Fintech Update, 6/6 - 6/12
Hi! It’s Monday, June 13, 2022.
The Rundown
Apple announced its plans to launch Apple Pay Later, marking its move into the BNPL industry, after rumored plans for the product first emerged about a year ago. The product will allow users to split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase into four equal payments over six weeks without interest or late fees. Despite Apple’s relationship with Goldman Sachs on the Apple Card, Apple will handle lending and credit checks for Apple Pay Later through an internal subsidiary, marking a big step for the tech giant deeper into the financial services ecosystem. Both Affirm’s CEO and Klarna’s CEO stated that the launch of Apple Pay Later was a great thing for consumers and that there is a lot of growth still to be had for all involved. However, there’s no question that Apple will have a unique advantage in terms of their ability to distribute the product to consumers, as it will be available everywhere Apple Pay is available in the U.S. and requires no extra work from the merchant side.
Mastercard announced that its cardholders can now buy NFTs using their cards without needing to first purchase cryptocurrency. In the payment giant’s latest attempt to make the process of buying NFTs safer and easier, Mastercard is partnering with “NFT scaling platform Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway and Web 3 infrastructure provider MoonPay.”
PayPal launched a new feature that will allow users to to transfer cryptocurrencies to external wallets. Jose Fernandez da Ponte, SVP and general manager of blockchain, crypto and digital currencies at PayPal said that “this feature was the most demanded from our users since we began offering the purchase of crypto on our platform.”
Checkout.com announced a partnership with crypto security firm Fireblocks to launch a feature that will allow businesses to accept and make payments in USDC. The announcement comes a few months after Stripe launched a feature that allowed merchants to pay users in cryptocurrency with USDC.
American Express and crypto wealth management platform and wallet provider Abra partnered to launch the “first crypto rewards credit card on the American Express network that will transact in U.S. dollars and offer crypto back on any purchase category and amount.”
UK digital bank Zopa launched a BNPL offering that will be available to customers for purchases in the range of £250-£30,000.
Selected fundings
Ivella, the startup building banking products for couples, raised $3.5 million in seed funding.
NIgerian digital lending platform Indicina raised $3 million in seed funding.
Kushki, the Ecuadorian payments infrastructure startup, raised $100 million in a Series B extension at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Codat, the technology company that lets banks, fintechs, and insurers plug into their SME customers' key financial data platforms, raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by JP Morgan at a $825 million valuation.
Insurtech Branch raised $147 million in Series C funding at a $1.05 billion valuation.
Identity and corporate verification firm Middesk raised $57 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Insight and Canapi.
Mexican digital bank Klar raised $70 million in a new funding round led by General Atlantic at a $500 million valuation.