All posts tagged: TechCrunch Fintech

Payoneer scoops up Skuad, Robinhood’s strong Q2, and X is making progress on payments

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Payoneer’s $61 million acquisition of Skuad, Robinhood and Dave’s second-quarter results, X’s progress on its payments and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big story Last week, I got the scoop on publicly traded fintech Payoneer acquiring Singaporean startup Skuad for $61 million in cash, with the potential to pay up to $81 million. This was a pretty fast exit for Skuad founder Sundeep Sahi, who launched the company in 2019 with the aim of simplifying international hiring and had raised $19 million in venture funding. Both Payoneer and Skuad are geared toward SMBs that operate internationally, particularly in emerging markets. Notably, rather than build out the tech itself, Payoneer decided to acquire Skuad and integrate its payroll and contract management products into its own offering. Analysis of the week A couple of publicly traded fintechs posted strong results last week. Robinhood beat its second-quarter earnings …

Stripe’s big changes, Brazil’s newest fintech unicorn and the tale of a startup shutdown

Stripe’s big changes, Brazil’s newest fintech unicorn and the tale of a startup shutdown

Published by skeptic

Fundid’s founder shares how rising interest rates, VCs and partners killed the business finance startup Mary Ann Azevedo 10 hours Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Stripe’s big product announcements, a bump in valuation for a Brazilian fintech startup and much more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.  The big story Stripe announced that it will be de-coupling payments from the rest of its financial services stack. This is a big change, considering that in the past, even as Stripe grew its list of services, it required businesses to be payments customers in order to use any of the rest. Alongside this, the company is adding in a number of new embedded finance features and a new wave of AI tools. The fintech giant also announced that after a six-year hiatus, it will let customers accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with just one currency in particular, USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon. Analysis of …

Fintech startup Ramp sees 32% bump in valuation, Mercury expands into consumer banking

Fintech startup Ramp sees 32% bump in valuation, Mercury expands into consumer banking

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at Ramp’s big raise and valuation jump, Mercury’s move into personal banking, Klarna’s new credit card, global funding rounds and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.  The big story Ramp, a spend management startup rivaling the likes of Brex, Navan and Airbase, told TechCrunch exclusively last week that it had raised $150 million at a post-money $7.65 billion valuation. Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund co-led the round, which represented a 31.9% bump in valuation from its August 2023 raise. It’s an impressive feat in a challenging market full of down rounds. Also, notably, Ramp is one of the few larger fintechs that hasn’t had to lay off staff. What’s driving all the investor interest in Ramp? CEO Eric Glyman believes it’s the company’s continued growth and emphasis on AI. Analysis of the week Business banking startup Mercury is expanding into consumer banking. The seven-year-old company today serves more than 100,000 …

TechCrunch Fintech: Meet PayJoy, a fintech operating at the intersection of doing good and making money

TechCrunch Fintech: Meet PayJoy, a fintech operating at the intersection of doing good and making money

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at how two fintech companies serving the underserved are faring, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here.  The big story PayJoy is an example of a company with positive unit economics and a mission to help the underserved. It’s not often that we see those two things intersect, so when we do, we get pretty excited. I wrote about the company’s milestone of achieving $300 million in annualized revenue and profitability last year, while also managing to land $150 million in Series C funding. The company’s model is unique: It helps people build credit through pay-as-you-go financing for smartphones. Once the phones are paid off, customers can apply for loans through PayJoy using their devices as collateral. Read all about its growth here. Analysis of the week Petal is another fintech company that aims to help the underserved “build credit, not debt.” Last May, TechCrunch wrote about the …

Robinhood’s new Gold Card, BaaS challenges and the tiny startup that caught Stripe’s eye

Robinhood’s new Gold Card, BaaS challenges and the tiny startup that caught Stripe’s eye

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! This week, we’re looking at Robinhood’s new Gold Card, challenges in the BaaS space and how a tiny startup caught Stripe’s eye. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT, subscribe here.  The big story Robinhood took the wraps off its new Gold Card last week to much fanfare. It has a long list of impressive features, including 3% cash back and the ability to invest that cash back via the company’s brokerage account. A user can also put that cash back into Robinhood’s savings account, which offers 5% APY.  We’re curious to see how this new card will impact the company’s bottom line. But also, we are fascinated by how Robinhood incorporated the technology it acquired when buying startup X1 last summer for $95 million and turned it into a potentially very lucrative new offering. Analysis of the week The banking-as-a-service (BaaS) space is facing challenges. BaaS startup Synctera recently conducted a restructuring …

Non-sexy industries can appeal to investors too

Non-sexy industries can appeal to investors too

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! This week, we’re looking at some hot fintech startups in Africa, how Mint’s closure has been Copilot’s gain and why VCs have doubled down on a particular expense management startup. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT, subscribe here.  The big story While venture funding in Africa (like everywhere else in the world) has dropped in recent times, this past week was a good one for the region’s fintech ecosystem. TC reporter Tage Kene-Okafor reported on how Uber led a $100 million investment into African mobility fintech Moove as the startup’s valuation hit $750 million. He also wrote about how Zone raised $8.5 million to scale its decentralized payment infrastructure. And Annie Njanja reported on how Tanzanian payments company Nala’s successful pivot to offer remittance service in 2021 also led to it building a B2B payment platform. Analysis of the week Intuit’s decision to shutter budgeting app Mint has led to opportunity for startups …

Griffin Bank has a license to thrill

Griffin Bank has a license to thrill

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! I’m filling in for Mary Ann, who is on a much deserved break. This week, we look at Griffin Bank getting its license ahead of some heavy hitters, and we go inside Stripe’s annual letter, some funding rounds, and more! The big story A top story for this week was Griffin Bank over in the U.K. The banking-as-a-service company managed to do something that even the region’s most valuable fintech company, Revolut, hasn’t been able to do yet — obtain a banking license. Granted, as Mike Butcher writes, banking licenses are difficult to come by (Griffin’s took a year), but Revolut has talked about securing a banking license for the past three years. Now that Griffin has a banking license, it offers a full-stack platform for fintech companies to offer banking, payments and wealth solutions via automated compliance and an integrated ledger. More likely, the company will offer banking accounts to businesses rather than consumers. Analysis of the week Alex Wilhelm and I read through Stripe’s annual letter. …

Why does every startup want to help you get paid?

Why does every startup want to help you get paid?

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! This week, we’re looking at the piping hot global payroll space, neobank Dave’s financial results and related stock boost, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big story This week alone, we covered three interesting deals in the global payroll space. For starters, Deel announced it is acquiring African-based payroll and HR software and services company PaySpace in its largest acquisition to date. It also said it’s crossed $500 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). Then I wrote about Remofirst, a startup out to take on the likes of Deel and Rippling, too, securing $25 million in Series A funding. Also, Tage wrote about how UAE-based RemotePass announced it had raised $5.5 million in Series A funding led by Istanbul-based 212 VC. There’s no question that this space is hot, hot, hot. Listen to Alex Wilhelm and I talk more about it on Equity: Analysis of the week …

When startups fail, these startups clean up

When startups fail, these startups clean up

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! Apologies for being out last week — a cold got the best of me, but I’m back and here to talk about the fact that shutting down startups is big business, Stripe’s new valuation, Klarna’s latest AI update and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big story Last week, I wrote about two startups — Sunset and SimpleClosure — that help other startups shut down raising capital. It was a deep dive into how and why this business has become one that is so sought after by investors. I also covered Stripe’s tender offer that resulted in a 30% higher bump in valuation — to $65 billion — for the payments giant. This means that the company likely won’t go public this year after all. You can hear Alex Wilhelm and I discuss both topics on Friday’s Equity Podcast episode. You can also hear me talk to Nubank …

PayPal Ventures’ first AI investment, a credit-based dating app and Robinhood’s good week

PayPal Ventures’ first AI investment, a credit-based dating app and Robinhood’s good week

Published by skeptic

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! This week, we’re looking at a new finance-based dating app, Robinhood’s earnings results and the startup in which PayPal Ventures made its first investment. Let’s dive in! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big story A new dating app was released just in time for Valentine’s Day, but there’s a catch: You must have at least a 675 credit score to use it. Launched by financial platform Neon Money Club, Score is a dating app for people with good to excellent credit, and it seeks to help raise awareness about the importance of finances in relationships. TC’s Dominic-Madori Davis gave us a look at what the startup aims to do and how it came about. Reading all the comments on X and LI was also quite entertaining! Analysis of the week Robinhood’s stock got a big boost last week when the company posted a surprise profit in the fourth quarter …