Feb 28, 2022

Fintechs React to Russia's Invasion, Wealth Management Meets Bitcoin, the BaaS Opportunity

Issue #137 — View online — Suggest a link

Fintech

A weekly newsletter covering all things fintech.
Delivered to your inbox every Monday.

Hello fintechers,

This week we take a look at some fintech companies starting to place restrictions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, a growing number of fintech executives moving to the crypto space, the $25 BaaS opportunity, the wealth management industry opening up to Bitcoin, BNPL provider Scalapay becoming the first Italian unicorn, robo-advisor market future prospects, plus much more.

As always, if you like this newsletter, remember to share the love and tell your fellow fintech enthusiast friends to sign up!

Have a good week,

Alessandro

PS. these days I am at 4YFN / MWC in Barcelona. If you are attending and you would like to meet, feel free to reach out by replying to this email.

This Week in Fintech

(Some Of) Europe’s Fintech Finest Are Fleeing to Crypto. Why?

A growing contingent of top employees from Monzo, Revolut and Railsbank have all made the move to crypto in the last few months.

Read now | Share

Wise and Paysera Scramble to Place Russia Restrictions After Ukraine Invasion

Owing to a budding policy of economic sanctions aimed at Russia, the financial system has become one of the key areas of leverage following the invasion of Ukraine. Some fintechs are pre-empting the system.

Read now | Share

Embedded Finance Is Fueling a $25b ‘Banking as a Service’ (BaaS) Opportunity

Embedded finance is the “embedding” of banking software into a non-banking company’s operations. What makes it interesting is that it creates new revenue opportunities for both fintechs and banks.

Read now | Share

How the Multi-Trillion-Dollar Wealth Management Industry Is Opening up to Bitcoin

The Block’s Frank Chaparro chats with Michael Batnick, director of research at Ritholtz and Jeremy Schwartz, Global CIO at WisdomTree.

Read now | Share

Funding, Merger & Acquisitions

Scalapay Brings Home $497m as Italy Now Lays Claim to Its First Unicorn

It’s been a long time coming, but Italy now has its first unicorn in Scalapay as the buy-now-pay-later company raises $497 million in a Series B round.

Read now | Share

Sofi to Acquire Cloud-Based Banking Platform Technisys in All-Stock Deal Valued at $1.1b

SoFi Technologies Inc. SOFI, -3.99% said Tuesday it has entered an agreement to acquire Technisys, a cloud-based banking platform, in an all-stock deal valued at about $1.1 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Technisys shareholders will receive about 84 million SoFi shares, or less than 10% of its fully diluted share count as of Sept. 30.

Read now | Share

PrimaryBid Lands $190M in Series C Investment Round

PrimaryBid, a UK-based fintech platform that provides retail investors with access to public markets, has closed a $190m Series C round led by SoftBank.

Read now | Share

Weavr Closes $40m Series a Funding to Accelerate Expansion of Plug-And-Play Finance

Weavr, a London-headquartered technology provider that enables businesses with Plug-and-Play financial solutions, today announced the close of a $40 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global.

Read now | Share

BNPL Provider Viabill Raises $120m in Equity and Debt

ViaBill, a Denmark-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider, has raised $120 million in equity and debt in a funding round led by Fasanara Capital.

Read now | Share

Bitpanda Enters UK Acquiring FCA-Regulated Trustology

Bitpanda has entered the United Kingdom with the acquisition of London-based Trustology, a regulated institutional cryptocurrency custodian wallet provider.

Read now | Share

Something More for You to Read

Robo-advisor Market Future Prospects 2028 | Betterment, FutureAdvisor, Personal Capital

The Latest research study released by HTF MI “Global Robo-advisor Market” with 101+ pages of analysis on business Strategy taken up by key and emerging industry players and delivers know how of the current market development, landscape, technologies, drivers, opportunities, market viewpoint and status (2022-2028).

Read now | Share

China Tightens Law to Jail Those Found Raising Funds Though Crypto Sales

China can now issue sentences if funds are raised via crypto from the public as the country’s Supreme Court has amended Criminal Law.

Read now | Share

Vesta Equity Launches Real Estate-Backed NFT Platform on Algorand

The company argues that this construction democratizes wealth creation.

Read now | Share

Fintech Listings Will Continue to Stand Out in 2022

In 2021, fintech-related companies delivered one of the most successful initial public offerings (IPOs) of all themes.

Read now | Share

Techstars Startup Digest Fintech is curated by:

Alessandro Ravanetti - Fintech writer, copywriter & content strategist. Working in the fintech industry since 2011, previously as a founder and now as a consultant. Independent expert with the European Commission and SXSW advisory board member.
alessandro.ravanetti@startupdigestmail.com

Did you enjoy this issue?

Did you see something you think we should include in our newsletter? Suggest a link.

Manage all your newsletter subscriptions here.

If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.

If you don’t want to receive this newsletter anymore, unsubscribe here.