Web browser Opera to buy digital challenger Fjord Bank - FinTech Futures

#fintech #acquisitions #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #mergersandacquisitions

Opera , a freeware web browser founded in Norway, intends to buy Lithuania-based fintech start-up Fjord Bank.

The digital challenger was founded in 2017 by Norwegian and Swedish investors Svein Ovrebo, Joakim Mandorsson and Stig Myrseth.

The deal, agreed in May, saw Opera acquire a 9.9% interest in Fjord Bank via a share subscription on 3 July 2020. The acquisition of the remaining 90.1% of Fjord Bank is pending regulatory approval.

In December 2019, the digital challenger landed a specialised bank licence from the European Central Bank (ECB).

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Web browser Opera to buy digital challenger Fjord Bank - FinTech Futures

Opera, a freeware web browser founded in Norway, intends to buy Lithuania-based fintech start-up Fjord Bank. The digital challenger was founded in 2017.

UK challenger Monument to tap Britain's mass affluent - FinTech Futures

#fintech #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #affluence #afluent #startups #startupstrategy

Monument Corporation, a new UK fintech challenger, is looking to tap Britain’s mass affluent population. Co-operative Bank’s former chief executive, @Niall Brooker, is chairing the venture. Mintoo Bhandari, a former managing director at Apollo Global Management – one of the world’s largest alternative investment manager firms, is leading the venture alongside Brooker.

The start-up reckons around 3.5 million consumers fall into this bracket, which it defines as people with a net worth between £250,000 and £5 million.

Through the last 18 months of the building process, Monument has interviewed roughly 1,800 mass affluent consumers. It says 93% of these respondents “expressed dissatisfaction” with their current banking provider. “Increasingly, private banking is focused on the ultra-high net worth and lags when it comes to embracing modern technology,” says Bhandari.

The start-up also says it is the first bank to offer an entirely digital lending journey for buy-to-let and property investment lending of up to £2 million. The bank will offer live chat, video and co-browsing features.

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UK challenger Monument to tap Britain's mass affluent - FinTech Futures

Monument, a new UK fintech challenger, is looking to tap Britain's 3.5 million mass affluent population with savings and lending products.

AmEx, Visa, Mastercard and Discover to launch Click to Pay globally - FinTech Futures

#fintech #paymentsolutions #clicktopay

American Express, Visa, Mastercard and Discover claim to have signed up more than 10,000 merchants in the US since launching Click to Pay in 2019.

The group is pushing it out to 14 new countries, with more planned afterwards. The new markets include the UK, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Australia.

Click to Pay promises a frictionless payment experience for customers and merchants.

From a customer perspective the solution is similar to those provided by providers like PayPal. A user logs into the payment account, linked to a retailer to process the transaction.

The solution doesn’t require the customer to have their card number handy, or to have it saved in a browser.

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AmEx, Visa, Mastercard and Discover to launch Click to Pay globally - FinTech Futures

American Express, Visa, Mastercard and Discover are rolling out the new Click to Pay standard across the globe after a bevy of signups in the US.

Matrix Moments: Asish Mohapatra's journey from being an investor to building a fintech startup at scale

#buildtolast #buildtosuit #startups #strategy #fintechstartups

In this episode of Matrix Moments, Asish Mohapatra talks with Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix Partners India, about his journey of building OfBusiness, and his transition from being an investor at Matrix Partners India to the founder of a fintech startup.

Key takeaways for building big #FinTech startups:-

1. Every commerce company, once it attempts to scale, essentially has to solve for financing. Even Amazon and other big players are realising the potential of installment economy.

2. To be able to make a financing transaction, you need to have different capabilities. And those should be around debt raising (because debt is cheaper than equity), underwriting, and collections.

3. People at the top have to have to speak the exact same language as the customers' requirements.

4. You have to force people to consciously develop a risk mindset, which not many of us do because fundamentally, we are empiricist in nature.

5. Being customer-centric is necessary but it is never sufficient.

6. You need to have technology in your businesses because without that you won't have access or low-cost access.

7. To scale a company, it is also important to have a strong team and a set of founders.

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[Matrix Moments] Asish Mohapatra's journey from being an investor to building a fintech startup at scale

In this episode of Matrix Moments, Asish Mohapatra talks with Vikram Vaidyanathan, Managing Director, Matrix Partners India, about his journey of building OfBusiness, and his transition from being an investor at Matrix Partners India to the founder of a fintech startup.

How A Tech Entrepreneur Broke Records With A $189M Valuation Pre-Launch On The Road To $1B

#fintech #banks #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks #startups #startupstrategy

Fintech is forecast to achieve a #CAGR of 25% through 2022, reaching a market value of $309B. Traditional banks’ legacy approach to IT holds them back from being more customer-centric. And in a recently published World Retail Banking Report, 2020 by Capgemini and Efma, 78% of financial services leaders said cybersecurity is the biggest obstacle to collaborating and becoming more customer-centric.

Fintech startups excel at #analytics, #AI and #machinelearning to see how they can become more empathetic and helpful to customers. Fintech startups are also succeeding today because their design provides customers the freedom to interact with them as they want and treat cybersecurity as a part of customer experience. There’s been a 667% increase in spear-fishing email attacks related to Covid-19 since February alone, further underscoring the need for designing in cybersecurity to the platform level.

Fintech startup leaders are delivering excellent user experiences with apps based on adaptive design today. They’re also able to scale how many credit cards can be on a single account and integrated into a single card using polymorphic technology that thwarts fraud attempts.

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How A Tech Entrepreneur Broke Records With A $189M Valuation Pre-Launch On The Road To $1B

Bottom Line: Traditional banks aren't innovating fast enough to improve credit card fraud, endpoint cybersecurity, AI-powered end-to-end identity verification and more intuitive user experiences creating new opportunities for startups. Fintech is forecast to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% through 2022, reaching a market value of $309B.

Untapped Capital Starvation in Indian MSME Sector a Great Boon for FinTech Startups

#sme #msme #capital #founders #startupindia #startupbharat #aatmanirbharbharat #fintech

With my more than 20 years experience in dealing with thousands of MSME businesses, the reason I have seen for their failure is not lack of talent, market, labour or technology, but starvation due to lack of access to timely and adequate capital.

So FinTech startups in India have huge unimaginable potential and also can do immense yeoman service to our country just by channelising savings and providing timely and adequate finance to MSME sector.

All the best!

Finin: COVID19 Crisis A Great Opportunity for Neo-Banks

#fintech #startups #startupindia #neobanks #challengerbanks #digitalbanks

Finin claims to be India’s first direct consumer digitized bank that eases the customer money management, investment, savings account through digital mode using advanced AI driven technology and payment programs. Suman Gandham, Founder & CEO, Finin – The Future of Banking explains to Techplus Media Group how neo banks are changing wealth management in India.

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Finin: COVID19 Crisis A Great Opportunity for Neo-Banks

Finin claims to be India's first direct consumer digitized bank that eases the customer money management, investment, savings account through digital mode using advanced AI driven technology and payment programs. Suman Gandhan, Founder & CEO, Finin - The Future of Banking explains how neo banks are changing wealth management in India.

Fintech startup nCino targets ~$2B valuation in impending IPO

#fintech #ipo #startup

As IPO season continues, another venture-backed tech company is moving closer toward going public. This week nCino, Inc. filed an updated S-1 filing, providing an initial price range for its equity of $22 to $24 per share.

Indeed, nCino, Inc., a fintech startup that provides operating software to banks, intends to sell 7.625 million shares in its debut, worth $167.75 million to $183 million at those prices. Including shares offered to its underwriters, its haul grows to between $192.9 million and $210.5 million. Discounting the extra shares, nCino, Inc. is worth between $1.96 billion to $2.14 billion at its current price range.

The startup’s software is what nCino, Inc. calls a “bank operating system,” providing banking software to help financial entities with lending, customer resource management, account opening and more. It’s a rich space for innovation, given the banking industry’s complexity and wealth. Smaller startups are also working along related lines.

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Fintech startup nCino targets ~$2B valuation in impending IPO

As IPO season continues, another venture-backed tech company is moving closer toward going public. This week nCino filed an updated S-1 filing, providing an initial price range for its equity of $22 to $24 per share. Indeed, nCino, a fintech startup that provides operating software to banks, intend...

Indian SaaS startup HostBooks is making financial management easy for over 45,000 businesses

#SaaS #accounting #bookkeeping #fintech

The Indian SaaS market is forecast to grow from $6 billion in 2019 to more than $20 billion by 2022, according to the India Private Equity Report 2020 by Bain and Co.

In this brouhaha of growth forecasts, HostBooks Limited, founded by chartered accountant Kapil RANA, has been quietly and steadily gathering steam. An all-in-one accounting application, HostBooks is a comprehensive platform for all accounting needs, says Kapil.

HostBooks offers products such as accounting, GST, TDS, income tax, POS and business intelligence tools for MSMEs and professionals. These cloud-based applications make integrated and automated workflow simple and user-friendly, enabling persons with minimal computer knowledge to operate and obtain the desired results. The startup charges based on annual usage of the solution and is sold on a per user basis.

HostBooks is self-funded with Kapil having invested Rs 30 crore in product development and marketing. At present, it is looking for a large round of $25 million to reach 150,000 businesses worldwide. The startup will use these funds for product research and development, marketing, sales and distribution activities as and when it raises it.

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This SaaS startup is making financial management easy for over 45,000 businesses

India's SaaS success story is being led by unicorns like Freshworks and bootstrapped icon Zoho. Be it enterprise Saas or SMB SaaS, or others, the sector is growing in leaps and bounds. In fact, the Indian SaaS market is forecast to grow from $6 billion in 2019 to more than $20 billion by 2022, according to the India Private Equity Report 2020 by Bain and Co.

Mergers & Acquisitions: Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma to acquire insurance firm Raheja QBE for $76M

#mergersandacquisitions #acquisitions #insurtech #India #startups

Paytm, India’s most valuable startup, and its co-founder and chief executive, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, announced on Monday they have reached an agreement to acquire insurance firm Raheja QBE General Insurance Company Limited for a sum of $76 million as the financial services startup looks to tap the nation’s booming insurance market.

Sharma is acquiring Raheja QBE through QorQl Pvt. Ltd, a firm in which he owns majority stake with Paytm owning the remainder. A Paytm spokesperson told TechCrunch that it was an all-cash deal.

Raheja QBE, which offers insurance services to cover an individual’s health, home and vehicles, and also provides protection on commercial properties and workplace injuries, is owned by Prism Johnson (51%) and QBE Australia (49%.) QorQl is acquiring a 100% stake in Raheja QBE as part of the agreement, the two entities said.

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Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma to acquire insurance firm Raheja QBE for $76M

Paytm, India's most valuable startup, and its co-founder and chief executive, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, announced on Monday they have reached an agreement to acquire insurance firm Raheja QBE for a sum of $76 million as the financial services startup looks to tap the nation's booming insurance market. ...

Financial Technology (Fintech) Market is expected to grow at 20% CAGR during the forecast period 2019 to 2024

#fintech #blockchain #TAM #fintechmarket #marketresearchreport #startups #robotics #artificialintelligence

According to BlueWeave Consulting, the global financial technology (Fintech) Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 20% during the estimated time period (2019-2024), reaching the market value of around $ 305 billion by the end of the year 2024.

The installment/charging administration portion is required to drive significant development in the worldwide fintech market, prompting an income age of USD 207.11 Bn by 2023. The fame of installment applications like Stripe, GoUrl, Cayan, and Amazon Pay among clients and retailers will further drive the market. Regtech is likewise expected to develop widely at a CAGR of 22.05%, after installment/charging.

Significant advances associated with the fintech area are cryptography, Artificial Intelligence (#AI), blockchain, biometrics and character the board, digital security, and robotic process automation (#RPA). Artificial intelligence interfaces and chatbots have basically reclassified client assistance, and its developing prevalence will empower AI-arranged fintech market to grow at a CAGR of 21.72% during 2018-2023, trailed by blockchain-based fintech organizations.

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Financial Technology (Fintech) Market is expected to grow at 20% CAGR during the forecast period 2019 to 2024

According to BlueWeave Consulting , The Global Financial Technology (Fintech) Market is expected to grow at a steady rate during the forecast period. The global financial technology (fintech) industry market is projected to grow at a CAGR of around 20% during the estimated time period.

The wealth-tech startup Winvesta helps Indians invest in Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other US stocks

#wealthmanagement #fintech #startupstrategy #LRS #overseasinvestment #India

Winvesta, co-founded by Swastik Nigam and Prateek Jain, allows Indians to invest in overseas stocks and buy fractional shares of highly-valued firms like Facebook, Google, Amazon and others on the S&P 500 index.

The entire registration and #KYC process on Winvesta is paperless, and can be completed on the app. The startup is authorised and regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Its local office is situated in Mumbai, but Winvesta runs a team spread across four countries.

Users can create a US stock brokerage account or an international multi-currency bank account within 15 minutes. It has no significant upfront costs, annual tie-ins, or minimum thresholds. It also promises zero-commission trading. It not only allows fractional trading, but also lets Indians buy international real estate, and pay for foreign education through borderless bank accounts.

Winvesta is creating market differentiation by blending commission-free stock-trading with multi-currency banking on a clean and user-friendly interface. Under the liberalised remittance scheme, Indians can invest upto $250,000 per year overseas under Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS).

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This wealth-tech startup helps Indians invest in Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other US stocks

Winvesta had a start like no other. Incorporated in London in August 2019, the cross- border investment platform went live in India in March 2020, two days after the nationwide lockdown. "It was as good a time as any," Founder and CEO Swastik Nigam tells YourStory.

Startup Strategy: How can challenger banks differentiate themselves?

#challengerbanks #neobanks #digitalbanks

Please read what John Ellmore, Director, Know Your Money, has to say on how challenger banks are distinguishable for their modern fintech practices and how they further can differentiate.

Challenger banks have distinguished themselves by revolutionising the banking process. They pose a disruptive presence to retail banking across the value chain. It’s no secret that challenger banks employ attacking business models. With market saturation not far away, challenger banks can differentiate themselves more than ever and stand out from the crowd by -

1. Leveraging data they collect to generate insights, realise value and effect a hyperpersonal approach to their customers

2. Challenger banks would be well advised to seek streams of income from beyond the realm of traditional banking.

3. Driving down costs with digital capabilities by using data and analytics and leverage automation and AI to drive down the cost to serve, minimise human touchpoints and improve both cross-sell ratios and service levels.

4. Challenger banks would be well advised to vie for the finest talent by looking beyond the usual rewards to both attract and retain their workers.

5. Evolve the business strategy models

6. Reshaping the fintech ecosystem

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How can challenger banks differentiate themselves?

Challenger banks are distinguishable for their modern fintech practices-but with market saturation never far away, how can they further differentiate?

Fintech Startup IPOs: Insurtech startup Lemonade sees shares jump 139% on IPO

#ipo #startups #insurtech #fintech #valuation #capital #startupfunding #ai #artificialintelligence #bots

Lemonade (LMND) raised $319m (€283m) with an initial public offering (IPO), signalling high investor demand at a time when markets have been shaken. The New York-based insurtech company sold 11 million shares at $29 on 2 July.

The start-up’s debut was the strongest by a US company in 2020 so far, MarketWatch reported. Shares skyrocketed during the day and finished up 139% at $69.41.

Insurtech IPOs have been garnering a lot of attention in recent years, especially from their more traditional peers.

Venture-backed insurtech startups are beginning to disrupt the incumbent industry, which has been a laggard in their digital transformation, with currently 12 unicorns existing in the global insurtech space, the report found.

Lemonade said it has digitised the entire insurance process. The start-up claimed that it had set “a new world record” when its AI bot was able to approve a claim for a $980 personal item in three seconds, PitchBook notes.

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Insurtech startup Lemonade sees shares jump 139% on IPO

Lemonade (LMND) raised $319m (€283m) with an initial public offering (IPO), signalling high investor demand at a time when markets have been shaken. The New York-based insurtech company sold 11 million shares at $29 on 2 July. The start-up's debut was the strongest by a US company in 2020 so far, MarketWatch reported.

Fintech start-up Simpl targets India's low credit card adoption - FinTech Futures

#fintech #credit #creditline #creditcard #cod #startups #startupindia

Simpl, a Bengaluru-based fintech, is vying to change India’s approach to credit.

India had around 52 million credit card users in 2019, according to BankBazaar Moneymood’s 2020 report.

The start-up offers shoppers a digital credit line, acquiring users at point of sale (PoS). It works with mobile-focused commerce stores across India.

Simpl acts like a ‘buy now, pay later’ checkout option, without incurring interest for the consumer. Everything the shopper buys gets added to a bill which is paid off every 15 days.

Cash on delivery (CoD) – where a consumer buys a product online and pays for it upon delivery – is still a popular shopping method in India. A Nielson report last year found roughly 83% of shoppers in India still favoured CoD for online commerce purchases.

The main reason why customers use CoD is that the vendor’s behaviour and customer experience affects adversely if we make payment in advance.

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Fintech start-up Simpl targets India's low credit card adoption - FinTech Futures

Simpl, a Bengaluru-based fintech, is vying to change India's approach to credit. Currently, just 3.85% of Indian consumers have credit cards.

Société Générale to acquire French neobank Shine - FinTech Futures

#fintech #acquisitions #mergersandacquisitions #banks #invoicemanagement #invoices

Société Générale is set to acquire Shine, a French challenger banking service for freelancers and small businesses. The size of the acquisition is currently unconfirmed. TechCrunch reports an all-cash deal of around €100 million ($112.6 million) but has since updated its report to say Société Générale has disputed this price.

Shine offers business-tailored accounts and debit cards. French customers can create invoices directly from the app and send payment links to clients. Invoices then get automatically marked as paid in the app. Receipts are attached to transactions, keeping accounting information in the app. Automatic receipt exports are also an option in the app. Users can also set up notification reminders to pay taxes and see how much money will be left over.

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Société Générale to acquire French neobank Shine - FinTech Futures

Société Générale is set to acquire 2018-founded Shine, a French challenger banking service for freelancers and small businesses.

Venture Capital: Facebook co-founder's B Capital Group closes its second fund at $820M

#startups #starupsfunding #vc #vcfunding #founders

B Capital Group, a US and Singapore-based investment company have announced the closing of its second $820 million venture fund to invest in growth-stage startups that are disrupting large industries and quickly scaling up.

Founded in 2014 by Raj Ganguly, and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, B Capital Group invests in #enterprise technology (including #SaaS, #AI / #ML infrastructure, and security), #fintech, #healthcare #technology, customer supporting technology, #transport, and #logistics into #B2B and #B2B2C businesses. The company usually invests between $10 and $60 million in Series B, C, and D businesses poised to grow rapidly.

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Facebook co-founder's B Capital Group closes its second fund at $820M

B Capital Group, a US and Singapore-based investment company have announced the closing of its second $820 million venture fund to invest in growth-stage startups that are disrupting large industries and quickly scaling up. Founded in 2014 by Raj Ganguly, and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, B Capital Group invests in enterprise technology (including SaaS, AI...

FintechOS Is This Year's Hottest Fintech Startup in Europe, According to Reputed Tech Founders, Investors and Journalists

#fintech #europe #startups #banks

FintechOS, the global provider of technology for the digital transformation of banks, insurance companies, is this year's hottest FinTech Startup, according to the Europas Awards - launched in 2009 by TechCrunch's editor Mike Butcher MBE, to recognize the innovation emerging from Europe's startup scene. The Awards were announced live on 25th June during an online event.

In the past few months, during lockdown, the demand for FintechOS solutions has significantly increased, particularly those designed to support online onboarding, setting up virtual branches and online assistance via remote video and co-browsing. FintechOS's cloud-native technology has been engineered to enable rapid and tailored deployment, massively reducing the time to launch.

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FintechOS Is This Year's Hottest Fintech Startup in Europe, According to Reputed Tech Founders, Investors and Journalists

FintechOS, the global provider of technology for the digital transformation of banks, insurance companies, is this year's hottest FinTech Startup, according to the Europas Awards - launched in 2009 by Techcrunch's editor Mike Butcher, to recognize the innovation emerging from Europe's startup

Startup Funding Alert: Unicorn India Ventures strikes second deal from Fund II, backs Hyderabad based fintech ChitMonks

#fundingalert #startupfunding #chitfund #startupindia #fintech #startuphyderabad #startuptelangana

Hyderabad-based Pangean Global Services Pvt Ltd Services, which owns and operates fintech platform ChitMonks, has raised $650,000 in its first institutional funding round from venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures.

“Chit fund, as an asset class, is very close to millions of people across the country. At a time (especially after Covid-19), where digitisation is essential, we are building an inclusive ecosystem for chit fund companies to think beyond digitisation,” Pavan Adipuram, co-founder and CEO of ChitMonks, told TechCircle.

Pavan Adipuram set up ChitMonks in 2016 with Malla Reddy and Sridhar Reddy. The startup brings together chit fund companies, regulators, subscribers, banks, ecosystem enablers and service providers.

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Exclusive: Unicorn India Ventures strikes second deal from Fund II, backs fintech ChitMonks

Hyderabad-based Pangean Global Services, which owns and operates fintech platform ChitMonks, has raised $650,000 in its first institutional funding round from venture capital firm Unicorn India Ventures. The company plans to use the capital raised in this round, which it dubs a pre-Series A round, to foray into new Indian markets and for product development, and sales and marketing.

Startup Payment Technology: PayID - Open Source, Universal Payment Identifier

#fintech #crossborderpayments #moneychanger #foreignexchange #transfers #blockchaintech #blockchain #RBI #license

In June, leading technology, finance and nonprofit companies announced the launch of PayID, a universal payment ID to simplify the process of sending and receiving money globally – across any payment network and any currency. GoPay, Ripple, Blockchain.com, BitPay, Brave, Flutterwave, Mercy Corps and others have collaborated on the development of PayID.

PayID allows individuals to send and receive money across any payment network using an easy-to-read address versus one that’s awkward and unintuitive - such as a bank account, routing or credit card number. With PayID, sending money is as simple as sending an email directly to friends and family, no matter which provider is used, at a lower cost.

Whether a bank, payment provider or processor, digital wallet, or remittance provider, PayID is designed for any business that sends or receives money. Implementing PayID is simple.

For money transfer across currencies, Indian companies need to take Full Fledged Money Transfer (FFMC) license from RBI. More details about FFMC license at: https://lnkd.in/gBgzr2K

Read more about PayID at

Open Source, Universal Payment Identifier

PayID provides a single ID for anyone needing to send or receive money. Learn about PayID's open-source protocol & how to connect users on any payment network.