Lending is not easy. It requires a sophisticated tech stack, complex processes, lending capital and a scale for success that is beyond the capabilities and size of most retailers, software providers, platforms, and marketplaces. So how can investors and companies avoid the complications that come with lending? Embedded lending may be the solution.
Embedded lending allows any company to access a vast and secure infrastructure for lending, and immediately start financing its business customers. Lending is a highly value-added offering that reinforces core engagement and retention and drives new revenues. For fintech lenders, embedding enables effective low-cost distribution and to reach a profitable scale, in addition to tapping into highly valuable predictive data from the partner.
From point of sale financing for consumer purchases, seen in the current popular trend of buy now, pay later (BNPL), to small and medium enterprise (SME) financing with merchant cash advances, revenue-based financing or working capital term loans - embedded lending offers more flexibility and adaptability to varying types of financing.
On dealroom.co, we've mapped 30+ embedded lending startups and scaleups providing access to vast and secure infrastructures for lending 👇
💬 We interviewed lending-as-a-service provider, Banxware, about its digital platform. Read the full interview here
📢 Embedded finance event, 9th March, 5 PM CET 👉Grab your seat
In other news
👀 Sequoia moves into buying tokens with a new $500M fund - Forbes.
👎 Credit Suisse leak reveals €100B of deposits from criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians - The Guardian.
🚀 UK open banking users surpass 5M in fintech boom - UK tech news.
⏱ Fintech regulators in the UK are running out of time. UK crypto startups consider rage-quitting over slow dirty-money checks (Business Insider) and more than 70 fintech CEOs are calling for better Uk fintech regulation (AltFi)
📄 NYSE moves closer to NFT trading with trademark application- Reuters.
Latest fintech deals:
Thelargest this week
🇳🇬 Flutterwave, an African Fintech, raised $250M in a Series D round that tripled the company’s valuation of over $3B in less than one year. The startup offers APIs to facilitate cross-border payments and is now the most valuable private African startup, ahead of Opay and Chipper Cash.
🇬🇧 PrimaryBid, the fintech platform that provides retail investors with access to share sales, has raised $190 million in fresh funding from investors including SoftBank.
🇮🇳 Pine Labs, raised $150M from Alpha Wave at a $5B valuation. Apart from Point of Sales (PoS) business, the company offers Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), invoice management, gifting solution and e-commerce enablement solutions to merchants.
🇩🇰 ViaBill, the Danish Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) leader, raised $120M in equity and debt led by London-based Fasanara Capital.
Want to stay on top of the latest BNPL growths and trends? Then check out last week's Fintech newsletter, "Is Buy Now, Pay Later Over?"👈
Other notable fintech deals from around the globe:
🇺🇸 Check, the leading payroll infrastructure company that lets platforms embed payroll into their products, raised a $75M Series C led by Stripe, with participation from existing investors Bedrock, Thrive and Index.
🇬🇧 Weavr, raised a $40M Series A led by Tiger Global. The company is disrupting the current banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and embedded finance model by making financial services available to any business with a digital presence, lifting the compliance and technical burden.
🇬🇧 Rainbow, an Ethereum wallet, raises $18M in a round led by Reddit co-founder's VC fund 776. The fund has also just closed a new $510M fund which will focus primarily on crypto startups.
🇺🇸 SoFi Technologies, the digital personal finance company, acquired Technisys, a leading cloud-native, digital multi-product core banking platform. Sofi also acquired BaaS provider Galileo in 2020 in its overall pursuit to build the AWS of fintech.
🇺🇸 🇭🇰 Fireblocks acquired stablecoin and digital asset payment technology firm, First Digital, for $100M. The acquisition will support and expand Fireblocks' payments offering by allowing payment service providers (PSPs) and acquirers to accept payments and make payouts in digital currencies.
This is Dealroom's weekly fintech newsletter. Get more industry-specific intelligence on the evolving world of fintech, emerging trends, and game-changing startups. Delivered on Wednesdays.
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