The US Weekly Newsletter powered by Marcel van Oost
Marcel van Oost - FinTech News USA
Connecting the dots in FinTech...
REPORT
?? NEWS HIGHLIGHT
The company, backed by private-equity firm EQT EQT 0.47%increase; green up pointing triangle, originally hoped to initiate an IPO late last year but pushed off those plans due to choppy markets. It now expects to launch its roadshow pitch to investors later this month and make its stock-market debut in early June.
?? ARTICLE
?? PODCAST
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S?NEWS
???? NATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
?? Kabbage Inc. Agrees to Resolve Allegations That the Company Defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program.
?? Global Atlantic Sponsorship of FinTech Sandbox to Help Foster Growth, Collaboration and Innovation for Small Businesses.
?? AdvicePay names head of customer success as new president.
?? Do you want to have access to the best deal flow in FinTech? And/or do you want to invest alongside me and 1000+ other FinTech Angel investors?
FINTECH
Financial technology lender Upstart Holdings Inc. has been subpoenaed by Wall Street’s main regulator about disclosures, including its artificial intelligence models and loans, the company said.
Thunes, a global money movement innovator, has joined forces with Pomelo, a pioneering credit-powered remittance company and credit card issuer, to introduce a groundbreaking international money transfer solution from the United States to the Philippines.
Startup neobank Mercury is taking on Brex and Ramp with new bill pay, spend management software. The FinTech, which has been offering banking services to startups and other businesses since 2019.
Investing platform Robinhood added more than $3.4 billion through its automated customer account transfer service in the first quarter, up 100% quarter over quarter. The company is seeing high deposit volume “supported by a young customer base gaining share of global wealth,â€.
Groww joins the first wave of Indian startups moving domiciles back home from US. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which allows consumers to buy shares and mutual funds, made the transition in March, its co-founder and chief executive, Lalit Keshre, wrote in a post on X.?
TabaPay Ends Planned Acquisition of Synapse. A TabaPay spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company had “pulled out†of the deal and had sent “termination notice of the purchase agreement based on failure to meet the purchase agreement closing conditions.â€
American Express and Worldpay have signed a new agreement which makes it even easier for small businesses to welcome loyal and high-spending American Express Cardmembers.
Ampla, a consumer startup-focused FinTech that has loaned money to buzzy food and beverage brands like Carbone Fine Food pasta sauces and MrBeast-backed snack brand Feastables, is trying to find a buyer after failing to raise a fresh equity round, a person who has participated in deal talks said.
领英推è
Max Levchin, CEO of the buy now/pay later lender, said recent tests show young adults prefer interacting with intelligent chatbots over phone-based agents, but the company doesn't foresee major cost savings from generative AI for a few more years.
Why Klarna does not report BNPL payments to US credit bureaus. The credit models used today were built decades ago and calculate data based on monthly payments, long-term loans, and open lines of credit. But BNPL does not fit into these categories.
FinTech Sandbox, a nonprofit that provides early-stage FinTech startups around the world with free access to critical datasets and infrastructure through its Data Access Residency, announced the addition of Global Atlantic Financial Group (Global Atlantic) to its group of sponsors and receipt of a generous grant of $150,000.
SoFi and Templum Partner for Expanded Access to Alternative Assets. Together, SoFi and Templum are bringing best-in-class technology and infrastructure capabilities to facilitate access to one of the fastest growing sectors of investments.
Just months after completing one of the biggest deals of her career, Stephanie Ferris, the CEO of Fidelity National Information Services, has a message for everyone: FIS isn’t done. Ferris and the company she leads is looking to get to back to buying.
Chipper Cash is "fully operational" in the United States after months of pausing services. According to the statement, expanding its US licencing programme now includes money transmitter licences for 40 individual states.
PAYMENTS
After transformational year in payments, VGS surpasses 3 billion tokens. The company now stores more than 70 percent of credentials in the United States and initiates more than 30B data calls per year.
Fractal, a new FinTech platform exclusively servicing SaaS companies, announces the launch of the most efficient payment processing services in the U.S. Founded by industry veterans, Fractal is taking household names in the payments industry head-on by offering simpler service with up to 30% savings.
Same Day ACH and B2B Propel ACH Network Growth in the First Quarter. A 47% increase in Same Day ACH volume helped lead the way as the ACH Network began 2024 by handling 8.2 billion payments in the first quarter.
Pagos, a leading provider of payments optimization solutions, announced the launch of Pagos Copilot, an AI-powered tool for instant payment intelligence.
TBD, a part of Block focused on creating open and decentralized technologies to connect the financial world, has partnered with Chipper Cash, a FinTech firm in Africa to accelerate its global cross-border payments.
OPEN BANKING
New Experian tool empowers financial inclusion through open banking insights. Experian announced the launch of Cashflow Attributes, a groundbreaking solution to help expand fair and affordable access to credit, particularly for thin-file and credit invisible consumers.
DIGITAL BANKING
Grasshopper Bank begins rollout of SBA lending strategy. Grasshopper Bank launched its digital application for SBA loans in April with more to come.
When Revolut needed a new bank after Metropolitan cut off its FinTech customers, it found CFSB, a tiny bank whose only branch sits beneath an elevated subway line an hour’s ride from Manhattan, squeezed between a shuttered Rite Aid and a children’s events space that moonlights as a venue for $10 adult Zumba dance classes.
Neobank Dave Attributes Best-Ever Credit Performance to AI-Driven Underwriting Engine. The presentation noted that originations also increased during the first quarter by 2%, despite the seasonal headwinds from tax refunds.
U.S. digital bank Chime is launching a product that will allow customers to access up to $500 of their wages before payday, the latest move by a financial technology company to enter the fast-growing "earned wage access" market.
CRYPTO
Kraken has intensified its legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by filing a reply to the agency’s April letter regarding the company’s motion to dismiss the case.
DONEDEAL
Outpave Raises $1.2M in Seed Funding. The company intends to us the funds to further enhance its expansion, go-to-market strategies, sales channels, and product features.
Canopy, the firm-wide operating system that helps accountants , announced the successful raising of $35 million in an oversubscribed round.
Technology-Enabled Professional Services Firm Sikich Secures $250 Million Minority Growth Investment from Bain Capital. This investment positions Sikich to leverage Bain Capital’s deep resources while accelerating continued and aggressive growth.
Plenty, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of a wealth-building platform that helps couples invest and plan for their future, raised $5M in funding. The round was led by Inovia Capital, with participation from from Garage Capital, Otherwise Fund, and Interplay.
Klarna, the buy now pay later (BNPL) finance giant, has cleared a crucial hurdle on its journey towards a stock market flotation expected to value it at as much as $20bn (ï¿¡15.9bn).
Embedded accounting startup Layer secures $2.3M toward goal of replacing QuickBooks. These larger companies would embed Layer’s tools into their platform for small businesses to use.
M&As
Corpay to buy Paymerang. Paymerang adds over 250,000 merchants to Corpay’s existing merchant network of more than a million vendors, and together the businesses will process $120 billion in annual spend.
TransNetwork, a B2B payments infrastructure platform for instant money movement in the Americas, announced the acquisition of Inswitch, a provider of embedded finance technology.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Stripe product head Delia Pawelke joined Bank of America last week, as an MD in payments and US banking risk in New York. This marks Pawelke's return to banking, having spent five years at JPMorgan previously.?
Green Check Named a Best Place To Work in Financial Technology by American Banker for Third Consecutive Year. The list was developed through a two-part survey process. Companies were first evaluated on workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. An employee survey was then issued to measure the employee experience. Both scores were combined to determine the final list.?