Ep. 18 - FTX repayments green light, Zepz raises $267m, Cashflows Click2pay, Finch Capital State of Fintech Report, CEO spotlight, PotN, BotN & more..
Grant Evans
Partnerships Leader @ NomuPay | LinkedIn Top Voice | Writer of The Payments Shed ??
It has been an interesting week as ever in the worlds of Payments and Fintech, with several players announcing sizeable raises and series top-ups, the FTX saga finally having some light at the end of the tunnel and the UK rolling out new fraud compensation caps for Banks, albeit with better overall consumer compensation protection rules.
Let's dive into it..
FTX bankruptcy plan approved by US judge
The failure of FTX was undoubtedly the biggest scandal in the history of crypto. It damaged a sector that already has a large amount of critics and cynics, and left thousands of customers significantly out of pocket.
So in some positive news after two years in limbo, it was announced on Monday that creditors are in line to receive up to $16.5b ($12.6b) after a US Judge approved a reorganisation plan proposed by the company.
Some customers remain unsatisfied with this verdict given the near 4x uplift in the value of Bitcoin since the business went bankrupt with their funds still in the exchange. However, it has to be seen as an overall positive in my eyes that they will at least be compensated to the tune of their original holding value when all seemed completely lost not so long ago.
You can read more on this story via BBC News here:
UK Banks can delay payments by 72 hours to investigate potential fraud under new legislation
UK banks will be given new powers by the UK Treasury to delay payments by up to 72 hours to investigate suspected fraud or scams under new legislation.
In a move that will likely frustrate a lot of customers when payments get delayed unnecessarily, there has been quite a mixed response to this announcement.
I'm all for advanced fraud checks, but surely we can implement a system that allows for a faster resolution time.
Finextra has a great write up on this one here:
New UK bank transfer fraud refund scheme to cap claims at ￡85,000
After what has felt like a considerably long wait and very much linked to the story above, the UK has finally rolled out a new bank transfer fraud refund programme this week.
The new scheme is certainly not without its critics and Business Live has a fantastic warts and all write-up on this story here:
Cashflows launches MasterCard Click to Pay for UK businesses
Cashflows has announced their roll out of the MasterCard Click to Pay service for UK businesses.
The schemes equivalent to a digital wallet to take on Apple Pay and Google Pay essentially (VISA also has an in-house click to pay product in this field), time will tell how successful the schemes can be with their own propositions.
The Paypers has all the detail on this announcement here:
TrueLayer raises $50m in Series E extension
This announcement seemed to get tongues wagging this week, when paired alongside rising losses of $55m, with many raising questions about the longevity of pure play open banking providers in the market.
I would suggest that the same questions would not have been asked of other alternative payment method/product brands in similar positions not so long ago, but that Open Banking remains a divisive offering to many in the world of financial services.
TrueLayer has been an incredible advocate for the benefits of open banking and this latest raise shows that investors are still confident in what is still a relatively new product in such a well established market.
AISP and PISP are also very different propositions and the automatic assumption that Open Banking simply means Pay by Bank as an alternative payment method is not factoring in the more wide raging benefits of Open Banking outside of pure account to account transaction functionality.
Fintech Futures has a great write up on this latest funding round here:
Zepz raises $267m in Series F
Zepz has raised a whopping $267m to aid the continual growth of its remittance brands WorldRemit and Sendwave.
According to their website, WorldRemit alone services '5.7 million customers, using 70 different currencies, across 130 countries worldwide'.
You can read more on this story via PYMNTS here:
CEO Spotlight: Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola interview with TechCrunch is well worth a read..
I talked about the impressive growth of Flutterwave and their Send App in the US back in Episode 16 and for those who don't know this business yet, you really should take a few minutes to read the new TechCrunch interview with their CEO Olugbenga Agboola.
With ambitions 'to be the Adyen of Africa' and a host of impressive investors already in place, as well as a $3b+ valuation, do not take your eyes off this Unicorn as they continue to scale and navigate towards what seems like an inevitable IPO.
The full article and interview is available here:
The Finch Capital State of EU Fintech 2024 report is here
I couldn't not call out this brilliant report from the team at Finch Capital, and no not because they are invested in us lovely folks at NomuPay, but because it makes for some fantastic reading.
A couple of the key highlights on things I have talked about a lot this year include record profits for Challenger Banks and the AI boom in the world of FinTech.
But there are a whole host of fantastic takeaways and you can download the complete report via the link below:
Podcast of the Newsletter
PotN this week is an episode from 'The Startup Leap' featuring Co-founder and COO of GoHenry, Louise Hill, alongside hosts Yvonne Bajela & Maria Rotilu.
It is a really insightful interview and for the payments and indeed partnerships folks amongst us, it was really interesting and refreshing to hear Louise describe their payments ecosystem suppliers, namely Adyen and FIS in this instance, as partners. Something we should all aspire to in vendor-merchant relationships!
A link to the episode in Spotify is here:
Book of the Newsletter
I've finally gotten round to reading my copy of 'Poor Charlie's Almanack', by the late Charles T Munger, which I managed to get a copy of at the Stripe Tour earlier in the year from their Stripe Press library (thank you again Stripe..) and it hasn't failed to disappoint.
Bio: Originally published in 2005, this compendium of eleven talks delivered by the legendary Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman between 1986 and 2007 has become a touchstone for a generation of investors and entrepreneurs seeking to absorb the enduring wit and wisdom of one of the great minds of the 20th and 21st centuries.
If you didn't get a copy at that event, fear not, WoB has over 40 copies in stock, link below as ever:
You can also check out all of the books inducted by Stripe into their Stripe Press series to date, including what is now one of my all time favourites and a former BotN; Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson, right here:
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Sources: The Payments Shed | OAI | BBC News | Finextra | Fintech Futures | Business Live | The Paypers | WorldRemit | PYMNTS | Tech Crunch | Finch Capital | Spotify | World of Books | Stripe
Disclaimer: All news articles linked in this newsletter are from publicly available sources and any opinions referenced (unless otherwise stated) are my own, and do not represent any views, opinions or statements from the NomuPay group.