Investor cuts Revolut valuation with 40% writedown
Happy Friday fellow FinTech Fanatic,
Tech-focused investment firm Molten Ventures has written down its stake in Revolut by 40% in the latest blow for the British FinTech company.
The writedown would imply a valuation of around $19.8bn if using Revolut’s last publicly shared valuation of $33bn, achieved in 2021 when it raised $800m.
However, Molten’s 40% writedown is based on its own undisclosed internal valuation of Revolut in March 2022 and March 2023.
Molten Ventures – which owns less than 5% of Revolut – valued its stake at ￡91.3m in March 2022.
Another London-based FinTech, Zepz, is on the hunt for mergers and acquisitions after cutting 26% of its workforce last month, the company’s CEO told CNBC.
Zepz, the owner of money transfer firms WorldRemit and Sendwave, enables users to send money from a smartphone or computer to people abroad, who can receive it in their bank account, mobile wallet, or as a mobile airtime top-up.
That makes the service a challenger to large banks and established money transfer services like Western Union and Wise.
With a $5 billion valuation, Zepz is one of the largest FinTech companies in Europe.
Now Marc Lenhard, Zepz’s CEO, told CNBC the firm wanted to grow its portfolio of businesses in an effort to own a larger part of the global digital payments pie.
Lenhard didn’t identify which companies Zepz was looking to buy, but a particular focus for Zepz product-wise in the near term is digital wallets, Lenhard said, with the company planning to launch its first digital wallet “imminently.”
As AI has become the buzzword of 2023 so far, banks and financial institutions are keenly aware that they must keep up to date.
In fact, AI-related hires currently account for over 30 per cent of the open job ads at some of the largest European banks like ING Groep, Barclays and NatWest, according to the AI Talent Report for Banks by Evident.
But while banks are racing to hire and invest in artificial intelligence, the EU yesterday voted to pass its AI Act which could limit the technology.
I wonder which impact this will have on the current talent war raging between the world’s largest banks. What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below??
Have a nice weekend ahead and please onwards to the other FinTech news:
“FinTech in MENAP: A solid? foundation for growth.” This report by McKinsey & Company outlines various challenges that businesses and governments must tackle to sustain fintech growth in the region. Check out the full report here
INSIGHTS
High customer costs a drawback for Hong Kong’s digital banks profitability. A report by Quinlan & Associates reveals that despite potential, all eight digital banks in Hong Kong are yet to turn a profit since 2020, but they are working on leveraging advantages to reverse the situation.
The embedded finance opportunity in Asia. Embedded finance, the provision of financial services through non-financial platforms or apps, is rapidly transforming Asia's financial ecosystem. Read all about it here
Banks continue to partner with FinTechs this year, with the aim of expanding their payment offerings in an increasingly competitive space. Here are the key partnerships in Q2 by FXC Intelligence
PODCAST
In a new episode of FinTech Leaders, Miguel Armaza sits down with Trisha Kothari, CEO/Co-Founder of Unit21, a company that has raised ~$100 million to be at the forefront of the fight against financial crimes. Listen to the full podcast episode here
FINTECH NEWS
Thunes opens Beijing office to accelerate China expansion and global cross-border payment evolution. This strategic move signifies Thunes’ commitment to empowering Chinese businesses and consumers by providing faster and more affordable transactions with key international markets. Read more
Tide to help 200,000 women launch new businesses by 2027. Though there are more female founders than ever, still just 5.6 per cent of women in the UK run their own businesses — compared to11 per cent in the US and 15 per cent in Canada.?
Visa launches African FinTech startup accelerator programme. The Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator will see up to 40 start-ups each year go through a three-month intensive learning programme focused on business growth and mentoring.
Bitpanda offers to shift customer deposits to money market funds. The FinTech has launched Bitpanda Cash Plus, a new feature that offers investors industry leading yields on their cash deposits. Read more
Douugh launches Pay Now or Pay Later Stockback rewards Mastercard. Douugh's new spending and rewards card aims to offer customers a unique value proposition by combining banking and investing services, challenging traditional financial providers in the market.
领英推荐
Zilch opens new technology hub in Poland. By establishing a European Centre for Excellence, this strategic initiative aims to create a dedicated facility that will accelerate the development and implementation of innovative features and technologies.
Payments Canada further delays launch of real-time payment system. “Current delivery delays, unrelated to the exchange technology components, are impacting the launch date of the RTR,” Payments Canada says in a statement. Read more
Paysign completes an issuer certification and connects with Mastercard. This connection is Paysign’s strategy to expand its current payment experiences for its cardholders and clients. What is more, the integration with Mastercard will also bring about additional advantages for Paysign.
Bukalapak plunges deeper into FinTech. The company has a strategic advantage in capitalizing on fintech opportunities due to its core e-commerce offering and the country's large unbanked but digitally advanced population.
Freetrade slashes valuation by 65%. The move reduces Freetrade's valuation from a high of ￡650 million to ￡225 million. Link here
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
Opn launches card issuing in Thailand, expands its BaaS offering and complements Acquiring-as-a-service. The launch enables customers to easily launch, manage, and scale their own branded card programmes, as well as generate new revenue streams.?
BLOCKCHAIN
The Bank of Thailand launches a retail CBDC pilot. Initially, the bank planned to launch the project by the end of 2022 but faced several delays. It’s also worth mentioning that Thailand has no plans to actually launch a CDBC, which is why this pilot has more to do with learning and experimenting.
Crypto investing platform Finblox starts offering tokenized Treasury Yield with OpenEden. Finblox has joined the ranks of companies letting investors earn a return from tokenized U.S. Treasury bills (T-bills) on their stablecoin holdings as it looks to become a “crypto superapp,” providing a wide range of financial services.
Bitstamp secures registration as a cryptoasset service provider by FCA. With the addition of this license, the Bitstamp group now holds 52 global licenses and registrations, solidifying its position as one of the most secure and compliant players in the global market.
M&As
Backbase acquires digital wealth platform Nucoro. Through this acquisition, Backbase will incorporate Nucoro's headless platform capabilities directly into the Backbase Engagement Banking platform, enabling its customers to launch digital end-to-end investment offerings.
PARTNERSHIPS
SEPAexpress partners with Volt to add further open banking payments to its product portfolio alongside its already established Direct Debit offering. The company is now able to offer one-off account-to-account payments, like Request to Pay, to its Payment Service Provider (PSP), corporate and merchant customers across Europe – with Volt’s real-time payments infrastructure connected to 1,800+ banks on the continent.
Mastercard is partnering with Bankiom, a UAE-based lifestyle banking app, to introduce digital payment cards across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. This partnership marks a significant stride in Mastercard's ongoing commitment to advancing digitalization in the payments landscape throughout the region.
SSP partners with Tink. SSP will use Tink’s Payments technology to power its new Pay by Bank option in multiple Eurozone countries including France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Read more
Volt becomes an approved Shopify open banking partner. From now on, merchants across Europe, the UK and Brazil that have integrated Shopify can offer Volt’s ‘Pay by Bank’ solution at checkout, enabling their customers to initiate real-time account-to-account payments – with funds settling near instantly.
Canadian wealth-as-a-service provider OneVest raises C$17m. The investment will be used to expand OneVest’s Toronto and Calgary teams, across sales, business ops, product and engineering, plus support OneVest’s expansion into the US.
Trezy bags €3M for platform to help SMEs manage cash flows. The FinTech says it will use the investment to support the growth of its customer base, expand its product offering to include features such as generative AI-enabled automation, and grow its teams in the Netherlands, France, and the UK.
QED Investors’ $1B capital boost offers hope for LatAm FinTech. This news instills renewed optimism in a startup landscape that has faced limited capital availability. Despite a sudden shift last year that hindered funding prospects in Latin America's fintech sector, there is hope for a revival.
Kanastra closes $13m Seed investment. This round will enable the firm to pursue its? strategy of consolidating the necessary services for operating private credit funds and securitizations on a single tech platform.?
Paro lands $25m Series C funding. With the new funding, Paro plans to accelerate its growth with existing clients, bringing its platform to more businesses seeking its services as well as scale its product development.
Looking to work with me in any of the following areas?
Cheers,
Marcel van Oost
Founder & CEO at Sympl
1 年Thanks for the effort ?? always rely on getting fresh updates from your timeline ?? keep it going Marcel ??????
Head of Cash Management Sales Bureau - Structured Transactions
1 年My God, Revolut again! I am suffering of a heavy ??????overdose! ??