Welcome back to The exchange, where we take a look at the hottest fintech news from the previous week. If you'd like to receive The Interchange straight to your inbox every Sunday, head over here register!
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This is the last edition of The Interchange for 2023; It's hard to believe the year is almost over.
It was an eventful 12 months, even if funding had dwindled. We saw a lot of M&A activity (read about it here, here, here and here), BNPL returned (sort of), new capital raisings from fintech-focused venture firms (Flourish and Vesey), some closures of startups (Daylight is an example) and more layoffs than we would have liked.
And remember when FedNow went live in the US in July? At that time there were 35 financial institutions on the list and five months later, more than 330 of them are on the network.
It's never a dull day in the world of fintech. For a broader look back, stay tuned before the end of the year for a deeper dive into the top fintech stories we report on.
Until then, we wanted to take this opportunity to wholeheartedly thank all of you, our readers, for supporting us throughout the year. We know you have a lot of fintech newsletters to choose from, so the fact that you've signed up for this one and keep coming back means a lot to us.
As we approach 2024, we wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with lots of love, peace and happiness. We are grateful for you. -Mary Ann and Christine
Weekly news
Christine reported layoffs at Screw, an e-commerce and financial technology company, which at one point was the subject of a federal investigation. The company, through a spokesperson, confirmed that the one-click payment company laid off 29% of its staff. In an emailed statement, Bolt's spokesperson said the company made the cuts so Bolt had “an operating model optimized for sustainable growth and efficiency” so it could establish itself “with the speed and agility necessary for the next phase of our business. .” We've been following Bolt for years, and this new round of job cuts is the latest in a handful of other layoffs since 2022. In May 2022, Mary Ann reported that at least 185 employees, or a third of its workforce , were Let it go. Bolt, which provides software to retailers to speed up checkout, raised about $1 billion in total venture-backed funding and was at one point valued at $11 billion.
Mary Ann reported on the departure of a pair of high-profile executives this week. She broke the news that Credit Karma Co-founder Nichole Mustard would step down after more than 16 years with the company. Mustard's decision to resign marks the third known departure of a high-profile executive at Credit Karma in 2023. She then wrote about how Open door Co-founder Eric Wu is leaving the real estate fintech company after 9 years to return to his early roots. In particular, Wu has been investing in startups during his time at Opendoor. According crispy baseWu has backed dozens of companies, including Airtable, Scribe, Roofstock and the now-defunct Zeus Living.
On TC+, Jacquelyn Melinek wrote about the fact that while Robin Hoodbitcoin's foray into cryptocurrencies isn't necessarily new, the company is still trying to expand its efforts there, even in groups that have typically strayed from the platform. “I think cryptocurrencies have always been created by very technical people, for technical people,” said Johann Kerbrat, CEO of cryptocurrencies at Robinhood, in the Chain Reaction Podcast. “At the end of the day, I think customers, when they use cryptocurrencies, don't really care what the protocol is that governs them. What is the network you are using? “They just want things to work.”
Other articles we are reading
Google Pay to add BNPL options in early 2024 (In October, Apple made Apple Pay Later available to all users in the United States, after initially launching it to a limited number of users in March.)
Visa acquires Brazilian fintech Pismo in $1 billion deal (See TechCrunch's coverage of how the Pismo/Visa acquisition initially came about.)
Dallas' Apex Fintech Solutions Files for Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Second Public Offering
Melio launches real-time payments
tech-platform-checkr-moves-into-payments-for-gig-workers/?sh=5c31e8324f3a” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>HR tech platform Checkr moves into payments for freelancers
Deel launches fulfillment center
Repay partners with Green Dot to enable cash bill payment
ai-drive-profitability” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Klarna plans to replace workers with ai to boost profitability
ai/702464/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>New Neobank Dave chatbot achieves 89% resolution rate, says CEO (Head here to read a Q&A Mary Ann conducted with Dave's founder in March.)
Financing and mergers and acquisitions
As seen on TechCrunch:
SumUp taps €285 million more in growth funding to weather fintech storm
Común channels local banking approach to serve Latino immigrants
British International Investment backs India's Aye Finance with $37 million financing
Hyperplane wants to bring ai to banks
Kapital obtains $165 million in equity and debt to provide financial visibility to Latin American SMEs
Prevu Home Selling Process Gives Home Buyers Credit with Cash Back
Seen elsewhere:
Stairs Financial Platform Launches to Help First-Time Home Buyers
Waste payments company CurbWaste raises $10 million
technology/fintech-startup-pontera-raises-60-mln-plans-more-hiring-israel-2023-12-07/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Fintech startup Pontera raises $60 million and plans more hiring in Israel
January closes a Series B financing of 12 million dollars
Necto raises $8 million in seed funding
HSBC backs Aii decarbonisation grant fund
E-commerce lender SellersFi secures credit facility led by Citi
Image credits: Bryce Durbin
