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Hi all, Julie here.

Wow, so much to put in the intro today. First, while we cover crypto news here, it’s not enough. That’s why we’re launching a sister publication, Crypto Tonight! This new publication, which is obviously the reason Bitcoin went back above $60K today, will have deep dives, Q&As and posts from our Experts. You will not be automatically signed up for this, so sign up here if you want to join us on this new journey! Huge thank you to our launch sponsor, TripActions :)

Second, I have a new episode of Tux Time out with Modern Treasury’s Co-Founder and CEO Dimitri Dadiomov! We all focus a lot on payments in the context of credit cards, BNPL etc, but bank transfers still have a long way to go. Hear more from Dimitri on what his company is doing in this space.

Lasty, a reminder that last week 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! Our first Q&A session is slated for later this month with Dimitri.

Today's Partner, ComplyAdvantage

Will blockchain-based technologies shape the future of financial services? How can innovative fintechs help improve access to finance for those who need it most? What do 'better' anti-money laundering solutions look like?

Season 1 of the ComplyAdvantage podcast, Illicit Activity, explores these questions and more. They hear from CEOs, compliance leaders, policymakers and journalists operating around the world, on the front lines of the fintech industry. All 6 episodes are available to download on Spotify now - download today!​

Company News

LatAm Is A Rocket Ship

LatAm startups have been growing like crazy, and it looks like fintech is leading the charge in the region. There was a great piece in the FT earlier this week about how LatAm is tech’s next frontier. Last year $4.1B of venture capital investment flowed into Latin America, and in the first HALF of this year, it pulled in $6.5B. The other crazy stat: Prior to the pandemic, more than half of the region’s citizens did not use a bank. In just a few months from May to September last year, 40M people opened a bank account.

Funding and Deals

SumUp Makes An Acquisition

European-based Square competitor SumUp has acquired YC alumni Fivestars, a US based company that provides loyalty, marketing, payments and other services (largely in-person based) to small merchants and is used by some 70M consumers and 12K businesses in the U.S. At the same time, SumUp has more than 3M merchant users in 34 markets. SumUp will be paying $317M in a combination of cash and stock in the deal. SumUp didn’t have a loyalty product before this, so this will help the company not only expand more in the US, but bring loyalty related products to its more established markets like Europe.

Tala’s Next Round

Emerging markets lender Tala announced a $145M round of all equity funding. The company, which offers loans between $10 to $500 to consumers and small business owners, now has a valuation of $800M+. Founded in 2011 by the incredible Shivani Siroya, the company started out by offering a mobile application that offered credit and collateral-free loans to consumers in Kenya. Since then, it has expanded to the Philippines, Mexico and India. Tala leverages users’ phone data and their activity to create credit scores that determine the amount of credit a user can receive. More than 6M customers across these markets use Tala, and the company claims to have disbursed over $2.7B worth of credit since its inception.

Sparkly New Funding

Challenger banks are making their way to Africa. Sparkle, one challenger in the region, announced a seed round of $3.1M. The number of active bank accounts in Nigeria is above 100M (from a population of about 200 million), but service is pretty spotty. Enter fintech. Sparkle is counting on standard features such as savings, bill payments, P2P as well as less common features like bill splitting and reviewing spending breakdowns to attract customers in a crowded market. Unlike challenger banks in the US where it’s either individuals or SMBs, Sparkle is going after both. In April, the company launched Sparkle Business. Since launching last year, it says it has acquired over 40K customers on the individual banking side and 2K businesses. The company began charging individual customers small fees to keep their accounts running and plans to charge businesses for most features except taxation services.

Crypto Watch

Bitcoin Futures ETF

I woke up to Bitcoin above $60K for the first time in a while thanks to some ETF news. Barring a last-minute reversal, the SEC is set to allow the first US Bitcoin futures ETF to begin trading next week, according to Bloomberg. Unlike Bitcoin ETF applications that were previously rejected, the proposals by ProShares and Invesco are based on futures contracts and were filed under mutual fund rules that SEC Chair Gary Gensler has said provide “significant investor protections.” Advocates have sought approval as a confirmation of mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies since the Winklevoss twins filed the first application in 2013. The SEC has in the past argued that the crypto space is plagued with investor hazards, with risks of market manipulation, crazy price swings and insufficient liquidity.

Tether Settles

Tether, the world’s biggest issuer of stablecoins, is set to pay $41M to settle allegations it lied in claiming its digital tokens were fully backed by fiat currencies. For years, Tether claimed it had $1 in reserve to back every token, but that claim was wildly misleading, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In its enforcement action, the agency said Tether failed to disclose that it held unsecured receivables and non-fiat assets as part of its reserves, and falsely told investors it would undergo routine, professional audits (which it did not).

Coinbase Wants A New Regulator

Coinbase continues to be outspoken on the future of crypto regulation. The crypto brokerage is arguing that no current US regulator should be taking charge of digital assets, and that a new regulator should be established. The firm’s Chief Policy Officer told CNBC his team deliberately wanted to put out a bold plan to spark discussion. In general, the policy report said that it wants a “clear and comprehensive approach to regulating digital assets, and for regulation that is fit for purpose.”

Together With Fintech Meetup

Want Partners, Customers or Funding? Fintech Meetup is the easiest way to meet the people and organizations who can make it happen!

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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!​

​Head of Customer Success, Settle:​

On a mission to help small and medium businesses thrive by taking the worry out of cash flow management, Settle is looking for a Head of Customer Success. Backed by Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Max Levchin's SciFi Ventures and others, Settle is building software that’s making it super easy for finance teams to track, pay, and reconcile invoices. It then pairs that with lending products that give users the power and flexibility to choose who, when, and how to pay their customers. In this role, you’ll represent the voice of customers, work with them directly to identify issues and find solutions, build out the product roadmap with the engineering and design teams, and more. If this sounds like you, apply in the link above!

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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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