Fintech Highlights - 5/28/2024

Deel makes some significant moves. Copper Bankingabruptly discontinued its bank deposit accounts and debit cards. And more...

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

Pinned to the Top

💰 Coming attractions: Deel, the payroll and HR platform valued by VCs at over $12 billion, today will announce an investment in embedded finance startup Alviere and the addition of former Illumina CEO and current Walt Disney Co. director Francis deSouza to its board of directors.

• Deel's investment in Alviere investment, which is aimed at shortening its wait for state money transfer licenses, is the company's first corporate VC investment, but CEO Alex Bouaziz tells me that he is "going to most likely do a bunch more of those."
• The addition of deSouza, who left Illumina after the Grail acquisition debacle, came via a board search aided by Deel investor Andreessen Horowitz. Bouaziz says that the pair "just clicked," and that he hopes deSouza can be particularly helpful on go-to-market strategies. Particularly as the company gears up for what's likely to be a 2026 IPO.
• What Bouaziz wouldn't say is who deSouza is replacing on the current Deel board, but don't be surprised if it's Ali Rowghani, who originally joined via his now-former role at YC Continuity Fund.

The BFD

Copper Banking, a digital banking service aimed at teens, has abruptly discontinued its bank deposit accounts and debit cards.

Why? The startup stated that its banking middleware provider, Synapse, was sunsetting its service “imminently.”

It keeps coming up: The situation was just one of many where companies and consumers are being impacted by the implosion of banking-as-a-service company (BaaS) Synapse.

Though certainly not the only bit of bad news, it shows just how treacherous things are for the often-interdependent fintech world when one key player hits trouble. 

M&A

Advent International and GTCR have expressed interest in buying Envestnet (NYSE: ENV), a Berwyn, Pa., wealth management software provider with a $3.9b market cap, per Bloomber More here ->

BBVA (Madrid: BBVA) asked Spanish securities regulators for approval to launch a $13.3b hostile takeover offer for smaller lender Sabadell (Milan: SABE). More here ->

Bowhead Specialty, a New York property and casualty insurer, raised $128m in its IPO. It priced 7.5m shares at $17, versus plans to offer 6.7m shares at $14-$16, and will list on the NYSE (BOW). Backers include Gallatin Point Capital. More here ->

Fideuram, the private banking unit of Intesa Sanpaolo, acquired a majority stake in Swiss neobank Alpian.  More here ->

Phantom, a Solana-based crypto wallet valued at $1.2b by firms like a16z and Paradigm, acquired Bitski, a wallet-as-a-service startup that had raised $25.5m from a16z, Galaxy Digital, Coinbase Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, and Kindred Ventures.  More here ->

Fintech

Vitesse, a leading treasury and payment solutions provider for the insurance industry, today announced the completion of a $93 million Series C funding round led by leading global investment firm, KKR, with participation from existing investors, including Hannover Digital Investments. More here ->

Finout, an enterprise-focused toolset designed to help manage and optimize cloud costs, last week closed a $26 million Series B round led by Red Dot Capital. More here ->

Supervizor, a QA platform for finance teams, raised $22m. Orange Ventures led, and was joined by Wille Finance, La Maison Partners, New Alpha Asset Management, Adelie Capital, and ISAI. More here ->

Coinflow, an instant settlement payment provider, raised $2.3m in seed funding. CMT Digital led, and was joined by DCG, Reciprocal Ventures, Jump Crypto, and Draper Dragon. More here ->

Colendi, a Turkish fintech, raised $65m in Series B funding at a $700m valuation. Citi Ventures led, and was joined by Migros Ticaret, Sepil Ventures, Re-Pie Asset Management, Finberg, and Hedef Holding. More here ->

Majority, an immigrant-focused neobank based in Miami, raised $12.5m in equity funding. Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson and Swedish serial founder Hjalmar Winbladh co-led, and were joined by Valar Ventures, Heartcore Capital, Avid Ventures, and iZettle co-founders Magnus Nilsson and Jacob de Geer. More here ->

Investtech

STRATxAI, a Irish investing platform, raised €1.5m from Delta Partners and Furthr VC. More here ->

Insuretech

Arbol, a climate-focused insurtech startup, has successfully raised $60 million in a Series B funding round. Giant Ventures and Opera Tech Ventures co-led the round, with participation from Mubadala Capital, joining existing investors Finch Finance and Space Capital. More here ->

Proptech

Oscar, a Portuguese home services app, raised over €6m. Lince Capital and Indico Capital Partners co-led, and were joined by Failup Ventures, Olisipo Way, Boost Capital Partners, and Quiet Capital. More here ->

From the Stash

Wefox Warns Investors of Potential Insolvency by Summer European insurer - Wefox, valued at $4.5 billion just two years ago, has alerted shareholders to a potential insolvency risk by the summer, according to information obtained by Sky News. More here ->

Farmers Insurance to Resume California Commercial Multi-Peril Business in August - Farmers Insurance has announced that it will resume accepting new commercial multi-peril applications in California starting August 1, 2024. More here ->

Ally Financial eyes AI-based inventory recommendations - Ally Financial is continuing to invest in technology and generative AI to offer improved car sale recommendations and inventory options for dealers.  The Detroit-based lender is looking into how to use technology to offer real-time car sale recommendations through the bank’s digital wholesale platform, SmartAuction, Sathish Muthukrishnan, chief information, data and digital officer at Ally Financial, told Bank Innovation. More here ->

Scotiabank reports rising digital banking adoption in Q2 - Scotiabank saw digital adoption among customers and its tech spend tick up during its fiscal second quarter 2024.  The Toronto-based bank reported active mobile users increased 10% year over year to 4.3 million, while its digital adoption rate increased 2.7% YoY to 64.5% in Canada in the quarter ended April 30. More here ->

Google Pay announced last week the rollout of several updates that capitalize on its integrations with other Google products, like Android and the Chrome browser - People who check out with Google Pay can now see their card benefits and perks before selecting a card. In addition, they can use “buy now, pay later” through partners like Affirm and Zip and can fill in their card details through biometrics or a PIN, instead of by entering their security code. The changes are designed to enhance the consumer experience of using Google Pay and make it a more competitive option against other payment methods.More here ->

More from the stash:

Stripe launches new payments and financing tools to accelerate UK business growth

Stripe Capital unlocks access to funding for the UK’s small businesses and creates new revenue streams for platforms

Electronic Payments InternationalRobert Prendergast

Prosecutors are examining financial transactions at Block, owner of Cash App and Square

Internal documents indicate Block processed crypto transactions for terrorist groups and Square processed transactions involving nations subject to economic sanctions.

NBC NewsGretchen Morgenson

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