đThe Fintech Wave(#11)
Welcome to the 11th edition of the Fintech Wave. TLDR; Online bank for ex-prisoners. Easier Options trading for retail investors. Free credit score tool for the UK market. LTC hit the highest value in the last 6 months. Tesla is testing Dogecoin payments. Donât miss the Tweets at the bottom of the newsletter.
If you like this newsletter please share with friends and encourage them to SIGN UP HERE. All details are belowđ
Europe News and Funding
Index technology company raises âŹ6 million
You are probably aware of investing in indexes such as S&P500, Dow Jones, etc. There is a fintech company that provides the infrastructure to institutional investors to design and develop custom indexes for their quantitative investment strategies. Itâs called BITA, based in Frankfurt and it just raised âŹ6 million Series A. The platform offers tools to test and customize indexes which can later be offered to their clients.
Credit score tool for the UK market
The UK has a similar credit score system to the USA. Basically, every purchase, loan, credit card, is captured and gives you a credit score - a number that financial institutions use when making decisions for your mortgage or loan request. Even landlords ask for a credit score before approving you to move into the apartment. This one number has a very significant impact on peopleâs lives. If you have a bad credit score, sometimes you cannot even rent an apartment.
London-based fintech startup, TotallyMoney, raised ÂŁ9 million - to provide a free credit score tool and personal finance app. The startup is targeting people with a bad credit score. Currently, more than 3 million users are using this app to get free monthly credit card score reports. TotallyMoney earns money from affiliate marketing - they offer tools to find the right financial product for each user - whenever users signup for a credit card, the bank is paying % to TotallyMoney.
Americas News and Funding
Options tradingđ for retail investors
After retail investors learn how to trade stocks and crypto, they are now looking for more exotic financial instruments to buy - Options. Options are complicated, it requires sophisticated tools and investorsâ knowledge - otherwise, you will lose money in a second. Options AI raised $4.1M to bring Options trading toolkit to retail investors. It cost $5 per month to use the tool and do unlimited amounts of Options trades.
Online bank for people who are out of prisonâď¸
As we already wrote before, almost every week there is a new online bank on the market offering the same products - free checking account, debit card, and financial app that helps you save more money. It is getting super hard for them to differentiate so they are trying to target different demographics - freelancers, immigrants, etc.
Online bank Stretch is bringing differentiation to whole another level. The bank targets people who are getting out of prison. Their target market is 600.000 people who each year are released from US prisons. Not sure how they sold a story to the investors since ex-prisoners can open a bank account in any other bank.
The only real differentiation I could find while doing research is that the app will have a job board with leads at companies that hire individuals with criminal records. Cool feature, but not sure it will be enough to gain more traction.
Crypto âżites
TeslaâĄis testing Dogecoin payments
Electric car manufacturer, Tesla is testing Dogecoin payments under Shiba Inu's name as one Twitter user discovered. There is no official Tesla confirmation for this, but since Elon Musk is a big fan of Dogecoin, probably itâs true.
Litecoin hit the highest level in the last 6 months
LTC, which was once 3rd biggest cryptocurrency, reached the highest price in the last 6 months - $295. LTC was known as âsilver to Bitcoinâs goldâ and there were predictions it will be the 2nd largest currency but the coin never recovered after the market crash in 2017. LTC's all-time-high price is $410, so there is still a long road to that price.
Itâs time to connect corporate treasuryđľ with crypto
It was just a matter of time when corporate treasury would connect with crypto since crypto deposits give a much better yield than traditional banks. The biggest problem was compliance with regulations but looks like startup Meow solved the problem while raising $5M from Coinbase Ventures.
It works in a way that corporate treasuries deposit cash Meowâs institutional crypto lending partners make short-term high yield loans. It is still in the early stage with few initial customers, but concept looks promising.
Tweets of the Week
