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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
We’ve now reached the point in the Buy Now Pay Later revolution in which BNPL companies are investing in other BNPL companies. Today we learn that Zip, a Buy Now Pay Later firm based in Australia, has joined Elevator Ventures in leading a $19.5 million (€16 million) funding round for Twisto, a buy now pay later company based in the Czech Republic.
“We want to teach people to take advantage of payment tools the right way,” company CEO Michal Smida said, “to help them improve their family budgets and better manage their cash flow, especially during the time of COVID.”
Also participating in the funding were Finch Capital, Velocity Capital, ING Bank, and UNIQA, an insurance corporation based in Austria. Twisto’s total capital now stands at more than $61 million (EUR 50.5 million). The company will use the additional capital to help fuel further expansion across Europe. “(The funding) is a huge step that helps us continue in our mission to become a leading app in CEE region,” the company wrote on its LinkedIn page this week.
Twisto, which made its most recent Finovate appearance at our European conference in 2018, is a pioneer in the Buy Now Pay Later market in Central and Eastern Europe. Approximately 170,000 consumers have used Twisto’s app, leveraging the company’s risk-scoring engine to access deferred financing options on goods purchased online. Twisto offers consumers an interest-free, three-installment payment option, and also provides paid, premium plans that include features like Split the Bill, Twist Card with Google Pay, and Family Travel Insurance.
Smida believes that Twisto can play a role in changing attitudes toward credit in Europe, and encourage more Europeans to pursue better financing alternatives. Late last year, Twisto teamed up with ING Bank Śląski to invest $4.5 million (PLN 17 million) to develop Twisto Poland, and extend the company’s operations in the CEE. Twisto was founded in 2013.
There’s not much room in 2021 for 2020-style pessimism. Sure, if you look, you can find plenty of things to be negative about so far this year. However, one aspect of 2021 that’s giving fintechs hope is the recent uptick in valuations across the fintech sector.
Despite last year’s global events, many fintechs received valuations exceeding $1 billion. In fact, in December 2020 alone, four fintechs, including eToro, Creditas, PhonePE, and GoCardless, received unicorn status.
This year seems to be off to a similarly bullish start, with four fintechs becoming unicorns in just the first three weeks of 2021:
Digit Insurance
India-based Digit Insurance became India’s first unicorn of 2021 after the country saw 11 new unicorns in 2020. Just 15 days into the new year, and after raising $18.5 million, Digit Insurance unveiled a new valuation of $1.9 billion.
Divvy
Spend management startup Divvy received a valuation of $1.6 billion after its Series D round on January 5. The $165 million came from new investors PayPal Ventures, Whale Rock, Schonfeld, and previous backers NEA, Insight Venture Partners, Acrew, and Pelion. The pandemic has spurred increased traffic to Utah-based Divvy; the startup has experienced a 500% increase in monthly sign-ups since March 2020.
Mambu
SaaS banking platform Mambuearned its unicorn title after landing a $135 million investment on January 7. The boost gave the Germany-based company a post-money valuation of just over $2 billion. Mambu will use the funds to increase its presence in Brazil, Japan, and the U.S.
MX
The second fintech unicorn to come out of Lehi, Utah is fintech data company MX. Founded in 2010, MX raised $300 million in Series C funding on January 13, bringing the company’s total capital to $505 billion and boosting its valuation to $1.9 billion. Company CEO Ryan Caldwell said that MX will use the funds to hire more staff and improve its data collection and enhancement capabilities.
With its announcement today, intelligent enterprise payment solutions provider Plastiq becomes the first company to fully integrate QuickBooks Online into its payments platform. The integration will enable businesses to take advantage of an automated payments reconciliation system that cuts costs, saves time, and eliminates the burden of manual data entry.
“Time and again, we’ve heard from our customers how crucial QuickBooks is to their record-keeping, but as a small business ourselves, we also recognize how time-consuming and error-prone it can be to manually maintain accurate QuickBooks records,” Plastiq co-founder and CEO Eliot Buchanan said. “By integrating QuickBooks into Plastiq, we’re giving businesses back vital time and resources while greatly reducing the chances of human error, enabling businesses to keep their eyes on innovating and propelling growth.”
The integration with QuickBooks will enable Plastiq users to import invoices directly, accelerating the process of identifying and populating essential data elements including vendor name, amount due, and more. After invoices have been paid via Plastiq, the payment information is exported back to QuickBooks to ensure accurate record-keeping for monthly reporting, tax returns, audits, and other compliance-related matters.
The full integration gives Plastiq an advantage over other platforms, whose partial integrations with QuickBooks still leave room for error, especially in the import/export process. This often means returning to manual data entry to make corrections, which not only takes up additional time and resources, but also re-opens the process to the potential for human error. With Plastiq’s full integration, by contrast, companies’ QuickBooks entries are “completely and accurately” updated to ensure both day-to-day accuracy as well as error-free monthly reconciliations and tax reporting.
Founded in 2012, San Francisco, California-based Plastiq ended 2020 with the launch of its new cash payments offering. The new feature enables businesses to pay all of their bills via their linked bank accounts, credit cards, or debit cards. Company Chief Product and Technology Officer Stoyan Kenderov said the addition provided a “fully integrated, intelligent payments solution that serves as a one-stop shop for all of businesses’ payment needs.”
Last fall, Plastiq’s Head of People, Angela Loeffler, was named to The Financial Technology Report’s 2020 Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology roster. The company has raised more than $141 million in funding, most recently securing $75 million in a Series D round last spring led by B Capital Group.
Beijing-based ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, launched a mobile payments service for Douyin, which is China’s version of TikTok.
The new mobile payments service, Douyin Pay, will compete with the likes of Tencent’s WeChat Pay and Alibaba’s Alipay. “The set-up of Douyin Pay is to supplement the existing major payment options, and to ultimately enhance user experience on Douyin,” a Douyin representative told Reuters.
Douyin Pay will also help Douyin expand into the ecommerce scene. That’s because while users are watching short video clips of influencers promoting products on the Douyin app, they can pay using Douyin Pay instead of with competing payment services.
Helping to power the new payment service is Wuhan Hezhong Yibao Technology Co., which ByteDance purchased for an undisclosed amount in September of last year. Hezhong Yibao received a third-party payment license from China’s central bank in 2014.
Last fall, ByteDance achieved a valuation of $100 billion, making it the most valuable privately-held startup. In 2019, the company’s e-commerce and TikTok brands accounted for 17% of its total revenue. This figure is expected to expand this year as ByteDance taps into the potential of short-form video apps.
Another player vying for space in the Chinese payments arena is PayPal, which recently took full ownership of China-based GoPay. The move marks PayPal as the first foreign operator with 100% control of a Chinese payment platform. PayPal’s aim with the purchase is to provide a cross-border payments solution for Chinese consumers and merchants.
With bitcoin and cryptocurrencies enjoying renewed interest, it’s worth noting that many fintech fans encountered their first bitcoin-related businesses through Finovate conferences.
Here’s a look at some of the companies that have brought their bitcoin and crypto-powered innovations to the Finovate stage.
OpenCoin – FinovateSpring 2013 – The company now well-known as Ripple was introduced to Finovate audiences back in 2013. At FinovateSpring that year, Chris Larsen – CEO of a startup called OpenCoin – introduced its virtual currency and distributed open source payment network. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Ripple currently has more than 300 financial institutions who leverage its RippleNet blockchain network to power real-time payments.
KlickEx – FinovateAsia 2013 – New Zealand-based KlickEx unveiled its asset-backed and algorithmic cryptocurrency for institutional and retail users at FinovateAsia in 2013. The company, founded in 2009, recently announced a partnership with the National Reserve Bank of Tonga to launch a new national payment system.
Coinbase – FinovateSpring 2014 – Among the bigger names in bitcoin and cryptocurrency to have demonstrated their technology at Finovate conferences is San Francisco, California-based Coinbase. Debuting at Finovate with its Instant Exchange in 2014, Coinbase has grown into one of the biggest players in the cryptocurrency market with more than 35 million verified users and more than $320 billion in total volume traded on its platform.
AlphaPoint – FinovateEurope 2015 – With more than $350 million in monthly trading volume and 20 digital currency exchanges operating in 15 countries, AlphaPoint is a leading fintech exchange platform provider for digital currencies. The company demoed version two of its digital currency exchange platform at FinovateEurope in 2015.
CoinJar – FinovateEurope 2015 – Australia’s largest and longest-operating bitcoin company, CoinJar demonstrated its platform at FinovateEurope 2015. The Best of Show-winning firm was the first in its market to offer a bitcoin debit card that enabled cardholders to use the cryptocurrency for everyday purchases.
Bitbond – FinovateEurope 2015 – Berlin, Germany’s Bitbond offers a global P2P bitcoin lending platform that enables anyone with an Internet connection to both get loans as well as invest their savings for interest. The company demonstrated its AutoInvest functionality, which facilitates and automates fund allocation in a portfolio, at FinovateEurope 2015.
itBit – FinovateSpring 2015 – New York-based itBit demonstrated its bitcoin trading platform at FinovateSpring in 2015. The company’s technology enables both institutional and retail investors to buy and sell bitcoin. Rebranded as Paxos in the fall of 2016, the company has since highlighted its work in private blockchains and distributed ledger technology.
Blockstack.io – FinovateFall 2015 – Best of Show winning Blockstack.io offers a hosted and licensed enterprise blockchain platform that enables financial services companies and others to build applications on their own private blockchain. The San Francisco, California-based company, founded in 2015, was acquired by Digital Asset Holdings for an undisclosed sum before the end of the year.
ArcBit – FinovateFall 2015 – With a pledge to leverage bitcoin and blockchain technology to bring banking to the underbanked, ArcBit, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015, offers a mobile wallet specifically designed to give bitcoin owners full control over their cryptoholdings.
Coinalytics – FinDEVr San Francisco 2015 – Our developers conference, FinDEVr is one way that many bitcoin and crytocurrency innovators were able to bring their innovations to the public. Coinanalytics, which offers an end-to-end intelligence platform for the bitcoin industry, is an example of the kind of company developing solutions to make bitcoin a better opportunity for payments, financial services, and IoT.
BlockCypher – FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015 – Another alum of our developer’s conference, BlockCypher offers companies a cloud-optimized, enterprise-grade blockchain platform that enables them to build reliable blockchain apps. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company was founded in 2014.
Gem – FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015 – Founded in 2014 and based in Venice, California, Gem demonstrated its API which provides a comprehensive security solution for bitcoin apps – without taking control over funds. With a few lines of code, Gem enables developers to provide an interface to their bitcoin apps that gives users better funding options.
Ledger – FinovateEurope 2016 – Headquartered in Paris, France and founded in 2015, Ledger designs trusted hardware solutions for bitcoin and blockchain apps. The company’s solutions, including the Nano X and Nano S, provide cryptocurrency owners with a secure, portable way to take and manage their digital assets wherever they are.
Stratumn – FinDEVr New York 2016 – Enterprise blockchain technology company Stratumn provides firms with the infrastructure and tools they need to to build, deploy, and run blockchain. The company presented the high performance, proof-of-existence engine of its development platform at our developer’s conference in 2016. Jerome Lefebvre took over as CEO of the company from co-founder Richard Caetano in the fall of 2019.
Plutus.it – FinovateEurope 2018 – London-based Plutus demonstrated its Tap & Pay and Debit Card solutions that enable consumers to pay with bitcoin or Ethereum at any contactless point of sale. Founded in 2016, the company currently supports more than 26,000 Plutus accounts and credits its users for acquiring more than $100,000 in rewards via its Pluton Rewards program.
Amber Labs – Finovate MiddleEast 2019 – Best of Show winner Amber Labs is a bitcoin exchange, wallet, and micro-investment app in one. Headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and founded in 2017, Amber Labs offers a mobile first, automated investment platform for retail customers looking to buy and sell bitcoin.
Online pension provider PensionBee is making it easier for the non-traditional workforce to save for their later years. That’s because the U.K.-based company is launching a new product designed for self-employed users.
The product will enable new users to set up a new pension in minutes. The new offering also provides a flexible contributions plan so that savers can adjust their pension contribution amounts as their income fluctuates, with no minimum contribution required.
The self-employed pension product is available to sole traders and directors of companies without an existing workplace or private pension. Users have nine investment options, including the PensionBee’s Fossil Fuel Free Plan which completely excludes fossil fuel producers and persistent violators of the UN Global Compact.
One of PensionBee’s differentiating factors is its fee structure. Instead of charging users a range of fees, the company has a more simplified fee structure that charges just one annual fee. This “all-in” fee ranges from 0.50% to 0.95%, depending on the plan. And, to encourage higher balances, PensionBee offers users 50% off their fee for any portion of their savings that exceeds £100,000.
Prompting the release of the self-employed product is the increase in self-employed workers combined with a decline in consumer savings. According to a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the number of self-employed workers has grown over the past two decades while the proportion saving into a private pension has fallen from 48% in 1998 to 16% in 2018. Another study from Nest found that only 24% of self-employed workers are saving into a pension.
“Without the benefits of auto-enrollment, the self-employed are at a significant disadvantage and need access to simple and flexible products urgently if they are to avoid a shortfall in later life,” said PensionBee CEO Romi Savova. “In the absence of old workplace pensions to provide a head start, we know that the thought of saving from nothing can be daunting for many self-employed consumers, which is why we’ve made it as easy as possible for them to open a pension and put money aside whenever their business allows.”
“The self-employed currently make up 20% of the PensionBee customer base, so we know their needs well and are committed to helping many more self-employed consumers plan for a happy retirement and achieve better financial outcomes.”
Savova founded PensionBee in 2014 along with his co-founder, Jonathan Lister. The company has closed three rounds of funding; the amounts of each round are undisclosed.
Sweden-based Minna Technologies has secured more than $18 million (€15.5 million) in new funding to help bring its subscription management technology to more banks around the world. The Series B round was led by Element Ventures, and featured participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Nineyards Equity, and Visa. Minna Technologies now has raised more than $27 million (€23 million) in funding.
“Over the past four years, the subscription economy has exploded from Spotify and Netflix to even iPhones and cars,” Minna Technologies co-founder and CEO Joakim Sjöblom explained. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to keep track of the payments and harder for banks to handle inquiries to shut them down. Minna’s tech improves the procedure for banks by simplifying the process, as well as providing an in-demand digital product that consumers are starting to expect from their financial institutions.”
Minna Technologies enables banks to offer their customers a better way to manage what analysts say are an average of 11 monthly subscriptions valued at €333 a month for European consumers. Rather than having to deal with each vendor or merchant separately, users of Minna’s solution can manage subscriptions directly via their banking app. The technology will also notify subscribers when free trial offers are nearing expiration to help users avoid accidental overpayment. Minna said that its technology has helped retail banking customers at partners Swedbank and ING save more than €40 million.
The subscription economy – driven by demand for products and services like online streaming and on-demand shopping – has grown by more than 3.5x since 2012, the company noted. A growing number of companies in the pre-digital economy are also taking advantage of the subscription model. As one example, automaker Volvo introduced a subscription service in the U.K., Care by Volvo, last fall. The new offering includes servicing, road tax, and maintenance as part of its “genuine, flexible alternative” to car ownership.
Element Ventures partner Michael McFadgen praised Minna as a company that was “revolutionizing financial services” for consumers and highlighted the ability of fintech innovation to provide banks with potential additional revenue streams, as well. “This is a clear example of the liberating services Open Banking promised us and we’re excited to be part of this journey with Minna,” McFadgen said.
Founded in 2016, Minna Technologies demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2019 in Berlin, Germany. Last summer, the company announced a partnership with ING Belgium, enabling the bank’s 1.8 million customers to manage their subscription commitments without leaving the bank portal.
Pre-accounting platform Expensify commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a creative way to fight injustice. The company will donate 25 cents for every dollar it pays its white male employees to its volunteer-led campaigns. The company estimates that this initiative – the product of “numerous internal conversations” among Expensify employees – will raise $3 million in 2021.
Dude fee? Bro tax? As Expensify CEO and founder David Barrett explained, the calculation was made based on national gender pay gap data. “As part of our broader commitment to creating a world free of injustice, we’re using external data sources to determine our direct donations so it meaningfully reflects the types of fundamental and generational issues we’re trying to help solve.”
In the company’s announcement, Expensify Director Puneet Lath – a nine-year veteran of the firm- elaborated on the thinking behind the decision. Pointing out that members of some minority groups can earn as low as 75 cents on the dollar compared to white men doing the same work, Lath said this gap has contributed to systemic inequality and “unequal treatment in the workforce.” To this end, he said this specific funding approach “furthers our commitment to unwind systemic injustice throughout society.”
The engine of Expensify’s program is Expensify.org, which was launched last year to help facilitate charitable giving and volunteering. The onset of the COVID-19 crisis caused the organization to focus its efforts on hunger relief efforts, resulting in assistance to 5,000 low-income families by the end of 2020.
A Finovate alum for more than a decade, Expensify also participated in our developer’s conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, the receipt tracking and expense management app has more than 10 million users around the world.
One of the greatest “How It Started” vs “How It Going” stories in international fintech these days continues to be the rise of Grab Financial, the spin-off from ride-hailing and food delivery company Grab. The Singapore-based company announced this week that it has secured more than $300 million in a round led by Hanwha Asset Management of South Korea. The investment, which also featured participation from K3 Ventures, GGV Capital, Arbor Ventures, and Flourish Ventures, gives the company an estimated valuation of $3 billion.
“We are at an inflection point in Southeast Asia,” Grab Financial Group senior managing director Reuben Lai said, “as the pandemic has accelerated the need for digital financial services that help us grow and protect our incomes.” The company reported that the new capital will help support the hiring of additional talent, as well as fuel expansion and the introduction of new products.
Among the recent accomplishments of Grab’s fintech division are a 40% gain in 2020 revenues, a 4x increase in users of its insurance distribution offering, and the launch of its first wealth management solution. Grab – as part of its consortium with Singtel – was also among the fortunate few to earn approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to launch a digital bank.
This week’s Finovate Global Reports features a fresh look at fintech in Latin America courtesy of EBANX annual Beyond Borders 2020/2021 study. The report looks at the impact of COVID-19 on cross-border e-commerce and payments trends in Latin America.
Among the key insights include the centrality of mobile in driving digital consumption of services as 4G becomes more widespread throughout the region. The report also suggests that Latin America has the potential to rival southeast Asia in terms of the growth of its e-commerce sector.
For our international Finovate Global Alumni Profile this week, here’s a look at ModularBank, a digital banking solution provider based in Estonia that raised €4 million in new funding this week. The company, which demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2019 in London, offers a modern, API-based, banking-as-a-service solution to help businesses leverage new business models and gain competitive advantage.
“Increasingly, people are demanding more flexible and convenient services that fit around the way they work and live and in response, there is a wave of digitalization and embedded finance on the horizon, beginning to build,” explained Modularbank CEO Vilve Vene upon announcement of the company’s recent funding.
“To harness this momentum there is a real need for lean, yet sophisticated core banking technology … Modularbank was set up to enable banks and other customer-facing businesses to devise and roll out personalized banking services quickly and easily.”
A collaboration between the State Bank of Pakistan and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will bring a state-run digital payments system, named Raast, to Pakistan.
Jamaica-based digital microfinance company Sprint Financial Services picks up an investment from black-led Blue Mahoe Capital Partners, based in Florida.
Mynt, the fintech division of telecom Globe and e-wallet GCash, raises $175 million in new funding to support growth in mobile payments in the Philippines.
With a focus on South Eastern and Central and Eastern European startups, LAUNCHub Ventures announces first closing of its new fund, bringing in €44 million en route to its €70 million goal.
Brokerage infrastructure API provider DriveWealthannounced this week it acquired Cuttone & Company, a New York-based institutional broker dealer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
DriveWealth has purchased Cuttone & Company specifically for its market and regulatory expertise and network of institutional trading partners. The New Jersey-based company will leverage this expertise to offer its own partners access to price discovery on its scalable, configurable, and redundant electronic trading infrastructure.
Ultimately, the acquisition will offer retail investors who trade fractional shares of U.S. equities via DriveWealth’s partners direct access to the point of sale for NYSE securities.
“These added resources, unprecedented transparency, and the ability to trade directly on the NYSE or across all U.S. equity destinations will open up greater opportunities for the retail investors we serve on our platform,” said DriveWealth Founder and CEO Bob Cortright. “Having notional trading technology connected to a flexible brokerage infrastructure allows investors to start small by investing in brands they know and care about. We’re proud to bring this new combination of Cuttone & Company’s institutional knowledge with our retail trading technology to become the most complete brokerage stack available to retail investors today.”
DriveWealth was founded in 2012 by Cortright and his co-founder Julie Coin. The company has raised a total of $100.8 million, including a $56.7 million DriveWealth closed last October.
Global card issuing platform Marqetaunveiled today that it has been tapped by Goldman Sachs to power checking accounts for its Marcus brand.
The new digital checking accounts will launch for Goldman’s Marcus clients later this year, though there is no word on the exact timing.
Goldman selected Marqeta for its open APIs and webhooks and its developer experience, which was designed to power future-proofed banking experiences. The two also have a prior relationship, as Goldman Sachs is one of Marqeta’s previous investors.
“We’re incredibly proud to work with Marcus by Goldman Sachs to help power this work, which we think is a true validation of the power of our technology,” said Marqeta Founder and CEO Jason Gardner. “Our modern card issuing platform helps digital innovators build the sorts of customer experiences that can be industry game changers, and we’re looking forward to working alongside Marcus to bring a powerful new digital banking experience to life.”
Marcus currently offers limited consumer banking tools, including savings, certificates of deposits, and loans. The bank also partnered with Apple in 2019 to serve as the banking partner behind the Apple credit card. Expanding into checking accounts will help Goldman Sachs diversify from its traditional investment banking offerings and move further into the everyday financial lives of consumers.
Goldman’s expansion into checking accounts comes as no surprise. The bank announced its intentions in February of last year. And the partnership with Marqeta is a logical one. The California-based company offers a tech-forward approach and counts fintechs such as Square and Klarna among its clients.
Should other banks– challenger banks and traditional banks alike– be worried? Jim Marous answers that question in his piece Marcus: A Digital Bank That Should Keep Rivals Up At Night. “In the future, the Marcus brand will only grow,” said Marous. “With the addition of wealth management and eventually checking accounts that are 100% supported by a mobile app, financial institutions of all sizes should take note of the potential for Goldman Sachs to be a major player in the marketplace. If banks and credit unions are not paying attention today (when there is time to react), there is a good chance Marcus will be the source of nightmares going forward.”
Upgrade, the neobank launched by LendingClub founder Renaud Laplanche is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its flagship Upgrade Card – and a $50 million fundraising – with a new mobile checking account. Upgrade’s Unique Reward Checking Accounts offer 2% cash back on everyday and recurring expenses and 1% cash back on all other debit charges. Qualifying accountholders are eligible for up to 20% discounts on Upgrade loans.
“We asked our customers what would cause them to switch their primary checking account,” Laplanche said. “The overwhelming answer was attractive rewards on debit card purchases. While credit cards often provide decent rewards, it has been nearly impossible for consumers to earn a broad 2% cash back on debit charges.”
Upgrade’s Rewards Checking account, as well as all of the neobank’s banking services, are backed by Cross River Bank, chartered in New Jersey. Cross River founder, CEO, and chairman called the new accounts “everything mainstream consumers expect from a modern checking account with no fees, generous rewards, and access to affordable credit.”
The new offering comes as Upgrade enjoys strong adoption of its Upgrade Card, which offers access to installment financing online and at millions of points of sale via the Visa network. The company reported an annual rate of $1 billion in new credit lines already made available to consumers who are applying for Upgrade Cards or loans at a rate of more than one million a month.
Meanwhile in the wake of Brexit, European challenger bank Revolut is back in the market for a banking license in its home country. Revolut opted to secure its first banking license from the European Central Bank rather than pursue banking in the U.K. when anxieties over the future of a post-Brexit United Kingdom were at their peak. But now, with Brexit moving closer toward resolution, Revolut has returned with a bid to bring its digital banking services to the U.K.
“We want to be the best in class for customer experience, value and capabilities, and offering full bank accounts allows us to do just that,” Revolut founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said. “In the future, we want to offer many more innovative products to our UK customers and we are excited to continue driving innovation and competition in the banking industry. Becoming a fully licensed bank in the U.K. is a central pillar of that ambition.”
Toronto, Ontario-based challenger bank Koho announced this week that it has hired former Wayfair Director of Engineering Jonathan Klein as its new Chief Technology Officer. Klein takes over the CTO spot from Kris Hansen, who left the position back in August.
Founded in 2014 as the country’s first neobank, Koho has more than 120,000 accounts and reports $500 million in annualized transactions. The neobank offers full-service individual and joint bank accounts, along with a prepaid Visa card issued by People Trust Company. Koho has raised a total of $57.7 million in funding, most recently securing a $18.8 million Series B in the fall of 2019. Last year, Koho picked up an award for Best Prepaid Credit Card in Canada for 2021 from CreditCardGenius.
And for more from the neobank beat, check out our eulogy for Simple, the in-house challenger bank which was shuttered by BBVA after six years in operation.
