Google abandons banking plans 🤯; Axie Infinity nets $152M in Series B at a $3B valuation in a bid to change gaming forever 🦄; Embedded insurance on the rise 🚀

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Hey Everyone,

And happy Saturday! Hope your week was great and productive. To make it even better, I invite you to take a look at three stories that were moving the 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:

Google abandons banking plans 🤯

Breaking🔥 Technology giant Google is scrapping its plans to offer banking services directly to users.

The shift comes nearly 2 years after the company first announced its banking plans and less than 1 year since the technology giant publicly announced Plex mobile-first bank accounts.

Origins 🔄 In 2020, Google said it would let users open a bank account through its Google Pay app, in a partnership with Citigroup and Stanford Federal Credit Union beginning in 2021. At the time, Google said it would offer a service called “Plex” checking and savings accounts that would have no monthly fees, overdraft charges, or minimum balance requirements.

Users would have also been able to request a physical debit card, which would have run on Mastercard’s rails.

But why? 🤔 The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the scrapped plans Friday, stating a series of reportedly missed deadlines along with the departure of the Google Pay executive overseeing the project caused it to begin to fold. 

The shift 👉 A Google spokeswoman said the company is shifting its focus to “delivering digital enablement for banks and other financial services providers rather than us serving as the provider of these services.” In simple terms, Google will focus on selling Google Could to banks and other financial institutions.

✈️ THE TAKEAWAY

FinTech is hard. This is yet another illustration that FinTech is hard, folks. Also, it’s a good answer to everyone who was asking “so what will happen to your FinTech if Google will do it?”. FinTech is hard, and Google can’t do everything, apparently. On the other side, despite internal mismanagement (I won’t go into it here as it’s probably worth a separate article), there are 2 strong factors worth mentioning. First, Google has the opportunity of selling billions in cloud services to banks and FIs. Second, banking means more regulation and oversight, which could directly impact their overall business and growth, and they don’t want that. Zooming out, being an enabler/B2B player is much easier, means fewer headaches, and potentially is much more profitable.

Axie Infinity nets $152M in Series B at a $3B valuation in a bid to change gaming forever 🦄

The funding 💸 Axie’s creator, Vietnam-based Sky Mavis, announced it had raised a $152M Series B round at a $3 billion valuation, led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The USP 🥊 Founded in 2018, Axie Infinity is a non-fungible token (NFT) game where players battle, collect and trade digital pets called “Axies,” earning rewards in $AXS and $SLP tokens that can be redeemed for real-world money.

Crazy growth 🤯 Play-to-earn game Axie Infinity reported more than 1.8 million daily users in August and daily sales volume reaching as high as $33 million. Since the game was launched in March 2018, the total sales volume is close to $2.3 billion, according to CryptoSlam.

Axie Infinity’s AXS token hit a record high on Monday after Axie announced last week it would distribute over $60M worth of tokens to its early adopters, and also launch staking capabilities.

✈️ THE TAKEAWAY

Changing the industry. The growth and recent funding of Axie is a game-changer for two main reasons. First, it’s a brilliant illustration of why NFTs matter and why they are probably here to stay. But more importantly, it can change the gaming industry forever as it unlocks new and important opportunities. Gaming could hence switch from pure entertainment to an equivalent of work. As a16z put it, right now you can not only play the games you love, have fun, but also participate in the financial upside of the community. And that’s super powerful and exciting.

Embedded insurance on the rise 🚀

Following the money💰 US-based InsurTech Sure has just secured a $100M Series C funding round, giving it a $550M valuation.

New York-based Declaration Partners and European growth investor Kinnevik co-led the financing, which also included participation from WndrCo and existing backers W. R. Berkley and Menlo Ventures.

The USP 🥊 Founded in 2016, Sure provides a software as a service platform to provide financial institutions and FinTechs with digital insurance infrastructure.

Its service hence modernizes and digitizes the entire insurance value chain so clients can offer customers a digital experience without paperwork or human interactions.

The numbers 📊 Without disclosing hard revenue figures, Sure reported it has been profitable since 2019 and has grown its annual recurring revenues by threefold every year.

✈️ THE TAKEAWAY

It’s hot. In the United States alone, the market value of embedded insurance is expected to grow from $5 billion in 2020 to $70.7 billion in 2025, according to data from Lightyear Capital. One of the key drivers here is actually FinTech. Insurance products offer FinTechs a great additional revenue stream on their road maps to profitability, while at the same time keeping incumbent insurers worrisome and feeling the heat from innovative InsurTechs. Chubb, Revolut, Betterment, and Farmers Insurance are all clients of Sure. Other FinTechs will likely follow suit (i.e. recent case of Monese) to remain competitive and offer users a one-stop shop for managing their finances.

🔎 What else I’m watching

• WhatsApp Payments in India🇮🇳 Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp has announced that the camera icon in its chat composer will allow users to scan  QR codes to make payments in Indian stores. As per WhatsApp, over 20M stores, which are typically micro and small enterprises, can accept payments via QR code in the country. The company also operates the WhatsApp Business app for small businesses in India and has 15M enterprises using the service. Facebook really wants to be a more meaningful force in payments, and India is a place where they can start…

• Curve goes crypto! Sort of…💳 Curve, the card aggregating FinTech platform, is the latest one to jump on the crypto bandwagon. While not yet launching a dedicated crypto channel, it now has allowed users for the first time to use their Curve cards to buy cryptocurrency. “We’ve removed the prohibition in our terms of service that prevented you from purchasing cryptocurrencies, which you can now do at certain merchants” - Curve said in an update.

• CBDC in HK🇭🇰 The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has published a technical whitepaper on retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), strengthening its position to launch a digital fiat. Titled ‘e-HKD: A technical perspective’, the whitepaper explores the idea and feasibility of launching a digital Hong Kong dollar (e-HKD) for its domestic and cross-border markets. 

• Google’s bet on Africa💸 Google will invest $1B in Africa in the next five years to enhance its internet connectivity and help startup companies get some financial backing, according to a CNET report. The search platform announced an Africa Investment Fund that will give startups access to its employees and technology during the Google for Africa event, the report said. Google is also teaming with nonprofit Kiva to offer $10M in low-interest loans for small businesses in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

💸 Following the Money

• Australian global payments platform EML Payments has received the go-ahead from French and UK financial regulators to purchase open banking company Sentenial Group for an upfront enterprise value of 70M euros (A$108.6M), in addition to an earn-out component of up to 40M euros (A$62.1M).

• The B2B payments platform VertoFX has raised $10M in Series A funding to help expand the list of currencies on its platform. The London and Nigeria-based company allows small and medium-sized businesses to pay suppliers, focusing on emerging markets.

• Mexico-based Konfio has secured $110M in Series E funding round at $1.3B a valuation led by Tarsadia Capital for expansion and platform improvement.

• Last-mile FinTech lender Progcap closed a $30M Series C funding round led by existing investor Tiger Global Management and new backer Creation Investments, with additional participation from Sequoia Capital India. The startup offers funding opportunities to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which comprise the majority of India’s economy. Progcap extends last-mile capital via FinTech products that automate the movement of funding across the supply chain.

👋 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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