Fintech Firm Thunes Launches Instant Payouts to 1B+ Weixin Users

Stripe Inc., which is one of Silicon Valley’s most valuable Fintechs, is reportedly getting closer to what might be one of the largest public-market entries in recent times. Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison told company workers that the firm’s executives set a goal of taking the Fintech firm public or allowing workers to sell shares in a private-market transaction within the coming year, according to sources familiar with the matter (and cited by the WSJ).

A new report indicates that Fintech funding declined in 2022 as the sector was impacted by a challenging market. According to Tracxn, private Fintech firms in the UK raised a total of $11.2 billion in 2022, a drop of 13% from the year prior. In 2021, Fintechs raised $12.9 billion.

Worldline [Euronext: WLN], a key player focused on payments services, announced the launch of its Buland Bharat digital payments suite, which is designed specially “keeping in mind the needs and wants of small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India.”. The Buland Bharat digital payments suite is “in line with...

Multiple reports today indicate that Elon Musk wants to incorporate payments as a service within Twitter. The initial source of information was an article published in the FT today that indicated Musk would start with fiat currencies and perhaps add cryptocurrency in the future. Twitter is apparently seeking regulatory approval in various jurisdictions to pursue its ambition to become a social Fintech and digital wallet.

After months of diminished interest, interest in digital asset investment products picked up last week, according to Coinshares. The report states that digital asset investments experienced a $117 million inflow last week, the largest since July 2022. At the same time, total assets under management (AuM) rose to $28 billion, up 43% from the November 2022 lows.

In a recent speech, President Joe Biden stated that he had added more to the national debt of the United States than any other president in history, saying, "No President added more to the debt in 4 years than my President… I misspoke - 25% of our country’s entire debt."

On January 6, 2023, Okcoin launched its new Unified Account and API v5 (they skipped v4 since some of their users consider the number “4” bad luck). Okcoin is excited to share “this upgraded, more seamless trading experience with a select group of users.”. Over the next...

Juniper Research defines credit cards as a payment instrument which allows consumers as well as cardholders “to borrow money to pay for products and services, and make deferred payments for their purchases in exchange of monthly interest based on the amount owed.”. As noted in a report by Juniper...

Channel Capital Advisors LLP has closed a mezzanine funding facility with TP24, a European fintech lending platform. Channel is an FCA-regulated alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) “specializing in fintech, working capital and trade finance investments.”. Since 2014, the London-headquartered company has “deployed more than $9 billion of assets across...

PrimaryBid and Winterflood announced a collaboration to further advance UK retail investor participation in equity and debt capital markets, including IPOs and follow-on fundraises. Together the firms will “offer API integration to any stockbroker or wealth manager wishing to distribute primary market deals to retail investor clients, leveraging the UK’s...

Groceries, transportation, relationships, entertainment, and more are all now “available at the swipe of a smartphone,” the team at Inscribe notes in a blog post. Buyers have come “to not only enjoy — but expect — frictionless interactions that provide instant gratification.” Fast response times are “no longer a perk; they’re the most important attribute of the customer experience,” Inscribe writes in a recent update.

Asset Reality, the end-to-end solution for digital asset recovery, has raised $4.91 million in a seed round led by Framework Ventures, a venture capital firm “known for its early entry into decentralized finance (DeFi).”. The investment round also “saw participation from TechStars; The Fund (who previously backed blockchain analytic...

The Hong Kong credit and charge card payments market is set “to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.9% between 2022–2026 to reach HKD 831.9 billion ($106.7 billion) in 2026, driven by a significant shift in consumer preferences towards non-cash payment methods and recovery in consumer spending,” forecasts GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

Capitolis, the technology company reimagining capital markets, completed its nineteenth Standardized Approach for Counterparty Credit Risk (SA-CCR) optimization in January, “with this latest run incorporating a record number of entities, driving a record reduction of over $290 billion in effective notional.”. This marks another momentous occasion for Capitolis as...

N26, a European digital bank, announced the appointment of Arnd Schwierholz as its new Chief Financial Officer. The experienced manager will “lead the company’s financial department moving forward.”. Arnd Schwierholz reportedly “brings decades of experience in the technology industry and in financial management for publicly traded companies to...

Investment crowdfunding, or crowd-sourced funding (CSF) as it is called down under, generated $72 million in online capital formation, according to an industry report. The information is compiled by Birchal, the largest online investment platform in Australia. Birchals has been providing this report for several years now. While a smaller...

OneSpan Inc. (NASDAQ: OSPN), the digital agreements security company, announced that it has agreed to acquire ProvenDB, an Australia-based startup that delivers secure storage and vaulting for documents based on blockchain technology, “to provide an industry-leading trust model for high assurance contracts and documents.”. ProvenDB will “extend the capabilities...

Protecting and insuring against cyber risks are priorities for all companies and organizations. French cybersecurity firm EGERIE has raised 30 million euro, from investors with expertise in insurance and cybersecurity (Tikehau Capital, Open CNP, Banque des Territoires and TIIN Capital) in order “to help executives analyse and quantify the financial risks of cyber-attacks.”

Amid an environment where asset management firms are increasingly collaborating with digital platforms to help launch product offerings and “de-risk” entry into new markets, FLX Networks, which modernizes, simplifies, and drives engagement between asset managers and financial advisors, has partnered with global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) as “a preferred data and analytics provider to asset management firms.”

Solvo Finance, an EU-based cryptocurrency startup, has announced that their forthcoming crypto investing app will integrate Fireblocks, an easy-to-use platform “to create new blockchain-based products and manage day-to-day digital asset operations.”. With the support of Fireblocks’ battle-tested technology, Solvo will be able “to provide world-class security for customers’ digital...