Fintech Highlights - 9/28/2023

Apple almost enabled stock trading. Adyen is now a bank. Mesh raises a round. Here's what we've been watching this week 👇

Pinned to the top

Apple and Goldman Sachs were working on a stock-trading app for iPhones until markets soured last year.

The companies, which have a partnership for financial products, started developing the app in 2020 during a day-trading frenzy driven by pandemic boredom, low interest rates and a fascination with meme stocks. They had planned to roll it out last year but decided against it because Apple feared a backlash if customers lost money as stock prices tumbled.

Goldman has since backed away from consumer banking and has explored offloading its partnership with Apple. As a result, it is unclear whether the product will be unveiled as planned.

The BFD

This week, Adyen, the Dutch payments processor, announced that it had received approval for a UK banking licence. The move allows the firm to expand its portfolio of services and make a push on embedded financial products to UK businesses, targeting platforms like eBay and Etsy.

Why this is the BFD: Having held a licence as an acquiring bank in the Netherlands since 2017, Adyen will now have its eyes set on chipping away at US payments giant Stripe’s market share. 

The big picture: This is welcome good news for Adyen after it saw its shares drop to their lowest level in three years last month following a hiring spree and less-than-desirable profits. It’s not such good news, however, for Revolut, who has seen its own attempt at securing a UK banking licence rumble on for two years with no success in sight.

M&A

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is considering a sale of its student loan business, which includes a $10.2b loan portfolio, per Bloomberg.  More here ->

•Sixth Street Partners entered exclusive talks to acquire GreenSky, an Atlanta-based installment lending platform, from Goldman Sachs, per Reuters. Other members of the Sixth Street Group include PIMCO and KKR. A rival offer had been led by Apollo Global Management.  More here ->

Aviva (LSE: AV) agreed to buy British life insurer AIG Life UK from Corebridge Financial (NYSE: CRBG) for around £460m. More here ->

Fintech

Mesh, a fintech OS focused on digital asset transfers and account aggregation, raised $22m in Series A funding. Founded in Israel and now with headquarters in New York, Mesh Payments is one of a growing group of startups focused on helping companies manage their spend through automation.  More here ->

Vero Technologies, a New York-based financing and loan servicing platform, raised $8.5m in Series A funding. It combines software and support to enable financial institutions, wholesalers, and dealers to manage inventory loans in a single system.  More here ->

Flex (fka Flexbase), a Miami-based credit and finance management startup, raised $20m in equity funding. Flexbase develops a cash flow management platform to manage working capital. It offers paperwork automation, credit card issuance, one-click working capital, and more. More here ->

US fintech Ampla has secured $258M credit facility with Goldman Sachs and Atalaya. It offers financial solutions for emerging brands with easy integrations and seamless software that works with founders and operators to help them grow. More here ->

Layup, a Manasquan, N.J.-based challenger bank offering savings accounts for sports fans, raised $2.3m in seed funding. More here ->

ZayZoon, a Canadian earned wage access provider for SMBs, raised US$34.5m in Series B funding.  HR service providers can now offer their clients ZayZoom's Earned Wage Access solution with no time system requirement and full go-live potential within minutes. More here ->

Perfios, the Indian fintech, raises $229m, eyeing EU & NA expansion. Link → More here ->

Hyperjar, a London-based digital payments startup, raised $24m in Series A funding from Susquehanna Private Equity Investments and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan. https://axios.link/466ebcm More here ->

Flashwire Group, a Singaporean digital bank focused on crypto, raised $10m in Series A funding from Legend Trading, Cobo, GATE.io, VeChain, CyberX and SuperChain Capital. www.flashwire.com More here ->

Swiss-based B2B fintech platform GenTwo has closed a US$15m Series A funding round. The company offers a B2B fintech platform specialising in the securitisation of bankable and non-bankable assets.  More here ->

Swedish fintech Treyd secured $12M funding for expansion and product development of it's supplier payment solution and platform. More here ->

Cleafy, a Milan-based fraud prevention company for digital banking, raised €10m led by United Ventures.  More here ->

Curve, a London-based app that connects all of a user's credit and debit cards into one, raised £58m in Series C extension funding.  More here ->

Mundi, a fintech platform for Mexican importers and exporters, raised $15 million. The company is focused on factoring for cross-border trade. More here ->

Mintago, a British financial wellbeing startup, raised $4.75m. Mintago helps businesses save on national insurance while improving the financial wellbeing of employees through smarter pension planning. More here ->

Lupiya, a Zambian neobank, raised $8.3m in Series A funding. Lupiya is an online marketplace for microloans. It is a branch-less, innovative digital microfinance platform that leverages technology to make the process of borrowing simpler and easier. More here ->

Insuretech

Authentic, a New York-based embedded insurance startup focusing on small businesses, raised $5.5m in seed funding . It offers a turnkey insurance platform that allows vertical SaaS companies, franchises, and other groups to reap the benefits of captive insurance  More here ->

Openly, a Boston-based homeowners insurance startup, raised $100m in Series D funding.  Openly says its tool can provide independent insurance agents a quote in 15 seconds with nothing more than a customer’s name, date of birth and address. More here ->

Stoïk, a French provider of cyber insurance solutions to SMBs, raised €10m. Stoïk focuses specifically on SMEs as small companies are quite vulnerable when it comes to cyber attacks, such as ransomware. It provides a hotline that customers can contact whenever they are facing a cyber incident. More here ->

Bolttech, a Singaporean insurtech, raised $50m in new Series B funding.  More here ->

From the Stash

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Once valued at over $2 billion, rent-to-own startup Divvy Homes conducted its third round of layoffs in a year’s time.

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While we would love for all startups to succeed, the reality is that the vast majority fail. But failure is a part of life, and many founders who don’t succeed once do try, try, and try again.

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Fintech faces its reckoning: It’s only a matter of time until the house of cards collapses | TechCrunch

The fintech business models that wooed consumers look increasingly tenuous. It’s only a matter of time until the house of cards collapses.

TechCrunchMichael Sindicich

MobileCoin, which powers Signal’s anonymous crypto payments, appoints new CEO | TechCrunch

MobileCoin, the startup known for building Signal’s crypto payments feature, has appointed a new CEO as it works on expanding its encrypted money transfer

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