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Welcome to\u00a0<\/em>The Interchange<\/em><\/a>! If you received this in your inbox, thank you for signing up and your vote of confidence. If you\u2019re reading this as a post on our site, sign up\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>\u00a0so you can receive it directly in the future. Every week, I\u2019ll take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space to hot takes on a particular company or phenomenon. There\u2019s a lot of fintech news out there and it\u2019s my job to stay on top of it \u2014 and make sense of it \u2014 so you can stay in the know. \u2014\u00a0<\/em>Mary Ann<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Hi, since we had a little break last weekend, this edition of The Interchange is going to include news from the past two weeks. And there was a lot of it! But before we get there, let\u2019s talk about something I haven\u2019t had reason to write about for a long while: a nine-figure funding round.<\/p>\n Clear Street<\/strong>, which says it is building \u201cmodern infrastructure\u201d for capital markets, raised $270 million<\/a> at a $2 billion valuation in the second tranche of a Series B raise. The extension was essentially raised at a flat valuation (the company was valued at $1.7 billion when it raised the first tranche of the round in May of 2022). Nonetheless, its ability to raise so much capital during such a challenging fundraising environment is impressive. Add to that the fact that it did not raise it at a lower valuation, and we\u2019re doubly impressed (you can hear me, Alex, and Natasha riff more about that on the Equity Podcast here<\/a>).<\/p>\n A few things that are particularly notable about this:<\/p>\n Anyway, it felt like a blast from the past to cover such a large raise and it only proves that my, how things have changed.<\/p>\n After mentioning the shocking allegations<\/a> against LGBQT+ focused fintech Daylight<\/strong> a couple weeks back, the company reached out to me with a statement from CEO and co-founder Rob Curtis, who struck back at former employees. Essentially, Curtis said the company<\/a> \u201cregrets\u201d that \u201csome former employees felt disappointed\u201d that the company \u201cwould not go beyond the scope\u201d of its mission and invest its \u201cresources in addressing systemic, societal issues affecting LGBTQ+ people.\u201d He added: \u201cWe\u2019re equally sad that we could not meet their personal expectations of start-up culture and continue to wish them the best in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cUnfortunately, some of our former employees who were upset at being let go have since threatened the company with multi-million dollar settlement demands based on fabricated claims surrounding their employment. We disagree wholeheartedly with their negative characterization of our business, and Daylight is fully prepared to address these concerns in court.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s another case of he said\/she said, which is sadly becoming all too common in fintech startup land. Another example of this, as reported by Banking Dive<\/a>, involves Current, a New York City\u2013based neobank that raised a $220 million Series D in 2021 (which TC\u2019s Sarah Perez covered here<\/a>) and \u201cis being sued for sex, race and age discrimination by its former head of talent, who claims the fintech fired her shortly before she was set to return from medical leave.\u201d Damn. Allegations of discrimination for any reason are not good. But in this case, Isabelle Mitura says she was discriminated against for multiple<\/em> reasons. Not surprisingly, a spokesperson for the company told Banking Dive that the allegations in the lawsuit were \u201cunfounded.\u201d<\/p>\n Seen on TechCrunch<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Reports Ivan Mehta: \u201cTwitter<\/strong> has partnered with the investment platform eToro<\/strong> to show real-time information about stocks and crypto prices. This expands upon the social network\u2019s Cashtag feature, which provided info about a limited number of stocks and crypto coins through TradingView data<\/a>. The social media company first introduced the feature in December, letting users search for a ticker or coin symbol like $TSLA, $APPL or $ETH to get prices directly in search results.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports Paul Sawers: \u201cVisa<\/strong> is partnering with a host of financial service and payment companies for a new interoperable peer-to-peer (P2P) payment offering, one that allows people to transfer money to friends even if they use a different payment service. While digital payments have inarguably transformed the world of commerce, the sheer number of payment apps out there has hindered people\u2019s ability to send money to other people without a little friction. If they\u2019re both using PayPal, things work well. But if they\u2019re not, then they either have to do a bank transfer or juggle multiple different P2P payment apps. Visa+<\/a>, as Visa\u2019s new service is called, is designed to solve that problem.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As reported by me: \u201cRedfin<\/strong> has laid off 201 employees, the third time the Seattle-based real estate company has reduced its workforce since June. The layoffs, which represent about 4% of its workforce, was first reported by GeekWire<\/a>. A company spokesperson confirmed the layoffs and told TechCrunch in an email that the roles were primarily in \u2018real estate support\u2019 and were \u2018due to the housing downturn and economic uncertainty.\u2019\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Also in the world of proptech, TechCrunch learned last week that Austin-based Homeward<\/strong>\u00a0conducted its third layoff since last August. The company said that this time 38 people, or 13% of the workforce, were impacted. Homeward had let go of 20% of its staff in August and then another 25% in November. A company spokesperson told TechCrunch that the first two cuts were \u201cmainly about rightsizing\u201d its operations team to reflect its \u201ccurrent contract volume with the changing housing market.\u201d The rep added: \u201cThis time, though, we were primarily reorganizing our team to best support our new products, reduce redundancy and get closer to our goal of profitability.\u201d TechCrunch covered Homeward\u2019s 2021 $136 million Series B raise here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports Ingrid Lunden: \u201cStripe<\/strong>, the payments and fintech giant currently valued at $50 billion<\/a>, sometimes feels like it has been forever on the brink of a public listing. But in the absence of any concrete IPO moves and the transparency that the listing process brings with it, it published an annual update with a few new numbers that paint a picture of where the company is standing right now.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Adyen also issued its 2022 annual report here<\/a>. We didn\u2019t get a chance to dive in there but Better Tomorrow Ventures\u2019 Sheel Mohnot tweeted some interesting insights here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports Manish Singh: \u201cAmit Jain, the former head of Uber\u2019s Asia Pacific division, revealed his new venture, Zamp Finance<\/strong>, that aims to simplify the process for businesses to invest their excess capital in US Treasury bills to hedge against bank failures and other uncertainties. Zamp offers a treasury management platform that enables businesses worldwide to invest surplus cash in U.S. Treasury bills and notes, partnering with BNY Mellon Pershing, which manages over $2 trillion. The platform serves businesses of all sizes, it said.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports Christine Hall: \u201cWhen Silicon Valley<\/a> Bank collapsed [in March], it sent massive waves across the banking and venture capital worlds, and beyond. Companies like Rippling<\/a>, Brex<\/a> and many others<\/a> scrambled to secure funding to offset not being able to access funds, while companies on the payments side, like Etsy<\/a>, worked to find alternative ways to process payments. Spend management company Airbase<\/a> found itself straddling both of those worlds during the SVB crisis. TechCrunch+ spoke with CEO Thejo Kote about how Airbase<\/strong> not only had its funds with SVB but also was \u2018the only spend management company that uses SVB as the payment rails for large parts of our platform.\u2019\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports Manish Singh: \u201cIn a move reminiscent of its successful early bet on the government-backed UPI network seven years ago, PhonePe<\/strong>, India\u2019s leading mobile payments app, is now setting its sights on the e-commerce sector. The Bengaluru-based startup, backed by retail giant Walmart, [earlier this month] launched a hyperlocal commerce app, called Pincode<\/a>, that is powered by the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an Indian government initiative striving to democratize the e-commerce landscape by offering a zero-commission platform.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports Tage Kene-Okafor: \u201cVerto<\/strong>, a London-based B2B cross-border foreign exchange (FX) and payments enabler for startups and small businesses, said it has acquired a quarter of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) customers from Africa and the MENA region. According to the startup\u2019s own data, SVB had nearly 250 clients operating in both regions before its collapse \u2014 the American bank provided startups with venture debt, credit cards, and term loans. Thus, it is onboarding over 60 companies and venture firms (some with headquarters in the U.S. and Europe), including Jumia, Chipper Cash and Taptap Send.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As reported by me: \u201cThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Charlie Javice, the founder of student financial aid startup Frank<\/a>, with fraud in connection with the $175 million sale of the company to JPMorgan Chase Bank in 2021.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reports Mike Butcher: \u201cAs unease spread amongst a handful of entrepreneurs, alarmed at radical \u201creforms\u201d proposed by the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government regarding the independence of the judiciary, WhatsApp groups were fired up, and were quickly flooded with volunteers from the tech industry.\u201d For months, the country has been home to protests, \u201cmany of which were directly coordinated by Israeli tech entrepreneurs and investors. The latter have collectively become a key driver in the movement against the government\u2019s proposals, alarmed as they are that Israel\u2019s hallowed \u2018Startup Nation\u2019 reputation was at threat if the sacred rule of law became questioned at home and abroad.\u201d Read more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n A couple of weeks back, Haje Kamps wrote about how Smoakland was testing a loophole<\/a> to sell cannabis by credit card. The test failed, apparently. As reported by Haje last week, Smoakland\u2019s director of marketing and e-commerce Jeff Dillon told TechCrunch: \u201cUpon further review, it has come to our attention that the way the process was described in the article<\/a> could potentially be seen as bank fraud. As a result, our process partner has terminated our relationship,\u201d More on that retreat here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other news I thought was interesting but didn\u2019t get a chance to cover<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Plaid launches new feature to speed up bank payments<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Bluevine and Wise partner on cross-border bill payments for small businesses<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Michiel Boere swaps his UberEats for Remote work as he joins the team as CFO<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Stripe offers Affirm\u2019s adaptive checkout to Canadian users<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Dutch online bank Bunq applies for U.S. banking licence<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Mercury partners with Stripe Atlas to make it faster and smoother to set up a company<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Hello Alice launches business health score tool for small businesses<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Guideline to lay off 48 Employees \u2014 11% workforce<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Zurp launches card and banking account aimed at Gen Z<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n April tax software launches with 12 partners<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Seen on TechCrunch<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n MassMutual launches $100 million fund to invest in diverse founders<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n General Atlantic invests another $100 million in PhonePe\u00a0<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Lending startup Kala is helping Latin American banks more easily offer credit<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Construction insurance company Billy raises additional $2.5 million<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n AI startup Fourthline locks down $54M to bring better ID checks and compliance tools to the finance sector<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n This fintech startup ideally wants to be \u2018a lot more boring\u2019 than Robinhood<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Hyve gets a buzz going for its new social savings app<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Gradient Ventures backs Axle\u2019s \u2018Plaid for insurance\u2019 approach to data verification<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Acorns acquires UK\u2019s GoHenry, a fintech focused on 6- to 18-year-olds<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n And elsewhere<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Finanzguru raises \u20ac13 million in a funding round led by PayPal and Scor Ventures<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Field Materials raises $4.65 million to streamline construction material procurement<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Assis, a virtual assistant for solopreneurs, raises $5 million in seed funding<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \u200b\u200bSaaS buying platform Spendflo raises $11 million in funding led by Prosus, Accel<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Navan acquires Tripeur<\/em><\/a> (More on Navan, formerly TripActions, soon, btw.)<\/em><\/p>\n Paymerang adds KwikTag and Sypht to AP automation fold<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n PSA: The TechCrunch Podcast Network has been nominated for two Webbys in the Best Technology Podcast category. You can help TechCrunch win by voting for Chain Reaction<\/a>, which digs into the wild world of crypto. Or\u00a0Found<\/a>\u00a0which brings you the stories behind the startups by sitting down with the founders themselves. Please take a few moments to vote for your favorite at\u00a0<\/a>vote.webbyawards.com<\/a>. You\u2019ll find them in the podcast category under technology. Voting closes April 20.<\/p>\n Thanks for hanging in there \u2019til the end! And as always, thanks for your support in reading and sharing this little ol\u2019 newsletter of mine. Have a wonderful weekend!! xoxo, Mary Ann<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
Daylight update<\/h2>\n
Weekly News<\/h2>\n
Funding and M&A<\/h2>\n