Global newsletter

Yesterday, Apple held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), during which it made several interesting announcements. The most relevant to fintech is the new "Tap to Cash" feature that will be built into iOS18. As it sounds, this will allow users to send and receive Apple Cash simply by holding two iPhones together.

Greenlight has been a leader in helping young children and teenagers develop financial skills. Its app is used today by more than six million parents and children. While the company was traditionally focused on a direct-to-consumer model, it is increasingly developing partnerships with large banks to accelerate its growth.

Nium, a real-time payments infrastructure company, has closed its $50 million Series E at a $1.4 billion valuation. That is 30% below the valuation from its last funding round in 2022.

Fintech infrastructure is still hot. As earnings season wraps up, we heard from nCino yesterday as they reported on their fiscal first quarter, which ended on April 30.

Robinhood is still bullish on crypto despite the SEC warning the company it plans to sue over this part of its business. We learned yesterday that Robinhood will acquire crypto exchange Bitstamp for $200 million, making this its largest acquisition to date.

UK digital banking pioneer Monzo reported its financial results for the 2023-24 fiscal year today. The numbers are impressive. Total revenue was £880 million for the year, more than 2x the £356 million from the previous year.

When it comes to the adoption of generative AI in finance, we are still at the top of the first inning. That is why it was really interesting to read Penny Crosman's article yesterday about what is top is mind for bankers when it comes to Gen AI.

Here is another use case for generative AI. BNPL giant Klarna is using Gen AI to run marketing campaigns and generate images.