Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! I am replacing Mary Ann, who is on a well-deserved break. This week, we look at how Griffin Bank got its license ahead of some heavyweights, and we look at Stripe's annual letter, some funding rounds, and more.
the great story
One of the top stories this week was Griffin Bank in the UK. The banking-as-a-service company managed to do something that even the region's most valuable fintech company, Revolut, hasn't been able to do yet: obtain a banking license. . Of course, as Mike Butcher writes, banking licenses are hard to come by (Griffin's took a year), but Revolut has been talking about getting a banking license for the last three years.
Now that Griffin has a banking license, it offers a complete platform for fintech companies to deliver banking, payments and wealth solutions through automated compliance and an integrated ledger. The company will most likely offer bank accounts to businesses rather than consumers.
Analysis of the week
Alex Wilhelm and I read Stripe's annual letter. Here are some things we thought were worth talking about:
- The growth of the company is impressive. Hit the Total payments volume mark of 1 trillion dollars in 2023, although it noted that its payment volume increased by 25%. That said, if the company did, in fact, process exactly $1 trillion last year, it would mean $800 billion in processing in 2022 and $200 billion in POS revenue in a single year. At Stripe's size, it's quite a result.
- Stripe saw record startup formation in 2023 despite declining venture capital activity over the past year. Not only that, but the payments infrastructure company also reported that those companies were 60% more likely to start collecting revenue within their first year, while 57% were more likely to process $1 million during their first year than those founded in 2019.
dollars and cents
We have a new unicorn. Perfios, an India-based company that provides financial institutions with real-time data aggregation and analytics tools to help them optimize their customer journey and make more informed decisions, raised an $80 million funding round that boosted its valuation to more than $1 billion. The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan led the round. The company said it plans to go public next year.
Manish Singh also wrote about India's digital payments app Paytm getting a vital license it needed to survive and maintain continuity of several core features of the app. This came a day before the company's banking unit ceased operations on March 15 due to regulatory restrictions.
OpenMeter, a startup that developed an open source platform that helps businesses more easily track their usage-based billing. raised a $3 million round from Y Combinator, Haystack and Girasol Capital.
What else are we writing?
Reddit's IPO could become a potential meme stock however the company chooses to set it up. In a new filing with the SEC, Reddit's IPO involves around 22 million shares, priced between $31 and $34. However, this could get really interesting quickly given that Reddit will allow members of its community to sell their shares immediately, rather than being subject to the usual lock-up agreements that typically prevent investors from selling shares for six months after the listing. IPO.
Most subscription mobile apps do not generate revenue, according to an analysis by RevenueCat. Among the 29,000 apps it analyzed, the company found that only 17.2% of apps will even reach $1,000 in monthly revenue, but after reaching that point, the chances of them growing even higher increase.
TikTok expanded its Effect Creator Rewards monetization program to more regions and lowered its payout threshold. It is currently present in 33 regions in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The program rewards creators for the effects they create through TikTok's AR development platform, Effect House. TikTok is also updating the program's payment model, as creators will now receive rewards only for effects used in public videos.
High Interest Headlines
HSBC will hire almost 50 bankers for startups and venture loans in the US
Green Dot will allow cash transactions for 3 more fintechs
With fintech funding falling 70%, here's what fintech high-flyers are worth now
Maxwell Launches POS Feature Offering Custom Workflows for Lenders
JPMorgan sees mixed results from Silicon Valley push
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