Welcome to?your?daily?FinTech?news!
- ‘N26 isn’t for everyone’: CEO Valentin Stalf addresses neobank’s culture struggles. In a rare interview, the N26 CEO and cofounder addressed the $9bn German fintech’s plan to deal with its internal blind spots, as well as its struggles with compliance. Despite compliance headaches and struggles with retention, the CEO of one of Europe’s largest neobanks says it’s still hiring amid the tech downturn, with plans to foray into crypto within weeks. Link here.
- Wirecard: A cautionary tale for FinTech. Two years on the FinTech industry needs to make sure the correct lessons have been learned from the collapse of Wirecard. With job losses mounting in the fintech space and pressure on venture capital volumes and company valuations, it is understandable to see the present time as fintech's toughest moment. It could have easily been far worse. Link here.
- Last week, €492m was raised across 15 FinTech deals. Link here.
- JUST has raised €3M in its first funding round. E-commerce in France is exploding: valued at more than 112 billion euros in 2020, it is expected to nearly treble in volume by 2026. Link here.
- Berlin-based Airbank has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Molten Ventures. The thrust will provide the craft with the lift needed to expand into several new markets, continue the development of both its product and technical offers, all the while beefing up the team size. Link here.
- The IFC - International Finance Corporation., a member of the World Bank Group, is open to investing and supporting the fintech sector in Saudi Arabia, as it eyes to expand its existing portfolio worth $8 billion invested in the Kingdom, said a top official. Link here.
- The global funding boom in 2021 was unlike anything most of us have ever seen before. While countries all over the world saw surges in venture capital investments, Latin America in particular saw a massive bump in dollars invested. Unsurprisingly — with so many people in the region being underbanked or unbanked and digital penetration finally taking off — fintech startups were among the largest recipients of that capital. Link here.
- Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) has announced a ￡1.6 million, five-year investment in FinTech Wales, the independent not for profit membership association and champion of the FinTech and Financial Services industry in Wales. Link here.
- Fundvest is a solution for people who want to increase their wealth - a user-friendly savings and investments platform that will help people focus on their long-term financial future. Link here.
- Wirex, a leading crypto payments company, has made their recently launched non-custodial wallet more accessible to APAC users after releasing a new payment method. Link here.
- Bitcoin has crashed to its lowest level since December 2020 after one of the crypto-economy's largest lenders, Celsius Network, suspended withdrawals on Sunday. Link here.
- MoneyGram International, a global leader in the evolution of digital P2P payments, and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source public blockchain that allows money to be tokenized and transferred globally, announced the initial roll-out of a first-of-its-kind global on/off-ramp service for digital wallets to increase the utility of digital assets by creating a bridge between cash and cryptocurrencies. Link here.
- Noam Oren joins the Yapily team after 13 years at Payoneer, Noam brings to Yapily over two decades of cross-border payments experience, meeting the needs of enterprise companies, and scaling global organisations. Link here.?
- It’s my pleasure to present my latest Q&A with one of the best FinTech journalists out there, Mary Ann Azevedo. Link here.
- Metro Bank (UK) is being sued by US software company Arkeyo over allegations that it leaked the company's coin counting technology to a rival firm. Link here.
- Modulr, the embedded payments platform, has announced it has launched its real-time Euro payments service, based on the real-time pan European SEPA Instant scheme, which operates 24/7, settles funds in 10 seconds and presents European businesses with significant competitive opportunities. Link here.
- Lloyds Bank is partnering with Sage and Satago to offer instant financing to Sage customers based on the value of unpiad invoices. Link here.
- N26 partnered with Ukraine-Hilfe Berlin e.V. to allow its customers to donate directly from the N26 app and support those affected by the war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Link here.
- Kinly , a neobanking startup focused on on underbanked Black potential customers, officially launched Monday and announced $15 million in Series A funding, the company tells Axios exclusively. Link here.
- Atomic FI and Bond Financial Technologies announced the deepening of their existing partnership with the launch of Atomic’s Paylink product, which allows customers to embed the ability to repay financial obligations over time directly from their paycheck. Link here.
- Bucking the trend for lay-offs in the fintech sector, Banking-as-a-Service provider Contis has revealed plans to increase its headcount by more than 33% over the next six months, with the Yorkshire headquartered firm intending to recruit 123 additional roles across the UK, Lithuania and India. Link here.
- Santander Bank, N.A., the US-based subsidiary of Spain’s banking group Santander, has appointed Pierre P. Habis as the new chief consumer and digital transformation officer. Link here.?
This ends?Your?Daily?Fintech?News. Let me know if there are any questions or comments. Until the next!
