PayPal Ventures’ first AI investment, a credit-based dating app and Robinhood’s good week

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! This week, we look at a new dating app based on finance, Robinhood’s earnings results, and the startup in which PayPal Ventures made its first investment. Let’s dive in!

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The big story

A new dating app has launched just in time for Valentine’s Day, but there’s a catch: You have to have at least a 675 credit score to use it. Started by financial platform Neon Money Club, Score is a dating app for people with good to excellent credit and seeks to help raise awareness about the importance of finances in relationships. TC’s Dominic-Madori Davis gave us a look at what the startup aims to do and how it came about. Reading all the comments on X and LI was pretty fun too!

Analysis of the week

Robinhood’s stock got a big boost last week when the company posted a surprise fourth-quarter profit “led by higher interest income from customers repaying loans and a recovery in trading,” according to Reuters. He also revealed that it could be profitable or bullish until next year. Shares climbed to their highest price in nearly two years last week and closed at $14 on Friday, up 17% from their February 13 close of $11.94. When public fintechs do well, it usually means good things for private fintechs. CEO and co-founder Vlad Tenev spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt last year — read all about it here.

Dollars and cents

Finom, a European competitive bank targeting SMEs and freelancers, has raised €50 million ($54 million) in a Series B equity financing round.

FlowFi, a startup building a finance-specific marketplace for entrepreneurs, has closed $9 million in funding. Blumberg Capital led the investment.

Bold, a fintech company building an electronic payments infrastructure in Colombia, has raised $50 million in Series C funding in a round led by existing investor General Atlantic.

Rasa, an AI-powered enterprise platform that creates conversations with customers of financial services firms, has raised $30 million in a Series C round led by StepStone Capital and PayPal Ventures. Notably, this marked PayPal’s first AI investment.

What else are we writing?

India is facing a dilemma in enforcing long-delayed rules to curb the dominance of PhonePe and Google Pay over the country’s ubiquitous UPI payment network, which processes more than 10 billion transactions a month.

After recently launching in the UK and Ireland, workforce management platform Rippling continues its ambitious international expansion with the opening of its Asia Pacific headquarters in Sydney, Australia. The company too poached Eisar Lipkovitz from JPMorgan to serve as new Chief Product Officer.

Apple’s recent move to raise the interest rate on its Apple Card savings account to 4.5% is now prompting a competitor to do the same. Cash App has announced that it will now offer “up to” 4.5% APY (annual percentage return) for its Cash App Savings customers, with a few caveats.