FIntech Highlights - 12/3/2024

Here's what we've been watching this week 👇

Pinned to the Top

PayPal is launching new features that let users pool together money with friends or family to collectively pay for trips, travel, gifts, and more. And most importantly, those contributing to the pool don’t need to have a PayPal account to pay their fair share. 

PayPal actually had a pooling feature in place way back in 2017, but the service was shuttered globally in November 2021. A PayPal spokesperson told TechCrunch the feature is returning “due to high customer demand” and will launch in the U.S., Germany, U.K., Italy, and Spain ahead of the holidays.

The BFD

UniCredit (Milan: UCG) offered to buy rival Italian lender Banco BPM (Milan: BAMI) for €10 billion in stock.

Why it's the BFD: The surprise bid could wreck Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's plan to create the country's third-largest bank — behind UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo — by selling BMPS to Banco BPM.

• It also comes as UniCredit continues to consider a takeover effort for Germany's Commerzbank, which would face stiff opposition from Berlin.

The bottom line: UniCredit wants to become one of Europe's top banks, even if that means ruffling government feathers.

M&A

Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY) is weighing a sale of its credit card unit, which it acquired in 2021 for $750m, per Bloomberg. More here ->

Bain Capital completed its $4.5b take-private buyout of Envestnet, a Berwyn, Pa., financial software maker. Also participating on the buyside were Reverence Capital, BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and State Street. More here ->

Mastercard Foundation paid $550.6m to buy certain private equity positions and other illiquid assets from the Kodak Retirement Income Plan Trust, which says that it plans secondary sales to four other investors for an aggregate purchase price of $61.7m. More here ->

Moody's (NYSE: MCO) acquired Numerated, a Boston-based loan origination platform for financial institutions that had raised over $30m from backers like Fidelity National Information Services, Fintop Capital, Patriot Financial Partners, and Venrock. More here ->

Mubadala Capital agreed to buy Canadian asset and wealth manager CI Financial (TSX: CIX) for C$4.7b, or C$32 per share. More here ->

Perella Weinberg Partners Capital is weighing a sale of Flagship Credit Acceptance, a Coppell, Texas-based auto finance business that could fetch around $400m, per Bloomberg. More here ->

Edelweiss Financial Services of India hired Nomura to find a buyer for a minority stake in its mutual fund business, which could have a total valuation of $700m-$800m, per Bloomberg.  More here ->

Fintech

Cardless, an SF-based co-branded credit card startup, raised $30m. The company aims to disrupt the $77 billion co-branded credit card industry by offering a more efficient and customizable platform for brands to create and manage their credit card programs. More here ->

Pylon, a VC-backed mortgage infrastructure startup, secured a strategic investment from Citi. The company has developed an embedded mortgage infrastructure platform that enables enterprises, including FinTechs, PropTechs, banks, and retail brands, to integrate mortgage lending into their products quickly and efficiently.  More here ->

StoreCash, a San Jose, Calif., mobile cash-back rewards app, raised $3.7m in seed funding. The app allows users to earn instant cash-back rewards when shopping at various brands, including Gap, H&M, AMC Theatres, and more. More here ->

Capitolis, an Israeli fintech for banks, raised $20m. Some heavy hitters were part of this raise….Citi led, and was joined by State Street, Morgan Stanley, UBS and insiders a16z, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, S Capital, Spark Capital, SVB Capital, Canapi Ventures, 9Yards Capital, Standard Chartered, and JPMorgan. More here ->

Norbr, a Dutch payments infrastructure-as-a-service provider, raised €3m. Norbr’s payment infrastructure enables online merchants and marketplaces to fully outsource payment complexity while gaining more control over their payment operations. More here ->

Investtech

Range, a McLean, Va., wealth management tech startup, raised $28 million in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. Range caters to high-income earners, including executives, entrepreneurs, doctors, and tech professionals. The company offers an all-in-one wealth management platform, providing expert advisory services and AI-powered tools to help clients manage their finances. More here ->

Boosted.ai, a financial analysis and workflow platform for investment managers, raised $15m. The company leverages proprietary machine learning algorithms, tailored to the finance industry, to enhance portfolio management outcomes. By combining investors’ financial domain expertise with big data and finance-specific machine learning, Boosted.ai provides a plug-and-play AI tool for investment managers to incorporate machine learning and alternative data into their investment process.  More here ->

OpenYield, a New York-based bond marketplace, raised $7m. The platform offers instantaneously actionable liquidity for corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and Treasury bonds, making it an attractive solution for brokerages, advisors, and asset managers seeking scalable fixed-income solutions. More here ->

Crypto

OpenTrade, a stablecoin yield products startup, raised a $4m seed extension led by AlbionVC, with participation from a16z Crypto and CMCC Global. More here ->

Insuretech

Zopper, an Indian personalized insurer, raised $25m in Series D funding. Zopper’s innovative approach focuses on creating customized insurance products for lifestyle businesses, offering robust coverage options such as extended warranties and device protection plans. More here ->

Proptech

Constrafor, a provider of financing and software for contractors, raised $14m n Series A funding led by NFX, per Axios Pro. It also secured a $250m credit facility. More here ->

From the Stash

Self-service banking demand grows - Financial institutions are looking to NCR Atleos to automate traditional transactional banking services, freeing up staff and improving customer experience.  “Clients are looking for highly available customer-facing, self-service solutions that handle a wide range of traditional bank branch transactional banking,” Neil Martin, area sales director, U.K. and Ireland, NCR Atleos, Bank Automation News. More here ->

Open banking: Decoding Section 1033 - Ten years in the making, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recently finalized open banking rule is making waves.  The rule, Section 1033, was finalized Oct. 22 and states that consumers can transfer their financial data to another financial institution (FI) provider at no cost, using the framework for secure payments and comparing financial services at […] More here ->

Citi Wealth names Eric Lordi head of platform and experience - Citi Wealth tapped Eric Lordi as head of platform and experience this month and he assumes the new role on Jan. 29, a Citi spokesperson told Bank Automation News.   He will be responsible for the digital experience for Citi Wealth clients, advisers and bankers, the spokesperson said.    More here ->

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