Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we look at the Evolve Bank hack, three notable acquisitions, Plaid’s corporate client growth and more.
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The big story
On June 26, Evolve Bank & Trust, a financial institution popular with fintech startups, has announced that it has been the victim of a cyber attack and data breach that could affect its partner companies as well. The happening, according to the company, involved “the data and personal information of certain Evolve retail bank customers and financial technology partner customers,” including Affirm, Mercury, Bilt, Alloy and Stripe. On June 29, fintech company Wise announced that some of its customers’ personal data may have been stolen as a result of the data breach.
Also last week, Thread bank — a popular partner in BaaS startups like Unit — took hit with forced action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
Analysis of the week
This past week was an active one for fintech M&A. Just seven months after announcing a $6 million funding round, data intelligence startup Hyperplane announced that it was acquired by the Brazilian Nubank. The company’s main goal is to enable banks to train their own models on power tools across all risk, collections and marketing departments. In the meantime, Chime was also announced plans to acquire Salt Labs “for up to $173 million.” TechCrunch covered Salt Labs’ Raise $10 million in March 2023 here. And Robin Hood adds more AI capabilities for investors with the acquisition of AI-powered research platform Pluto Capital.
Dollars and cents
Payabliwhich creates the infrastructure that allows companies — specifically software companies — to integrate and facilitate payments via APIs, has raised $20 million in Series A funding.
Another company in the area is Rainforest, which also raised $20 million in its own Series A funding round, less than a year after its funding. Rainforest integrates payment processing with other software platforms.
of Belgium Shiftthat allows SaaS companies to integrate with dozens of financial tools with a unified API, raised a $2.5 million seed round.
Armed with $8 million in seed funding, the Egyptian banking-as-a-service startup Connect the money is set to leverage its popularity to explore emerging business opportunities from African markets.
As a foreigner, navigating health insurance systems can often be difficult. German startup Feather believes it has a solution and raised €6 million to help some of the more than 40 million expats working and living in Europe.
What else are we writing?
Cart Expanding into a multi-product company saw it begin to see real traction beyond traditional fintech clients. President Jen Taylor told me exclusively how many enterprise customers the company has now, detailing how growth in that segment is starting to outpace the rest of its business.
Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has quietly begun rolling out its own payments app, called Super.money, as it expands its fintech ambitions more than a year and a half after splitting from PhonePe. The Walmart-owned company’s new app, now live in beta on the Play Storeallows users to make mobile payments through UPI, an interoperable network that is the most popular way Indians transact online.
High interest titles
Citi sees AI displacing more banking jobs than any other sector
Goldman Sachs is rolling out its first company-wide AI production tool
Billionaire Steve Cohen’s Point72 Ventures lays off AI-centric fintech team
Pay for new stuff by exchanging your old stuff instantly at checkout
Prudence, Profits and Growth (global fintech report compiled by BCG and QED Investors)
Only here: The State of Fintech 2024 and the Hero’s Journey (by Bain Capital Ventures Partner Matt Harris)
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