It might have been a short week but it was full of big fintech news stories. Here are what I consider to be the top 10 most important fintech news stories of the past week.
Investors Are Now Valuing Stripe At $115 Billion from Forbes – The valuations of fintech companies keep skyrocketing and one of the biggest of them all looks to have tripled their valuation in less than a year.
Goldman Sachs to Offer Its Investing Know-How to the Masses from The Wall Street Journal – Goldman Sachs launched Marcus Invest this week, its latest consumer offering, where investors can build a portfolio of ETFs with a $1,000 minimum.
Fintech Marqeta expands into credit card space days after filing for an IPO from TechCrunch – It was a busy week for Marqeta as they filed confidentially for an IPO, expected to value the company at $10 billion, and they announced a partnership with Deserve to help brands launch credit cards.
Congress presses Robinhood CEO on company’s role in GameStop stock frenzy from The Washington Post – The CEO of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, was grilled by the House Financial Services Committee this week, and not surprisingly was on the defensive most of the day.
Coinbase, Readying for Public Listing, Gets $77B Valuation From Nasdaq Private Market from Coindesk – Secondary market transactions of Coinbase stock are reportedly valuing the soon to be public company at $77 billion.
Brex applies for bank charter, taps former Silicon Valley Bank exec as CEO of Brex Bank from TechCrunch – Brex is joining the bank charter party as they announced Friday they have submitted an industrial bank application with the FDIC and Utah’s Department of Financial Institutions.
NBA star Russell Westbrook invests in Varo Bank after $63 million funding round from CNBC – Russell Westbrook has led a $63 million new investment into Varo Bank and will be an advisor to the bank, focusing his efforts on improving income inequality issues.
Buy Now, Pay Later Isn’t Winner Take All from The Wall Street Journal – The hottest fintech vertical still has a lot of room to grow as the big four providers, PayPal, Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna collectively represent just 2% of e-commerce spending.
Climate Fintech Is Coming from Forbes – There is a growing group of new fintech companies that are focused on climate change.
Deep Dive into the MoneyLion and OppFi SPACs from Lend Academy – I chatted with the CEOs of both MoneyLion and Opploans (rebranding to OppFi) and get the background on their new SPAC deals.
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