B9 sets out to boost alternative for unbanked with further raise

B9, aimed at helping the unbanked and those targeted by predatory lenders, has raised £2.6m. The round was led by Sky Light Invest and included Mbanq and the founders of Wrike. B9 has developed a fast-growing payroll solution platform, aimed at promoting creditworthiness through employment data and economic behaviour. In 2021 it raised $5 million … Read more

Dbank raises $17m as it focuses on pan-Islamic underbanked

Dbank, a Pakistani fintech which has ambitions to bring inclusive financial services to underbanked people across the pan-Islamic world, has raised $17.6m. The seed round was led by Sequoia Southeast Asia and Kleiner Perkins. Joining in were Brazilian digital banking giant Nubank, RTP Global, Rayn and Askari Bank. Dbank was formed by two former Google … Read more

Fintech in India – the underbanked, unbanked and widespread adoption

Cash used at Indian market

We can definitely be accused of using the word ‘revolution’ a little too quickly in fintech. But India really is going through something of a real fintech revolution. Estimates show that digital transactions will make up 65% of the country’s total transactions by 2026, climbing from 40% today. Almost 78% of the country’s population has … Read more

SuperAtom has raised $22m to expand products

Singapore-based SuperAtom has raised $22m in order to expand its digital banking and credit products across the globe, starting in Mexico and then expanding into the wider Latin America region. The Series C round was led by Malaysia-based digital investment fund Nue 3 Capital and values the Singapore-based company at $370m. SuperAtom focusses on providing products … Read more

Upgrade upgrades to Upgrade OneCard

US-based fintech Upgrade has launched Upgrade OneCard, giving users a single card to meet all their payments needs. Cardholders use the “Pay Now” option for everyday expenses to make sure they stay within budget and avoid paying interest or fee charges, and use “Pay Later” to spread payments over time. Upgrade told finContent that it … Read more

Financial services lead the way

Financial services led the way in June on the Crunchbase Emerging Unicorn Board. A curated list of companies valued above $500m, but less than $1bn, the board now hosts 346 companies valued at more than $236bn. Financial services had the highest count of new companies on the list in June. The UK led the pack … Read more

Equity Markets Rebound (for now)

Sam Buckingham, Investment Analyst at Kingswood, commented on Monday 25 July: “Equity markets rebounded last week in what was a strong week for all major markets. Global equities ended the week up 2.7% in local currency terms and 1.6% in sterling terms. Markets have opened flat this morning. The US Treasury 10-year yield continued its … Read more

B2B BNPL platform Fairbanc raises $4.8m

Fairbanc has raised $4.8m in pre-A round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India. The technology platform enables B2B BNPL for Indonesian micro-businesses. It is based in Indonesia and Silicon Valley. Joining in the fun were Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Companies, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Accion Venture Lab. The Fairbanc platform means that Indonesian … Read more

Investors can now acquire Multicoin

Qualified investors can now acquire a native token called Multicoin (MTCN) which is being offered by the new social ecommerce platform Boom, just has launched in Nigerial and France. The platform allows consumers to buy, sell and pay for everything online without a bank account by leveraging blockchain technology and MTCN. Peter Alfred-Adekeye, founder and … Read more

Global fintech market to grow, but gradually

The global fintech market is expected to grow gradually and reach a market value of around $324bn within four years , growing at a compound annual rate of about 25.18% over the forecast period 2022-2027. The figures are courtesy of a new report from Market Data Forecast. The report said: “Fintech or financial technology is … Read more

TomoCredit raises $122m

TomoCredit has raised $122m in equity and debt. TomoCredit is a female, immigrant founded credit card lending to over 40 million credit-invisible immigrants and international students with no credit history in the US. The round attracted a number of strategic investors including Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund, MasterCard, and debt from Silicon Valley Bank. The … Read more

Rizal develops credit scorecard

In the Philippines the Yuchengco-led Rizal Commercial Banking is to develop a scorecard to help provide credit to the country’s unbanked population. Its said the listed bank wants to address the challenges in evaluating loans to the unbanked in order to accelerate financial inclusion through data analytics.

DreamStart and BRAC join forces to help unbanked women in Bangladesh

DreamStart Labs and BRAC Bank are to provide digital financial services to unbanked women in Bangladesh. The two have agreed that BRAC will use technology from DreamStart to help women in rural communities access affordable small business loans.  DreamStart is a fintech for emerging markets and BRAC is a leading commercial bank in Bangladesh. With … Read more

Tokenised payment transactions to exceed 1 trillion by 2026

The total number of tokenised payment transactions will exceed 1 trillion globally by 2026. This has risen from 680 billion in 2022, a growth of 58% over the next four years. The rapid growth is due to the rise of ‘one-click’ solutions, such as Click-to-Pay, using card-on-file tokenisation to store a customer’s payment credentials. This … Read more

Ring my bell

SurgePays, a US technology and telecommunications company focused on the underbanked and underserved communities which listed on Nasdaq last autumn, rings the bell today to celebrate its IPO. Brian Cox, SurgePays CEO, led the ceremony alongside members of the Company’s management and advisors. “This is an extremely exciting moment for the SurgePays team. Ringing the … Read more