Fintech Highlights - 8/31/2021

👋  Thanks again for subscribing.

So this is going to be a lot of buy-now-pay-later - buckle up….. 👇

Pinned to the Top

Stockholm-based Klarna, the oldest and biggest of the payment firms dedicated to buy now, pay later services, isn’t a household name in the U.S.

But that may soon change.

Klarna has been going directly after deals with large U.S. retailers such as Macy’s, Sephora and Nike.

Targeting big retailers—rather than focusing on deals with firms like Shopify and BigCommerce, the gateways to millions of small online merchants—is at the core of Klarna’s U.S. growth strategy.

The 15-year-old company has raised $3.9 billion in funding, at a valuation of $46 billion, from SoftBank, Sequoia Capital and others. Now it’s seeking to gain visibility and customers in the U.S., where it’s up against Affirm, Square with Afterpay, and potentially Apple.

David Sykes, who heads Klarna’s North American operations, sees a “land grab” that Klarna is racing to win. “Twelve months from now, there will not be a major retailer that’s not offering buy now, pay later,” he said in an interview last week.

Watch Klarna....trust me.

The BFD

So unless you are living under a rock - you've heard....Amazon and Affirm partnered up on a Buy Now Pay Later Solution for Amazon checkout.

Affirm’s buy now, pay later checkout option will be available to certain Amazon customers in the U.S. starting last week with a broader rollout in the coming months.

The partnership will let Amazon customers split purchases of $50 or more into smaller, monthly installments.

This is the latest sign of the booming installment lending space as younger consumers move towards these alternative lines of credit.

Why Amazon didn't just push their own solution forward, no idea. All I know is Affirm has mastered the holy grail of product AND distribution. And just landed on its wheels after another masterful jump.

Fintechs

Origin, a San Francisco-based employee financial wellness platform, raised $56 million in Series B funding. Employees at companies like DocuSign, Zynga, Nextdoor and Blend use Origin to understand and utilize their compensation and benefits package, simulate equity growth scenarios, complete their taxes, plan for retirement, pay off debt and much more. More here ->

Remitly, a Seattle-based digital remittance company, filed for an IPO. Remitly’s mobile technology lets people send and receive money across borders, including immigrants in the U.S. and U.K. who support families back home in countries such as the Philippines, India, El Salvador, and others. More here ->

Syndicate, a decentralized investing platform, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Crypto is coming for investing, and not just as an asset in which to invest. Syndicate's mission is to make it easier to create DAOs, or decentralized autonomous organizations, which basically enable groups of people to invest collectively and transparently. More here ->

Prosus — the Dutch tech giant that bundles together Naspers’ fintech, e-commerce and other international investments and businesses outside of South Africa (including a big stake in Tencent) — announced that it would pay $4.7 billion to acquire BillDesk, a payments provider based in India. More here ->

Hg agreed to buy a majority stake in Riskalyze, an Auburn, Calif.-based risk analysis platform for financial advisors, from FTV Capital for a reported $300 million-plus. More here ->

One, a startup that aims to bring “all-in-one banking” to the middle class, announced today that it has raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding. Over the past 11 months, the startup has worked to enhance its core product offering, launching overdraft protection, an auto-save feature that rewards automatic savings contributions at 3.00% APY, cash flow-based credit lines and a credit builder product to help its customers build financial health. One claims that it has helped its users automatically save nearly $20 million collectively since its launch, a number that grows daily. More here ->

Taktile, a new startup that is working on a machine learning platform for financial services companies, as raised a $4.7 million seed round. Taktile aims to differentiate itself from competitors by making it way easier to get started and switch to AI-powered models. More here ->

From the Stash

Final vote delayed for Korea’s plan to ban Google and Apple in-app payment rules — techcrunch.com As Apple and Google continue to face increasing scrutiny over the rules they set for how third-party apps in their app stores charge for services, a significant development in that story is going down in South Korea. South Korea’s parliamentary committee passed on Wednesday (25 August) a landmark bill to prevent Google and Apple from […]

Voice Technology Booms Throughout Pandemic: Where Does It Go From Here? — news.crunchbase.com The last year has shown us just how important a role voice technology plays in our lives. From freeing up valuable time for our busiest health professionals to supporting remote and hands-free interactions for consumers, there’s a reason voice has boomed. But what comes next? Behavioral Signals' CEO Rana Gujral lays out the future of voice technology.

Reports / Webinars

FTT Embedded Finance - North America - Fintech Talents — www.fintechtalents.com FTT Embedded Finance North America is a virtual event exploring the future of financial services & building an exciting new community.

Podcasts

The Leadership in Insurance Podcast with Christian Macht — preview.mailerlite.com

In this episode, Alex speaks to Christian Macht, CEO, Element Insurance, the Berlin-based start-up and leader in insurance digitization.

Recommended

I get a lot of content from AXIOS. Who are crushing the daily newsletter game. Sign up for one of their excellent newsletters such as Pro Rata by Dan Primack, What’s Next and more -  today.

—

☑️ Thanks for reading. Please ask your friends, colleagues and others to sign up.

If you have any companies or news to share - use the form

AND - if we’re not already connected - let’s do it.