Payments FinTech should brace themselves for a tough H2 📊; Meta’s existential problem it can do nothing about 😳; Ape Now, Pay Later? 🙊
Good Morning FinTech, 12 July
Good day Everyone,
And happy Tuesday! Today’s issue is super interesting as we’re going to look at payments FinTechs that should brace themselves for a tough H2 (+ what FinTechs should do & what can we expect from the market in H2), Meta’s existential problem it can do nothing about (it affects its Metaverse, Payments, Commerce and other plans), and what is Ape Now, Pay Later? (haven't we learned anything?!). Let’s jump straight into the good stuff:
Payments FinTech should brace themselves for a tough H2 📊
Klarnageddon is finally official 🍿 Klarna, the Swedish Buy Now, Pay Later FinTech darling that was once Europe’s most valuable private tech company, has officially seen its value slashed by 85% to $6.7 billion in its latest round of fundraising.
The Swedish FinTech firm said it raised $800M in fresh funding from existing investors Sequoia and Silver Lake, as well as attracted new backers including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company.
Spotting the trends 👀 Misery loves company, and when it comes to funding challenges and valuation collapses, Klarna is not alone. The first half of 2022 was tough for many payments FinTechs
FinTech behemoth Stripe has seen its valuation falling 35% from the start of the year, according to Business Insider. Investor Fidelity has slashed Stripe’s valuation every month in 2022 except for March. That’s harsh 😳
The valuation of the POS FinTech SumUp fell from $22B to just $8B after its latest funding haul. That’s a >63% loss…
Shares in publicly listed Affirm are down more than 80% this year. Block’s and PayPal’s have dropped more than 60% each.
What does it mean? 🤔 It’s clear that economic uncertainty is causing a lot of pain across industries, and FinTech isn’t immune to that too. Firms will definitely have to adapt to a more challenging climate in H2.
Here’s the takeaway on what the payments FinTechs should do and what can we expect from the market in upcoming H2: