Fintech Highlights - 4/27/2021

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On Friday Apple starts taking pre-orders for the new iMac. And I'm on board. So excited.

Here’s what’s worth watching this week….. 👇

Pinned to the Top

Looks like some of these neobanks might be worth watching....

This morning Current and Step both announced massive fundraising rounds.

Current is now valued at $2.2b after raising $220M. They increased their customer base by two million people over the past year, and have 3 million people banking with them.

Step, the bank targeting teens, has 1.5 million customers in just six short months after launching and note they are gaining 10,000 accounts a day.

Offering features that resonate with the target audiences, and using sniper-shot media approaches (primarily using social media platforms) these companies are growing efficiently and moving at light speed. Eroding market share from local, super regional and national banks at an alarming rate.

The BFD

Chime, one of the leading neobanks, has launched a P2P feature that enables customers to pay anyone, right from the Chime app.

Why it’s the BFD: Over the past few years P2P payment platforms like Square's Cash App, Venmo and others have seen a massive increase in usage and money movement.

And while most FI's offer the capability and drive a lot of usage themselves, consumers do tend to use the 3rd party apps more often mainly because of perceived ease - they see their friends or transaction partners there and it seems easier to add them / pay them.

So to see a neobank leverage the capability to enable their customers to make seamless transactions, and drive more engagement in their platform is not a huge surprise. But it is interesting to see them make this play.

Bottom line: it remains to be seen if Chime can keep their users in their system and engage more frequently. But if they do it will drive retention and create even more "primary" customers.

Fintechs

On the topic of neobanks - Till Financial describes itself as a collaborative family financial tool that aims to empower kids to become smarter spenders. The New York-based company’s banking platform is designed to encourage “open and honest” discussions between parents and their kids. And it has just raised $5m to help it advance on that goal. More here ->

DoNotPay, the modern day "Robinhood" for customers looking to avoid fees, fines etc - has launched a new identity product. PhotoNinja makes your photos undetectable to facial recognition software. More here ->

Payhawk, a fintech startup that aims to unify corporate cards, payments and expenses raised $20m via Klarna backers QED. Payhawk enables customers to replace several services they already use and that didn’t interact well with each other. i.e you issuing corporate cards for employees, managing invoices and tracking payments from a single interface. More here ->

Tribal Credit, which provides credit cards to startups in emerging markets, has raised $34m in a recent funding round. The company has seized the moment (in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic) as businesses try to figure out how to pay each other digitally. The challenges become even more complex when dealing with cross-border payments. More here ->

Embedded Financial, launched by a former Square executive, has raised $20 million in prelaunch funding. The startup hopes to build a better clearing firm, a type of financial-market infrastructure business that drew scrutiny during the GameStop Corp. stock frenzy this year. More here ->

Insuretechs

Insurify, an insurtech with an AI-powered comparison platform, is integrating with Toyota's in-house insurance agency, Toyota Insurance Management Solutions. The white-label product for TIMS is a first for Insurify in the embedded-insurance space, which will allow customers to compare and buy car insurance policies online using Insurify’s data-driven recommendations and personalized purchase experience. More here ->

FintechOS, which has built a low-code platform aimed at larger (older) banking and insurance companies to help them build new services and analytics on top of and around their existing infrastructure, has raised €51 million ($61.5 million at today’s rates, but $60 million at the time of the deal closing) in a Series B round of funding. More here ->

From the Stash

These are the Top InsurTech Companies in America (2021) – Daily Finance — df.media Your description for this link...

6 Common Pitfalls Of Personalization — www.forbes.com When done well, personalization can be the cornerstone for growth and a strong customer experience. But when done poorly, personalization efforts can hurt a company and drive away customers.

Under The Hood: A Closer Look At Stripe, The Most Highly Valued Venture-backed Private Company In The US – Crunchbase News — news.crunchbase.com

Payments processing startup Stripe earlier this year became the most highly valued venture-backed private company in the U.S. and the third most valuable in the world

Walmart’s Fintech Ambition: A Super App, Not The ‘Bank Of Walmart’ — www.forbes.com Walmart's recent fintech announcements don't signal the creation of the "bank of Walmart"--that's existed for years. The retailer's aspiration is to reinvent the way goods and services are provided to low- to middle-income consumers.

Reports / Webinars

These are the Top InsurTech Companies in America (2021) – Daily Finance — df.media

We selected these startups and companies for exceptional performance.

Mobile Finance Apps Report — s3.amazonaws.com

Banking on the future of fintech

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