The $450 Million Round That Didn’t Happen (TWIF 8/23)

You’ll join 122,000+ other subscribers who can’t keep their fingers off the latest fintech.

Hello Fintech friends,

Well – you can say a lot about fintech, but you can’t say it’s boring! This week, one-click checkout startup Bolt, which has been the subject of a series of lawsuits from its customers and investors, has given shareholders about 2 days to approve a pay-to-play ultimatum. Either enter a new $450 million funding round that values ​​the company at $14 billion — which, if you believe its $30 million in 2021 revenue and its forecasted $28 million in 2024 revenue, would be a 500x multiple — or get bought out for $0.01 per share.

The company lost $100 million in 2023. The founder, who stepped down in 2022 amid fire for allegedly misleading investors, is set to return as part of the new fundraising.

And those aren’t even the strangest details. No one knows exactly who the investors in the round are. The Information reported that Silverbear Capital and a new fund called The London Fund were supposed to “lead” the round, until it turned out that the former was merely acting as a facilitator, while the latter would contribute $250 million in marketing credits. The head of Silverbear claims he never spoke to Bolt. Several shareholders are now boycotting the round and considering legal action.

Perhaps the best summary of the situation comes from Axios: “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said one of Bolt’s larger investors, who added that he’s not convinced the new money is legit.

It promises to be an interesting week!

Below you can read another week full of fintech and banking news. (👍👎 Do you have any feedback for us? Let us know!)

Imagine reducing manual FinOps labor for disbursements and reconciliation by 70% across Latin America. With Radarit’s possible. Transform your financial operations with our advanced suite, designed to optimize cash flow, streamline transactions and improve financial visibility. Check out Radar here.

Would you like to sponsor a newsletter? View our sponsor information here.

🤝 Event of the week

M2020 Fintech Founder’s Dinner with Wilson Sonsini and Foundation Capital · Luma

Who: Series A Fintech Founders What: Founders Private Dinner at the Las Vegas Money2020 Conference Where: Mercato Della Pescheria, 3377 S Las Vegas Blvd Suite…

💼 Fintech job of the week

Modern life is looking for a great Strategic Growth Director And Senior Software Engineer to join their team of 35.

Modern Life’s integrated technology platform and AI-driven solutions are transforming the purchasing experience for life insurance – a $165 billion market and one of the most complex and challenging financial products to buy and sell.

Share your job with over 2000 fintech people in our Slack #hiring-and-jobs-channel.

💬Quote of the week

🏦 Financial services and banking

🚀 Product Launches

Swiss banks have officially launched the country’s instant payment system.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched a generative AI sandbox that allowed banks to experiment with how the technology could be used.

📰 Other news

What do the FDIC’s proposed rules mean for brokered deposits?

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) recently proposed significant changes to the rules governing brokered deposits at U.S. banks. The proposal would specifically change the definition of brokered deposits, making it difficult to come up with a concise legal definition. So a functional definition will have to suffice: The brokered deposits

The United Kingdom Payment Systems Supervisor outlines the next steps to introduce variable recurring payments in the country.

MasterCard plans to lay off approximately 3% of its global workforce (1,000 people) in a reorganization.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Meta Mask began rolling out its blockchain-based debit card, developed in partnership with Baanx And MasterCardallowing users to directly withdraw funds from their crypto wallets.

PayPal is working on a release tear: it has been integrated with payroll provider VKG to offer an early access wage product and partner with European payments giant Adyen to distribute its Fastlane product, which enables passwordless payments.

Latin American e-commerce giant Free market launched its own stablecoin with Ripio to enable customers to store and pay their money without affecting the exchange rate.

Consumer investment platform Public has launched a new bond investing feature that allows users to earn 6% to 9% on corporate bonds.

401k software provider Wear new features launched including alternative investments, mega backdoor Roth, and payroll integrations.

Pipe launched an integrated capital-as-a-service tool for small businesses.

Canadian neobank Neo opened a cashback checking account.

Personal financial automation platform Candle an integration launched to manage of apple financial products on the app.

British socially responsible fintech Science map has opened an e-money account to support scientific projects in the areas of health, climate change and technology.

Fintilectan alliance of three family office-owned fintech companies has been formed to provide banks with a suite of AI-driven customer engagement tools.

Imagine reducing manual FinOps labor for disbursements and reconciliation by 70% across Latin America. With Radarit’s possible. Transform your financial operations with our advanced suite, designed to optimize cash flow, streamline transactions and improve financial visibility. Check out Radar here.

Would you like to sponsor a newsletter? View our sponsor information here.

📰 Other news

Dynasties in the Making: 15 Companies Cultivating Tomorrow’s Fintech Leaders

By Gilgamesh Ventures and the Wharton School of Business Everyone knows about the PayPal Mafia. In addition to changing the way money moves, PayPal has, over the past two decades, spawned several groups of revolutionaries who have reshaped the way finance works, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Reid Hoffman, and others. But

Brazil expanded its Photos direct payments system to Europe through partnership with Spain Wipay account.

Startup for lending Upgrade doubled annual revenue from $120 million to $240 million.

🤝 Partnership Corner

Money Movement Provider TerraPay has established a ‘Wallet Interoperability Council’ with five payment providers to facilitate interoperability in cross-border transactions.

Real Estate Payment Platform Bilt rewards in collaboration with Valiant Residentiala portfolio of multi-family residential properties.

InCred Financean Indian lending-oriented non-banking financial company, and Ola Money announced a partnership to offer personal loan services directly to Ola users through the Ola app.

👎 The bad news

Received, which provides complex invoicing for B2B software companies, was closed.

Scorethe dating app for people with good to excellent credit has been quietly shut down.

Fintech partner bank To develop reportedly stopped processing transfers over $3,000.

Come meet us in person at thisweekinfintech.com/events