Paypal is increasing access to digital currencies by simplifying how wallets, dApps, and NFT marketplaces can enable their customers to buy and sell supported crypto in the U.S. (subject to applicable state law) through an integration with PayPal On and Off Ramps. Once integrated, web3 merchants can help grow their user base by connecting to PayPal’s fast and seamless payments experience trusted by millions, while leveraging PayPal’s robust security controls and tools for fraud management, chargebacks and disputes. PayPal previously launched On Ramps to enable U.S. consumers to directly buy crypto with PayPal through integrations with Metamask and Ledger – with more coming soon.…

Paypal announced that PayPal Giving Fund is expanding its partnership with Meta to exclusively enable charitable giving on Facebook and Instagram in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. As an IRS-registered charity, PayPal Giving Fund’s mission is to support charities by enabling them to benefit from new forms of giving. Charities will be able to raise money through fundraisers and donation buttons on Facebook and Instagram, and donations will be received by PayPal Giving Fund and granted to benefiting charities in accordance with its policies. PayPal Giving Fund’s partnership with Meta makes it easier for donors to support their favorite causes…

The number of cash-only consumers, or those without a financial account, has decreased substantially in Latin America (LatAm) over the past couple of years, plummeting from 45% in 2020 to only 21% in 2023, a new study by Mastercard and research firm Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) found. The research, which is based on in-depth interviews with 25 financial service providers operating in LatAm and online surveys of 2,815 individuals within seven major markets in the region, found that most LatAm consumers gained access to basic financial products between 2020 and 2023. Delving deeper into the types of products used, results…

Ramp, the finance automation platform announced a $300 million Series D on the back of strong revenue growth, rapidly increasing market share among small and mid-sized businesses, and successful expansion into the enterprise segment over the past year. The company will use this capital to further fuel its industry-leading pace of product development and accelerate its expansion into adjacent categories. In an uncertain macroeconomic environment, companies of all sizes and across all industries are more focused than ever on their bottom line. As businesses look for modern finance tools that help them operate more efficiently and profitably, Ramp has seen increasing…

LemFi (formerly Lemonada Finance), a Canadian fintech platform transforming financial services for immigrants, has raised a $33 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. Other investors included Y-Combinator, Zrosk, Global Founders Capital, and Olive Tree. Each year, millions of immigrants move abroad to start new lives, and the biggest hurdle they face is access to financial services. In 2020, Founders Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran joined forces to solve these challenges with a vision to build a platform that empowers the next generation of immigrants. Olalere and Cochran first met while building OPay – one of Africa’s most…

Thoma Bravo and ForgeRock announced the completion of Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of ForgeRock in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.3 billion. The acquisition agreement was previously announced on October 11, 2022, and approved by ForgeRock stockholders at ForgeRock’s Special Meeting of Stockholders held on January 12, 2023. Upon completion of the acquisition, ForgeRock stockholders are entitled to receive $23.25 in cash for each share of ForgeRock class A common stock and class B common stock they owned. ForgeRock’s class A common stock will no longer trade and will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Thoma Bravo also announced that it has combined ForgeRock into…

Stripe announced a partnership with Google Workspace to power paid appointment bookings with Google Calendar. The new feature, which is built on Stripe Connect and Stripe Checkout, enables customers to pay for services directly while making a booking on a Google Calendar booking page. “Stripe makes it incredibly easy to accept payments directly from Google Calendar, so customers can complete bookings and make payments in seconds,” said Ilya Brown, vice president of product management at Google Workspace. With this new feature, businesses can connect their Stripe account, set a price, and then offer their clients the ability to book and…

With robust financial markets, advanced infrastructure and technological prowess, North America has emerged as a hotspot for fintech innovation. The continent boasts a myriad of programs designed to propel startups to the top, providing the most promising tech-enabled businesses with critical resources to grow and connecting them with industry veterans, experts and potential investors. Today, we look at ten of the largest and most prolific fintech acceleration and incubation programs in the continent. These programs have established track-records of building up and supporting some of the world’s biggest and most successful ventures. Y Combinator Although not exclusively fintech-focused, Y…

Global payment giant PayPal announced the launch of a U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoin which will be available to consumers, merchants and developers to seamlessly connect fiat and digital currencies. PayPal USD (PYUSD) is backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S Treasuries and similar cash equivalents. Eligible U.S. PayPal customers who purchase PayPal USD (PYUSD) will be able to transfer the stablecoin between PayPal and compatible external wallets. They will also be able to send person-to-person payments using PYUSD, fund purchases with it at checkout, and convert any of PayPal’s supported cryptocurrencies to and from PYUSD. PayPal USD is issued by Paxos…

The global fintech sector is witnessing a slowdown in deal activity, with companies adopting a cautious “wait-and-see” approach. In the first half of 2023, only 128 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) were recorded, compared to 248 and 188 in the first and second halves of 2022, respectively, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, a provider of multi-asset class data, research and analytics, show. Despite the contraction, firms remain interested in exploring options, preparing for potential deals when market conditions improve. According to the S&P Global Market Intelligence, several fintech segments are attracting merger and acquisition (M&A) interest, including payments, treasury management…

Latin America (LatAm) is experiencing a dynamic surge in fintech innovation, emerging as one of the fastest-growing regions in the space globally. As of April 2023, the region was home to about 1,000 active fintech companies with Brazil (466 fintech companies), Mexico (213) and Colombia (91) at the lead, data from Flagship Advisory Partners show. Brazil, in particular, has become a hotbed for fintech development, hosting today some of the region’s largest and most successful fintech ventures. Among these, eight have reached unicorn status, CB Insights data show, highlighting their staggering growth and investors’ bullishness in the prospect of Brazil’s…

Provenir, a provider of AI-powered data and decisioning software, announced that U.S. consumer automotive financing provider GoFi is leveraging its data and decisioning platform to assess an applicant’s credit risk for real-time financing approvals. GoFi is an AI-powered digital lending platform that is built on a proprietary loan origination system and powered by its integrated machine learning algorithms to provide auto-decisioned responses across the full credit spectrum. “We selected Provenir for several reasons, most importantly, for the platform’s flexibility and customization options. It also allows us to quickly and easily integrate with many different platforms which will allow our business users…

The fintech sector in North America has experienced robust growth and rapid evolution over the past years, driven by technological advancements, regulatory changes, and shifts in consumer behavior. In the US, fintech companies have been instrumental in shaping the future of finance, with companies like Stripe, Square, and Robinhood transforming the landscape of payments, investing, and business finance. In Canada, though the fintech industry is much smaller compared to the US, the scene is growing and evolving rapidly. Toronto, in particular, has become a notable fintech hub, with a robust ecosystem of startups, financial institutions, and supportive government policies. As…

Asset tokenization, a process that involves converting rights to a real-world asset into a digital token and recording that said asset on a blockchain, is becoming a critical part of the financial market infrastructure, providing substantial benefits including improved speed and efficiency, enabling asset fractionalization, and boosting liquidity. Prominent financial institutions including US banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, and global investment firm KKR, are implementing tokenization to tap into the opportunity, building infrastructure to cater to the booming trend and creating tokens for everything from real-estate to gold bars. JP Morgan formed in 2020 Onyx, a business unit which…

Payments giant Mastercard has partnered with Billtrust, a B2B order-to-cash software and digital payment solution provider, to launch the Mastercard Receivables Manager. The Mastercard Receivables Manager is a new automated solution that streamlines the way businesses accept and process virtual card payments. This complements Mastercard’s virtual card platform as the company provides choice in payments to players across the ecosystem and accelerates the digitization of B2B transactions across buyers and suppliers. Suppliers will no longer need to manually capture and enter virtual card details to reconcile the vast number of digital payments received. Instead, the new product consolidates these card…

Argentina, one of South America’s most promising economies, has a burgeoning fintech ecosystem that’s evolved rapidly over the past years, fueled by favorable factors including a growing tech-savvy population, increasing smartphone adoption, and a thirst for financial inclusion. Today, Argentina has one of LatAm’s fastest growing fintech sectors, behind only Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, according to a study by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Data from the Argentinian Fintech Chamber show that as of September 2022, there were 330 fintech companies operating in Argentina, employing 23,548 people directly. These metrics suggest a 15% growth compared to 2021 projections. Digital payments,…

The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced that its new system for instant payments, the FedNow Service, is now live. Banks and credit unions of all sizes can sign up and use this tool to instantly transfer money for their customers, any time of the day, on any day of the year. “The Federal Reserve built the FedNow Service to help make everyday payments over the coming years faster and more convenient,” said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell. “Over time, as more banks choose to use this new tool, the benefits to individuals and businesses will include enabling a person…

Fintech startups in Latin America (LatAm) raised a total of US$254 million in funding in Q2 2023, bouncing back 69% from Q1’s US$137 million, data from Fintech Global, a provider of fintech information services, show. Despite the quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) rebound, the numbers are substantially lower than those observed last year, representing a year-over-year (YoY) drop of 96% for Q1 and 68% for Q2. Looking at 2022 and H1 2023 figures, Fintech Global projects that LatAm fintech funding could reach US$548 million this year, down 89% from 2022. But despite the downturn, some startups managed, nevertheless, to attract investors’ interest and…

Three years ago,  Collective launched with their mission to empower Businesses-of-One with the technology and team that they need to enable them to focus on their passion, not their paperwork. Today, 39% of the U.S. workforce and growing are solopreneurs and Collective has created the first all-in-one back-office solution to help deliver this rising population financial peace of mind. While their mission remains unwavering, technology continues to improve exponentially. AI technologies, in particular, are at a tipping point. OpenAI’s GPT-4 can now perform at 90% on nearly all standardized tests. AI technologies can not only be leveraged to build tools…

Alongside Brazil and Mexico, Colombia is among the top three Latin American countries when it comes to fintech innovation. The country was home to 279 fintech companies in 2021, behind only Brazil (771) and Mexico (512). The figure makes Colombia the third largest fintech ecosystem in Latin America (LatAm), accounting for 11% of all fintech companies in the region, a 2022 report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Finnovista shows. The rise of the Colombian fintech sector comes on the back of regulatory initiatives and supportive efforts from the government to foster innovation in the banking and financial sector.…