Fintech Newsletter for 3/6/21

Below are news related to  fintech industry this week.

General News

Plaid, San Francisco, California-based fintech, which was in the news recently with Visas $5.3Billion bid attempt that the U.S Department of justice thwarted due to privacy and antitrust risks, has launched a new income verification product.

The ability to verify employment status, income, and ability to pay is crucial to nearly every loan application. But historically, proving these things has been unduly burdensome for applicants. They often need to retrieve and share multiple documents, which a lender must process and review. For the applicant, this can lead to frustration, stress, and uncertainty. Income, a new Plaid product currently in beta, makes it easier for people to prove their income - Source: Plaid  Blog

Square (NYSE:SQ) is in news this week for couple of reasons

(a) Square anounced buying majority stake in music-streaming service Tidal for $297 million in cash and stock.Tidal was founded in Norway in 2014 before being bought by a consortium of artists led by Jay-Z the following year for $56 million.Jay-Z will join Square’s board of directors

b) Square launched a in-house bank earlier this week and is expected to  provide business loans and deposit products to sellers who use its card reader and other point-of-sale services

Running its own bank will allow Square to "operate more nimbly, which will serve Square and our customers as we continue the work to create financial tools that serve the underserved,"-Square Inc. Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja

Venture and IPO

• Eco ,San Francisco based digital global cryptocurrency platform raised $26m in Series A funding.
• Unslashed ,UK based provider of insurance products for crypto assets raised $2m in Seed funding.
• Hepster ,Germany based insurtech platform raised $10m in Series A funding.
• OpenComp,San Francisco based compensation platform raised $4.6m in Seed funding.

“People are a company’s greatest asset which is why it’s so critical to compensate employees fairly and judiciously. And yet, compensation planning continues to be an ad-hoc exercise for many growth companies due to lack of priority, time and access to quality benchmark data or expertise,”  “We are empowering companies to approach compensation confidently and to make it a cornerstone of their success with a complete solution built from our decades-long compensation and HR consulting experience.”-Thanh Nguyen, co-founder and CEO, OpenComp

• Flourish ,California based customer engagement platform for banks raised $1.5m in Seed.
• FutureFuel.io,New York based student debt focused fintech company raised $10m in Series A.
• Iris ,Australia based Bitcoin-focused data center business raised $31m in new funding.
• Clari ,California based revenue operations platform raised $150m in Series E funding.

"Clari became even more strategic for revenue teams in the pandemic year, as the need for visibility and control over the revenue process became essential,"The transparency and rigor of a modern Revenue Operations approach allowed Clari customers to quickly pivot their go-to-market strategies to respond to changing market conditions. Over the last year, we've seen record usage and engagement with our platform, as revenue teams established more accountability and discipline across their different channels." -Andy Byrne, CEO at Clari

• Papaya Global,Israel based workforce management platform raised $100m in Series C.
• Minu, a Mexico City-based, pay-on-demand startup, raised $14m in Series A.
• TaxBit ,Utah based provider of cryptocurrency tax and accounting services raised $100m in Series A funding.
• Beam Dental,Ohio based digital-first dental insurer raised $80m in Series E funding.

New posts this week

What are different Payment Networks?

Debit Card,ACH,Wire,Checks.

FinTekCafeFinTekCafe

If you have any comments or have any topic request for the blog, then please leave your feedback at https://fintekcafe.com/feedback/