👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Robinhood is setting up an independent media unit, called Sherwood, that will cover things like money, technology and geopolitics through newsletters, a website and events.
The venture is being led by Joshua Topolsky,the former editor-in-chief of tech news site The Verge and ex-chief digital officer at Bloomberg Media.
👉 Read the full article by Finextra here
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
Despite the market troubles, there were still colossal funding rounds within the FinTech sector.
Europe led the charge for the biggest deals of the year, representing seven of the top ten. The remaining three were raised by US-based companies.
👉 Read all about the ten biggest FinTech deals of 2022 here
📰 ARTICLE
Apple has quietly built identity verification capabilities that could disrupt a growing crop of startups within the IDV tech stack.
Combined with unparalleled access to user data and a widespread consumer footprint, Apple appears to have already the capabilities to own identity verification and fraud for iOS users.
👉 Read the full article by Jelena Hoffart here
👨💻 BLOG
Chime is quietly securing state licenses. Is A Push Into Lending (Finally) Next?
Read the full blog post by Jason Mikula below 👇
💡INSIGHTS
Accenture asked survey participants which payment methods they used at least five times monthly. Debit cards were cited by 63% of Americans, followed by credit cards at 53%. Nearly half of U.S. consumers use at least one digital wallet, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal.
👉 Read the full The Financial Brand article here
🎤 PODCAST
Steve McLaughlin, founder and CEO of FT Partners, discusses what to look out for in fintech in 2023 and beyond.
👉 Listen to this After the asteroid: What’s next for fintech in 2023? episode here
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Jamie Dimon says Frank acquisition ‘Was A Huge Mistake’ after JP Morgan alleges millions of fake customers. Link here
⭐️US overtakes Germany as Klarna´s largest market by revenue. Link here
⭐️ Founders Fund closed almost all of its eight-year bet on cryptocurrencies, generating about $1.8bn in returns. Link here
⭐️ More than one in three of the 535 senators and representatives in the U.S. Congress showed up to the new session with FTX baggage. Link here
⭐️ Aspiration announced that the company will be setting up offices at Abu Dhabi Global Markets. Link here
⭐️ Apple Card is responsible for more than $1 billion in losses for Goldman Sachs. Link here
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Join my Angel Investors Syndicate!
DIGITAL BANKING
LendingClub is cutting its workforce by 14% - 225 employees - as it faces up to reduced demand for its loans. Link here
Grasshopper and Ramp announced a partnership to provide Grasshopper's clients with access to Ramp's platform. Link here
The Digital Dollar Project announced new hires to support the strategic growth of its policy research and experimentation teams. Link here
Mayfair emerges from stealth to offer businesses a higher yield on their cash. Link here
PAYMENTS
FedNow is scheduled to launch trailing The Clearing House's RTP rail by over five years. Link here
American Express entered into an agreement to acquire Nipendo. Link here
Twitter is currently developing a purchase interface and menu item button for Coins, and will use Stripe to process payments in fiat. Link here
Prommt announced 3 million payment requests sent to customers across many industry sectors in Europe over the Christmas period. Link here
Greenlight laid off 104 employees, which is over 21% of its total headcount of 485 employees. Link here
Oracle will offer retailers in-store payment acceptance services, including tap-to-pay capabilities. Link here
Fujitsu joined forces with Ingenico in an effort to bring its palm vein authentication technology for in-store payments into the mainstream. Link here
Clik2pay developed an industry-changing application that allows any Shopify store to seamlessly offer a direct-from-account payment option to customers. Link here
PayJunction announced an integration with Plaid to simplify bank payments. Link here
BNPL
Klarna is partnering with payment solutions firm Ingenico to accelerate the expansion of BNPL payment methods to in-store purchases. Link here
CRYPTO
Public.com begun rolling out Treasury accounts through a partnership with Jiko. Link here
Arch announced its first crypto lending product and closed a $2.75 million funding round. Link here
U.S. authorities designated Bitzlato as a primary money-laundering concern and charged its founder for allegedly facilitating money laundering for criminals. Link here
BLOCKCHAIN / DEFI
Robinhood Retirement is the first and only IRA to offer a 1% match for every eligible dollar contributed and is now available to all eligible customers. Link here
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Synapse Financial Technologies, Inc. announced that Jack Doan joined as the Chief People & Culture Officer and Derek Drennan joined as Chief Customer Officer. Link here
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.