Marqeta, Visa, and Affirm: The Holy Trinity of Payments
Future of Fintech - Edition #129 (23rd-30th July)
Licences are the hottest ticket in town, capital is pouring in, deals are being closed at breakneck speed, and new products are dropping faster than you can say "disruption." The future of finance is being rewritten… Are you ready to cash in? 💸
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What’s on the fintech menu today?
📖 Today’s Must Read: Stripe's Spectacular Five: Powering the Future of Payments
🌟 Fintech Fiesta: The Week's Hot 10!
🌐 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Fintech highlights, sorted by segment!
🔗 Link Up: Your gateway to resourceful links!
Fin-teresting Stories in Fintech 📰
Stripe's Spectacular Five: Powering the Future of Payments
Stripe is aggressively expanding its economic infrastructure empire. Recent moves underscore a clear vision: to be the bedrock for commerce, both online and offline.
Dominating the Seller Experience: The acquisition of Lemon Squeezy is a masterstroke, combining Stripe's payment prowess with Lemon Squeezy's seller-focused tools. This move positions Stripe as an end-to-end solution for businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprises.
Expanding into B2B: The Billie integration marks a strategic push into B2B payments, a lucrative and growing market. By offering embedded BNPL solutions, Stripe is addressing a critical pain point for businesses and strengthening its value proposition.
Powering SMB Growth: The expanded partnership with Sage is a testament to Stripe's commitment to supporting small and medium-sized businesses. By simplifying cash flow management and payment processing, Stripe is becoming an indispensable tool for SMBs navigating complex financial landscapes.
Driving Embedded Finance: The collaboration with Fifth Third Bank accelerates Stripe's foray into embedded finance. By offering compliant embedded money movement solutions, Stripe is empowering software platforms to become financial service providers.
Global Expansion and Market Leadership: The partnership with Adastria Group solidifies Stripe's position as a global payments leader. By powering the dot-C marketplace, Stripe is demonstrating its ability to adapt to diverse markets and customer needs.
These moves collectively paint a picture of a company that is building a durable, scalable platform. Stripe's ability to seamlessly integrate acquisitions, partnerships, and product enhancements is a testament to its strategic vision and execution capabilities.
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Edition #129 arrives fresh off the press to uncover the many themes shaping the fintech landscape:
The Week's Hot 10!♨️🔟
Licence Victories:
⤷ Revolut secured a UK banking licence with restrictions after a three-year wait. Revolut will be limited to holding only £50,000 of total deposits for customers.
⤷ Weavr acquired a European e-money licence from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) to support the adoption of embedded finance by B2B SaaS providers.
Teaming Up for Seamless Financial Solutions
⤷ Card issuing platform Marqeta teamed up with Visa and Affirm to offer the Visa Flexible Credential, a single card that can switch between payment methods, empowering consumers.
⤷ D•One partnered with Zopa Bank, adding its open banking connectivity and transaction categorisation intelligence to Zopa’s list of integrated partners.
Profile Software Takes Center Stage
⤷ First Global Bank partnered with Greece-based financial software solutions vendor Profile Software to implement Finuevo Suite for digital onboarding and loan origination, covering certification, account setup, credit checks, and loan and credit card processing.
⤷ Profile’s Smart Banking solution Finuevo Suite also gets implemented at Cash Plus, providing a cost-effective, flexible, and modern cloud-based solution for microfinance with integrated platforms and open architecture.
Global Fintech Pulse:
⤷ Italy-based investment banking company UniCredit agreed to acquire the entire share capital of Vodeno and Aion Bank in a deal worth approximately €370M. UniCredit’s twin acquisition aims to secure next-generation core banking technology and enhance its technological expertise.
⤷ Citi Hong Kong launched Wealth 360 on the Citi Mobile App, offering real-time access to wealth management features such as account overviews, cash flow reports, spending insights, financial advice, and carbon footprint tracking.
New Era of Digital Assets:
⤷ Bank of Israel selected 14 teams to present use cases for the digital shekel. The teams that proposed use cases in an initial challenge conducted earlier this year represent veteran financial companies, fintech firms, technology firms, and private teams.
⤷ Libre launches the Libre Gateway on Solana, introducing blockchain-based funds - including a Hamilton Lane credit fund - to enhance wealth and treasury management with Solana’s low latency and high throughput.
Now, for the ‘byte’-sized fintech buzz –
Embedded Finance continues to expand, with a focus on empowering businesses:
Toqio partnered with Visa to provide payment solutions to businesses that, by their nature, do not offer financial services. The objective is for these corporations to improve their value proposition to their distribution networks by providing them with access to greater liquidity. The partnership will enable Toqio’s corporate clients to access and issue Visa commercial cards directly from its platform.
Liberis announced its launch into the German market through Liberis Debt Fund GmbH & Co. KG in collaboration with PayTech Nexi. Nexi Financing, powered by Liberis, will provide 120,000 merchants with the flexible funding options they need to maintain and grow their businesses.
Open Finance is rewriting the rules of the financial game, with companies teaming up left and right to unlock the potential of data sharing and AI.
Guru, a customer order processing company (SPOC), entered into a partnership with Capgemini to implement data analysis and artificial intelligence solutions within the scope of open finance.
Columbia Valley Credit Union partnered with Flinks to offer a solution for sharing financial data. This partnership highlights the value of Flinks' easy and accessible entry into the open banking ecosystem for credit unions.
Digital Finance was all about new products, big money, and a whole lot of innovation changing the game last week:
UK challenger bank Monzo launched a new product aimed at simplifying pension consolidation by bringing old pensions together into one fund within its app. Monzo pension will be a self-invested personal pension, managed by BlackRock.
UK payments business Sokin secured a $31M investment from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. The funding will support Sokin's growth while allowing it to operate independently with its current management.
The Fintech Infrastructure space was busy powering the services we rely on - from seamless transactions to faster approvals.
Kenya’s Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) partnered with Network International, a digital payments company serving the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, as the bank looks to “reinforce” its digital-first strategy by expanding its digital payment product range.
Halcyon integrated with CoreLogic with the aim to revolutionise the income verification process in the lending and mortgage industry. This new integration will offer lenders unparalleled efficiency, accuracy, and compliance.
The DeFi wave is breaking on shores worldwide. As regulators refine the rules, innovative companies are making digital assets as easy to spend as cash.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) released new guidance regarding the issuance of stablecoins. This document addresses default guarantees, associated risks, and FINMA's approach to regulating stablecoins. It also highlights increased risks related to money laundering.
Australian stablecoin payment startup Stables launched in Europe with a Mastercard virtual card. Now, with a Virtual Asset Service Provider licence, the startup is offering Europeans the ability to make contactless in-store and online payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay across Mastercard’s network of merchants
From rainforest-backed ETFs to eco-friendly business tools, the realm of Green Finance is showing that it's never been easier (or more exciting) to invest in a greener future.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), alongside Brazilian public banks BNDES, Banco do Brasil (BB), and Caixa Econômica Federal (CAIXA), announced plans to develop an exchange-traded fund (ETF) focused on sustainable investments in the Amazon rainforest. The initiative, named Amazonia for All ETF, aims to democratise access to sustainable investments, combining financial resources with performance-based incentives.
DBS and Deloitte introduced the Sustainability Accelerator Tool, designed to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore in evaluating their sustainability maturity levels. This tool provides industry-specific recommendations, enabling companies to better identify and address gaps in their sustainability journeys.
And that's a wrap 👋
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Weekly Fintech Brew!
As a reward for making it all the way here, enjoy a curated list of awesome fintech resources to keep your curiosity cup full to the brim. Cheers to continuous learning!
🔗 Link Up! –
Digital Modernization in the Insurance Industry Report - EPAM X London Research
Call for Information: Big tech and digital wallets Report - Payment Systems Regulator X Financial Conduct Authority
Ready to Upgrade Your Tech Stack? 4 Convincing Reasons to Add Embedded Payments Blog - VoPay
Open Banking in Canada: Better Late Than Never? Blog - WhiteSight
The State of Embedded Finance (Q2 2024) Report - WhiteSight
Hungry for more fintech insights? Check out some of our other work at WhiteSight.
If you're someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.
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