Greetings from TechCrunch Fintech! This edition highlights the cybersecurity incident at Evolve Bank, a trio of acquisitions making waves, the surge in Plaid’s enterprise customers, among other updates.
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Lead Story
On June 26, the well-regarded financial institution among fintech startups, Evolve Bank & Trust, disclosed a cyberattack and data breach potentially impacting its affiliate firms too. The breach, as reported by the bank, compromised “information of certain Evolve retail customers and clients of fintech partners” including notable names like Affirm, Mercury, Bilt, Alloy, and Stripe. By June 29, fintech entity Wise reported that the breach might have also exposed some of its customers’ personal information.
Furthermore, last week saw Thread Bank — another significant Banking as a Service (BaaS) provider for startups like Unit — facing an enforcement action issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Week’s Analysis
It’s been a bustling week in the fintech mergers & acquisitions landscape. Hyperplane, a data intelligence newcomer that recently completed a $6 million seed investment round, has been acquired by Brazil’s financial giant Nubank. Hyperplane focuses on enabling banks to build their own predictive models for use across risk assessment, collections, and marketing. In the meantime, Chime is set to acquire Salt Labs in a deal valued at up to $173 million, as reported by TechCrunch after covering Salt Labs’ earlier $10 million fundraising in March 2023. Furthermore, Robinhood is enriching its investment features with the acquisition of AI-powered analytics platform Pluto Capital.
Financial Insights
Payabli, pioneers in creating infrastructure that enables businesses, particularly within the software segment, to incorporate and support payments via APIs, has secured $20 million in Series A investment.
Likewise, Rainforest has announced securing $20 million in a Series A funding round, shortly following its initial seed funding. Rainforest’s business model involves integrating payment processes into other software systems.
Belgian startup Chift, which allows SaaS platforms to easily connect with multiple financial services through a single API, has raised a $2.5 million seed investment.
With $8 million in seed capital, Egyptian Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) endeavor Connect Money aims to leverage its growing popularity to venture into new business avenues within African markets.
German startup Feather has raised €6 million with an innovative approach to simplifying health insurance processes for the 40+ million expatriates in Europe.
More In-Depth
Plaid is making significant headway as a multi-product firm, witnessing notable growth especially among enterprise clients. In an exclusive conversation, President Jen Taylor shared insights on the company’s customer expansion in this segment.
Indian retail behemoth Flipkart is discreetly advancing its fintech footprint with Super.money, its own payments platform, marking a significant move more than a year after parting ways with PhonePe. The Walmart-acquired company’s application, now in a beta phase on the Play Store, facilitates mobile transactions using UPI, India’s preferred digital payment network.
Top Headlines
Citi anticipates AI to impact banking jobs more than any other sector
Goldman Sachs introduces its inaugural generative AI tool firm-wide
Billionaire Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures restructures fintech division, shifting focus to AI
Innovating online shopping: Trade-in your old items for new at the point of sale
Balancing Prudence, Profits, and Growth in Global Fintech: A BCG-QED Investors Report
2024 Fintech Forecast: Rising from the Trough, a Bain Capital Ventures Insight
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