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Hi all, Julie here.

New episode of our Policy Podcast with Plaid is out! In this episode, John Pitts and I talked to Raj Date of FS Vector about the House Fintech Task Force, Rohit Chopra coming into the CFPB, and CBDCs. Take a listen!

Reminder: we launched a new product for students! For $5/month, students can now get access to all newsletters, certain Slack channels in our Community, Q&As with founders, and more. Feel free to ping me if you have any questions, and sign up here if you wanna get started!

Today's Partner, ComplyAdvantage

At ComplyAdvantage, they don't just say they support fintechs - they show it. That's why the ComplyLaunch program offers early-stage fintechs free access to its award-winning AML and KYC tools and resources. See why companies including global payments pioneer Routefusion and mortgage innovator Safe Rate joined the program to meet their compliance obligations - so they can focus on business innovation, and delighting customers. Apply today!​

Company News

Plaid Forum

Speaking of Plaid, the team is announcing a bunch of new products and services this week at its Plaid Forum event. Keep an eye on their Twitter for the announcements or sign up here. Think new features for Plaid Link, enhancements to Plaid Income, and a slew of other new things. I got a preview and it's pretty cool if I say so myself.

Funding and Deals

TripActions’ Comeback

TripActions was hit hard by Covid-19 in March of 2020. In fact, the company told TechCrunch that it’s revenue literally fell to $0 at one point and it was forced to lay off 300 employees. The fintech industry helped it from failing. Enter TripActions Liquid (on Tux Time recently), which helps manage more than just travel spend (competing with companies like Ramp, Brex and Rho). Thanks to this really taking off and travel coming back, the company announced a new $275M round of funding at a $7.25B valuation led by Greenoaks. It says it has more than 5,000 customers now and revenue has now exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Bolt’s Valuation Climbs to $6B

Bolt, the one-click checkout startup, announced a $393M round of funding in its latest round valuing it at $6B. In December, its valuation was $850M. Bolt says it has about 10M shoppers signed up. I would tell you who led the round...but it was undisclosed. Fast, another checkout startup, has also continued to see momentum in funding. And tbh, if one click checkout really does take off in the way these companies are pitching it, there’s more than enough room for both of them.

Lively Raises to Reinvent HSAs

Some bias from me here since I am a very happy customer, but congrats to Lively on the new raise! The HSA startup announced an $80M round led by B Capital Group. I highly recommend them to anyone that qualifies for an HSA or founders that offer health plans to employees that are HSA eligible. It was so much easier than trying to find an HSA online, and the app is a piece of cake. Within the last few months, Lively has partnered with BMO Harris, received an IRS Non-Bank Trustee designation, and surpassed $500M in HSA assets.

Swile’s New Round

Speaking of employee benefits, French startup Swile has raised a $200M funding round led by SoftBank. The company offers a payment card for employee benefits, such as meal vouchers. In France, companies have to contribute to lunch when it’s in the middle of a work day (subsidized baguettes?!). With Swile, employees can optionally add their personal debit card to the Swile app, so if they spend more than the daily limit, Swile just charges the personal card. The company says that it has captured a 13% market share on meal vouchers in France. In addition to small and medium companies, the startup has managed to convince bigger clients, such as Spotify and Airbnb in France, to use the platform. Obviously the company wants to move beyond meal benefits, and this new round of funding will help them expand (think ride sharing and public transport).

Indian Fintech Funding Round

Google is backing Bangalore-based neobank Open. The startup announced a new $100M round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek. The new round values Open, which focuses on banking for small and medium sized business and enterprises, at $500M. Millions of SMBs in India struggle with maintaining multiple bank accounts, bookkeeping of their daily spending, and bandying out payments to employees. The startup says more than 2M businesses are using its platform, and it plans to use the new capital to add more offerings and expand globally (starting with the Southeast Asian market).

Mexican BNPL Funding

Mexican BNPL startup Nelo announced $20M in funding to help it expand across LatAm. The Mexico City-based company is already live with over 100 merchants using its installment loan issuing service, such as Steve Madden. Customers can also use its offering like a credit card, connecting directly with merchants such as Netflix and Spotify. It is currently seeing over 100,000 new purchases/transactions per month. In Mexico, there is a big lack of access to credit, with some reports showing that less than 15% of the population has a credit card.

Crypto Watch

Stripe Gets Back Into Crypto

Looking for another sign that crypto is here to stay? Payments company Stripe has begun assembling a crypto engineering team to chart its future in digital assets. While it was one of the first companies to start supporting Bitcoin back in 2014, it had ditched crypto about three years ago due to lack of consumer demand. It will be interesting to see where this goes and who comes on board. As of now, Stripe's Head of Engineering, Banking & Financial Products Guillaume Poncin is leaving his current role to lead the team (which is still being formed). Check out the job post on our job board ;)

Together With Fintech Meetup

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Looking to meet fintechs? Hundreds have already signed up, including Akoya, Alliance Data, Alloy, Alviere, Argyle, Autobooks, Azimuth, Botdoc, Certa, Checkout.com, Dave, FISPAN, MANTL, Nuance, Nymbus, PPRO, Signal Intent, Sila, Synctera, Urban FT and many, many more!

Want to meet banks? We got ‘em! Meet with Bank of America, Citi, Federal Reserve, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo plus Regional & Community Banks.

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Plus networks, credit unions & CUSOs, media & analysts and more! Don’t miss out on Fintech’s most efficient way to meet, network and partner. Qualifying Startups get special startup rate tickets, qualifying Banks & Credit Unions eligible for FREE tickets. GET YOURS HERE!​

We’re super excited about these two roles today, because they come from an early stage Austin based startup. Method is a developer-first API that makes it easy for developers to embed debt repayment in their apps. The company works with over 2,000 financial institutions, enabling payments to any type of consumer debt – including credit cards, student loans, car loans, and mortgages – all through a single API. It manages the entire process, including KYC, flow of funds, and banking partners, allowing developers to go-live in an evening. If you want to get in on the ground floor of an exciting company that offers great perks, be sure to check out these roles!

​Founding Account Executive​

​Founding Software Engineer​

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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.

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