Ep. 15 - Addi extends Series B, UK Government crypto bill, MasterCard acquires Recorded Future, Payments People Top 50, BotN, PotN & more..

As we exit the summer holiday slumber for commercial activity in the world of payments and fintech and throw ourselves into the madness that normally comes from September through to November close (the real commercial Q4 in my opinion), prior to development freezes and Christmas party season, I sympathise with all the salespeople out there going from a quiet(ish) quarter straight into what could be the make-or-break quarter for their entire calendar year.

I wish you all the best of luck for the busy months ahead and remember that those Christmas dinners always taste better when you’ve closed out Q4 in style.

Anyway, let’s get into episode 15..

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Shift4 has lift off as Isaacman leaves planet Earth..

How can I not open with this news story, given it had a payments company in the spotlight with the entire planet yesterday.

That’s right, Shift4 founder Jared Isaacman was the most googled human both on and off planet Earth at the same time yesterday, after becoming the first civilian to spacewalk courtesy of his voyage with SpaceX.

You therefore can’t blame the marketing team at Shift4 for making the very most of this extraordinarily unique PR opportunity, as they shared the live video of the spacewalk on their social channels, including LinkedIn, which you can find here:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/shift4_boldlyforward-activity-7240003836336111617-_pkz?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

OpenAI seeking $5b raise at $150b (￡115m) valuation

Yes you read that correctly, a $150b (￡115m) valuation, eye watering numbers indeed.

That is closing in on double the $86b (￡65b) valuation the company had in late 2023 when employees sold shares.

I am an advocate for AI and I do think it will improve a lot over time, but the gargantuan valuations that are being banded around for such a new technology do feel like they may end up burning a few investors in the short-medium term. Long-term, I suspect they are backing winners in the most part, but how long that 'term' will be is very much an unknown still.

I suspect that OpenAI will likely get close to what they are seeking here, given the AI buzz is still fairly strong, but I'd appreciate if they could fine tune their image generator first (everything looks like it has been melted for some reason, I'm sure there is a parody account of these that can be located somewhere for your amusement).

You can read more on this story via the Independent article below:

https://www.independent.co.uk/business/openai-in-talks-to-raise-funds-at-ps115bn-valuation-reports-b2611493.html

Get your votes in for The Payments Association ‘Global Top 50 Payments People’ shortlist

The Payments Association has launched a new campaign to identify the ‘Global Top 50 Payments People’.

‘The Payments Association is on a mission to recognise the top 50 payments people worldwide who are driving innovation, shaping the future, and setting new standards in our industry.’

It feels like it has been some time since the Payments Industry had a shortlist like this put together, so it is fantastic to see the Payments Association taking the initiative here and I’m looking forward to seeing the shortlist gradually revealed by them over the coming months.

You can nominate your Top 50 via the link below. I’ve already started to compile the names of my nominees, but who will your votes be going to..

https://thepaymentsassociation.org/global-top-50-payments-people/

MasterCard splashes the cash on Recorded Future

MasterCard has announced the acquisition of threat intelligence specialist Recorded Future for a hefty $2.65b.

Money spent on solutions that help to eliminate fraud is always money well spent in my opinion, but that is an awful lot of money, so what exactly is MasterCard getting for it?

Well, the Recorded Future website elevator pitch reads:

'With more than 1,700 clients across 75 countries, including the governments of 30 countries, over 50% of the Fortune 100 and 40% of the Forbes Global 100, and the largest holdings of interlinked threat data sets, Recorded Future is the world’s largest intelligence company.'

Fair enough..

You can read more on the acquisition via the Finextra article below:

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/44722/mastercard-agrees-265bn-deal-to-buy-threat-intelligence-giant-recorded-future

UK Government sures up crypto ownership position with new bill

The new labour government in the UK will be introducing a bill that ensures digital assets including crypto, NFTs and carbon credits can be considered property under UK law.

Bad news for anyone hoping their digital assets would always remain in the realms of 'it's a grey area' and hopefully good news in the ever present fight against fraud.

More information on the new bill can be found on the UK Government website here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-bill-introduced-in-parliament-to-clarify-cryptos-legal-status

Addi extends Series B round with $75m top-up in push to advance BNPL in LATAM

Colombia and Brazil dual-headquartered BNPL start-up Addi has just closed a $75m Series B extension round (total round size now standing at $140m) as it looks to become the market leader for BNPL in Latam.

After more than doubling headcount from 120 to 260 employees over the past twelve months and boasting over 150,000 customers, the company plans to redefine access to credit in the Latam market.

You can read a great write up on Addi and this news on TechCrunch here:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/08/addi-raises-75m-to-advance-buy-now-pay-later-in-latam-nearly-triples-valuation/

Podcast of the Newsletter

This weeks PotN is going to the a16z Podcast.

Lot’s of the a16z podcasts are great, but the particular episode I'm calling out for you is one from August titled ‘Latin America: A Tech Powerhouse?’.

It is a market that is growing at a rapid rate in FinTech and one that also challenges the status quo from a payments perspective. There is also a nice tie-up with the Addi news highlighted above, as their Co-founder and CEO Santiago Suarez just so happens to be a guest on this episode. I hope you enjoy listening to this one!

The episode is linked via Spotify here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/64Rx3T1cT7qRBT3bfYj0w2?si=JUP3lk2sR_SwPWxoPmtAmg

Book of the Newsletter

BotN this week is one that kept on popping up with recommendations on my LinkedIn feed for several months until I finally took the plunge and purchased a copy.

The book in question is ‘Growth Levers and How to Find Them’, by Matt Lerner.

Bio: In this book you’ll get a process to find your big growth levers:

• Map your growth model to find points of leverage where you can focus for the greatest impact
• Uncover your customers' unconscious biases and triggers
• Find your prospects at their moment of highest need
• Discover the exact words to explain your value clearly to customers
• Run experiments and use data to find the most impactful work
• Run growth sprints to push the pace and quality of learning and execution
• Shift the team from perfectionism to a scrappy bold mindset

Here is the Amazon link in case this one tickles your fancy:

https://amzn.eu/d/h5qxjx2

There is one second hand copy currently on World of Books for the fastest finger as well!:

https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/matt-lerner/growth-levers-and-how-to-find-them/9781738426225

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Thank you for reading The Payments Shed.

Sources: SpaceX | Sky News | Shift4 | TechCrunch | Gov UK | Business Today | The Payments Association | Finextra | Recorded Future | The Independent | The a16z Podcast | Spotify | Amazon |