Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
Affirm raises $500M, unveils new product for smaller purchases from FinLedger – If you needed any more evidence that the Buy Now Pay Later segment is hot here it is. Affirm has just closed a $500 million Series G funding round, no word on valuation. And it also launched a new product to go head to head with Afterpay.
Chime is now worth $14.5 billion, surging past Robinhood as the most valuable U.S. consumer fintech from CNBC – Speaking of massive funding rounds, Chime just closed on a $485 million Series F at a $14.5 billion valuation and there are now talks of an IPO on the horizon.
Payments provider Klarna raises $650 million from Silver Lake-led investor group from Reuters – To round out the trifecta of massive funding rounds this week we have another Buy Now Pay Later entrant, actually the original player from Europe: Klarna. They closed on $650 million at a $10.65 billion valuation.
German fintech backed by Peter Thiel taken down by coronavirus from Sifted – At the opposite end of the spectrum we have Monedo, formerly known as Kreditech, filing for bankruptcy, citing the toll of the pandemic on the company.
Pandemic accelerated KeyBank’s digital shift by 5 years, CEO says from Banking Dive – KeyBank CEO says that his company’s digital transformation has been accelerated by five years and this will have “implications for what goes on in the branches”.
Kraken is launching a crypto bank in Wyoming, paving the way for possible stock offerings from The Block – The cryptocurrency exchange is launching a bank, taking advantage of the new regulatory framework in Wyoming that has been specifically built to attract crypto companies like Kraken.
Goldman Sachs is taking what it learned from a $100 million acquisition to upgrade the Marcus app from CNBC – Goldman Sachs launched Marcus Insights to give consumers a holistic view of their finances leveraging their acquisition of Clarity Money.
Digital Finance Platform MoneyLion Introduces Thematic Investing Solutions from Crowdfund Insider – This is an interesting innovation from MoneyLion. Their new ETF-based thematic investment solutions will come in three flavors: Future Innovation, Earn & Grow and Greater Good.
How the latest cashless movement is hurting the unbanked from American Banker – Podcast with the always thoughtful Aaron Klein of the Brookings Institution on the impact of the pandemic on the 14 million unbanked Americans.
Regulating Fintech as It Becomes Pervasive from The Wall Street Journal – Last week’s op-ed by acting OCC head Brian Brooks elicited some strong responses from the states and others.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.