped up over the past year. Link here.
BLOCKCHAIN / DEFI
Circle Internet Financial pulled the plug on its planned Spac deal with Concord Acquisition Corp, the blank check firm run by former Barclays bigwig Bob Diamond. Link here.
INVESTMENT
BNY Mellon has led a $14 million investment round for credit analytics and fixed income technology player bondIT. Link here.
Seeds Investor (“Seeds”) announced it has closed a seed funding round of $2.7 million. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.