Welcome back to <\/em>The Interchange<\/em><\/a>, where we take a look at the hottest fintech news of the previous week. If you want to receive The Interchange directly in your inbox every Sunday, head <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> to sign up! Unfortunately we can\u2019t make it to Money20\/20 next week. But we have no doubt that we\u2019re going to hear all about the exciting news coming out of the annual event. Until then, let\u2019s recap what happened last week!<\/em><\/p>\n Last week, Plaid announced it had named former Expedia exec Eric Hart to serve as its new chief financial officer<\/a>. The move was not an entirely shocking one considering that Plaid is now 10 years old, was valued at over $13 billion in 2021 and continues to grow \u2014 both in terms of its offerings and revenue. The fact that it is eyeing an IPO<\/a> \u2014 albeit with no timeline \u2014 is interesting.<\/p>\n The company did lay off about 20% of its staff late last year, which honestly is the type of move that can be considered favorable when a company is planning to go public. It can signal that costs are a concern and that increasing profit, or reducing a loss, is a priority.<\/p>\n Plaid got its start as a company that connects consumer bank accounts to financial applications. It has since been gradually expanding its offerings to offer more of a full-stack onboarding experience. The company was almost acquired by Visa for $5 billion before antitrust regulators shut that deal down. Plaid went on to raise funding at a $13.4 billion valuation<\/a>\u00a0after\u00a0the deal fell through<\/a>\u00a0and has worked to diversify its revenue streams since.<\/p>\n Zach Perret took the stage at this year\u2019s Disrupt<\/a> to talk about all the goings-on of the past few years. When news of the new CFO came out this week, Perret didn\u2019t talk about IPO plans and simply welcomed Hart to the team.<\/p>\n For those of us intensely watching the space, though, it feels like a positive move in an industry that lately has had its share of struggles. Public and private fintech companies alike have had challenges, and that\u2019s been reflected in their stock prices and lower valuations.<\/p>\n So a company like Plaid taking such a big step has us, dare I say it, a bit hopeful. While fintech may have been a bit overhyped in 2020\u20132021, there are still very solid, formidable players in the space. And one thing is for certain \u2014 we can\u2019t wait to get our hands on that S-1!<\/p>\n Listen to TC+ editor Alex Wilhelm and I talk more about this on Friday\u2019s edition of Equity Podcast.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Eric Hart \/ Plaid<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Reporter Manish Singh provided an update on the launch of Jio Financial Services<\/strong>, a company that is part of billionaire Mukesh Ambani\u2019s empire. Jio Financial, which is under the Reliance Industries umbrella, started its lending and insurance businesses. And since it is under Ambani\u2019s thumb, it\u2019s likely to fare much in the same way as his other ventures and perhaps will even shake up the industry a bit. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Early in the week, Christine wrote about fintech company Solid <\/strong>filing a countersuit against its investor, private equity firm FTV Capital. Solid sells software to companies wanting to provide their own financial products. FTV had initially sued Solid and its co-founders, Arjun Thyagarajan and Raghav Lal, in an attempt to claw back a $61 million investment made as part of Solid\u2019s Series B in 2022<\/a>. In its suit, FTV is claiming that the co-founders \u201clied to FTV concerning the company\u2019s revenues, customer churn, and business generally and further deceived FTV.\u201d Meanwhile, in Thyagarajan\u2019s and Lal\u2019s countersuit, they defend themselves, claiming that FTV didn\u2019t like the economic environment, and at the first sign of any risk, FTV tried to pull out of its investment. It\u2019s pretty messy. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Financial services platform Square<\/strong> is thinking outside the box with some new artificial intelligence\u2013powered features meant to drive retail sales. Actually there are 10 of them. Reporter Kyle Wiggers highlighted a few of them, which focus on restaurant operations. One is Menu Generator, which allows restaurants to create a \u201cfull menu\u201d on Square in \u201cjust minutes.\u201d Others include order management and employee management. Get the full list<\/a>.<\/p>\n Christine also wrote about Catch<\/strong>\u2019s return with some new owners, this time strictly in the health benefits space for gig workers and self-employed individuals. You may remember that Catch\u2019s original co-founders Kristen Anderson and Andrew Ambrosino decided to close down<\/a> the company, which was also offering retirement benefits, in March. At that time, Alexa Irish and Laura Speyer, who were building their own insurance benefits startup, decided instead to acquire Catch and relaunch it in time for open enrollment. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Manish also wrote about Google<\/strong> partnering with banks and other lenders in India to offer loans to individuals and merchants on the Google Pay app. The app is already processing about 4 billion transactions monthly, and Manish notes that this effort is Google\u2019s strongest push for financial inclusion in the South Asian market. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reporter Devin Coldewey wrote about the Internal Revenue Service<\/strong> piloting a free tax filing service in 2024 called Direct File. The program is meant to offer another option to some of the for-pay tax filing companies out there in hopes that more people with simpler tax situations will file their taxes. As Devin reports, those for-pay players have thoughts. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mary Ann wrote about how expense management startup Navan<\/strong> has inked an exclusive deal with Citi that executives say will open its addressable market significantly. Specifically, the fintech and the card giant announced a new, jointly branded travel and expense system designed for Citi Commercial Bank (CCB) cardholders. Citi will offer its commercial clients \u2014 defined as companies with annual revenue of $10 million or more \u2014 the ability to opt in to Navan\u2019s offering, Navan Connect<\/a>. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other items we are reading<\/strong>:<\/p>\n US consumer watchdog proposes new financial data sharing rules in competition boost<\/a><\/p>\n Samsung invests in Skipify\u2019s digital wallet expansion<\/a><\/p>\n Ex-Betterment exec launches startup matching advisors with clients<\/a><\/p>\n More women come forward with claims of mistreatment at Carta, the startup unicorn last valued at $7.4B<\/a><\/p>\n Arta Finance opens its doors to US investors<\/a><\/p>\n Trovata, JPMorgan partner to streamline treasury payments<\/a><\/p>\n Creating an equal seat at the investment table<\/a><\/p>\n Self Financial hired a new CEO to fuel nationwide growth<\/a> (Read TC\u2019s previous coverage of Self Financial here<\/a>)<\/p>\n As seen on TechCrunch<\/em>:<\/p>\n French VC firm Founders Future just acquired an equity crowdfunding platform, Sowefund<\/a><\/p>\n LeapFrog\u2019s new fund to double down on financial and healthcare sectors in Africa and Asia<\/a><\/p>\n Nova Credit lands $45M to grow its cross-border and alternative data credit products<\/a><\/p>\n Peak XV invests $35 million in wealth and asset management startup Neo<\/a><\/p>\n Statement, a cash flow management platform for enterprises, raises $12M<\/a><\/p>\n iink puts its digital stamp on property insurance claim lending following $12M Series A<\/a><\/p>\n Flanks grabs additional capital to automate wealth services in Europe<\/a><\/p>\n Seen elsewhere<\/em><\/p>\n Inside the AI-related changes at venture capital firm Greycroft<\/a><\/p>\n Stax acquires APPS to boost payment processing services<\/a><\/p>\n Globacap raises $21m Series B to digitise private capital markets\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Prove raises $40M at more than $1B valuation\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nPlaid\u2019s big move<\/h2>\n
Weekly News<\/h2>\n
Funding and M&A<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/interchange-green-feature.jpg\")
<\/p>\n