Your Daily FinTech News - September 9th, 2022

Welcome to?your?daily?FinTech?news!

In case you missed it, please see below today's most relevant news, or tune in to our?Daily Fintech Podcast?here.?

NEWS HIGHLIGHT

Vermont regulator says Crypto lender Celsius misled investors by making "false and misleading claims" about its "financial health and compliance with securities laws," according to a court filing. The filing cites blogs and tweets from Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, including one insisting that "all funds are safe" when in fact, says the filing, "the company was insolvent, and depositor funds were not safe." Link here.

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FINTECH?NEWS

#Insights

• €75.3 million were raised across nine deals. This week Germany was the clear winner in a fundraising activity, contributing 5 of the eight deals, followed by the United Kingdom. Link here

#APAC

• Report: SE Asia’s FinTech Landscape. Southeast Asia’s digital economy is projected to hit $363 billion by 2025. M&C Saatchi Performance report explores the four key trends in this sector. Link here
• Asia-Pacific reached a record $41.8 billion with 607 deals in the first half of the year. The region saw a diversity of jurisdictions attract very good-sized deals. Link here

#FinTechInnovation

• Indonesia is to launch digital asset exchange by the end of 2022. The plan is part of the government’s effort to protect investors amidst rising interest in digital currencies. Link here
• Ant Insurance launched China's first digital operation platform for insurance companies. The platform can help insurers improve operational efficiencies and customer experiences. Link here
• Boost launched a brand refresh. Boost’s brand refresh is the next phase of the company’s repositioning exercise that started last year after unifying Axiata’s digital fin services. Link here

#Partnerships

• Akulaku’s is now among Alipay’s+ supported payment methods. This new partnership will allow Indonesian consumers to use the Akulaku PayLater solution at Alipay+’s global merchants. Link here
• Tiger.Trade teamed up with Conor McGregor. McGregor will drive awareness for the Tiger.Trade brand as the company expands its fintech solutions aimed at seasoned professionals. Link here

#Acquisition

• Aquila acquired Cibar, Inc.?Cibar has a customer-focused team and a great brand in the trade finance marketplace. They are an important addition to Aquila’s group. Link here

#DoneDeal

• Antler joined a $2.5m round of SnappRetail. SnappRetail is a Pakistan-based POS startup, that raised $2.5m in pre-seed funding led by Zayn Capital's BitRate fund. Link here
• Plurall raised $20 million in debt funding. The funding will bolster the financial inclusion of micro-businesses in Colombia, which are underserved by the financial industry. Link here
• Mesh Payments has landed $60 million. The company today has over 1,000 customers and close to $1 billion in annualized payment volume flowing through its platform. Link here
• AtoB has raised a $230 million funding round. The funding combines equity to scale its services over the next 12 months. AtoB’s payments platform provides a suite of groundbreaking products for the fleet community for the first time. Link here

DIGITAL BANKING?NEWS

#Analysis

• What the collapsed $1.4 billion Wealthfront deal means for UBS. The deal’s failure will require a course change from UBS CEO Ralph Hamers, who painted the marque acquisition as a centerpiece of the bank’s new digital offering. Hamers and UBS will have to find other ways to grow the digital technology and omnichannel experience it would have acquired through Wealthfront. Link here.

#BankingIndustry

• DBS Group Holdings expands its crypto services. The bank’s targeted clientele in Asia consists of private banks, accredited investors and other exchanges. DBS also plans to upgrade its app. Link here
• StreamBank is a new UK challenger bank. The start-up intends to provide savings and financing solutions, such as bridging and development finance, to property professionals. Link here

#BankingInnovation

• GoTyme launches a new Visa Debit Card. This will allow cardholders to conduct Visa transactions worldwide and make ATM withdrawals when traveling outside the country. Link here

#Payments

• Starling bank adds bulk payments. The feature has been launched by the bank to process payments at scale for businesses and facilitate multi-volume transactions. Link here
• Apple Pay has surpassed Mastercard. Apple Pay is the second most popular digital payment system, beaten only by Visa. Visa processes $10T worth of transactions per year. Link here

#Insights

• US Regulator warns of fintech spread risk. “Banks and tech firms are teaming up in ways that make it more difficult for regulators to distinguish between where the bank stops and where the tech firm starts.” Michael Hsu, Acting Comptroller of the Currency. Link here
• Digital banking adoption soars in UAE. Pandemic has boosted the interest in digital banking solutions, prompting mass adoption of neobanking services as a way to access funds. Link here

#Partnerships

• Alpian partnered with Visa. With the Visa partnership, Alpian’s debit card will be accepted in over 200 countries and more than 100M merchant locations across the globe. Link here

#FundingRound

• NowNow has raised US$13 million. They said the seed funding would drive financial inclusion by providing financial services to the unbanked and underbanked in the continent. Link here

This ends?Your?Daily?Fintech?News. Let me know if there are any questions or comments. Until the next!

Regards,

Marcel van Oost

marcelvanoost.com

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