A London-based FinTech launches Google Pay in Brazil
Good morning!
Yesterday, a quite surprising article caught my attention. A London-based FinTech called Lanistar sent out a press release stating that they launched Google Pay in Brazil.
Jeremy Baber, CEO at Lanistar, stated, "This is a major milestone for Lanistar and its customers, many of whom appreciate the convenience of using Google Pay to make everyday purchases. With speedy and highly secure contactless transactions now fully available to Lanistar users in Brazil, our customers can make the most of our services with minimal stress, which ties in perfectly with Lanistar's goals and priorities for its users."
I didn’t know that Lanistar’s controversial founder Gurhan Kiziloz was replaced as the CEO by Jeremy Baber. And I don’t think many people were aware that Lanistar launched, and has customers in Latin America.
This isn’t the first time Lanistar surprised me, and I’m pretty sure it won't be the last time either.
I don’t think many people will ever forget when Lanistar hit the news for the first time, announcing their seed round: with a bold statement: “Lanistar launches with aim to become ￡1bn banking alternative’ fintech company”
Just months after raising its initial ￡2m seed round, the FinTech raised a ￡15m funding round, only for the money to be withdrawn by sole investor Milaya Capital, with Kizlioz then claiming that his family and friends would foot the ￡15m funding round bill.
And on 19 May 2021, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) published a ruling stating that Lanistar’s claims that it had “the world’s most secure payment card” were misleading.
Never a dull moment at Lanistar, that’s for sure. And I’ll follow them with a lot of interest on their journey!
Now before I wish you a great day, I first would like to share with you some interesting news updates from the FinTech industry:
NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Revolut launches credit cards for existing customers in Ireland. The company says the approval process will be immediate for those who are eligible and that the Revolut app will give users the option to set a budget for credit spending.
How Asian banks are rethinking the payments game. Specialist players are disrupting payments and challenging banks to find a new playbook. Read the full FinTech report by McKinsey here
INSIGHTS
Top 10 fintech apps in Nigeria by number of downloads - January 2023. Customers now have many choices from the array of companies offering innovative financial services via mobile apps. Link here
Weekly FinTech Deal activity. Check out last week's FinTech Deal activity overview by FT Partners with weekly deal count plus annual volume & transaction count and more.
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FINTECH NEWS
Chipper Cash executes second round of layoffs. Chipper Cash conducted a second round of layoffs just ten weeks after it cut approximately 12.5% of its workforce.
MAS Grants in-principle approval to Tazapay. This will enable Tazapay to offer account issuance, merchant acquisition, cross border money transfer, domestic money transfer and e-money issuance services.
领英推荐
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
Digital bank Up now has 613,000 customers and $1.3 billion in deposits at the end of the half. Up Home - their mortgage product has settled $38 million in home loans. Read the full press release.
Siam Commercial Bank plans to be a fully digital bank. It unveiled plans to become a fully digital bank in wealth management through its “Digital Bank with Human Touch” vision.
Icelandic neobank indó selects Lucinity for modern financial crime prevention. indó will use Lucinity's Transaction Monitoring to provide its compliance team with behavior-based risk screening and explainable artificial intelligence. Transaction Monitoring also enables AML teams to receive a manageable caseload and enjoyable user experience.?
BLOCKCHAIN
Robinhood sees rebounding trading volumes across equities, options and crypto. The online trading app has unveiled its January operating data, showing a rebound in trading volumes. It was welcome news for investors after Robinhood’s Q4 revenue from options, cryptocurrencies and equities all went in the same direction — down.
Binance considers pulling back from US partners. The company is weighing the retreat after its relationships with a key banking partner and stablecoin issuer ran into trouble amid intense scrutiny from authorities.
London-based crypto startup Klink Finance gains EU licence. Klink is building a Prize Linked Wallet, that offers cryptocurrency investors the opportunity to store their funds and earn regular rewards on top of their holdings.
FinTech Meetup?in Vegas is just around the corner and I will start and close it with a bang. Join me and let's do this together! ??Sign up here!
PARTNERSHIPS
MoneyLion partners with Column Tax. With this partnership, eligible MoneyLion users have access to a simplified tax filing process that saves them time and cost.?
Fintellect and Nordigen go to bat for small businesses. Through Nordigen's APIs, businesses can use open banking to connect their bank accounts to the Fintellect app. This will allow them to see their bank balance and expenditure in real-time.
Pliant raises $28 million in Series A funding round. The Series A round was led by Japanese FinTech investor SBI Investment and the Series B round of British business banking FinTech Tide.
Puzzle raises $15M in Series A funding. The provider of an accounting platform for startups intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.
Looking to work with me in any of the following areas?
Cheers,
Marcel van Oost
Consultor independente na WP8 Group
1 年Me chamo José Fernando Marques Weege. Sou cliente da Binance há muitos anos. Venho aqui externar meu profundo descontentamento e insatisfa??o com o atendimento da Binance. S?o inúmeras?falhas de sistema, prazos n?o cumpridos e extrema burocracia. Mesmo tendo o Sr. Benjamin C como nosso gerente de contas, muito pouco foi feito. Esse horrível atendimento n?o?faz sentido pela grandeza da Binance. Agrade?o a quem puder me ajudar.