Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

Amazon Taps Parafin for Merchant Cash Advance Program

Amazon Taps Parafin for Merchant Cash Advance Program
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Amazon.com, Daily news
  • Amazon is launching a merchant cash advance tool in partnership with Parafin.
  • The cash advance ties repayment to a percentage of the Amazon seller’s Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS).
  • The program launches today for select U.S. businesses, and it will be available more broadly by early 2023.

Right on the heels of launching its own insurance marketplace, Amazon is taking another step into the fintech realm. This time the online retailer is taking aim at small business financing, unveiling a financing tool for sellers on its own platform via a partnership with Parafin, a fintech that offers a merchant capital-as-a-service for online marketplaces.

Leveraging Parafin’s technology, Amazon is launching a merchant cash advance tool that offers eligible Amazon sellers a cash advance that ties repayment to a percentage of sellers’ Gross Merchandise Sales (GMS). The service offers approved merchants capital ranging from $500 to $10 million in a matter of days, and does not limit borrowers to a fixed term, require credit checks, or charge late fees.

Because the merchant cash advance tool is based off a seller’s GMS, the financing does not work like a traditional loan. Repayment is only required when a seller makes a sale. There is no minimum payment, no interest, and no collateral required. Instead, Amazon charges merchants a fixed capital fee.

“Amazon is committed to providing convenient and flexible access to capital for our sellers, regardless of their size,” Amazon WW B2B Payments and Lending Director and General Manager Tai Koottatep. “Today’s launch is another milestone in strengthening Amazon’s commitment to sellers, and builds on the strong portfolio of financial solutions we already provide. This latest offering significantly expands sellers’ reach and capabilities, and broadens their access to capital in a flexible way—one that helps them control their cashflow, and by extension, their entire business.”

Amazon is launching the financing program to select U.S. businesses today, and it will be available to “hundreds of thousands” of eligible sellers by early 2023. To qualify, sellers must have at least three months of sales history on Amazon.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in California, Parafin’s mission is to democratize access to growth capital. The company has raised a total of $244 million, including its most recent round of $60 million raised in August. Earlier this year, Crunchbase added Parafin to its Emerging Unicorn Board, its list of companies valued above $500 million but less than $1 billion. 

Photo by ANIRUDH on Unsplash

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4 Spooky Stats on the State of Venture Funding

4 Spooky Stats on the State of Venture Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column, Thought Leadership

For many in the fintech industry, there are few things as scary as the economy right now. High inflation, lowered investor and consumer confidence, and political tensions are all contributing to an uncertain future.

One of the largest impacts of this pullback in the fintech industry is seen in the drop in venture capital funding, the lifeblood of privately held companies. The lack of funding is giving startups of all sizes a shorter cash runway, which is leading to employee downsizing and increased exit activity.

We turned to CB Insights, which recently dropped its Q3 2022 State of Venture report, for some statistics that help tell the story of today’s funding environment in fintech and beyond. Here are some of the high-level takeaways:

71% drop in new unicorns in the third quarter of this year

Across the globe, there were only 25 newly minted unicorns in the third quarter of 2022. This is the lowest count since the first quarter of 2020, when the pandemic first began. It is worth noting that 14 of the 25 new unicorns are U.S. based. The total number of unicorns across the globe is now 1,192.

38% drop in fintech funding QoQ

Looking at the fintech sector specifically, fintech funding across the globe dropped to $12.9 billion. This dip– a 38% drop– marks the lowest quarterly funding amount in nine quarters. The last time fintech funding was this low was in the second quarter of 2020, when fintech funding totaled $12.2 billion.

42% drop in median deal size for late-stage rounds this year

So far in 2022, the median size of late-stage deals has totaled $29 million. This represents a 42% drop from last year’s total of $50 million. This year’s median late-stage deal size is similar to the median size of mid-stage deals, which totals $30 million. Interestingly, this median mid-stage deal size is on-par with the median mid-stage deal size of 2021, which also totaled $30 million.

56% fewer investments from top 3 investors

According to CB Insights, last quarter’s top three investors are quieter this quarter. Tiger Global Management, Gaingels, and SOSV made 109 investments this quarter. This figure is 56% lower than the number the investors made in the second quarter of this year. Notably, Tiger Global Management, which has been the number one investor in the past three quarters, did not even rank among the top 10 investors this quarter.

A bright light

Things are not all gloom and doom this Halloween. Looking at the bright side, while fintech funding is dropping, it is still above pre-pandemic levels.

As an example, in the first quarter of 2020, before the pandemic truly exploded, quarterly fintech funding totaled $11.3 billion. That’s $1 billion lower than today’s level. Going back even further, in the first quarter of 2018, quarterly fintech funding totaled $9.6 billion.

So perhaps it’s best to look at these drops as a market reset, instead of as the fintech world coming to an end.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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JP Morgan Chase to Create Rental Payments Platform for Tenants and Landlords

JP Morgan Chase to Create Rental Payments Platform for Tenants and Landlords
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, JP Morgan Chase
  • JP Morgan Chase is working on a rent management tool for owners of multi-family housing buildings.
  • The new tool, called Story, will enable landlords to send invoices, receive payments, track payments, view analytics, determine rent prices, and screen potential tenants.
  • Story is currently in beta, but is expected to be released to a broad audience in 2023.

JP Morgan Chase is piloting a platform to facilitate rent payments for tenants living in multifamily housing. The new technology, called Story, is a rent management tool for multi-family property owners.

As its core functionality, Story will enable landlords to automate rent invoices and receive rent payments. As not all tenants pay rent on time or in full, Story serves as a platform to help landlords track which tenants have paid and which still owe. Additionally, the new offering will provide property owners with analytics, help them determine rent prices, and will even offer a tool to screen potential new tenants.

As for renters, Story will remind them of upcoming rent payments, offer them multiple payment options, enable autopay, track their previous rent payments, and show a copy of their lease.

The bank has not yet set a price for the tool, but indicated that it will not charge a transaction fee for ACH, debit, or credit card payments for the first year. After that, Chase clients that hold an unspecified minimum balance will receive free ACH payments.

Story, which is currently available in 15 U.S. states, will be released to a broader set of users next year.

I’m always surprised at the lack of property tech (proptech) solutions in the fintech space. During the last decade, tenants’ rent payments totaled $4.5 trillion, and this number is set to increase massively between 2020 and 2030. Aside from insurtech, proptech is one of the last frontiers of fintech to be digitized. Now that we’re seeing a large incumbent like JP Morgan get into the game, it is only a matter of time before we see competing proptech innovations from other traditional banks.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

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Cinchy Lands $14.5 Million in Funding

Cinchy Lands $14.5 Million in Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cinchy, Daily news, Funding
  • Data access and control firm Cinchy received $14.5 million in funding this week.
  • The series B round was led by Forgepoint Capital and brings Cinchy’s total funding to $24.2 million.
  • As part of the investment, Forgepoint Managing Director Leo Casusol and Senior Associate Reynaldo Kirton will join Cinchy’s Board of Directors.

Cinchy, a fintech that is focused on helping firms set their data free, announced this week it received $14.5 million in a Series B funding round. This brings the Canada-based company’s total funding to $24.2 million.

Led by Forgepoint Capital, the investment brings Forgepoint’s Managing Director Leo Casusol will join Cinchy’s Board of Directors. The firm’s Senior Associate Reynaldo Kirton joins the board as an advisor. 

Cinchy was founded in 2017 to leverage data fabric to help banks access data from apps and other silos and assemble it within an easy-to-access data network. Today’s investment will help the company seize a recent spike in demand for data fabric and data mesh solutions.

“Our mission is to liberate and harness the power of data, giving it back to teams and organizations to accelerate digital transformation and growth,” said Cinchy CEO and Co-Founder Dan DeMers. “This latest round of funding helps us expand our team and release new offerings that include pre-built dataware solutions designed to help organizations instantly liberate both trapped data and siloed SaaS applications.”

Cinchy– whose clients include TD bank, Colliers International, AIS, and Natixis– has been named a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Company to Watch and a Top Growing Canadian Company by The Globe and Mail. The company most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2021 and won best of show for its demo at FinovateFall 2019.

Photo by Neale LaSalle

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Three Elements of the CFPB’s Financial Data Rights Rulemaking

Three Elements of the CFPB’s Financial Data Rights Rulemaking
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series, Thought Leadership

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which is tasked to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices, has had a busy month. The bureau is in the headlines once again this week, this time with an update on the organization’s stance on regulating open banking and open finance.

In an address to the audience at Money20/20, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra laid out the CFPB’s proposal of requirements to protect consumers’ financial data rights. In his keynote, Chopra detailed three aspects of the CFPB’s plan, as well as the organization’s process and timeline to get there.

Requiring financial institutions to set up secure data sharing methods

Chopra said the bureau plans to require financial institutions that offer deposit accounts, credit cards, digital wallets, prepaid cards, and other transaction accounts to set up API-based data sharing. For now, it looks as if this will be limited to organizations that offer the aforementioned financial products, but Chopra made it clear that the CFPB will add the requirement in the future to those offering products not on the list, such as investing and lending.

The purpose of the rule will be to facilitate new approaches to underwriting, payment services, personal financial management, income verification, account switching, and comparison shopping. The requirement will also serve as a “jumping-off point” for a standardized approach to infrastructure allowing consumer-permissioned data sharing.

Screen-scraping is still a common practice in the U.S. and doesn’t offer customers input into which organizations use their data and how they use it. An API-first approach, like the one Chopra is suggesting, would put an end to screen scraping in financial services.

Stopping institutions from improperly restricting consumers’ access to control over their own data

The CFPB said it is looking at “a number of ways” to stop large traditional financial institutions from restricting consumers’ access to their own data. The group wants to ensure that when consumers opt to share their data, it is only used for the purpose the consumer intends.

This rule intends to target not only financial institutions themselves, which may use consumer data for marketing purposes, but also seeks to target those who use consumer data for nefarious purposes.

“While Americans are becoming numb to routine data breaches, including massive ones like the Equifax failure, we know that more needs to be done to stop this underworld from intercepting even more highly sensitive personal data,” said Chopra.

Chopra did not list specifics on how he planned to give consumers meaningful control while limiting bad actors, but he said that when a consumer gives organizations consent to use their data, the firm should not be able to exploit that data for other purposes.

Preventing excessive control or monopolization of the market

The new set of requirements will seek to limit monopolies and oligopolies present in credit reporting, card networks, core processors, and others by creating a decentralized, open system. “It’s critical that no one ‘owns’ critical infrastructure,” Chopra said.

Chopra cited Big Tech firms and incumbents as those who may set standards to rig the system in their own favor, jeopardizing an open ecosystem.

Next steps

Before these rules come into effect, the CFPB must gather a group of small firms representative of the market to provide input on our proposals. The CFPB is moving fast on this and plans to release a discussion guide for small organizations to make their voices heard this week.

After the CFPB culls input from this group, the organization will solicit input from what it is calling “fourth parties,” or intermediaries that facilitate data transfers.

Once this process is complete, the CFPB will publish a report on the input, which it will use to guide in the process of crafting a rule. The CFPB plans to publish its findings in a report in the first quarter of 2023, will issue the rule in late 2023, and will finalize the rule in 2024. The timing of the implementation relies on feedback from the small firms and intermediaries.

In other news

The news comes at an interesting time for the CFPB. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the organization’s funding structure is unconstitutional. A panel of judges determined that the way the bureau is funded, “violates the Constitution’s structural separation of powers.”

“This isn’t an esoteric point of theory; it means the CFPB cannot do anything unless and until Congress appropriates funding for it,” said Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General James Burnham. “That’s a big deal.”

The CFPB is expected to appeal to the Fifth Circuit and then to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, however, the CFPB’s power in the Fifth Circuit region, which includes Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, is limited.

Photo by Polina Kovaleva

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Blockchain.com Launches Debit Card for U.S. Users

Blockchain.com Launches Debit Card for U.S. Users
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Blockchain, Daily news
  • Blockchain.com is launching a Visa debit card in partnership with Marqeta today.
  • The fee-free card enables users to spend their crypto balance or cash within their Blockchain.com wallet.
  • Blockchain.com counts 50,000 sign-ups for the card from users on its waitlist.

Cryptocurrency platform Blockchain.com is making it easier for users to transact using crypto from their Blockchain.com wallet. The company has released the Blockchain.com Visa debit card today, allowing U.S. users to spend their crypto balance or cash within their Blockchain.com wallet to pay for goods and services online or in person.

The new card does not charge fees and pays a reward of 1% back in crypto for all card purchases. Facilitating the launch are Visa, which provides the payment network, and Marqeta, which powers the card issuing process. Marqeta’s Just-in-Time Funding feature is key to Blockchain.com’s card launch. It enables users to spend from their available crypto balance while settling the transaction in fiat currency in the back end.

“As one of the crypto industry’s oldest and most trusted platforms, we’re excited to roll out the natural next step to make crypto easy to use in the real world and accessible to as many people as possible,” said Blockchain.com CEO and Co-Founder Peter Smith. “This is a prime example of digital assets making their mark on the existing financial services industry, as we shape the future of (mainstream) finance.”

At launch, Blockchain.com already has 50,000 sign-ups for the card from users on its waitlist. Once the rollout of the card in the U.S. is complete, Blockchain.com will make the card available to customers in more countries starting next year.

In launching a payment card tied to its crypto wallet, Blockchain.com joins its competitor Coinbase in this effort. The company initially launched a payment card in partnership with The Shift Card in 2015. However, after the debit card company closed up shop in 2019, Coinbase unveiled its own white-labeled Visa debit card issued by Pathward in 2020.

Blockchain.com was founded in 2011 and serves as a platform for users to buy, sell, hold, and trade cryptocurrencies. With 82 million crypto wallets, the company’s 37 million users have made transactions worth over $1 trillion to-date.

Blockchain.com has raised a total of $490 million in funding, including its most recent Series D round earlier this year that valued the company at $14 billion at the time.

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

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Investor Cash Management Brings Inclusive Finance to Delaware State University

Investor Cash Management Brings Inclusive Finance to Delaware State University
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Sponsored

This post is sponsored by Delaware Prosperity Partnership

  • Investor Cash Management (ICM) is working with Delaware State University to help the university promote financial wellness.
  • Among ICM’s other partners are BNY Mellon, PIMCO, Visa, Trusted Capital Group/HUB Financial, and the National Education Association.
  • Originally headquartered in Chicago, ICM relocated its headquarters and customer service center to Wilmington, Delaware last year.

Delaware-based Investor Cash Management (ICM) is on a mission to help investors of all stripes achieve their financial goals.

“We’re helping individuals build wealth by offering a better financial product that eliminates the fees, confusion and inaccessibility traditionally associated with investing,” said ICM CEO Fred Phillips. “We’re creating a community where everyone has equal access to quality investment funds, including those previously unavailable to many individuals.”

ICM develops API-based technology that links investor cash management accounts directly to both a bank account and a brokerage account. The company’s technology transforms investment products such as mutual funds, ETFs, and shares into digital currencies that users can transact with using a debit card, ATM, P2P transfer, and online bill pay. As a result, investors receive higher returns and immediate access to their bank and brokerage assets.

Among the company’s partners are BNY Mellon, PIMCO, Visa, Trusted Capital Group/HUB Financial, the National Education Association, and– most recently– Delaware State University (DSU), a Historically Black College or University. DSU is a good fit for ICM because of its focus on teaching financial literacy to its students and alumni. The University has integrated ICM’s financial wellness product into its existing financial literacy program.

“Investor Cash Management is proud to provide the technology that empowers Delaware State University to deliver actionable financial education and reduce persistent, pernicious gender and racial investment gaps,” said Phillips. “Through our mission-driven partnership to democratize investment, DSU’s program provides access to innovative financial services and a foundation to develop products that address important needs of the broader community.”

In another effort to back its mission of supporting underserved investors, ICM has partnered with The Chicago Network, an organization of prominent and influential female leaders whose purpose is to empower women to lead. The organization recently honored Delaware Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long and Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton for supporting the advancement of women leaders in business, finance and technology.

Launched in Chicago in 2018, ICM relocated its headquarters and customer service center to Wilmington, Delaware last year. The company expects to employ more than 400 people by the end of 2024. Backed by the founders of Morningstar and Ariel Investments, ICM has been listed by Capgemini and UBS as one of the world’s 10 leading fintech companies. Earlier this year, the company was selected for one of 20 inaugural PHL Inno Fire Awards.

Learn more about fintech in Delaware by visiting the Delaware Prosperity Partnership website or by contacting Becky Harrington, DPP’s vice president of Business Development, at [email protected].

Photo by Alex Korolkoff on Unsplash

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Marqeta Launches Suite of Banking Products

Marqeta Launches Suite of Banking Products
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Marqeta
  • Card issuance company Marqeta is launching a suite of banking products for its clients to offer their end customers.
  • Marqeta for Banking is comprised of seven banking products made available through Marqeta’s banking partners.
  • The new tools include Demand Deposit Accounts, Direct Deposit with Early Pay, ACH with Plaid Integration, Cash Loads, and Fee-Free ATMs, which are now available to Marqeta’s U.S. customers. Bill Pay and Instant Funding will be available in beta early next year.

Marqeta announced today that it is expanding further into the banking world beyond card issuance. The California-based company unveiled a suite of seven banking products through what it’s calling Marqeta for Banking.

Marqeta for Banking offers the company’s businesses customers access to more than 40 banking APIs that enable them to create customized banking services. The capabilities are made available through Marqeta’s banking partners and include Demand Deposit Accounts, Direct Deposit with Early Pay, ACH with Plaid Integration, Cash Loads, Fee-Free ATMs, Bill Pay, and Instant Funding capabilities.

“Consumers increasingly expect their financial services to be digital-first and mobile friendly, delivered by a brand they trust,” said Marqeta Founder and CEO Jason Gardner. “This is especially true for a rising generation of consumers who are less likely to have visited a physical bank branch or use a plastic card, and will instead begin their banking relationship on a mobile phone, which is doubling as a payment tool. Marqeta for Banking is fully designed to help customers meet the needs of today’s changing behaviors while building products for tomorrow’s consumer.”

Marqeta for Banking includes:

  1. Demand Deposit Accounts are tied to a debit card and are offered by an FDIC-insured institution. These accounts offer higher spend limits and no maximum balances.
  2. Direct Deposit and Early Pay is an earned wage access tool that enables users to receive their paycheck up to two days early.
  3. ACH with Plaid integration enables ACH payments between bank accounts.
  4. Cash Loads allow end users to deposit cash into their account at more than 180,000 retail locations. The deposited funds are available immediately in the user’s account.
  5. Fee-Free ATMs enable Marqeta customers to provide access to fee-free ATMs via the Allpoint and MoneyPass networks.
  6. Bill Pay will enable end users to pay their bills from within the app.
  7. Instant Funding will enable end users to instantly fund their accounts using an external debit or prepaid card.

All but the last two products in the Marqeta for Banking suite are available in the U.S. The beta versions of Bill Pay and Instant Funding will launch early next year. A handful of customers are already leveraging elements of Marqeta for Banking, including Coinbase, Branch, and Fold.

Marqeta’s card issuing platform enables its clients to manage their own card programs by creating configurable and flexible payment tools as well as customizing payment cards for their end customers. The company was founded in 2010 and is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker MQ. Marqeta has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion.

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

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Digital Bank Nerve’s New Strategic Partnership Comes with Up to $7 Million in New Funds

Digital Bank Nerve’s New Strategic Partnership Comes with Up to $7 Million in New Funds
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Digital bank for creatives, Nerve, is partnering with London-based Talenthouse, a firm that helps artists find work with global brands.
  • Talenthouse’s money management platform, TalentPlus, will leverage Nerve’s embedded banking technology to expand into the U.S.
  • To facilitate TalentPlus’ U.S. launch, Talenthouse will invest up to $7 million in cash and shares in Nerve.

Digital bank Nerve is furthering its reach this month via a partnership with Talenthouse, a London-based firm that helps creatives find work with global brands. Under the agreement, Talenthouse will leverage Nerve to launch a business banking solution for TalentPlus, its in-house financial app built for creators.

As part of the deal, Talenthouse will invest up to $7 million in cash and shares in Nerve. This partnership and investment will help Talenthouse launch TalentPlus in the U.S. next month and expand into the U.K. and Latin America in 2023.

“This is a significant step into the U.S. market for Talenthouse,” said Talenthouse CEO Clare McKeeve. “We plan to recreate this financial services model across several markets in the near future including the UK and Latin America. We have been incredibly impressed by and have huge confidence in the Nerve team, underlined by our significant strategic investment.”

Money management platform TalentPlus was launched in 2021 from a pilot program called ElloU. The platform seeks to offer participants in the creator economy banking tools that support their needs in ways that banks fall short. The company’s partnership with Nerve will enable it to add personal banking tools to its product lineup.

This aligns closely with Nerve’s offerings. The digital bank was launched in 2020 to serve the unique financial needs of musicians, artists, and other creatives. The Texas-based company’s mission is to help creators build sustainable businesses by lowering the cost for organizations to pay creators. Nerve’s partnership with Talenthouse marks the first time its embedded banking tools will be used on a private-label basis.

“We are super excited about collaborating with Talenthouse and the TalentPlus team to drive innovation for creative businesses and delivering financial services to an underserved community,” said Nerve CEO John Waupsh. “This partnership will expand our payments and banking services to Talenthouse’s U.S.-based creators, dramatically improving the financial services available to the creator economy.”

Photo by Brett Sayles

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N26 Taps Bitpanda to Add In-App Crypto Trading

N26 Taps Bitpanda to Add In-App Crypto Trading
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Challenger bank N26 is launching N26 Crypto, an in-app cryptocurrency trading tool.
  • The company is partnering with Bitpanda for trading and custody of the 194 cryptocurrencies that will be available on its platform by the end of the year.
  • N26 Crypto is launching today in Austria and will be available in more countries in the next six months.

In what N26 is calling the company’s “next step beyond banking,” the Germany-based digital bank is unveiling N26 Crypto, an in-app cryptocurrency trading tool. Launching today in Austria, eligible clients can buy and sell 100 cryptocurrencies using the N26 app.

“The N26 banking experience has always been built around the customers’ needs, with features that make money management easy,” said N26 Chief Product Officer Gilles BianRosa. “With N26 Crypto we have created a simple, intuitive product that integrates seamlessly into N26’s fully-regulated banking experience where one’s bank balance, savings, and investment portfolio sit side by side – with cryptocurrencies being the first asset class we intend to offer.”

Customers can access the new capability from the “Trading” section within the N26 app’s new “Finances” tab. N26 created a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for users to instantly buy and sell crypto. After selecting the coin and the amount they would like to trade, N26 deducts the cash equivalent of the trade from their bank balance and the crypto shows up in their N26 Crypto portfolio instantly. Funds from crypto sales also show up in real time.

N26 Crypto is launching with 100 currencies, and plans to scale up to offer 194 by the end of this year. If you’re not impressed with N26 offering 100 cryptocurrencies at launch, you should be. Most fintechs launch with just two or three cryptocurrencies and add more slowly over time. The large number of cryptocurrencies is thanks in large part to N26’s partnership with Bitpanda, which will manage the execution of trades and custody of coins.

The Bitpanda partnership isn’t only helping N26 scale in terms of cryptocurrencies. The investment platform is also helping N26 offer clients competitive rates. N26 Metal customers face a 1% transaction fee when trading Bitcoin and 2% for all other cryptocurrencies. Other N26 customers will see a 1.5% transaction fee for Bitcoin, and a 2.5% fee for other cryptocurrencies.

N26 Crypto is launching in Austria today, and will be made available to eligible customers in more geographical regions over the next six months.

Founded in 2013 and launched in 2015, N26 now counts more than eight million customers in 24 countries. Well-known in the European market, N26 ranks among the top five highest-valued challenger banks wth a valuation of more than $9 billion. In 2019, the digital bank launched in the U.S., but decided to exit the region in order to focus on its European market operations.

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Amazon Launches Insurance Store in the U.K.

Amazon Launches Insurance Store in the U.K.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Amazon is launching an online insurance marketplace in the U.K.
  • The company is partnering with Ageas UK, Co-op, and LV= General Insurance to offer the Amazon Insurance Store, a new tool to help U.K. customers shop for home insurance.
  • The Amazon Insurance Store is now available to “select customers” and will be available to all U.K. customers by the end of the year.

The fintech industry loves to talk about Amazon’s weight as a competitor in the financial world. This week, the online retail giant is offering more points to that discussion with the launch of an online insurance comparison website for the U.K. market.

The Amazon Insurance Store serves as a way for U.K. customers to shop for home insurance by helping consumers compare quotes, select a plan, and pay for it using a checkout experience integrated with Amazon.co.uk. The element Amazon is seeking to differentiate its service with is the questionnaire experience. The company has simplified the process by only asking essential questions insurers require to issue a quote.

After the Amazon Insurance Store gains some traction, the company will integrate elements consumers expect from Amazon, such as customer reviews, star ratings, and even claims acceptance rates. The company expects the user-submitted data will help customers make more informed selections surrounding insurance companies and policies.

After finalizing their purchase, customers can use the Amazon website or mobile app to view their policies, change their payment method, and view renewal information.

“Finding the right home insurance policy can be a time-consuming and confusing task, with quotes that often leave out essential coverage in order to lead with the lowest price,” said Amazon European Payment Products General Manager Jonathan Feifs. “When we set out to create the Amazon Insurance Store, we wanted to improve the experience for customers shopping for home insurance so they could easily compare options and make an informed, objective decision—just like shopping on Amazon.”

At launch, Amazon is partnering with Ageas UK, Co-op, and LV= General Insurance. The company plans to add more insurers early next year. Amazon’s comparison website competes directly with Moneysupermarket, Uswitch, Compare the Market and GoCompare.

This isn’t Amazon’s first foray into the insurance market. Last year, the company partnered with Superscript to offer members of its Business Prime program contents insurance, cyber insurance, and professional indemnity insurance.

“Shopping online for home insurance is a well-established experience, and our goal is to exceed customers’ expectations when it comes to the Amazon Insurance Store,” said Amazon European Payment Products General Manager Jonathan Feifs. “This initial launch is just the beginning—we’ll continue to innovate and make refinements, all with the aim of delighting customers and providing the most convenient shopping experience possible.”

Amazon said that its Amazon Insurance Store is now available to “select customers,” and that it will be available to all U.K. customers by the end of the year.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

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NorthOne Raises $67 Million to Become the Digital Finance Department for Small Businesses

NorthOne Raises $67 Million to Become the Digital Finance Department for Small Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Small business banking tools company NorthOne pulled in $67 million in funding this week.
  • The Series B round increases the company’s total raised to more than $90 million.
  • NorthOne has big ambitions, and is seeking to be “the digital finance department powering every small business in America.”

Small business banking tools company NorthOne landed $67 million in a Series B funding round this week. The investment boosts the New York-based company’s total funds to more than $90 million.

New and existing investors, including Battery Ventures, Don Griffith, Drew Brees, Ferst Capital Partners, FinTLV, Next Play Capital, Operator Stack, Redpoint Ventures, Tencent, and Tom Williams, participated in the round.

NorthOne was founded in 2016 to offer small businesses an approachable digital banking experience. The company said that the funds will enable it to raise the standard of products and services that business owners should expect from their banking partners.

“Through an obsessive focus on our customers’ needs, we’ve been able to predictably build a business banking experience that unlocks an incredibly strong product-market fit,” said NorthOne CoFounder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan. “As our customers grow, their problems evolve beyond the bank account. By connecting the data layer between accounting, receivables, payables, lending, payroll—all the financial operations—and the bank account ledger, we can provide a transformative offering that’s always felt out of reach for our customers: a world-class finance department built for their business.”

NorthOne, whose services are powered by The Bancorp Bank, has big ambitions. The fintech is aiming to be “the digital finance department powering every small business in America.” To reach this goal, the company is currently working on building new capital and credit products, faster payment solutions, and more integrations.

Photo by RODNAE Productions

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