Tala, a digital financial services provider in emerging markets, announced a new partnership with Visa to help underbanked populations participate in the crypto economy. Together with additional partners Circle and the Stellar Development Foundation, Tala will explore opportunities to make it easier for underbanked consumers to convert, store, and use crypto currencies, beginning with USDC, the stablecoin governed by the Centre Consortium. USDC is a fully reserved and regulated dollar digital currency that has seen more than 1,000% year-over-year growth and now has more than $13 bilion in circulation. New use cases have continued to emerge around USDC, including cross…

Wealthsimple, a Canadian online investment management service focused on millennials, announced that it has raised $610 million (C$750 million) in a funding round. This latest investment has pushed its valuation to about $4 billion (C$5 billion). The round was led by existing investors Meritech Capital Partners and Greylock Partners. DST Global, Sagard, Iconiq, Dragoneer, TCV, iNovia, Allianz X, Base 10, Redpoint, STEADFAST, Alkeon, TSV, Plus Capital and others had also participated in the round. Wealthsimple also had prominent Canadian actors Ryan Reynolds and Michael J. Fox, and athletes Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, and Patrick Marleau as well as Canadian rapper Drake…

Paxos, a New York-based regulated blockchain infrastructure platform, announced it has closed a US$ 300 million Series D round of funding. Oak HC/FT led the round, with participation from previous investors Declaration Partners, PayPal Ventures, Mithril Capital, Senator Investment Group, Liberty City Ventures, WestCap and more. To date, Paxos has raised more than $500 million in funding and with a valuation of $2.4 billion. Paxos will continue investing in the development of enterprise-grade infrastructure while deepening its commitment to regulation, reliability and security. The company will accelerate growth by hiring new team members across all functions, scaling its operations, increasing…

Greenlight Financial Technology, a debit card for kids and a mobile app that empowers parents raise financially-smart children, announced the close of a US$ 260 million Series D funding round. This brings Greenlight’s total funding to over $550 million and increases the company’s valuation from $1.2 billion to $2.3 billion in a six-month period. The series was led by Andreessen Horowitz whose general partner David George will join Greenlight’s board of directors. The fundraise was also participated by return investors TTV Capital, Canapi Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, BOND, Fin VC, Goodwater Capital, as well as new investors Wellington Management,…

US-based challenger bank Current announced that it has raised $220 million in Series D funding and tripled its valuation to $2.2 billion in just five months. Current has now raised over $400 million in total funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round with substantial participation by returning investors Tiger Global Management, TQ Ventures, Avenir, Sapphire Ventures, Foundation Capital, Wellington Management and EXPA. Current said in a statement that the fundraise follows a year of tremendous growth after signing on three million members, a significant bump from the one million mark it reached just last summer, and it also expanded its creator…

Amazon.com announced that it is rolling out its biometrics technology Amazon One as a payment option at Whole Foods stores in the Seattle area over the coming months. The multinational company had introduced Amazon One as a fast, convenient, contactless way for people to use their palm to enter, identify, and pay. After introducing the Amazon One service last September, the company added it as an entry and payment option at several Amazon stores in the Seattle area, including Amazon Go, Amazon Go Grocery, Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, and Amazon Pop Up. Amazon said that thousands of customers have signed…

There are 56 fintech billionaires around the world who combine a total net worth of US$327.7 billion, data curated by Finextra based on Forbes’ 2021 World’s Billionaires list show. These represent some of the world’s biggest and most successful fintech companies in the world including Ant Group, PayPal, Stripe and Klarna. They are also world renowned fintech investors and the founders of leading firms such as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. US leads in fintech billionaire count Out of the 56 fintech billionaires identified, 28 are in the US, making it the largest hub of fintech billionaires. US fintech billionaires are…

Apple announced the launch of Apple Card Family, which allows users to share their Apple Card in order to track purchases, manage spending, and build credit together with their Family Sharing group. Available in the US in May, Apple Card Family allows two people to co-own an Apple Card, and share and merge their credit lines while building credit together equally. Apple Card Family also enables parents to share Apple Card with their children, while offering optional spending limits and controls to help teach smart and safe financial habits. The new offering is designed to help the Family Sharing group…

Digital Asset, the creators of the Daml multi-party application platform, announced that it has raised over US$ 120 million in Series D funding from 7RIDGE and Eldridge. The company said that it will use this financing to continue to expand its team globally by 50% this year. Digital Asset will also enhance its product portfolio with a new interoperability protocol that enables data to seamlessly interact across blockchains and traditional databases, creating an interoperable data network across systems of record. The company also announced that Carsten Kengeter and Veronica Augustsson of 7RIDGE have joined the Digital Asset Board. The latest…

Venmo, a mobile payment service owned by PayPal, announced that it now allows more than 70 million of its customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly within the app. The offering will be available for all customers within the next few weeks. Venmo customers can start their crypto journey with as little as $1 by clicking on “Crypto” in the Venmo menu at the top right in the app. Customers can choose from four types of cryptocurrency; Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. Crypto on Venmo is enabled through PayPal’s partnership with Paxos Trust Company, a regulated provider of…

Mastercard announced that it has acquired identity verification company Ekata for US$850 million as digital identity is a foundational part of Mastercard’s multi-layered approach to security. In 2019, the company introduced a new framework on how digital interactions should evolve, as well as how digital identity will build trust, collaboration and economic growth. That framework is now in use across a number of sectors, from education to travel to healthcare. Ekata works with a wide range of global merchants, financial institutions, travel companies, marketplaces and digital currency platforms. The company uses insights to deliver unique scores, data attributes and risk…

The past two years have seen the valuations of the US’s most valuable venture (VC)-backed fintech companies soar. As of March 19, 2021, six fintechs were amongst the country’s top 20 most valuable VC-backed companies, and worth a combined US$145.1 billion, up 68% from their worth in 2020 of US$86 billion, data from PitchBook show. Online-based, payment processing platform Stripe is currently valued US$95 billion. It’s the most valuable VC-backed company in the US and the world’s second most valuable one, right after world leader Bytedance, a provider of social networking platforms and the operator of TikTok valued at US$140…

Open banking platform Plaid announced in a blog post that it has raised US$ 425 million during a Series D financing round, pushing its estimated valuation to US$13.5 billion. The funding round was joined by new investors Altimeter Capital, Silver Lake, and Ribbit Capital. Existing investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, New Enterprise Associates, Spark Capital, and Thrive Capital. Zachary Perret, CEO and Co-Founder of Plaid said, “Looking ahead, Plaid is focused on creating a single, integrated platform focused on helping innovators build digital financial products. Doing so requires scaling to meet the increased use of fintech, expanding…

Paxos Trust Company, a regulated financial market infrastructure provider, announced Instinet and Credit Suisse settled US listed equities trades on a same-day settlement cycle (known as T+0) via Paxos Settlement Service. The trades occurred at 11 AM ET and 3 PM ET and were settled at 4:30 PM ET, demonstrating the platform’s ability to enable same-day settlement for trades conducted throughout the day. In the legacy system, settlement can only occur the same day if trades are completed before 11 AM ET, and therefore is rarely utilized. Paxos Settlement Service is a private, permissioned blockchain solution designed to allow two…

Broadridge Financial Solutions, an American-based investment banking company, is set to acquire Itiviti, a provider of trading and connectivity technology to the capital markets industry, in an all-cash transaction valued at €2.143 billion (approximately $2.5 billion) from Nordic Capital. Broadridge said in a statement that Itiviti’s strong presence in APAC and EMEA will significantly expand Broadridge’s revenues outside of North America and enhance Broadridge’s international footprint in key markets. Itiviti’s blue-chip client base should also provide significant cross-sell opportunities across Broadridge’s product portfolio, further enhancing its long-term growth. Upon closing, Itiviti will become part of Broadridge’s Global Technology and Operations…

Real estate tokenisation platform RealT has chosen Swiss fintech Mt Pelerin’s Bridge Protocol, an open source asset tokenisation technology, to optimise the management of its properties and investors. RealT, an American company based in Florida, has created a model that makes real estate investment easily accessible for the public through tokenisation which is the issuance of financial assets on the blockchain in the form of tokens. Since 2019, RealT allows its clients to invest starting from a few dozen dollars in ownership shares of high yield (10% to 13%) residential and commercial real estate in the US, with rental revenue…

PayPal announced the launch of Checkout with Crypto, where US customers will be able to choose to check out with crypto seamlessly. Building on the ability to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency with PayPal, customers using Checkout with Crypto can check out safely and easily, converting cryptocurrency holdings to fiat currency, with certainty of value and no additional transaction fees. Checkout with Crypto will automatically appear in the PayPal wallet at checkout for customers with sufficient cryptocurrency balance to cover an eligible purchase. All transactions are settled in USD and converted to the applicable currency for the business at the…

Visa announced that it will allow the use of USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, to settle transactions on its payment network over Ethereum, an open-source blockchain. Visa said that it is piloting the capability with Crypto.com, a crypto platform and a Visa partner, and plans to offer the USDC settlement capability to additional partners later this year. Working with Anchorage, a digital asset bank and an exclusive Visa digital currency settlement partner, Visa has launched the pilot programme with Crypto.com. Visa’s standard settlement process requires partners to settle in a traditional fiat currency, which can…

Adoption of open banking is catching in the US on the back of rising customer demand and competitive pressures, according to a new report by Financial Technology (FT) Partners. In a paper titled Open Banking: Rearchitecting the Financial Landscape, the fintech-focused investment bank gives an overview of the open banking landscape in the US and introduces some of the companies leading the space. According to the report, US consumers are becoming increasingly awareness and receptive of open banking with younger generations in particular being the most interested in the potential for more flexible and transparent financial offerings. Higher-income consumers tend…

Feedzai, an American cloud-based financial risk management platform, announced that it has secured $200 million during a Series D investment round, valuing the startup at more than $1 billion. The funding round was led by leading global investment firm KKR, with participation from existing investors Sapphire Ventures and Citi Ventures. Feedzai said that the new investment will be used to accelerate the company’s global expansion, further develop its product offerings, and boost its partner strategy to strengthen its position in the market. Feedzai’s platform is used by financial institutions, payment providers, and merchants to manage the risk of financial crime…