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This week's list of top stories in fintech:

Jack Dorsey’s Square changes corporate name to Block

• Crypto-focused business called TBD
• Square Crypto, a separate part of the company “dedicated to advancing Bitcoin,” will change its name to Spiral
• Shares are down roughly 2% so far this year, as investors rotate away from higher-growth tech names.

Capital One says it is ditching all consumer overdraft fees, giving up $150 million in annual revenue

• Customers who paid the fees will be automatically rolled over into a free overdraft protection service early next year, the bank said. Those who opt out of the service will simply have overdrawn transactions declined at no fee.
• Overdraft service will be similar to Chime’s

Why New York Community Bank is minting stablecoins

• “We see a ton of disruption out there,” Kaplan said, from decentralized finance and fintech companies. “If NYCB and other banks don't lean into that and become part of it, they're going to be excluded from it and potentially become a dinosaur.”
• Figure is working with NYCB and a consortium of other banks.
• Provides instant settlement for between banks

Facebook’s top crypto executive David Marcus is leaving the company

• What is the over/under of him starting his own company? What’s his non-compete?
• What does this mean for Facebook’s crypto efforts for the metaverse?
• Libra->Diem->Novi - lots of false starts
• Probably frustrated by the slow moving Meta project

‘Winner-Take-Most’: Anthony Noto’s Ambitions for SoFi Take Shape

• Spending $625 million over two decades for naming rights to the stadium of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Chargers.
• Users surged to 2.9 million as of Sept. 30, but it includes people who don’t make any money for SoFi.
• “When you do need a second product, we have better odds of you choosing us so that we get that second relationship with you, which produces revenue with no second customer acquisition costs,” said Noto
• “I decided that SoFi could be positioned as the company that could be the winner-take-most in financial services; it had all the right ingredients that I had seen in other places that I could build off of”

Thought Machine now a cloud banking unicorn thanks to JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, and ING

• A swathe of new investors joined Thought Machine’s cap table, with a $200m Series C funding round that pushes the cloud banking provider’s valuation to more than $1bn.
• Nyca Partners, Standard Chartered, ING and JP Morgan Chase
• “We set out to eradicate legacy technology from the industry and ensure that all banks deployed on Vault can succeed and deliver on their ambitions,” said Thought Machine’s CEO and founder Paul Taylor. “These new funds will accelerate the delivery of Vault into banks around the world who wish to implement their future vision of financial services.”

Fundbox, a fintech focused on SMBs, raises $100M at a $1.1B valuation

• Fundbox announced it has raised $100 million in a Series D round at a valuation of $1.1 billion.
• Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) led Fundbox’s Series D financing, which brings the company’s total equity raised to $410 million since its 2013 inception.
• The startup, which saw a pandemic-related boost in business, crossed $100 million in annual revenue run rate earlier this year

Digital Bank Nubank Cuts Valuation Target From $55 Billion To $42 Billion

• Brazilian digital bank Nubank amended its Form-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a week ahead of its initial public offering to reduce the price range of its shares from $10 to $11 each to $8 to $9. Now the company is planning to sell 289.2 million shares, which will start trading on Dec. 8. 
• This cut would bring their valuation down from an expected $55 billion to about $42 billion, which would still place it ahead of the world’s most valuable digital bank, European fintech Revolut, valued at $33 billion. Even with the lowered valuation, Nubank could be worth more than its largest domestic rival, Itau Unibanco, which has a market capitalization of $37.5 billion. 
• it trimmed the price range to be “more aligned with the current conditions in the financial markets”
• The company’s revenue for the first half of 2021 was more than $716 million

On Episode 29, I talk with Petr Kozyakov of Mercuryo. Mercuryo is a cryptocurrency infrastructure company helping to provide a range of payment solutions. With crypto being one of the hottest, if not the hottest, topics in all of fintech today, I think it was a really interesting interview to talk about how someone is building a company that’s looking to help meld the worlds of crypto and fiat together.

We dig into not only what they mean when they describe themselves as a crypto infrastructure company, but we also talk about where crypto is today. The ease at which some transactions in crypto can be done, such as buying Bitcoin or buying altcoins. The complicated nature of other transactions makes the space not very consumer-friendly today.

There is work being done to fix that problem partly by companies like Mercuryo. We also talk about regulation as a barrier to innovation in the crypto space and what are some of the things that Mercuryo is doing to ultimately help connect the various worlds together. I think it’s a really fascinating interview so without further ado, Petr Kozyakov of Mercuryo. I hope you all enjoy the show.

• Petr's journey to starting Mercuryo
• What the crypto moment was for Petr to jump into the space
• Mercuryo comes from Mercury being the god of trading
• The real mission for crypto goes beyond the price of Bitcoin
• The worlds of crypto and fiat need to work together
• Fiat and crypto will learn to leverage each other over time
• The crypto user experience needs to be simplified
• The right infrastructure can help solve it all
• 3 years in crypto can feel like 10-15 years in fiat
• Best advice recieved, "Don't be afrais to merge crypto and fiat, trust your ideas"
• "Don't stop when investors say no"
• And more...

On Episode 28, I talk with Ennie Lim of HoneyBee. HoneyBee empowers HR leaders to track new talent and improve retention with best-in-class supplemental financial wellness programs that help meet the needs of today’s workforce. I talk with a lot of founders and why they started companies, when talking with Ennie, her personal story, I think it’s just really fascinating.

The issues she encountered when going through a divorce and how that cut her off from the financial system. We dig into how much of society is still not financially healthy or financially literate, even though we’ve had fintech around for the better part of a decade.

Ennie and I jump into what are the various gaps out there, and how does a HoneyBee-type fintech help to begin closing those gaps. The importance to show employers that they work with, that HoneyBee itself is a diverse company. I think that sets a really great example of how important it would be for financial education to be a part of our everyday curriculum, especially for young kids going through that today. We dig into a lot of these issues as well as what does community mean, HoneyBee is a community and what that means to Ennie and the team. So, without further ado, Ennie Lim of HoneyBee. I hope you all enjoy the show.

• Ennie's journey to HoneyBee
• Why they chose the name HoneyBee
• HoneyBee's mission is to provide free access to financial support in the workplace
• Financial wellness benefits help attract and retain talent
• 66 percent of Americans are considered unhealthy financially
• Fintech has yet to deliver on its promise
• "It's mindblowing that finance is not part of our curriculum"
• 1 in 6 in America relied on food banks during 2020
• Access to tech, smartphones, computers and more, is not a given
• Loans through the employer channel are safer
• What community means to HoneyBee and why it is so important
• Eighty-nine percent of users are people of color and women,
• Best advice: "The importance of humility and never forget why you’re doing it."
• "Be comfortable with the uncomfortable"
• Ennie recommends reading Let My People Go Surfing and Mixed Plate
• And more...

This week's list of top stories in fintech:

SEC rejects VanEck ETF that sought to track bitcoin directly

• News came out late Friday last week
• Application by the Cboe CBZ Exchange filed in March
• SEC wants Cboe to do more to prevent fraudulent trading to protect investors
• Several other bitcoin ETF applications are pending

German Digital Bank N26 to Withdraw From the U.S., Close 500,000 Accounts

• N26 will discontinue in the US early next year
• In Jan 2019 CEO said they have a “huge shot to be the leading mobile bank in the U.S.”
• Have had regulatory issues in Germany
• Will try to redeploy U.S. employees in other areas

Credit card start-up Upgrade jumps 83% in valuation in just four months to $6.28 billion

• Closed $280m Series F led by Coatue Management and DST Global
• Revenue climbed 70% from June to October, valuation climbed 83%
• Main product is now the Upgrade card, the fastest growing credit card in the country.
• Be ready to go public in 2023

Visa Tumbles on Amazon Ban in U.K. as Fight on Card Fees Expands

• Amazon will stop accepting UK Visa cards in January 2022 (credit cards only)
• They cited the cost of accepting card payments
• Amazon offering £20 to switch
• Brexit meant that transactions between UK and EU no longer capped

Oportun to Purchase Digit, become Neobank

• Digit being acquired for $213 million.
• 100 employees will become part of Oportun
• Digit gas 600,000 customers who have saved $7b since inception.
• Both Oportun and Digit use Metabank as their bank partner
• Oportun withdrew OCC application in part because of this acquisition.

BlockFi Faces SEC Scrutiny Over High-Yield Crypto Accounts

• SEC looking at whether BlockFi yield account is a security and should be registered.
• BlockFi have not been accused of wrongdoing.
• NJ, KY, AL, VT are also looking at BlockFi.
• Have 500,000 retail accounts, on pace to have $475m in revenue in 2021

Fintech claims 88% of US consumers versus 95% by traditional banking: new Plaid report

• New report from Plaid called The Fintech Effect
• Online survey of 2,000 adults in US and UK
• Focused on the benefits and value fintech brings for users.
• Use of fintech in US rose from 58% to 88% of entire population. 48% use every day.
• 7 in 10 feel more confident about their finances because of fintech

Crypto.com buys naming rights to Lakers' Staples Center in a $700 million deal

• Staples Center will be renamed on Christmas Day
• 20-year deal for $700m
• Crypto.com has 10m users 
• Crypto companies are making inroads with sports sponsorships.

Americans’ Shadow Financial Lives: Why Banks Don’t Know Jack (Or Jill)

• Millennials can have 30-40 financial providers
• The great unbundling has already occurred
• Banks have been left behind here.
• Now, we need tools to help consolidate or simply all these disparate accounts

On Episode 27 I talk with Kareem Saleh of FairPlay. FairPlay is the first Fairness-as-a-Service solution for fair lending compliance that uses AI-powered tools to help assess a lender's automated decisioning models which can help not only with fairness but as profits as well. You know, Kareem and I dig into what exactly do they mean when it says Fairness-as-a-Service, the types of fairness and inequalities that they're trying to fix here, you know, racial, gender, economic, all the above.

We also take a pretty deep dive into bias and since algorithms are inherently created by humans, they'll have some bias in them and so we dig a bit deeper into that and how they are working to essentially limit bias as much as possible. We also dig into the work that Kareem did prior to being a Founder for FairPlay, you know, he worked with retailers, worked in politics in the Obama Administration and so I think it's a really fascinating and interesting interview, especially when you dig into some of the stuff going on in financial health and wellness today. So, without further ado, Kareem Saleh of FairPlay, I hope you all enjoy the show.

• Kareem's Journey to FairPlay
• The origins of the name FairPlay and how it ties back to the Olympics
• What they mean by fairness as a service
• Types of fairness they aim to help fix, including gender and racial bias
• How to limit bias in algorithms
• How fair are AI lending models today?
• What lessons Kareem takes from his time in politics
• The shifting dynamic of regulators and how different they can be from one administration to the next
• The current state of financial wellness today
• Whether or not we are becoming too automated
• He recommends reading Boss and The Good Fight
• And more...

This week's list of top stories in fintech:

Amazon is adding a Venmo checkout option next year

• 80 million US consumers
• Will be able to use Venmo in checkout next year
• PayPal will not be a payment option
• Is payment by crypto coming?

Robinhood says a hacker who tried to extort the company got access to data for 7 million customers

• Data breach happened on Nov 3
• No SSN or bank data was shared
• 5 million email addresses
• 2 million had full names as well
• 310 people had more complete data stolen

Should stablecoin issuance be confined to FDIC-insured banks?

• Avanti is applying for FDIC insurance in response to the Biden report on stablecoins
• NYDFS oversees the top U.S. stablecoin issuers, Circle, Paxos and Gemini.
• States are creating their own regulatory framework
• Cato Institute proposed stablecoin issuers be regulated as limited purpose investment companies, overseen by the SEC

Identity verification startup Socure raises $450M at $4.5B valuation, adding Tiger Global as new investor

• $450M Series E led by Accel and T. Rowe Price
• $4.5B valuation up from $1.3B in March
• Have 12 of the top 15 banks as customers, plus many leading fintech companies
• Looking to go public in 2023

Ripple to launch crypto service for financial companies amid legal battle with the SEC

• Ripple launches Liquidity Hub
• Companies will be able to offer trading in major crypto assets
• Set to launch in 2022
• Think of it as like a Google Flights type offering
• Will expand to NFTs in the future

Coinbase Slumps After Reporting Lower-Than-Forecast Revenue

• Revenue $1.31b, down 41% q/q
• EBITDA $618m, down 46%
• Monthly users dropped to 7.4m from 8.8m
• Verified users grew to 73m.
• NFT platform will be a big part of the business

Affirm shares soar after company announces expanded deal with Amazon, fiscal Q1 revenues beat estimates

• Revenue $269m, beating analysts expectation
• Guidance is $320-$330m this quarter
• Stock went up on expanded partnership with Amazon
• Adjusted loss was $45m

SoFi Touts More Finance, Lending Options in Q3

• Revenue $272m, up 35% y/y
• Added 2.9m members in Q3
• Lending revenue was $210m
• Tech platform revenue was $50m
• Adjusted EBITDA profits of $10m

Upstart’s red-hot rally may be cooling as stock sinks 20% despite earnings beat

• Revenue $228m, above expectations
• Q3 profit of $29m
• One year since they went public
• Stock is up 670% this year
• Looking at starting in small business lending

On episode 26 I talk with Carlos Torras of Fintech Collective. Fintech Collective is a venture capital firm that partners with founders with vision and persistence – founders with a desire to reshape markets. 

I’ve known a few of the investors with Fintech Collective, they truly are a bleeding-edge VC firm. Carlos focuses on one of the world's hottest fintech markets in LatAm. 

We discuss what the LatAm landscape looks like today, how much has changed over the last few years, the impact exits are having on building out the ecosystem, advice for founders, raising capital, and a whole lot more.

• Carlos’s journey to Fintech Collective
• Fintech Collective targets seed and series A companies
• Why they focus on emerging markets like LatAm
• The reasons behind LatAm’s digital acceleration
• Repatriation of talent has helped expand the ecosystem
• Payments are the top of the fintech spear
• The urbanization of LatAm has helped fintech
• Current successes create pathways to the next group of companies
• AUM for LatAm banks creates oligopolistic tendencies
• Expression pattern matching is dangerous when it comes to comparing different countries
• Crypto has the potential to emerge faster in an emerging market
• Best advice is always to keep your team first and never, never be cheap with your equity
• Nothing replaces human interaction when investing
• Carlos recommends reading books written by Henry Kissinger and Red Notice
• He is a HUGE FC Barcelona fan

This week's list of top stories in fintech:

Nubank officially files for IPO on NYSE

• Filed F-1 on Monday
• Targets $50b valuation
• 48.1 million customers, 35.3m monthly active
• Revenue in Q3: $481m
• Cost of customer acquisition: $5

Biden administration calls on Congress to take the lead regulating stablecoins

• President’s Working Group on Financial Markets called for stablecoin regulation
• Stablecoin issuers should be insured depository institutions.
• Need AML enforcement for wallet issuers
• Want Congress to pass legislation

Financial System Makes Big Promises on Climate Change at COP26 Summit

• Mark Carney leading a UN group for financial services companies.
• Companies with $130 trillion in assets have signed on.
• Banks will now incorporate carbon emissions into lending decisions.

Q3 global fintech funding smashes records

• Fintech raised $31b across 1,185 deals.
• There were 94 deals of $100m+
• On track to cross $120b for the year
• 43 new unicorns, now 206 globally

Klarna launches new super app, reduces reliance on partnerships

• Klarna launched a super app
• Do all shopping, unlock deals, manage payments, loyalty, track deliveries
• Can use Klarna at any online store for BNPL through virtual one-time cards
• Available in iOS and Android now

Korean online payment service Kakao Pay surges nearly 114% on the first day of trading

• Kakao Pay raised $1.3b at a $9b valuation
• Largest payments app in South Korea
• Founded in 2014, it claims 36.5m users with 20m monthly active
• It is incorporated into KakaoTalk messaging app

​​DeFi — the ‘Wild West’ of crypto — is next on regulators’ hit list

• AML watchdog released guidance that included rules for DeFi.
• Startup founders may need to provide information on originators.
• Risk of financial crime is the primary focus
• Could curb false marketing

CBA partners with Gemini and Chainalysis to roll out crypto services

• CBA has AUD$1 trillion in assets
• First large bank to offer crypto trading in their app
• Will offer 10 crypto assets
• Gemini will provide custodian services
• Chainalysis will monitor and mitigate fraud

On episode 25 I talk with Duy Vo of Productfy. Productfy is a fast and easy developer-first platform for any company to build, test, and launch financial products.

They're essentially building a distributed network for traditional finance. They work with small community banks and credit unions to help put the right pieces in place that you would need to launch financial products. 

We had a really fascinating discussion not only about technology and where it is, but also beyond the technology, the programs, the way in which they’re building these new applications. We discuss where the product is today, what they're looking to launch towards the end of the year, fundraising, intentional culture for a distributed team and a whole lot more. I really hope you enjoy the show.

• Duy’s journey to launch Productfy
• How financial services are moving towards the edge
• Why Shopify is a good comparison
• How non-banks can bring products to the customer, no matter the venue
• How to ensure you are aligned with our clients and their values
• Productfy hopes to help clients launch a product within a week in Q1 next year
• Why program construction is so important
• Similar to railroads, change needs to be built in along the way
• What they mean by building DeFi for traditional finance
• Most startups die by suicide not by homicide
• Why building with a distributed workforce is easier
• Duy Vo recommend reading Algorithms to Live By
• Underwater hockey is a real thing, and it should be an Olympic Sport
• And more…

This episode was sponsored by Zendesk, a service-first CRM company that builds software designed to improve customer relationships. Qualifying startups get Zendesk free for 6 months.

This week's list of top stories in fintech:

Nubank files to go public

• The filing is private but we know it exists.
• May mean a public filing by year end.
• Filed in both the U.S. and Brazil.
• Biggest fintech IPO ever?

Chime In Talks To Go Public At $35 Billion To $45 Billion Valuation

• Targeting a March 2022 IPO
• Revenue will be $900m - $1b this year
• At a $45b valuation Chime would be a top 50 bank in the world.

Stripe Strikes Tie-Up With Klarna After Frenzy of Rival Deals

• Stripe retailers can now offer Klarna BNPL
• Huge win for Klarna, biggest partnership to date
• Flurry of partnerships in the BNPL space

Justice Department Probes Visa’s Relationships With Fintech Firms

• Part of antitrust investigation of Visa
• Visa offered financial incentives to PayPal
• Similar incentives offer to Cash App
• Question is if Visa is providing disincentives for payments over other rails.

Mastercard to offer pay with crypto partnership with Bakkt

• Mastercard costumes will be able to pay with crypto and earn rewards
• One billion cardholder globally will soon have crypto payments capability
• Bakkt stock was up 200% on the news.

The SEC is likely to get the green light to target stablecoins this week, report says

• New report will detail the SEC’s powers in regulating stablecoins.
• Market is worth $131 billion 
• Report will highlight how Biden admin will regulate the sector with SEC, CFTC
• Report expected to be published this week.

Robinhood shares tank as revenue falls way short of expectations on lighter crypto trading

• Total revenue was $365m, $51m from crypto trading
• Down from $233m in crypto trading in Q2
• Net loss of $1.32b, much bigger than expected
• Stock dropped 10% on Wed

LendingClub Loan Originations Up 14% Q/Q, Marketplace Revenues Gain 15%

• Originations up 14% to $3.1b in Q3
• Revenues $246m, up 20%
• Auto finance business up 85% 
• Beat guidance in all areas, stock up 33% today