Facebook's Diem Game Over, Apple Tap-to-Pay Feature, N26 Staff Unrest

Meta Platforms Inc’s digital currency venture Diem Association is winding down and selling its technology to California-based Silvergate Capital Corp for about $200 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Apple has reportedly been working on the new feature since around 2020, when the company spent $100 million to acquire Canadian startup Mobeewave.

At the top: Consumer payments and “fractionalization.” But that’s just the beginning.

“If you don’t trust employees, they begin to ask themselves, “Why am I even here?”

Swiss bank UBS has agreed to buy U.S.-focused automated wealth management provider Wealthfront, which has more than $27 billion in assets under management, in an all-cash deal the two companies said was worth $1.4 billion.

The deal will see M&G lead the investment round, acquire a minority stake in Moneyfarm, and use Moneyfarm’s digital expertise to launch its own digital investment service.

Polly, a SaaS technology startup aiming to “transform” the mortgage capital markets, announced today that it has raised $37 million in a Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures. New backers Movement Mortgage, First American Financial and FinVC joined existing investors 8VC, Khosla Ventures and Fifth Wall in participating in the round.

Affirm, Afterpay and Zip are following in the footsteps of fellow fintechs like Revolut and Robinhood by exploring crypto services.

When we think about the tech trends ahead for insurtech, we can’t leave out embedded insurance, which bundles and embeds insurance coverage and protections seamlessly into a platform, marketplace or ecosystem. While not new, embedded insurance is quickly heating up, with predictions putting it at an estimated $3tn opportunity.

The $3.5 billion targeted for a crypto venture fund would be the industry’s largest.

Finance Minister Rishi Sunak plans to bring crypto ads under the same rules that apply to financial promotions.