In 2021, US consumers and businesses poured US$2.6 trillion in transactions through embedded financial services, a sum that represents nearly 5% of all US financial transactions, according to a new report by Bain Capital and Bain & Company. By 2026, that amount is projected to exceed US$7 trillion, or over 10% of total US transaction value, reflecting the appeal of integrated financial services among customers. Embedded finance, a concept that refers to the integration of financial services into non-financial services, is a booming sector that’s been fueled by changing consumer behaviors, advances in technology, and an evolving regulatory landscape. In…

Digital payments company MoneyGram is now Haas F1 Team’s title sponsor for the 2023 season and beyond, with the new “MoneyGram Haas F1 Team” brand to take effect next year. The Haas F1 Team is a a fan favorite and the only American team competing in the FIA Formula 1 (F1) World Championship, the world’s foremost motorsports competition with an audience of 500 million. MoneyGram, who announced the sponsorship at the 10th anniversary of the United States Grand Prix, described it as “the fastest way to send money globally teaming up with the fastest sport in the world.” The F1…

Latin American challenger bank Nubank announced the creation of Nucoin, its own cryptocurrency on the Polygon blockchain network, set to be launched in the first half of 2023. The token, developed with Polygon’s support, will be part of a rewards programme in Brazil where customers who accumulate Nucoins will be able to access benefits such as discounts and perks. Nubank will also invite around 2,000 customers to participate in Nucoin’s development process in October and November in the spirit of decentralised product creation. Polygon is an Ethereum scaling platform that enhances the functionality of Ethereum while retaining the base layer’s…

Travel expense management platform TripActions has raised a US$300 million Series G at a US$9.2 billion post-money valuation. The raise is a combination of US$154 million in equity and a US$150 million structured capital transaction led by Coatue. The announcement comes as the platform recorded a surge of more than 7.5-times in spend volume, and gross bookings increased by more than five times year-on-year in its latest fiscal quarter. The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion, which in the past year included the launch of its card-led automated expense management platform TripActions Liquid in Europe. Founded in…

Apple has partnered with Goldman Sachs to provide Apple Card users with a savings account where they will be able to automatically deposit their Daily Cash cashback rewards. Apple Card users will be able to set up, manage and monitor their savings account through the Wallet app in the coming months. The account will have no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements. Users will be able to deposit funds into and withdraw from their savings account through a linked bank account or their Apple Cash balance. Apple Card users also get cashback on purchases from select merchants…

Oracle NetSuite has launched a solution which embeds HSBC’s banking services in NetSuite’s cloud enterprise resource planning system to allow vendor payments to be made from within the platform. The new NetSuite AP Automation solution is said to shorten accounts payable (AP) processes as it enables organisations to better control outgoing cash flow and take advantage of early payment discounts. Eligible transactions completed with a HSBC virtual credit card also earns credit which could help further reduce operating costs and turns accounts payable from a cost centre into a revenue generator. “Accounts payable plays an important role in helping organisations…

Nubank has reached 70 million customers in Latin America, with 66.4 million users in Brazil, 3.2 million in Mexico, and more than 400,000 in Colombia — making it the fifth largest financial institution in Brazil in terms of number of customers. In Brazil, Nubank’s investment product has over six million active customers and its fund manager has one million shareholders. 1.7 million customers are also actively using its new financial planning tool and 1.8 million customers have used its cryptocurrency feature. Nubank currently offers 30 financial products and it continues to invest in a platformisation strategy as it seeks to…

Fraud, compliance, and instant settlement solutions provider Sardine has raised US$51.5 million in Series B financing led by Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) Growth Fund to accelerate product and market development. New and existing investors including XYZ, Nyca Partners, Sound Ventures, Activant Capital, Visa, Google Ventures, The General Partnership, NAventures, ING Ventures, ConsenSys, Cross River Digital Ventures, Alloy Labs, and Uniswap Labs Ventures also participated in the round. Sardine combines traditional financial data sets with identity, behaviour and device intelligence to enhance their customers’ risk capabilities. The company also offers KYC, AML, sanctions, and transaction monitoring to reduce fraud during account opening,…

CBDC solutions provider EMTECH has been selected as one of four technical vendors participating in The Digital Dollar Project’s (DDP) Technical Sandbox Programme. The company will contribute to the programme with its API-based and energy efficient central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform to test use cases of a digital dollar for cross-border payments. The DDP’s new sandbox programme was launched last month to serve as a collaborative space for public and private sector players to identify and test use cases and gather data on business-level impacts. The other three vendors selected for the inaugural programme are Digital Asset, Knox Networks,…

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions company Ratio has raised U$11 million in venture funding and a US$400 million credit facility for customer financing from investors such as Streamlined Ventures, Cervin Ventures, 8-Bit Capital, and HoneyStone Ventures. Founded in 2021, the platform combines payments, predictive pricing, financing, and a quote to cash process to allow recurring revenue businesses to provide embedded BNPL services that match customers’ cash flow needs. Simultaneously, Ratio allows SaaS businesses to leverage their recurring revenue streams to unlock new non-dilutive capital without spending hours fundraising. “We created Ratio to revolutionise the way that SaaS companies and…

CYBERA Global Inc. has secured an additional US$5 million in what it says was an oversubscribed equity round led by Converge VC and New North Ventures. Founder Collective, Swiss venture capital firms Serpentine Ventures and CV VC, as well as other institutional and angel investors also participated in the round. Previous well-known investors include former financial supervisor in the Vatican René Brülhart, as well as former head of UBS and current President of the Swiss Bankers Association Marcel Rohner. The additional funds will help scale CYBERA’s solutions that focuses on logging and sharing cybercrime victim reports and creating a global…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a report offering key insights on the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) industry. The following are 10 notable points from the study. 1. The five firms surveyed in the report originated 180 million loans totaling over US$24 billion in 2021, a near tenfold increase from 2019. 2. Apparel and beauty merchants, who had combined to account for 80.1% of originations in 2019, only accounted for 58.6% of originations in 2021. 3. Loan approval rates are rising: 73% of applicants were approved for credit in 2021, up from 69% in 2020. 4. Late fees…

Brazilian payments company EBANX announced plans to expand its operations and payments solutions outside Latin America for the first time to Africa, with a focus on South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. The three countries are said to account for 32 percent of Africa’s population, 51 percent of its GDP, and 73 percent of the startup accelerators active in the continent today. Founded in 2012, EBANX currently operates in 15 Latin American countries. It also serves as workflow management platform Pipefy’s payments partner in the African region. EBANX previously announced that it secured US$400 million in funding from Advent International and…

Netherlands’ PayU has received the endorsement of Colombian regulatory authorities to acquire local electronic payment and deposit specialist Tecnipagos, better known as Ding. Based in Bogota, Ding allows merchants to make electronic deposits like they would with a savings account, and accept payments from credit and debit cards, QR codes, and other methods. The company also issues its own Visa debit and business cards, available in both physical and virtual form. PayU is an e-commerce payment solutions and consumer credit provider that also invests in fintech startups. The company operates in over 50 markets, has offices in 18 locations and…

US government agencies have submitted nine reports to date in response to President Biden’s Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets published in March 2022. Highlights from the reports include: Protecting consumers 1. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are encouraged to “aggressively pursue investigations and enforcement actions”. 2. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should “redouble their efforts” to tackle unfair and abusive practices. 3. Government agencies such as the Financial Literacy Education Commission (FLEC) should increase research and public awareness efforts. 4. The Treasury will…

New York-based asset management platform Ethic has closed a US$50 million Series C funding round led by the Jordan Park Group, with participation from UBS’ venture unit UBS Next. The round also saw participation from existing investors including Oak HC/FT, Nyca Partners, Sound Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund and Kapor Capital. Ethic provides financial intermediaries with custom equity portfolios that can be tailored to end clients’ individual sustainability, financial, charitable giving and tax management preferences. The company has grown rapidly since its US$29 million Series B raise in 2021, surpassing US$2 billion in assets and expanding its team headcount by more…

Payments solutions provider Bottomline has acquired real estate payments software company Nexus Systems for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition will combine Nexus’ capabilities, customers and suppliers with Bottomline’s Paymode-X B2B payments network, extending the network’s capabilities in the real estate vertical. Paymode-X processes over US$300 billion in payments annually on behalf of over 500,000 businesses. The service has been named “Market Leader” in Ardent Partners’ ePayables Technology Advisor report. Nexus Systems specialises in accounts payable and payments automation software for the real estate and property management industries. Mainsail Partners was its only private equity investor prior to the transaction. “We…

J.P. Morgan has signed an agreement to acquire payments technology company Renovite to bolster the firm’s payments modernisation strategy and support its journey to the cloud. Upon closing of the transaction, Renovite will become part of J.P. Morgan Payments, which combines corporate treasury services, trade finance, card and merchant services capabilities at the firm. The acquisition complements the firm’s proposed strategic investment in Viva Wallet and its strategic partnership with Volkswagen Financial Services AG. Final transaction execution is subject to customary closing conditions. Founded in 2015, Renovite has built six products to help clients optimize infrastructure, including switch, reconciliation, security,…

Despite a dip in quarterly investment to US$22.7 billion, the Americas saw a record 806 deals in Q1’22, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech H1’22 report. However, total investment dropped to US$16.8 billion across 624 deals in Q2’22, bringing the investment total to US$39.4 billion across 1,430 deals for the first half of the year. Key H1’22 highlights from the Americas include: US attracts majority of fintech investment The US accounted for US$34.9 billion of fintech investment in the Americas during H1’22, a drop from $49.7 billion in H2’22. This included the US$2.6 billion buyout of Bottomline Technologies by PE…

Home to more than 150 fintech unicorns, the US is a fintech powerhouse and one of the world’s biggest fintech ecosystems. Given the country’s leading position in the global fintech scene, a number of large-scale events and conferences are being held each year in the US. As 2022 will be coming to an end in just a few months, we’ve compiled a list of the top fintech events and gatherings taking place in the US in September and Q4 2022. Lend360 September 12-14, 2022 Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, Chicago, IL Lend360 is an annual summit for the leaders in online…