REPORT
February FinTech financing activity picked up slightly over January with $2.9 billion in total volume across 246 deals including five $100 million+ rounds 👇
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Wix.com announced an extended partnership with Stripe to bring Tap to Pay on iPhone to U.S.-based Wix merchants.
This enables Wix merchants to accept secure, contactless payments directly from their iPhones, without needing additional hardware.
📰 ARTICLE
Catch co-founder Kristen Anderson tweeted that the health and retirement benefits company she and co-founder Andrew Ambrosino started six years ago is shuttering.
Anderson and Ambrosino created Catch “with the crazy idea that our benefits shouldn’t be tied to traditional employment and a W2 form.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
Stripe is close to fundraising which will value the U.S. payment firm at around $50 billion, the information reported on Feb. 28.
👨💻 BLOG
Eco Execs: Offering 5% APY “Sets Off Alarm Bells” and “Sounds Like A Scam” 👇
💬 INTERVIEW
It’s not that crazy to lose $100m a month, says Klarna’s Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
During buy now, pay later giant Klarna’s heyday of hyper-growth, the company was losing $100m a month. But CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski says the burn was justified given the market opportunity, despite media portrayals.
💡INSIGHTS
Embedded finance—where non-chartered companies like FinTechs and consumer brands provide financial services from chartered financial institutions—is projected to reach $7 trillion in transaction value by 2026.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Candidly raised $20.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Altos Ventures.
⭐️ Binance developed a plan to avoid the threat of prosecution by U.S. authorities as it started an American entity in 2019.
⭐️ US regulators have been sent to the headquarters of Silvergate Capital, as the troubled crypto-friendly bank looks for a way to stay in business.
⭐️ Coinbase launched a new product to help onboard developers into web3.
⭐️ Brex will be launching advanced AI-powered tools for CFOs and their teams.
⭐️ SoFi sued the Biden administration in an effort to end the pause on federal student loan payments.
FinTech Meetup in Vegas is just around the corner and I will start and close it with a bang. Join me and let's do this together!
DIGITAL BANKING
Varo Bank is looking to raise $50 million in the capital at a 28% discount on its last valuation.
Bankjoy announced a funding round led by Curql Collective.
Silvergate Capital Corporation announced its intent to wind down operations and voluntarily liquidate the Bank in an orderly manner and in accordance with applicable regulatory processes.
Plaid is looking to connect some of its own business units this year with the help of an identity-verification team.
Better com’s SPAC deal with Aurora Acquisition Corp. recently got a new lease on life, extending its timeframe to close the transaction through the end of Q3 2023.
VC FUNDS
TTV Capital closed its sixth fund at $250 million, the original target was $150 million.
PAYMENTS
Modern Treasury and Silicon Valley Bank announced the availability of a new global payment solution, which will allow mutual clients to send cross-border payments more efficiently.
DocuPhase purchased iPayables to enhance its footprint and provide AP automation clients with improved offerings.
Zilmoney and zilbank.com launched an app in the ADP Marketplace that enables small businesses to use their credit card funds to pay their payroll.
Zūm Rails is partnering with MX to power more seamless payments and money movement for customers of financial institutions and fintech in Canada.
Senate Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren, called on financial regulators to take action to tackle fraud related to the bank-owned Zelle P2P payments service.
Growfin raises $7.5M led by SWC Global.
PayPal´s chief financial officer, Blake Jorgensen, who has been on medical leave since September, will leave that role.
BNPL
Afterpay which allows customers to receive their purchases immediately, but pay them off over time has returned to New Mexico.
CRYPTO
Cryptocurrency prices fell as investors weighed the latest financial woes at Silvergate Capital and assessed what a potential bankruptcy at the crypto bank could mean for the broader crypto industry.
Silvergate Bank discontinued its SEN platform that institutions used to move money to crypto exchanges.
Jack Dorse´s block announces mining development kit for novel Bitcoin mining use cases.
Kraken is planning to launch its own bank despite a challenging regulatory environment and the recent shuttering of its on-chain staking services for U.S. clients.
Binance.US cleared a major hurdle in its effort to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital in a deal worth over $1 billion.
REGTECH
Droit closed a $23 million Series B investment in its latest funding round.
FRAUD PREVENTION
Socure entered into a $95 million, three-year credit facility with J.P. Morgan, Silicon Valley Bank, and KeyBanc Capital Markets.