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Fintech Newsletter for 2/13/21

Below are news related to  fintech industry this week.

General News

Robinhood, online no fee based stock broker, is facing scrutiny from Congress and regulators over its decision to block users from purchasing shares of GameStop.(read my post on GameStop)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp,one of the america's oldest banks,announced its entry into the bitcoin market.Bank said  that it will hold, transfer and issue bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its asset-management clients

MasterCard said in a statement that it is preparing to  support cryptocurrencies directly on its network this year. Quote below on the rise of digtal assets

“The trend is unmistakable,” Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products,MasterCard

Venture Capital and IPO

Opportunity Financial (OPFI), a fintech that partners with banks to offer loans to consumers with low credit scores, is going public through SPAC(read my blog article on SPAC as a vehicle for IPO)

Mobile banking platform MoneyLion Inc has agreed to go public through a merger with SPAC firm Fusion Acquisition Corp, in a deal that values the equity of the combined company at $2.9 billion.

Online retail lender loanDepot raised just $54 million by offering 3.9 million shares at $14

Tillit, a fintech startup that is building  buy now, pay later(BNPL) for B2B purchases. (read  my post on "BNPL") is said to be  closing on latest round of funding.

Northmill Bank is conducting a capital round of $30 million to accelerate the geographical expansion

“When we now start to see a shift in banking towards smarter and more customer-oriented products, driven by customers' changing demands and behaviors, we as Sweden's only completely cloud-based bank see great opportunities to meet the new demands and be a positive driver for better banking services for all."-Hikmet Ego, CEO and co-founder of Northmill Bank

BharatPe,India's next fintech unicorn,has raised $108M in latest round of funding with valuation at $900M. The company provides universal QR code for payment processing.

SoLo funds,fintech company that wants to replace payday lenders with community -based lending, as raised $10M in latest rounds of funding.

Human Interest,a sanfranciso based affordobal full service 401k provider for small and mid sized business,completed $105M in series C funding

New posts this week.

What are Search Funds,SPAC(special purpose acquisition company) and SPE?
“Entrepreneurship through acquisition”(eTA) is a model wherein entrepreneurs buybusinesses that have proven product-market fit and generating revenue. Why would someone sell a business like that?There could be many reasons, such as the business owner getting older and no-onein the family wants t…
GameStop and Short Squeeze
BackgroundMost of you may already be aware of the episode with GAME STOP (NYSE: GME) stock,which is now all over the news. The sequence of events went something likethis. There was a high level of short interest in “GME.” Allegedly an increasednumber of retail investors from the Reddit ’wallstre…

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