consumer finance
Sava, a spend management platform for African businesses, gets $2M pre-seed backing
When Yoeal Haile started Aspira, a lending service, in 2017, he wanted to give Kenyans more choice about buying stuff on credit. The business eventually grew to a point where…
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Apple enters the BNPL market as regulation, competition intensify
How will all of these BNPL-focused providers fare with Apple pounding its way into their market?
Employees can count on Addition Wealth for free, holistic financial planning services
As companies fight to retain workers amid the “Great Resignation,” many are offering enhanced benefits packages to employees. Financial wellness benefits, in particular, are on the rise, especially those that…
Pinwheel raises $50M Series B at $500M valuation for its income verification APIs
Six months after its $20 million Series A, payroll connectivity platform Pinwheel just announced that it has nabbed another $50 million in a round led by new investor GGV Capital. …
In December 2020, Beijing laid out a guideline for Ant Group to “rectify” its business after calling off its IPO, which could have been the largest initial public offering in…
TechCrunch+ roundup: Growth budgets, hiring tips, zero-party data Twitter Space
Are you curious about marketing with zero-party data? Join a Twitter Space with with Ben Parr, president and co-founder of Octane AI, tomorrow at 3 p.m. PST/6 p.m. EST.
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Lessons we learned from the last week of fintech earnings
Let’s examine a series of winning fintech results from BNPL, consumer finance, proptech and corporate finance before turning to fintech’s earnings misses from Q3 2021.
Sunday was a big day in fintech: Afterpay has agreed to merge with Square. This agreement sets two of the most admired financial technology companies in recent history on a…
Divido bags $30M to take its ‘buy now, pay later’ platform to more markets
London-based Divido, a white-label platform for retail finance that integrates with e-commerce platforms (but can also support omni-channel) so retailers can offer consumers a “buy now, pay later” option at…
Grab launches new consumer financial services, including micro-investments and loans
Grab announced today that its financial unit, which previously focused mainly on services for entrepreneurs and small businesses, is launching a slew of consumer products, including micro-investments, loans, health insurance…
Payfazz gets $53 million to give more Indonesians access to financial services
Indonesia is not only Southeast Asia’s most populated country, but also one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. But many people, especially outside of major cities, still lack access to basic…
GoBear raises $17 million to expand its consumer financial services for Asian markets
Singapore-based fintech startup GoBear has raised $17 million from returning investors Walvis Participaties, a Dutch venture capital firm, and Aegon N.V., a life insurance and asset management provider. The funding…
TikTok parent ByteDance leads $6M round in financial AI startup Lingxi
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has added Lingxi, a Beijing-based startup that applies machine intelligence to financial services such as debt collection and insurance sales, to its ever-expanding portfolio of investments.…
Now more than ever we need fintechs to lead on consumer transparency
As the US flirts with extreme market volatility and the possibility of its first recession since 2008, it’s amazing to think how much consumer financial services have changed in that…
Felix Capital closes $300M fund to double down on DTC, break into fintech and make late-stage deals
To kick off 2020, one of Europe’s newer — and more successful — investment firms has closed a fresh, oversubscribed fund, one sign that VC in the region will continue…
Helping banks refine sales pitches and customer service, Minneapolis-based Total Expert raises $52 million
It’s no secret that the art of customer service in the modern era is something that banks desperately need help with. One of the reasons challenger banks have been able…
Tally’s Jason Brown on fintech’s first debt roboadvisor and an automated financial future
Yesterday, Tally, the startup looking to automate consumers financial lives, announced it had raised a $50 million Series C round led by Andreessen Horowitz and with participation from Valley heavy…
Zoom prices its IPO, defends CFO after an anonymous source exposed a previously undisclosed workplace relationship.
Bringing affiliate marketing and outsourced customer acquisition to Brazil nets Escale $22.6 million
Despite not being Brazilian and having their first exposure to the country only a few years ago, the two co-founders of Escale have managed to raise $22.6 million for their…
Africa Roundup: Kenya’s BRCK acquires EveryLayer, Nigeria’s TeamApt eyes global expansion
Kenyan communications hardware company BRCK acquired the assets of Nairobi-based internet provider Surf and its U.S. parent EveryLayer in a purchase deal of an undisclosed amount in February. Based in Nairobi, Surf…
Nigerian fintech firm TeamApt raises $5M, eyes global expansion
Nigerian fintech startup TeamApt has raised $5.5 million in capital in a Series A round led by Quantum Capital Partners. The Lagos based firm will use the funds to expand…
SoftBank’s Vision Fund to help Chinese online insurance giant ZhongAn go international
SoftBank’s Vision Fund is backing Chinese online insurance giant ZhongAn through its latest investment, which could take the company — which has struggled for stability following a monster IPO last…
Today Affirm has announced that it has more than 1,000 merchants signed up to offer its financing options at checkout, helping to reduce the friction around making large purchases and,…
Goldman Sachs-backed CompareAsiaGroup gets new CEO ahead of its second round of funding
CompareAsiaGroup, a consumer finance startup backed by Goldman Sachs, has appointed Sam Allen as its new chief executive officer. Allen previously worked at KKR, where he was a director on…
FeeX, Which IDs Hidden Fees In Financial Products, Scores $2.75M In Fresh Funding
FeeX, a free service that sniffs out hidden fees in retirement and savings accounts, announced that it has raised $2.75 million in new funding. The round was led by Collaborative…
