WEEKLY FINTECH DEAL ACTIVITY
See all of this week’s FinTech deal activity in FT partner’s latest overview 👇
REPORT
Revisiting the Digital Dollar Project’s exploration of a U.S. central bank digital currency. The Digital Dollar Project is a non-profit organization devoted to catalyzing private sector research and exploration of the potential advantages and challenges of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), or “digital dollar.”👇
REPORT
Dollar digital currencies are driving the next evolution of money, payments, and finance.
Since the 2018 launch of USDC, Circle has managed the USD assets backing USDC (the “USDC reserve”) so that it is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. Dollars at any time. In fact, more than $213 billion5 USDC have been redeemed since inception through December 2022.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Stripe became a strategic payments partner for Amazon in the US, Europe, and Canada processing a "significant" portion of the tech giant's total payments volume across its businesses, including Prime, Audible, Kindle, Amazon Pay, and more.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
US InsurTech companies took center stage in 2022 accounting for six out of the ten largest transactions in the sector last year 2022.
💡INSIGHTS
Klarna announced the launch of Money Story - a personal spending summary of 2022 that provides consumers with useful insights into their spending habits and helps them be informed and in control of their finances.
📰 ARTICLE
Twitter may soon be implementing a new Coins feature, allowing users to reward content they like, powered by Stripe.
For the payments sector, the story demonstrates how social media platforms are continuing to provide revenue opportunities for processors, particularly Stripe.
📰 ARTICLE
Eytan Bensoussan took on the mission of reinventing financial services for small businesses, and dramatically increasing their survival rates.
You can read how to perfect your fundraising during changing times in this article
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🇺🇸 NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ FNZ Group agreed to acquire YieldX, in order to accelerate the personalization of wealth management solutions across the U.S. market.
⭐️ Genesis and two of its lending subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of the fall after the failure of the crypto exchange FTX.
⭐️ Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and four other banks are working on launching a digital wallet.
⭐️ Deel is now valued at $12 Billion, nears $300 million of revenue.
⭐️ BlockFi posted uncensored financials revealing a $1.2 billion exposure to the FTX exchange and Alameda Research.
⭐️ DailyPay secured $260 million of capital to fuel growth domestically, expand internationally.
DIGITAL BANKING
Union Credit launching the first marketplace for credit unions to deliver perpetual credit approval and one-click loan activation to new member prospects.
Axiom Bank, N.A. will leverage automated assurance and oversight processes across its partner programs by integrating with Cable’s platform.
Totem Technologies and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma entered into a strategic partnership to create pathways to financial inclusion for tribal members.
PAYMENTS
Marqeta announced its new web push provisioning product to enable their users to pay directly from their mobile wallets.
Mastercard and Citizens announced an expanded partnership, making Mastercard the exclusive payments network across Citizens’ credit, debit and commercial portfolios.
Paysend announced a technology partnership with JMMB Money Transfer to provide secure and affordable deposit-to-account transfers to family and friends in Jamaica.
Bolt axed another 50 employees, meaning that the online checkout company has seen its headcount shrink by more than half in under a year.
BNY Mellon and Fiserv joined forces to deliver additional capabilities for real-time foreign exchange rate quotes for payments from U.S. financial institutions.
Wafi launched its payment processing platform for e-commerce businesses.
OPEN BANKING
Union Credit launching the first marketplace for credit unions to deliver perpetual credit approval and one-click loan activation to new member prospects.
CRYPTO
Nexo Capital agreed to pay $45 million to settle claims that its product violated investor-protection laws.
FTX’s new chief executive, John J. Ray III is looking into the possibility of reviving the bankrupt crypto exchange as he works to return money to the failed company’s customers and creditors.
Federal prosecutors seized nearly $700 million in cash and assets connected to Sam Bankman-Fried, primarily in the form of Robinhood shares.
FRAUD PREVENTION
Sandbar launched its financial crime detection solution and announced a $4.8m seed funding round, which was led by Lachy Groom and Abstract Ventures.
FINANCIAL LITERACY
Penny Finance launched of an all-in-one community feature, where users share advice on financial wellness for today and the future.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
The Banking as a Service Association announced the hire of William Briggs as its first Chief Executive Officer.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.