Welcome to your daily FinTech news!
- Sebastian Siemiatkowski has some big plans to use open banking to pivot his business further over the long term. "Klarna has pivoted its business a couple of times but the trajectory and journey we’re on right now comes from this one type of insight that we had. We sat down and said, what are financial services going to look like in the future?," he said this week at Innovate Finance Global Summit. Link here.
- Last week, €300m was raised across 17 FinTech deals. Grover is the biggest performer this week with a $110m in equity from a series C round, reaching unicorn territory. It was followed by Fidel API with a $65m series B round and Moneybox that raised a $42m series D. Link here.
- Check out the latest Singapore FinTech map by Fintech News Singapore. Link here.
- Singapore-based fractional share trading startup Gotrade (YC S19) has raised $15.5 million in a Series A round led by Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures. Link here.
- French financial data aggregator Budget Insight has received $35 million (€31m) from growth equity firm PSG as it looks to cement its position in the open finance sector in France and Europe. Link here.
- ThetaRay, a leading provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, announced it is partnering with next-gen sanctions screening company screena. Link here.
- Paysend, the UK-based fintech with over 6.5 million customers, announces the launch of two new products to help customers improve their financial health: Credit Builder and Pay Later. Link here.
- Venture capitalist Peter Theil has set his sights on an "enemies list" of people he claims are trying to stop bitcoin, including Jamie Dimon and “the sociopathic grandpa from Omaha" Warren Buffett. Link here.
- The Bitcoin rumor-mill is in full flow in the run-up to the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami during April 6–9. Following a number of not so cryptic tweets from Jack Mallers, CEO of the Bitcoin and payments app Strike, the charismatic founder is expected to announce a partnership between Apple and Strike to enable Bitcoin Lightning payments on the tech giant’s devices. Link here.
- Raistone announced a collaboration with Mastercard set to simplify business-to-business (B2B) finance payments and speed up access to working capital for small- and medium-sized businesses ("SMBs"). Link here.
- Tippy, the digital tipping system for the service industry, is collaborating with workforce payments platform Branch to launch a one-stop solution for disbursing cashless tips, Tippy announced Wednesday. Link here.
- Camino Financial, a Los Angeles, CA-based AI-powered community lending platform offering affordable credit and wealth-building solutions to overlooked entrepreneurs, closed a $150m debt facility. Link here.
- Credit-oriented fintech platform Liquidity Group is set to receive $775 million worth of capital commitments led by asset manager Apollo Global Management Inc. Funds and MUFG Bank. Link here.
- Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, is working with Apple to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone for its U.S. customers later this year. Link here.
- Remote, a leader in building, managing and supporting global, distributed workforces, announced a $300 million Series C financing round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Link here.
- Truora Inc., a Colombian user authentication startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding co-led by two Silicon Valley-based venture firms. Link here.
- Having raised on the largest seed rounds in Germany last year, ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) provider Mondu continues to grow with its latest senior hire, Miyu Lee. Link here.
- The Saudi Central Bank – SAMA, directed banks to halt the option of opening online accounts for individuals or institutions ‘until further notice’, local media reported. Under the new measures that will take effect starting April 10, accounts are to be opened through branches only. Link here.
- Bakkt Holdings, Inc., a trusted digital asset platform that enables consumers to buy, sell, send and spend a range of digital assets, announced that American Bank has selected the Bakkt® crypto connect solution to enable their bank customers to buy, sell and hold the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, bitcoin, and Ethereum. Link here.
- New savings app Lilly Funds is set to launch in the US, designed to help the more than 150 million underserved Americans who don’t have access to retirement services. Link here.
- American Express and i2c Inc., a provider of digital payment and banking technology, announced an expanded global, multi-product agreement that will enable fintechs and financial institutions around the world to develop and scale innovative payments solutions for consumers and businesses on the American Express global payments network. Link here
This ends Your Daily Fintech News. Let me know if there are any questions or comments. Until the next!
