In case you were wondering BNPL is still the hottest sector in fintech. Goldman decided they want in, Capital One is launching a product and more innovation is coming from Curve. Square combining their Cash App with their merchant payments solution is really big news and yes we revisit SPACs as well as DeFi with a cover story from The Economist no less. Here are what I consider to be the top news stories in fintech this past week.
Another one Buys Now Pays Later: Goldman acquires GreenSky from LendIt Fintech News – Goldman Sachs wants in on the BNPL action and is spending $2.24 billion to acquire GreenSky, a leader in the home improvement and medical lending spaces.
Square announces Pay With Cash App from LendIt Fintech News – I don’t think this news got the attention it deserved. Square is creating its own closed-loop payments network linking its Cash App users with its merchants, bypassing the traditional payments rails.
Fintech Startup Pagaya Reaches $9 Billion SPAC Deal to Go Public from The Wall Street Journal – We haven’t mentioned SPACs for a while but those of us in the marketplace lending space for a while know Pagaya and have been impressed by their work. Still, this is a heck of a valuation for a company that is barely five years old.
QED Investors closes on $1.05B across two funds to invest in fintech companies globally from TechCrunch – Nigel Morris, Frank Rotman and the team have built a fintech VC powerhouse and, while they don’t toot their own horn very much, they have changed the world with some of their early investments.
CFPB small-business data plan scares banks. Activists say it should. from American Banker – The CFPB wants any lender who originates 25 or more small business loans a year to submit data on the race, sex and ethnicity of the owners of those businesses. Believe it or not, this rulemaking is part of Dodd-Frank, so it has been more than a decade in the making.
Capital One beta-tests BNPL option, marking turnabout from Banking Dive – The BNPL craze is showing no signs of slowing down with Capital One the latest big card issuer jumping into the fray.
The beguiling promise of decentralised finance from The Economist – The cover story this week in The Economist is all about decentralized finance. They explain what it is, why it is becoming popular and its potential to transform the financial system.
London FinTech Curve Launches BNPL Alternative from PYMNTS.com – Curve has an innovative card product (and they are launching in the U.S. soon) and now they have launched a BNPL product in the UK, approved by the FCA, that allows consumers to turn any credit card charge into an installment loan.
SpotOn raises $300M at a $3.15B valuation and acquires Appetize from TechCrunch – The biggest fundraising round of the week goes to point of sale fintech SpotOn which closed $300m, led by Andreessen Horowitz, just three and a half months after closing their previous $185m round.
Walmart-Litecoin partnership news release pure bull from LendIt Fintech News – We end the roundup this week with a strange story from the world of crypto. Someone issued a press release on Monday claiming that Walmart would be accepting Litecoin which sent the price of the crypto skyrocketing until both Walmart and Litecoin claimed they knew nothing about it…because it wasn’t true.
