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Wealthsimple adds Inovia partner, former Google exec Patrick Pichette to board of directors (BETAKIT)
The move follows Montréal-based Inovia’s recent investment in Wealthsimple’s $750 million CAD funding round, through which the Toronto-based FinTech startup secured a $5 billion valuation.
Square to buy Australia’s Afterpay in $29 billion deal as ‘buy now, pay later’ trend takes off (CNBC)
Payment players and FinTechs from PayPal to American Express have been rushing to launch their own version of “buy now, pay later” products.
Robinhood IPO misses mark but strikes gold for founders and VCs (CRUNCHBASE)
Robinhood, the popular stock trading app, is now a publicly traded stock itself, even if Wall Street investors weren’t exactly falling all over themselves to buy a share at their first opportunity.
Paystone secures $30 million from Crédit Mutuel Equity as part of plan to expand beyond North America (BETAKIT)
The all-equity round comes about six months after Paystone raised $69 million CAD from the Canadian Business Growth Fund and National Bank of Canada, and brings Paystone’s total institutional funding to $99 million.
Halifax startup Groundhog reaches settlement to end trade-secrets lawsuit against U.S. blockchain company (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
A Halifax crypto-payment startup that sued a New York blockchain company last year, alleging it stole trade secrets, has reached a settlement to end the court action.
SoftBank-backed Policybazaar seeks to join India tech IPO train (BNN BLOOMBERG)
The SoftBank Group Corp.-backed startup has submitted initial documents with the market regulator to raise up to 37.5 billion rupees via a sale of new shares, according to a public notice.
Portage FinTech SPAC boosts IPO target to $240 million USD, begins trading on Nasdaq (BETAKIT)
Portage Fintech Acquisition’s total gross proceeds would be $40 million more than its initial $200 million USD target.
Crypto infra startup Fireblocks raises $310M, triples valuation to $2.2B (TECHCRUNCH)
Fireblocks, an infrastructure provider for digital assets, has raised $310 million in a Series D round of funding that tripled the company’s valuation to $2.2 billion in just over five months.
Coinsquare brings on Tradelogiq exec, Martin Piszel, as CEO (BETAKIT)
Piszel joins Coinsquare after a significant year for the startup, which included the OSC settlement over wash trading, the switch up of its executive team and overall business, and an ownership deal with Mogo.
‘Double-edged sword’ for regulators cracking down on crypto: Ethereum co-founder (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Di Iorio announced earlier that he intends to exit the cryptocurrency world, predominantly due to personal safety concerns, and will instead focus on philanthropy.
Clearco launches new partnership recommendation service as part of push to serve founders “beyond capital” (BETAKIT)
Earlier this month, Clearco raised $268 million CAD in a Softbank-led round, accelerating the company’s international expansion plans and overall roadmap.
The quiet battle raging around open banking (SIFTED)
What will lead to the mass adoption of open banking? And will the rise of free open banking providers disrupt the space?
Solarisbank raises $224M at a $1.65B valuation to acquire Contis, expand API-based embedded banking tech in Europe (TECHCRUNCH)
Embedded finance is all the rage at the moment, and a number of startups today are providing FinTech-as-a-service or banking-as-a-service tools to third parties.
