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Hi all, Julie here.

I LEAVE FOR MY HONEYMOON TOMORROW! I literally haven’t taken a vacation in more than 700 days. Meanwhile, Ramp is only 900 days old...meaning I basically haven’t taken time off since Ramp was started. Oye. Follow along on Instagram if you want. That's the only platform I will be posting on for the next ~9 days 😊

But don’t worry, we have a ton of stuff for you while I’m out! There are several podcast episodes coming out, including today’s with Vinovest founder Anthony Zhang. I had so much fun learning about different ways to invest in wine and its performance as an asset class. We also have some guest posts and deep dives on tap :)

And reminder: if you sign up for our $25/month membership, you get access to all of our articles, including work from Charley Ma, John Collins, and Jenny Johnston; the option to join 5 channels in our Slack Community with founders of billion dollar companies, veteran operators, and well-known investors; and you get invited to exclusive events for networking, education and simply having fun.

Today's Partner, Masterworks

The Wide Opensea of Alternative Investing

You might have noticed that the art market is going absolutely bonkers right now. Last month alone, the crypto faithful bought $3B worth of digital art. But buyer beware. Just because you can spend $5M on a jpeg rock, doesn’t mean you should. Financial experts don’t recommend investing in NFTs. Rather, they’re bullish on real alternative assets like contemporary art.

Here’s why:

• Contemporary art prices outperformed S&P returns by 174% from 1995–2020
• Wealthy collectors allocate 10–30% of their portfolios to art
• Scarcity: there will never be another Picasso work ever produced

The only problem? To build a proper art portfolio you’d need tens or even hundreds of millions until now.

We partnered with the only investment platform securitizing multimillion-dollar works by artists like Monet, Banksy, and Basquiat. For the first time ever, you can invest in high-end art without having to buy the whole thing. And FTT subscribers get priority access today!*

Early investors already cashed in on a 32% from their Banksy sale, so what are you waiting for?

Company News

Details On Toast’s IPO

Payments company Toast is seeking as much as $717M in its IPO, with plans to sell 21.7M shares at $30 to $33 apiece, according to a filing. This would value the company at as much at $16.5B, which is wild considering how bad things looked for the company (48,000 restaurant customers) when the pandemic started in March 2020. Toast’s revenue rose 105% year-over-year during the six months ending June 30, to $704M, while its net loss widened to $235M from $125M a year earlier.

Square’s Network

Square sellers are now able to accept payments through Cash App Pay, a new contactless payment method for both online and in-person transactions. Customers can now simply scan a seller’s QR code at checkout, or click a button on their mobile device. Fintech Today Community member Jareau Wadé said it best:

“By turning Cash App and Square Seller into a closed-loop network, Square is now the most credible candidate for 5th network (after V/MC/AMEX/D).”

Nubank and Lending

Nubank (you might have heard of it...) announced a partnership with Creditas to offer loans to its clients. The Brazilian behemoth said it may become a minority shareholder in Creditas with up to a 7.7% stake in the fintech in the next two years as well. Creditas' products and services will be available on Nubank's app in Brazil by the end of this year.

Funding and Deals

Recurring Payments Funding

Recurring payments startup Billogram announced a $45M round from Partech. The Stockholm-based startup said that the funding will be used to expand from its current base in Sweden to six additional markets covering more of Germany, Norway, Finland, Ireland, France, Spain, and Italy. Researchers estimate that the market size for subscription and recurring billing will be close to $6B this year, with that number ballooning to well over $10B by 2025.

Big Insurtech Funding

Business insurance startup Vouch announced $90M in funding from SVB Capital, Ribbit Capital and Redpoint Ventures that values the company at $550M. Vouch describes itself as “a new kind of insurance platform” for startups that offers fully digital and tailored coverage. The company said it currently protects over $5.7B in risk across thousands of policies with more than 1,600 clients, including Pipe, Middesk, Neighbor and Routable. It’s also the “preferred” business insurance provider to the customers of Silicon Valley Bank, Brex, Carta and WeWork. Given the pandemic and how that changed the work environment, Vouch launched new products and services like work from anywhere coverage, broader cyber coverages and embedded insurance.

Crypto Watch

Cathie Wood Goes to Canada

Late Friday, Cathie Wood’s Ark said it is now allowing one of its funds to invest in Canadian Bitcoin ETFs. In relation to the $5.7B ARK Next Generation Internet ETF, the firm tweaked the fund’s prospectus to include reference to holding exposure to cryptocurrencies via “exchange-traded funds domiciled in Canada.” This would add to the fund’s current crypto exposure from its 5.5% stake in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Walmart In Litecoin Or Not?

In not so good news for crypto, Walmart denied having an agreement to use Litecoin for purchases after speculation arose on Twitter. Litecoin rose as much as 33% at one point before erasing its gains. A verified Litecoin Twitter account deleted a tweet that linked to a “press release” announcing the partnership. Oops.

Together With Fintech Meetup

Meet startups like Alloy, Bill360, Digital Onboarding, SigFig and Treasury Prime; Banks like Goldman Sachs or HSBC; and Community Banks, Credit Unions, CUSOs, Investors, Networks and Processors. Fintech Meetup makes it easy to meet decision-makers and create opportunities at the organizations you’re targeting.

Join 30,000+ 15-minute meetings with 4,000 participants from 2,000 organizations--you’ll get 3 months worth of meetings in just 3 half days!

Qualifying Startups get special startup rate tickets, qualifying Banks & Credit Unions eligible for FREE tickets. GET YOUR TICKET!​

​Senior Software Engineer, Rho​

Rho Business Banking is on a mission to help organizations work better, together, with money. It powers the nation's fastest growing companies by creating ways for teams collaborate internally with finance in order to drive better decision making, more autonomy within work forces, all the while saving time and money for its clients. The team is looking for a senior or principle backend software engineer to join its core product team as an individual contributor and help build & scale Rho’s commercial banking technology. If you have a passion for web services, API's, and are dedicated to building a great product, hit the link above to apply!

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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.

*See important disclosures at bottom of this newsletter

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