552. News: Square buys Afterpay - the difference between being monolithic and monopolistic

Our expert hosts,David Brear and Gwera Kiwana, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week.

This week's guests include:

Mike Kelly, CEO and founder of Curl, Stateless Group and formerly Product Lead for VPR at Open Banking

Ron Shevlin, Director of Research, Cornerstone Advisors

We cover the following stories from the fintech and financial services space:

Square to buy Australia's Afterpay in $29 billion deal 4:36

CMA mandates ‘Sweeping’ in big win for UK Open Banking 21:01

Kuda, the African challenger bank, raises $55M at a $500M valuation 37:20

Rapyd raises $300M on $8.75B valuation as fintech-as-a-service continues to boom 47:16

Snoop raises £15 million to fund international expansion 1:01:20

Element Ventures bags $130 million for B2B fintech fund 1:03:23

Robinhood spikes 65%, halted for volatility 1:04:15

Private jets are so last year: John Collison is buying an airport 1:06:00

This episode is sponsored by WaveMaker.

This podcast is sponsored by WaveMaker, the industry's most open, API-driven low-code platform for hyper-accelerating embedded finance applications. Are APIs alone enough to broaden and scale your market adoption? Do you need customers to go live faster? How about self-serve capability in your partners' and customers' hands to build and customize their web and mobile experiences?

WaveMaker delivers a rich drag-and-drop visual studio that fintechs, brands, and financial institutions use for rapidly composing serious banking and financial services apps. Pro and citizen developers can easily consume your APIs and build in a WYSIWYG, enterprise-grade environment; leverage custom pre-built components with APIs, logic, and UI; or even build out complete embedded finance journeys that customers can extend or customize. The possibilities are endless. Visit www.wavemaker.com today.

This episode is sponsored by Temenos.

Temenos is the world’s leader in banking software, helping over 3,000 banks serve over 1.2 billion people. Our purpose is to make banking better. Together with our community, we make banks more successful, individuals better banked, and society better served. With our software banks can create more human digital experiences, hyper-efficient business models, and transform their back-office. Our clients are the highest performing banks with cost-income ratios which are twice better than the industry average.

Learn more at Temenos.com.

This episode is sponsored by Blueshift.

Customers expect more from their digital experience and their personal finance is no exception. Blueshift empowers fintech and financial institutions to create secure customer profiles and intentional, relevant experiences for customers. Whether in app, on site, in branch, or anywhere else, Blueshift’s SmartHub CDP helps brands like Lending Tree and ClearScore turn data into personalized experiences that increase retention, satisfaction, and revenue. Learn more about the Blueshift at[ blueshift.com](blueshift.com/11fs).

Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. Hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David Brear, Simon Taylor, Jason Bates and Sarah Kocianski and joined by a range of brilliant guests, we cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking.

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Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, alternatively email [email protected]! Special Guests: Mike Kelly and Ron Shevlin. Links:Square to buy Australia's Afterpay in $29 billion dealCMA mandates ‘Sweeping’ in big win for UK Open BankingKuda, the African challenger bank, raises $55M at a $500M valuationRapyd raises $300M on $8.75B valuation as fintech-as-a-service continues to boomSnoop raises £15 million to fund international expansionElement Ventures bags $130 million for B2B fintech fundRobinhood spikes 65%, halted for volatilityPrivate jets are so last year: John Collison is buying an airport