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What a year!
This is the last edition of The Interchange for 2023. I can’t believe the year is almost over.
It’s been an eventful 12 months, even with reduced funding. We’ve seen a lot of M&A activity (read about it here, here, here, and here), BNPL has (sort of) made a comeback, and new fintech-focused ventures are raising money (Flourish and Vesey), several startup closures (Daylight being one example) and more layoffs than we would have liked.
And remember when FedNow went live in the US in July? At the time, the list included 35 financial institutions, and five months later, more than 330 of them were on the network. Participating in
There’s never a dull day in the world of fintech. For a broader look back, keep an eye out for a deeper dive into the top fintech stories we reported on through the end of the year.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all the readers who have supported this magazine thus far. There are a lot of fintech newsletters out there, so the fact that you subscribe to this newsletter and keep coming back means a lot to us.
As we look forward to 2024, we wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and a new year filled with lots of love, peace, and happiness. Thank you very much. — Mary Ann and Christine
weekly news
Christine reported on her dismissal: bolt, an e-commerce and fintech company that was at one time the subject of a federal investigation. The company confirmed through a spokesperson that the one-click checkout company has laid off 29% of its workforce. A Bolt spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the company is working to make Bolt an “operating model optimized for sustainable growth and efficiency” and is committed to “the next steps for our business.” “We can ramp up with the speed and agility necessary for this step.” ” We have been following Bolt for years, and this layoff is the latest of several other cuts that have taken place beyond 2022. In May 2022, Mary Ann reported that at least 185 employees, one-third of its workforce, had been laid off. Let go. Bolt, which provides software to retailers to speed up checkout, has raised a total of about $1 billion in venture backing and was once valued at $11 billion.
Mary Ann reported on several high-profile executive departures this week.She announced the following news credit karma Co-founder Nicole Mustard is stepping down after more than 16 years with the company. Mr. Mustard’s decision to step down marks the third high-profile departure of an executive at Credit Karma in 2023. She then wrote: open door Co-founder Eric Wu is leaving his job at a real estate fintech company after nine years to return to his startup roots. Notably, Wu has invested in startups during his time at Opendoor.according to crunch baseMr. Wu has backed dozens of companies, including Airtable, Scribe, Roofstock and the now-defunct Zeus Living.
At TC+, Jacqueline Melinek wrote about the following facts: robin hood‘s foray into cryptocurrencies isn’t necessarily new, and the company is still looking to expand its efforts in cryptocurrencies, even among groups that tend to stay away from the platform. “I think cryptocurrencies have always been created by and for very technical people,” said Johan Kerblatt, general manager of cryptocurrencies at Robinhood. chain reaction podcast. “At the end of the day, I don’t think customers care too much about what the underlying protocol is when they use cryptocurrencies. What network are they using? They just want things to work. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Other items we are reading
Google Pay to add BNPL option in early 2024 (Apple made Apple Pay Later available to all users in the U.S. in October, after releasing it to a limited number of users in March.)
Visa acquires Brazilian fintech company Pismo in US$1 billion deal (See TechCrunch’s coverage of how the Pismo and Visa acquisitions first happened.)
Dallas-based Apex Fintech Solutions files for IPO in second public offering bid
Melio introduces real-time payments
HR technology platform Checkr moves to payments for gig workers
Repay partners with Green Dot to enable cash-based bill payments
Klarna plans to replace employees with AI to boost profitability
Neobank Dave’s new chatbot achieves 89% resolution rate, CEO says (Go here to read Mary Ann’s Q&A with Dave’s founders in March.)
Funding and M&A
As seen on TechCrunch:
SumUp raises another €285m in growth funding to weather the fintech storm
Comun Channelizes Local Bank Approach to Serve Latino Immigrants
UK International Investment backs India’s Aye Finance with $37 million funding
Hyperplane wants to bring AI to banks
Kapital secures $165 million in equity and debt to provide financial visibility to Latin American small businesses
Prevu’s home sales process rewards homebuyers with cashback rebates
can be seen elsewhere:
Launch of Stairs Financial platform to assist first-time home buyers
Waste management payments company CurbWaste raises $10 million
Fintech startup Pontera raises $60 million, plans to expand jobs in Israel
Completed $12 million Series B financing in January
Necto raises $8 million in seed funding
HSBC supports Aii’s decarbonization grant fund
E-commerce financier SellersFi secures Citi-led credit facility
Image credits: Bryce Durbin
Source: techcrunch.com
