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🌊The Fintech Wave(#32)

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🌊The Fintech Wave(#32)

Hrvoje Pavisic
and
Nino Pavicic
Apr 25, 2022
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🌊The Fintech Wave(#32)

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Welcoming 17 new members of the Fintech Wave community who have joined us since Monday.

TLDR; The first developer infrastructure bank is launched. Lending products focused on immigrants. Coinbase NFT marketplace launches in Beta. NFT infrastructure in the EU is getting crowded.

If you like this newsletter please share it with friends and encourage them to sign up👇

Europe News and Funding

Lending products💳 focused on immigrants

UK startup Pillar raised $16.9M Pre-seed!! to build credit card products for immigrants. This is probably the largest Pre-seed round ever. Almost $17M of funding pre-product.

The startup is trying to solve a classic immigrant problem (which I also had when I moved to the USA): you don’t have a credit score, so you cannot get a credit card, loan, lease, etc. and you have to pay for everything in cash.

Pillar wants to use international credit history when you apply for their credit card. Once approved, they help users build credit scores across the globe. Also, the smart thing for an additional revenue stream is that they will cover the other lenders: they will open their data to give access to international credit data for underwriting in countries across the globe.


Americas News and Funding

The first chartered bank built from the ground up for developers

IMHO this is the most important news in the USA fintech space this year - the launch of the Column Bank.

Column bank is owned by William and Annie Hockey. He is a billionaire and founder of fintech startup Plaid. They spend $50M to buy a traditional bank with all the licenses and built Column bank on top of that. So, Column bank is a Member of FDIC. They connect directly to the Federal Reserve with dedicated hardware, built their own ledger and core, and don't use any middleware.

With column, building the fintech products was never easier, especially for lending products - loans, debt financing, credit cards. Even the pricing is super transparent so you know the exact costs before you start. This is HUGE.


Crypto ₿ites

Coinbase NFT marketplace launches in Beta

The long-awaited Coinbase NFT marketplace places was launched in beta version last week. They are inviting beta-testers based on their position on the waitlist.

Photo Credit: Coinbase

Coinbase put emphasis on community interaction, so they allow you to follow other profiles and engage with the comments and up/downvotes. Also, for a limited time, there’ll be no Coinbase transaction fees, so make sure you check your mailbox to see if Coinbase gave you access to the marketplace.

NFT🖼️ infrastructure in the EU is getting crowded

Lisbon-based Minbase raised $12.5M for its platform that allows anybody to create their own NFT store.

The main selling point of the platform is that anybody without technical experience can now create NFTs and sell it. The platform operates on a NEAR protocol which they developed because Ethereum became too expensive. Part of the funding will be used to fund grants for other projects on NEAR protocol.


Tweets and Threads of the Week

Twitter avatar for @ParikPatelCFA
Dr. Parik Patel, BA, CFA, ACCA Esq. (drpatel.eth) @ParikPatelCFA
Wall Street today
Image
6:53 PM ∙ Apr 22, 2022
7,806Likes530Retweets

Twitter avatar for @TrungTPhan
Trung Phan @TrungTPhan
CNN+ launched on March 29. It’s shutting down on April 30. The company spent $300m on it. That’s $9,375,000 a day. 😳
Image
3:59 PM ∙ Apr 21, 2022
5,482Likes702Retweets

Twitter avatar for @plantmath1
Plant @plantmath1
$TSLA sells 2-ton automobiles with thousands of parts from around the world and their gross margins just increased 300bps. If a biz is complaining about supply chain, maybe they aren't trying hard enough or aren't good enough.
8:14 PM ∙ Apr 20, 2022
324Likes18Retweets

Twitter avatar for @gregisenberg
GREG ISENBERG @gregisenberg
People are missing a main point on why Netflix stock is down 30% today wiping $55b of value It isn’t just extra competition of Disney, HBO or Peacock…that’s just an excuse The real reason: TikTok is increasingly taking more and more of people’s entertainment time
3:59 PM ∙ Apr 20, 2022
6,285Likes730Retweets
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