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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 Hello, and welcome back. We finally got our power restored after the ice storm and I\u2019m feeling better after coming down with a cold \u2014 but since I\u2019m still not operating at full capacity, this newsletter will be a bit abbreviated.<\/p>\n Rebrands are not uncommon in the startup world, and the fintech space is no exception. They are particularly more prevalent when companies pivot to adapt to external circumstances. Last week, TripActions announced it was rebranding and is now called Navan.<\/p>\n I, for one, wasn\u2019t at all surprised by the news since TripActions pivoted from being a travel expense management company to a corporate card and expense management for enterprises more generally soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020. In 2021, CEO and co-founder Ariel Cohen told me that its revenue didn\u2019t just drop \u2014 it bottomed out . . . to zero<\/a>. That\u2019s when execs decided to focus its efforts on its then-new Liquid offering, which appears to have worked out pretty well for the company. In October, amid its continued growth, the company raised $154 million in equity<\/a> at a post-money valuation of $9.2 billion, up from its prior valuation of $7.5 billion, as well as a $150 million structured financing deal from Coatue. Then in December, it secured $400 million in credit facilities<\/a> from Goldman Sachs and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).<\/p>\n Its rebrand is more than just a name change, apparently. The company said it has now unified its travel, corporate and expense offerings into \u201ca single super application.\u201d On top of that, Navan \u2014 a combination of\u00a0navigate<\/em> and avant<\/em> (or forward) \u2014 claims to be the first travel company<\/a> to integrate OpenAI and ChatGPT APIs across its infrastructure and product set.<\/p>\n The company says it is currently using the generative AI technology to write, test, and fix code with the aim of increasing its operational efficiency and reducing overhead. So now, through Ava \u2014 Navan\u2019s virtual assistant \u2014 travel managers are able to personalize recommendations and increase traveler engagement, execs claim. They say also that admins can use the tool as a personal assistant to perform tasks such as performing personalized data analysis, providing granular carbon emission details or ordering corporate cards for their company. Meanwhile, travelers can do things like perform a travel search, solve customer support issues and even recommend an Indian restaurant near their hotel in London, for example.<\/p>\n A company spokesperson told me via email: \u201cProgram admins will be able to ask Ava for reporting across the travel and spend programs, whether that is via text, graph, PDF, etc.\u00a0 We also use AI to do everything from the elimination of expense reporting to automate itemization \u2014 and in the case of hotel folios, we instantly fetch it from the hotel after a stay, categorize line items, compare that against company policy, and submit for the user, so there\u2019s no need for them [to] move pennies around in order to balance out a folio \u2014 a process that\u2019s pretty painful in my experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Personally, we\u2019ve been wondering at TC when generative AI was going to impact the fintech space, so I\u2019m intrigued by this move on TripAction\u2019s \u2014 I mean Navan\u2019s \u2014 part.<\/p>\n But I should point out Navan wasn\u2019t the only company in the financial services space that announced it was incorporating AI into its products.<\/p>\n Last week, TechCrunch\u2019s Sarah Perez reported that Microsoft and American Express announced they were teaming up to put AI to work \u201cto aid with the frustrating and laborious task of filing and auditing corporate expense reports.\u201d She wrote: \u201cThe companies agreed to expand their decades-long partnership to build solutions that leverage Microsoft Cloud and AI technologies, starting with expense report management. According to Amex, the initial solution will leverage machine learning and AI to automate expense reporting and approvals.\u201d Notably, though, Amex says the AI is something it built in-house \u2014 it\u2019s not leveraging Microsoft\u2019s partnership with OpenAI but is using Microsoft Cloud. You can read more about that deal here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fascinating! I expect we\u2019ll only be hearing more about AI being incorporated in the world of financial services.<\/p>\n Last week, Affirm<\/strong> announced that it was reducing its staff<\/a> by 19% and shutting down its crypto unit. It also missed analysts\u2019 estimates on its revenue and earnings. All this news led to a sharp drop in its stock price. It\u2019s further evidence that buy now, pay later as a space is struggling. I plan to get into that more next week, so stay tuned.<\/p>\n Gusto<\/strong> also slashed jobs \u2014 laying off 126 people last week<\/a>. Last May, TechCrunch had reported that the HR technology unicorn, which was worth nearly $10 billion at that time, raised an extension<\/a> to its 2021-era Series E funding round. That funding event included $175 million in primary capital, a tranche of secondary shares and a tender offer.<\/p>\n Ironically, TC\u2019s Natasha Mascarenhas explains, late last month, Gusto\u2019s editor-in-chief wrote about the topic of layoffs<\/a> \u2014 and the silver lining ahead for small businesses looking to scoop up talent.<\/p>\n \u201cCall me cynical, but in the end, a big business will always choose itself over scores of its employees. It\u2019s just the nature of the beast. Small businesses need to use this fact to their advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n TechCrunch reached out to Gusto for comment and was told that the cuts represented about 5% of the workforce. A spokesperson also told me: \u201cAll employees were notified by email. Impacted employees also received a text pointing them to the email.\u201d One employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said the move came as a surprise since the company claims that it is in \u201cstable financial condition.\u201d The same employee cited a toxic work culture, a sentiment that was echoed by some users of Blind<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Axios<\/a>: \u201cRobinhood<\/strong> announced it plans to buy back shares from Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s Emergent Fidelity Technologies. That particular Robinhood stake is currently in legal hell after FTX\u2019s implosion. Robinhood\u2019s board has authorized the purchase of \u201cmost or all\u201d of the 55 million shares Emergent Fidelity Technologies acquired last year, it said in its earnings report Wednesday. Emergent Fidelity Technologies was formed to buy a 7.6% in Robinhood in early 2022<\/a>. Now however, the stake is being disputed by several players.\u201d Ouch. I\u2019m sure Robinhood didn\u2019t anticipate this when giving up those shares.<\/p>\n Pie Insurance<\/strong>, which provides workers\u2019 compensation insurance to small businesses, announced<\/a> that it has completed its transition to a \u201crated, full-stack carrier.\u201d Pie will begin issuing its own insurance policies later this year following the recent acquisition of a nationally licensed insurance company (previously the American Insurance Company), now renamed the Pie Insurance Company. We last covered Pie in September when it raised a $315 million Series D<\/a>. Pie also expanded into commercial auto insurance as the MGA for Ford Motor Credit Company through the launch of Ford Pro Insure.<\/p>\n From Manish Singh: \u201cFintech Kissht<\/strong> and PayU\u2019s<\/strong> LazyPay are among the apps that India\u2019s IT Ministry has blocked in the ongoing crackdown<\/a> as New Delhi moves to curb the misuse of consumers\u2019 data and protect the nation\u2019s integrity.\u201d More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n PayPal\u2019s<\/strong> stock is up<\/a>\u00a0once again. The company announced during its fourth-quarter earnings announcement that longtime CEO Dan Schulman plans to retire at the end of the year. But its earnings topped analysts\u2019 estimates. Last week, we wrote about the company\u2019s plans to lay off 2,000 employees<\/a>.<\/p>\n In July 2022, Brazilian fintech alt.bank<\/a><\/strong> launched nov\u00fccard, a credit card in Brazil that has a \u201cdynamic\u201d credit limit, with the ability to see the limit adjusted upward and downward automatically based on usage and payment timeliness. A company spokesperson told me that since that launch, nov\u00fccard has grown to 150,000 new clients, \u201cmaking it the fastest growing credit card in Brazil.\u201d She added: \u201cAs many as 3,000 new customers per day are obtaining a new nov\u00fccard. The company expects this figure will grow, boosted primarily by word of mouth \u2014 and that the number of customers will increase to 2 million by the end of 2023.\u201d Founded by American Brad Liebmann, fintech alt.bank has 130 employees based primarily in S\u00e3o Paulo and S\u00e3o Carlos. The company raised $5.5 million in seed funding<\/a> in May of 2021.<\/p>\n Former Gemini CTO launches Fierce, a high-yield finance super app<\/a><\/p>\n New social investment platform Follow taps influencers to mirror their investment strategies<\/a><\/p>\n SUMA Wealth acquires Reel to close the U.S. wealth gap.<\/a>\u00a0Christine covered last year: https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/10\/21\/suma-wealth-latinos-credit-gaming\/<\/a><\/p>\n Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia backs cross-border payments startup Tazapay<\/a><\/p>\nMore layoffs<\/h2>\n
Weekly news<\/h2>\n
Fundings and M&A<\/h2>\n