💸 "All Companies Will Use Crypto, sooner than anticipated!"

Hey everyone, I hope y’all had a wonderful weekend, and thank you for coming back to my crunch. 💪🏻💸

Today, we’ll explore the biggest headlines in Fintech, the Web3 world, and Crypto. I’ll also be diving into the latest investment rounds for Fintech companies worldwide.

I hope you’re already signed up for my weekly pieces. If you don’t want to miss the best of Fintech updates, sign up and join 8,345 members of the Couchonomics family.

Let’s get into today’s edition! 💸

Almost all businesses have websites. They sell their products or services online. But will we live in a world where crypto becomes one of the main-stream forms of payment soon? 

I believe the answer is yes, and I'll share why later in the newsletter. Read on to learn more about web3 and how it'll change payment as we know it!

Yesterday’s Market Moves

Some Familiar Fintech Stocks

Note: The variance captures DoD movement in the price

What’s new in Fintech?

• PayTabs Global Egypt, MENA's payment processing powerhouse, is teaming up with digital savings platform Waffarha to let customers score deals on products and services.

• The BENEFIT Company , the leading Bahraini company in Fintech, has launched its annual Fintech internship program Masar in collaboration with the Supreme Council for Women.

• The Africa Fintech Foundry is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria to support 10 startups in their bid to increase the adoption of eNaira in Nigeria.

"All companies will use crypto, sooner than anticipated!" .... Here’s why.

Let’s face it, back in the good old days, nobody thought most (if not all) companies would have an online presence. But look how that turned - today, if you don’t have a website and e-commerce capability, you not only lose out on online sales, but it also impacts your offline channel. Having a online presence has practically become a necessity (or else you are behind your competitors)

Now, transitioning into a company which accepts crypto might be a wee bit more challenging but I dont believe any company today can completely ignore the emergence of Crypto.

In the US alone, some 8% of the Americans own crypto assets and that number is growing daily. As theses cryptocurrencies becomes more and more mainstream (aided with regulation which will come into place soon enough), people will increasingly want to use their cryptocurrencies for the same kinds of transactions they currently conduct using fiat and other form of digital currencies.

Web3 is what’s going to make the process easier. It will enable customers and companies to pay and receive money faster and easier. Web3 is changing the internet by giving users more control over their data, content, and most of all, finances. And all of it is built on blockchain technology.

Soon you’ll see a button called “connect to wallet” on every website, and I mean EVERY website. I don’t want to go on for too long about it here, though. We still have a lot of interesting stuff to talk about.

If you want to get in-depth details with numbers and stats, feel free to read this report to see how we’ll live in a world in the future. It dives into web3 , the blockchain, DeFi, DAOs, and more. I really recommend reading it.

⚡ Quick Investment Rounds

• QED Investors has invested around $50 million into Nigerian fintech TeamApt Inc. , one of Nigeria’s largest banking platforms.

• Griffin , the fintech firm that builds "bank-as-a-service" platforms for financial institutions, has secured £12.5 million to develop an operating system for embedded finance services.

• Finix , a do-it-yourself payments company, has raised $30 million in new venture capital. This brings its total known money raised to $133 million.

💡 Report of the Day

Here’s How to Keep Up With Fintech

Here’s a tip: you have to know as much as you can about your industry and since I’m alway keen to know as much as I can about whats happening in the world of Fintech, I always seek out different resources which keeps me up-to-date. 

So if you’re interested in Fintech, here’s something that I personally read, which allows me to stay informed.

Financial Technology Partners / FT Partners issues a monthly report about global Fintech. And if you’re wondering who FT Partners are, they’re the only investment banking firm solely focused on the financial technology sector. 

Click here to read their August report. You can also click here to subscribe to their monthly newsletter.

⏳ Before you go…

• Metaverse: NVIDIA announced updates for Omniverse to make the metaverse more realistic. The tools unveiled include new AI capabilities, simulations, and other creative assets.

• Amazon: Amazon is now partnering with Ginger , an on-demand mental healthcare platform, to offer employees a chance to get some much-needed therapy.

• Crypto: When the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to fight high inflation in June, crypto stumbled through the first half of the year, taking a hit as Bitcoin fell below $11,000. But recently, Bitcoin briefly broke $25,000 for the first time since mid-June.

• DeFi: Hacker alert! Acala , the decentralized hub of the Polkadot network, has been hacked. As a result, the AUSD stablecoin dropped like a rock and hit an all-time low of $0.5713.

🛋 The Latest on Couchonomics

For my most recent episode of Couchonomics with Arjun Singh, I had the Chairman of the MENA Fintech Association, Nameer Khan on the #couch with me. Please tune in to hear and/or watch the episode

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Deezer

💸 And that brings us to the end of today’s Couchonomics Crunch.

Don’t forget to share today’s edition with all the fintech enthusiasts you know.

Thanks for reading the Couchonomics Crunch. Subscribe here to stay up to date with all the fintech happenings around the world.

Till the next edition of the newsletter! 👋🏻