Grab’s fintech arm raises $300m in round led by Hanwha
“Grab, the Southeast Asian US$15 billion ride-hailing and food delivery giant backed by SoftBank and Uber, is accelerating its expansion into financial services with a new fundraising by its fintech subsidiary. Grab is betting on growing demand from the region’s rising class of merchants and consumers,” reported The Information. The ride-hailer’s fintech unit, Grab Financial Group, […]
Fintech in the midst of global pandemic: Predictions for 2021
As the world is anxiously anticipating the arrival of long-awaited vaccines and people are hoping that the new 2021 will bring things back to normal, we are asking ourselves what the future of the global fintech industry might look like in the next twelve months. When the majority of the world’s population was forced to […]
Green Dot launches mobile bank
Green Dot has launched a mobile bank, called GO2bank, targeting the two in three Americans “living paycheck to paycheck”. Green Dot says millions of Americans are unbanked or using expensive methods like cheque cashiers, money orders, and bill pay services to access the cash they need. GO2bank customers will get up to $200 of overdraft […]
How the Pandemic Has Reshaped the Fintech Landscape
New report from McKinsey finds strong take up of banking apps, but lack of penetration beyond tech-savvy users. The Covid-19 pandemic has provided a major boost for the fintech sector, with more financial decision makers now using start-up tech companies as part of their every day lives, according to research by McKinsey. The global consultancy […]
Have digital banks turned the corner?
Mobile banking has come into its own under COVID-19, but fintechs must adapt to compete with the strengths of incumbent banks. Last November, Starling Bank hit headlines with the announcement it would break even for the first time. What would be a commonplace piece of financial reporting in other sectors is a rare and in […]
Alphabet-backed fintech GoCardless nears $1 billion valuation amid digital payments boom
LONDON — British financial technology start-up GoCardless is one step closer to reaching a $1 billion valuation thanks to accelerated demand for digital payments during the coronavirus pandemic. GoCardless said Thursday that it had raised $95 million in a fresh investment round led by the venture capital arm of Bain Capital. The new funding values […]
Swedish fintech startup Tink raises €85 million to strengthen its position as Europe’s leading open banking platform
Tink, a pioneering open banking platform from Sweden just secured €85 million of additional funding, led by Eurazeo Growth. This brings the total investment in Tink during 2020 to €175 million (€90 million were raised in January of this year). Founded in 2012 in Stockholm, Tink already counts more than 350 employees and is currently serving its […]
Economic Crises Point to Accelerated Innovation for Banks, Covid-19 is no Different
No-one could have expected the unprecedented year that we have had, and the coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on industries all over the world, including banking and financial services. Though the outlook on the economy is still uncertain as we navigate through this period, looking back shows that innovation is always rife during crises, […]
Swedish challenger Rocker pilots biometric card
Swedish digital banking challenger Rocker is set to pilot the country’s first contactless fingerprint biometric debit card.The firm is working with augmented identification vendor Idemia to roll out the card early next year, enabling users to ditch their PINs for payments. Jonas Hultin, chief product officer, Rocker, says: “As a bank challenger, we are constantly […]
Fintech, regtech and the role of compliance 2021
The year 2020 has been a year of digital transformation and acceleration to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. By necessity and by design firms have implemented the roll-out of technology, often at speed, to enable business activities to continue as countries went into lockdown. The applications that are covered by the term fintech […]
