FinTech Weekly - Fintech News Issue #318

Dutch payments firm Mollie said it raised $800 million in a mega financing round valuing the company at $6.5 billion.That makes it the third-largest fintech unicorn in Europe after rival firm Checkout.com, according to CB Insights data. Competition in payments has intensified over the past decade, with fintech players like Stripe, Jack Dorsey’s Square and Netherlands-based Adyen all vying for a bigger share of the $2 trillion market. Unlike its American rivals Mollie is mainly focuses on transactions with small businesses in Europe. Maybe this helps French President Emmanual Macron in its ambition to produce at least 10 companies worth 100 billion euros each by 2030 in Europe.

"The SEC is not going to tell anyone about you, so don’t get chatty. When whistleblowers see themselves as the little guy against the massive machine, they panic, they feel they have to yell the loudest." Eugene Ross did not feel at all confident about confronting a billion-dollar hedge fund with what he hoped was just a clerical error. At 45 years old, he was at the apex of his career.

South Africa is officially embracing cryptocurrency trade and investment laws, with its financial and capital markets regulators predicting an increase in crypto activity in the country.

The company, formerly known as TransferWise, plans to do a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange rather than sell shares at a set price in advance, with the opening price to be determined in an open auction on the date of admission to the exchange.

While Germanys solarisBank might not be a familiar name, some of its clients have become quite popular. They include challenger banks such as Tomorrow, Insha and a newcomer called Vivid; business banking startups, such as Penta and Kontist; trading app Trade Republic; cryptocurrency startups Bison and Bitwala (recently renamed to Nuri).

A couple of weeks ago Open Banking startup Tink bought FinTec systems a German competitor and now Tink is just bought itself by VISA. Visa has agreed to acquire Swedish financial technology start-up Tink for 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion). The deal comes after Visa’s bid to buy Plaid, an American rival to Tink, was torpedoed by U.S. regulators.

Want to know more about Open Banking. Read the Open Banking intermediaries report of Forrester here: https://tink.com/resources/forrester-new-wave-open-banking-report/

Daylight, is a challenger bank focused on the LGBTQ community. In this podcast, Daylight’s founder discusses why they started a bank for the LGBTQ community and the specific challenges the segment faces when they’re interfacing with the traditional financial services industry.

As the founder of the political party Nuevas Ideas, President Bukele lived up to his reputation when on the 8th of June 2021, El Salvador enacted its Bitcoin Law, making it the first country to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender. The decision has been met with excitement and scepticism. It is his first interview since the Bitcoin law was passed. The decision to make bitcoin legal tender, education & infrastructure, volcano mining, and why he believes bitcoin is a ‘no-brainer’ are discussed.