Another busy news week saw Apple/Goldman Sachs announce they will go head to head with Affirm and Afterpay. Revolut is now the most valuable UK fintech…again. Not one, but two fintech companies started trading on the public markets this week and Square is going deep in DeFi. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
Apple, Goldman Plan ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Service to Rival Affirm from Bloomberg – Whenever the most valuable company on the planet announces something new in financial services it is big news. Apple is going to launch two BNPL products, one that goes head to head with Afterpay and one to take on Affirm. Both companies dropped more than 10% in value on Tuesday’s news and have not recovered.
Digital bank Revolut valued at $33 billion in funding round led by SoftBank and Tiger Global from CNBC – Firmly entrenching themselves as the most valuable UK fintech, Revolut announced another monster round this week that values the company at six times what it was worth a year and a half ago.
Digital lending platform Blend valued at over $4B in its public debut from TechCrunch – Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND) completed their IPO on Friday and closed their first day up 16% with a valuation of more than $4 billion.
Bank Of America: Active Digital Banking Users Up 3 Pct To 40.5M from PYMNTS.com – The big four banks reported earnings this week and what caught my eye was this piece about B of A. They are clearly one of the largest “digital banks” in America with 40.5 million active users.
Sunlight Financial Completes Their SPAC Merger and Starts Trading on the NYSE from LendIt Fintech News – Sunlight Financial, a highly profitable fintech lender focused on clean energy, started trading on the NYSE. Take a look at their numbers, they have been profitable for some time while also growing at a fast clip.
Square is building a decentralized finance business using bitcoin from CNBC – Square is getting into DeFi after a tweet from CEO Jack Dorsey indicated the company would create a new unit to develop bitcoin applications.
GreenSky facilitated loans without borrowers’ consent: CFPB from American Banker – GreenSky had some overzealous merchants who provided loans to consumers without their consent and in some cases GreenSky let things slide in the name of more loan volume.
ECB Starts Next Digital-Euro Stage With Investigation Phase from Bloomberg – The European Central Bank is forging ahead with a formal investigation of CBDCs with President Christine Lagarde making it clear this is a stepping stone to implementation.
Serena Williams invests in rent-reporting fintech Esusu from TechCrunch – Tennis superstar Serena Williams has invested in rent-reporting startup Esusu as part of a $10 million Series A.
Investment in fintech booms as upstarts go mainstream from The Economist – What a first six months for fintech with $70 billion in investment, already double all of 2020, with the UK and Europe catching up to the U.S.
