A lot of digital banking news today
Good morning,
A lot of digital banking news today!
I shared a few updates about Revolut’s financial report in the last few days, including the exclusive statement from Revolut on a FT article where auditors warn 2021 revenues ‘may be materially misstated’.
When contacted by The Times about the statement in my newsletter on Friday, Revolut said it stood by the comments, which have put BDO in a difficult position according to FT in their latest article on the topic.
Around the time that Revolut presented their financial report, claiming profitability, one of their US investors, Triplepoint Venture Growth , cut its internal valuation of its Revolut shares by 15pc .
The markdown implies a valuation of $28bn, down from $33bn the company was valued at in the summer of 2021.
Other high-profile fintech start-ups including Checkout and Klarna have dramatically cut their valuations in recent months amid a downturn in public technology shares and higher interest rates.
Revolut has given no indication that it has reduced its own valuation, and unlike rivals that have cut their value, has not been forced to make job cuts or raised new funds to subsidise losses.
A Revolut spokesman said:
“We do not engage in speculation on our valuation. Since our last funding round, in which we were valued at $33bn, Revolut’s business has continued to perform strongly in all markets across the globe, as well as reporting our first full year of profitability.”
Also from London: Directors at Railsr are close to selling the company through a pre-pack administration, a form of bankruptcy that involves lining up a buyer beforehand, according to people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile in Brazil, we have big news again from (who else ??) Nubank : Nubank began releasing its Nucoin token, developed on Polygon, to customers in Brazil. The coin will function as a rewards mechanism for Nubank’s 70 million customers.
A new whitepaper released by Nubank states:
“Nucoin (NCN) is a utility crypto asset that allows customers to be rewarded for using and engaging with their favorite brands within a loyalty network”
More details in Nucoin can be found in a great article by Aaron Stanley .
And last but not least; I if you are just as crazy as me on FinTech I'd like to share with you this interesting Webinar by Vacuumlabs that I highly recommend attending:
Believe it or not, there is more FinTech news?? Let’s get to it:
BREAKING NEWS
Eco execs: Offering 5% APY “sets off alarm bells” and “sounds like A scam” While the 2.5-5% interest rate (later referred to as “rewards APY”) Eco promises users in return for depositing their paycheck or parking their savings in USDC.
NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Mercedes-Benz Mobility turns the car into a payment device. Mercedes-Benz is the world’s first car manufacturer using Visa’s Delegated Authentication and Visa Cloud Token Framework technology. Since March, Mercedes-Benz customers in Germany are able to authenticate payments via an in-car fingerprint sensor.
The Innovation Playbook by Whitesight , is a visual guidebook designed to transport readers on a journey through time and technology.
INSIGHTS
The gender investment gap is starting to narrow, Nutmeg reports. Though men still make up the majority of investors. Women currently make up 43 percent of Nutmeg’s 200,000 clients, up from just 33 per cent in 2017 and 24 per cent in 2013.
Ranked: Crypto popularity across European Union nations. This graphic looks at crypto popularity amongst investors in the EU using data from the European Commission’s Eurobarometer.??
FINTECH NEWS
Flutterwave denies claims hackers stole N2.9bn from its platform. The Unicorn company, nevertheless, confirmed that it identified an unusual trend of transactions on some users' profiles during a routine check of its transaction monitoring system.?
Belvo launches open finance payments solution. After receiving authorization from the Central Bank, Belvo has launched its open finance payments solution that helps companies accept Pix payments with a better UX.
领英推荐
PayShap — South Africa’s new payment system that will work over WhatsApp. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) will soon launch the new payment service to accelerate the country’s shift to a cashless society. The rapid payment programme (RPP) is an instant payment service allowing customers to transact without a bank account number.
AsiaPay launches Visa Instalments in Hong Kong and will further extend to Southeast Asia to provide merchants more flexible payment options and enhance the purchase experience.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
Varo bank raising $50 million at 28% discount. The neobank with a national bank charter, is looking to raise $50 million in capital at a 28% discount on its last valuation. The bank was last valued at $2.5 billion in September 2021 after raising $510 million in Series E financing.
Starling Bank creates new jobs and unveils new Manchester office. It is moving up north and intends to create 1,000 new jobs for the region . The digital bank’s new home at Barrings’ Landmark adds to its existing offices in London, Cardiff, Southampton and Dublin.
BLOCKCHAIN
Crypto exchange Bitso and Mastercard launch debit card in Mexico. The exchange launched a progressive rollout for over 100,000 users who had requested the card in Mexico after enabling the card in November for a group of customers to get feedback.
Binance execs' texts, documents show plan to avoid US scrutiny. One of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, developed a plan to avoid the threat of prosecution by U.S. authorities as it started an American entity in 2019.
Bybit launches debit card; suspends US dollar deposits. Crypto Exchange Bybit has begun the roll out of Mastercard debit cards, enabling users to convert their crypto into fiat at the point of sale and ATMs.
Silvergate closes SEN Platform institutions. The bank, which warned this week about its ability to remain in business, discontinued its SEN platform that institutions used to move money to crypto exchanges.
UK Crypto crackdown: Which British banks allow you to buy Bitcoin? In the past week, two of the country’s biggest banks cracked down by applying daily limits for buyers or restricting credit cards from making crypto purchases.
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
Discount Bank and Ezbob set up FinTech co Greenlend. According to the joint announcement , the new company will offer flexible and immediate solutions in the consumer credit sector as well as credit for small businesses.?
E& money and Mastercard enter into a one-of-a-kind partnership to transform and evolve the way customers make payments via an exclusive prepaid card - enabling payments anywhere in the world and offering the flexibility and convenience of using virtual and physical cards.
Smart lending FinTech Abound raises ￡500 million. The UK-based FinTech uses a combination of open banking and artificial intelligence to offer better loan deals to consumers. This latest investment brings the total raised to date by Abound up to ￡570m.
N2F lands €24 million to expand its expense management platform. The French startup aims to help companies of all sizes reduce the time and cost of processing expenses . The funding was led by PSG Equity .
Brazilian B2B payments platform Barte raises $3m. The round, which comes six months after a pre-seed , was led by NXTP and Force Over Mass , with participation from existing investor VentureFriends .
British Fintech SteadyPay closes $3 million Seed round. SteadyPay is a UK-based progressive lending platform for people with unstable incomes . The AI-based solution analyzes open user data to predict their creditworthiness.
Looking to work with me in any of the following areas?
Cheers,
Marcel van Oost
Cyber, Information Security
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