FinTech Futures: Top five stories of the week – 19 August 2022
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week.
Peer-to-Peer/P2P
P2P lender Assetz Capital agrees £200m funding partnership with Aeon
Over the next three years, Aeon will pour the cash into SME loans arranged by Assetz Capital.
Singapore-based Robocash Group appoints Natalya Ischenko as new CEO
Ischenko will take over from founder Sergey Sedov, who will remain in the position of chairman of the board.
Robinhood to cut 23% of staff, crypto unit fined $30m
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev says previous staff cuts announced in April “did not go far enough”.
Funding Circle hires Bruno Tavares as new VP of engineering
Tavares has more than 20 years worth of experience across technology and engineering.
Remittance start-up SendSprint launches in UK in partnership with Flutterwave
Flutterwave will provide the infrastructure to enable SendSprint to process cross-border transactions.
Wyre partners MoneyGram to allow crypto-to-cash conversion
It’s hoped the integration will address a “major pain point for users” in the crypto ecosystem.
Paytech Flutterwave hires Gurbhej Dhillon as new CTO
As CTO, Dhillon will be tasked with developing the fintech platform’s architecture and infrastructure.
Mambu supplies core banking tech to Western Union’s new mobile app, WU+
Western Union’s WU+ digital banking app is now live in Germany and Romania.
Fintech app for teens Copper secures $29m Series A
The latest round takes Copper’s total capital raised to date to $42.3 million.
MoneyGram sued by CFPB and NYAG for allegedly “leaving families high and dry”
MoneyGram responded to the “baseless claims”, adding it is “fully prepared to vigorously defend itself”.
Private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners to acquire MoneyGram for $1.8bn
The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2022.
Paytech Rêv launches X World Wallet “super-app” in US
The X World Wallet is Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay compatible.
Lydia to white-label Bitpanda platform for digital assets
Partnership will provide investment opportunities to Lydia’s 5 million customers via its app.
Zopa hires former Monzo executive Robinson as new chief risk officer
Robinson spent two years with Monzo, and 15 years at Capital One.
Sun Life taps AWS as cloud tech provider in digital transformation push
The Canadian firm says the partnership will expedite cloud adoption and boost innovation.
UK P2P lender The House Crowd’s collapse a result of governance failings
The House Crowd had struggled to raise capital.
New fintech Wisely Money aims to connect lenders and borrowers
New start-up offers an “all-in-one” app for short term lending.
Kiwi payments start-up Dosh selects Software Group
Dosh is the first local mobile wallet solution in New Zealand.
Auxmoney secures €250m in debt financing from Citi and Chenavari
New round tips total raised by auxmoney above $3 billion.
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.
Rush Gold launches mobile card to pay with gold in real-time
The Mastercard offering is powered by EML Payments.
Indonesian fintech Alami acquires rural bank in $10m deal
Alami is helping the bank keep up with capital requirements.
Banking Tech Awards 2020 Winner: BTB – Best Use of IT in Private Banking/Wealth Management
BTB’s business model has brought annual average returns of 7% in the last seven years with low defaults.
UK Black-owned challenger Atmen to launch in March
The start-up is now looking to raise £5 million from institutional investors.
SoLo Funds snaps up $10m Series A for P2P lending
SoLo brought in $12m, which includes a $2.8m seed round and a series of convertible notes.
Asia-Pacific fintechs Volopay and Microleap land funding
Singapore-based Volopay and Malaysia-based Microleap have raised $2.1 million and $3.3 million, respectively.
Shariah P2P fintech Alami raises $20m in debt financing
Alami hopes to distribute trillions to SMEs and micro businesses.
Chipper Cash raises $30m in Series B featuring Jeff Bezos VC
The Amazon founder’s personal VC participated in Chipper’s latest funding
LendingClub shuts retail P2P offering as it focuses on institutional investors
The fintech allowed consumers to invest in Notes, corresponding to fractions of loans.
CleverCards CEO: There’s only going to be one winning challenger bank
CleverCard’s Kealan Lennon reckons the market isn’t big enough for so many neobanks.
Ex-Starling CTO’s start-up Ziglu launches crypto P2P payments
Ziglu insures digital assets against cyberattacks.
Zopa launches its first fixed-rate savings accounts
The range of accounts pay 1.05%, all the way up to 1.3%.
China culls almost 6,000 P2P lenders in industry crackdown
A two-year programme has left only 29 firms in the country.
Chinese fintech Lufax targets $3bn in US IPO
Sources highlight that political tensions between the US and China could affect its listing plans.
Islamic P2P lender Qardus launches in UK for SMEs
The new P2P lender offers unsecured loans of up to £100,000.
Mastercard invests in long-term fintech partner Verestro
The fintech has worked with Mastercard since 2011.
Lending Works acquired by Intriva Capital
Intriva has bought 100% of Lending Work’s equity for an undisclosed price.
MoneyGram makes another move into South Korea
The remittance firm wants a “leading” position in South Korea’s P2P remittance market.
