This Week in Fintech: 03 May-10 May 2019

Preamble (#TWIF)

Every week on Saturday, I publish a short article summarising the key events of the week from the Fintech segments from across the world.

In order to keep a balanced view on the segment, I capture happenings that drive our hope and counter that with a few not-so-happy events as well to allow us to be wary of the hype. In the final section, I capture key fintech investment rounds of the week.

Fintech: The Bright Side

On the bright side this week fintech partnerships, new licences and expansions are the highlights 

• Banco Santander and Microsoft have joined hands to drive the bank’s digital transformation. The firms’ collaboration will see Santander use the Microsoft Azure cloud plus other data, artificial intelligence and cognitive services. 
• Ripple’s CTO announced on Twitter that the latest version of its cross-border payment solution xCurrent is up and running, giving its 200-plus customers a way to integrate the XRP-powered xRapid with the flip of a switch.
• Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued four more online-only banking licenses to units of Alibaba, PingAn and smartphone maker Xiaomi, as well as to a JV involving Tencent, ICBC and Hillhouse Capital.
• Wipro in partnership with R3 has developed a blockchain based Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) solution prototype for a consortium consisting of the Bank of Thailand and eight commercial banks in Thailand.
• Wahed, the   first   halal robo advisor in the United States, announced global expansion plans. The platform, which was previously available only to US and UK communities, will now provide access to Islamic value-based investing to residents of over 130 countries including key markets across Nigeria, India, Pakistan and the MENA region.

Fintech: The Dark Side

 On the dark side - hacks, bans and regulatory clashes.

• One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance, was the victim of hackers this week when it saw $41 million worth of bitcoin being stolen from its funds. This amounted to around 7,000 bitcoin in total, which were taken through phishing, viruses and other attacks, according to the firm’s CEO Zhao Changpeng. 
• Chinese messaging app, WeChat has announced that it will impose a blanket ban on cryptocurrency related payments by the end of May.
• Digital banking start-up Revolut is facing political pressure in a second European country, after a member of Luxembourg’s parliament raised concerns about its bid for a bank license.
• The disagreement between regulators at the New York Department of Financial Services and Bittrex Inc., a cryptocurrency exchange, has gone public as the fintech took the matter of denied applications to court.
• Bank accounts of nearly 100 Amazon merchants were hacked in a serious online fraud, which occurred between May and October last year has been brought to light.

Fintech: Fuel the tank

• London payments provider Checkout.com has secured Europe's largest-ever fintech Series A of $230M, propelling its valuation to almost $2 billion—not bad for a first fundraising attempt.
• Orange Digital Ventures along with other investors has backed Raisin in its latest $112M Series D.
• Asian financial supermarket GoBear raised $80M funding to drive growth and expand partner networks.
• Hong Kong-based insurance tech startup OneDegree raised $30M, while credit-based mobile payments app Twisto scored $16M.
• SoftBank’s new LatAm focused fund saw credit card processor, Clip secure $20M.
• Barclays spin out firm, Nivo, which provides instant messaging for banks, raised $2.6M

Other notable funding this week have been:

• Digital SME Lender, Kinara Capital ($14M)
• London-based cash deposit platform fintech, Flagstone ($14M)
• Licensed PISP and cross border payments fintech Thunes ($10M)
• American insurtech WorldCover ($6M)
• TransferGo ($3.4M)
• Thai crypto exchange Bitkub ($2.1M), which has been the biggest seed round in the country
• See you next Saturday, with more fintech trends!