REPORT
A recent report from BCG & QED Investors projects #FinTech revenues to grow sixfold from $245B to $1.5T by 2030. Currently holding 2% of the $12.5T global financial services revenue, the sector is estimated to grow to 7%.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Greenwood acquired Kinly in a move that brings together two of the largest Black-owned FinTechs. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
Check out the US Bank Fintech Investments & Patents, 2023 by Flagship Advisory Partners.
💡 INSIGHTS
Apple’s freshly launched high-yield savings account brought in as much as $990 million in deposits over its first four days. The account’s eye-catching 4.15% annual return is likely the main driver for account openings. The account is offered through a partnership with Goldman Sachs Bank USA.
🎤 PODCAST
Check out this enriching podcast by Miguel Armaza who sits down with Itai Damti, CEO & Co-Founder of Unit, to discuss the future of software-driven FinTechs, and more!
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Kakao Pay acquired a 19.9% stake in Siebert, spending $17 million on the transaction.
⭐️ Rêv and Searchlight complete the acquisition of Netspend worth $1 billion.
⭐️ Klarna partners with Airbnb to provide customers throughout the US and Canada with flexible payment options when booking their next trip online
⭐️ Kroger and Walmart are interested in harnessing the coming power of the FedNow system.
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DIGITAL BANKING
Greenwood announced the launch of its General Access platform – expanding Greenwood’s spending, saving, and financial services to all after successfully enrolling all interested waitlist users.
SoFi’s latest quarterly results underscore a continued demand for personal loans. The company added 433,000 members, bringing the total membership base to 5.7 million, up 46% year on year.
Fintel Connect partners with Cheese to serve underbanked and credit-challenged consumers in the US.
Owners Bank announced its technology stack of partners, such as Alkami Technology, that are working together to make banking as seamless as possible for small businesses.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a cease-and-desist order against Cross River Bank due to its lending practices.
VC FUNDS
Vera Equity raised $20 million and backed 20 startups, including founder Lamine Zarrad who is on a mission to simplify consumer credit building at StellarFi, and Jen Glaspie who started Tandym to provide private label card programs for online SMBs.
IDPartner raised $3.1 million in a funding round led by Abstract Ventures.
StorsPay secured a funding round of US$320,000 and was selected to participate in the Techstars NYC accelerator.
Axoni secured $20 million in an equity funding round led by EJF Ventures.
PAYMENTS
Mastercard is teaming up with Web3 players on an on-chain identity and verification framework covering a variety of applications in payments, ticketing, and NFTs.
Mastercard says the Department of Justice is investigating potential anticompetitive behavior related to its debit card operations.
Customers at Pho Banh Mi Che Cali restaurants in Los Angeles can now pay for their orders using a biometric payments acceptance system.
Microsoft partners with Stripe, PayPal, and GoDaddy to launch a Microsoft Teams payments app to help SMBs in the US and Canada manage and collect payments.
Finix becomes a payments processor, heating up its competition with Stripe.
CRYPTO
Coinbase offered a fiery response to last month’s Wells notice from the SEC, telling the federal regulator that an enforcement action against the crypto exchange would pose “major programmatic risks” to the SEC that would “fail on the merits.”
PayPal is introducing crypto transfers for Venmo customers. The new feature enables customers to transfer cryptocurrency to friends and family on Venmo or PayPal, and other wallets and exchanges in the crypto ecosystem.
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Sila partners with Sivo, aiming to improve access to debt financing for Sila customers, filling a crucial gap in the company's ecosystem.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Plinqit promoted Julio Sarmiento to CTO. Sarmiento will oversee its product and technology strategy as the company scales to serve a rapidly expanding client base of banks and credit unions.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.