Fintech Highlights - 10/19/2021
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Pinned to the Top
The race for tech providers to fold all of restaurants’ digital needs into one POS-centric solution is growing more competitive.
Yesterday, Fiserv announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire restaurant marketing and commerce platform BentoBox with a goal to integrate the company’s technology into Fiserv’s Clover restaurant technology solutions.
With a huge range of POS terminals and payment providers out there - it is seemingly a moment where consolidation will be key to increase market share and volume.
The BFD
The steady rise of the global eCommerce market has created a radically new fraud environment, where fraudsters now seek bigger targets, but strike less often.
“Identity fraud is really up, as we’re seeing a drastic increase in short-term loans and alternative payment methods, where consumers are opening accounts with applications that have synthetic identities,” said Erika Dietrich, head of merchant payment analytics and optimization at ACI Worldwide
Why it’s the BFD: We've shared, extensively, on the rise of Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) startups. But never considered the fraud risk. Which is proving to be substantial
The bottom line: “As omnichannel continues to grow, evolve and change, merchants really need an end-to-end solution that will consider the customer journey – no matter what channel they’re in, what they’re buying or how they’re going to pick it up – in order to understand spending behaviors and patterns to ensure that they get the highest acceptance rates and are able to offer coupons and promotions throughout the various channels,” said Dietrich.
Fintechs
Airwallex, an Australian cross-border payments business, raised US$200 million at a $4 billion valuation. Airwallex offers solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, such as business accounts that include cards, international collection & transfer, and an API for larger enterprise businesses that require embedded payments and financial services. More here ->
Alviere, a New York-based embedded finance startup, raised $70 million. Alviere is going more mainstream and after brands that don’t currently offer any financial technology and don’t know how to do it but might have an existing loyal customer base. By using Alviere, those customers would be able to go to customers, and say, “Hey, we now offer a bank account.” More here ->
Lendflow, an Austin based fintech company enabling embedding of lending services, raised $10.8M. Lendflow enables every SaaS company to become a fintech. Lendflow's white label solution allows vertical SaaS technology companies servicing small and medium businesses (B2SMB) to easily build, enhance or embed financial products within their ecosystem and offer hyper-contextual financing solutions. More here ->
Humming Homes, a New York-based residential property management platform, raised $5.6 million in new seed funding. It’s an end-to-end home management platform that provides continual access to home service experts, a vetted marketplace of vendors for all home maintenance and renovation needs, as well as a console that provides data-driven insight to get a holistic understanding of your homeownership maintenance needs. More here ->
Tala, an LA-based online loan application platform for emerging markets, raised $145 million. Tala makes microloans between $10 and $500 to people in emerging markets who lack a credit profile. More here ->
Zone & Co., a Boston-based billing and revenue recognition company, raised $76 million. The company runs NetSuite-native billing and revenue recognition solution ZoneBilling. More here ->
TradingView, a New York-based charting platform and social network for traders and investors, raised $298 million at a $3 billion valuation. TradingView recorded a 237% increase in visitors over the past 18 months as consumers turned their attention to trading amid pandemic lockdowns More here ->
Juni, a Swedish provider of banking services for e-commerce, raised $52 million. Juni’s platform integrates with banks and payment providers to automate several functions, including managing spending and invoices. The company’s transaction volume jumped almost 500% every month between March and May and its weekly average growth rate was up 81% in that stretch. More here ->
Open, an Indian neobank, raised $100 million. Open operates a neo-bank that offers small and medium-sized businesses as well as enterprises nearly all the features of the bank with additional tools to serve the needs of a business. More here ->
FrankieOne, an Australian digital transaction fraud prevention startup, raised $20 million. The company harnesses some 350 data sources to verify automatically people’s identities when onboarding, and then monitors subsequent activity for fraudulent behavior. More here ->
Insuretechs
Plume, a Palo Alto-based provider of connected home SaaS, raised $300 million. Plume partners with more than 240 cable multiple-system operators (MSOs)—such as Comcast and Charter Communications—telecommunications companies and fixed wireless access operators to provide managed Wi-Fi that enables a plethora of smart-home services such as parental control, security, IoT-managed devices and motion sensing. The company manages more than 1.2 billion devices in over 35 million homes and small businesses around the world. More here ->
Crabi, a Mexican auto insurance startup, raised $4 million in seed funding. Crabi states that it is the first startup in Mexico to obtain the license to be a risk-carrier and full-stack auto insurance company. Crabi says the current auto insurance market in Mexico is antiquated, confusing and charges consumers an average “overprice” of 30%. Which it wants to change. More here ->
At-Bay, a Mountain View, Calif.-based cyber insurance startup, raised $20 million. In the face of a ransomware surge across the industry, At-Bay's ransomware claims frequency remains seven times lower than the industry average. At-Bay details how its modern approach to risk management, with a combination of technical underwriting and active risk monitoring, helps the companies it insures experience fewer ransomware incidents in its report: Overcoming Ransomware: A Blueprint for Thriving in a Digital World (below in Reports). More here ->
From the Stash
REX undergoes second round of layoffs - HousingWire — www.housingwire.com REX Homes, the discount brokerage behind an anti-trust lawsuit against Zillow and the NAR, announced its second round of layoffs late last week.
Vroom to acquire auto lender United Auto Credit for $300 million — axios.link Vroom Inc said on Tuesday it would buy automotive lender United Auto Credit Corp for $300 million in cash, as the online used car retailer seeks to offer financing options for its shoppers.
European point of sale provider SumUp acquires customer loyalty startup Fivestars for $317M — techcrunch.com SumUp, a European-based competitor to Square, PayPal/iZettle and others that provide mobile-powered card readers and other sales technology to merchants and small businesses, has made an acquisition in the U.S. to dig deeper into that market and to expand the kinds of services that it provides to customers globally. The company has acquired Fivestars, which […]
San Antonio startup Betty's Co. wins TechFuel pitch competition — sanantonioreport.org The $50,000 prize from the county's innovation fund went to a local startup offering a virtual care platform to young women in Texas.
Reports / Webinars
The Leadership In Insurance Podcast With Stuart Winchester — preview.mailerlite.com This week Alex and Stuart talk about all things from Marble’s investment journey and the importance of a positive team dynamic and the support they provide while pitching to discussing what's next for Marble? Enterprise partners, mobile app launch, fund raising and more!
Overcoming Ransomware: A Blueprint for Thriving in a Digital World — cts.businesswire.com
As the insurance industry reels from ransomware, At-Bay has helped businesses stay secure year-round through a combination of technical underwriting and active risk monitoring. The result is a dramatic reduction in ransomware in At-Bay’s portfolio.
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