Is cryptocurrency an effective replacement for remittances? No, at least not yet.
Despite scrapped IPO, Babbel sees fast growth for its language learning service
Berlin-based language learning service Babbel was supposed to IPO on the Frankfurt stock exchange in late September. But only a few days before the initial listing the company pulled the plug with an eye on the developing Evergrande debt crisis that made the global stock markets very nervous. It has yet to announce a new […]
Hong Kong fintech unicorn WeLab raises $240M to buy Indonesian bank
A virtual bank is soon coming to Indonesia. WeLab, a Hong Kong-based fintech unicorn, announced Tuesday its acquisition of Bank Jasa Jakarta (BJJ), an Indonesian commercial bank. With the deal, WeLab is planning to launch a digital bank to capture the country’s enormous unbanked population in the second half of next year. A consortium led […]
MrBeast’s ‘Real Life Squid Game’ and the price of viral stunts
First, everyone was talking about “Squid Game,” the Korean psychological thriller that became Netflix’s biggest series launch ever, with 142 million viewers. Now, everyone’s talking about YouTuber MrBeast’s recreation of the show’s titular fight-to-the-death, which racked up 142 million views in eight days. (Don’t worry, no one was killed). Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), the 23-year-old who […]
US banks must soon report significant cybersecurity incidents within 36 hours
U.S. financial regulators have approved a new rule that requires banking organizations to report any “significant” cybersecurity incident within 36 hours of discovery. Under the rule, banks must inform their primary federal regulator about incidents that have — or are reasonably likely to materially affect — the viability of their operations, their ability to deliver […]
Airwallex raises $100M at a $5.5B valuation to expand its business banking and payments platform globally
E-commerce and other online businesses are becoming increasingly global in their operations and customer bases, and a startup called Airwallex — which has built a banking solution that addresses the opportunity to provide cross-border financial services — has been seeing a massive surge of activity. To capitalize further on that opportunity, today the company is […]
Balancing risk: Modern architecture’s role in the BNPL playbook
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is an old form of payment that is new again in a big way. And that could mean trouble for BNPL fintechs that are just getting to know the world of lending.
BaaS served three ways: A closer look at a rapidly evolving market
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but having a better understanding of how BaaS providers position themselves between banks and fintechs can help potential customers determine which model is best for them.
UK’s MarketFinance scores $383M to fuel its online loans platform for SMBs
Small and medium businesses regularly face cashflow problems. But if that’s an already-inconvenient predicament, it has been exacerbated to the breaking point for too many during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a UK startup called MarketFinance — which has built a loans platform to help SMBs stay afloat through those leaner times — is announcing a […]
TrueLayer nabs $130M at a $1B+ valuation as open banking rises as a viable option to card networks
Open banking — a disruptive technology that seeks to bypass the dominance of card networks and other traditional financial rails by letting banks open their systems directly to developers (and new services) by way of APIs — continues to gain ground in the world of financial services. As a mark of that traction, a startup […]