The ‘Underbanked’ Is The Next Trillion-Dollar Opportunity in Fintech
It’s expensive to participate in the mainstream financial system if you’re poor. Overdraft penalties and banking fees prevent billions of people from accessing the most basic financial tools like savings accounts and lines of credit. This has created the greatest market opportunity in fintech—low-cost, high-tech financial services for the underbanked, said Angela Strange, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, during a panel at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Detroit on Monday. “This opportunity [to serve the underbanked] is massive. Depending on which numbers you believe there are anywhere from 2 to 3 billion people worldwide,” said Strange. Historically, traditional banking institutions have done a bad job serving these customers […]
Stockholm-based fintech startup Dreams raises €9 million to help millenials fulfill their financial ‘dreams’
Stockholm-based fintech startup Dreams has raised €9 million in a late seed round. The investor pool includes AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM), the Norwegian insurance company Storebrand, Finnish Ålandsbanken and a group of private investors. Dreams helps its users fulfill their financial goals through a user-friendly mobile app using behavioural science. Launched in 2016, Dreams’ key commercial offering is a digital product platform for financial services, with a focus on financial well-being. The platform is particularly focused on serving millennials. Dreams helps its users to fulfill their financial ‘dreams’ through its user-friendly mobile app. What differentiates Dreams from other fintech apps is its deep application of behavioural science in its methodology and […]
London FinTech TrueLayer partners with Visa
London API provider TrueLayer is collaborating with Visa, which now has a minority stake in the FinTech as part of a $35 million Series C funding round in June, outlets reported on Tuesday (Oct. 29). The funding round was led by Temasek and Tencent with participation from previous investors Northzone and Anthemis. The investment helped TrueLayer expand across Europe to Germany, France, Italy and Spain. It also launched payment initiation capabilities and partnering with companies including Revolut, Zopa, ClearScore, Plum, Emma, CreditLadder, Canopy, and ANNA Money. “We want to scale open banking to a level where it manifestly impacts every aspect of financial services for consumers,” he says. “[This] requires […]
Iraqi company and Lebanese fintech launch the first digital-only payment card ‘Neo’ in Iraq
Iraq-based International Network for Cards and Digital Payment Services (INC Iraq) and a Lebanese fintech startup NymCard that is digitizing how payments cards are issued, delivered, and used, in collaboration with Visa have launched the first digital-only (prepaid) payment card ‘Neo‘ in Iraq to serve the underbanked Iraqi population, the two companies announced in a joint-statement to MENAbytes. The virtual card that can be requested through Neo’s mobile app within seconds will enable users to make online purchases on both local and international websites. The entire KYC process is digital. Neo’s mobile application (available for both iOS and Android) comes with a mobile wallet that allows users to keep an […]
FinTech will lead India’s financial formalisation
The Indian FinTech market has scaled great heights in the past few years, both in terms of funding and adoption of emerging financial services solutions. India ranked 2nd globally in FinTech adoption with the percentage of users reaching 57.9%. Deloitte has already pegged FinTech as one of the fastest-growing sectors due to increasing number of preferred digital channels for financial investments and wealth management. In fact, the overall transaction value in the Indian FinTech sector is projected to reach $137.8 billion by 2023, as opposed to $66.1 billion in 2019. The weather has also run favourably for the sector on several fronts. First, customer experiences have undergone sweeping transformation by […]
ID Finance secures £1.5m within minutes on Crowdcube
ID Finance, the fintech company operating in Europe and Latin America, has raised over £1.5m crowdfunding target within minutes of its campaign going live on Crowdcube amid strong demand from investors. The data science, credit scoring and digital finance company has a crowdfunding target of £2m and is inviting interested parties to invest at https://www.crowdcube.com/idfinance. ID Finance’s proprietary risk management system uses machine learning and advanced data science techniques to provide competitive financial services to the underbanked and help customers build their credit profile. Anyone with a smartphone in Spain, Brazil and Mexico can apply online for a loan via its Moneyman and Plazo brands, regardless of their credit history. […]
Hungarian Central Bank reveals Fintech strategy to foster financial innovation
The central bank of Hungary, the MNB, has just published its first strategy on fintech. The plans aim to bring greater digitization to the domestic financial sector in the country. The report, titled ‘Financial Innovation and Stability,’ is the product of central bank collaboration with Hungarian companies working in the fintech industry. It is comprised of a total of 24 new proposals and initiatives. The Magyar Nemzeti Bank believes it important to move quickly towards the digitization of the financial system. As a part of this strategy, the proposals put forward include efforts to improve financial knowledge and training for those involved in the industry. Aiding with the implementation of […]
Tron partners with Fintech firm Simplex
Tron, the blockchain-based decentralized platform, has announced a new partnership with the provider of fraudless crypto payment firm Simplex. The announcement on Tron was made on twitter. Simplex acknowledged that it will enable TRX’s purchase with credit cards on its platform. Simplex is a fintech firm that acts as a credit card processor in the crypto world. It is a secure platform with no exposure to fraud (so it claims). The firm makes use of artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a fraudless payment option to users. The partnership between Tron and Simplex will enable TRX purchase with credit card and also zero risk. It is worthy to note that the […]
