Fintech Highlights - 9/28/2021

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Pinned to the Top

PayPal has been talking about its “super app” plans for some time, having recently told investors its upcoming digital wallet and payments app had been given a go for launch.

Last week, the first version of that app is officially being introduced, offering a combination of financial tools including direct deposit, bill pay, a digital wallet, peer-to-peer payments, shopping tools, crypto capabilities and more.

Recently PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster that “No consumer is going to have 40 or 50 apps on their phone,” adding that “there must be super apps that come together to consolidate all of your financial instruments. And by the way, those financial instruments include rewards points, and the ability to choose buy now, pay later, or even use QR codes.”

This approach has been the norm in Asia for some time, but very few platform plays have taken off at that scale in North America.

Will PayPal's effort succeed? We'll see.

You can read more here ->

The BFD

Remitly, a Seattle-based digital remittance company, raised $301 million in its IPO.

It priced at $43 (above range) for a $6.9 billion valuation.

• Why it's the BFD: In a vote of confidence for more modern remittance technology, shares of popped more than 20% initially.

• Pre-IPO investors included PayU (23.9% pre-IPO stake), Stripe (12.1%), Threshold Ventures (9.4%), Generation Investment Management (8%) and Trilogy Equity (6.2%). The company had raised around $480 million.

• The bottom line: Remitly is able to operate with a lower cost structure than traditional players because of its digitally focused product. And in doing so has the confidence of investors that it can continue it's raid growth and compete with traditional remittance options.

Fintechs

Airwallex, an Australian cross-border payments business, raised $200 million. Airwallex offers infrastructure for business banking services with a focus on small and medium enterprise customers. In addition, it has packaged up that infrastructure into a set of APIs that a variety of other companies use to provide financial services directly to their customers without needing to build those services themselves — the so-called “embedded finance” approach. More here ->

TrueLayer, a London-based API platform for open banking, raised $130 million. Services that TrueLayer currently include payments, payouts, user account information and user verification; while end users range from neobanks, crypto startups and wealth management apps through to e-commerce companies, marketplaces and gaming platforms. And the startup says it now has “millions” of consumers making open banking transactions enabled by TrueLayer’s technology, and some 10,000 developers are building services based on open banking standards. More here ->

MarketFinance, a British lending platform for SMBs, raised £280 million. MarketFinance began life several years ago as MarketInvoice, with its basic business model focused on providing short-term loans to a given SMB against the value of its unpaid invoices. Over time, the startup could see a larger opportunity in providing financing that was of bigger sums and covered more ambitious business expansion goals. More here ->

Bilt Rewards, a loyalty program for property renters to earn points on rent with no fees and build a path toward homeownership, announced a round of $60 million. “Bilt has transformed the value proposition for residents that want to use a credit card and for landlords that want to accept them." More here ->

Kavak, a Mexico City-based startup that operates a pre-owned car marketplace in Latin America,, raised $700 million. Put simply, Kavak is an online marketplace that aims to bring transparency, security and access to financing to the used car market. It promises to ensure “reliable” transactions that mitigate fraud and aims to raise used car standards from a mechanical and safety point of view by using artificial intelligence and data technology.  More here ->

ZestMoney, ZestMoney, a Bangalore-based buy now, pay later platform, said on Wednesday it has raised $50 million in a new financing round from Australia’s Zip as the Indian firm looks to double down on a trend that has shown early signs of traction in several global markets.  More here ->

Awning, a real estate brokerage for individual investors, raised $9.3m. Awning aims to make the process less intimidating through a platform designed to allow individuals to invest in single-family rental homes not just in the cities or states in which they live but in other markets remotely as well. More here ->

Vyne, aLondon-based finch startup is officially opening for business, and announcing seed funding of $15.5 million to help it grow. Vyne has been quietly building its platform — which targets merchants to help them build open banking-based payment services — for the past 18 months. More here ->

Ocrolus, an automation platform that it says analyzes financial documents with over 99% accuracy, has raised $80 million toward its mission of helping lenders automate the underwriting process. More here ->

Cobo, a Singapore-based crypto asset management platform, raised $40 million to accelerate the development of decentralized finance as a service (DFaaS). The company will use its proceeds for the development of DeFi as a service (DFaaS) infrastructure and its existing custody services such as wallet as a service (WaaS), trading and staking as a service (StaaS). More here ->

Insuretechs

Just Insure, an LA-based pay-per-mile auto insurer, raised $8 million. Los Angeles-based Just says it uses telematics “to reward safe drivers and reduce insurer bias” by looking at factors such as how, when and where customers drive, rather than factors such as ZIP code or marital status as most traditional insurers do. More here ->

Osano, an Austin, Texas-based risk and compliance startup, raised $11 million. Osano is a software-as-a-service platform that helps companies monitor and manage their risk and compliance with privacy laws, like Europe’s GDPR and California’s CCPA, which grant users access to and more control over their personal information. More here ->

From the Stash

The Most Important iPhone Ever — www.asymco.com Just recently, the 2 billionth iPhone was sold. Unlike the 1 billionth, there was no announcement, no celebration. Partly this is because Apple stopped reporting unit shipments, but partly it’…

Nigerian businesses can now accept Apple Pay on Paystack — techcrunch.com Paystack, the African fintech company that powers and processes payments for businesses, today announced that it is launching Pay with Apple Pay on its platform. The company, in a statement, called the integration “the fastest, secure way for Nigerian businesses to accept international payments.” Apple Pay, Apple’s mobile payments and digital wallet service, provides users […]

The Big Winners In Mobile Money Transfer Service Remitly’s IPO — news.crunchbase.com Seattle-based money transfer company Remitly will raise around $300 million through its IPO after pricing its shares above the expected range at $43, valuing the company at $6.9 billion.

Reports / Webinars

Best of Dreamforce — www.salesforce.com

Catch the best of Dreamforce at any time and from anywhere. Hear the latest news and announcements from Salesforce and the most inspiring stories of customer success and transformation from Marc Benioff, Salesforce executives, global leaders, and changemakers.

Taking the Financial Services Customer Experience to the Next Level — www.salesforce.com Learn how a comprehensive view of the customer journey can help companies improve their experience.

Technology Report 2021 — www.bain.com Bain’s annual Technology Report examines how companies in all sectors can unleash unprecedented innovation and growth in the decade ahead.

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