Square goes on hiring spree ahead of new banking product launches
Square is “building a suite of new financial products”.
Business-to-Consumer/B2C
Danish neobank Lunar acquires Swedish lender Lendify
The deal, which is pending regulatory approval, is expected to close by mid-May.
MVB Bank snaps up majority stake in Indianapolis fintech Trabian
The value of the stake remains undisclosed.
Hospitality payment app Sunday raises record €20m seed round for Europe
The start-up claims to cut the costs for operators to 0.5% per transaction.
UK challenger Starling lands £50m investment from Goldman Sachs
Starling now claiming to hold a 6% share of the UK SME banking market.
Robinhood calls Massachusetts regulator “elitist” for trying to revoke its licence
“The complaint reflects the old way of thinking,” says Robinhood.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 16 April 2021
To stories from across the fintech world, featuring Coinbase, Pine Labs, Ozon and more.
Better.com’s CPO accused of bullying days after $500m SoftBank investment
The CPO joined Better in 2017 from Goldman Sachs.
Coinbase IPO values hits $99.6bn valuation with shares up 52% on debut
Shares closed below $330, up a lesser 32%.
LA fintech Ensemble is helping divorced parents navigate their kids’ finances
App features range from organising one-off expenses, to saving for college tuition.
Cuba’s only telco ETECSA granted payment provider licence
The firm can now convert customers’ balances into electronic money.
Fair CMO Toni Harrison: Oppressors can’t be the underbanked’s saviours
Instead of shrinking, the racial wealth gap has only continued to swell and expand.
Emirati tycoon Mohamed Alabbar to chair UAE challenger Zand
Zand is still waiting on its application for a full UAE banking licence.
Finder snaps up shuttered Singapore fintech GoBear
COVID-19 took a toll on GoBear’s capital reserves and certain financial products.
Dutch personal finance app Paynote goes live with beta
Unlike its rivals, Paynote launches without bank support.
Top five tips as your fintech company explores European expansion
US fintech companies recognise the potential buying power of the European Union’s 550 million people.
Moneycorp continues exec shake-up with new ex-Vocalink vice chairman
Yates previously headed up Vocalink, the fintech Mastercard bought in 2017.
German challenger pockid targeting Gen Z launches this month
Users can either sign up to Neo Beginner, or Neo Pro.
France’s central bank warns fintech industry of rules when using term “neobank”
The industry has long called out the interchangeable use of the word “neobank”.
Acorns bags second acquisition of 2021 with AI start-up Pillar
Pillar helps students manage loan debt.
Swiss neobank Alpian lands $18m Series B ahead of 2021 launch
The raise comes less than a year after its Series A.
Plaid announces $425m Series D with three new investors
“Mobile banking is no longer the realm of start-ups”.
Two UK towns to open all-in-one Banking Hubs pilot stores
The towns are two of nine across the UK to get one.
UK energy provider Octopus launches Moneycoach
It intends to invest £10 million into Moneycoach to scale the offering.
Airtel Africa sells 25% stake in mobile money arm to Mastercard for $100m
Airtel Africa hopes to list the mobile money business as a separate entity.
Clubhouse introduces tipping for content creators with Stripe
The one-year-old start-up has raised around $100 million to date.
WhatsApp Pay finally gets greenlight from Brazil’s central bank
WhatsApp is only allowed to do P2P payments in Brazil.
FTC shutters San Fran fintech Beam for not delivering on 7% interest rate
“Don’t lie about your customers’ ability to get their money when they need it.”
ICYMI funding round-up: Butter, Spiral, SadaPay, OVEX, Ensemble & more
We’ve put together an “In Case You Missed It” (ICYMI) funding list.
Global fintech M&A round-up Q1 2021
Whilst some big deals never closed in Q1, plenty others took their place.
Santander launches Prosper open banking-powered PFM app
Roll-out of Prosper has already started in Denmark.
Ripple snaps up 40% stake in Asian cross-border payments firm Tranglo
Tranglo’s global network spans more than 100 countries.
Tide thinks bank data fees could speed up the UK’s open banking adoption
The sector has long felt divided over the progress of open banking adoption.
Box: Insurance isn’t just about premium rates, it’s about the entire user experience process
Vaneet Grewal, Box’s financial services managing director, talks to FinTech Futures.
UK gold wallet Glint goes crowdfunding with £6m “hard cap”
The start-up is raising to fuel its “growth phase”.
Visa pilots US stablecoin with Crypto.com to settle transactions
Other incumbents have moved to support cryptocurrency too.
Commerzbank signs five-year Google Cloud deal to migrate banking apps
“Google will now offer the bank a deeper set of platform services”.
Digital challenger Minna Bank to launch in Japan by May
Minna will offer both consumer-facing and white labelled products.
Spac led by ex-Commerzbank CEO trading on Amsterdam’s Euronext
The blank-check firm has already sold 41.5 million shares at €10 each.
Major US banks invest $40m in Black-owned challenger Greenwood
Backers include JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and Bank of America.
