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Hi all, Julie here. The SPAC wave is continuing, and we have a new, must see video explainer for everyone out there. Not only will you learn something, but you'll laugh a bit along the way. Doesn't get much better than that. Same goes for the latest episode of Tux Time. Cokie says she sounds stoned in the episode, but you should probably listen for yourself to make a final decision since I'm a bit on the fence.

And lastly before we get to some news. After being approached by a number of companies, FTT has launched a corporate discount for our premium newsletters. If you would like to learn more or sign up your employees to receive weekly analysis and insight into the future of fintech, email jordan@fintechtoday.co.

PayPal's Crypto Acquisition

Payments giant PayPal is buying Curv, a startup that helps people safely store digital currencies. Though the deal terms are unknown, rumors place the price tag from $200M to $500M. Either way, custody is hard, and if companies like PayPal are going to wade deeper into crypto, they are going to have to get better at it.

Square Buys TIDAL

Speaking of acquisitions, Square is buying Jay-Z’s company TIDAL for nearly $300M. Jay-Z will also receive a seat on Square’s board in the deal. For those unfamiliar with TIDAL (me before this acquisition), it’s a global music and entertainment platform that works to bring fans and artists closer together and support artists throughout their careers. With this deal, Square wants to use TIDAL to make it easier for artists to get paid for their work and bring in new revenue streams. Square said it doesn’t expect TIDAL to have a large impact on financial results in 2021, but I wonder how big of a deal this could be for the top and bottom lines in years to come.

Betterment Buys Wealthsimple U.S.

More M&A! This time in the robo advisory space, an area I’ve been waiting and waiting to see more consolidation in.

Betterment is planning to acquire Canadian startup Wealthsimple's US-based customer accounts. The deal is said to add around $190M in assets and 17,000 customers to Betterment’s base. Wealthsimple says the deal is largely meant to allow the company to focus on the Candian market. Betterment will not take on Wealthsimple's technology, employees, or operations as a part of the deal.

Plaid Launches Income Verification

Plaid is continuing to roll out new products now that it’s remaining independent. This time, it’s income verification. For being such an integral part of applying for a loan, income verification has traditionally been very laborious and annoying. With Plaid’s new product, lenders can efficiently retrieve accurate and reliable info about a potential customer’s income data. Not only does this make life easier for the applicant, but it helps the lender make better informed decisions on a faster timeline. I’m excited to see how this product goes, and hope it works out for my own sake when applying for any loan in the future.

Swipe Fees Rising

I missed this one when it initially came out, so thanks to Nik for pointing it out. Visa and Mastercard are planning to raise swipe fees for some types of credit-card purchases in April, according to the WSJ. The move could really squeeze retailers, who were already feeling extra burdens from Covid-19 and the higher fees involved in online transactions. While the fees paid to Visa and MC were actually down about 17% last year, that was largely due to a decrease in overall spending on credit cards (turns out you save a lot of money when you don’t go on vacations or dine out). The networks are expected to raise fees for many online transactions, though other areas might see lower fees (like small ticket items). Many of the expected price increases were supposed to kick in last year, but Visa and Mastercard said they delayed them because of the pandemic.

Hippo SPAC

Home insurance startup Hippo is going public via, you guessed it, a SPAC. In the deal announced on Thursday, Hippo will merge with Reinvent Technology Partners Z. Of course, like many other SPACs, Reinvent is led by two famous CEOs: Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus. Home insurance products offered through Hippo Insurance Services are currently available in 32 states, covering more than 70% of the U.S. population, and the company expects its products to be available to 95% of the U.S. population by the end of 2021. The transaction gives Hippo a $5B valuation, and Hippo said it expects to have $1.2B in cash to fund growth through the deal. The press release says that Hippo has grown historical total written premiums by 69% over the last 3 calendar years, and it launched in 12 new states in 2020. It also mentioned that the company has an average annual customer premium of $1,200 and an average 1-year retention rate of 87%. It will be interesting to see how this SPAC goes after Lemonade’s IPO in 2020. Any bets? Let me know! ​

Two awesome job postings today for you today:

1. ​Engineering Manager, Orum - Orum is building frictionless financial infrastructure to move money faster & smarter. It's a team of fintech veterans from the likes of LearnVest, N26, Stash, and Square backed by some of the best names in fintech, including Bain, Homebrew and Inspired Capital. As it enters a high growth mode, the team is looking for an Engineering Manager to come onboard to not only drive product development, but also to lead and grow the Engineering teams and play a pivotal role in developing company culture. If you’d like to play a part in crystallizing the vision of a world where the movement of money is real time and fully automated, Orum would love to hear from you!
2. ​Growth Marketer, Dwelling - This early stage startup has built the absolute best way to buy your first place - think Honey, for homebuying. It's found early customers over $5M to put towards their first house purchases and the team is looking to scale up its marketing across all channels. You'll work alongside a killer group with early experience at Opendoor, Uber, Shopify, and Compass - reporting directly to Dwelling's CEO.

**If you're interested in having a job featured in Fintech Today, reach out to jordan@fintechtoday.co

Speaking of jobs, huge congrats to two FTT+ members that recently started new roles! Hannah Arnold is now VP of Business Development at Argyle, and Francisco Javier Arceo is joining Fast to build out its risk data science program!

Julie VerHage-Greenberg is the co-founder of Fintech Today, where she focuses on editorial content and brand. Prior to joining, she was Bloomberg’s first fintech reporter, covering Robinhood from before it was a billion dollar company, breaking the news that Plaid was acquiring Quovo, and interviewing executives on Bloomberg TV and at several large conferences.

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