F|T: The FinTech Times – Wealthsimple’s growth stalls, Robinhood’s retail investors flee
Plus: Kirk Simpson, Peter Carrescia team up with an idea to disrupt the digital identity space.
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FreshBooks Secures $100M Debt Facility From BMO, JP Morgan (BETAKIT)
“This funding comes at an important period of momentum for FreshBooks,” said Don Epperson, CEO of FreshBooks. “We want to seize global growth opportunities and continue to scale our business to support more business owners than ever before.”
Real growth stops in second quarter, shareholder IGM reveals after cutting valuation by almost half (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
Data published Friday by its largest shareholder, IGM Financial Inc., showed that Wealthsimple’s clientele, excluding clients from the tax service, grew just 2 percent during the second quarter ended June 30, to 1.7 million accounts. The current decline came as Wealthsimple slashed its marketing budget and cut jobs in the quarter.
ZayZoon Raises $25.5M to Expand Earned Pay Access Business Across US (BETAKIT)
Earned wage access is the ability for employees to access wages that they have already earned on demand. In Canada, growth of the product was stagnant. At the same time, the startup ventured down to a two-day trade show in the US, signing more partnerships there than it had landed in Canada in the past 12 months.
Robinhood lays off 23% of staff as retail investors flee platform (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
The layoffs mark the second round of layoffs this year at Robinhood, which in April cut its staff by about 9%. Together, the two rounds have cut more than 1,000 positions from the company.
The layoffs come along with a broader reorganization of the company, Vlad Tenev, Robinhood’s CEO, said in a message posted on the company’s blog.
Skyrocketing IPO valuations and venture capital boom times may be over for now, but Canada’s private technology companies are creating new opportunities to innovate, share ideas and collaborate.
Read more.
Kirk Simpson, Peter Carrescia Team Up To Raise $6.5M CAD With Idea To Disrupt Digital Identity Space (BETAKIT)
The duo explained that they are still in the early stages, and are not yet building a product, but are focused on accelerating the adoption of decentralized identity. The aim is to work with both consumers and businesses to make it easier and give them more control over how they share their digital information.
Coinbase shares rise on deal to offer crypto services for BlackRock clients (REUTERS)
The deal brings some positive news for the company which, like many in the crypto sector, has been hit by a slump in crypto asset prices as investors fled risky assets amid geopolitical turmoil, rising rates and fears of an impending recession.
QuadFi Uses AI to Make It Easier for Canadian Newcomers to Get Funding (BETAKIT)
QuadFi claims that their credit solution is limitless and does not rely on FICO scores. FICO Score assesses credit risk scoring, which FICO claims is widely recognized as the industry standard for measuring credit risk.
The Humbling of Coinbase (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
In just over a year, America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange went from a triumphant public offering to a “crypto winter” of cost cuts and layoffs.
The “crypto winter” is coming – but how bad will it be? (SIFTED)
It may seem like the days of crypto success stories are over. Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, is currently trading at around $18,000 – a price last seen in 2020 – and prices are falling across the market.
Clearco cuts a quarter of staff amid ‘significant headwinds’ (BETAKIT)
Co-founders Michele Romanow and Andrew D’Souza told Clearco employees about the cuts in an email Friday morning. The email, shared with BetaKit, said: “Today we have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 125 people and are evaluating strategic options for our international operations.”
Global Payments buys EVO in $4 billion deal to boost B2B segment (REUTERS)
Companies like EVO strive to digitize and streamline B2B payments, which are typically more complex than business-to-consumer payments as they involve dealing with multiple domestic and foreign merchants.
Portage Ventures Launches New Late-Stage FinTech Fund, Aiming to Raise Up to $1B (BETAKIT)
Portage co-founder and CEO Adam Felesky told BetaKit that PCS will invest in securities that combine debt and equity features and do not require startups to lock in valuations as with traditional equity fundraisings.
Dubai Buy now, pay later The firm Tabby gets $150 million in funding (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Companies like Tabby allow customers to buy goods and pay for them in installments. While concerns over inflation and a looming recession have hurt such companies in developed markets, Tabby expects demand to continue to rise in the credit-scarce Gulf. Less than 20% of the population has a credit card in Saudi Arabia — the largest economy in the Gulf Coast — compared with more than 70% in the United States, the firm said.
