Feb 11, 2022

Global FinTech News - 11th February 2022

By Holland FinTech • Issue #137 • View online

Dear reader,

This week the world witnessed the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warn UK banks to ‘stress test’ their cyber defenses, as the tensions in Ukraine boarders and Russian-powered cyber attacks continue to grow. Larger banks have also been warned against an attack, if a Russian invasion were to occur and enable strict financial sanctions.

Further, in fintech, you can discover the latest developments and news, and stay current on global fintech perspectives. You can find information about upcoming events, new investments, research and breakthroughs within the industry. Happy reading!

From the Holland FinTech team, we wish you a great weekend!

Connect with the fintech ecosystem at some of the upcoming events.

HackerX Amsterdam - VIRTUAL - Holland FinTech

HackerX is an invite-only online recruiting event for developers. We’re active in over 150+ cities globally with a community of over 100,000+ members. We’ve

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Benelux ESG Series Session 3: Governance - Holland FinTech

Join us for the third and final session of the Benelux ESG series as we tackle the “G,” Governance, and discuss why it’s vital to the success of an organization

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Highlights from last weeks news related to fintech

Weekly News Highlights - 10 February 2022 - Holland FinTech

Stay up to date with the latest news from fintech! This week, we bring you updates and developments on partnerships, lending, banking, crypto, NFT and more:

Apple has confirmed rumors from last month that the company is indeed launching new contactless payment capabilities for merchants that turn iPhones into payment terminals without the need for additional hardware
A coalition of advocacy groups wants U.S. regulators to look more into banks partnering with FinTechs to charge predatory interest rates
Revolut’s super app ambitions have taken another step with a move into insurtech through the launch of a pet insurance product
The Indian fintech industry continues to boom as it becomes the third largest fintech ecosystem in the world
A New York couple were arrested on charges of conspiring to launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency that was stolen in a 2016 hack of a virtual currency exchange
Nigerian ride-hailing and shared mobility startup Transtura finalized the acquisition of FinTech payments startup WazoMoney as part of a plan to create payment and marketplace solutions for the mobility sector across Africa

Read more about this week’s news here.

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The largest funding rounds we found from across the world

Weekly Funding Highlights - 9 February 2022 - Holland FinTech

Many more deals and transactions from fintech this week! This week’s prominent fundings are shared by multiple sectors, including fintech, payments, NFT and more:

Aleo (San Francisco, CA), a platform for building private blockchain-based applications, raised $200M in Series B funding
Wayflyer (Dublin, Ireland), the global revenue-based financing and growth platform for eCommerce businesses, raised $150m in Series B funding
Selina Finance (London, UK), a consumer lending fintech has raised a total of $150M in a Series B round made up of a combination of equity and debt financing
Tonik Financial Pte Ltd (Singapore), the parent company of Tonik Digital Bank in the Philippines, announced today that it closed a US$131M round of Series B equity funding
Houwzer (Philadelphia, PA), an end-to-end real estate brokerage and homeownership platform, closed a $118M financing round
Clikalia (Madrid, Spain), a real estate platform, closed Euro 75M Series C-1 funding round. The round was co-led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Fifth Wall, with participation from existing investors Luxor Capital and Guillaume Pousaz
Other interesting funding rounds this week: Mos $40m (€34m) Series B funding, 180° Seguros $31.4M (€27.3m) in Series A Funding, OwnHome $31M (€27m) in Funding for Portfolio.

Read more about this week’s funding here.

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A selection of recent research reports and papers worth reading

Weekly Research Highlights - 8 February 2022 - Holland FinTech

For this week’s research article, we dive into new insights on fintech market, banking, insurance, payments, trends, diversity in fintech and more:

50% of African tech’s $2bn funding pot went to fintech startups in 2021 (Disrupt) - According to the seventh edition of our African Tech Startups Funding Report, which is available free to all as part of an open-sourcing initiative in partnership with Novastar Ventures, MFS Africa, Quona Capital, 4Di Capital, MEST Africa and Future Africa, 564 African tech startups raised a combined US$2,148,517,500 in 2021
ZeroFox Releases 2022 Forecast Report Anticipating Increases in Ransomware, Third-Party Compromises and Malware-as-a-Service (Yahoo) - ZeroFox, a leading external cybersecurity provider, published the “2022 Threat Intelligence Forecast,” detailing expected cybercriminal behavior trends including ransomware, malware-as-a-service, vulnerabilities and exploits. Within the report, the ZeroFox Intelligence team reviews 12 months of threat actor activity from 2021 and provides go-forward recommendations for security teams as we continue into 2022
A deep dive into the world of climate fintech with firstminute Capital (Maddyness) - Climate change poses substantial economic and political risk to the global economy. Efforts to mitigate such risk will require a fundamental retooling of our global economy and coordinated action across public and private stakeholders. Financial services institutions play critical roles, however incumbents in banking, insurance and finance are slow to innovate
Startups raised $7.2 billion during Q4, 2021; Fintech most funded sector: Nasscom-PGA Labs report (Business Today) - The December quarter continued to witness the strong investment momentum of startups with a cumulative funds-raise of $ 7.2 billion during the Q4, CY2021, a growth of 18% q-o-q. as per a report by NASSCOM and PGA LabsThe December quarter, 2021 minted 14 unicorns
Why Decentralised Finance (DeFi) Matters and the Policy Implications (OECD) - The growing application of Decentralised Finance or DeFi and its increasing interconnectedness with traditional markets presents an urgent challenge for policy makers, as DeFi applications give rise to important risks and challenges for participants and the markets. This report provides an explanation of DeFi and its applications and then describes the evolution of DeFi markets to date

Read more about this week’s research here.

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Background information and insights from opinion leaders and experts

Weekly Analysis and Opinion Highlights - 7 February 2022 - Holland FinTech

And we’re finishing the week with new details on banking, partnerships, funding, credit unions, open banking and more. Dive into the latest fintech insights:

A three-way fight to shape the future of digital finance has begun via (Economist) - Finance is becoming ever less the domain of sharp-suited bankers and credit-card executives. Instead, a ragtag cast of characters is overseeing an explosion of innovation that seeks to cut out the incumbents altogether
Fintech and insurtech innovation in Brazil set to take off on regulatory tailwinds via (Techcrunch) - Brazilian instant payment system Pix ended 2021 having powered more than 8 billion transactions, according to statistics from the country’s Central Bank
Follow the Money: Cybersecurity for banking and financial via (Global Banking and Finance) - If you were to watch any crime series, the chances are you have heard of the term “follow the money”. Cybersecurity is the same. As with most criminal groups, the chief driver is financial gain, be it by performing payment fraud or manipulating the stock market after sowing dissent amongst shareholders
Fintech leaders press PM Boris Johnson for further IPO reforms via (AltFi) - 2021 was a bumper year of public debuts by tech companies with the likes of LendInvest, Wise and PensionBee all listing on the London market
Should UK Fintech Companies be wary of London listings? (Capital) - Private equity and venture capital (VC) investment in UK fintech enjoyed a sevenfold year-on-year increase to £27.5bn ($37.15bn, €32.46bn) last year, according to KPMG data

Read more about this week’s analysis and opinion here.

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