Welcome to your daily FinTech news!
- A group of non-fungible token (or NFT) creators and collectors will soon be able to display their tokens on Instagram. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed in a post yesterday that the company is testing NFTs on the platform, with “similar functionality” coming soon to Facebook. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video that a small group of US users will have the ability to display NFTs on their feed, stories, and messages. Link here.
- It is a known fact that the ‘Big Four’ are attracting most of the investment, the attention - and the talent - on the continent: start-ups in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt have raised 83% of all the funding and signed 78% of all $1m+ deals since 2019. And there is no sign of things changing any time soon as these percentages are also very consistent over time. Link here.
- Many people mistakenly believe that older consumers are driving card card volume growth. Not so. According to a recent consumer study from Cornerstone Advisors, 65% of Gen Zers (21 to 26 years old) and 67% of Millennials (27 to 41) have at least one credit card. Not surprising or out of line with other studies. Link here.
- Amsterdam-based Fairnance, a home financing platform, announced on Friday, May 6, that it has raised an undisclosed amount in its Seed round of funding from UK-based equity investment platform Maydan Capital. Link here.
- In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), FinTech has emerged as the preferred investment target of investors. Between 2019 and 2021, the fintech sector captured the largest portion of dollars invested across all tech sectors, more than double enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS), the second-biggest tech sector for the period. Link here.
- B2B payments and neobanking platform Razorpay is looking to get new investors on board through a share sale of $75 million by its employees, the company said on May 10. Link here.
- MENA-based BaaS provider, NymCard, announced the addition of Country Manager Omar El Moataz, who has come from Mastercard to NymCard, to head its office and operations in Egypt. Link here.
- A new study conducted by online payments giant PayPal, in partnership with British market research and data analytics firm YouGov, found that not only have SMEs and freelancers swiftly changed their business practices to adjust to COVID-19 restrictions, but they’ve also successfully capitalized on the new opportunities introduced by booming digital adoption, including the ability to grow their businesses leveraging online channels and digital payments, and expanding into new markets. Link here.
- Bitcoin is off nearly 55% from its November peak, and 40% of holders are now underwater on their investments, according to new data from Glassnode. That percentage is even higher when you isolate for the short-term holders who got skin in the game in the last six months when the price of bitcoin peaked at around $69,000. In the last month alone, 15.5% of all bitcoin wallets fell into an unrealized loss, as the world's most popular cryptocurrency plunged to the $31,000 level, tracking tech stocks lower. Bitcoin's close correlation to the Nasdaq challenges the argument that the cryptocurrency functions as an inflation hedge. Link here.
- El Salvador just bought the wild Bitcoin dip yesterday with a 500 BTC purchase, at an average price of $30,744, according to a tweet from President Nayib Bukele. Link here.
- Backflip, a Dallas, TX-based real estate and fintech startup improving how entrepreneurs invest in residential properties, raised 35m in total funding. Link here.
- One of Visa’s top executives is leaving the payments giant for a brokerage technology start-up, CNBC has learned. Terry Angelos, Visa’s global head of fintech and crypto, will take over as chief executive officer of start-up DriveWealth next week. Angelos joined Visa seven years ago as part of its acquisition of TrialPay, which he founded and led as CEO. Link here.
- Do a quick scan of TikTok and you’ll find trendy young people casually blowing hundreds or thousands of dollars on clothes and jewelry, often set to the clattering, the bass-boosted din of Florida rapper Saucy Santana’s fittingly titled “Material Girl.” Link here.
- ThetaRay, a leading provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, and Qolo, an omnichannel platform enabling the seamless movement of money from a single API, announced a collaboration to detect and prevent financial crimes across Qolo's full range of curated payment services. Link here.
- The United States continues to be a global leader in embracing the cryptocurrency industry thanks to the work of Sen. Patrick Toomey, with the White House being at the forefront of crypto regulation. Link here.
- Mercado Libre said it has so far managing to recoup higher costs by boosting its prices as the South American e-commerce giant reversed a year-ago loss, helped by growth in its financial services unit. Link here.
- Bitstamp, the longest-running crypto exchange, announced that JB Graftieaux has been appointed the new Global CEO of the company. Graftieaux joined Bitstamp in May 2021 as the company’s Europe CEO. Link here.
- Australian B2B buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm BizPay has cut 30% of its workforce due to volatility in the tech sector and a “challenging market” for fintechs. The firm aims to solve cash flow issues associated with paying business invoices, enabling businesses to split bills into four monthly installments. Link here.
- Current, a challenger bank with 4 million customers, is rolling out an application programming interface platform that will make it easier for its customers to use other FinTech apps for things like payments, financial planning, and investing. Current also hopes to use the platform to offer embedded banking to other FinTechs. The data aggregator Plaid is the first data aggregator to work with the new platform. Link here.
- Banks in the US will now have just 36 hours to report a cybersecurity incident to a federal regulator amongst the heightened potential for Russian-led cyber attacks. Although receiving final approval back in November 2021, the bill, imposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), came into full effect officially on 1 May. Link here.
- The federal government has taken another step towards establishing Canada’s open banking system, selecting an experienced fintech leader to lead development of a “made-in-Canada” regime. The Department of Finance Canada has named Abraham A. Tachjian the open banking lead. Mr. Tachjian has extensive experience related to open banking in Canada and internationally, as well as expertise in digital banking and law. Link here.
- In April, Latin American startups got “only” $821 million in funding – 12% less than the one registered in March and 35% less than in April last year, when $1.2 billion was invested in the region. The data is from a new report issued by the Brazilian intelligence platform Sling Hub, obtained by LABS firsthand. Last month’s investments were distributed in 86 rounds, of which 62 were raised by Brazilian startups, which got 46% of the total funding, $383 million. Link here.
- Debt for growth: Brazilian entrepreneurs start falling for Venture Debt. Known for some time in North America, venture debt is an investment format that is slowly becoming more popular among Brazilian startups as an option for raising funds. Link here.
- Nubank's Cristina Junqueira and Brazil’s Banking Revolution. Cristina Junqueira is famous among the Latin American banking fraternity because not only did she smash the glass ceiling in the fiercely male-orientated environment of the Brazilian financial industry, but her contributions have helped launch a new wave of digital banking and finance in the region in the form of Nubank. Link here.
- MoneyLion, a leading digital financial services and lifestyle content platform, announced two appointments to expand its investor relations efforts as a publicly-traded company. Sean Horgan has been appointed Head of Investor Relations. Sean will be responsible for expanding MoneyLion's investor relations function including engagement with the Company's shareholders, investors, and analyst community and will report to Richard Correia, MoneyLion’s Chief Financial Officer. Link here.
This ends Your Daily Fintech News. Let me know if there are any questions or comments. Until the next!
