Welcome back to The Interchange, where we take a look at the latest fintech news from the past week. If you’d like to receive The Interchange straight to your inbox every Sunday, head here to sign up!
Interrupt!
Last week, our team was at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which featured a stage dedicated to fintech for the first time (!) and dozens of Battlefield 200 companies in the fintech space. Christine even moderated a fintech pitch session! Unfortunately, Mary Ann was unable to attend due to a family issue, and after spending months leading programming for the fintech scene, she was truly heartbroken. But it was all a huge success with the room so packed for the fireside talks and panels that people had to stand in the back to watch them! Overall, there were an estimated 13,000 attendees at the event, a significant increase even from last year.
One-on-one talks on the fintech scene included Robin Hood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, Tartan founder Zach Perret, payment.com President and Chief Operating Officer Céline Dufétel. There was also a panel of bankers who discussed a post-Silicon Valley Bank world. In reality, the SVB is still alive and well.
Here are the stories that summarized the highlights from those chats and panels:
Battlefield 20
MakersHub decrypts accounts payable data so construction companies don’t have to
Battlefield 200
Kenyan fintech FlexPay is helping shoppers save for future purchases
Don’t want that traveler stipend? Bundl lets employees choose their own company benefits
Image credits: Ian Tuttle (Opens in a new window) / Fake images
How to make health savings work for you
This week I wrote about truemeda company that wants to put food before medicine.
Calley Means and Justin Mares founded the payments integration company last year to make it easier for consumers to pay for healthy foods, exercise and supplements using their tax-free health savings accounts or flexible spending account dollars. And with regulatory compliance.
Most patients need some type of letter of medical necessity to use HSA or FSA dollars on items outside of procedures or medications. Taking advantage of telehealth laws, Truemed collects certain data points and then provides that letter seamlessly and asynchronously without a doctor visit.
Around 140 billion dollars are deposited in these accounts, mostly unused, and the The IRS increased the amount You can contribute to health savings accounts up to $4,150 for an individual and $8,300 for a family. This is expected to allow people to put these dollars to work more easily.
The company launched this week with $3 billion in gross merchandise volume already racked up by companies like CrossFit, Magic Mind and Kos. It also received $3.5 million in SAFE (simple agreement for future shares) from investors including functional medicine pioneer Mark Hyman and the founders of Thrive Market, Eight Sleep and Levels.
I corresponded separately with Kevin Robertson, CEO and Chief Revenue Officer of HSA Bank, a division of Webster Bank, about how HSA and FSA benefits are being used as a retention piece for technology companies.
One trend Robertson is seeing is that employers are increasingly matching employees’ HSA and FSA contributions on a pre-tax basis. There is also interest in doing more of what is called a lifestyle spending account, currently more popular in Canada.
LSAs are not pre-tax dollars, although he notes that these particular accounts provide a more personalized benefits experience. For example, an employer can designate these accounts to be used for pet care, spa treatments, and even fitness reimbursements.
“In today’s tight labor market, more companies are enhancing their core benefit offerings to present themselves as an attractive place to work,” Robertson said. “This is particularly true for tech companies that are typically known for flashy perks like free lunches, casual attire, and happy hours.” Read more. — Cristina
Other weekly news
Mercury said last week that it has transitioned Mercury Raise from a seasonal, cohort-based program to an “always on” platform, featuring new tools, programs and networks. The company told TechCrunch via email that three years ago it introduced Mercury Raise as a program to help founders raise their seed or Series A rounds. It added: “After working with thousands of founders, we started to notice that they were constantly finding obstacles focused on three different topics: raising money, finding a community, and getting expert guidance. Read TechCrunch’s latest coverage of Mercury here.
Bow revealed a new bank account called Platinum, with its CEO telling TechCrunch via email: “The really exciting part about Arc Platinum is that it is the first and only operating account created at a ‘too big to fail’ banking partner. We built this partnership secretly over the last 6 months, after receiving feedback from thousands of founders and boards of directors who were forced to choose between the security of the world’s largest banks (JPM, Goldman, Citi, BofA) and the experience and user performance. available exclusively through B2B Fintechs (Brex, Arc, Mercury). Thanks to Arc Platinum, startups get security and UX for the first time in a digital bank.” Read TechCrunch’s latest coverage of Arc here.
Brex introduced what it described as “a proactive assistant that gives each employee their own EA (expense assistant).” Via email, the company told us that: “Brex Assistant uses the power of natural language, autonomous ai agents, and expense data to help employees submit expenses compliantly and efficiently. With Brex Assistant, all employees now get the same “swipe and forget” corporate card experience as your executive team. As a result, finance teams can also expect greater productivity across the business.” Read TechCrunch’s latest Brex coverage here.
Other articles we are reading:
Block shares have been lagging lately. Will management restructuring provide the necessary boost?
Solid and fake income figures; a special committee is appointed to investigate, sources reveal (We covered Solid’s $63 million Series B round in 2022.)
Nova Credit partners with HSBC to share cross-border credit
Varo Aims to Displace Venmo and Cash App Volume with New P2P Feature
Apple officially launches Tap to Pay in Brazil as international expansion continues
Tipalti lights up Tipalti card and expense solution
Fundraising and mergers and acquisitions
Seen on TechCrunch
ZayZoon, which lends money to its employees for a fee, raises $34.5 million
IFC Leads $5M Extension Round in Ivory Coast SaaS e-commerce platform ANKA
As seen elsewhere
shop-financial-hub-for-smbs/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Flex Raises $20M Equity and $100M Debt Fundraising to Build Comprehensive Financial Center for SMEs
Allocate closes a strategic capital of 10 million dollars
Dallas Healthcare Benefits Platform Take Command Receives $25 Million Growth Investment
Openly Obtains $100 Million in Series D Funding
Image credits: Bryce Durbin
