Happy Feb 14th to everyone! It feels as though over the past few weeks, the crypto craze across finte
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| February 14 · Issue #19 · View online |
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Happy Feb 14th to everyone! It feels as though over the past few weeks, the crypto craze across fintech has died down a bit (or maybe my mind is doing a better job filtering it out). Either way, it’s been nice to see some more coverage cycles and resources focused back on “mainstream” financial technology. For example, this week “old school” payment companies like YapStone + Dwolla raised some additional funding and Goldman still continues to make waves with some PFM acquisition discussions. Goldman’s entry and subsequent growth into consumer finance has been surprising to me and next week, I’ll try and go a bit deeper :). But for now, on to the so what of the past week…
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The Forbes Fintech 50 For 2018
While crypto hogs the headlines, technology is disrupting the $8.5 trillion (market cap) U.S. financial services industry in less flashy ways, changing how we invest, borrow and save; how big banks control risk; and how hedge funds analyze data. Here is the Forbes Fintech 50 2018 list. It’s that time again!
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Goldman Is Close to Buying Personal-Finance Startup Clarity - Bloomberg
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is in discussions to acquire personal-finance startup Clarity Money, with plans to fold it into its Marcus online lender, according to people familiar with the matter. Acquiring a PFM to jumpstart user acquisition for a new financial product is an interesting strategy…
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YapStone is raising $100M to take on PayPal, Stripe in marketplace payments, nabs $71M so far | TechCrunch
YapStone, which provides payment services to marketplace-style businesses — customers vary from the likes of HomeAway to faith-based non-profits like ParishPay — today confirmed that it raised $71 million, a first close of a Series C that will ultimately total $100 million, according to a Form D filed with the SEC Payments are cool again!
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You Can Now Mine Cryptocurrency While Reading the News
Starting Sunday, Salon began asking its readers that use ad-blockers to turn over spare computing power in a bid to mine a cryptocurrency known as Monero. Historically the easiest way to monetize online users was through advertising, exciting to see some more alternative sources of monetization
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Coinbase Commerce — the Easiest Way for Merchants to Accept Digital Currency
Coinbase Commerce is a new service that enables merchants to accept multiple cryptocurrencies directly into a user-controlled wallet. Our mission at Coinbase is to create an open financial system, so we’ve designed this solution to serve merchants worldwide. Unlike previous merchant products we’ve offered, Coinbase Commerce is not a hosted service, so merchants have full control of their own digital currency. Interesting service by Coinbase, I initially thought it was just a rebrand of their existing merchant platform, but looks like it’s a new product where merchants can directly accept digital currency into their own hosted wallets
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The Decentralized Future Series – Y Combinator
A good method for discovering startup ideas is to look into technological breakthroughs and think about what they unlock that wasn’t possible before. In this introductory post, we’ll look at Bitcoin and consider potential use cases that we can directly deduce from its properties. Longer read into why YC is excited about blockchain + decentralization.
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The Future Of Real Estate Tech: How We Got Here And What's Next In An Exploding New Ecosystem
Real estate is one of the fastest-growing areas of tech. The former COO and CFO of Compass and a top VC break down how we got here and what comes next in the category. Another longer read on the future of real estate tech from Matt Harris of Bain Capital Ventures and David Snider, former COO of Compass
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Starling’s marketplace banking rollout adds pensions, savings, travel insurance and mortgages
The addition of financial services speaks to Starling Bank’s broader “marketplace banking” vision: the idea that your bank will provide you with access to a choice of third-party money-related apps and services. It’s also more evidence that the battle between banks and fintechs isn’t a zero sum game. Partnerships are being forged at a rapid pace, either formally or simply through open APIs mandated by Open Banking/PSD2 legislation. Banking as a platform experiment -> new potential revenue and acquisition channels for financial products.
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New Dwolla Platform Investment
We’ve closed a $12M round led by Foundry Group with participation from Union Square Ventures, Next Level Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, High Alpha, and Firebrand.
Payments are cool again!
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Welcoming Stash to the USV Portfolio
Technology makes it possible to serve the mass base of financial services customers with personalized, tailored, high quality products that can improve financial well being for them and their families and result in massive businesses along the way. Which is why we’re excited to announce our investment in Stash out of our Opportunity Fund. Investing is cool again!
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Goldman Sachs in Talks With Apple to Finance iPhone Sales - WSJ
The Wall Street firm is in talks to offer financing to shoppers buying phones, watches and other gadgets from Apple, people familiar with the matter said. Customers purchasing a $1,000 iPhone X could take out a loan from Goldman instead of charging it to credit cards that often carry high interest rates. Goldman Sachs in the market for unique partnerships to acquire and grow their consumer user base.
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