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Global FinTech News - 20th August 2021

Global FinTech News - 20th August 2021
By Holland FinTech  • Issue #112 • View online
This week the world has been spectating the swift change of control in Afghanistan, putting the Taliban in charge. Foreign people and their Afghan aids, are being evacuated while the US military services are trying to keep the situation under control.
On the other side of the world, Haiti is facing the devastating effects of the massive earthquake on August 14 and the passing of tropical storm Grace a few days later. Help is being offered from across the world, but is only slowly reaching the island.
Meanwhile, we are back again on the news in fintech, exploring the newest trends from fintech - cybersecurity, IPO, cryptos, banking, partnerships, and more!
From the Holland FinTech team, we wish you a sunny weekend!

Highlights from last weeks news related to fintech
Find out the latest fintech news for this week and dive into topics regarding blockchain, payment, expansion deals, fintech and banking.
  • The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has secured a court injunction to freeze the bank accounts of four financial technology (fintech) firms for operating as asset management companies without license
  • US Bank is set to acquire Chicagoan technology vendor Bento Technologies in an undisclosed deal
  • Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) launched a cross-border QR payment linkage between Indonesia and Thailand
  • NN Group announces that it has reached an agreement to sell its asset manager NN Investment Partners (NN IP) to Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. for total cash proceeds of EUR 1.7 billion
  • US fintech company Brex announced on Tuesday it has acquired Israeli startup Weav for $50M
  • Los Angeles-based digital bank Aspiration Partners has landed a deal to become the first publicly traded fintech firm focused primarily on socially responsible spending, saving and investing
Read more about this week’s news HERE.
hollandfintech.com  •  Share
The largest funding rounds we found from across the world
We explore the most prominent rounds and transactions of the week including various sectors such as fintech, crypto, data protection, accounting, financial services and blockchain.
  • Chime (San Francisco, CA, US), a fintech company which provides mobile banking services via regional banks, raised $750m (€640.6m) in funding
  • Ualá (Buenos Aires, Argentine), a fintech company, raised $350M (€298.9m) in Series D funding
  • Bitpanda (Vienna, Austria), a crypto exchange platform, announced a $263 million (€224.6m) Series C, led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures
  • FinTech Collective (New York, NYC, US), a venture capital firm raises $250m (€214m) and launched dedicated digital assets strategy
  • Reali (New Delhi, India), a real estate-fintech company, raises $250M (€214m) in Series B
  • Sightline Payments, the payments solutions provider, becomes a FinTech Unicorn after latest $244m (€209m) funding
  • OwnBackup (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US), a cloud data protection platform, raised $240m (€205m) in Series E funding
  • Other interesting funding rounds for this week: M-Daq $200m (€170.7m), Hopper $175M (€149.9), TaxBit $130m (€111m), Klover $60M (€51.2m), CloudPay $58M (€49.6), Figment $50M (€42.7m), CertiK $24M (€20.5m), Baffle $20M (€17m), Pngme $15M (€12.8m)
Read more about the funding news HERE.
hollandfintech.com  •  Share
A selection of recent research reports and papers worth reading
Dive into the latest research pieces on cash payments, digital wallets, banking, cybersecurity, investments and fintech.
  • “Only 1 in 5 Gen Zers Say They Will Pay With Cash in the Future Finds Logica Research (The Fintech Times)” - This article highlights results of a Logica Research that has released new behavioral data and insights into how older Gen Zers (16-24 years old) are paying for purchases and managing their financial lives
  • “Telco Firms Introduce Digital Wallets To Gain Banking Licenses in MENA: Whitepaper (The Fintech Times)” - This report elaborates on the fact that regulatory initiatives are increasing competition for financial services in the Middle East and Africa with fintech and telco firms launching digital wallets as a first step to gaining banking licenses
  • “Top Banks Investing in Crypto & Blockchain Companies (Blockdata)” - This research lists major banks that are investing in crypto and blockchain-related companies in 2021
  • “Listed fintechs’ earnings highlight impressive growth, but it’s been a bumpy year for insurtechs (Emarketer)” - This work highlights the fact that a record number of fintech companies have gone public, which means they now have to publish their quarterly earnings
  • “US making cybersecurity progress but work still needed, congressional report details (The Fintech Global)” - This publication report by the US Cyberspace Solarium Commission that has found the US has made significant progress in shoring its cyber defenses but that its work is not over yet
  • “Voltage Glitching Attack on AMD Chips Poses Risk to Cloud Environments (SecurityWeek)” - This research describes a voltage glitching attack that shows AMD’s Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) technology may not provide proper protection for confidential data in cloud environments
  • “India attracts $2 billion in fintech investment in H1 of 2021: Report (The Business Line)” - This article analyzes a bi-annual report on fintech investment trends “KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech”, according to which India almost matched its total fintech investment in 2020, with $2 billion in investment in the first half of 2021
Read more about these research papers HERE.
hollandfintech.com  •  Share
Background information and insights from opinion leaders and experts
Opinion leaders, industry experts and researchers. Find out what topics the top voices from fintech are exploring: banking, tech skills, Ethereum, blockchain, cloud services and crypto.
  • “The data ethics of Open Banking” via Finextra - Natalie Cramp, CEO at Profusion, elaborates on the Open Banking movement pace in the UK
  • “Empowering employees to innovate as tech skills shortage persists” via Cyber Security Connect - Eric Swift, from ServiceNow, explains how organizations can maximize the cyber potential of their workforce
  • “Ethereum Miners Make Multimillion-Dollar Bet on Upgrade Delay” via CoinDesk - David Pan, a news reporter at CoinDesk, highlights the fact that major bitcoin (BTC, +2.72%) mining firms and miner manufacturers are increasing their investments in Ethereum (ETH, +3.65%) mining despite the second network’s impending switch to proof-of-stake
  • “Blockchain Market Revenue Size, Trends and Factors, Regional Share Analysis & Forecast Till 2026” via The Market Writeup - Writers at The Market Writeup, highlight the fact that the use of a blockchain eliminates the characteristic of infinite generation of data from a digital asset
  • “Is a change of approach required to benefit from cloud services as critical infrastructure?” via The Fintech Futures - Suzie Miles, Partner at Ashfords, explores the fact that financial Institutions have traditionally utilized highly customized, on premise technology and infrastructure with large data centers that are typically expensive to implement and not able to support rapid transformation and innovation
  • “What Blockchain Oracles Do Not See” via CoinDesk - Mike Elias, author at CoinDesk, investigates a blockchain sector
  • “Money Reimagined: A Turning Point for Crypto” via CoinDesk - Michael J. Casey, chief content officer at CoinDesk, shares a thought that even as crypto lost a battle over taxes in Congress this week, it felt like a victory
Read more about these analyses HERE.
hollandfintech.com  •  Share
Connect with the fintech ecosystem at some of the upcoming events
Join this event in Amsterdam, 21 - 23 September, 2021, where the industry’s leading Financial Services innovators come together to connect and create the future of money. Money20/20 is the largest fintech event enabling payments and financial services innovation for connected commerce.
For the Holland FinTech Network, Money20/20 has a special offer: 300 euros discount! Code: HOL300
Register HERE.
europe.money2020.com  •  Share
Qatar Fintech Summit – Banking on the Future of Fintech - 24 August 2021
Qatar Fintech Summit is the definitive meeting place facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogue with power packed networking opportunities among C-Level executives, leading industry experts, decision makers, policy makers and government officials from across the value chain to foster collaboration, discuss current challenges, business opportunities, develop market strategies, share knowledge and identify solutions aimed at shaping the future of Fintech.
Read more HERE.
www.qatarfintechsummit.com  •  Share
Finnovex Middle East SEPTEMBER 7 – 8, 2021 - Middle East leading summit on Financial Services Innovation and excellence 2021
Finnovex aims to bring together top professionals and C-level executives from the financial and financial services industry to examine how technology is changing the delivery of banking and financial services. Finnovex Middle East will discuss the roles of banking and non-banking institutions, financial organizations, investment firms, fintech companies, and other stakeholders in developing incentives to the paradigm shift in this sector. Middle East leading summit on Financial Services Innovation and excellence.
Register HERE.
me.finnovex.com  •  Share
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