All articles tagged with #fintech
Brazilian digital bank Nubank is in early-stage talks to acquire UK neobank Monzo in a deal that could value the London-based firm at up to £10 billion ($13.2 billion). While Nubank declined to comment, Monzo is simultaneously exploring alternative funding strategies, including a partial sale to private equity or a venture capital round, as it navigates a period of significant leadership and strategic change.
Hedge-fund manager Brian Kelly runs Bracket22 entirely with AI agents, claiming about 10x productivity and payroll costs down to roughly $30k–$40k a year from millions. The firm trades crypto, stocks, and commodities using agents such as Steffi (technical analysis), Desmond (quant strategies), and Houston (mission control), with Kelly applying human judgment to final decisions. He argues AI can augment a workforce—‘a staff of a hundred with AI becomes a staff of a thousand’—rather than simply replacing people.
Revolut has secured conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter, a major milestone in its US expansion that would allow insured deposits and self-contained banking services; it still awaits approvals from the FDIC and Federal Reserve, with a launch targeted for the first half of 2027 focusing on expats and multi-currency banking, including checking, savings, credit, loans and cards, with stablecoins and business banking planned later and mortgages to be added after broader testing.
Markets closed mixed as Marvell fell about 10% after a Q2 beat but soft guidance, Nvidia slid roughly 4%, and PayPal dropped around 12% after Stripe and Advent abandoned a potential acquisition; in contrast, Workday rose about 6% on stronger earnings and higher guidance amid M&A chatter, Elastic jumped ~19%, and Pasqal surged ~43% on its U.S. debut. Affirm gained ~3.5% after beating estimates, Iren fell ~14% on EBITDA miss though revenue beat, Gap rose ~12% on earnings with Old Navy leadership news, while Rubrik and Autodesk declined on earnings/outlook concerns.
A consortium led by Advent and Stripe has dropped its pursuit of PayPal, after reportedly offering more than $50 billion. PayPal’s shares dipped later, with the stock showing volatility as the market valued PayPal around $52.6 billion, but sources said the initial bid was insufficient and talks have paused, leaving open the possibility of a revived deal in the future.
A Stripe-led group with Advent has reportedly dropped its plan to acquire PayPal, ending talks that could have become one of the largest leveraged buyouts (well over $50 billion). The bid, once floated around $53 billion when PayPal was valued lower, faced a higher price after PayPal’s stock surged following a quarterly beat. PayPal’s reorganization under new CEO Enrique Lores into three units and a rising stock price made a deal more challenging, though a future bid isn’t ruled out.
Affirm beat expectations in its fiscal Q4 with revenue of about $1.2 billion (up ~33%) and gross merchandise volume around $14.1 billion (up ~36%), accelerating toward its $100 billion GMV goal by year-end. A strategic partnership with Shopify to launch Shop Pay Installments in Australia expands its reach into a new market, helping drive the rally in AFRM shares, as the company also signals continued growth and credit quality improvements.
Vanguard agreed to acquire Altruist, a fintech startup providing RIA software, in a deal valued at about $4.6 billion, in a move aimed at expanding its digital platform for independent wealth advisers.
Stripe and private equity firm Advent International are in talks to acquire PayPal, after a July bid valued PayPal at about $53 billion ($60.50 per share), with a deal reportedly possible in the coming weeks. A merger would create one of the largest online payment players, potentially integrating Venmo, PayPal Checkout, and crypto features into Stripe while possibly reducing Stripe’s reliance on Visa/Mastercard. PayPal’s new CEO Enrique Lores has reorganized the company into three units (checkout, Venmo, and payments/crypto), and it’s unclear how the structure would adapt post-acquisition. The combined company could process roughly $3.7 trillion in payments annually, but talks could still collapse.
SoFi posted stronger Q2 growth than Robinhood, with revenue of $1.21B (up 43%), 15.8M members and SoFi Plus surpassing 200k subscribers, while Robinhood reported $1.31B in revenue (up 32%) and 28.4M funded customers. SoFi edged ahead on growth metrics, but both stocks slid after the report as SoFi kept EBITDA guidance flat and Robinhood faced crypto headwinds; year-to-date, SoFi is down ~42% and Robinhood down ~20%, though retail sentiment leaned bullish for both.
Wealth managers report a surge in clients asking AI chatbots (like Claude and ChatGPT) to vet portfolio and tax guidance, using AI as a second opinion and a tool to deepen questions and speed up meetings. While this can raise discussion quality and efficiency, it also brings risks of incorrect or hallucinated results and potential data privacy concerns. Firms say AI will augment—not replace—human advisors, potentially pushing up service expectations and prompting new safeguards and workflows.
SoFi Technologies beat second-quarter earnings forecasts and lifted its adjusted net revenue outlook to about $4.75–$4.85 billion, but the stock fell as investors weighed a 23% drop in the technology platform revenue to $84.5 million after a large client exited, signaling skepticism about the pace of growth.
Klarna has applied to set up a U.S. FDIC‑insured bank in Utah, enabling it to fund loans with customer deposits and bring more banking operations in-house, while broadening its offerings beyond buy now, pay later and reducing reliance on third‑party banks.
Circle Internet stock fell after Bloomberg reported a coalition of Visa, Stripe and more than 100 financial firms is launching the Open Standard venture to issue a US-dollar-backed stablecoin called Open USD, with Stripe’s Zach Abrams as interim CEO. Partners—including Visa, BlackRock, Klarna, Alphabet, Chime and Coinbase—plan to integrate the stablecoin into their systems later this year, potentially increasing competition with the dominant stablecoins USDC and USDT.
Airwallex raised $320 million in a Series H at an $11 billion valuation to push AI-native finance, unveiling T:0 (AI-driven finance automation) and Airi (agentic consumer wallet); revenue rose 74% to $1.3 billion and annualized transaction volume more than doubled, with over 90% of revenue from customers using multiple Airwallex products and more than 85 licenses globally to support expansion. The round, led by Addition, also signals a push into autonomous finance and agentic commerce, even as the company faces scrutiny over ties to China; management hints IPO timing could slip due to AI-margin volatility.