Daily Fintech Crunch: 05/05/2022

Dear All

Welcome to today's daily fintech crunch. We are in the middle of earning season in the US and some of the big names have missed their earning expectations and consequently taken a hit on their share prices. Today it was the turn of Shopify. Shares of Shopify Inc.?SHOP,?-17.33%?were sliding 15% in premarket trading after the e-commerce company fell short of expectations with its latest results and said it would spend $2.1 billion to acquire fulfillment-technology provider Deliverr. The company reported a first-quarter net loss of $1.5 billion, or $11.70 a share, versus net income of $1.3 billion, or $9.94 a share, in the year-earlier quarter.

Pretty depressing news for a number of us investors in the likes of Shopify, Amazon, etc. Hopefully the news-bites below cheer you up a bit.

? Fintech:

• Hetz Ventures, a seed-stage VC out of Israel, has closed its third fund of $123 million.

• The global fintech sector employs over 300,000 people, more than the number of employees in the cities of Zurich (97,000) and Frankfurt (83,000) combined.

• Polish salary-on-demand fintech Flexee raises €2.8 million.

• Do you know what the word "gig economy" means? According to a Mastercard study, the global gig economy will earn $455 billion in gross revenue by 2023, which is more than double what it was in 2018, making gig economy a staple of Fintech in the upcoming years.

• Bank Pekao has chosen Murex's solution and aims to install its MX.3 platform to reduce expenses associated with the bank's continuous technological transformation.

• In a round headed by Massive, Line received $7 million in equity and $18 million in debt for a total of $25 million.

• Temenos and ABN AMRO Bank have extended their subscription for a multi-year period to support client development and company expansion on the Temenos Banking Cloud.

• The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) released a Request for Information (RFI), seeking input from qualifying companies on the establishment of a physical innovation center dedicated to financial technology (Fintech) in New Jersey.

• Openpay, a payments fintech, has confirmed Kathryn Grant as its new A/NZ head of marketing as it wraps up its annual OpenMay campaign.

• Point, a California-based home equity lending platform, has raised $115 million in Series C funding to accelerate its expansion by investing in new products and technology.

• Following a $50 million fundraising round in the startup on Monday, IIFL Finance is prepared to enter the neo-banking industry and will form a joint venture (JV) with neo-banking fintech business Open.

• Nova Credit announced the release of Cash AtlasTM, a first-party cash flow underwriting solution that converts bank transaction data into a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) consumer report.

?? Crypto & DeFi:

• Since the Syndicate’s inception three months ago, more than 1,100 investment clubs have been formed, and the firm has collected $6 million in strategic funding from more than 50 of its clients and partners.

• New Zealand crypto startups to get new investments from local venture GD1, not only foreign investments.?

?? Metaverse & NFTs:

• The GameFi project NFT User Builder is provided by ArchLoot for creative gameplay.

?? Other News:

• Banks in the Gulf are adopting blockchain, fintech, cryptocurrencies, and artificial intelligence in order to meet shifting customer needs and a quickly developing financial landscape.

?? Report of the Day:

• As we're half way through the second quarter, fintech data from last quarter is showcased in this report from dealroom and ABN AMRO. Fintech companies raised $32.4 billion in the first quarter of 2022, down 10% from the previous quarter's record, but still up 27% year over year. Fintech finance is faring better than the rest of the venture capital industry. Especially when compared to the previous year's figures.

Have a pleasant Thursday. Until tomorrow, goodbye and good day.

–Arjun Vir Singh