Apple’s push to become a bigger force in payments 📲; Monese’s insurance play to increase customer loyalty🛡; Africa’s fastest-growing crypto exchange 💸
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Hey Everyone,
And happy Saturday! I’m more than sure you had a great and productive week. To make it even better, I invite you to take a look at three stories that were moving headlines this week in the financial technology world. You can uncover other stories, keep the FinTech pulse daily and get at least X5 more by becoming a subscriber. Join the community here:
And here’s a mix of 3 great stories from this week:
Apple’s push to become a bigger force in payments 📲
Just out🔥 Tech titan Apple has recently introduced a number of features and tie-ups to enhance its payments offerings and spur user growth. The key motivation here is to become a bigger force in payments.
Developments & improvements 👉 Here are the most notable developments and improvements that came from Apple recently:
Apple will let users add COVID-19 vaccine cards to the Apple Wallet. The integration builds on Apple’s previous efforts to expand the wallet’s use cases—like supporting student IDs and insurance cards, according to TechCrunch.
Apple enabled a dynamic CVV feature for Apple Card users in iOS 15. Advanced Fraud Protection changes the CVV tied to the card each time it's viewed in the Wallet app or after it's auto-filled from Safari, according to MacRumors. This makes it so that each transaction carries a unique CVV code, adding an extra layer of security.
Apple Pay partnerships. New partnerships include payment and expense management platform PayHawk, FinTech startup wamo, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, among others.
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
A lot of room for growth. It’s clear that Apple’s latest features enhancements might push iOS users to adopt its payment offerings and help it gain a stronger foothold in the wider payments space. Why shouldn’t it if your iPhone can change your ID, wallet, and credit card? Especially given the fact that despite Apple’s leadership position in the mobile payments space, the company still has a large addressable market to tap into - less than 40% of iPhone owners use Apple Pay, based on Insider Intelligence forecasts. More importantly, the company has an estimated 6.4M Apple Card users out of the 116.3M iOS users that it’s expected to reach this year.
Monese’s insurance play to increase customer loyalty🛡
The announcement 📣 UK-based digital-only bank for expats Monese has expanded its paid offering to include a new Essential subscription tier for £1.95 ($2.50) per month.
The new policy is powered by Belgian startup Qover, which allows non-insurers to offer coverage at a cost. It powers Revolut as well.
Details 👉 Not only did Monese add its base subscription plan, but the neobank is also extensively updating its broader paid tiers. Here’s more about that:
With the help of Qover, the neobank is rolling out its Bill Protection feature, which covers regular bill payments up to £600 ($769.42) if a customer is unable to work - higher limits are available in its two more expensive tiers.
Essential subscribers will receive reduced fees for international transfers and foreign exchange conversions, as well as fee-free ATM withdrawals up to £200 ($256.47) per month.
Monese’s Classic and Premium plans will now include purchase protection for stolen or damaged recent purchases.
As part of the Qover partnership, all paid subscriptions carry up to 30 days of daily payments of between £15 ($19.24) to £50 ($64.12).
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
It’s not about the money here. Well, not only about the money, to be more precise… The thing is that Monese will barely make any $$$ from the insurance product alone. Yet, it’s a good compliment to their product stack as the idea here is to use the embedded insurance perk as an acquisition tool and hence encourage the use of Monese as a primary bank account. More retention and more customer loyalty mean potential profitability in the near future. As of right now, only 40% of Monese’s users are paying subscribers which makes them run at a loss. Growing that number to 60% or more could lead to profits and potential sustainability. And that’s what this new feature is all about.
Africa’s fastest-growing crypto exchange 💸
The money💰 Pan-African cryptocurrency exchange, Yellow Card, has announced a $15M Series A. This is the largest funding ever by an African cryptocurrency exchange.
The round was led by Valar Ventures, Third Prime, and Castle Island Ventures with participation from Square, Inc., Blockchain.com Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, BlockFi, Fabric Ventures, Raba Partnership, MoonPay, GreenHouse Capital, and more.
The USP 🥊 Launched in Nigeria in 2018, the U.S. and Africa-based Yellow Card team has sought to make cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT Stablecoin accessible to anyone in Africa.
The company now has the largest geographical footprint on the continent, with a presence in 12 countries, 110 employees across 16 countries, and a nearly 30x increase in users across Africa since the start of the pandemic.
✈️ THE TAKEAWAY
Crypto & Africa. Crypto is huge in Africa. The recent report from Chainalysis, which listed six African nations in the top 20 on the Global Crypto Adoption Index, illustrates that perfectly. The newest funding round is yet another validation that Africa has a major place in the crypto industry. Obviously, there are huge risks involved, especially coming from the central banks that recently started banning crypto altogether across the continent.
🔎 What else I’m watching
BNPL stats 📊 New filings show missed payments are on the rise at BNPL firms. Read more here.
Wise goes further into the Australian market🇦🇺 Wise, UK-based multi-currency accounts and international transfer company has been approved to join the New Payments Platform (NPP) as a participant and shareholder. The move will allow Wise Australia to connect directly to the NPP to clear and settle real-time payments and the regulator, APRA, granting Wise Australia a limited ADI license late last year. Fintechs need to have an ADI to be involved in the NPP. NPP is mutually owned by 13 companies, including the Big 4 banks, the RBA, Cuscal, Citi, Macquarie, Bendigo bank, and others. Organizations connecting directly to the NPP to clear and settle payments must join NPP Australia as a shareholder. Wise will be the company’s 15th shareholder.
eNaira🇳🇬 The official website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) digital currency is live. Called the eNaira, the currency is slated to launch in a week. The site had more than 1 million hits in 24 hours, according to stats from the reports. The website promises easier financial transactions, offers peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, allows users to check balances and view transaction history, and makes in-store payments with an eWallet through QR code scans, according to the report. This will be a very interesting experiment…
CBDC work🇬🇧 The Bank of England said Wednesday that it has staffed up a pair of third-party working groups that will collectively provide input as the U.K. central bank pursues initiatives related to central bank digital currency (CBDC). The central bank's published lists include notables from the neobank and payments worlds, as well as several companies associated with the crypto space. Specific members of note in either the Engagement Forum and Technology Forum include PayPal, Monzo, Starling, Checkout.com, ConsenSys, R3, Visa, and Mastercard, among others.
💸 Following the Money
Germany-based investment start-up fintech Ride has announced receiving EUR 1.5M for its further expansion.
National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, and Banque Du Caire have announced they will launch a fund to support the capital of emerging financial technology companies.
InsurTech startup Cover Genius raised AUD $100M in a Series C funding round led by Sompo Holdings with participation from G Squared and other existing investors. The fresh infusion of capital is being earmarked for the expansion of its distribution platform and move into new sectors — eCommerce, property, travel, business to business, and more.
Ascend Money, a Thailand-based FinTech, has reached a $1.5B valuation following its latest $150M funding, helping deliver its services to more customers.
👋 That’s it for today! Thank you for reading and have a productive weekend! And if you enjoyed this newsletter, invite your friends and colleagues to sign up:
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