As 2023 draws to a close, we’re here to look back at the biggest fintech stories of the year. The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank it felt like a fintech story, as a number of startups (Brex, Arc, and Mercury, for example) jumped into the space to fill the hole left by its collapse. But it really was a story that affected all industries – founders and investors alike. And one that keeps playing.
Apple launches savings accounts for Apple Card customers
Ironically, one of the biggest stories of 2023 involved a tech giant, not a startup. In April, apple shared this Apple Card customers in the US could open a savings account and earn interest through an Apple savings account, as reported by Romain Dillet. At the time, Apple offered a competitive APY of 4.15%. The company partnered with Goldman Sachs to offer the feature, but by the end of the year, that partnership had fallen apart (an event we saw it coming) and it was not yet clear who would replace Goldman Sachs.
Mastercard’s CFO says India’s UPI is an ‘incredibly painful experience’ for ecosystem participants
Another of our most read stories of the year also involved a financial services giant rather than a startup. Manish Singh wrote about the fact that Mastercard’s CFO had said India’s UPI was ‘fantastic on many levels’ but it remained an “incredibly painful experience” for ecosystem participants who ended up losing money as a result. The comment underscored tensions surrounding the mobile payments pipeline that facilitates more than 10 billion transactions a month in the country with low card penetration.
Foreign users of WeChat Pay and Alipay can go cashless at Chinese retailers
In July, Rita Liao covered the fact that China’s two dominant mobile payment solutions, WeChat Pay and Alipayhe had announced it Foreign users could now pay at Chinese retailers linking their foreign credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard and Discover. This was a big deal, as it was historically difficult for travelers to go cashless like the locals. Previously, using WeChat Pay and Alipay in China required a local bank account, making it difficult for short-term visitors to use these payment methods.
Visa acquires Brazilian fintech startup Pismo for $1 billion
In late June, I broke the news that the credit card giant Visa will acquire Brazilian payments infrastructure startup Pismo for $1 billion in cash in one of the biggest fintech M&A deals to happen all year. The deal closed later in the year. Visa was reportedly just one of several companies bidding for the startup, which was not looking to be acquired or even to raise money. Pismo Being wooed by Visa was something of a coup for the entire Latin American region, which has been on the rise global investors pouring capital into the region in 2021 and a bit a retreat just a year later.
Image Credits: Pismo
Slope closes on $30M venture round with ‘significant participation’ from Sam Altman
When Sam Altman gets involved in a venture, people take notice. Christine Hall reported in late September that Slopea business-to-business payment platform for business-to-business, had closed on a $30 million venture round to expand its activities. The round “included significant participation from OpenAI’s Sam Altman.” At the core of Slope’s technology is order-to-cash workflow automation that uses AI-based tools for treasury, customer and supplier risk assessment, payment reconciliation and cash management.
Carta’s CEO communicates with customers about bad press by alerting them to bad press
People love to read about other people’s mistakes. In an attempt at damage control, the CEO of stock management startup CartaHenry Ward, in October customers by email, telling them that if they were worried about the “negative press” associated with the outfit, they should read a post of his on Medium. The move — as covered by me and TechCrunch editor-in-chief Connie Loizos — only seemed to draw attention to the many reported problems plaguing the 11-year-old company. One investor in Carta – which was most recently assigned a $7.4bn post-money valuation in 2021 when it last raised an institutional round of funding – even called Ward’s decision “strange”.
Robinhood acquires credit card startup X1 for $95 million
In a surprise move, Robin Hood announced in late June that it was acquiring X1, a fee-free credit card startup, for $95 million in cash. X1, which offers an income-based credit card with rewards, had raised a total of $62 million in venture funding. Why X1 in particular versus the many other credit card startups out there? We believe it was due to the fact that the X1 had plans to launch a new trading platform which would allow cardholders to purchase stocks using earned reward points. Its CEO even singled out Robinhood as a company he hoped to compete with.
Vesey Ventures Closes $78M Debut Fund
A new venture company, called Vesey Venturesfounded by three female former CEOs of Amex Ventures, announced that it had closed a $78 million debut fund in early April. During their time at Amex, the firm’s three founding partners worked on investments in companies such as Plaid, Stripe, Melio and Trulioo. The fact that there was more capital for early-stage fintech startups caught the attention of our readers. Bonus: We took a deeper dive into Apple’s fintech ambition (mentioned above) here, too.
Image Credits: Vesey Ventures / Founding Partners Lindsay Fitzgerald, Dana Eli-Lorch and Julia Huang
Better.com is officially going public through a long-delayed SPAC
We never thought we’d see the day. In August, digital mortgage lender Better.com went public through a long-delayed SPAC. No one expected him to perform well in his public debut. And he didn’t. The company’s executive team probably knew it wouldn’t perform well, but went ahead anyway, for a number of reasons that Alex Wilhelm and I mentioned here. As of December 20, the stock was trading at just 63 cents.
ZestMoney is shutting down
In mid-May, Manish mentioned the fact that its founders ZestMoney he had resigned from the startup. The Indian fintech, whose ability to make small-ticket loans to first-time online customers once had the backing of several high-profile investors, including Goldman Sachs. By December, Manish had reported that ZestMoney was closing after unsuccessful attempts to find a buyer. The Bengaluru-based startup — which also counted PayU, Quona, Zip, Omidyar Network and Ribbit Capital among its backers — employed about 150 people and had raised over $130 million in its eight-year journey.
Want more fintech news in your inbox? Join The Interchange here.
Have a news tip or insider on a topic we’ve covered? We would love to hear from you. You can reach me at maryann@techcrunch.com. Or you can drop us a note at tips@techcrunch.com. Happy to respect requests for anonymity.
