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Hi all, Julie here.

Getting this email blasted out before I head over to our new home for the last little bit of an inspection. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong and we can close on this house without any issues!

Speaking of home, Jordan and I did a podcast about the results of that back to work survey we sent out a few weeks ago. Lots of the stats really surprised me. Like, the percentage of people that would want to go back to the office full time is nearly even to the percentage that would never want to go back (hybrid was the clear winner). I thought fully remote would have a bit more of a lead but that might be my personal bias getting in the way.

Speaking of surveys, take a guess at what shares of Robinhood will price at the night before it lists. Winner will get FTT swag :)

Today's Partner, Unit21

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​The AML & KYC Command Center: Download Unit21's Operating System Guide to learn how you can transform your risk, fraud, and compliance into a competitive advantage. Get it here!​

Company News

Stripe Taking Steps to Go Public

Don’t get too excited here, but Stripe might FINALLY be getting ready to go public. I say don’t get too excited because this isn’t news around it filing confidentially, it’s just about it hiring a law firm to help it go public. It’s unlikely to happen this year since it hasn’t hired bankers yet either, but hey, at least we know 2022 isn’t off the table. The big takeaway I have from this Reuters story is that it’s likely to go public via a direct listing rather than a traditional IPO. That would be good news for anyone that wouldn’t have access to shares right at the IPO price.

New BNPL Product From Socure

New York-based Socure announced a new product around identity verification and fraud solution purpose-built for Buy Now, Pay Later. The product will not only help verify identities to protect merchants, customers and payment providers, but will help convert new shoppers to BNPL products. The biggest thing this signals to me is that companies have recognized that BNPL is here to stay and presents an area for market expansion.

Chime’s Account Locking Issues

So, I’ve waited a few days to write about this one because my account was actually locked by Chime when I deposited a large sum of money from a maturing CD into my account with them. Apparently I was very much not the only one that had this problem.

Pros: shows its compliance system is pretty thorough. Cons: it’s a little too thorough. Either way, this really really sucks for people that use Chime as their main bank. It sounds like the issue has been mostly resolved, but I’d assume many customers are still upset about this. For me, I wasn’t keeping all of my money at Chime so it sucked but it wasn’t the end of the world. For others, especially Chime’s core customer demographic, you can imagine how stressful this situation is.

Funding and M&A

Google Makes An Acquisition

People in Tokyo might not be able to attend the Olympics, but they might be able to get new fintech services from Google in the near future. The tech giant is in talks to acquire cashless payment startup Pring for between $180M and $270M, according to Nikkei. After launching in the US and India, Google is hoping to offer payment and transfer services in Japan by next year, the story said.

Tiger Funds Flash

Brazilian startup Flash, a flexible benefits platform, has raised $22M in a round led by Tiger Global. Founded in 2019, the company aimed to offer benefits to employees. The company’s app allows users to manage benefits and has a Mastercard rather than vouchers that are often used in the country. Flash says its customer base now includes 4K companies and that more than 250K employees are on the platform.

Together With LendIt Fintech Nexus

Nexus is a high-end partnering event for fintech decisionmakers to pitch, partner and get deals done. High quality networking designed specifically for senior executives is at the center of the Nexus experience. We've built 24 VIP meeting blocks and three social events into two days at the luxurious oceanfront Loews Miami Beach. At Nexus you can expect high-quality, double-opt-in, one-on-one meetings with our curated audience. There are no panels or keynotes. Just business.

If you are:

• A Bank or Credit Union executive seeking technology solutions and partners to upgrade or replace existing tech stacks
• An equity investor looking to meet fintech companies
• A fixed income investor looking to meet lending platforms
• A fintech executive seeking partnerships with or capital from established financial institutions and/or investors

Then you need to be there. Learn more and apply to join here!​

In its one month of existence, the Fintech Today job board has had more than 10,000 views and 400 applications submitted. Whether you’re looking to break into fintech, or an experienced operator, head to jobs.fintechtoday.co for some amazing opportunities from companies like Robinhood, Coinbase, Blend, and more. If you're interested in posting a job, head over to the same link and click "post a job."

This might be my favorite Fintech Today hat photo yet...

Fill out that Robinhood survey in the intro for your chance at getting one!

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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