Fintech Highlights - 12/13/2022
Pinned to the Top
How does a retail brokerage stop its customers from leaving when the markets turn south? By giving them a retirement product designed to last for decades, Axios' Felix Salmon writes.
- That's the latest move from Robinhood, which launched a new retirement account this morning.
Why it matters: Robinhood's core business has been declining ever since it went public in July 2021. It had only 12 million active users in the third quarter — an all-time low in its history as a public company.
Details: Robinhood's new retirement account is aimed primarily at workers in the gig economy who don't have an employer offering a 401(k) plan.
- It is promising to add an extra 1% to all contributions up to the 2023 maximum of $6,500.
- The theory, says Steve Quirk, Robinhood's chief brokerage officer, is that any match at all — even if it's small — is generally enough to nudge people to start saving for retirement.
💭 Thought bubble: Robinhood's IRAs, where trading is likely to be much less active than in regular accounts, look more like a loss center than a profit center — especially given the 1% match.
- The product might be good in terms of building loyalty, but don't expect it to contribute meaningfully to Robinhood's bottom line any time soon.
The BFD
Wells Fargo is launching a new commercial banking platform, known as Vantage, to replace its two-decades old Commercial Electronic Office Portal.
The portal generates over 5m sessions and more than $1tn in payments volume each month. Big numbers.
Why this is the BFD: Having already rolled out a new consumer mobile app and a virtual assistant, Fargo, earlier this year, Wells Fargo is aggressively building and shipping new tools for customers. What’s interesting is that each development has put a real focus on UX. With digital challengers snapping at their heels at every turn, the Fargo team recognises the importance of nailing customer experience.
The big picture: According to Head of Digital Reetika Grewal, Fargo is on a mission to “bring a consumer-like experience to our commercial and corporate clients.” With the space ripe for disruption, let’s see if the team can make good on its aims.
Embedded Fintech
Bond, the leading embedded finance platform, announced today that residential real estate business Flow has selected Bond as the embedded finance platform partner to power Flow’s planned digital wallet, which will offer differentiated financial products. More here →
Cacheflow, a Los Altos, Calif.-based embedded finance startup focused on closing software sales, raised $10m. Cacheflow will let customers choose to pay for their software contract monthly, quarterly or even on a deferred basis. More here →
Pylon, an embedded mortgage-as-a-service infrastructure startup, raised $8.5m in seed funding. The company enables it’s customers to “build a fully digital mortgage experience using our APIs, pre-built UI components, and capital markets stack.” More here →
Syncfy, a Latin America-focused open finance platform, raised $10m in seed funding. Syncfy’s API “empowers any app, solution, or company process by automating connections to a variety of data sources, saving time and money.” More here →
Fintech
Card and financial app Curve has secured a $1 billion USD credit line from Swiss bank Credit Suisse. London-based Curve, founded in 2015, plans to use the funding to expand its Curve Flex product, which consolidates cards and accounts into one app. More here →
Carputty, an Atlanta-based fintech focused on auto financing, raised $12.3m in Series A funding. The company enables consumers to “get a flexible line of credit for their vehicle with a low, transparent rate in minutes, to replace all your auto loans, present and future.” More here →
Ocho, a startup that makes it easier for business owners to set up and manage their own 401(k) retirement accounts has come out of stealth. Ocho is joining the several fintech companies out there that aim to modernize, and really rebrand, the retirement account away from traditional providers like Charles Schwab or Fidelity, or expensive solutions like lawyers and consultants. More here →
Mobile-only UK bank Kroo has launched its flagship current account. offering customers two percent in interest on amounts up to £85,000. Kroo was granted a full UK banking licence earlier this year and is only the third bank to receive one since 2016, enabling it to expand beyond its initial offering of a prepaid debit card and app. More here →
KreditBee, an India based start up that provides instant personal loans to users — is announcing that it has raised $80 million in a Series D funding round. KreditBee has gained popularity in a market where a large number of people do not have a credit history. More here →
Crypto
Bitwave, an SF-based provider of crypto tax accounting and compliance software, raised $15m in Series A funding. Hack VC and Blockchain Capital co-led, and were joined by SignalFire, Valor Equity Partners, Arca, Pulsar Trading and Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund. More here →
Insuretech
Odie Pet Insurance announced that it recently closed a $3 million round of funding led by RedBird Capital Partners, a New York City private equity firm. Founded in 2019, Odie (formerly Milo) is a web-based insurance program for wellness care and accident/illness protection for four-legged family members. Coverage is underwritten by Clear Blue Insurance Group. More here →
Australian insurance startup Butter Insurance has closed a $1.3 million pre-seed funding round backed by Flying Fox VC, Quokka Ventures, FB10X and Startmate. Founded in 2021, Butter Insurance, which plans to launch next month, will allow consumers to insure electronics such as iPhones and laptops within sixty days of purchase via its platform. More here →
Proptech
Setpoint, the company building infrastructure for modern real estate transactions, closed a $43M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from LiveOak Venture Partners, Stonecroft, 75andSunny, Fifth Wall, 645 Ventures, NextView Ventures, Vesta Ventures, and ATX Venture Partners. The raise comes just six months after Austin, Texas-based Setpoint closed a $5.5M seed round and $150 M in securitization. More here →
Prophia, a platform that extracts data from commercial real estate contracts, raised $10.2m in Series A funding. Prophia’s users can upload PDF contracts that are analyzed by its software. The tool spits out key terms such as square footage and dates in the lease, which gets reviewed by an expert. The company says its software has handled more than a million pages of documents across 1,800 locations. More here →
MoveEasy, a Columbus, Ohio-based home management and concierge service, raised $7m in Series A funding. Founded in 2013, MoveEasy is an integrated white labeled home management platform for real estate brokerages, agents and mortgage partners. Its platform and app provide clients with a holistic view of every decision that they make as homeowners – whether they are buying, selling, moving or managing their existing home. More here →
From the Stash
Many insurtechs exit the marketplace, and other 2023 predictions from Forrester
More than a quarter of Insurtechs will leave the insurance marketplace in 2023 — just a couple years after investments in the space were at an all-time high, according to predictions from research and consulting firm Forrester. More here →
Eric Wu, co-founder of Opendoor, stepped down from his role as CEO of the real estate fintech - Carrie Wheeler, who has served as the company’s CFO for just over two years, is taking over the role of CEO. Wu will now serve as president of Opendoor’s new marketplace offering, Opendoor Exclusives. At the time of the launch last month, Wu said: “We’ve designed Opendoor Exclusives to be a new marketplace where you can directly buy and sell a home, without any of the hassle of the traditional real estate model.” More here →
As Pipe’s founding team departs, tensions rise over allegations - On November 22, alternative financing startup Pipe announced that its three co-founders were stepping down from their executive roles and that a search for a new, “veteran” CEO had commenced. More here →
African fintech unicorn Chipper Cash lays off about 12.5% of staff - TechCrunch has learned from sources that more than 50 employees were affected across multiple departments; the engineering team took the biggest hit, with around 60% of those laid off coming from the department, according to people familiar with the matter. More here →
Fintech startup Caribou has made cuts during late August and October - Based on LinkedIn data, the company’s employee count went from 407 in July to 361 in December. Founded in 2016, Caribou, formerly MotoRefi, allows consumers to refinance their existing car loans. It raised $189 million and its latest financing round – $115 million Series C – was announced in May and included participation from CMFG Ventures. The startup, which also offers an insurance comparison service through a partnership with Bindable, is struggling on several fronts. More here →
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