Be Money looks to tap America’s 11m LGBT+ community
The start-up is planning to set up shop in Los Angeles.
Business-to-Consumer/B2C
Payfone identity verification firm lands $100m
The firm uses mobile data to create a “trust score”.
Santander gets US challenger bank Upgrade to unicorn status
The San Francisco-based challenger has landed a $40 million Series D.
Kazakhstan’s ecommerce banking app Kaspi quietly expands in CIS region
Kaspi made more than half a billion last year in profits.
Santander’s PagoFX rolls out business offering and adds more currencies
Eight currencies from the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have been added.
Italian neobank illimity launches its open banking platform
The bank launched just nine months ago.
RBC-backed start-up Mydoh launches banking offering for kids
The app and smart card launched more than two weeks ago.
Square buys up Spanish P2P payment app Verse
Verse will join forces with Square’s Cash App.
Société Générale launches new Banxup account for teens
The bank has also overhauled its app for adults.
American Express first foreign credit card player to launch in China
AmEx won initial approval in 2018 for a bank card clearing licence in China.
CaixaBank starts rolling out 100 facial recognition ATMs
Branches in Barcelona and Valencia already have the machines.
Deutsche Bank to create new international private bank
The new global private bank will likely hold roughly €250 billion.
Klarna dips its toe in the savings market with Raisin
Offerings range to terms of up to 48 months.
Fintech pirkx lands £960,000 and gains former Google exec
The UK company is expanding to Australia, South Africa and the US.
Goldman Sachs closes Marcus to new UK users amid deposit surge
Since January, Marcus has seen more than £8 billion inflow.
Sberbank partners with Visa and Russian supermarket for ‘Take&Go’ store
The bank says 1,000 users have downloaded the app.
Indian digital wallet LovePay targets Gen Z market
The fintech already has more than 100,00 sign-ups.
Former Diamond Bank CEO launches Nigerian start-up Sparkle
Sparkle already has a banking license from Nigeria’s central bank.
Halal fintech Wahed lands $25m from Saudi Aramco’s venture arm
The Islamic finance industry is set to grow to $3.8tn by 2022.
TransferWise hits £2 billion in customer deposits
Users can now send money with just a phone number.
UK fintech Minted to launch in July with 2021 digital bank plans
The fintech is sharia-compliant and follows AAOIFI rules on gold.
Singapore develops “fairness metrics” for AI adoption in finance
The metrics will inform credit risk scoring and customer marketing.
Onfido takes UK one step closer to digital ID
The fintech’s sandbox is regulated by the FCA.
UK e-commerce bank start-up YAN set to launch in October
The fintech says it will donate “at least” 10% of its revenue to charity.
Taiwanese challenger Next Bank to launch this year on Temenos
Chunghwa Telecom owns a 41.9% stake in Next Bank.
Varo raises $241m Series D with new investor Gallatin Point Capital
To date, the fintech has raised $419.4 million.
Libra’s Second Wind
Some say slow progress of blockchain adoption is not just because of regulatory hurdles.
Nubank soars ahead with 25m customers
In Q1 of 2020, Nubank acquired 42,000 users each day.
Earnings on demand fintech Hastee rolls out Visa debit card
“Users visit our app on average one and a half times a day,” says CTO.
Ugandan multi-currency wallet Eversend crowdfunds $706,000
The start-up has issued 8.74% in equity to investors.
Financial text message platform Stackin’ lands $12.6m
The fintech says it has more than one million subscribers in just one year.
Pay.UK rolls out framework for Request to Pay services
More than 400 organisations were involved in the open sandbox.
bunq’s banking app gets a ‘swiss army knife’ style revamp
The “new-look” ‘bunq V3’ banking app is in beta.
TSB partners with Adobe and saves on 15,000 branch visits
The bank has spent 8 weeks digitising 80,000 customer interactions.
Samsung unveils ‘Samsung Money’ with SoFi
User deposits will be FDIC insured for up to $1.5 million.
Standard Chartered to launch new savings product, calls for help from fintechs
The bank has set a ‘challenge’ for start-ups on its ‘Fintech Bridge’ network.
China’s largest bank rolls out more deposit services with Alipay
Alipay has been collaborating with ICBC since March 2005.
Dubai fintech Jingle Pay to launch digital banking in UAE
The start-up brands itself as a ‘Super App Neo Bank’.
India among major markets to see increase in ATM usage over 2019
Research suggests ATMs are still popular tools for financial inclusion.
How VibePay is quietly changing the UK fintech Twitter game
British grime MC JME donated £1,200 to the Vibe community last week during one of its social media events.
