Welcome to the FinTech Times, a weekly newsletter covering the biggest FinTech news from around the globe. If you want to read F|T before anyone else, make sure to subscribe using the form at the bottom of this page.
Goeasy plans to leverage its LendCare acquisition with online car sales startup Canada Drives (BETAKIT)
Goeasy intends to leverage its 2021 acquisition, Fintech startup LendCare, as a preferred non-bank financing provider on Canada Drive’s online automotive retail platform. The investment is being made in four installments and is structured as a convertible note that will convert into preferred shares.
Klarna in Talks to Raise Fresh Cash at Slashed $6.5 Billion Valuation (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
Klarna Bank AB is nearing a deal to raise new money at a valuation of around $6.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, a humbling comedown and a testament to the punishing environment facing startup companies.
FinTech chatbot startup Finn AI gets acquired by former partner Glia (BETAKIT)
“Until now, none of the financial services bot vendors have been able to achieve widespread adoption on their own,” said Glia CEO Dan Michaeli.
Crypto Hedge Fund Three Arrows Files For Chapter 15 Bankruptcy (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, which managed an estimated $10 billion of assets as recently as March, has filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy. The move comes after Three Arrows Capital defaulted on a loan worth more than $670 million from Voyager Digital. Meanwhile, Genesis Trading is also facing losses in the “hundreds of millions” given its exposure to Three Arrows Capital.
Cloud adoption is an adaptive process with unforeseen problems disrupting your timeline. To mitigate delays and profitability loss, a rigorous yet flexible cloud strategy and guidance is a must have.
How do you quickly develop solid cloud native architectures? By partnering with Diuca. Our qualified Cloud Consultants take the pressure off your team with their roadmap to successful cloud adoption & migration for your AWS and Google Cloud Platform workloads.
We ensure best practices are met while helping you quickly uncover changes and potential issues so your team can realign swiftly to achieve your desired outcomes.
Download our guide to Successful Cloud Adoption & Migration. Learn more here!
Huobi Global Could Cut Over 30% of Workforce as China Crackdown Leads to Fall in Revenue (COINDESK)
"Due to the current market environment, Huobi Global is in the process of reviewing both its hiring policies and its current manpower, with the goal of re-aligning them to its operational needs," said a company spokesperson. "Further to such review, layoffs are a possibility."
Canadian tech companies expand support for US employees in wake of Roe v. Wade ruling (BETAKIT)
Canadian companies have been slower than their US counterparts to offer abortion support for their American employees as within hours of the ruling, more than a dozen large US companies announced plans. In the week since the ruling, more Canadian companies have come out with similar measures.
Brex backs away from SMEs, the UK ramps up BNPL regulation, as Wealthsimple cuts staff (FINTECH INSIDER)
BetaKit editor-in-chief Douglas Soltys joins the UK-based Fintech Insider podcast to discuss Wealthsimple's recent layoffs.
Fidelity slashes Stripe's valuation for a second straight month, marking down its stake by 35% so far this year (BUSINESS INSIDER)
Fidelity, which invests in privately-held Stripe through several different mutual funds, marked down the value of its holdings in the startup to $27.15 per share at the end of May, according to the asset manager's most recent filing. The valuation is a 15% dip from April, when Fidelity valued Stripe's shares at $32.05 apiece.
Three trends defining the future of cybersecurity (BETAKIT)
Larger organizations with fortress-strength cyber security protocols and hundreds of cyber security employees can still be impacted by attacks on one of the thousands of vendors and partners in their supply chains.
FTX US deal with troubled crypto lender BlockFi floats acquisition with ‘up to’ $240M purchase price (TECHCRUNCH)
Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX has a deal in place with troubled crypto lender BlockFi that gives them the option to buy the startup, recently valued at $2 billion, for up to $240 million based on the company’s performance. According to Bankman-Fried, some other crypto exchanges are already “secretly insolvent” amid the crypto crash. Meanwhile, FTX is also exploring a path to buy trading brokerage Robinhood.
Cryptocurrency Titan Coinbase Providing “Geo Tracking Data” to ICE (THE INTERCEPT)
Coinbase Tracer allows clients, in both government and the private sector, to trace transactions through the blockchain, a distributed ledger of transactions integral to cryptocurrency use. While blockchain ledgers are typically public, the enormous volume of data stored therein can make following the money from spender to recipient beyond difficult, if not impossible, without the aid of software tools.
With crypto under water, Ripple makes a splash announcing first Canadian office in Toronto (BETAKIT)
Ripple intends to hire 50 engineers initially for its Canadian office. However, Ripple’s SVP of people, places and communications, Kiersten Hollars, told BetaKit that the startup’s long term plan is to expand to hundreds of blockchain software engineers including applied machine learning scientists, data scientists, and product managers.
Crypto Crash Widens a Divide: ‘Those With Money Will End Up Being Fine’ (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
No crypto investor has fully escaped the downturn. But a small group of industry titans accumulated immense wealth as prices spiked over the last two years, giving them an enviable cushion. Many of them bought Bitcoin, Ether and other virtual currencies years ago, when prices were a small fraction of their current value. Some locked in their gains early, selling parts of their crypto holdings. Others run publicly traded crypto companies and cashed out of their stock or invested in real estate.
NFT giant OpenSea reports major email data breach (TECHCRUNCH)
“We believe this resulted from the actions of an employee who had role-specific access privileges that were abused,” a spokesperson for Customer.io said to TechCrunch. “We do not believe any other clients’ data has been compromised, but we are continuing to investigate. The employee in question has had all access removed and has been suspended pending the conclusion of our investigation.”