As 2023 draws to a close, we’re here to look back at the year’s biggest fintech stories.
Silicon Valley Bank Collapse
It felt like a fintech story in that many startups in the space (e.g. Brex, Arc, Mercury) jumped in to fill the void left by its collapse. But this was truly a story that affects every industry and founders and investors alike. And it continues to unfold.
Apple launches savings account for Apple Card customers
Ironically, one of the biggest news stories of 2023 involved a tech giant rather than a startup. During April, apple shared it Apple Card customers in the U.S. Open a savings account and earn interest As Romain Dillet reported, through Apple’s savings account. At the time, Apple was offering him a competitive APY of 4.15%. The company partnered with Goldman Sachs to provide this feature, but that partnership fell apart by the end of the year (Event) we saw it coming) and it was not yet clear who would replace Goldman Sachs.
Mastercard CFO says India’s UPI is an ‘incredibly painful experience’ for ecosystem participants
Another of this year’s most-read articles is about financial services giants rather than startups. Manish Singh writes about the following facts: Mastercard CFO declares India’s UPI is ‘great on many levels’ However, it remained an “incredibly painful experience” for ecosystem participants who ended up losing money. The comments highlighted tensions surrounding the mobile payment rail, which facilitates more than 10 billion transactions each month in a country with low card penetration.
Foreign WeChat Pay and Alipay users can go cashless at Chinese retail stores
In July, Rita Liao reported that China’s two major mobile payment solutions wechat pay and alipayHe announced. Foreign users can now pay at Chinese retail stores By linking foreign credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. This was a big deal because it has historically been difficult for travelers to go cashless like locals. Previously, using WeChat Pay and Alipay in China required a local bank account, making it difficult for short-term residents to use these payment methods.
Visa acquires Brazilian fintech startup Pismo for $1 billion
In late June, I announced news for the credit card giant. visa Plans to acquire Brazilian payment infrastructure startup Pismo It is expected to be one of the largest fintech M&A deals of the year, with $1 billion in cash. The deal was completed later this year. Visa was just one of several companies that made bids for the startup, and was not seeking acquisition or financing, according to reports. Pismo What was scooped by Visa was a kind of coup for the entire Latin American region; Global investors are pouring capital into the region 2021 and a little bit more Withdrawal after just one year.
Image credits: Pismo
Slope closes $30 million venture round with ‘major participation’ from Sam Altman
When Sam Altman gets involved in a venture, people pay attention. Christine Hall reported in late September: slopeis a B2B payment platform for businesses. Completed $30 million venture round To expand your business. The round “included key participation from OpenAI’s Sam Altman.” At the core of Slope’s technology is order-to-cash workflow automation with artificial intelligence-driven tools for checkout, customer and vendor risk assessment, payment reconciliation, and cash management.
Carta CEO contacts customers about bad press and warns them about bad press
People love reading about other people’s failures. In an attempt at damage control, CEO of stock management startup KarutaHenry Ward, October Customer who sent email, told him that if he was worried about “negative press” related to his outfit, he should read his Medium post. The move seemed only to draw attention to a number of issues reportedly plaguing the 11-year-old company, as covered by me and TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief Connie Loizos. Investors in Carta, which had been assigned a post-money valuation of $7.4 billion in 2021, when Carta last raised institutional funding, even called Ward’s decision “bizarre.”
Robinhood acquires credit card startup X1 for $95 million
In a somewhat surprising move, robin hood Announced in late June Acquires no-fee credit card startup X1 for $95 million in cash. X1offers a credit card with benefits based on income, and had raised a total of $62 million in venture-backed funding.Why did we choose X1 in particular over many other credit card startups? We believe it’s because X1 had a plan. To launch a new trading platform This allows cardholders to use earned reward points to purchase stocks. The company’s CEO even named Robinhood as a company he wants to compete with.
Vesey Ventures closes $78 million debut fund
A new venture company was born. VC Ventureswas founded by three women who are former managing directors of Amex Ventures. $78 million debut fund closed In early April. During their time at AmEx, the firm’s three founding partners invested in companies such as Plaid, Stripe, Melio, and Trulioo. The fact that early-stage fintech startups had more funding caught our readers’ attention.
Bonus: Once again, we dig a little deeper into Apple’s fintech aspirations (mentioned above).
Image credits: Vesey Ventures / Founding Partners Lindsay Fitzgerald, Dana Eli Roach, Julia Huang
Better.com officially goes public via long-delayed SPAC
We never thought that day would come. August, Digital Mortgage Provider Better.com Published via a long-delayed SPAC. No one expected him to do so well in his public debut. And it wasn’t. The company’s management probably knew it wasn’t doing well, but moved forward anyway for a variety of reasons that Alex Wilhelm and I have detailed. here. As of December 20th, the stock price was Only 63 cents.
ZestMoney is closed
In mid-May, Manish zest money quit the startup. Indian fintechs can take out small ticket loans for first-time internet customers and once attracted the backing of many prominent investors. Including Goldman Sachs. By December, Manish said ZestMoney shut down After efforts to find a buyer failed. The Bangalore-headquartered startup, which also counts PayU, Quona, Zip, Omidyar Network and Ribbit Capital as backers, employs around 150 people and has raised more than $130 million in eight years of work. has been procured.
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Source: techcrunch.com
