Fintech News | TechCrunch

PayPal revives its money-pooling feature

Cody Corrall — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 23:09:00 +0000

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re diving into PayPal’s new holiday shopping-friendly feature, Klarna’s 2025 IPO ambitions, and sales tax automation startup Kintsugi doubling its valuation in less than a year. If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story PayPal makes group purchases […]

In Mexico’s tense job market, Minu’s take on employee benefits includes financial wellness

Anna Heim — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

In a tight labor market, the best way to attract and retain talent is to look after employee well-being. As Mexico is nearing full employment, this creates tailwinds for these endeavors, but with particular awareness that financial, physical, and mental health are interconnected. “The main problem to solve in Mexico is around financial matters,” said […]

Socium doubles down on Francophone Africa after $5M seed round

Annie Njanja — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 03:00:00 +0000

Demand for HR tech solutions in Africa is growing, and Senegal’s Socium is out to tap the opportunity in French-speaking countries on the continent. Since 2021, Socium has built HR solutions that target users within the 21 countries of Francophone Africa and plans to continue narrowing its focus on the region, where it is enjoying […]

MakeMyTrip buys Happay from CRED

Manish Singh — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 11:10:11 +0000

Indian travel and hospitality aggregator MakeMyTrip has agreed to acquire expense management platform Happay from fintech CRED. The deal, announced on Monday, will see Happay’s expense management business and team transition to MakeMyTrip, while the payments division will remain at CRED. The financial terms were not disclosed and couldn’t be immediately learned. CRED, which had […]

Ben Horowitz’s tight ties with the Las Vegas Police Department — and why it matters

Theresa Loconsolo — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:55:20 +0000

Over the last few years, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and famed VC Ben Horowitz has donated at least $7.6 million to fund purchases by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, including new drones from a16z-backed Skydio. Skydio is not the first of a16z’s portfolio companies to benefit from these donations, either. Today, on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts […]

Sales tax automation startup Kintsugi doubled its valuation this year

Rebecca Szkutak — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:17:35 +0000

A 2018 Supreme Court ruling eliminated the requirement that an e-commerce retailer needed a physical location in a state in order for said state to be able to collect sales tax on purchases made by residents. While the decision was a boon for states, it created a headache for e-commerce sellers. Kintsugi is looking to […]

PayPal once again lets you pool money from others to pay for things together

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 10:00:00 +0000

PayPal is launching a few features that let users in groups pool money with friends or family, to collectively pay for trips, travels, gifts, and anything else. The company is launching this feature in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., Italy, and Spain ahead of the holiday season. “Re-launching” might be the more appropriate verb here: […]

Prosus eyes PayU IPO in 2025 after stellar Swiggy listing

Manish Singh — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:36:03 +0000

Prosus aims to list fintech firm PayU in 2025 as the Dutch investor looks to shift more focus to India. On Wednesday it described the market as a pillar for its investment business after the stellar listing of food delivery and quick commerce firm Swiggy netted it gains of $2 billion. PayU, which is wholly […]

Klarna kickstarts US IPO plans with confidential SEC filing

Paul Sawers — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:45:17 +0000

The Swedish BNPL startup has confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the U.S. SEC.

FTC alleges neobank Dave misled customers

Cody Corrall — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:05:00 +0000

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at neobank Dave’s “misleading marketing” according to a new FTC complaint, Affirm’s launch in the U.K. amid regulatory overhaul, and how Equal aims to combat India’s growing cyberfraud problem. The big story The FTC comes after Dave for “misleading marketing” The FTC is taking action against online […]

Agicap secures $48 million for its cash flow management platform

Romain Dillet — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000

On average, Agicap’s clients manage 15 different bank accounts each. So the chief financial officers (CFOs) working for these companies sometimes struggle to make sure that there will be enough money in the right bank account to pay employees and suppliers across different subsidiaries, countries and currencies. That’s also why they turn to Agicap to […]

SmartBank secures $26M for its personal finance management app

Kate Park — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 03:00:00 +0000

The majority of the aging population in Japan still prefers using cash for transactions, according to a recent report citing government data. In 2023, cashless transactions in Japan totaled 126.7 trillion yen ($885 billion), accounting for 39.3 percent of all spending in the country, said the Japanese government. The government hopes that number reaches 40 […]

Brazilian fintech Tako emerges from stealth with sizable seed round led by a16z and Ribbit Capital

Rebecca Szkutak — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Running payroll is hard in any country, but perhaps especially so in Brazil thanks to consistently changing laws and extremely influential unions that make it significantly harder to get it right. Fernando Gadotti struggled with this as the co-founder of DogHero, LatAm’s version of Rover. When Gadotti left the company in 2022, after selling it […]

Equal has a plan to fight India’s growing cyber fraud problem

Jagmeet Singh — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 19:30:00 +0000

Equal, an Indian startup founded by Keshav Reddy, has raised $10M in its maiden funding round led by Prosus Ventures to scale identity verification and financial data sharing.

MoradaUno wants to make it easier to rent apartments in Mexico

Rebecca Szkutak — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Renting in Latin America is restrictive. Most landlords require three months of rent as a deposit and a guarantor that owns property in the same city to co-sign the lease. Santiago Morales, the co-founder and CEO of proptech MoradaUno, said this dynamic makes 40% of prospective renters ineligible. His company wants to get more tenants […]

Alan unveils AI health assistant for its 680K health insurance members

Romain Dillet — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 09:27:54 +0000

Alan wants to build a super app for healthcare, so it's rolling out three new product updates, including an AI chatbot that's vetted by doctors.

Affirm launches in the UK as ‘buy now, pay later’ market faces regulatory overhaul

Paul Sawers — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant Affirm is launching in the U.K., its first market outside North America. Affirm’s long-anticipated arrival comes as U.K. lawmakers mull new rules to bring BNPL firms into line with other traditional consumer credit services, though such laws aren’t expected to come into effect until at least 2026 — long […]

Former Caribou founder launches Further, a fintech that’s focused on helping people buy homes

Rebecca Szkutak — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 13:15:50 +0000

Buying a home has always been complicated. You have to figure out how much money to put down and how that down payment will affect a monthly mortgage bill. Then there are the closing costs and fees. Kevin Bennett launched Further to try to help make the financial process easier to navigate — especially for first-time […]

Kalshi secures tens of millions in loans from VCs, eyes $50M+ round amid election betting boom, source says

Marina Temkin — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:07:55 +0000

Investors are rushing to throw millions at a hot startup called Kalshi as loans or even as unusual we’ll-figure-it-out later cash. Kalshi is an exchange that allows people to bet, as official commodity trading contracts, on the outcomes of cultural events, from election results to how long Taylor Swift’s latest album will top the charts. […]

TechCrunch Disrupt 2024: Day 3

TechCrunch Events — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the third and final day of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 at Moscone West in San Francisco! The excitement here is still in full swing, and there’s no slowing down. If you thought it was too late to join, think again—there’s still time to register and be part of the action. Today brings some of […]