San Fran money manager Empower Finance lands $20m Series A
“There’s growing demand in the market for financial knowledge to be more practical,” says CEO.
Business-to-Consumer/B2C
Aussie neobank Hay chooses Mambu’s cloud banking platform
Mambu landed two other Asia-Pacific deals this month.
Standard Chartered unveils new Hong Kong challenger bank Mox
The bank’s card will be numberless to prevent fraud.
Family finance app Jassby raises $5m, anticipates $20m round later this year
CEO says rounds will drive fintech closer towards 1 million users within a year.
Money management app Emma bags $2.5m in seed funding
The fintech connects users’ bank accounts under a single dashboard.
Starling Bank amps up advertising efforts with Team GB win
The bank is offering every British athlete an account with £100 in credit.
Is the future of banking not open but closed?
Europe and USA have to create their own ecosystems to compete with the East.
Visa partners with Clinc to offer clients conversational AI
The Michigan-based firm serves 35 million end users.
Dzing challenger bank launches beta in UK
It has been in the works since October 2018.
Australian neobank Xinja launches $33m Series D with customer buy in opportunity
The challenger is offering a minimum investment of AUD 20,400 ($14,000).
China’s Ant Financial buys small stake in Swedish unicorn Klarna
Klarna is already embedded into Alibaba’s AliExpress.
ATB Financial’s digital bank Brightside launches in Canada
The neobank is focused on “making saving easy”.
How AWSM Bank plans to turn teenage financial literacy into a reality
The neobank is “very close” to its Q2 launch this year.
Refinitiv buys US wealth management fintech Scivantage
The deal amount is yet to be disclosed.
Santander’s PagoFX to launch in Spring and rival TransferWise
The venture now has a 50-person London-based team.
PPRO gives Europe’s merchants access to Chinese shoppers with UnionPay
The Chinese ecommerce market is currently valued at more than $1 trillion.
UK paytech Checkout.com buys French start-up ProcessOut
Checkout.com buys another module in the payments process.
UniCredit finds two new partners in Tel Aviv’s PayKey and equensWorldline
PayKey is a social app payments integrator, and equensWorldline a pan-European payments processor.
bunq CEO: “It’s a marathon not a sprint, we run our own race”
“I like to think of myself as a simple entrepreneur,” says Niknam.
UK fintech B-Social raises £7.8m ahead of ‘Kroo’ rebrand
The fintech has “significantly progressed” with its pre-application for a UK bank licence
Europe’s joint largest fintech start-up Klarna reports its first annual loss
The operational loss is down to its US expansion and its set up of a Berlin-based tech hub.
BBVA joins $1.3m round for UK gig economy start-up Wollit
It’s one of the first to evolve out of BBVA’s ‘Venture Creation Partnership’ with Anthemis.
Canada’s RBC to create US digital bank for “super-affluent” consumers
It will arrive in the US later in 2020 or early next year.
US gets new challenger Level Bank by Zero creators
CEO Bryce Galen says the new venture has “the highest APY-deposit account in the US”.
Inaccuracies of facial recognition: security, prejudice, pollution and fashion
The issue of accuracy is one which is often cited but rarely explained.
Aussie challenger Hay launched by UK’s Shawbrook Bank ex-employees
The challenger is headquartered in New South Wales with offices in London and Belfast.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 14 February 2020
FinTech Future’s weekly news round-up.
Saffron Building Society selects Burrow mortgage application tech
Saffron is the first user of the Burrow system due for launch later this year.
German challenger N26 pulls out of UK ‘over Brexit’
N26 has been operating under “passporting” rules since October 2018.
Tandem Bank anticipates fresh £50m funding round
The figure raised is closer to £50 million, instead of the expected £100 million.
Starling Bank raises £60m from existing investors Merian and JTC
The round brings the neobank’s total funds so far to £323 million.
Ecommerce firm Dot lands $8m seed funding
The start-up builds ecommerce solutions for brick and mortar stores.
Rabobank spins out SurePay as independent company
Payments firm hailed as innovation success story.
Fintech in the next decade: The intersection of what’s possible and what people want
Before we start to look at what the next 10 years hold, it’s worth taking a quick look back.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 03 February 2020
FinTech Future’s weekly news round-up.
PaySend and JS Bank create freelancer-focused wallet in Pakistan
Pakistan is the fourth fastest growing global economy for freelance worker revenues.
Hong Kong’s virtual challenger Za Bank selects Fiserv for card payments
Fiserv’s VisionPlus will power Za Bank’s entire card payment lifecycle.
Swedish consumer champion Woilà raises $3.1m
“You have most likely been screwed,” says co-founder on people’s previous purchases.
Aussie neobank Xinja hits $100m in deposits after 19 days
The challenger expected to do $120 million in deposits in a year.
PayPal users lose £1m to fraudsters posing as buyers
A total of 3,059 crime reports were submitted to Action Fraud regarding the scam.
