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.
CanCon Podcast Ep. 98: What the hell is going on with cryptocurrency?
BetaKit’s CanCon podcast asks Jim Orlando (OMERS Ventures), Julia Kassam (NEO Exchange), and Matt Roberts (ScaleUP Ventures) to break down all things cryptocurrency – with a healthy dose of CryptoKitties.
Fraud detection startup Simility raises $17.5 million from Accel, PayPal, others
Palo Alto-based Simility is one of a number of companies using machine learning to help those working in the fraud detection realm collect and analyze data.
Payment automation startup Wagepoint raises $2 million to build HR apps
Wagepoint recently launched its QuickBooks Advanced Payroll solution, a partnership with Intuit Canada that embeds a full Intuit-branded version of Wagepoint within QuickBooks Online. The small business accounting platform curently has 150,000 subscribers.
Conversational AI platform developer Kasisto raises $17M
Kasisto, creators of the KAI conversational AI platform for finance, announced a $17 million Series B funding round led by Oak HC/FT.
Bitcoin futures are now tradable on the CBOE
CBOE is launching three futures contracts, with the settlement price being bitcoin’s trading price on January 1st, February 1st, and March 1st, respectively. The CME group will launch their futures product later in December, and as of now, these two products will be the only way for investors to trade the digital currency without actually holding it themselves.
Aspiration raises $47M to grow “ethical” online bank
Aspiration’s core product is its Summit personal banking account, which provides one percent interest and is fossil fuel-free.
JPMorgan Chase and Barclays join IBM quantum computing push
JPMorgan Chase and Barclays are among the first firms to tap into the IBM Q early-access commercial quantum computing systems.
Highline BETA and RBC collaborating to co-create new ventures
Highline BETA has been open about its interest in FinTech and insurtech since its launch last year.
Brazilian startup Creditas is revolutionizing credit in the world’s third largest lending market
Furio’s innovation is the notion of a collateralized loan. While the lenders that require collateral to issue a loan are typically catering to low-income customers, Furio views collateral as one of the only ways to lower interest rates for would-be borrowers in Brazil.
Create more value than you capture: An oral history of Toronto product development
BetaKit’s first #longform piece looks back at 15 years of Toronto tech.
