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Hi all, Julie here.

Thanks to everyone that joined our first Twitter spaces last night! Despite a Twitter outage for some folks, we managed to have 250 listeners and a great convo. Next week Wednesday at 7et, we’ll have a new set of guests and will be talking about all things LatAm. I’ll remind you, don’t worry ;)

In other news, our podcast episode with crypto lending company Goldfinch is now up. Lots of controversy around these guys on Twitter since the token isn’t doing so hot this week, but I learned a ton from this convo.

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Company News

Mastercard and B2B Payments

So as consumers, we’ve seen a ton of payments innovation, and even businesses have when it comes to interacting with consumers. But when businesses have to pay each other? All hell breaks loose even though there are a ton of fintech startups working on this issue. Perhaps Mastercard can help too. The company announced a virtual card offering instant payment of supplier invoices. Dubbed Mastercard Track Instant Pay, it can create an immediate payment to a supplier once they submit an invoice. The team said that machine learning analyzes invoices and identifies those likely to be rejected, enabling the rest to be authorized for payment on the same day they’re received. Using straight-through processing, digital payments are sent directly to a supplier’s bank account via a Mastercard virtual card, with no manual intervention required. I still see a lot of room for innovation here, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Funding and Deals

Austin Fintech Funding

Cross-border payments fintech Routefusion raised $10.5M led by Canvas Ventures. The company, which launched in 2019, helps its customers to access more than 12 different banking and foreign exchange providers through a single API (application programming interface). The team said it’s focusing a lot on expanding its product offerings in LatAm, Europe, the UK and Canada. Most customers currently use the platform for B2B payments, but some also use it for remittances.

Crypto Watch

Stash Adds Crypto

Micro-investing app/neobank/robo advisor Stash is rolling out the ability for users to gain crypto exposure through its Smart Portfolio by adding two trusts by Grayscale Investments. Around 400k of its 6M customers have opened Smart Portfolio accounts since it launched 10 months ago. Based on a user’s risk profile, Stash will begin allocating a portion of users’ Smart Portfolio accounts to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE), with an even split between the two. Allocations will range from 4% to 6%. One thing the team told me it was adamant about encouraging was that people should invest in crypto, not trade it. Guess we shouldn’t expect any shitcoins on the platform soon…

Tom Brady NFT (Not NFL) News

The famous QB Tom Brady has an NFT agency called Autograph. That agency has banked new funding from crypto investors in the hope that it can bring a new generation of celebrities and their fans into the space. The $170M Series B was led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins. A few folks will be joining the board, which already includes Brady, Apple’s Eddy Cue, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried and The Weeknd. The company acts as a middleman for athletes and celebrities looking to get into the world of NFTs. Will be interesting to see if it ends up working with Meta/Instagram on its new NFT project.

NY Mayor’s First Crypto Check

When he was elected, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he was going to take his first three paychecks in crypto. Lucky for him, the first one is coming today (Friday) and he might be getting in on the dip. He used Coinbase to make the conversion. No word on if he got a discount on fees or not…

Canadian Bitcoin Funding

Canadian Bitcoin company Shakepay announced a $44M CAD round led by QED. The company, which enables customers to easily buy and earn Bitcoin through financial applications, said it’s going to use the funding to scale its business and launch new products meant to help more Canadians get into the “digital economy.” Shakepay says it has surpassed $6B in total volume, and grew 381% in 2021 to more than 900k customers.

Together With Fintech Meetup

Don’t miss out on the world’s largest fintech meetings event–it’s the easiest way to fill your pipeline, meet new partners and get business done! We’re facilitating 30,000+ double opt-in virtual meetings so you can meet everyone you need to meet.

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• Payments, Networks and Tech Cos, including American Express, Discover, Finastra, FIS, Fiserv, Mastercard, SWIFT, The Clearing House, Visa and Western Union
• Neobanks, including Dave, First Boulevard, Cash App (Square), Revolut, Varo Bank and WebBank
• VCs, including Bain Capital Ventures, Commerce Ventures, General Atlantic, Mosaik Partners, Next Level Ventures, Point 72 Ventures, Tribeca Venture Partners and Vestigo Ventures
• Major banks, including Bank of America, Citi, CIT Bank, Cross River, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Santander and Wells Fargo
• 100+ Regional & Community Banks
• 150+ Credit Unions, representing 17M members and $260B in assets

Virtual, March 22-24. Startup rate available for qualifying cos, free tickets available for qualifying banks & credit unions. Get Your Ticket Now!​

​Head of Engineering at Erad

Erad, an early stage startup, is looking to hire a head of engineering, who will guide the software team through the design and development of its current and future products. Experience coordinating many moving parts to meet tight deadlines and having contingency plans ready when priorities shift is a must-have. If you want to join the leadership team of young company working to support entrepreneurs in the Middle East, apply above!

Congrats to our friend Justin Potts and the Avenify team!

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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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