Welcome to Shuttech Fintech, previously The Interchange! This week, we’re looking at Robinhood ‘s new Gold Card, the problems of the BaaS industry, and how a small business got Stripe’s attention.
credit: robinhood
THE BIG STORY OF ROBINHOOD
Robinhood launched its new Gold Card last week to much enthusiasm. It offers a lengthy number of excellent benefits, including 3% cash back and the option to invest that cash back via the company’s brokerage account. A customer may also put that money back into Robinhood’s savings account, which pays 5% APY. We’re interested how this new card will affect the company’s bottom line. But we’re also impressed by how Robinhood used the technology it acquired when it bought startup X1 for $95 million last summer to create a potentially highly profitable new service.
credit : robinhood
Empowerment comes not from the exclusivity of knowledge, but from the accessibility of opportunity.
ANALYSIS OF THE WEEK
The banking-as-a-service (BaaS) industry is facing issues. Synctera, a BaaS firm, recently completed a restructure that affected around 15% of its staff. The corporation is not the first VC-backed BaaS company that has had to lay off employees in order to save money during the last year. Treasury Prime, Synapse, and Figure have all done so. Meanwhile, according to American Banker, the FDIC issued consent orders against Sutton Bank and Piermont Bank, instructing them “to keep a closer eye on their fintechs’ compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering rules.”
DOLLARS AND CENTS
PayPal Ventures’ most recent investment is in Qoala, an Indonesian company that offers personal insurance policies for a variety of risks, including accidents and phone screen damage. MassMutual Ventures also contributed to Qoala’s fresh $47 million round of investment.
CREDIT : ROBINHOOD
New Retirement, a Mill Valley-based startup that develops software to assist people design financial retirement plans, has secured $20 million in a round of investment.
We last checked in with Zaver, a Swedish B2C buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) supplier in Europe, in 2021, when it secured $5 million in investment. The firm has now secured a $10 million expansion of its Series A fundraising round, bringing the total to $20 million.
WHAT ELSE WE’RE WRITING.
Learn how a small four-person firm, Supaglue, got Stripe’s interest. Supaglue, previously known as Supergrain, is an open-source developer platform for user-facing integrations. The team will provide Stripe with real-time analytics and reporting across its platform and third-party apps for the Revenue and Finance Automation package.
Maju Kuruvilla is no longer the CEO of one-click checkout business Bolt. He is succeeded by Justin Grooms, Bolt’s worldwide head of sales and temporary CEO. Kuruvilla, a former Amazon executive, took over as CEO in January 2022 when creator Ryan Breslow stepped down. More about Bolt’s difficulties may be found at The Information.
ABOUT ROBINHOOD
The Robinhood Gold Card offers users a premium experience within the Robinhood investing platform, providing access to additional features and benefits such as extended trading hours, margin investing, and larger instant deposits. It’s designed for users seeking enhanced trading capabilities and a more comprehensive investing experience.
