Edition #10 – March 2022 | Future of FinTech
We’re back with another serving of the weekly FinTech brew to keep your curious cups filled with the stirring affairs in a new edition of the Future of FinTech Newsletter! If you're new and curious, read on to find out what happened in the world of FinTech across six dynamic themes, and join 571 other FinTech nerds in receiving some fresh Weekly FinTech Brew delivered right to your inbox every Tuesday???
Edition #10?welcomed the Open Finance segment as the most active segment of the week, with an assortment of activities making up for the headlines for the vertical.
Here's the TL;DR
For the longer read, let's get going –
The?Open Finance?vertical was witness to various players from across industries integrating open models for a more seamless payments process.
Financial data platform?MX?announced its data access partnership with?UW Credit Union?to implement Open Banking APIs in giving people greater access and control of their financial data.?Ebitly?was also in the news for choosing to integrate Open Banking into their account platform by joining forces with freemium Open Banking platform?Norgiden. Additionally,?NCR Corporation?purchased FinTech intellectual property for Open Banking from Canada-based?Spoke Technologies?to accelerate NCR’s move into open and international digital banking.
Southeast Asia’s largest open finance platform?Ayoconnect?and?Bank Rakyat Indonesia?signed a memorandum of understanding that extends their existing collaboration on a new direct debit capability that allows BRI’s merchant partners to directly deduct payments from their customers’ bank accounts.?next, from Bradesco, bought payment technology company?Aarin, a startup that is focused on promoting invisible banking experiences.?Visa?also completed its acquisition of Open Banking platform?Tink?to enable clients to deliver substantial benefits for consumers for better control of their financial experiences.
On the regulatory front, FinTech company?Malaa Technologies?obtained a permit from the Saudi Central bank to engage in Open Banking activities in the Kingdom, while also concluding its integration efforts with the Arab National Bank’s systems to become the first lender whose customers can link their bank accounts directly through open banking.?The Open Banking Implementation Entity?supported UK's?Financial Conduct Authority’s?recent decision to extend the deadline for ending the Open Banking 90-day authentication rule change. Open Banking platform?Bud?also hit the headlines for becoming an Accredited Data Recipient under the CDR in a bid to support global customers and Australian businesses.?
At the same time, the?National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, published an internal report explaining what Open Banking is and highlighting the importance of cybersecurity and privacy safeguards in the consumers financial data sharing ecosystem. On the other hand,?NatWest?made the news for its prep to live roll out variable recurring payments with its Open Banking payments product Payit.
The?Digital Finance?vertical was influx with a variety of new digital players making their official debuts in the space.
New SME banking player?Pillar, designed to make it easy for small business owners to stay on top of their expenses and improve their business’ overall financial management, was in the news for its plans to launch in Canada.?Bueno, a property centric platform and brand of the Bueno Group AS also launched as one of the first B2C FinTech challengers in Spain, with full support for local direct debits. Italy also witnessed the launch of?Tot, a startup that focuses on self-employed professionals and micro-enterprises by providing them digital banking tools. Additionally, Hong Kong’s?Mox?grabbed headlines for its ‘Instant Clear’ Credit Card Balance Transfer Plan that will provide customers a smarter way to clear their credit card bills.?
When it comes to partnerships,?Marqeta?announced a new partnership with?Citi Commercial Cards?to facilitate the provisioning of cards into mobile wallets to enable users to pay seamlessly and securely on the go.?Fyorin?selected payment technology provider?Tribe Payments?for digital banking and card issuing services to enable its business clients to send and receive money across borders using multiple payment methods and create Mastercard virtual cards instantly for online spending. Not only that, but?Credit Libanais, Codebase?and?Visa?also teamed up to develop a frictionless, eKYC omni-channel onboarding experience for customers looking to acquire virtual prepaid cards.?PPRO, the leading provider of digital payments infrastructure, further announced the acquisition of?Alpha Fintech, a next-gen payments technology company to expand its offerings, strengthen its presence and networks in Asia Pacific (APAC), and allow it to deliver products and services faster to its customers. Gojek-backed?Bank Jago’s first profitable year milestone, with an earning of around $6M, too made for a noteworthy event in the Digital Finance sector.?
Moreover, many notable funding rounds made for a key highlight in the happenings for the digital industry for the week.
Nigerian digital bank?Yep!?also made it to the list with its $1.5M pre-seed funding for its plans to leverage the E-Settlement’s network and convert the underbanked customers online.
A plethora of partnerships and funding rounds marked for most of the activities in the?Embedded Finance?vertical last week.?
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Many platforms are gearing up to build a formidable financial services portfolio, and partnerships account for one way towards achieving the same. Leading global embedded finance experience platform?Railsbank?became the BIN sponsor for the?Sodexo Engage?Spree Card programme, aimed at providing a smooth and secure end-to-end payment process to all cardholders.?Verisk?announced an agreement with?Ford, giving the former the license to supply connected car data to insurers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.?Revolut?also made the news for expanding on-demand salary service with IRIS partnership in the UK.?
Furthermore,?Bharti Airtel?and?Axis Bank?forged a telco-bank partnership that will see the introduction of a co-branded credit card, instant loans and BNPL offerings for Bharti Airtel, while Axis Bank will leverage Airtel’s suite of digital and cybersecurity services.?Visa’s?collaboration with Dubai-based?Multi Level Group?to promote contactless digital solutions in North Africa, and?Clip’s?alliance with Chilean startup?AgendaPro?to encourage use of payment terminals in SMEs also account for the eventful collaborations in the embedded landscape.?
What’s more –?Absa?in partnership with WIZZIT Digital launched its mobile payment acceptance solution Absa Mobile Pay to offer SMEs a cost-effective solution to facilitate contactless payments.?Square?was also in the news for introducing two new products by the names of Square Marketing and Square Loyalty in Ireland, to help businesses grow their sales and engage their customers with just a few clicks.
The?DeFi and Crypto?segment was witness to quite a stir of activities on the dynamics of partnerships, funding rounds and product launches.
One of the world’s leading crypto companies?FTX,?along with its US regulated affiliate FTX US, teamed up with?Stripe?to build a seamless onboarding and identity verification flow for users joining the exchange, and to power payments for users adding funds to their FTX account.?Stripe?also made it to the bulletin for launching its global payment solutions for the web 3, with features such as fiat payment APIs, crypto exchanges and on ramps, as well as crypto wallets and NFT marketplaces.?
Centre?– the consortium founded by Circle Internet Financial and Coinbase – teamed up with crypto exchange?FTX?and decentralized liquidity network?Alkemi Network?for its recently launched set of decentralized identity protocols, Verite. The collaboration is aimed at promoting broader adoption of crypto payments, decentralized finance, and access to the wider ecosystem.?Yield Guild Games, a blockchain-focused gaming startup based in the Philippines, signed a memorandum of association with?UnionDigital, the digibank unit of Union Group, with the deal aimed towards making financial products and services accessible to the play-to-earn and web 3 communities in the country.?
The space also garnered attention from a diverse range of players who are keen to incorporate and expand their portfolios to leverage from the novel notion of digitized transactions.?Pandora Digital?announced the launch of its DeFi platform in a bid to overcome the limitations of conventional DEXs. World’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider?Binance?announced the launch of Bifinity as its official fiat-to-crypto payments provider.?Bifinity?is a payments technology company that allows businesses and merchants to use Bifinity’s intuitive APIs to get their business crypto-ready and start accepting crypto payments and enables consumers to have access to more user-friendly buy-sell crypto services and entry points.?
Santander?also announced its partnership with?Agrotoken?in a bid to develop token-secured loans for Argentine farmers – with a pilot having already been carried out with local producers that enables them to access finance against agricultural products.?DeFi Yield Protocol?unveiled plans for a complete rebranding process including a new logo, website, Dapps for users to give DYP a new face, as well as their intentions to launch new smart contracts for yield farming, staking, borrowing, and lending to allow the community to benefit from high rewards and maximize their profits. Apart from integrating new exciting products, the DeFi Yield Protocol team is also designing a metaverse platform that features the ‘Cats and Watches Society’ NFTs collection as one of the main characters.
The funding front was bustling with activities as?Bain Capital Ventures, one of the world’s biggest startup-investment firms announced the launch of a $560M fund focused exclusively on crypto-related efforts. Singapore-based?Cake DeFi, a FinTech platform that provides decentralized finance services and applications, launched Cake DeFi Ventures, a new $100M venture capital arm, to invest in startups operating in the web 3, gaming, and FinTech industries – with a special focus on those offering metaverse, NFT, blockchain, and esports offerings. While?Nested Finance, a DeFi platform, raised a $7.5M series A funding round led by billionaire Alan Howard,?Thetanuts Finance?secured $18M seed funding with participation from Three Arrows Capital, Deribit, QCP Capital and Jump Crypto.?Cega, a newly established protocol, announced the closing of a $4.3M seed round at $60M valuation, with an aim to build exotic DeFi derivatives.
Crypto curious and want to know more about the buzz surrounding the Cryptosphere? ?? Well, then you definitely need to get yourself a weekly cuppa of the Future of Crypto newsletter!
The?Platform Finance?space was abuzz with activities with a number of firms celebrating the achievement of their respective company milestones.
Investment super app?moomoo?marked one year since its entry into the Singapore market by becoming the only one-stop investing platform to break through the top five most downloaded apps in the finance category, both in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in 2021. Similarly, Nedbank’s super app?Avo?surpassed 1 million users, doubling its customer base in the last 4 months, with a staggering 50% of that being achieved in the last 4 weeks. On 6th March, Africa’s first mobile payments service?M-Pesa?celebrated its 15th birthday. It launched in 2007 via Vodafone and Kenya's leading mobile operator Safaricom – when they initially used to offer limited money transfer facilities on 2G ‘feature phones’.
Southeast Asian firm Capital A’s?airasia?super app inked a memorandum of understanding with?CGS-CIMB Securities?in a bid to introduce stock trading as a new feature via ProsperUs – CGS-CIMB Securities’ digital investment platform.?Sandbox Banking, a BaaS infrastructure company, and?Upstart, an artificial intelligence lending platform, announced a partnership to facilitate Upstart’s bank and credit union partners to more efficiently integrate Upstart loan and borrower data into their core and customer relationship management systems.?
Car ownership super app?Jerry?launched an auto refinancing service that limits the data gathering and loan application process to under 10 minutes by leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning. Southeast Asia’s first SME super app?Enstack?launched in the Philippines, with the beta version of the app having already helped over 10,000 merchants by providing them with all the tools to run their small business directly from their mobile phones.
On the fundings front, savings and investing app?Acorns?raised $300M in a Series F funding round that values the company at nearly $2B so as to explore more acquisitions and to fund growth and innovation.
A plethora of activities across various fronts made for the majority of the headlines for the?Green Finance?space.
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