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Hi all, Julie here.

For those that don’t know, Jordan and I recently began trying to start a family. So when Justin Overdorff of Lightspeed posted this fundraiser that’s near and dear to his family, I had to share. If you’re looking for a way to give back, feel free to donate here or attend the April event in NJ with Justin!

Today's Partner, Secureframe

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They know that navigating the world of security and compliance can be confusing. But it doesn’t have to be! Secureframe offers user-friendly solutions geared for fast-growing businesses.

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Company News

Binance Probe

This could get interesting (or it could be nothing). The SEC is taking a look at the relationship between Binance’s US arm and two trading firms that act as market makers on the platform and have ties to Binance’s founder, according to the WSJ. One area of focus for regulators is how Binance.US disclosed to customers its links to the trading firms. Corporate documents from 2019 tie Binance’s founder to the two trading firms, and former executives say that as of late last year he controlled them both. It's important to note that while the SEC is requesting more information, this could be a big deal or it could totally die out. It all depends on what the SEC finds. Don’t forget that regulators seem to love to hate on crypto though…

Not So Great Earnings

Shopfiy and Toast are both tumbling after reporting earnings in the past 24 hours. Toast reported a wider loss than expected. Toast’s CEO said that while restaurants were hit in the final months of 2021 thanks to Omicron, he was optimistic about coming quarters. Shopify, meanwhile, saw shares slide after the company said revenue is likely to slow down in the first half of this year as the boost it saw during the pandemic starts to fade.

Funding and Deals

BTV Sticking Around

Congrats to our friends at Better Tomorrow Ventures! The team is living up to its name and sticking around for a while with a new fund. Jake and Sheel have raised $225M for their second fund — triple the amount it raised for its debut fund that closed in September of 2020. BTV plans to make about 30 investments out of the new fund, with check sizes ranging from $500k to $3M. It led 22 investments from its first fund, and made 10 others “non-lead checks.”

Rainbow Round

Ethereum wallet Rainbow has raised $18M in a round led by Seven Seven Six. Similar to MetaMask and other crypto wallets, Rainbow helps customers buy crypto with fiat, connect to decentralized applications (dApps) and invest in tokens. The company says it is trying to take out “unnecessary complexity” that comes with web3, which is what it believes will be its differentiating factor. I mean, I’m game for that.

Flutterwave Funding

African fintech Flutterwave has raised $250M in a round that tripled the company’s valuation to over $3B in just twelve months. Is that all? (I’m kidding). This also makes it the highest valued African startup, surpassing the $2B valuation set by OPay and Chipper Cash last year. The company is known for facilitating cross-border payments transactions of small to large businesses in Africa via one API. It also helps businesses outside Africa expand their operations on the continent, with some of these clients including Booking.com, Flywire and Uber. The company says it has processed 200M transactions worth more than $16B. It added that 900k businesses globally use Flutterwave to process payments in 150 currencies. Guess these are a couple of reasons why the valuation jumped…

Crypto Watch

Catching Thieves With A $500 Gift Card

This is hilarious. So, you know how last week we talked about how federal investigators finally caught the pair responsible for the 2016 hacking of Bitfinex? Well, you’ll never believe what led them to the catch: a $500 Walmart gift card. That card and more than a dozen others like it, including for Uber, Hotels.com and PlayStation, were linked to emails and cloud service providers belonging to the young Manhattan couple. Check out the full story in the WSJ here. ​

NYSE NFTs

Guess NFTs might be here to stay. The New York Stock Exchange is looking at stepping into the space and starting to treat NFTs like stocks. In a regulatory filing, the NYSE said it wants to be a financial exchange for cryptocurrencies and NFTs that would compete with the likes of OpenSea and Rarible. In a statement to Bloomberg, the NYSE said it has no immediate plans to launch cryptocurrency or NFT trading but “regularly considers new products and their impact on our trademarks and protects our intellectual property rights accordingly.” Don’t forget that last year, the NYSE minted its first NFTs, memorializing noteworthy IPOS.

Together With Fintech Meetup

Less than 3 weeks left to get a Fintech Meetup ticket! 1,000+ organizations have already signed up. Join thousands of fintech and banking industry professionals from:

• Fintechs, including Alloy, Argyle, Array, BitPay, BlockFi, Boomtown, Bread Finance, Cash App (Square), Checkout.com, Dave, Dwolla, Equifax, Emburse, Feedzai, NIUM, Pipe, Ripple, Sila, Socure, Stripe, Thought Machine & Upstart (and many more!)
• Payments, Networks and Tech Cos, including American Express, Discover, Finastra, FIS, Fiserv, Mastercard, SWIFT, The Clearing House, Visa & Western Union
• VCs, including Bain Capital Ventures, Commerce Ventures, General Atlantic, Mosaik Partners, Next Level Ventures, Oak HC/FT, Point 72 Ventures & Tribeca Venture Partners
• Major banks, including Bank of America, Citi, CIT Bank, Cross River, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Santander & USBank
• Plus Retailers & Merchants, Media and many others

Virtual, March 22-24. Discounted startup rate available for qualifying companies. Qualifying Banks & Credit Unions can get FREE tickets. Get Your Ticket Now!

​Head of Sales at Lithic​

As a remote-first company with an office in New York, Lithic has raised $100M+ from top-tier investors including Index, Bessemer, Stripes and Tusk Venture Partners. As Head of Sales, you will drive the rapid acceleration of product adoption and growth, build and develop a world-class sales team, meet customer acquisition and revenue targets, and continue to build on the Lithic brand. The team is looking for a leader who can help build an industry-changing company with passion, humility, drive, maturity, and impeccable business acumen. If you have a proven ability to scale an organization and rapidly ramp sales, are an empathetic leader who is passionate about career development, and have a passion and fervor for industry-leading next-generation technology, apply at the link above!

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.

113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205