Revolut eyes a BNPL acquisition

Revolut eyes a BNPL acquisition

Good morning FinTech Fanatic,

For a change, let’s start the week with some Revolut news;-)

As if we haven’t heard enough about the neobank lately, CEO Nik Storonsky fueled rumours that Revolut is eyeing an acquisition in the Buy Now, Pay Later-space. 

The chairman told Axios on the sidelines of the Web Summit Rio conference last week, Revolut's having a team looking at acquisition, with the BNPL-space as a specific focus area.

"That's because buy-now-pay-later companies are in trouble with high interest rates, and valuations have dropped significantly."

Buy Now, Pay Later isn’t a new ‘product’ for Revolut, as they joined the BNPL wave with a pilot in Ireland back in June 2022. 

Now they confirm ‘currently discussing’ with several companies. “Again, the question is price," he says, adding: "But we can afford to wait a while. And buy-now-pay-later companies are losing a lot of money in this environment."

Speaking about the Web Summit Rio; at that same event Revolut announced its much-anticipated entry into Latin America. 

In the aftermath I came across an interesting read by Simon Rodrigues, who states Revolut will face a daunting challenge in Brazil (and he explains why;-)) I highly recommend to follow Simon to get more insights on the LatAm FinTech scene.

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Last but not least, I would like to point out an interesting article by Amy O’Brien of Sifted in which Eric Demuth, the CEO of Austrian crypto unicorn Bitpanda, made a fierce statement on the valuation of FinTechs.

Demuth says that European FinTechs are clinging on to price tags of many times what they’re actually worth — including his own. 

“If any [FinTech] company that raised in 2021 were to raise next week, the market standard right now is a 50% to 70% devaluation.”

I wish you the best week ahead and onwards to the other FinTech news!


POST OF THE DAY

🔥HOT off the press🔥The Ultimate FinTech Influencer Guide 2023 is out! 👇

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INSIGHTS

FinTech Funding Alert. Let’s dive into the data for European FinTech Funding rounds in April. Here are the top 10 deals of the month

Infographic: Card Scheme Performance. Check out  Flagship Advisory Partners’ interesting insights on card scheme performance 2022-2023.

Q1 2023 Shareholder Letter: Cash App is on fire and continues to be a monster for Block. Thanks to an increase in the amount of Bitcoin sold to its customers, Block’s Cash App generated $50 million of Bitcoin gross profit in the first quarter of 2023, up 16% year-over-year.

FINTECH NEWS 

Marqeta to cut workforce by 15%. Marqeta plans to cut 15% of its workforce, or about 150 employees, as part of a cost-cutting plan aimed at becoming profitable, the company said.

Carrefour gets into fintech and launches its prepaid card: it targets the unbanked. With “Mi Carrefour Corajudo,” the app that is already available in stores, the company wants to reach at least 1 million users. Read more

Capchase gets into buy now, pay later with Capchase Pay for SaaS financing. Capchase Pay enables SaaS companies to collect the full contract value for their software while also providing their customers with flexible payment terms.

MTN’s multibillion-rand fintech investment pays off. This was boosted significantly by its fintech business, which garnered 4.1 billion (38.8%) transactions in the period, driven by MoMo, which grew by 5.2% to 61.7 million subscribers

Revolut to begin offering loans in France. The Revolut Loans offering will be available exclusively to French residents with zero opening fees, and thanks to Revolut’s use of open banking, hardcopy paperwork will not be required to submit loan applications.

Indian Startup Grip invest seeking to raise capital In its series B round. The business intends to use the funds primarily to improve the platform's user experience and produce a more "intuitive" product. The corporation also stated that it will spend in regulatory compliance.

JoPACC and Rainmaking launch JOIN Fincubator in Jordan. This will support the development and endeavours of FinTech ideas and start-ups in the Jordanian ecosystem. Link here

DIGITAL BANKING NEWS

Japan's Rakuten posts $564 million loss in Q1 on mobile loss. The company has burned cash funding the build-out, with analysts flagging Rakuten's struggle to take market share from cash-rich incumbents known for high-quality networks. Read more

Rural bank-focused Komunal posts $118m in transaction volume for Q1. The firm recorded a 3.5x year-on-year growth in MSME deposits and loan transactions, reaching 1.75 trillion rupiah (US$118.6 million) in the first quarter of 2023. 

BLOCKCHAIN

Binance.US explores ways to cut founder Changpeng Zhao’s majority stake. Zhao has been trying to sell at least some of his stake since last summer. And in recent weeks, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Zhao’s international crypto firm Binance for allegedly violating U.S. derivatives laws, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ethereum (ETH) is now available to stake on Bitpanda. After completing its planned transition to Proof of Stake, Ethereum (ETH) is now available to stake on Bitpanda, bringing to the total number of staking assets to 28 coins and tokens that generate rewards.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS 

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PayRetailers appoints Jonathan Wilson as Chief Risk Officer. With this appointment, PayRetailers is taking another step forward in its mission to provide secure and reliable payment solutions to its growing customer base.

PayU names Shiri Schneider as new chief technology officer. In her new role, she will lead an international team of 250 developers to help advance the company’s API-first payment solutions. Link here

PARTNERSHIPS

Mastercard has partnered with Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) and Bank of Maldives. The new technology, powered by Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS), will enable seamless credit card and debit card payments across Maldives’ public transport network, including buses and ferries. 

#DONEDEAL

Firmbase raises $12 million for financial planning and analysis platform. The platform’s budget vs. actuals solution enables companies to automatically track their plans against performance, and proactively adjust forecasts on the fly. Read more


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Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or send me an e-mail


Cheers,

Marcel van Oost

Connecting the dots in FinTech

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Jane Chan

💰 Payment Solutions Expert | Simplifying Transactions for Businesses | Strategic Partnerships

1y

Thanks for sharing this daily FinTech news update! It's great to have a concise overview of the latest happenings in the industry. The snippet about a BNPL acquisition is intriguing, as well as the appointments and funding rounds mentioned. The inclusion of key players like Marqeta, Binance.US, and Revolut adds to the relevance of the news. I appreciate the diversity of topics covered, from financial planning and analysis platforms to exploring ways to cut founder stakes. Looking forward to staying informed with your daily updates!

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