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Welcome back to\u00a0<\/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\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a> to sign up! Due to the U.S. holiday, this is an abbreviated edition.<\/em><\/p>\n Both Klarna and Affirm \u2014 known primarily for their buy now, pay later businesses \u2014 revealed their quarterly results this week. And they did not disappoint.<\/p>\n Affirm<\/a> reported that its fiscal first-quarter revenue grew 37% year over year to $497 million as gross merchandise volume increased 28% to $5.6 billion during the same period. And its stock got a big boost<\/a> as a result, climbing as high as $27.16 on November 9. It lost some of those gains on November 10, though, and was trading just over $22 that afternoon.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Klarna reported<\/a> revenue of 6 billion Krona ($549.9 million), up about 30% from 4.6 billion Krona ($421.6 million) in the third quarter of 2022. The company also reported an operating result of 130 million Krona ($11.9 million), a massive improvement on the 2.12 billion Krona ($192.6 million) loss<\/em> a year ago. (All currency conversions use current SEK-USD values.)<\/p>\n Both companies reported less delinquencies, meaning that they lost less money on people who did not make payments. It\u2019s good news for both companies, and the space itself.<\/p>\n Speaking of Klarna, Alex and I teamed up to report on Klarna\u2019s confirmation that it was moving toward an initial public offering. We went into what will happen next, and what could happen if IPOs are successful methods of raising capital again. Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reporter Annie Njanja has been keeping up with Flutterwave for over a year now since the African fintech company was accused by the Kenyan government of allegedly engaging in money laundering and fraud. This week, we got an update that the company is now off the hook after a court ruled that the country\u2019s Asset Recovery Agency could withdraw its case against Flutterwave. Annie breaks it all down for you<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mary Ann and Alex Wilhelm devoted some Equity<\/a> time discussing encouraging signs they were seeing within the fintech industry. They touched on some mega-rounds<\/a>, which we haven\u2019t seen in a while. The pair also discussed Klarna\u2019s solid third-quarter results<\/a>, of which we spotted Simon Taylor\u2019s take<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n And now speaking of earnings, Klarna and Affirm were not the only ones with good news in the third quarter:<\/p>\n Meanwhile, good credit is not easy to come by, which is why some fintech companies have focused on setting children and teenagers up to succeed in this area. For example, in August, Greenlight launched its Greenlight Family Cash Mastercard<\/a>. Now Step has one. CEO CJ MacDonald tweeted<\/a> late last week that the company launched Step Black, a rewards card for the Gen Z set to build credit without debt. Via email, MacDonald touted that the card is the \u201cworld\u2019s first secured Visa Signature rewards card\u201d and amassed a waitlist of over 100,000 in the past two months. It is a 17-gram metal card with features like no minimum credit limit, $500 in annual perks and up to 8x cash back. You may remember that Step announced in May a 5% interest rate<\/a> on its savings account, and Step Black holders will also get that rate up to $1 million FDIC-insured. \u2014 Christine<\/p>\n Other items we are reading<\/strong>:<\/p>\n CFPB proposes oversight of Big Tech digital wallets<\/a><\/p>\n Banks look to fintechs to stave off threat from Big Tech\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Arc debuts international treasury product<\/a><\/p>\n Visa launches global AI advisory practice focused on generative systems<\/a><\/p>\n Belvo introduces bank debit service for Mexican businesses<\/a><\/p>\n Bluevine rolls out high-yield interest rate for SMBs<\/a><\/p>\n PayByPhone has been acquired by Fleetcor<\/a>, and it was acquired by Volkswagen in 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n As seen on TechCrunch<\/em><\/p>\n Enable, a platform for managing B2B rebates, is now worth $1B<\/a><\/p>\n Volante raises $66M for payments tech for banks and other legacy financial businesses<\/a><\/p>\n mogul club raises $3.6M toward its effort to make real estate investing more accessible<\/a><\/p>\n Seen elsewhere<\/em><\/p>\n Holdings denies report on deal to acquire Melio<\/a><\/p>\n Andreessen Horowitz co-leads $60 Million AI fintech investment<\/a><\/p>\nBuy now, pay later comeback<\/h2>\n
Weekly News<\/h2>\n
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Funding and M&A<\/h2>\n