Fintech Nexus Newsletter

During the height of the 2021-22 fintech VC boom, no sector was hotter than spend management. Companies like Brex, Ramp and Navan all raised massive rounds at multi-billion dollar valuations. While the category has cooled off, like most areas of fintech, it is still attracting capital from some big names in venture capital.

Block reported earnings after the bell yesterday and it was a strong report with solid revenue growth in both Cash App and Square. Revenue for the fourth quarter was above expectations at $5.77 billion and gross profit was $2.03 billion, up 22% from a year ago.

For some time Fnality has focused on the development of a wholesale payments system built on blockchain. Today, they closed a funding round to help launch.

Goldman's push into consumer finance continues to be a disaster. While CEO David Solomon had grand plans, the entire move has proven to be an unmitigated disaster.

No, you did not wake up back in 2021 but there is news this morning of a €285 Million (over $300m) fintech funding round. Germany-founded but London-based SumUp has closed the massive funding round that is "mostly equity" which tempers our initial enthusiasm somewhat. But even a nine-figure equity round is enough to make the news these days.

Nubank is a fintech phenomenon. The numbers speak for themselves. Today, the Brazilian digital bank announced that it has surpassed 100 million customers in the three countries it operates in: Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. It is the first digital bank outside of Asia to hit that milestone.

The world's largest asset manager continues to embrace crypto. Yesterday, it was revealed (here is the SEC filing) that BlackRock has created a fund called the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund that will be launched in partnership with Securitize.

Every quarter TransUnion releases its Credit Industry Insights Report. Their latest issue, released earlier this month, has some very interesting data.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple has indeed decided to move on from Goldman in roughly 12 to 15 months. This will mean both the Apple Card and the savings account (that was rolled out just a few months ago) will need a new banking partn

The Synapse debacle continues.  Former FDIC Chair Jelena McWilliams is the court-appointed trustee managing the bankruptcy process. She was appointed on May 24.