Fintech startup

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The last 96 hours have been one of the most manic and momentous in my last decade in venture capital. Silicon Valley Bank, once a stalwart of its namesake Silicon Valley was put into receivership by the Federal Government Insurance Corporation. What does this mean for its customers? Its investors? The bank? The story continues to unfold. But one thing is for certain: These failures will change the startup landscape and founder behavior in meaningful ways. Here are five predictions. Risk Management Comes To The Forefront For many startups, it was completely rational, and justifiable to store deposits safely with Silicon Valley Bank. Afterall, they were a top 20 US bank and a cornerstone of the innovation economy. No longer. Startups will start to adopt strategies many of the largest players already employ: diversification and risk management in their treasury management function. What does that … [Read more...] about Looking Around The Corner From SVB’s Demise: What Will Startups Do Now?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For the past seven years, we’ve published our annual Fintech 50 list, covering the top private companies that are transforming finance through technology. (Here’s last year’s Fintech 50 .) From digital banks and payments startups to cryptocurrency companies trying to build a new financial system, these businesses are improving the cost, efficiency and access of financial services. We’re updating the list for the eighth year, a months-long process that involves a team of ten reporters and editors. We divide the work into fintech subcategories, speak with industry investors, analysts, entrepreneurs and executives, evaluate hundreds of companies and ultimately choose 50. This year, we’re changing the application process to make it simpler. There is only one form for company representatives to fill out (see the link at the end of this article). We no longer have a form for the general public to submit nominations, … [Read more...] about The Forbes Fintech 50: Apply For Our 2023 List

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Si Katara, Founder & CEO of Tapp Finance . Over the past decade, the financial industry has undergone a significant transformation, driven by the rise of financial technology (fintech) and the concept of open finance. Fintech refers to the use of technology to improve and innovate financial services. Accessing services like mobile banking, payment, lending, budgeting and investing via mobile devices has exploded over the last few years. Couple this with quickly evolving capabilities within open finance, which refers to the idea of using open data that enables the secure sharing of financial information between different institutions to benefit consumers, and we're creating an open and inclusive financial system accessible to all. Together, these trends have had a major impact on the way that financial services are delivered and consumed and have opened up new opportunities for consumers and businesses alike. … [Read more...] about The Rise Of FinTech And Open Finance

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Esteban Castaño TRM LABS Reported by Nina Bambysheva, Michael del Castillo and Steven Ehrlich The cryptophiles are settling into the realities of a bear market, but their recent triumphs should not be lost. A record nine cryptocurrency-focused companies made it onto this year’s Forbes Fintech 50 list–an honor roll of the most innovative private companies in fintech. Collectively, these nine trailblazers have raised $6.5 billion in venture capital, with the lion’s share of that coming within the past 12 months. Leading the pack is billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX, which raised $1.5 billion in private funding last year alone, jolting its valuation from $1.2 billion to $25 billion. A $500 million raise this past January took its valuation to $32 billion, making it the third most valuable private fintech headquartered or doing business in the U.S. With its rapidly growing U.S. … [Read more...] about The Future Of Crypto And Blockchain: Fintech 50 2022

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Bill Alena, Social Discovery Group , is a RevOps and CVC executive with over 20 years in digital media and online dating. The world as we know it changed drastically in 2020, and our perception of social connection changed with it. While events, gatherings and physical interactions were limited or wholly prohibited, we turned to digital connections to fill the gap. And it was through this shift that people began to rely heavily on the use of social discovery platforms to connect with others, share experiences and create content. Videoconferencing platforms helped us stay connected when face-to-face meetings weren’t possible, dating apps enabled us to explore new relationships and streaming sites provided an array of gaming options and livestreams that prompted real-time conversations about our favorite topics. Three years later, the social discovery market shows no signs of slowing down. The dating component … [Read more...] about A VC’s Perspective On Investing In Social Discovery Startups

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin CEO & Founder of National Business Capital , the leading fintech marketplace offering streamlined small business loans. If you’ve ever made a Venmo payment or used a robo-advisor for investing, you’re already somewhat familiar with fintech and how it works. The fintech industry uses technology to provide streamlined financial services to customers, including banking, lending, investing and more. Through their reliance on state-of-the-art technology, the services provided by fintech companies provide more efficiency and give customers more control over their money. Fintech can also help business owners save time, cut costs and improve how they manage their money. Here are five ways fintech can help you improve your business processes. Payment Processing As the world shifts toward digital transactions, businesses will need to offer fast and efficient payment processing solutions to stay competitive. … [Read more...] about What Does Fintech Mean, And How Can It Help Business Owners?

F inancial technology startup Micro Connect – backed by the likes of Hong Kong property tycoon Adrian Cheng and billionaire Li Ka-shing – will roll out its flagship exchange platform Saturday in Macau. Founded in 2021, Hong Kong-based Micro Connect facilitates global institutional investments in micro and small businesses across mainland China. Its exchange will give investors around the world access to over 2,900 brick-and-mortar stores in 169 Chinese cities, spanning industries such as retail, food and beverages, services, and culture and sports. Defined as enterprises employing less than 300 people and garnering less than 3 million yuan ($435,700) in annual revenue, micro and small businesses contributed 60% of China’s GDP in 2021, per official statistics last March. “Despite their huge contribution to the economy, and the strong growth they have, [micro and small businesses] have to rely on savings, family and friends, and also unsustainable borrowing,” says … [Read more...] about Exclusive: Hong Kong Billionaire-Backed Fintech Unveils Exchange Platform For ‘The Little Guy’

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin A few months ago, I came across a Tweet that clearly enunciated something that had rankled me for a long time as an early-stage investor: Source: Twitter I believe firmly that, for early-stage startups, TAM is meaningless, and over-focusing on TAM actually ends up being counter-productive in the long-run. For those who aren’t familiar, TAM is shorthand for Total Addressable Market. It is a metric meant to provide a rough heuristic for how many users a company’s product could ever possibly reach, in the extreme upside case. For instance, one could calculate that the TAM of the internet is currently 7.88 billion people ( the population of the world - ie. each person can only ever be one “internet user”), whereas the TAM of a US credit card rewards product would be 166 million (the total number of current credit cardholders in the US). TAM is meant to be an unrealistically large number, ostensibly to … [Read more...] about Total Addressable Market Is Useless

When Silicon Valley Bank failed earlier this month , it sent a shot across the banking sector’s bow—and a message to investors and depositors that the financial sector may be taking on water. In response, alternative banks and financial technology companies are easing fears by increasing FDIC insurance for depositors. Mercury, a fintech company that offers banking services through its partners, Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust, recently announced to its customers that it was offering depositors additional FDIC insurance, up to a maximum of $5 million, well above the traditional $250,000 limit. In an email, Mercury’s team said that the way the company was able to “offer customers this expanded FDIC coverage is through our partner banks’ sweep networks, which spread customer deposits across a network of established FDIC-insured program banks.” The list of banks includes Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. In effect, Mercury is giving … [Read more...] about After SVB’s collapse, banks and fintechs look to beef up FDIC insurance

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The economist John Kay wrote in a paper on “ Robust and Resilient Finance ” that while “many aspects of the modern financial system are designed to give an impression of overwhelming urgency… only its most boring part - the payments system - is an essential utility on whose continuous functioning the modern economy depends”. His choice of word — utility — is interesting. Just like the electricity network or the water system, not only are payments a utility but they are also critical infrastructure: If the stock market shuts down for a day, life goes on, but if salary payments stop because of a bank failure, customers cannot access their money because of bug-ridden software update or debit cards stop working in supermarkets because of misplaced cost-saving on testing, there is chaos. Perhaps we need to think again how the payments system works. Money Utilities Matthew Klein says that banks are speculative investment … [Read more...] about Payments Are A Utility, Banking Is Not. Let’s Separate Them.