Staying on the beat – July 12 – July 19 2021
From Startups to Unicorns
Railsbank raises $70M expanding fintech-as-a-service platform.
Financial services as a service — where neobanks, retailers and others can create and sell their financial products has been one of the bigger trends in the world of fintech. Embedded finance is on its way to being a $7.2 trillion market by 2030.
Now, one of the companies building and providing those APIs is announcing some growth funding to expand.
Railsbank, which builds APIs for banking, payment cards and credit products for use by fintechs but also a wide range of other kinds of businesses, has raised $70 million in new equity funding, money that the London startup plans to use to continue growing internationally and to add more features to its product set.
Revolut valued at $33bn following SoftBank & Tiger deal
The UK fintech Revolut has raised US$800mn in a new funding round led by SoftBank and Tiger Global Management.
This latest boost to the London-based company means Revolut is now the UK’s biggest ever fintech, with a valuation of $33bn.
According to reports, the move will transform Revolut – a banking and payments app, into one of the most valuable fintech companies ever launched in Europe.
Discover invests $30m in BNPL firm Sezzle.
The firms have agreed to expand their existing partnership to build a BNPL network solution on the Discover Global Network and roll out a dedicated referral programme to push Discover credit and debit cards to Sezzle users.
M1 Finance has hit a $1.45 billion valuation after raising a Series E funding round for its “super app” offering automated investing, borrowing and banking products.
Indian digital payments giant Paytm seeks to raise $2.2 billion in an initial public offering.
In draft papers submitted to regulators, Paytm says it will issue new shares worth 83 billion rupees (about $1.1 billion), with current investors – including Ant Group, SoftBank and Berkshire Hathaway – selling another 83 million rupees in stock.
The company is also in talks about a potential pre-IPO placement of 20 billion rupees.
Investment in fintech booms as upstarts go mainstream
Much more money is pouring into it than usual. One in every five dollars invested by venture capital this year has gone into fintech. In the second quarter of the year alone, it attracted $34bn in venture-capital funding, a record, reckons CB Insights, a data provider.
Big Beats around the world
AI to have biggest impact on fintech over next five years
- 90% of fintechs use APIs, and they are the most widely used emerging technology today, primarily driven by the success of Open Banking.
- 70% of fintechs are already using AI despite it generally being perceived as a future technology.
- 20% of fintechs use blockchain technology, demonstrating that it has moved beyond the hype and is now being implemented more widely.
- Low-code is being used by 16% of fintechs as firms seek to increase the pace of development and refocus developer time on high-value projects.
- 10% of fintechs use edge computing, a surprisingly high adoption rate given the technology is less hyped than the others.
European Central Bank green lights digital euro investigation
The European Central Bank is to begin a two-year investigation into the prospects for launching a digital euro.
Over the past nine months, experimental work conducted by the ECB found no major technical obstacles to any of the assessed design options for both the Target Instant Payments Settlement System and alternatives such as blockchain.
Regulatory Moves
France Proposes EU-Wide Cryptocurrency Regulation
France proposed Tuesday that the EU governments regulate cryptocurrencies to the pan-European markets watchdog, the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), instead of national regulators, the Financial Times reported.
The French markets regulator, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), has also called for more regulatory power to be granted to the ESMA to regulate the crypto industry more effectively.Â
More from PCN:Â
We’re excited to announce that the PCN Magazine Volume 7 Issue 2 is here!
Covering Expert Insights and Interviews – Cybersecurity with Edna Conway and Ted Harrington, Tech for Good, The Cashless Revolution, Startup Spotlights, and more, keeping you on the industry pulse.
Read it here.
This edition features:
and
In Check with Fintech: Ted Harrington, Executive Partner at ISE
Ted Harrington corrects startling misnomers in the industry. Penetration Testing vs Vulnerability assessments – do you know the difference and which one you need? – We had the pleasure of interviewing Ted on In Check With Fintech, PCN’s podcast show. Have a listen here.
PCN:Â
PCN has the connections in the industry that can push you forward in our specialisms of FinTech, Saas, eCommerce & Cyber Security. Whether you’re a candidate looking to take the next step in your career, a client looking for the best talent or interested in our media and exposure services – we’ve got you completely covered.
People Create Networks.
