Fintech Highlights - 3/30/2021
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This week we're hardening the focus - on embedded financial services. A rapidly growing area of fintech.
We are also seeing even further movement in crypto from established companies - showing that we are inching closer and closer to cryptocurrency being a mainstream construct.
See below for some highlights..
Pinned to the Top
Embedded finance is a hot topic in the fintech space, and for good reason.
Because the value exchange for financial institutions / fintech's / carriers and the platforms that embed their services is quite clear.
Growing audiences to owned platforms is incredibly challenging and costly. In order to create more payment, product acquisition or even self-service activity - you have to create more interaction opportunity - i.e. at bats. And you do that by being present in their digital lives - embedded in platforms where your customer has a need to interact with you.
And for the platforms - making money is also challenging. And to lean on ad revenues alone won't cut it. Offering relevant and smart interactions from a financial service provider leads to action oriented revenue models that their partners will pay dearly for.
Or as one fintech CEO states:
“We believe that every single company that is a consumer-facing brand will end up as a fintech company, because the main way to monetize your client base is with financial services,” Arik Shtilman, Rapyd’s co-founder and CEO told CNBC.
We'll profile some companies and platforms in the space that are enabling these programs and partnerships over the coming weeks.
The BFD
Yesterday Visa announced that transactions can be settled using USD Coin (USDC) - which is a "stablecoin" powered by the Ethereum blockchain and was founded by Circle and Coinbase and which follows the value of the US dollar.
The first company that will work with this platform is Crypto.com. And it means that they can send USDC directly to Visa when a customer uses their USDC card to make a tranasction - to get paid.
If you are not clear on crypto or how it all works - this may hard to follow. But it is another example of how traditional financial companies are embracing the activity of consumers with crypto and enabling transactions to happen.
Amazon is also rumored to be building capabilities to enable crypto transactions on the platform.
The more this happens - the more credible the space becomes.
Fintechs
Robinhood has filed confidentially to go public. This was first reported by Bloomberg, and now confirmed by Axios has confirmed. More here ->
MX, raised another round of capital. , raised $300 million in Series C funding. In the release, MX announced that in the last 12 months the company has increased its market valuation to $1.9 billion, powering more than 2,000 banks, credit unions, fintechs, and technology companies, as well as 85% of digital banking providers, with a combined reach of over 200 million consumers. Proving that across the financial services industry, digital transformation has kicked into high gear. More here ->
Further proof that the pandemic is driving change in financial services - Rapyd, a London-based fintech-as-a-service platform, raised $300 million in Series D funding. The company’s technology lets firms integrate a range of payment methods into their apps, including money collection, bank transfers, digital wallets and card issuing. More here ->
Blend, the San Francisco-based digital lender, has raised $300 million in Series G funding. The company is riding a wave of interest in enabling end to end digital account opening and lending by FI's - big and small. More here ->
Brace, a Los Angeles-based digital mortgage servicing platform, raised $15.7 million in Series B funding. More here ->
Neat Capital, a Boulder, Colo.-based home financing platform, raised $22.5 million in Series B funding. They recently launched a smart home loan experience that automates the entire lending process with proprietary pricing algorithms, underwriting approval, and loan production, which is combined with the human element of support for clients seeking to work with experienced officers while making financial decisions. More here ->
Creative Juice, a financial network intended to help digital content creators grow their content, raised $5M of seed funding recently. The platform is built to allow people to invest in content creators and share in the rewards as they grow and monetize their efforts. More here ->
Affirm, the leading provider of personal installment loans for online purchases, raised $1.2 billion in its IPO. The company priced at $49 per share (well above upwardly revised range), for a fully diluted market value of $14.8 billion, and will list on the Nasdaq (AFRM). More here ->
Insuretechs
Clearcover, is what digital insurance looks like. Fast claims, easy payments, and a secure digital card all in one app. More here ->
Boost, is a platform that is empowering innovators to build, offer, and deliver insurance products to their customers. Boost enables companies in any industry to offer digital insurance products to their customers through a fully integrated experience that is embedded in their own front-end environment. More here ->
From the Stash
The New Norm and the Bouncing Back Stronger through Embedded Finance — www.globalbankingandfinance.com By Hasan Nawaz, CEO HUBUC
A Tale of Symbiosis. How fintechs and banks rely on each… | by Dan Akivis | Mar, 2021 | Medium — danakivis.medium.com As the banking world adapts to the acceptance of Open Banking, we sought to understand how Durbin amendment exempt banks (those with assets under $10B) are positioning themselves as the vendors for…
Show Me the Money: Banks and Credit Unions Need to Establish a Chief Revenue Officer Position - Gonzobanker — gonzobanker.com FIs’ renewed focus on revenue generation, vendor relationships and new product development is great – but someone needs to be leading it.
These undergraduates left university to build Flux, a payments startup now in YC – TechCrunch — techcrunch.com In the 170 years since Western Union was founded, no company has managed to solve two basic problems that continue to bedevil the remittance business — exorbitant fees and slow deposit times. For instance, it takes days or weeks for money sent from an immigrant in the U.S. to reach a relative in Nigeria. Ben […]
Reports / Webinars
Bank Automation Ignite — bankautomationignite.com
Gonna catch this years Bank Automation Ignite event. If you need it. If need be - here's a pass to attend for FREE - simply use the code FI100
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