Digital Banking Weekly #42

💸 Wise, a fintech startup that offers banking and payments services to modern businesses, announced today that it has raised $5.7M in a seed round 🔗 Read more

🇨🇳 Chinese tech giant Tencent has bought a five per cent stake, worth around A$390 million, in Australian buy-now-pay-later firm Afterpay 🔗 Read more

🏦 As it gears up for launch, London-based wealth management and banking app ikigai has enlisted the help of regtech platform TruNarrative 🔗 Read more

💸 Andreessen Horowitz doubles down on crypto investments with new $515M fund 🔗 Read more

🏧 Covid-19 pandemic is radically changing cash usage in the United Kingdom, with ATM withdrawals falling 60% during the lockdown and three quarters of Brits reporting that their use of paper money is down 🔗 Read more

💵 Stash, a New York-based investing and savings platform, raised $112 million in Series F funding led by LendingTree at a valuation of $800 million 🔗 Read more

💍 K Wearables chooses a BIN sponsor Moorwand to power its contactless payments ring 🔗 Read more

💰 Finom, an Amsterdam-based neo-banking startup targeting entrepreneurs and small businesses, has closed a 7 million USD seed funding round led by Target Global 🔗 Read more

🇸🇦 KPMG Saudi Arabia Report: Banks in KSA have to revisit their digital transformation plans and strive to launch new channels that will sustain delivery of products and services amid the Covid-19 pandemic 🔗 Read more

🏝️The Cayman Islands Government has taken significant steps to advance the fintech capabilities of the jurisdiction through proposed legislation pertaining to virtual asset and cryptocurrency service providers 🔗 Read more

💰 TransFICC, a London-based company creating an API layer for e-trading, has raised a £5.75 million Series A round led by AlbionVC. ING Ventures and HSBC also participated in the round 🔗 Read more

🇧🇭 The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) announced further enhancements to its digital offerings which include its Cash Deposit Machine (CDM) cards and enhancements on its Business Online Banking (BOB) platform 🔗 Read more

🏦 Bó, the digital bank developed by RBS-owned Natwest, is to shutter, just 6 months after launching publicly 🔗 Read more

🇦🇪 Emirates NBD has recorded a rush of corporate customers moving to digital channels as businesses respond to the UAE’s #StayHome directives. Reports 60% growth in corporate digital onboarding 🔗 Read more

🦠 Temenos has joined forces with Microsoft to unveil a new financial fraud solution, allowing banks to protect their customers from financial crime during Covid-19 🔗 Read more

🇧🇭 Bahrain’s national electronic wallet BenefitPay announced a 1257% increase in the number of remittances through its Fawri+ service during the month of March 2020 - worth some BHD103 million ($273 million) 🔗 Read more

🇩🇪 Fintech Europe, Plug and Play’s fintech-focused innovation platform based out of Frankfurt, Germany, announced the ten startups selected for its fifth batch. 🔗 Read more

🇭🇺 Hungary’s Reserve Bank says fintech adoption is relatively slow, as most consumers still using cash and revealed that there are at least 110 local fintech firms based in Hungary 🔗 Read more

🇲🇽 Usage of fintech apps in Mexico has spiked to 50%, and around 81 million apps were downloaded for both iOS and Android devices 🔗 Read more