DIGITAL BANKING
Greenwood closes a $3 million seed round
Greenwood recently announced that it had closed a $3 million seed round from private investors to build an online banking platform for Blacks and Latinx. The initial products that Greenwood will offer are savings and spending accounts, black metal debit card with features such as Apple, Samsung, and Android pay, virtual debit cards, P2P transfers, free ATM usage among others. All deposits are FDIC insured and Greenwood plans to partner with “brick and mortar minority-owned banks” to empower historically black banks as well as the black and Latinx community. One of ways its plans to address the lack of fairness in the financial system is to provide a $10,000 grant every month to a Black or Latinx small business owner that is a Greenwood customer. Founders of Greenwood include, Andrew J. Young – former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and an activist, Michael Render – rapper and activist in Black financial empowerment and Ryan Glover – founder of Bounce TV network.
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Mastercard and Marqeta extend their partnership
Mastercard, a global payments business and Marqeta, an open API card issuer and payments processor recently announced that they extended their global partnership. With this partnership, the two companies plan to expand to new markets and launch card programs together. As part of their expansion plans, Mastercard and Marqeta plan to expand to Asia Pacific, and several other markets. Mastercard will also make an undisclosed financial investment in Marqeta. The two companies have a history of working together since 2014. They have collaborated and “helped fintechs, digital banks and commerce disruptors across North America and Europe bring innovative card products to market.”
Standard Chartered Bank Singapore partners with Moneythor to launch SC Money Manager tool
Standard Chartered Bank Singapore has partnered with Moneythor, a leading digital banking software provider to deliver an all new AI-powered data-driven personal finance management tool – SC Money Manager. This tool aims to provide AI-powered data analysis of a customer’s personal finance management by deploying Moneythor’s data-driven engine and its API. Customer will now be able to make informed decisions based on their historical trends and patterns and will also have access to insights on expenditure and income among other features, all within the Bank’s flagship mobile banking app. Nauman Bashir, Managing Director, Head of Digital Banking Singapore, ASEAN and South Asia Digital Transformation at Standard Chartered, commented: “We are committed to delivering a best-in-class digital experience to support our clients’ digital banking needs and also their ongoing aspirations to better manage their finances. Through our partnership with Moneythor, we can deliver this in a comprehensive package by making the banking experience more intuitive and personal, and less transactional.”
FINTECH FUNDING
Joko raises €10 million Series A funding round
Joko, a Paris based Fintech, recently announced that it raised €10 million Series A funding round. Leading the funding round were two French venture capitals, Partech and Axeleo Capital who had earlier participated in the seed round too. Joko aims to disrupt cashback rewards and has already partnered with over 1,000 retailers via its platform and boasts of over 500,000 users. The start-up is poised to leverage Open Data initiative enabled by PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) by allowing shoppers to connect their bank card to Joko’s app or browser extension. Joko users have now collected over €1 million in cashback from brands such as Carrefour, H&M, Asos, Apple and Nike.
RazorPay secures $100 million in Series D funding round
RazorPay, a full-stack financial solutions company, recently announced that it secured $100 million Series D financing and also achieved the unicorn status. This funding round was led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and Sequoia. Existing investors such as Ribbit Capital, Tiger Global, Y-Combinator and Matrix Partners also joined the Series D round. Having built an advanced payments infrastructure, Razorpay now connects consumers with businesses and accepts payments across multiple channels – whether online, through links, via self-hosted pages or third party branded stores or through a QR code. Razorpay serves global brands such as Facebook, Google and Wikipedia, and domestic brands like Jio, Zerodha and Hotstar along with a host of SMEs and freelancers.
