PayPal's biggest threat is coming from around the Block & it's called Cash Pay 💳; Time to build: the oldest VC firm in US closes $4.6B 🚀; Celebrities won't save FinTechs from themselves 🤦‍♀️

FinTech is Eating the World, 9 September

Good day Everyone,

And TGIF! I couldn’t have wished for a better issue to end the week than this one. I hope you will feel the same after reading it as today we’re looking at PayPal's biggest threat that’s coming from around the Block and it's called Cash Pay (+ another reminder of why ecosystems matter in FinTech & why Block still has massive potential), the oldest VC firm in the US closing $4.6B across two funds (+ grab the funding cheat sheet if you haven’t yet & go build!), and why celebrities won't save FinTechs from themselves (you have to look elsewhere). Let’s jump straight into the amazing stuff:

PayPal's biggest threat is coming from around the Block and it's called Cash Pay 💳

Product expansion 📲 Retail finance heavyweight Cash App users can now make online payments via Cash App Pay to merchants that don’t use Square.

More on this 👉 The Block SQ 0.00%↑ owned app recently partnered with major retail brands like American Eagle and JD Sports for the launch, and it expects other merchants to join in the coming months.

Users can get discounts and promotions from these merchants when they shop on Cash App’s Discover tab, or they can check out with a dedicated Cash App button on merchants’ websites.

Why this is huge? 🤔 First, this is yet another reminder that Block/Square has one of the strongest ecosystems in FinTech globally. More importantly, this rollout further broadens Cash App’s use cases beyond P2P payments thus helping the Block compete even more aggressively with PayPal. Here’s more on that + the takeaway: