Clearco raises $215m in Series C round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2
Firm wants to boost its “founder-friendly” financing suite.
Business-to-Business/B2B
Wise finalises record-breaking £8.75bn direct listing
Cross-border payments company debuts on the LSE in largest-ever listing for a tech firm.
Bank of Mongolia goes live with Compass Plus payments tech
Mongolian central bank needed to cope with increasing transaction volumes.
AirAsia subsidiary BigPay bids for Malaysian banking licence
E-wallet firm aims to capture one of five offered by the Malaysian central bank.
ICYMI funding round-up: Zeepay, Aliaswire, Daylight, Neon & more
Another batch of funding rounds that might have flown under your radar.
Klarna signs merchant financing partnership with Liberis
Liberis will roll out its revenue-based solution in the coming months.
NatWest sells Ulster Bank commercial lending business to AIB in €4.2bn deal
NatWest continues with its withdrawal from the Irish market.
Tide expands to India with £100m investment and RBL Bank partnership
UK business bank aims to “unleash” the potential of Indian SMEs.
Architecture heads at Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan leave months into their jobs
John Smith and Gavin Leo-Rhynie depart from major banks.
ICYMI funding round-up: LOQR, MOCA Financial, Bueno Finance, Glint Pay & more
Another batch of funding rounds that could have flown under your radar.
Raisin and Deposit Solutions merge to create pan-European fintech giant
The newly formed Raisin DS is already turning its eyes towards the US.
Payshop goes live on BHMI’s Concourse for back-office payments
Portuguese payments firm aims for “seamless support”.
Goldman Sachs partners with Visa for cross-border payments
The partnership aims to streamline the bank’s existing systems for both commercial and corporate clients.
Singapore fintech Nium acquires B2B travel payments firm Ixaris
The transaction is expected to close early in the third quarter of 2021.
Resolve lands $60m to grow buy now, pay later B2B offering
Resolve was spun out from buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Affirm in 2019.
Customers Bank plans blockchain-based payments with Tassat
US-based Customers Bank aims to tokenise USD payments with Tassat’s tech.
UK payments industry reacts to second SCA deadline extension
Many firms are still unhappy with “the disruption” SCA is presenting.
ICYMI funding round-up: OptioPay, Payslip, Mamo, Telda, StudentFinance, Algbra
An ‘In Case You Missed It’ (ICYMI) list of funding picks.
OmniLatam buys itself back from bankrupt financer Greensill
Despite its parent’s insolvency, OmniLatam claims it has “experienced record growth”.
CleverCards to gain EMI licence via M&A, raises Facebook exec-led €10m round
Gareth Lambe, head of Facebook Ireland, has invested in CleverCards.
BukuKas raises $50m Series B just four months after Series A
BukuKas’ CEO Krishnan Menon previously worked at Alibaba-owned Lazada Indonesia.
Irish fintech Fenergo acquired by two private equity firms in $600m deal
Fenergo’s revenue grew 17% in the last financial year.
Safaricom mulls M-Pesa partnership with Amazon
A wider partnership with Amazon “is important”, says CEO.
HSBC launches multi-currency business wallet to rival fintech providers
HSBC says businesses can “pay like a local”.
Core banking vendor Temenos integrates with digital asset fintech Taurus
“Digital assets represent new opportunities for banks”.
Stripe acquires card verification fintech Bouncer
Both Bouncer’s team and its technology will join Stripe.
Cedar co-founder: Our biggest competition is status quo and inertia
Cedar acquired San Francisco-based OODA Health for $425 million last week.
FE fundinfo acquires cashflow planner CashCalc
“Cashflow planning is a key component of an adviser’s process”.
Video: Top fintech stories this week – 14 May 2021
The FinTech Futures weekly round-up of the industry’s top stories and happenings from across the globe.
Bahrain’s central bank to pilot digital dollar with JP Morgan and Bank ABC
Bank ABC’s deputy group CEO calls this a “landmark pilot”.
eBay edges away from PayPal to offer cash advances with UK fintech YouLend
Ebay purchased PayPal back in 2002, before spinning it off in 2015.
OpenWrks, Tully, Payplan and PayLink merge under private equity firm
All four firms span the debt advice, credit risk and collections industries.
US challenger for freelancers Lili lands $55m and passes 200,000 users
Lili wants to be a go-to app for freelancers in the US.
NAB lands approval for 86 400 acquisition despite competition concerns
86 400 bagged its own banking licence back in 2019.
HSBC on track to hire 1,000 wealth managers in Asia before year end
In 2020, the bank’s Asian business reported $12.8 billion in profits.
What are the opportunities in open finance?
Envestnet | Yodlee hosted a discussion with FinTech Futures to find out.
UK P2P lender The House Crowd’s collapse a result of governance failings
The House Crowd had struggled to raise capital.
Curve goes crowdfunding five months after $95m Series C
Curve plans to grow its workforce by around 60% this year.
UK fintech Fronted raises £1m with backing from Monzo co-founders
The start-up launched back in February.
Digital challenger Arrow pledges to save Americans $5,000 in five years
Digital challenger pledges to save Americans $5,000 in five years.
