🌊The Fintech Wave(#6)
The 6th edition is out. This is your weekly source of what’s going on in the Fintech world in Europe and North America. Feedback is welcome (you can contact us at fw@fintechwave.co) and if you like this newsletter please share with friends and encourage them to SIGN UP HERE.
TLDR; Zopa is a new London-based unicorn. Brex became decacorn. Buy crypto at Walmart. Auction house Sotheby's invest in NFT. Make sure to check the tweets at the end. Keep reading for details👇
Europe News and Funding
An app that gives you vitamin 💶
One more personal finance app is on the market - Vitamin. The concept is pretty much the same as for any other personal finance app - you answer a few questions and you get guidelines and educational materials for your future investments. Vitamin’s differentiation is focusing on women and suggesting investments into ETFs.
UK has new fintech unicorn 🦄
Fintech startup Zopa is the latest UK unicorn. Softbank just invested £220M and the company is preparing for IPO in 2022. Zopa is a peer-to-peer lender and digital bank. The vast majority of online banks just offer account and debit cards - they cannot offer credit cards or lend money because they don’t have licenses. Zopa got a full banking license in the UK following which the company had launched credit cards and savings accounts.
They already lend over £150M in car loans and issued 150.000 credit cards. Looking at the products on their website looks like they are covering everything like traditional banks. Looking forward to IPO.
North America News and Funding
Merchants can now integrate and receive payments from+100 mobile wallets👛
Mobile wallets are a new standard when it comes to payment options. No need to carry a physical wallet or cash. The only problem is there are so much different options and it can happen that the merchant does not accept a particular one. Citon is a fintech that is looking to allow merchants to accept payments by mobile wallet and alternative currencies with the same ease as credit card payments. Citon just raised $30M to make that happen. They offer integration with more than 100 digital wallets - that basically means that merchants can accept payments from all possible digital wallets in the world.
The company had 300% growth year-over-year and Covid-19 just accelerated the adoption of contactless payments. It is projected that by 2025 there will be almost 5 billion mobile wallets. Definitely a good market to be in.
Brex became decacorn with hockey stick growth 🏒
Brex is probably the fastest-growing fintech startup in the world. The company is founded in 2017, and it took less than 5 years to reach more than $10B valuation - decacorn status. The company just raised another $300M led by Greanoaks at a $12.3B valuation. Started as a credit card company for startups, Brex is now an all-in-one finance solution for every business - business accounts, credit cards and spend management software.
The below graph shows the credit card market share for startups. Insane growth of Brex.
(source: Shai Goldman, Twitter account)
Although Brex's growth is impressive, Ramp is catching up. From what I see on Twitter more and more businesses are switching from Brex to Ramp. It will be interesting to see market share in a year or two.
One more fascinating info: founders are in their mid-20s😲
Crypto ₿ites
Now you can buy Bitcoin at Walmart
Walmart is now partnering with Coinme to offer ATMs that support buying crypto on 200 locations. Although it could be convenient for customers, fees are pretty high: 4% fee for bitcoin + 7% cash exchange fee.
The most famous auction house in the world, Sotheby's, invest in NFT Studio🖼️
NFT Studio, Mojito, just raised $20M. What does mean NFT Studio? It means that they help brands design, launch, and operate NFT marketplaces. They handle everything from strategy to go-to-market campaigns. Also, through their API platform, it is easy to set up an NFT marketplace and connect with fiat/crypto payments, semi-custodial wallets, etc.
Sotheby’s already held a few NFTs auctions last year and their NFT platform, Metaverse is built by Mojito, so this investment is not a surprise.
Tweets of the Week
