Europe’s Most Valuable Fintech; El Salvador Embraces Bitcoin

Europe’s Most Valuable Fintech; El Salvador Embraces Bitcoin
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

Two of the biggest news items in international fintech this week also reflect two of the biggest trends in the industry in recent years: interest-free retail financing and the rise of digital assets.

With regard to the first, Stockholm, Sweden-based Klarna announced this week that it hauled in a whopping $639 million in new funding in a round led by SoftBank. The investment gives the company a valuation of $46 billion and makes it the most highly-valued fintech company in Europe.

“Consumers continue to reject interest- and fee-laden revolving credit and are moving toward debit while simultaneously seeking retail experiences that better meet their needs,” Klarna founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said. “More transparent and convenient alternatives align with evolving global consumer preferences and drive worldwide growth.”

Read our coverage of Klarna’s big fundraising news.

The other major trend in fintech relates to the boom in cryptocurrencies. El Salvador, a small nation in the middle of Central America, announced earlier this week that it will recognize bitcoin as legal tender – the first country in the world to do so.

The move came as the result of a 62-22 vote in the Salvadoran Congress, which overwhelmingly backed the initiative proposed by President Nayib Bukele – whose party controls the legislature. After the vote, Bukele tweeted that the move would be a boon for the country “bring(ing) financial inclusion, investment, tourism, innovation, and economic development.” The law would require companies to accept bitcoin as payment for goods and services, as well as enable citizens to pay their taxes using bitcoin. Bukele further directed the country’s state-owned geothermal power company LaGeo to develop a strategy to leverage the power of El Salvador’s volcanoes to power bitcoin mining.

Skeptics of the move range from those who point to the country’s economic assistance program with the International Money Fund as a potential complication, to others who simply have no idea what bitcoin is and can’t imagine using it. “How am I going to agree with this? I haven’t seen it even in photos.” Reuters quoted one El Salvadoran shopper speaking in response to the news. “I know nothing about it. You need to understand your currency.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

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Stripe Launches Tax Tool for Businesses

Stripe Launches Tax Tool for Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Stripe is building out its tools for small businesses this week. The ecommerce technology company launched Stripe Tax, after completing a six month long pilot.

The new tool helps businesses automatically calculate and collect sales tax, VAT, and GST on the merchant’s behalf. Not only this, the new offering also generates reports and helps businesses navigate complicated regional requirements. The capabilities will lift a burden off small businesses, especially in the U.S., where there are over 11,000 different tax jurisdictions.

“No one leaps out of bed in the morning excited to deal with taxes,” said Stripe Co-founder and President John Collison. “For most businesses, managing tax compliance is a painful distraction. We simplify everything about calculating and collecting sales taxes, VAT, and GST, so our users can focus on building their businesses.”

Stripe Tax features include:

  • Real time tax calculation, which leverages the customer’s location to calculate and collect the right amount of tax and keeps up-to-date with rate and rule changes
  • Frictionless checkout, which reduces checkout friction by using location information to calculate and show taxes to customers.
  • Tax ID management, which helps B2B businesses collect the tax ID number from customers and validate VAT IDs for European customers
  • Reconciliation, which creates comprehensive reports for each market in which a business is registered to collect tax

The tax calculation and collection capabilities will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.S., and the U.K.

The launch follows Stripe’s acquisition of tax tool startup TaxJar in May. “With TaxJar, we will help millions of internet businesses running on Stripe with their sales tax and make it easier for them to sell internationally,” commented Stripe CFO Dhivya Suryadevara. “And as a CFO, I’m delighted to welcome so many new colleagues who care deeply about taxes!”

It also comes after a rather sizable funding round the company announced in March, when Stripe raised $600 million in funding. The Series H round brought the company’s total funding to $2.2 billion and boosted its valuation to $95 billion.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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Klarna Locks in $639 Million in New Funding; Earns $46 Billion Valuation

Klarna Locks in $639 Million in New Funding; Earns $46 Billion Valuation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Klarna

In a round led by SoftBank – and featuring participation from Adit Ventures, Honeycomb Asset Management, and WestCap Group – consumer payments pioneer Klarna has raised $639 million in funding. The investment brings the company a valuation of $46 billion at a time when the buy now pay later trend is reshaping consumer financing

“Consumers continue to reject interest- and fee-laden revolving credit and are moving toward debit while simultaneously seeking retail experiences that better meet their needs,” Klarna founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said. “More transparent and convenient alternatives align with evolving global consumer preferences and drive worldwide growth.”

A Finovate alum since 2012, Stockholm, Sweden-based Klarna was among the innovators in “after-delivery payment” which enabled buyers to receive products before payment was due, with the facilitating company taking on all credit and fraud risk for online merchants. To state the obvious, Klarna’s approach to consumer financing has caught on in the years since with a wave of companies across the globe launching their own “buy now pay later” options – especially of late. Today, with this investment, Klarna is Europe’s biggest fintech unicorn, with more than $1.2 billion in 2020 revenues, and more than 18 million customers in the U.S. alone. The company’s payment options are available at nearly a quarter of the top U.S. retailers, and can be found in 17 markets around the world. Klarna’s most recent offering, Pay in 4, is a full embrace of the buy now pay later format, giving consumers the opportunity to pay for purchases over time in four, interest-free payments.

In addition to being the highest-valued private fintech in Europe, Klarna is now the #2 fintech in terms of valuation in the world – behind Stripe. And as part of the GiveOne initiative launched by Klarna earlier this year, the company will direct 1% of this week’s investment to “initiatives supporting planet health.”

“Klarna is really transforming and disrupting corporate giving by not only implementing a long-term commitment but also by enabling others to do the same,” explained Nina Siemiatkowski, founder and CEO of Milkywire, a social impact platform that serves as Klarna’s strategic partner in the GiveOne project. “We hope that many more companies follow their lead and support our planet by funding those who are on the frontlines making impactful change on a daily basis.”

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FinovateAsia Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Amber

FinovateAsia Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Amber
By oliver Posted on
Categories: Amber Labs, Finovate, FinovateAsia 2021, FinovateAsia 2021 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Amber is an Australian-based Bitcoin accumulation app. It makes it easy to Dollar Cost Average (DCA), auto-buy-the-dip, auto-withdraw, and accumulate the hardest money, scarcest asset on Earth.

Features

  • Auto-accumulate Bitcoin
  • Spend your Fiat
  • Borrow Fiat against your Bitcoin

Why it’s great
With Amber you can collect Bitcoin and self custody it without having to think too hard about it.

Presenter

Aleks Svetski, CEO & Founder
Svetski is a controversial writer, researcher, keynote speaker, and scholarship recipient who pursued entrepreneurship instead of textbooks. He founded Amber in 2018, the world’s first Bitcoin-only DCA app.
LinkedIn

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Top Three Takeaways from Marqeta’s $16+ Billion IPO

Top Three Takeaways from Marqeta’s $16+ Billion IPO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: IPO, List series, Marqeta

CNBC Disruptor and Finovate alum Marqeta raised $1.2 billion in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Exchange on Wednesday. The Oakland, California-based payment processor ended its first day as a public company with a market capitalization of more than $16 billion.

“We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible with modern card issuing,” Marqeta founder and CEO Jason Gardner said in the company’s blog reporting the news. “I feel fortunate to be in the position I’m in, leading a company of incredibly talented people as we take the next step in enabling modern money movement for many of the world’s leading innovators.”

What does Marqeta’s IPO mean for the company going forward? And does the company’s public debut say anything about investors’ attitudes toward fintech and financial services companies more generally? Here are a handful of ideas.

The Coast is Clear!

A strong public debut for Marqeta could hint at an even more impressive performance by better-known fintechs like SoFi and Robinhood that are reportedly looking to go public later this year. Compared to payment processing, with all due respect, it is easy to imagine investors being enticed by an online lender transitioning to a broad-based comprehensive personal finance platform. And even if the meme stock mania of 2020 has cooled off a bit, I suspect that investors will be willing to line up around the proverbial block to get a piece of the fintech’s most notorious, no-fee online stock broker.

Public Investment = Public Scrutiny

Now a public company, Marqeta may face criticism over its business model, which relies heavily on interchange fees generated via transactions on its platform. Having issued 320+ million cards through its platform as of the end of March, and processing $60 billion in volume last year, the company itself noted in its prospectus that interchange fees are “subject to intense legal and regulatory scrutiny.” And while there are no clear changes to the regulatory environment in sight with regard to interchange fees, the fact that the now-public company will be more vulnerable to the appearance of “scrutiny” will be something for Marqeta to deal with – ideally by adding to and diversifying its revenue sources.

Playing the E-commerce Gold Rush

Marqeta was one of a number of fintechs that saw its business boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company reported that its revenue soared 2x to more than $290 million in 2020 as millions of locked down, quarantined, sheltered-in-place consumers flocked to digital channels to purchase a growing range of products and services online. The question for many companies, including Marqeta, is whether or not these trends will endure. Gardner points to the increase in ordering via on-demand services apps and the rise of buy-now-pay-later offerings as developments that could keep the pace of online commerce at a high level. If he is correct then Marqeta could have the time it needs to add more key customers (according to Financial Times, most of Marqeta’s business arrives via small business payments processor Square) and broaden out its network to better compete with rivals like PayPal.

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FinovateAsia: Digital Banking, Brand Intimacy, and the Future of Payments

FinovateAsia: Digital Banking, Brand Intimacy, and the Future of Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2021

FinovateAsia Digital is less than two weeks away. If you are headquartered in the APAC region, do business in the region, or would simply like to know more about the fintech trends in one of the most technologically innovative parts of the world, then FinovateAsia Digital, held on the 22nd and 23rd of this month, deserves a space on your fintech calendar. Visit our FinovateAsia Digital hub to register and pick up your ticket today.

Last week we previewed some of the major themes that our distinguished speakers and panelists will cover at this year’s conference. Below, we introduce our main stage keynote addresses and speakers to give you an even better sense of what we’ve got in store later this month at the show.

Reshaping the future of digital banking – stories of success

Investigates how a leading digital player is shaking things up, working differently, and building financial services in new and innovative ways. With Keng Swee Koh, Executive Director and Head of Wealth Management, DBS

Enabling a Data-Driven Enterprise

Reveals what top analysts are calling “the future of data management,” and how it is being used to streamline both compliance initiatives and accelerate strategic business initiatives at top financial services firms. With Joe Lichetenberg, Global Head of Product and Industry Marketing, InterSystems

Shaping the Future of Payments

Examines the core trends that are fundamentally transforming global payment systems. Shows how banks will embrace more and more digital payment trends and introduce multiple options for clients to make payments when, where, and how they choose. With Jeremy Balkin, Managing Director, Global Head of FinTech and Innovation, JPMorgan Wholesale Payments

Brand Intimacy & Fintech: Creating Stronger Brands through Emotional Science

Reveals the financial services, technology, and telecom findings of MBLM’s Brand Intimacy COVID Study and also discuss brand intimacy’s positive correlation with financial performance. Demonstrates how to build better connections with customers and the power of brand intimacy: the emotional science behind the bonds we form with the brands we love. With Mario Natarelli, Co-Author, Brand Intimacy, A New Marketing Paradigm

Transparency and trust: How to reach, engage and retain customers post-COVID-19

Explores how large incumbents and fintechs have managed COVID responses, and how a strategy of transparency has benefited companies in increasing consumer trust. Explains who are the winners and losers in the fight for authenticity, and how you can educate your users to enhance reputation and loyalty. With Araminta Robertson, Marketing Consultant, Mint Studios

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SumUp Partners with Google Pay to Facilitate Business Payments

SumUp Partners with Google Pay to Facilitate Business Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SumUp

Global payments company SumUp announced this week that it is collaborating with Google Pay. The two have partnered to help merchants make business transactions safer and easier using their SumUp card, which was launched in February of last year.

The partnership will enable SumUp’s 125,000 business cardholders in the U.K., France, Italy, and DACH to add their SumUp payment card to their Google Pay mobile wallet. Google Pay will also support virtual cards, which will allow merchants to make purchases from suppliers without having their physical card. It will also allow new cardholders to start using their SumUp card immediately after it is issued, instead of waiting for the card in the mail.

“At SumUp, we’re always looking to help our merchants find new ways to improve their businesses, particularly as we move out of this pandemic and hopefully towards a more economically positive future,” said SumUp VP of Banking Dimitri Gugunava. “Collaborating with Google Pay is a really important development for us, because it means we can remove layers of friction for small businesses who need to make quick (but safe) payments on the go.”

SumUp was founded in 2012 and helps three million merchants accept card payments using a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) device and a Mastercard-branded small business payment card. The U.K.-based company also offers small business tools including invoice-creation software, inventory management, customer loyalty features, employee time roll, and reporting technology.

The collaboration announcement comes after SumUp pulled in $895 million in debt funding from Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Bain Capital Credit, Crestline, and others. SumUp Co-founder Marc-Alexander Christ said that the cash will help the company grow its customer base and drive the development of new services for its small business clients across the globe.

Coinciding with today’s news, SumUp released a new TV ad today that promotes the company’s mPOS device for small and micro merchants. Check it out below:

Photo by Oli Dale on Unsplash

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Roboadvisor Scalable Capital Secures $180 Million in New Funding

Roboadvisor Scalable Capital Secures $180 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Scalable Capital

In a round led by Tencent, digital wealth management platform Scalable Capital has locked in more than $183 million (€150 million) in Series E funding. The new capital brings the company’s total funding to more than $317 million (€260 million) and gives the Munich, Germany-based firm a valuation of $1.4 billion – making the firm Germany’s, and fintech’s, latest unicorn. Scalable Capital said that the financing will help the company add to its workforce, as well as help support expansion into European markets like France, Italy, and Spain.

“We see huge demand to invest money in the capital markets instead of leaving it in bank accounts,” Scalable Capital co-CEO and co-founder Florian Prucker said. “Our clients can access fully managed globally diversified ETF portfolios and – in the same app – self directed trading in shares, ETFs, crypto currencies, and funds. We also provide a market-leading offering of ETF, stocks, and crypto monthly savings plans. We are planning to launch derivatives trading next.”

Having Tencent as an investor, according to Scalable Capital co-CEO and co-founder Erik Podzuweit, will also help the company improve its appeal to millennial customers who have become increasingly comfortable investing via their smartphones.

A Finovate alum since 2016, Scalable Capital offers banks, insurers, and corporate clients a digital wealth management platform that support automated investing and rebalancing. With customers ranging from ING to Openbank (Santander’s digital bank) to Siemans Financial Services, Scalable Capital provides globally diversified, cost-efficient ETF portfolios that are personalized to the investor’s risk profile.

Scalable Capital currently has more than $5 billion in assets under management. In the wake of this week’s funding, the company plans to add cryptocurrencies to its product portfolio, open a new office in Berlin, and double its workforce this year to 400.

Scalable Capital began the year with a pivot: the company announced in January that it would continue its direct to consumer business in Germany and Austria, but will limit its operations in the U.K. to its B2B business. The cost of customer acquisition was cited as one of the challenges to the company’s retail ambitions in the U.K. and, as such, Scalable Capital decided to focus on expansion and development with its German platform and its B2C and wealth businesses.

Also this year, Scalable Capital announced the appointment of new Chief Strategy Officer Dirk Urmoneit. Urmoneit comes to the company after holding senior positions at index provider Solactive AG and investment banks J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

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Credit Sesame Scores $51 Million; Completes Zingo Acquisition

Credit Sesame Scores $51 Million; Completes Zingo Acquisition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Credit Sesame, Daily news, Funding

On the consumption side of personal finance, managing credit is one of the most important aspects of financial wellness. And for more than a decade, Credit Sesame has been among the more innovative companies in this space. From its origins as a hub for financial planning tools, insights into credit scoring, and advice on smart borrowing, Credit Sesame has grown into a leader in the financial wellness industry with new solutions like its Sesame Cash debit account, which topped one million customers less than a year after emerging from its beta launch.

“With Sesame Cash and features like real-time cash back rewards and rewards for improving their credit score,” Credit Sesame GM and Head of Global Banking Miro Pavletic explained when the solution was introduced last September, “we are helping customers put more money back in their pocket than any other digital banking service. Whether you’re looking to buy groceries or debating where to grab takeout, we can connect you with the brands you love and give you cash back instantly,” Pavletic said.

The $51 million in new funding the company raised this week is a testament both to the journey Credit Sesame has been on since its launch in 2010, as well as the potential the firm has to continue to play a leading role in helping millions of consumers better understand and manage their finances.

“Creating access to better credit and finance is critical for financial prosperity for consumers in our country, and it’s enlightening to see major banks and the federal government also taking action,” Credit Sesame CEO Adrian Nazari said. “The impacts of the past year have only made those needs greater, and through our recent acquisition and fundraising, we are proud to be expanding our platform offerings and leading the charge in opening more doors to financial inclusion and wellness for all.” 

The company sees its current mission as closing the “credit chasm,” which it believes limits economic opportunities for more than 44 million “credit invisible” Americans. Part of this effort includes Credit Sesame’s decision to acquire Zingo, a transaction that was completed recently. A fintech company headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Zingo helps renters improve their credit scores via timely rent payments. With almost 80% of its 15 million members renting, rather than owning, a home, Credit Sesame expects the acquisition to represent a “significant growth opportunity for the company” while enhancing “financial inclusion for its customers.” Credit Sesame anticipates integrating Zingo’s rent reporting technology into its financial wellness platform over the summer.

Looking out over the balance of 2021, Credit Sesame appears to be taking a page from Zingo’s book by launching a new feature that will enable consumers to use their cash to help them improve their credit rating. Requiring no credit check, the new solution will allow Credit Sesame customers to leverage their cash and credit together to help build a strong financial foundation and create a path toward better financial health.

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NuBank’s $750 Million Funding Round Proves Digital Challengers Are Still in the Game

NuBank’s $750 Million Funding Round Proves Digital Challengers Are Still in the Game
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Nubank

Digital banking giant NuBank is about to become even more gigantic. That’s because the Brazil-based pulled in $750 million in Series G funding. When added to the $400 million it raised in January, the funds bring the Series G round to $1.15 billion.

Today’s round was led by Berkshire Hathaway, which contributed $500 million. Additional investors include Sands Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, MSA Capital, Advent’s Sunley House Capital, Brazilian asset managers Verde Asset Management, as well as Absoluto Partners.

With the new investment comes a new valuation. NuBank is now valued at $30 billion, a figure that rivals the valuation of Brazil’s number three bank, Banco Santander Brasil.

NuBank was founded in 2013 to serve the underbanked population across Brazil, a group that adds up to 30% of the country’s population. Today, the digital challenger has 40 million customers and offers a robust range of banking services including a debit card, insurance, loans, small business accounts, and P2P payment tools.

Today’s news comes after the company brought on two C-level hires, Matt Swann as Chief Technology Officer and Arturo Nunez as Chief Marketing Officer.

NuBank will use the funds from today’s investment to fuel further expansion into Mexico and Colombia, launch new products, and hire more employees. While the company has been in Mexico since 2018 and Colombia since last October, NuBank’s banking tools are currently limited to credit cards in both nations.

The massive size of this round and the notoriety of the lead investor offer a hint that digital-only banks are not just a fad limited to 2020. These newcomers have the ability and willingness to serve populations that banks have consistently ignored. Because of this, existing digital banks have increased their customer numbers in the past year, and there has been a massive onslaught of new digital banking players vying for a niche subset of the population.

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FinovateAsia Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: QuickFi

FinovateAsia Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: QuickFi
By oliver Posted on
Categories: Finovate, FinovateAsia 2021, FinovateAsia 2021 Sneak Peek, QuickFi

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

QuickFi allows business borrowers to obtain low, fixed rate business equipment term-loans in minutes, instead of days or weeks. The borrower completes the loan process on a mobile device, 24/7/365.

Features

  • Flexible platform integrations for global manufacturers, serving direct, dealer, and ecommerce sales channels
  • Stated, fixed interest rates with no hidden fees
  • 24/7 equipment financing in three minutes

Why it’s great
The QuickFi platform is designed to dramatically improve the business borrower experience by enabling self-service, transparent, digital financing available 24/7/365 with no fees and no hidden costs.

Presenters

Nathan Gibbons, COO
Gibbons is COO of QuickFi and oversees the platform’s operational strategy, leveraging automation and technology to enable dramatic improvements to the borrower experience.
LinkedIn

Jillian Munson, Technology Project Manager
Munson leads core technology projects at QuickFi. She develops seamless user experiences for both internal and external business processes.
LinkedIn

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FinovateAsia Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Crayon Data

FinovateAsia Digital 2021 Sneak Peek: Crayon Data
By oliver Posted on
Categories: Crayon Data, Finovate, FinovateAsia 2021, FinovateAsia 2021 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Crayon’s maya.ai is the world’s first AI-led platform powering the age of relevance. It equips traditional enterprises with the capability to create highly personalized experiences.

Features

  • Boost portfolio spends by 5% to 10%
  • Drive between 15% to 20% spends from inactive segments
  • Deploy Spotify-like personalized storefronts within 10 days

Why it’s great
maya.ai helps personalize at scale while driving every digital engagement metric that matters.

Presenters

Sunil Varhadkar, VP Sales
Varhadkar is a growth oriented global executive leader with 23 years of experience in B2B and B2C digital platforms across Fin-tech, Ad-tech, Health-tech, and eCommerce.
LinkedIn

Rohit Ghosh, Sales Lead
Ghosh is a hardworking, fun, and balanced professional with a thirst for large scale innovation. He is a young leader with a drive to deliver results – better, bigger, and faster.
LinkedIn

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