We lead the news this week with Robinhood, as they finally announced plans to go public. Large funding rounds continued and the trend of fintechs applying for banking licenses continued. And, of course, we have SPAC news. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
Robinhood files confidentially to go public from TechCrunch – The long awaited Robinhood IPO is getting closer. The popular stock trading app filed confidentially for an IPO so soon we will learn their financials and other metrics.
Revolut submits draft application for U.S. bank charter from Reuters – Leading UK digital bank Revolut has been in the US now for a while and they have showed their commitment to this country (after pulling out from Canada) by applying for a banking license.
FT Partners closes $500m Spac from Finextra – FT Partners have helped several fintech companies with SPAC deals and now they have decided to create their own SPAC.
New York Regulator Finds No Fair Lending Violations on Apple Card Applications from The Wall Street Journal – You may remember the furore in late 2019 when several people, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, complained that Goldman Sachs showed bias in their underwriting of the Apple Card. The NYDFS found no such thing.
Feedzai raises $200M at a $1B+ valuation for AI tools to fight financial fraud from TechCrunch – The biggest funding round announced this week was the $200 million Series D for Feedzai making it the latest fintech unicorn.
Global funds giant Fidelity joins the race for the first US bitcoin ETF from Business Insider – We have lost count of how many companies have filed applications with the SEC for a bitcoin ETF but this is the first one from an industry giant.
Upstart launches new offering to connect borrowers with banks from FinLedger – Upstart was in the news again this week with the launch of their Upstart Referral Network to better connect banks with personal loan borrowers.
America used to be behind on digital payments. Not any more from The Economist – With the growth of digital payments during the pandemic U.S. payments companies like PayPal, Square and Stripe are now world leaders with huge valuations to match.
Plaid accelerator announces inaugural cohort of fintech startups from TechCrunch – Plaid’s accelerator program, called FinRise, has chosen five fintech startups to join its first cohort.
In 2020 Fintechs Raised $44.4 Billion Venture Funding, A Record Amount Excluding Ant Group’s Big Raise in 2018: Research from Crowdfund Insider – Last year was a great year for fintechs looking to raise money, a record year in fact, as shown by the Pitchbook report.
