When Carlos Caro joined Credit Karma in 2016, the company had 50 million members and was generating $500 million a year. By the time he left, in 2020, Credit Karma had grown to 110 million members and nearly a billion dollars in revenue and was sold to Intuit for $8.1 billion.

Carlos was born in Venezuela, and his family relocated to Washington D.C. when he was three years old. The son of two engineers, he was a strong student, and eventually landed a fully-funded scholarship at Columbia to pursue a PHD in economics. But one year into his PHD, he walked away, because the work felt too abstract. He worried he’d spend his career writing papers that only a handful of peers would ever read.

After a year spent playing pro poker, a high school friend convinced him to apply to Capital One. The process included no less than 9 interviews, and a lot of hard questions, but Carlos got in. There, he encountered a data-driven culture that would prepare him for his role at Credit Karma more than any other.

Carlos Caro: There are executives who lead based on intuition and gut feel. There are very few of those at Capital One. Everyone’s belief is grounded in real data. If they believe something with conviction, it’s because they’ve seen a result that says this is how the world works. There’s a culture there to challenge, doubt, and pressure test everything. As a senior executive, you can’t get away with a point of view that isn’t grounded in reality.

When you made a decision, and I was responsible for many of these, they’re called credit decisions internally, there was a rigorous deck that explained what we’re doing, why we’re recommending it, and then a sensitivity analysis of all the possible outcomes. We’d lay out a pessimistic, optimistic, and base case, and each scenario was pressure tested and standardized.

Julien Brault: Capital One has long positioned itself as an option for people with bad credit. How do you avoid negative selection in that model, where you end up attracting only the people everyone else already rejected? And what did you do on the customer acquisition side to mitigate that risk?

CC: That’s probably one of the keys to Capital One’s early success. I don’t think they started with a website and a TV ad saying “we have subprime cards, come find us,” because that might have attracted exactly the negative selection you’re describing. But if instead you go to the credit bureaus and say you want to look at their data and mail people that fit a certain profile, now you’re proactively getting in front of the user you think is going to perform. You’re avoiding a lot of the risk of attracting unwanted attention. Capital One was very good in the early days at leveraging targeted channels like direct mail.

Over the years, as their brand matured and they expanded into prime products, they got more comfortable making their products open for public application. But I would still guess a very healthy fraction of their book is direct mail and targeted affiliate channels like Experian, Credit Karma, and others that allow you to target based on credit profile.

JB: You joined Credit Karma in 2016, when the credit card business was already doing $500 million a year. Were you walking into something that just needed scaling, or did you have to figure out how to get from $500 million to $1 billion?

CC: The business was cranking when I joined, for sure. I relocated from DC to San Francisco for the position. What I quickly noticed when I looked around was that the results and performance of the business had outgrown its staffing, at least in my functional area of partnerships and business development. I saw opportunity everywhere. I saw the opportunity to do more business with existing partners, to bring on more partners, and to do more innovative things. Lightbox was one example of that.

JB: I have a question about Lightbox. What was it?

CC: Lightbox is essentially a targeting platform for marketers. It enables a marketer on Credit Karma to determine the eligibility criteria for who sees their ads. What Karma was solving for with Lightbox was to drive up approval rates. I remember the CEO being very clear that he wanted approval rates to be 100%. So anyone who applied for a product on Karma should get it. In practice they’re not 100%, but they’re very, very high.

The reason they’re not at 100% is that the data issuers have and the data Karma has to make decisions can be slightly different and refreshed at different dates. But the rate is extremely high. That was one of the big initiatives that, when I looked around, we just didn’t have enough people to execute on. A lot of my job during my four years was to hire the right team.

JB: As VP of Credit Cards at Credit Karma, what was the scope of your role and what was your main KPI?

CC: My KPI was top line revenue. The scope was to manage all the lender partnerships. At the time, Karma’s sole source of revenue was lender partnerships. We were essentially a media seller. These lenders wanted to advertise on our platform and we sold media to all of them.

JB: So you were focused on cards specifically?

CC: Yes, I was on the card side, though at the time we also had a personal loan business, an auto refinance business, and an insurance business. My job was to make sure our lenders felt good about the ROI they were getting on the platform. What usually happened is they would come back asking for more and more. They wanted the growth, and then our marketing and engagement team would have to do the hard work of finding more Credit Karma members so we could serve the demand from the lending side.

JB: Not long after you joined, Credit Karma entered the Canadian market in 2016 and then the UK market in 2019. Those markets already had established credit monitoring apps. How did Credit Karma differentiate itself there?

CC: I’ll caveat this with the fact that I was very focused on the domestic business. But what I observed is that we more or less migrated the same playbook from the States. In the US, the free credit score was the hook to get people to register, ongoing monitoring was the hook to get them to come back, and monetization was the lender ads on the platform. It was more or less the same playbook in Canada and the UK.

JB: At the time, what was driving Credit Karma’s growth?

CC: Our secret sauce was brand marketing. They started doing some experiments on YouTube and programmatic TV. There was an ad they recorded very cheaply, something like $50,000, that started to move the needle on web traffic. And then they just kept leaning into brand marketing. That was one of the bigger drivers for membership.

JB: When did they make that shift toward brand marketing?

CC: That was around 2012. There was a real inflection point after they figured it out. The shape of the growth curve really hit an inflection point after that.

JB: You mentioned Lightbox earlier. Was the goal to increase revenue per member? What was its impact on the business?

CC: It was really designed to drive better outcomes for all three constituents of the marketplace. No one likes to shop for credit card offers and then get declined. That actually runs counter to Credit Karma’s mission, which is to help people make financial progress. If they’re encouraging someone to apply for a product and that person gets declined, it actually hurts their credit score. From the lender perspective, operational costs go way down the higher the approval rate is, because they have costs tied to website maintenance, credit bureau data, and a bunch of other things they pay for on a per application basis. So the higher the approval rate, the better off they are from a cost perspective as well. When we launched the business we were really keyed in on measuring outcomes across all three constituents: is Credit Karma growing, are customers getting a better experience, and are lenders achieving a lower cost of acquisition? We found all three to be true.

JB: I’m curious about this, because if you look at the numbers, in 2016 it was 50 million users generating $500 million in revenue. When it sold to Intuit, it had 110 million users and about a billion dollars in revenue. The revenue per user was flat or had diminished over that period. Why do you think that was?

CC: It’s a really good question. Those comparisons are hard to make, but I think it’s the right math to calibrate on, like a yield-per-user metric. I would suspect if you continued to draw that curve past 2020, the picture would look different. A couple of things to consider: Lightbox was still fairly early in its maturity when Intuit acquired the business. The very first year it launched was 2017, and the acquisition was early 2020, so Lightbox had only really been in the market about two years. The penetration rate across the industry was actually still fairly low. I would say the majority of issuers had not yet adopted the technology. Right now I think it’s at maturity, so if you did the same math today, you’d likely see a different result.

JB: During that period, what was the definition of a “member”? Was it a monthly active user?

CC: It was a consumer who came to the app and was a verified, credit-active consumer with the credit bureau. You had to go through identity verification, and the bureaus had to match you against a record in their database. So it wasn’t enough to just be a real person.

JB: So they may not have been active, but we knew they had checked their credit score at least once. During the period you were there, Credit Karma launched new products like tax filing, insurance, and mortgage. Was this a way to get more data on the user? How did it fit into the business?

CC: The tax move seemed entirely connected to the mission of financial progress, and I think Intuit still thinks about it that way, because they do a lot of cross-promotion between TurboTax and cards. Some very high percentage of consumers, maybe around 50%, don’t have $400 saved in an emergency fund.

When we looked at the tax business, for us it was a way to actually create some of that liquidity for our members, because most Americans’ biggest one-time windfall is actually their tax return. Most people overpay and then get back $500 to $1,000 when they file. The idea was to be there at the moment people filed, not only to help them file, but so that when they got the return, they could make smart use of it. Maybe use it for a secured credit card to improve their credit.

The other part of the story, which maybe isn’t talked about enough, is that the product was 100% free. No upsells. If you’ve used some of the other “free” products out there, you’ll notice they charge you something when you need to file for your state. Karma’s product was totally free, all in the spirit of creating financial progress for people.

JB: You left a few months after the Intuit transaction for $8.1 billion was announced. Did you make some money with your stock options?

CC: Yeah, I did. There were some options there. It’s always nice to feel like you got a little extra in return. I always felt like Karma paid and compensated people very fairly, that was one of the things I loved about working there. But having an exit is always icing on the cake.

JB: Why did you decide to leave Credit Karma?

CC: It had been a little more than four years of working really hard, because the business was being prepared for some kind of exit. I wasn’t in the very small group of executives that worked on the deal with Intuit, so I could sense the pressure and intensity without fully understanding the reason for it. I could feel it in my hours, in how much I was traveling, in the scrutiny when we missed a KPI. Had I known we were being prepared for a sale, I would have understood that a little better. But in retrospect, all startups are like that. Karma was founded in 2007 and the exit was 2020, so that’s a 13-year journey to the liquidity event. I just happened to join in that last four-year sprint. I was tired and a little burnt out. And candidly, the prospect of working for a multi-billion dollar company at the scale of Intuit wasn’t going to be for me long-term, because I’d worked at Capital One as a mega company and my DNA is a little more wired toward act first, ask questions later. I like smaller companies for that reason. When I left Karma, I wanted to start a business. In retrospect, I think I could have stayed two or three extra years, because according to friends I have inside Credit Karma, the culture didn’t really start to change for several years after the acquisition.

JB: Six years later, membership went from 110 million to 140 million, so growth really slowed down. Is that market saturation for credit monitoring apps?

CC: Their revenues have actually grown pretty steadily through the post-acquisition period. But I think you’re pointing at something different, which is membership. I was always a little worried about this, even when I was there in 2016, because there are only about 200 million credit-active individuals in the US. Some people are immigrants who don’t yet have a credit file, some are too young. So there’s a theoretical max audience. It would make sense that at some point there’s an S-curve where rapid growth flattens out. My guess is they’re just in the maturity of that cycle. Their brand is probably as strong as ever on the consumer side. Even now, when I ask people what they use to monitor their credit, I often hear Karma as the number one answer. Although there is a close competitor now in Experian, because they’ve leaned into their marketplace and have real scale there as well.

JB: After leaving Credit Karma, you launched a newsletter called The Free Toaster, and then a marketing agency called New Market Growth. Are there growth strategies you learned at Credit Karma that you now teach your clients?

CC: Yes. One thing that was very notable when I was at Credit Karma was that the lenders who tended to do the best fell into a few patterns. One pattern was a lender that came in and served an audience nobody else wanted. That was almost always a success. For example, a subprime card issuer targeting a highly risky segment that generates above-average losses, but finding a way to underwrite that customer through a security deposit, cashflow data, or by connecting the product to a payroll account.

There are certain audiences that are too risky to lend to on an unsecured basis, but if you secure the product in the right way, you can actually serve populations that don’t have access to credit at all. And if you can be the first mover to deliver that on Karma, you can get outsized rewards. A second pattern is doing the same thing as everyone else, but with very low marketing friction. Your application process is excellent, your approval rates are high. When Credit Karma’s algorithm runs, your offer is viewed as the most efficient and rises up in the rankings.

A third pattern is genuine innovation, doing something fundamentally different or better than everyone else. The Chase Sapphire Reserve launch is a good example.

Chase made a concerted effort to challenge the Amex Platinum, which had long been the go-to card for elite travellers. Chase came out with the same annual fee but packed it with benefits and a 100,000-mile sign-on bonus worth about $1,500 in travel. It was a compelling offer the market hadn’t seen in a long time, and that kind of product tended to perform very well on channels like Karma.

JB: That brings me to a question I’d like your opinion on. I used to run an affiliate publisher, and one of the things I thought was a good idea was asking credit card issuers to give me a better welcome bonus in exchange for a lower commission. How should affiliate managers at fintechs think about balancing those two levers when the total customer acquisition budget is fixed?

CC: This is really tricky. Let’s create a tangible example. Say the card issuer pays you $300 per conversion and they’re offering a $100 bonus to the customer. You’re describing a world where the bank pays $200 to the publisher instead of $300, and $200 to the customer instead of $100. The total spend is the same, they’ve just redistributed how it gets paid. I’ve seen instances where the publisher is better off when that happens, and instances where they’re worse off. It tends to be a function of how well the bonus is promoted and who you’re getting it in front of.

There’s a sweet spot where you can drop your payout a little as the lender, give some back to the consumer, and everybody wins. But that requires a lot of iteration and testing. I’ll give you a recent example. A client ran a test comparing a zero dollar sign-on bonus, a $50 sign-on bonus, and a $100 sign-on bonus. My instinct was that $100 would beat $50 easily. But the result showed the $50 bonus captured most of the response benefit. Their initial response rate was around 2%. With a $50 bonus it went to 3%, a 50% lift. But from $50 to $100, it only moved from 3% to 3.1%.

This was a deep subprime audience that wasn’t used to getting any bonus at all. Once they saw $50, that was compelling enough. The difference between $50 and $100 barely moved the needle. The issuer would have been throwing away that extra $50. So their ongoing strategy is $50. But they wouldn’t have learned that without testing. I don’t have generic advice that unlocks this for publishers universally.

JB: Some credit card issuers are scared of welcome bonuses because they don’t want to attract churners, people who just take the sign-up bonus and cancel the card.

CC: I got that question a lot from the big players. “How can you guarantee that if I get a customer on Karma, they won’t churn onto some other product a year later?” We were never able to guarantee anything. That was just a reality.

JB: Is churning a significant cost, or is it a small population and a cost of doing business?

CC: I actually think it’s a valid concern. I’ve seen publishers that say, “if you have these two products, you should cancel them and get this other product instead,” directly encouraging churning behaviour. There are issuers that will refuse to work with a publisher that does that. It’s going to capture some baseline churn, but that publisher is actively encouraging the behaviour, and that rubs issuers the wrong way.

That said, in practice it’s usually a small percentage of users and, for those users, it is a cost of doing business. But issuers have gotten much smarter about it. I apply for a lot of cards, partly because I enjoy the bonuses but also because I like to experience products firsthand. I’ve been declined for products where the reason given was that I’d already received a bonus on that issuer’s product before.

I noticed Amex handle this particularly well. They said I was approved, I could get the card, but they couldn’t offer me the sign-on bonus because I had received one on another of their products too recently. They didn’t decline me flat out. They said I’m qualified but they can’t justify paying a bonus again. More and more issuers are building systems and policies to defend themselves against this.

JB: You recently wrote in The Free Toaster about the shrinking credit card business at NerdWallet. It’s not just them; a lot of affiliate publishers are shrinking. What channels should fintechs that want to grow fast be looking at?

CC: To add some colour to NerdWallet specifically, that situation is happening because their SEO traffic has been taking a hit. They even admit it in their earnings, and they’ve announced they’re investing more in paid media, paid social, and paid search to replace the organic traffic. That’s a very different ballgame because organic traffic costs you far less than paid. They’ll have some challenges adjusting to the new normal. As for the channel mix I normally see across fintechs: it’s fairly heavy in direct mail and affiliate marketing. When you roll up Karma, Experian, LendingTree, Bankrate, and the rest, affiliate marketing tends to account for about 40% of account generation. Another 40% is direct mail.

JB: Direct mail seems like a strategy from the 80s. Is it still actually working for fintechs?

CC: I’ve worked with 12 lenders at New Market Growth, and I can only think of one that hadn’t either tested or had a rollout program in mail. And these are predominantly fintechs. I actually hosted a dinner in New York last week where the topic was direct mail, what’s going on and what’s working. Sixteen executives from 11 different companies showed up to talk about it. It’s very much not dead. It’s about 40% of most fintech books. The remaining 20% is some mix of paid search, paid social, and maybe a little brand. Most lenders are underinvested in brand and social. I talked to a VP at a well-known, publicly traded fintech that’s been around since the early days, and he told me brand and influencer marketing is a really big part of their strategy. Most fintechs are under-penetrated there.

JB: Would you say direct mail is actually working better today? I’ve never received so much email, but I get very little physical mail anymore.

CC: The number I most recently heard was that $2 billion per year is spent on direct mail advertising in consumer lending alone. The affiliate category is larger, somewhere between four and six billion, but direct mail is very much alive. And I have a counterintuitive prediction: I actually think AI might create a renaissance for direct mail. Digital advertising is going to get way more competitive because everyone is going to have a bot or an agent running digital ads. It’s going to get really crowded and competitive because you can just automate it away. And then people are going to start looking at direct mail again with fresh eyes.

JB: That was Carlos Caro, former VP of Credit Cards at Credit Karma and founder of New Market Growth, a marketing agency specialized in affiliate marketing in the lending space. Thanks for listening to my show. Make sure to follow Fintech Growth Insider on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode. And if you're interested in stealing proven growth tactics from your fintech competitors, please sign up to my newsletter at fintechgrowthinsider.com

🇺🇸 Kalshi and Polymarket Are Betting Their Growth on Influencers, and It Is Working

US-based prediction market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket have turned influencer marketing into their primary growth engine

Kalshi’s partner roster includes NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, personal finance influencer Eric Pan, and anonymous meme page @sarcasm_only, which recently shared a Kalshi-sponsored post about the Academy Awards to 17 million followers. These platforms signing deals with celebrities, finance creators, and viral meme pages to pull retail traders onto their platforms.

Art Malkov (pictured above), the former chief marketing officer of Polymarket who now co-runs Lever.io, a Web3 creator marketplace connecting blockchain projects with influencers, says the channel is not optional for platforms in this space. “I don’t think prediction markets would do well without influencers because prediction markets really have a lot to do with emotion,” Malkov told the Financial Times.

Both platforms are also running targeted campaigns to attract female users. According to Kalshi’s head of communications Elisabeth Diana, female account holders now make up 26% of its user base, up from 13% just ten months ago, according to The Atlantic. Sports, meanwhile, account for 85% of Kalshi’s volume.

Growth metric: $2.3 billion traded weekly on Kalshi alone

Kalshi now records more than $2.3 billion in weekly trading volume, higher than Polymarket’s $1.2 billion last December.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Financial Times, The Atlantic and The Defiant

🌐 40% of Global Consumers Are Ready to Embrace AI-Assisted Shopping: What Does This Mean for Merchants?

SPONSORED - Worldpay’s recently published Agentic Commerce Report reveals how intelligent agents are reshaping how consumers discover, compare and manage what they buy – and what merchants can do to prepare for the industry’s biggest shift since e-commerce.

Surveying 8,000 consumers across seven countries, the results are clear: curiosity is high, but trust is the key to adoption.

Download the Agentic Commerce Report for free to discover how Worldpay can help your business stay ahead of the curve and prepare for the next era of agentic commerce.

Download the Agentic Commerce Report

🇺🇸 Monzo Quits the US While Every Other European Neobank Rushes In

UK-based digital bank Monzo is shutting down its US operations to focus on its home market and Europe instead. The move is an about-face from October, when Monzo was reportedly considering a US banking licence application, which is its second attempt after abandoning its first in 2021 following regulatory challenges.

The economics made the case against it. Getting a US banking charter carries significant upfront costs, but given how competitive the US market is, Monzo’s edge in the UK might not replicate in a market with established neobanks such as Ally, Chime and SoFi as well as new foreign challengers such as Nubank and Revolut.

Monzo, led by CEO Diana Layfield (pictured above), is instead pointing to its December 2025 European Central Bank authorisation as the bigger near-term opportunity. With pre-tax profits of £60.4 million ($80.2 million US) and 15 million UK customers, European expansion is a lower-risk, higher-return compared to the US.

Growth metric: 15 million UK customers

Monzo now serves more than 15 million customers in the UK ahead of its planned European expansion.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Bloomberg

🇮🇳 Bachatt Hit 3 Million Users in Under a Year by Building for India’s Informal Economy

India-based savings platform Bachatt has acquired 3 million users since launching in May 2025, by providing mutual funds accounts for merchants and self-employed workers with irregular incomes.

India has an estimated 300 million merchants and self-employed workers who earn irregular, unpredictable incomes. Existing savings products such as recurring deposits and fixed monthly contribution schemes were built around steady, predictable earnings, a structure that leaves much of this segment underserved. Bachatt was designed to fill that gap. Users can start with as little as ₹100 (US$1.08), pause contributions at any time, withdraw funds instantly, and save on weekends when cash is most available.

Founder and CEO Anugrah Jain (center) said the company wants to build five to six financial solutions, specially curated and tailored for the segment, adding AI-led wealth advisory and instant credit to services. The company is targeting 30 million users over the next 12 to 24 months.

In February 2026 alone, the platform processed more than 2 million mutual fund transactions.

Growth metric: 3 million users in under a year

Bachatt managed to garner 3 millions users under a year by serving the informal sector of India.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & TechStory

🇮🇹 Revolut’s $13.26 Million Fine Is a Warning for Every Fintech Running Zero Commission Ads

UK-based neobank Revolut has been fined €11.5 million ($13.26 Million USD) by Italy’s competition watchdog for running advertisements suggesting customers could trade with zero commission, without adequately disclosing the additional costs that applied.

Revolut Securities Europe UAB and Revolut Group Holdings Ltd were each fined €5 million ($5.77 million USD), with an additional €1.5 million ($1.73 million USD) penalty for failing to clearly explain account migration terms to Italian customers. Revolut said it “strongly disagrees” with the findings and will appeal, in a report by the Financial Times. Revolut, led by Nik Storonsky (pictured above), was valued at $75 billion as of end 2025.

Growth metric: $1.23 billion in global non-compliance fines in H1 2025

Globally, financial regulators imposed $1.23 billion in non-compliance fines in the first half of 2025 alone, a 417% increase year-on-year.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Financial Times

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s MySub Reached 360,000 Users Without Spending a Dollar on Ads

Nigerian-founded fintech MySub scaled to 360,000 users and $6,700 in monthly recurring revenue without raising external funding or running a single paid campaign.

Founder Raphael Obodugo (pictured above) noticed that West Africans were already splitting costs for Netflix, rent, and school fees through WhatsApp groups and spreadsheets. MySub lets users create shared subscription groups for any digital service, for example Netflix, Adobe Creative Cloud, Masterclass, and then automatically splits the cost, charges each member their share plus a 15% service fee, and handles all payments. A group of five sharing a $10 Netflix subscription, for example, each pays $2.25 a month instead of $10.

Rather than buying ads, Obodugo took the product directly into student groups, online communities, and young professional networks where shared spending was already happening. People tried it, liked it, and told others. “When a product genuinely solves a problem, people talk about it,” he said.

Growth metric: 360,000 users, zero ad spend

MySub reached 360,000 users entirely through community embedding and word-of-mouth, without raising external funding or running paid acquisition campaigns.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, TTY Brand Africa & Tech Cabal

🌐 Fintech CEOs Who Post Video Are Winning the Attention Game

Video is where attention has moved and most fintech CEOs are leaving it on the table.

Running a company is a full-time job, and producing video consistently never makes the priority list.

Fintech Growth Circle fixes that.

You join a 15-minute weekly call with Julien Brault, come empty-handed, and we handle everything: the ideas, the editing, the production. You get three short vertical videos, captioned and optimized for mobile, ready for your team to post.

Every clip also gets distributed to both Julien Brault’s and Fintech Growth Insider’s social channels.

Consistent video presence without adding headcount or clearing your calendar.

Spots are limited and applications are reviewed manually.

Join Fintech Growth Circle

🇺🇸 Blend’s AI Agent Is Targeting the Most Painful Part of Getting a Mortgage

US-based mortgage software company Blend has launched an AI agent called Autopilot, designed to eliminate the manual back-office work that makes mortgage applications slow.

Autopilot reads borrower documents, checks them for accuracy, updates loan files, and sends follow-up requests automatically. Human staff and existing systems still make the final decisions, but the target is the roughly $11,000 in human labour costs and hundreds of hours that lenders currently spend processing a single mortgage application, according to Blend CEO Nima Ghamsari (pictured above), he said to Fortune in an interview.

Roughly 20% of Blend’s customers adopted Autopilot within its first month of launch in March 2026. Blend builds white-label software that powers digital loan applications at major US banks and credit unions. The company went public in 2021 at a market cap north of $4 billion before rising interest rates crushed mortgage volumes and sent its share price down more than 90%.

Growth metric: 20% customer adoption in month one

Roughly 20% of Blend’s existing customers adopted Autopilot within the first month of its March 2026 launch

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Fortune

🇦🇪 Fintech Ad of The Week: Policybazaar Is Using Dubai Influencers to Make Insurance Feel Local

India-based insurance marketplace Policybazaar is running a multi-influencers campaign across the UAE, tapping Dubai-based influencers to promote its comparison platform to the Emirates’ diverse, largely expatriate population.

One of the ads features Ahmad Salah, better known online as Ahmad Al Kaashekh, a Dubai-based actor, stand-up comedian, and content creator with 441,000 Instagram followers. Originally from Kerala, India, Ahmad grew up in Dubai and speaks fluent Arabic, making him a natural fit for a market where both South Asian and Arab communities make up a large share of the population. Policybazaar is not running just one ad with one creator, it is working with multiple Dubai-based influencers simultaneously, each speaking to a different slice of the UAE audience in their own voice and style.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇺🇸 Financial Brand Forum will take place from April 13 to 15, 2026, in Las Vegas, United States, with tickets priced between $1,990 and $2,895, with speakers such as Will Guidara (World-Renowned Entrepreneur, Eleven Madison Park), Chris Voss (Former Lead Hostage Negotiator, FBI), and Mike Cessario (Founder & CEO, Liquid Death).

🇫🇷 Paris Blockchain Week will take place from April 14 to 16, 2026, in Paris, France, with tickets priced between €1,699 and €4,999, with speakers such as Yoni Assia (CEO, eToro), Raja Chakravorti (Chief Business Officer, Stellar Development Foundation), and Ben Zhou (Co-founder and CEO, Bybit).

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Plaid, the 8 billion fintech that became synonymous with bank account connections, has acquired This Week in Fintech, a fintech newsletter with 200,000 subscribers. The acquisition price was not disclosed, but founder Nik Milanović (pictured above) will continue running the publication with expanded resources.

In an interview with Cambrian managing partner Rex Salisbury following the sale, Milanović compared his ambitions for TWIF to the Bloomberg media division, wanting to move from summarizing fintech news to breaking them: “The amount of breaking fintech news coverage has really dropped. [… Meanwhile, fintech] doesn’t get the same coverage that it used to.”

Milanović founded TWIF in 2019 as a side hustle while working as VP at credit card fintech Petal and later as head of business development at Google Play. He then turned it into his almost full-time gig in 2022, when he launched his own venture firm, The Fintech Fund.

This acquisition mirrors a broader trend of companies investing in newsletters to reach new audiences. Robinhood famously acquired the MarketSnacks newsletter (now Snacks) in 2019 to engage its retail investing audience, while HubSpot bought The Hustle newsletter for $27M in 2021. For Plaid, whose customers are decision-makers working in fintech, owning the industry’s most-read newsletter is a direct line to its core audience.

Growth metric: 200,000 subscribers

Founded in 2019, This Week in Fintech send its newsletters to more than 200,000 free subscribers.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🌐 Fintech CEOs Who Post Video Are Winning the Attention Game

Video is where attention has moved and most fintech CEOs are leaving it on the table.

Running a company is a full-time job, and producing video consistently never makes the priority list.

Fintech Growth Circle fixes that.

You join a 15-minute weekly call with Julien Brault, come empty-handed, and we handle everything: the ideas, the editing, the production. You get three short vertical videos, captioned and optimized for mobile, ready for your team to post.

Every clip also gets distributed to both Julien Brault’s and Fintech Growth Insider’s social channels.

Consistent video presence without adding headcount or clearing your calendar.

Spots are limited and applications are reviewed manually.

Apply for Fintech Growth Circle

🇬🇧 One of UK’s Credit Bureau Is Building a Financial Services Suite Inside ChatGPT, One Tool at a Time

Credit bureau Experian has launched a tool inside ChatGPT allowing UK users to see average credit scores broken down by postcode area and age group, giving people a benchmark to understand how their score compare to others. Users who want a personalised score are routed directly to Experian’s own platform to complete the process.

Experian, led by CEO Brian Cassin (pictured above), notes that 18 to 34 year olds make up more than half of ChatGPT’s user base but are among the least likely to have checked their credit score. Rather than waiting for that audience to search for financial products, Experian is meeting them inside a platform they already use daily.

The launch follows Experian’s February rollout of an insurance marketplace app inside ChatGPT for US users, which allows consumers to compare estimated rates from more than 37 auto insurance carriers through a conversational interface.

ChatGPT has reached 900 million weekly active users and 50 million paying subscribers , OpenAI announced back in February 2026.

Growth metric: 50%+ of ChatGPT users aged 18 to 34

Experian identified ChatGPT’s young adult user base as a key untapped segment, with 18 to 34 year olds making up more than half of the platform’s users globally.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Finextra

🇺🇸 OKX Turned a Six-Person Team Into a 200-Article-a-Month Content Machine, Thanks to AI

US based crypto exchange OKX scaled its editorial output twentyfold in under a year and its CMO says writing skills are no longer the most important qualification for content roles.

In a Forbes interview, OKX’s global managing partner and CMO Haider Rafique (pictured above), said the platform’’s editorial and communications team of six people produced around 10 high-quality articles per month before migrating to an AI-assisted content pipeline six to seven months ago. That number is now close to 200, with Haider describing the output as “long tail, high quality.”

The efficiency gains extend beyond content as OKX’s paid advertising team now uses AI-generated static and animated creative, compressing the breakeven timeline on ad spend from 12 months to three. Rafique’s observation about what actually converts was direct as “The ugly thing converts better than the pretty.”

The shift is also showing up in how OKX hires. “It’s not so much about writing skills,” Rafique said, “because ChatGPT can reformat the text and write it in seconds.” What matters now is judgment, knowing what to delegate to AI and what to keep human.

Growth metric: 10 to 200 articles per month

OKX’s editorial team of six scaled content output from 10 to approximately 200 articles per month after adopting an AI-assisted content pipeline

Source: Forbes

🇺🇸 PayPal’s Stablecoin Has Quintupled in a Year

US-based payments giant PayPal, led by CEO Enrique Lores, is expanding access to its dollar-pegged stablecoin PYUSD to 70 countries.

Over the past year, PYUSD’s total market capitalisation has grown from under $1 billion to $4.1 billion, according to CoinGecko. The growth is driven by layering the stablecoin onto PayPal’s existing customer network rather than building a new distribution channel from scratch.

Customers across 70 nations including Uganda, Colombia, and Peru can now hold, send, and receive PYUSD directly in their PayPal wallets, up from just the US and UK previously. Users abroad can also earn rewards on their holdings, mirroring the 4% annual rate available to US customers.

In markets like Peru, PYUSD removes the need to convert funds into local currency on withdrawal. In Malawi, it gives users the option to hold funds inside their PayPal wallet rather than routing transfers automatically to a bank account. Clients using PayPal’s payouts product, including YouTube, can now also choose to receive payments in PYUSD.

Growth metric: $4.1 billion market cap

PYUSD’s total market capitalisation has more than quintupled over the past year, according to CoinGecko.

Source: Fortune

🇺🇸 Plaid Bought 100 New Yorkers a Coffee to Remind Them It Powers Their Banking Apps

US-based open finance platform Plaid took over the West Village location of Fellini Coffee on March 18 as part of its Powered by Plaid campaign.

The activation, dubbed Cafe Plaid, covered drinks for the first 100 guests and handed out branded merchandise. The venue choice was deliberate. Fellini Coffee, which operates five locations across New York City, anchors one of its outlets in the West Village, one of Manhattan’s most iconic neighbourhoods.

Plaid says more than half of Americans with a bank account have used Plaid, with its platform supporting nearly one million new connections each day, yet almost none of those users know the company exists. The Powered by Plaid campaign is a push to change that.

Growth metric: 1 million new Plaid connections daily

Plaid’s platform supports nearly one million new account connections each day, across a network used by more than half of Americans with a bank account.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🇺🇸 Rain Launches AI Agent to Fix the Financial Stress Problem That Is Costing US Employers $1.9 Trillion

US-based earned wage access (EWA) platform Rain has launched what it describes as the world’s first AI Financial Health Agent.

Unlike direct-to-consumer EWA apps such as EarnIn or Dave, Rain is embedded directly by employers, giving it access to real-time earnings data that the company says no other financial application or benefits platform can replicate. The agent works around the clock across payroll and timekeeping systems, serving 3.5 million employees across 1,200 companies including McDonald’s, T-Mobile, and Marriott.

Rain COO Frederic Choquette (pictured above) described the agent’s model which is to “Stabilize cash flow. Control spending. Grow wealth over time. Three layers, each powered by purpose-built agents,’’ in a Linkedin post.

Rain estimates that financial stress costs US employers $1.9 trillion annually in lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. Employers who have adopted Rain reported a 200% spike in job applications, 20 more worked hours per month, and employees 46% less likely to leave after six months, according to data from the platform.

According to data from Rain , more than half of employees say they would stay longer with an employer offering faster access to earned pay, while 71.6% of employers say flexible pay could reduce turnover.

Growth metric: $1.9 trillion

The estimated annual cost of employee financial stress to US employers, spanning lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnover.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🇸🇬 Airwallex Commits $1.1 Billion to UK, Europe Expansion

Singapore based global payments platform Airwallex is investing $1.135 billion across the UK and Europe over the next five years, its biggest regional expansion since launching in Asia-Pacific a decade ago.

The capital will fund new market entries including Spain and Sweden, new product launches, and the creation of around 100 senior engineering roles in London The investment includes $590 million earmarked for the UK and €200 million ($232 million) committed to the Netherlands.

Airwallex, led by Jack Zhang (pictured above), recorded 116% year-on-year revenue growth and a 226% increase in transaction volume across EMEA ( Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) in Q4 2025, driven by high-growth customers in travel, software, and e-commerce. The company has also surpassed $1.2 billion in annual recurring revenue globally, with 85% year-on-year growth.

Growth metric: $590 million committed to the UK alone

Airwallex’s UK investment represents more than half of its total $1.135 billion EMEA commitment, making Britain the single largest market in its five-year European expansion plan.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Wall Street Journal & FFnews

🇫🇷 Fintech Ad of The Week: UFC-Que Choisir Showed French Homeowners One Comparison Could Save Them Hundreds

French consumer group UFC-Que Choisir built an ad around a problem most homeowners didn’t know they probably had. Many are overpaying for mortgage insurance and have no idea they can do anything about it. The Lemoine Law, introduced in 2022, gave them the right to switch providers anytime, penalty-free, and the ad makes sure they know it.

Using the street interview format, the ad puts real people in front of the camera discovering they could drop their monthly premium from €60 (USD 69) to €14 (USD 16.20) for the exact same coverage, before pointing them to a free comparison tool that makes switching take just minutes.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇺🇸 InsurTech NY Spring will take place from March 30 to 31, 2026, in New York City, with tickets priced between $657 and $1,017, with speakers such as Raj Kalahasthi (Chief Information Officer, The Baldwin Group), Patrick Gallic (Head of International AI Hub, Tokio Marine), and Greg Hendrick (Chief Executive Officer, Vantage Risk).

🇺🇸 CBA LIVE will take place from March 30 to April 1, 2026, in San Diego, United States, with tickets priced between $1,595 and $4,195, with speakers such as Lindsey Johnson (President & CEO, Consumer Bankers Association), Maria Tedesco (President & COO, Atlantic Union Bank), and Arijit Roy (Senior Executive Vice President, Consumer and Business Banking Products, U.S. Bank).

🇺🇸 Fintech Meetup will take place from March 30 to April 1, 2026, in Las Vegas, United States, with tickets priced between $1,800 and $3,800, with speakers such as Angela Strange (General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz), Baishi Wu (Director of Product Management, Chime), and Aaron Slettehaugh (Senior Vice President Product, Ripple).

🇺🇸 Financial Brand Forum will take place from April 13 to 15, 2026, in Las Vegas, United States, with tickets priced between $1,990 and $2,895, with speakers such as Will Guidara (World-Renowned Entrepreneur, Eleven Madison Park), Chris Voss (Former Lead Hostage Negotiator, FBI), and Mike Cessario (Founder & CEO, Liquid Death).

🇫🇷 Paris Blockchain Week will take place from April 14 to 16, 2026, in Paris, France, with tickets priced between €1,699 and €4,999, with speakers such as Yoni Assia (CEO, eToro), Raja Chakravorti (Chief Business Officer, Stellar Development Foundation), and Ben Zhou (Co-founder and CEO, Bybit).

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

🇺🇸 Robinhood Launches an Amex-Killer & Cross $1B in Banking Deposits

US Trading platform Robinhood has officially pivoted upmarket. It unveiled an invite-only Platinum Card aimed directly at American Express’s core high-net-worth demographic, and announced it crossed $1B in banking deposits less than one year after launching banking.

Robinhood Banking is still rolling out an invite-only basis, and offer VIP perks such as same-day cash delivery in select markets, access to invite-only events, and even estate planning services.

Priced at $695 annually, the Robinhood Platinum Credit Card undercuts the Amex Platinum ($895), while offering a hyper-aggressive rewards suite including 10% cash back on travel and 5% on dining, among other perks.

For Robinhood, currently led by CEO Vlad Tenev, capturing even a fraction of this super-spender segment represents a quantum leap in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). According to Rex Salisbury, founder of fintech VC firm Cambrian, this new card will add pressure to Amex: ”AMEX is facing competition on the business side from Brex and Ramp, and as far as I can tell, losing. Their consumer business has been stronger, but now they have to contend with Robinhood,’’ he said in a LinkedIn post.

Growth Metric: 10x Spending Concentration

Industry data reveals that the average annual spend on a standard U.S. consumer card is approximately $21,215, but Platinum-tier cardholders typically spend ten times more than basic users.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider & Bezinga

🇺🇸 Is Your Risk Function Ready For Growth?

SPONSORED - Take the Risk Pulse Check quiz and find out in 60 seconds.

10 questions. Instant results. Zero cost.

Based on 200+ risk engagements with lenders worldwide.

Take the quiz!

🇦🇷 Argentine Neobank Ualá Hits $3.2B Valuation, But the Real Story Is How Allianz Plans to Sell Insurance to Its 11 Million Users

Argentine neobank Ualá’s has raised $195m at a $3.2bn valuation, with an insurance partnership quietly proving the bigger story.

Allianz X, the digital investment arm of Germany-based insurance giant Allianz Group, is the lead investor in this round. The insurer will also sell insurance to Ualá’s 11 million customers across Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico.

The two companies had already launched life and personal accident insurance products in Argentina before this round closed, generating over 300,000 quotes shortly after going live. That figure shows how quickly a neobank like Ualá, led by CEO Pierpaolo Barbieri (pictured above), can be converted into an insurance sales pipeline.

Growth metric: 300,000 insurance quotes post-launch

Ualá and Allianz’s co-launched insurance products generated over 300,000 quotes shortly after their introduction in Argentina alone.

Source: GMA Council

🇧🇷 Nubank Buys Naming Rights to Inter Miami Stadium

Brazilian neobank Nubank has secured naming rights to a Miami stadium, marking another major sports sponsorship as it pushes into the US market.

The venue, officially called Nu Stadium at Miami Freedom Park, is home to Inter Miami, a Major League Soccer club. The deal, announced on March 4, will also place the Nubank logo on Inter Miami jerseys beginning in August 2026.

MLS drew more than 11.2 million fans in 2025, marking the league’s second highest attendance season with average crowds of 21,988 per match. Nubank, which serves 131 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, is expanding its consumer brand into the United States, particularly among the country’s large Spanish speaking population.

The MLS deal follows Nubank’s recent multi-year partnership as Official Team Partner with the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team ahead of the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship season.

FGI previously reported that Co-founder Cristina Junqueira has relocated to Miami to lead the expansion, while the company has also recently secured approval to establish a US national bank.

Growth metric: 11.2 million MLS fans annually

MLS recorded its second-highest attendance season in history in 2025 and average crowds of 21,988 per match.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & USA Today

🇬🇧 Monzo Launches Free Tax Tool as UK Forces Freelancers to File Digitally

UK-based neobank Monzo has launched a free tax tool ahead of the UK’s digital tax rules coming into force this April. The rules will require sole traders and landlords to file financial records digitally every quarter.

Built on Sage accounting software, Monzo's free tax software allows users to categorize transactions, upload receipts, track expenses, and set aside tax payments without leaving the app.

Monzo’s research found that 28% of freelancers do not expect to be compliant in time, while 69% do not use premium digital tax tools. By integrating these workflows directly into its banking app, Monzo lowers customer acquisition costs by solving a high friction compliance problem instead of competing on low margin perks like interest rates or cashback.

Monzo, now led by CEO Diana Layfield (pictured above), posted £60.5m ($81.68m) in pre-tax profits in the year to March, on revenues of £1.2bn ($1.62bn). It has 14 million total customers, 800,000 of which are business customers.

Growth metric: 69% of sole traders not using digital tax tools

Despite new UK tax rules taking effect this April, nearly seven in ten sole traders do not currently use premium digital tax tools

Source: FStech, Finextra & Financial Times

🇬🇧 Allica Becomes UK’s Newest Fintech Unicorn by Backing SMEs

UK challenger bank Allica has reached unicorn status after securing new funds to further expand lending to small and medium enterprises.

Allica raised $155m in a Series D round led by Dubai-based Ventura Capital, pushing its valuation to $1.2bn.

The bank, led by CEO Richard Davies (pictured above), has built total outstanding SME lending of £3.5bn ($4.69bn) since opening for lending in 2020, a period in which challenger banks have seized 60% of the UK SME lending market, up from just 10% in 2019 when the four largest banks controlled 90%.

Allica has also completed its third acquisition since 2020, purchasing Kriya, a London-based embedded BNPL lender that has processed £4bn ($5.36bn) in transactions since launching in 2011.

The deal plugs Kriya’s PayLater and invoice finance platform directly into Allica’s banking infrastructure, giving small businesses access to working capital inside the platforms they already use.

Growth Metric: 10% Market Penetration by 2028

Allica is now aggressively targeting 10% penetration of the established SME finance market and £1 billion in working capital finance by the end of 2028

Sources: City Am & Fintech Magazine

🇺🇸 “Everything App” Becomes Real as X Money Enters Beta

In a characteristically eccentric launch, Elon Musk (pictured above) has moved X Money into external beta, auctioning the first 42 invites through actor William Shatner for charity.

The service is powered by Cross River Bank and Visa, and offers up to 6% annual percentage yield on deposits. Winners received a metal debit card featuring their X username, a physical status signal designed to drive social sharing. X has already secured money transmitter licences in more than 40 US states.

By capping the beta at 42 invites tied to a charitable auction, X generated outsized earned media without a traditional marketing budget. The scarcity made a payments product feel like an exclusive release.

The 6% APY is also significantly higher than the current offering by other top banks in the US which usually hovers around 4%, according to Fortune.

Growth metric: 6.00% annual interest rate for direct deposits

While the industry average for high-yield savings sits around 4.5% in the US, X’s 6.00 annual interest rate a serves as a powerful lever for X to attract depositors

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, TechCrunch & Fortune

🇺🇸 Fintech Ad of The Week: Cash App Is Paying Users to Sign Up and Calling It a Game

Cash App has launched Cash Apples, a limited time browser-based pixel game running from March 9 to 13 that rewards users with real money for shaking virtual trees. The daily prize pool starts at $80,000 and scales to $500,000 over five days. To claim any prize, players must link or create a Cash App account, turning a simple game into a high-conversion onboarding funnel.

Play is restricted to a four-hour daily window between 4pm and 8pm EST, creating appointment-based engagement and driving organic social mentions at scale. Rather than spending $500,000 on programmatic advertising with uncertain conversion, Cash App is putting that capital directly into users’ hands.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇬🇧 CBC Summit Europe will take place on March 17, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £906.43 and £1,246.53, with speakers such as Jason Allegrante (Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Fireblocks), Ajay Amlani (President and CEO, Aware, Inc.), and Sabih Behzad (Head of Digital Assets and Currencies Transformation, Deutsche Bank).

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

🇺🇸 Fintech Americas will take place from March 24 to 26, 2026, in Miami, with tickets priced between $795 and $2,195, with speakers such as Cristina Junqueira (Co Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Nubank), Biswa Sengupta (Managing Director for Generative AI, JPMorgan Chase), and Rohit Patel (Director, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Meta).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10 percent discount on tickets using the GFI10 promo code.

🇬🇧 PAY360 will take place from March 25 to 26, 2026, in London, with speakers such as Will Marwick (Chief Executive Officer, IFX Payments), Jas Narang (Chief Transformation and AI Officer, Santander), and Saira Khan (Head of Innovation and Partnerships, First Direct Bank).

🇺🇸 InsurTech NY Spring will take place from March 30 to 31, 2026, in New York City, with tickets priced between $657 and $1,017, with speakers such as Raj Kalahasthi (Chief Information Officer, The Baldwin Group), Patrick Gallic (Head of International AI Hub, Tokio Marine), and Greg Hendrick (Chief Executive Officer, Vantage Risk).

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

🇺🇸 X Will Turn Ticker Symbols Into Buy Buttons for 600 Million Users

Elon Musk’s (pictured above) social platform X is preparing to let users trade stocks and cryptocurrencies without leaving the app.

X is introducing Smart Cashtags, an interactive ticker symbols embedded in posts that allow users to tap an asset and execute a trade instantly. The rollout coincides with the external beta launch of X Money, the platform’s in-house wallet and payments system expected within weeks.

With roughly 600 million monthly active users and over one billion installs, its distribution scale is comparable to major consumer fintech platforms. Subscriptions have already crossed $1 billion in annual recurring revenue.

According to research done by social media marketing firm Recurepost’s 2026 data analysis, cryptocurrency is among X’s most active content categories, with an estimated 15 to 18 million daily active crypto users globally. Crypto-focused accounts average a 4.2% engagement rate against the platform average of 2.9%.

Growth metric: 15 to 18 million daily crypto users

Cryptocurrency is among X’s most active content categories, with an estimated 15 to 18 million daily active crypto users globally.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Bloomberg

🇨🇦 Introducing Fintech Delta, a Program Aligning Fintech Startups With Institutional Clients

SPONSORED. Fintech Delta is an equity-free, no-fee acceleration program led by Station Fintech Montréal, designed for Canadian fintech startups from pre-seed stage and up that are ready to scale. Built with financial institutions and operated by former founders, the program provides direct access to institutional clients, experts, and investors, in Canada and internationally.

APPLY NOW

🇺🇸 Andreessen Horowitz General Partner Is Hunting For An AI Agent That Can Manage Your Entire Financial Life

Andreessen Horowitz general partner Andrew Chen (pictured above) is looking to invest in a personal finance AI agent that could transform how consumers discover financial products. He wrote in a recent Linkedin post that he is looking for a startup working on “OpenClaw for personal finance”.

Chen’s post implies that OpenClaw, an AI agent that got so viral it’s causing a Mac Mini shortage in the Silicon Valley, could be managing people’s entire financial life. He envisions an AI tool that would “integrate with all your banks/cards/etc, understand tax returns and filings, monitor portfolio and competitors, digest proprietary data sources (credit card panels, app rankings, and etc), read company news and X”

OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent, can actually execute tasks autonomously, like sending emails, connecting to third-party services and booking meetings. By connecting to a user’s financial accounts, it could help consumers uncover the most suitable financial products, from credit cards to mortgages and stocks, removing fintech platforms like Credit Karma and Rocket Money from the buying journey of many consumers.

Financial services is the highest-payout sector in the $20 billion global affiliate marketing industry, according to research data from Post Affiliate Pro, and such an AI agent could change how people discover financial products. And the fact a partner from Andreessen Horowitz, a VC firm that invested in Stripe, Plaid and Robinhood, believes it’s the future, is telling.

Growth Metric: 2M visitors per week

OpenClaw, the viral open source AI agent, claims its drawing 2M visitors per week.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🇺🇸 Airwallex Signs Multi-Year Jersey Patch Deal With San Francisco Giants to Drive US Growth

Australian payments platform Airwallex has signed a multi-year jersey patch partnership with the San Francisco Giants to accelerate customer acquisition and brand credibility in the US market.

The Giants drew 2.93 million attendees in 2025, averaging over 36,000 fans per game, according to audit data by Baseball Reference. A 2025 marketing analysis by newsletter platform Newsletter Bear puts the franchise's email reach at approximately 680,000 active subscribers, including 12,400 corporate contacts tied to suite bookings and company events.

That list skews affluent and local, with an average household income of around $127,000, with most subscribers based within 50 miles of San Francisco. Social following across English and Spanish-language accounts surpassed seven million in early 2026, extending visibility to global audiences. Beyond brand exposure, Airwallex will streamline the Giants’ own payments, billing and expense management workflows.

The Giants deal extends Airwallex’s global sports portfolio, which already includes McLaren in Formula One, Arsenal in the Premier League and the Blues in Super Rugby. CEO Jack Zhang has set a target of one million new customers over five years, with brand equity and geographic expansion identified as primary growth levers. The company established its US headquarters in San Francisco last year and is expanding its local office footprint.

Growth metric: Giants nearly 3 million annual stadium attendees

The Giants also have seven million social followers and 680,000 email subscribers, with the 12,400 corporate contacts in the Giants’ first-party database.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & NBC Sports

🇺🇸 Gen Z Investment App Hits 1M Investors, Adds Debt to Scale Paid Acquisition

US-based Gen Z investing platform Alinea Invest has surpassed one million users through founder-led social growth and is now layering debt financing to scale paid acquisition without raising new equity.

Founded by Anam Lakhani (left) and Eve Halimi (right), the wealth app skews heavily toward young women, with 92% of users female and 70% Gen Z, and an average age of 22. The company reached a $6 million net revenue run rate in 2024 with sixfold annual growth and a team of just 10, reflecting unusually efficient early acquisition.

Instead of relying on paid media, Alinea built distribution through direct creator engagement on TikTok, Instagram and community events, generating more than 550 million views under the #alineaapp tag. That founder-native channel created a large organic base before the company turned to paid growth.

Growth metric: 550 million views

The #alineaapp hagtag generated 550 million views across TikTok, Instagram and community events.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Forbes

🇸🇪 Klarna Is Turning 180 Million Shoppers Into Banking Customers

Swedish buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna is converting online shoppers into full banking customers at scale and the numbers are starting to show it.

The company, led by CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, already captures consumers at the moment of purchase across 966,000 merchants. Its fourth quarter 2025 earnings reveal the flywheel gaining momentum: banking customers reached 15.8 million last year, more than doubling year on year, while consumer deposits climbed 37% to $13 billion, drawn from a total base of 180 million users.

The economics of conversion are striking. Average revenue per user rises from roughly $30 across Klarna’s full base to $107 among banking customers. Transaction frequency jumps from around 10 purchases a year to 28.5, and average balances grow from $64 to $475.

Card adoption tells the same story. Active card users hit 4.2 million, up 288% year on year.

Growth metric: $13 billion in deposits

Accumulated from a payments-led acquisition model with Klarna banking customers reaching 15.8 million in 2025.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & PYMNTS

🇺🇸 Is Your Risk Function Ready For Growth?

SPONSORED - Take the Risk Pulse Check quiz and find out in 60 seconds.

10 questions. Instant results. Zero cost.

Based on 200+ risk engagements with lenders worldwide.

Take the quiz!

🇸🇬 Superapp Grab Expands Into Wealth Management With $425 Million Stash Acquisition

Singapore-based superapp Grab, which offers ride-hailing, food delivery, and digital banking across Southeast Asia, has acquired US retail investing platform Stash at a $425 million valuation

Stash operates exclusively in the US, targeting small retail investors seeking long-term ETF (exchange traded funds) investing, while Grab has built digital banking presence across Southeast Asia through GX Bank in Malaysia, GXS Bank in Singapore, and Superbank in Indonesia, without yet offering investment products. Grab says it plans to explore introducing Stash in Southeast Asia longer-term, but has not committed to a timeline.

Grab, led by CEO Anthony Tan (pictured above), takes a controlling 50.1% stake in Stash, which has over one million paying subscribers and approximately $5 billion in assets under management. Central to the deal is Stash’s AI Money Coach, which drove same-day positive financial actions from approximately one in two users since its late 2024 launch. This tool could help Grab in its ambition to monetize its 50 million active users.

Grab’s financial services revenue grew 34% year on year in Q4 2025, its neobank Superbank turned profitable in Q3 2025 with 60% of users from the Grab ecosystem, and the company posted its first full-year profit of $200 million in 2025.

Growth metric: Grab's 50 million active users

The Stash acquisition could give Grab a direct path to convert its 50 million active users base into Stash subscribers

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Forbes

🇺🇸 Etsy Finds Higher-Value Users Through AI Agents

US-based online marketplace Etsy is attracting higher-value customers through AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

According to an analysis by TradingView of its Q4 2025 earnings report, orders arriving via AI recommendations carry higher average order values than traditional channels, with ChatGPT-referred purchases skewing particularly high. Agentic traffic grew approximately 15 times since 2024, though it still accounts for less than 1% of total visits.

Etsy has also co-developed Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol alongside Walmart, Target, and Wayfair, allowing US shoppers to purchase directly within Google AI Mode and Gemini, and signed an agentic payments agreement with Stripe. CEO Kruti Patel Goyal (pictured above) says early participation lets Etsy shape how its products surface inside AI experiences.

The broader trend supports the urgency, with Adobe data recording a 693% surge in referral traffic from generative AI sources during the 2025 holiday season

Growth metric: Agentic traffic grew 15X

Agentic traffic on Etsy grew 15X year over year on Q4 2025, with orders from ChatGPT skewing higher value than all other acquisition channels.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, TradingView & PYMNTS

🇺🇸 Fintech Ad of The Week: Chime and Jason Momoa Prove That the Best Fintech Marketing Doesn't Look Like Fintech Marketing

US-based fee-free digital bank Chime’s, which counts over 22 million customers, has been running a multi-campaign partnership with Jason Momoa and their latest spot is a good example of why it works. There is no mention of interest rates, fees or financial empowerment.

It is just Momoa goofing around with the brand and that is entirely the point. The ad is all about branding, and since it looks nothing like an ad, it's much more likely to be watched by their target audience.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇺🇸 ICBA LIVE will take place from March 6 to 9, 2026, in San Diego, with speakers such as Rebeca Romero Rainey (President and CEO, Independent Community Bankers of America), Jack E. Hopkins (ICBA Chairman and President and CEO, CorTrust Bank), and Alice P. Frazier (ICBA Chairman elect and President and CEO, Potomac Bank).

🇺🇸 T3 Technology Conference will take place from March 9 to 12, 2026, in New Orleans, with speakers such as John O’Connell (Founder and CEO, The Oasis Group), Raj Madan (Chief Information Officer, AdvisorEngine), and Oleg Tishkevich (Chief Executive Officer, Invent).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $200 on tickets using the T3GFI200 promo code!

🇬🇧 CBC Summit Europe will take place on March 17, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £906.43 and £1,246.53, with speakers such as Jason Allegrante (Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Fireblocks), Ajay Amlani (President and CEO, Aware, Inc.), and Sabih Behzad (Head of Digital Assets and Currencies Transformation, Deutsche Bank).

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

🇺🇸 Fintech Americas will take place from March 24 to 26, 2026, in Miami, with tickets priced between $795 and $2,195, with speakers such as Cristina Junqueira (Co Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Nubank), Biswa Sengupta (Managing Director for Generative AI, JPMorgan Chase), and Rohit Patel (Director, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Meta).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10 percent discount on tickets using the GFI10 promo code.

🇬🇧 PAY360 will take place from March 25 to 26, 2026, in London, with speakers such as Will Marwick (Chief Executive Officer, IFX Payments), Jas Narang (Chief Transformation and AI Officer, Santander), and Saira Khan (Head of Innovation and Partnerships, First Direct Bank).

🇺🇸 InsurTech NY Spring will take place from March 30 to 31, 2026, in New York City, with tickets priced between $657 and $1,017, with speakers such as Raj Kalahasthi (Chief Information Officer, The Baldwin Group), Patrick Gallic (Head of International AI Hub, Tokio Marine), and Greg Hendrick (Chief Executive Officer, Vantage Risk).

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

I‘m Julien Brault and on the show today, how Maxwell Nicholson, CEO and co-founder of Blossom Social, built a social network for investors with over 160,000 monthly active users, 3.8 million dollars in annual revenue and a weekly newsletter that generates 500,000 dollars per year.

Maxwell was making $120,000 a year at McKinsey with a clear path to double that within a few years, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was meant for something else. He grew up in a small Canadian town called Grand Forks in British Columbia. His dad was a welder and his mom a stay-at-home mom. He and his brother were the first in their family to graduate university.

So, when he landed a job at McKinsey, his grandma thought he was crazy to even consider leaving. But in 2021, at the height of the pandemic investing craze, Maxwell walked away to build a social stock trading app for Canadian investors.

Maxwell Nicholson: I knew that I wanted to leave, so it wasn't too difficult of a decision for me. The senior partner of the McKinsey Vancouver office was actually one of our early investors. So I owe a lot to McKinsey and I loved my time there.

Julien Brault: In 2022, you raised a pre-seed of $750,000 and it included two Canadian stock market YouTubers, Brandon Beavis, who's now a co-founder, and Shay Huang. How did you find them? Because at the time Blossom was not a household name. I don't even know if they had heard about it. So how did you convince people or did they reach out to you? I'm just curious because I do think raising from influencers can create leverage. So I'm curious to hear about that.

MN: Well, Brandon joining the company was a huge turning point for us. I think at that point we had less than a thousand users, maybe less than 10,000. Brandon was really the one that has driven all of our growth to this point. We had reached out to him on LinkedIn because we were just looking for anyone who had “investing” in their bio on Instagram or LinkedIn and just cold messaging them. So we cold messaged Brandon. He hopped on a call with us and then he told us his rates to sponsor a video. We were like, "Wow, we can't afford that. We definitely don't have the money." Then I had another opportunity where a friend of a friend invited me to a barbecue that he was going to be at. I built a more personal relationship with him and sold the vision.

JB: Did he just say, "Okay, I'll do $100,000 worth of media, influencing videos, and you just give me stock?" Or did he actually sign a check?

MN: We were raising our pre-seed round, so Brandon invested $50,000 of his own money. He invested and we granted advisory shares. Over the course of the year, he started driving immense value. I think a lot of other startups might see someone driving all this value and think, "We got him for so cheap, we barely gave him any equity. That's great for us." But for me, I was like, "Wow, there's a huge mismatch in the value he's driving and the equity he received." So I actually had a meeting with him and said, "Hey, we're going to double your equity from the advisory agreement."

He just continued to deliver incredible value and we kept increasing his equity. Eventually the three co-founders had a conversation and said, "Hey, Brandon's basically operating like a co-founder. Let's officially make him one." We had a few beers and I put my arm around him and said, "Brandon, we got to have you on as a co-founder." And he's like, "You better not just be saying this because you're drunk, man."

JB: When was that? When did he join full-time as a co-founder?

MN: I think it was pretty early. It was either a year in or a year and a half in. It was probably like six months after that press release you mentioned in 2022. And I'll touch quickly on Shay, the Humble Trader, who's another incredible YouTuber.

The only reason she invested was because Brandon invested. So Brandon and her had sushi together. Right off the bat, day one, Brandon brought in an incredible investor. If that doesn't speak to the early signals of him being an incredible value add to the team, I don't know what does.

JB: You initially started with the social component, a little bit like Robinhood. A lot of people don't know, but Robinhood launched a non-trading trading social media app in 2013.

The plan was eventually to launch a brokerage, a little bit like what Dub is doing today. Then later on you announced that you're happy to be a social network and you don't want the regulatory hurdles of operating a brokerage. So what changed? Because today it's probably easier than ever. There are players like white label, API-driven players like Alpaca that would allow you to basically add this without getting an introducing broker license. So what made you change your mind about allowing trades?

MN: I believe at the time, and maybe it's different now, Alpaca didn't even support Canadian stock trading. So that was a no-go if you're targeting the Canadian market. We sat down and looked at the numbers. If you look at Robinhood's public financial statements, where brokerages make most of their money isn't on equity trading. Equity trading has almost become a loss leader for them at zero dollar commission. They make most of their money on options trading and crypto trading. So even if you can get over the hurdle of the brokerage license, which is maybe a two to three year journey, now you're entering a competitive market with Wealthsimple and Questrade.

Wealthsimple is an incredible product, by the way. Our only differentiation that we really had was that we were going to be a social broker, which in hindsight, I don't think is a true differentiation point to switch someone from Wealthsimple. There's no way in our initial version we're going to be as seamless and simple as they are.

I had told all our investors that we're going to be a brokerage. So pivoting was very hard. I remember calling our investors and saying, "Hey, I don't think this brokerage path is the right path." And they said, "Okay, well, how are you going to make money then?" And I was like, "Well, I don't really know."

Now, we make a lot of our money through advertising and ETF partnerships. We had some early indications of that, but not enough where I could confidently say, "Hey, we're going to grow from $300,000 to $4 million in two years," like we've done. When we pivoted, that was very unclear. So it was in a sense a very risky pivot.

JB: When you were mentioning the competitive landscape, you mainly mentioned Canadian players. What's the share of your users in Canada versus the US?

MN: At the time we were fully focused on Canada. Then when we pivoted away from the brokerage path and turned into pure play social network, we were like, "Okay, now we can actually be a truly global company." Within six months or so, our audience was 60% Canada/40% US. But I think we're getting closer to 50-50 now. Canada has always been our core market, but we see the US as the next frontier. Obviously there's a way bigger opportunity in the US and that's been a big focus for us over this year and will continue to be over next year.

JB: You raised $7 million with a substantial portion of it coming from equity crowdfunding. I actually had a similar experience with my own fintech and I know for a fact it's not an easy path. Did raising money from the crowd become a hurdle or did it actually end up being an advantage?

MN: Having a community of 2,000 super fans is massive. I will send out emails like, "Go upload or repost this LinkedIn post." When we got featured in Forbes, I sent out an email to help boost that. But I think the biggest example of it was our events. So we held an event at the Rogers Center where we had over 1,400 people come out. Probably a good third of those people who came out were shareholders. When you're a shareholder of this company, our event almost has a dual purpose: it's like a conference as well as almost like a shareholder meetup.

JB: Were you charging for the event or was it just for making money?

MN: The event itself was break even. In fact, I think we lost a little bit of money on it. But we charged $60 for the event to cover the cost. Obviously Rogers Center, for context, I think cost us $250,000 to book out. I think they're telling us we might have to pay more next year if we do it there again next year. But yeah, that was epic.

JB: In a recent LinkedIn post, you mentioned that the Blossom newsletter, The Weekly Buzz, is generating over $500,000 in annual revenue on its own. Most fintechs actually have a newsletter, but it's mostly for product updates and re-engaging existing users. How did it become an actual profit center? Can you tell me the story behind this?

MN: The story behind it was two years ago I remember seeing in the news that The Peak sold for $6 million to Zoomer. I remember seeing that and I had seen The Peak's media kit because we had considered advertising in them. So I knew how many emails they had and I was like, "Wait, we have almost that many emails from our users who obviously joined our mailing list and everything." So I was like, "Maybe we can do something like that." And obviously we took inspiration from Wealthsimple TLDR and some of these other great newsletters. So we started really putting time into it, giving a weekly recap of the markets.

Since a lot of our business comes from advertising and partnerships with ETF providers in the app, it was very easy for us to add in newsletter advertising as part of those packages. So I think we do have it easier than other companies, because obviously the sales side of it is the complicated side. If you're just a random fintech, you're not really going to set up a sales team to start selling ads. We were already selling the ads, but it's just given us additional inventory to sell our partners. And the other thing that's really nice about it is that newsletter advertising is very understandable for people. We've had clients where they've started by advertising in the newsletter and then we've been able to shift them to more in-app advertising. But yeah, it's been awesome. I still write it every Sunday, much to my girlfriend's dismay.

JB: Why do you still write it as the CEO of a 30-plus person company? And what do you do differently than other fintechs? Because I think a lot of fintechs, like you mentioned Wealthsimple TLDR, but Robinhood has also invested in newsletters. What's the secret ingredient?

MN: I think the secret sauce is to figure out what your audience actually wants to read. What are they reading and write a newsletter to mirror that with maybe your own spin. The spin with The Weekly Buzz is that it's actually much more like deep dives into a single story versus Wealthsimple TLDR is more high level. We go deep into one story rather than just the high level, which I think makes it unique.

But in contrast, a lot of fintechs or just startups in general are just like, "Here's a product update or here's a sale or whatever." Find out what it is in your niche that people are actually reading and write about that. Because then when you have an announcement, you can just slot it in. I'll slot it into our newsletter as if it's an ad. And the reason that's important is because even for us with the newsletter where we have such a successful newsletter and my open rate on the regular newsletter send is 55-60%. I clean the list regularly, so this 300,000 number is post-cleaning.

JB: So how many active subscribers to the newsletter?

MN: The active subscribers is 330,000. Anytime users haven't opened it in a month or month and a half, I'll just remove them from the list. But what I was going to say was even with that list, when I try and send out a product announcement, Google still sends it to promotions. So Google's gotten so good at telling whether something's promotion or not. And I don't think it has anything to do with the sender. It's like its own algorithm. But if we slot it into the actual newsletter as our own ad, then it will go to the primary inbox. And I know I'm going way into depth on this, but if you go to the promotions folder, it's basically like you may as well have not written the email.

JB: Apart from the newsletter, how do you make money? You mentioned advertisements, but is it just banners inside the app? Can you explain to me how you actually make money? Because banners are almost impossible to make money on today.

MN: Yeah, they're ineffective and users hate them, right? So I think we've been very thoughtful in how we've built our ad units into the app. One of our core ad units is our “Learn and Earn” section. ETF providers make these short educational lessons about their products. Users can complete the lessons and they earn a small reward.

I wish I could say this was my idea, but I stole that off of Coinbase, which had a similar feature for learning about crypto tokens. I was like, "Why can't we do this with ETFs?" We also have our premium ETF pages, where the ETF providers can basically buy their ETF page in the app and then customize it with their colours and their resources.

JB: That's really interesting because social trading apps are usually about stock picking, but you're telling me a lot of your revenue is actually coming from ETF providers. That's a bit confusing to me because people who just index, let's say the S&P 500, don't really have much to talk about regarding their investing strategy on a social network. So how does that work?

MN: It's a funny nuance about Blossom and it's really tied into our ethos of building the platform for long-term investors. We have about $4 billion in linked assets to the app and 60% of that is held within ETFs. And ETFs and dividends are the most talked about, they're the most followed topics on the app. So we've actually geared the app to be specifically for long-term investors and dividend investors.

JB: So that's your differentiator with Dub. You're not the Wall Street Bets crowd. You're more the investing crowd.

MN: Yeah, exactly. If you think about the industry, Dub would in my mind fall more in the copy trading bucket. Dub and eToro have social elements, but they're more geared around explicit copy trading. And then you have something close to Dub in the US, which is more of the Wall Street Bets crowd, called After Hour. So all of those, I think, are great platforms, but for a very different audience. If you love Wall Street Bets, Blossom probably isn't the best place for you.

JB: Do you allow your users to monetize and sell access to their trades?

MN: No, and it's for the exact reason we're talking about. A lot of the conversation is more around people learning how to invest, people encouraging each other, sharing milestones, encouraging each other on their journey, rather than me saying, "Hey, I'm the best investor in the world. You should follow everything I do." So we build more of a true community around the app, which I'm very proud of, and more transparency and knowledge sharing, rather than stock picking. And I wouldn't even say stock picking, more like aggressive swing trading. Because we still have people doing stock picking, more like long-term investing, fundamental, more Warren Buffett style.

JB: You mentioned that you wanted to double your user base within about a year. What are your main acquisition channels to get new users in the door right now? I've seen that you're advertising on TikTok and Meta, but I'd like to hear about what's the mix and where your users come from.

MN: Our three main channels are paid advertising. Meta is number one by a fair margin. And then we do TikTok, Google Ads and experiments on other channels as well. We have about 150 finance content creators who are sharing their portfolios on Blossom. And then in any of their videos, they say, "Hey, you want to see what I'm investing in? Come check me out on Blossom." So that's a huge channel. And then, just by nature of being a social network, you have those network effects, people tell their friends.

The paid advertising is the most predictable channel. I think it's the one where I can say with confidence that we will double by next year. Because with consumer apps, as you know, your LTV to CAC ratio is very important. With our paid ads, we hit about on our marginal spend about a 3 to 4x LTV to CAC with less than a one year payback period. So it's very profitable and we're testing probably a thousand different creatives at any time, not a thousand different videos, but Brandon will have five or six different variations of the same video with different text, different targeting. Every time I say this number, he always says that I got it wrong, but yeah, he showed us a slide in our planning where he'll test like 60 different creatives to find one winning creative. So we have that down to a really good science.

JB: And how do you use AI to get there faster?

MN: The most interesting ways that we use AI, I think one of them is even in our moderation. We've built really good AI moderation to tell if something is scammy or promotional, because I think a lot of platforms, maybe they've adapted now, but if you look on Instagram or especially TikTok, you'll still see all these scam comments. And it's often finance scams, right? AI has been pretty good at telling whether that's a scam. We used to play whack-a-mole with keywords. So it'd be like, "Follow Julien Brault on Facebook for all your trades." And you'd get the keyword, but then they'd find all the different ways to spell your name with different characters. So AI is pretty good at that.

JB: I think a lot of fintechs probably want to get in the influencer game. How do you start this? How do you scale this?

MN: One thing that I is unique about our affiliate program is that a lot of companies say "We're only going to pay for a funded brokerage account." The problem, when you're paying for a funded brokerage account, is that influencers have no control over this process. It's not their fault if your funnel is bad. So our view is, let's just pay them for what they basically have control over, which are the downloads. But the other thing I'll say is that influencers in general don't like affiliate deals. So it's going to be very hard if you're trying to convince influencers to do affiliate deals.

JB: Is it purely performance based? It's not like, "I'll pay you a thousand dollars to do a creative and then on top of that X dollars per app downloaded"?

MN: Yeah, for us it is. The way we've done that is by building relationships with a lot of the influencers. About 20 of them have actually invested in the company. The beautiful thing about our affiliate channel is that our product can fit into any of their organic content, which is not generally true for most fintechs. So our call to action can just be "Come see what I'm investing in on Blossom." So Blossom is really just an extension of their social profile.

JB: How much do you pay per download?

MN: We started at $5, which is the same that we give to refer a friend. And then we have a tiered system that as you hit certain milestones, it'll go up. And you can also unlock other perks too. One of our perks is our ambassador retreat, which we're doing in Tulum this year. I don't think this is applicable for most companies because it is quite difficult to get influencers bought into an affiliate program. Me, Brandon and the team, we're friends with many of them now. So I know they hate affiliate programs. One of the things Brandon has done really well is he found up-and-coming influencers who are maybe smaller but on that growth trajectory. That's a really good one to target rather than just going for the biggest ones in your niche. So that's one practical tip I have to give. And then the second is to look at their recent views, their recent engagement and their recent ads. Don't just look at followers. That's not a good way to evaluate an influencer.

JB: I see more and more people using street interviews to promote products and I don't know if it's ads, but I saw you shared a video about Santa Claus asking people how naughty people like Warren Buffett or Sam Bankman-Fried were.

It catches your eye for sure. Do you do ads in this format or is this pure social media engagement?

MN: We've experimented with the street interview format before too. The Santa one, I'd say, I don't think we're running any of the Santa ones as ads. That was more of a fun one. And for the listeners' reference, we did a campaign called Wall Street Santa where our marketing coordinator dressed up as a purple Santa and went to Wall Street. We have a couple good collab videos coming out. We have one with the Einstein of Wall Street. That was more social media engagement, more of just doing something fun and creative, rather than a pure download push.

JB: When you raise venture capital, investors expect a billion dollar exit. Blossom Social has about 160,000 active monthly users, but given the fact that you're only making money on ads and newsletter sponsorships, how do you become a billion dollar company? What's the maximalist version of Blossom if everything goes right in the next 10 years?

MN: The best comparable I'd say is TradingView. TradingView is also a social network primarily for traders. I think they just raised at a $2 to $3 billion valuation. They're a truly global company. So I think that's the next frontier of Blossom is becoming truly global. At our current level, we're doing about $4 million in revenue, 50-50 Canada-US. There's at least a 5 to 10x opportunity in the US by just doing what we're doing. So that will bring us from $4 million to $20 to $40 million in revenue, which already, you know, at a 10x valuation puts you at half a billion. I think within even the near term, there's a lot of potential there.

Pinterest is an $18 billion company. Obviously they're a very successful social media platform, but my open question is, if we can truly be the social network for investing, I would argue that's more valuable than a Pinterest. It's the same with LinkedIn. They built the social network for careers. I'm sure that idea, when it started out, sounded ridiculous. Any niche social network generally sounds kind of ridiculous. And generally it kind of is. If you're doing a social network for dog walkers or something like that, the problem is that the audience isn't that valuable. We're niche compared to Instagram, but we have the most valuable audience. If you look at our average revenue per user compared to Reddit, it's like 10 times higher than Reddit. So we can be a tenth of the size of Reddit and be as valuable.

JB: That was Maxwell Nicholson, co-founder and CEO of Blossom Social. Thanks for listening to my show. Make sure to follow Fintech Growth Insider on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode. And if you're interested in stealing proven growth tactics from your fintech competitors, please sign up to my newsletter at fintechgrowthinsider.com

🇺🇸 MrBeast Officializes Entry Into Banking with Acquisition of Teen Neobank Step & Its 7 Million Customers

Jimmy Donaldson (pictured above), better known as MrBeast, has officially entered the fintech arena with the acquisition of Step, a youth-focused banking app that has attracted over 7 million users and raised half a billion in funding. The deal follows his October trademark filing for MrBeast Financial.

“Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up. That’s exactly why we’re joining forces with Step,” MrBeast announced to his 450 million YouTube subscribers. “I want to give millions of young people the financial foundation I never had.” The acquisition gives Beast Industries immediate access to Step’s technology platform, in-house fintech team, and a proven banking infrastructure through its partnership with Evolve Bank & Trust.

Step, founded in 2018 by fintech veterans CJ MacDonald and Alexey Kalinichenko, offers a comprehensive money management platform for teens and young adults. The app includes a Step Visa Card, accounts for saving, spending, and investing, all without monthly fees. The company’s mission of providing financial literacy tools to the next generation aligns perfectly with MrBeast’s massive youth audience generating 5 billion monthly views.

Donaldson is no stranger to fintech investing. As previously featured in Fintech Growth Insider’s Top 40 Celebrity Fintech Investors, he has backed Current, a neobank for teens and young adults, and invested in crypto ventures including NFT platform Refinable, which was acquired by Artifact Labs, and crypto wallet company Bitski, acquired by Phantom.

What makes Step particularly attractive is its impressive roster of celebrity investors, which includes TikTok star Charli D’Amelio, Will Smith, The Chainsmokers, and NBA champion Stephen Curry.

Growth metric: 450 million YouTube subscribers

With over 450 million subscribers on YouTube alone, Mr Best’s operates the world’s largest YouTube channel, which allowed his media company to raise at a 5 billion dollars valuation.

Source: CNBC, TechCrunch & Fintech Growth Insider

🇨🇦 Introducing the Validation Program, Powered by Fintech Cadence

SPONSORED. The Validation Program, powered by Fintech Cadence and hosted by Station Fintech Montréal, is a free, non-dilutive support initiative for early-stage fintech startups. The program helps founders test real ideas with real customers, refine their product, and validate their business model with confidence. It includes approximately 10 hours of structured sessions and over 40 hours of personalized mentorship, with access to more than 50 industry advisors. The 8-week program targets startups with a working prototype serving financial institutions or B2B clients. A cohort of 10–15 companies is selected for intensive guidance, hybrid sessions, and access to a lasting fintech community.

Update: You have until February 19th to apply!

Apply

🇨🇴 Colombia’s Gelsa Group Uses Sports Betting Payouts to Drive Wallet Adoption

Colombian holding company Gelsa Group is using sports betting and lottery payouts as a growth lever to push adoption of its digital wallet, TodoPay.

TodoPay is a consumer digital wallet that lets users store money, receive payouts, transfer funds, and pay or withdraw cash through physical locations.

The hook is simple, with Colombian national lottery prizes below COP 499,999 (about US$115) now paid directly into TodoPay. Instead of collecting cash, users are nudged to keep funds inside the wallet for future transfers, payments, and bets.

This matters because more than 75% of transactions in Colombia are still conducted in cash. Betting outlets and lottery payouts become a practical on-ramp into digital payments.

Gelsa Group, led by general manager Mauricio Chaparro (pictured above), operates one of the largest betting and multi-service retail networks in Bogotá and Cundinamarca, with more than 2,500 owned outlets and 12,000 terminals across 116 municipalities.

Similar growth tactics have appeared in other markets. In the US, Robinhood expanded into event-based contracts, borrowing mechanics from sports-style betting to attract new users and boost engagement, even as its core business remains investing.

Growth metric: 75% cash transaction rate

More than three-quarters of Colombian transactions are still made in cash making lottery, making betting outlets and lottery payouts a practical on ramp into digital payments

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider and La República

🇺🇸 Polymarket Turns Free Groceries Into a Pop-up Marketing lay in New York

US-based Polymarket has staged a grocery-themed pop-up in New York City, using free food distribution as a high-visibility marketing tactic in the world’s largest regulated sports betting market.

Led by CEO Shayne Coplan, the prediction market platform is running what it calls New York’s first free grocery pop-up in Lower Manhattan from Feb 12 to 16, putting Polymarket directly in front of thousands of pedestrians in one of the most expensive city in the US.

While framed publicly around affordability and cost of living, the setup mirrors classic pop-up marketing designed to drive media coverage and public curiosity at scale. For context, the average cost per lead in financial services now costs over $650 per lead on average, according to 2026 benchmarks from marketing firm First Page Sage, with fintech leads typically running between $452 and $490.

The campaign follows a similar activation by rival Kalshi, which earlier covered up to US$50 worth of groceries for hundreds of shoppers in the East Village. Both companies timed their campaigns around local debate on food affordability.

The city sits at the centre of the US sports betting economy, with the state recording US$23.9 billion in legal sports betting handle between April 2024 and March 2025, according to the New York State Gaming Commission. Nationwide, annual sports betting volume is estimated at roughly US$220 billion.

Kalshi reported US$43.1 billion in trading volume in 2025, driven largely by sports-related contracts. Polymarket closed the year at US$33.4 billion.

Growth metric: $23.9 billion in legal sports betting in the state of New York

Legal sports betting in the state of New York amounted to 23.9 billion from April 2024 to march 2025

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Fox Business, Financial Content & The New York Times

🇮🇳 BharatPe Hires Cricket Superstar Rohit Sharma to Win India’s QR Payments Crowded Marketplace

Indian payments firm BharatPe has signed cricket superstar Rohit Sharma as its brand ambassador to boost visibility in the country’s crowded QR payments market.

BharatPe serves both consumers and merchants, offering QR code payments and digital transfers on one side, and point-of-sale acceptance infrastructure on the other.

The partnership is timed around the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. Rohit, who has 48 million Instagram followers and lead India to victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup, a tournament where the final match against the US drew over 260 million viewers, gives BharatPe a direct line to massive, engaged audiences.

Head of marketing Shilpi Kapoor said the company is using the tournament to push daily usage where during the campaign, consumers and merchants receive rewards if they complete six transactions a day.

“Today, an average frequent digital transactor in India does 10 to 12 transactions a day. India wants speed, convenience, scale, but at the same time wants minimal risk,” she told Storyboard18 in an interview.

For context, the 2026 Super Bowl LX halftime show featuring Bad Bunny had an average TV audience of 135 million viewers, according to Filmogaz.

Growth Metric: Rohit’s 48 million followers on Instagram

BharatPe is leveraging Rohit’s social media reach to amplify its campaign, adding to the millions of viewers watching the cricket matches to drive wider attention.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider, Filmogaz, mint & Storyboard18

🇺🇸 Falling Interest Rates Brought Borrowers to SoFi, Then the Platform Kept Them Spending

US-based SoFi just posted its first-ever $1 billion revenue quarter in Q4 2025, adding one million new customers along the way.

The company, which now serves 13.7 million customers, runs a broad consumer finance platform spanning personal loans, student loans, home loans, investing, credit cards, payments, and digital banking.

That all-in-one model lets it capture customers during major financial moments, then keep monetzing them across multiple products over time.

Falling interest rates also saw consumers flock to SoFi to refinance existing loans and shift high-interest credit card balances into cheaper personal loans. That triggered a surge in borrowing activity as SoFi record US$10.5 billion in loans during the quarter, up 46% year on year, across personal, student, and home lending.

SoFi’s revenue from investing, credit cards, and payments jumped 78% to roughly US$457 million, while overall fee-based revenue rose 53% from a year earlier.

The company, led by CEO Anthony Noto (pictured above), has also been leaning into sponsorships tied to music and sporting events aimed at younger consumers, a play to capture users early, before long-term financial habits are set, while cross-selling drives lifetime value once they’re inside the ecosystem.

Growth Metric: 1 million net new customers in Q4 2025

SoFi also reach $1 billion revenue quarter in the same period while over a million new customers signed on to the platform.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, PYMNTS & Yahoo! Finance

🇺🇸 Is Your Risk Function Ready For Growth?

SPONSORED - Take the Risk Pulse Check quiz and find out in 60 seconds.

10 questions. Instant results. Zero cost.

Based on 200+ risk engagements with lenders worldwide.

Take the quiz!

🇿🇦 GoTyme Rebrands Away From TymeBank as It Tries to Shed Bad Reviews And Unify Under One Brand

South Africa-based TymeBank has rebranded to GoTyme Bank as the group looks to wipe the slate clean and unify its identity across markets.

GoTyme operates as a digital-first, branchless bank backed by the Philippines’ Gokongwei Group and built on TymeBank’s operating model. It serves customers through a mobile app supported by physical kiosks in major retail chains.

The rebrand comes at a moment of reputational friction as TymeBank has been repeatedly criticised online for poor customer service and reliability issues, with a Trustpilot score sitting at just 1.9 out of 5.

Rather than trying to defend the old name, the group is choosing to move on. Rebranding to GoTyme (similar to the name of its Philippines counterpart) lets the bank put distance between itself and that baggage, simplify its messaging across both markets, and start fresh with a clearer promise around “simplicity, transparency, and trust,” said CEO Cheslyn Jacobs in a LinkedIn post.

The updated GoTyme app, rolled out in batches since January 2026, is part of that fresh start. Changes focus on cleaner design, better performance, and stronger security, with migration staged carefully to keep things stable for existing customers.

Since launching in South Africa in 2019, TymeBank has grown to 12 million customers, while GoTyme has reached 6.5 million in the Philippines, giving the group a combined base of 18.5 million users.

Its Singapore-based parent company, Tyme Group, had in 2024 received a $150 million investment from Brazilian digital bank Nubank.

Growth Metric : More than 150,000 new customers onboarded every month

Globally, GoTyme served more than 18.5 million customers across Phillipines and South Africa.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Reuters & Stuff.Co

🇺🇸 Fintech Ad of The Week: TurboTax Reminds How Drama-Free Filing Your Taxes Can Be

TurboTax used its Super Bowl ad spot this year to flip tax season stress on its head by hiring Adrien Brody, an actor best known for gut-wrenching roles like The Pianist, to make the joke that filing taxes with TurboTax is not painful. In the ad, Brody, whose brand is suffering on screen, says he cannot do happy and quit. While there were other fintech ads during the Super Bowl, like the Ramp one featuring The Office comedian Brian Baumgartner being “multiplied”, and Coinbase's retro karaoke ad featuring a Backstreet Boys song, this one was hands down my favorite.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇨🇳 Consensus Hong Kong will take place from February 18 to 20, 2026, at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with tickets priced between $399 and $799, with speakers such as Jordan Gray (CoFounder and CMO, PublicAI), Joelly Gloria (Business AI @ Meta), and Ming Wu (Co-founder/CTO, 0G)

🇬🇧 TradingTech Summit London will take place on February 26, 2026, at Hilton Canary Wharf, with tickets priced at £895, with speakers such as Nafisa Yusuf (Director and Head of International Market Structure, BlackRock), Stuart McDowell (UK Chief Information Officer, Societe Generale), and Monika Fernando (Head of Global FI Client Data Analytics and Head of FI eTrading Strategy EAP).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code

🇺🇸 ICBA LIVE will take place from March 6 to 9, 2026, in San Diego, with speakers such as Rebeca Romero Rainey (President and CEO, Independent Community Bankers of America), Jack E. Hopkins (ICBA Chairman and President and CEO, CorTrust Bank), and Alice P. Frazier (ICBA Chairman elect and President and CEO, Potomac Bank).

🇺🇸 T3 Technology Conference will take place from March 9 to 12, 2026, in New Orleans, with speakers such as John O’Connell (Founder and CEO, The Oasis Group), Raj Madan (Chief Information Officer, AdvisorEngine), and Oleg Tishkevich (Chief Executive Officer, Invent).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $200 on tickets using the T3GFI200 promo code!

🇬🇧 CBC Summit Europe will take place on March 17, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £906.43 and £1,246.53, with speakers such as Jason Allegrante (Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Fireblocks), Ajay Amlani (President and CEO, Aware, Inc.), and Sabih Behzad (Head of Digital Assets and Currencies Transformation, Deutsche Bank).

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

🇺🇸 Fintech Americas will take place from March 24 to 26, 2026, in Miami, with tickets priced between $795 and $2,195, with speakers such as Cristina Junqueira (Co Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Nubank), Biswa Sengupta (Managing Director for Generative AI, JPMorgan Chase), and Rohit Patel (Director, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Meta).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10 percent discount on tickets using the GFI10 promo code.

🇬🇧 PAY360 will take place from March 25 to 26, 2026, in London, with speakers such as Will Marwick (Chief Executive Officer, IFX Payments), Jas Narang (Chief Transformation and AI Officer, Santander), and Saira Khan (Head of Innovation and Partnerships, First Direct Bank).

🇺🇸 InsurTech NY Spring will take place from March 30 to 31, 2026, in New York City, with tickets priced between $657 and $1,017, with speakers such as Raj Kalahasthi (Chief Information Officer, The Baldwin Group), Patrick Gallic (Head of International AI Hub, Tokio Marine), and Greg Hendrick (Chief Executive Officer, Vantage Risk).

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Hi Fintech Maniacs,

You probably already saw it, since I sent it to you already, but Fintech Growth Insider now officially have a podcast!

If it’s not already done, please add it to your favourite podcast app like Apple Podcast, Spotify or Overcast to make sure you don’t miss any episode.

I also launched a Reddit sub where you are free to ask any fintech growth question you may have or share cool fintech campaigns.

Yup, the Fintech Growth Insider “empire” is growing :)

Julien Brault

🇺🇸 Ramp Courts Brex Customers Amid Capital One Takeover

Ramp is moving to capture customers from competitor Brex ahead of Capital One’s planned US$5.15 billion acquisition.

Capital One’s acquisition of Brex, expected to close in mid-2026, values the company well below its US$12.3 billion peak. Meanwhile, Ramp, led by CEO Eric Glyman (pictured above), remains independent with a valuation of about US$32 billion, up from $75 million in 2020.

Ramp executives said the deal creates an opening for Ramp, with director of engineering Leo Mehr saying In a LinkedIn post that bank integration can slow product development, calling the acquisition a “generational opportunity” for Ramp.

In a blog post, Ramp urged finance teams using Brex to watch for possible changes to its product roadmap, customer support, and pricing or policies as the platform moves under bank ownership, and to pay close attention to any customer updates on opt-in requirements or account transitions.

Analysis by spend management firm Tropic suggests Brex’s Empower platform was launched too early, driving customer churn in 2025 as users switched to Ramp. In a LinkedIn post, Tropic co-founder and COO Justin Etkin said signs of decline were visible as early as the second quarter of 2023, citing product issues and “promises that didn’t meet reality”

Ramp is generating more than $1 billion in annualised revenue as of November 2025 data and is free cash flow positive. It serves over 50,000 customers and enables more than $100 billion in annualised purchase volume. Brex, by comparison, recorded about $700 million in revenue in 2025.

Growth metric: From $75 million to $32 billion valuation

Ramp is valued six times higher ($32 billion versus to Brex’s $5.15 billion exit), and processed more than $100 billion in annualised purchase volume.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🇺🇸 Is Your Risk Function Ready For Growth?

SPONSORED - Take the Risk Pulse Check quiz and find out in 60 seconds.

10 questions. Instant results. Zero cost.

Based on 200+ risk engagements with lenders worldwide.

Take the quiz!

🇭🇰 Crazy Rich Asians-Inspired Neobank Chocolate Finance Plants Flag in Hong Kong

Chocolate Finance, a wealth management platform, has officially expanded from its home base of Singapore to Hong Kong.

The move is a calculated bet on one of Asia’s most cash-rich and yield-hungry demographics. According to the HSBC Affluent Survey released in January 2026, the perceived threshold for “middle class” status in Hong Kong has climbed to HK$8.35 million in liquid assets, roughly US$1.08 million.

About 1 in 13 Hong Kongers now qualifies as a millionaire, and many reach the HK$10 million (1.3 million USD) mark by age 39, typically within eight years of crossing their first million.

The survey also found that over half of its respondents held at least HK$1 million (128,000 USD) in liquid assets. Nearly 70% built their wealth through investments, business profits, interest earnings and rental income.

On the ground, Chocolate Finance has brought in Shawn Lam as its Hong Kong Head of Social Growth and Partnership. Lam previously served as brand director at Hong Kong homegrown pizza chain Dough Bros and will report to Tim Jones (pictured above), Chocolate Finance’s Hong Kong CEO.

To stand out, Chocolate Finance is leaning hard into lifestyle branding and signed Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding (pictured above) as its ambassador, targeting the aspirational class that wants their money working toward a “richer life.”

Growth Metric: 1 in 13 Hong Kongers are millionaires

Over half of residents surveyed hold at least HK$1 million in liquid assets, with many reaching HK$10 million by age 39.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Fintech News & Marketing Interactive

🇺🇸 Affirm Now Lets Renters Split Payments Through New Partnership

Buy now, pay later provider Affirm has partnered with rent reporting platform Esusu to allow some renters to pay their rent in two instalments.

For Affirm, led by CEO Max Levchin (pictured above), the partnership extends its BNPL model beyond retail into recurring, essential payments such as rent, an area where credit cards have traditionally had limited reach. Affirm currently has 24.1 million active consumers.

Under the pilot programme, eligible renters using Esusu can split their monthly rent into two payments at 0% interest, with no late fees. Affirm provides the financing, while Esusu continues to handle rent collection and report on time payments to credit bureaus as part of its credit-building service.

Esusu processes about US$100 billion in annual gross lease volume and serves roughly 12 million renters across five million homes, working with property owners and renters rather than managing units directly.

Growth metric: 12 million Esusu renters able to use Affirm’s BNPL

Affirm can now offer its BNPL service to 12 million renters who use Esusu’s platform for rent payments.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, CNBC & PYMNTS

🇺🇸 NYSE Eyes Round-The-Clock Trading With Tokenised Shares

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is seeking regulatory approval to allow shares listed on its exchange to trade around the clock through blockchain-based tokens that represent company stock.

The NYSE currently operates from 9:30am to 4:00pm Eastern Time on weekdays. Transactions under the proposed model would settle instantly on-chain, potentially replacing the current one-day clearing cycle.

As of January 2025, extended-hours activity accounted for more than 11% of all US equity trading, with over 1.7 billion shares traded daily, up from just over 5% in the first quarter of 2019. By value, extended-hours trading averaged more than US$61 billion a day in 2024, accounting for nearly 10% of total dollar volume in the fourth quarter.

The exchange processes an average of about 1.6 billion shares a day during its regular trading hours.

Smaller venues have begun experimenting with tokenised equities, including BitMEX, which launched tokenised equity perpetual in January 2026 tied to shares such as Apple, Tesla and Nvidia.

Growth metric: 1.7 billion shares traded daily

More than 1.7 billion shares are traded daily during extended US equity trading hours.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Wall Street Journal

🇳🇬 Nigerian Challenger Bank Expands Into Canada And Tanzania

Nigerian neobank Kuda Bank processed $20.4 billion (₦29 trillion) across more than one billion transactions in 2025 and is moving into Canada and Tanzania to capture cross border remittances.

In Canada, Kuda is targeting more than 100,000 Nigerians who still rely on third-party services to send money home. In Tanzania, the bank has secured a payment service provider licence, allowing it to distribute funds more cheaply across East Africa. Headquartered in the UK, Kuda is leaning on its flat fee pricing to disrupt remittances, for example, charging £3 (about $4.07) per transfer in its UK corridor, regardless of the amount sent, up to £10,000, undercutting legacy providers that can charge up to an average of 8%.

Kuda, led by Babs Ogundeyi cut losses by 84% in 2024 to US$5.8 million after pulling back from aggressive user growth, and now projects 1.7 million monthly active users by December 2026, though it has not disclosed current active user figures after reporting more than seven million registered customers in 2024.

Growth metric: $20.4 billion in transaction value

Kuda Bank has processed over 1 billion transactions in 2025 alone, amounting to $20.4 billion in transaction value

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Technext & Business Day

🇬🇧 Fintech Ad of The Week: All-in-one Investment and Crypto Tracker Delta Makes Sense of Messy Portfolios

All-in-one investment and crypto tracker Delta by eToro leans into a familiar frustration for retail investors of having their money scattered across multiple platforms with no clear view of their overall performance.

For a generation that often uses multiple trading apps, Delta provides a real-time view of their money in one dashboard.

The portfolio tracker, built in Belgium and acquired by Israeli-based brokerage platform eToro in 2019, connects to more than 5,000 financial institutions and wallets.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇨🇳 Consensus Hong Kong will take place from February 18 to 20, 2026, at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with tickets priced between $399 and $799, with speakers such as Jordan Gray (CoFounder and CMO, PublicAI), Joelly Gloria (Business AI @ Meta), and Ming Wu (Co-founder/CTO, 0G)

🇬🇧 TradingTech Summit London will take place on February 26, 2026, at Hilton Canary Wharf, with tickets priced at £895, with speakers such as Nafisa Yusuf (Director and Head of International Market Structure, BlackRock), Stuart McDowell (UK Chief Information Officer, Societe Generale), and Monika Fernando (Head of Global FI Client Data Analytics and Head of FI eTrading Strategy EAP).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code

🇺🇸 ICBA LIVE will take place from March 6 to 9, 2026, in San Diego, with speakers such as Rebeca Romero Rainey (President and CEO, Independent Community Bankers of America), Jack E. Hopkins (ICBA Chairman and President and CEO, CorTrust Bank), and Alice P. Frazier (ICBA Chairman elect and President and CEO, Potomac Bank).

🇺🇸 T3 Technology Conference will take place from March 9 to 12, 2026, in New Orleans, with speakers such as John O’Connell (Founder and CEO, The Oasis Group), Raj Madan (Chief Information Officer, AdvisorEngine), and Oleg Tishkevich (Chief Executive Officer, Invent).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $200 on tickets using the T3GFI200 promo code!

🇬🇧 CBC Summit Europe will take place on March 17, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £906.43 and £1,246.53, with speakers such as Jason Allegrante (Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Fireblocks), Ajay Amlani (President and CEO, Aware, Inc.), and Sabih Behzad (Head of Digital Assets and Currencies Transformation, Deutsche Bank).

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

🇺🇸 Fintech Americas will take place from March 24 to 26, 2026, in Miami, with tickets priced between $795 and $2,195, with speakers such as Cristina Junqueira (Co Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Nubank), Biswa Sengupta (Managing Director for Generative AI, JPMorgan Chase), and Rohit Patel (Director, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Meta).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10 percent discount on tickets using the GFI10 promo code.

🇬🇧 PAY360 will take place from March 25 to 26, 2026, in London, with speakers such as Will Marwick (Chief Executive Officer, IFX Payments), Jas Narang (Chief Transformation and AI Officer, Santander), and Saira Khan (Head of Innovation and Partnerships, First Direct Bank).

🇺🇸 InsurTech NY Spring will take place from March 30 to 31, 2026, in New York City, with tickets priced between $657 and $1,017, with speakers such as Raj Kalahasthi (Chief Information Officer, The Baldwin Group), Patrick Gallic (Head of International AI Hub, Tokio Marine), and Greg Hendrick (Chief Executive Officer, Vantage Risk).

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Born in Belgium, Wealthsimple’s Chief Growth Officer Simon Lejeune wanted to be a journalist growing up. His parents did not think it was a great idea, and Simon decided to study business engineering to keep his parents happy, with the secret goal of, one day, owning a newspaper. He moved to Montreal after graduation, and held various marketing jobs that led him to become head of user acquisition at Hopper, a flight booking app now valued at $5B.

In February 2020, a few weeks before Covid paralyzed the airline industry, Simon generously agreed to meet with me at the Hopper HQ in Montreal to give me some growth tips for my own fintech venture. The Chinese economy was starting to grind to a halt, and I asked Simon if selling plane tickets was harder as a result. I was surprised when he said conversion had never been as high, as airlines were discounting their tickets.

This bonanza did not last, though, and Hopper ended up making deep cuts to weather the storm. Simon left Hopper to start a growth marketing agency and Wealthsimple quickly became one of its top clients.

Founded in Toronto in 2014, Wealthsimple was initially a robo-advisor offering low-cost ETF portfolios. In 2019, it ran with Robinhood’s playbook and launched the first zero-commission trading app in Canada.

It was an instant hit, but it became more than that after Covid hit. People were bored and flush with generous government aid cheques. As a result, an entire generation got into stock trading using the Wealthsimple Trade app. When Simon was offered a full-time job at Wealthsimple in 2021, he did not think twice.

Simon Lejeune: I worked for like eight to 10 different clients. Wealthsimple was one of them, and I was super close. I was seeing the rocket ship was about to launch and I was on the launch pad. Don’t stay on the launch pad when someone offers you a seat on the rocket. I really liked Mike [Katchen], Brett [Huneycutt], and Rudy [Adler] in marketing. I thought they were super smart and knew what they were doing. So I decided to fully join Wealthsimple with a couple of people who were working with me at the agency at the time. We’re still working with Wealthsimple now.

Julien Brault: Did you move to Toronto?

SL: No, I stayed in Montreal. That was also interesting because it was during COVID. Wealthsimple really grew during COVID and went from a couple hundred employees to over a thousand. We’re a super distributed team. My leadership team in growth marketing, I have someone in New York, someone in Vancouver, someone in San Francisco. It’s very remote first. We do have a core office in Toronto where people go.

JB: You joined Wealthsimple in 2021, and at the time Wealthsimple was known as the robo advisor. I think they had started Wealthsimple Trade, so they were a little bit like the Robinhood of Canada. It was around $10 billion in 2021 when you joined, and now we’re talking about $100 billion. There was a 10X growth. How is marketing different to go from 0 to 10 or 10 to 100 in a fintech? Obviously you cannot just do the same thing to get so much more assets.

SL: Totally. It was a super important pivotal year for Wealthsimple, a pivotal moment for sure. I think the success was already sort of baked in at its inception because it’s the same people, the same mission, the same culture, and the same naive ambition of trying to become the largest financial institution in Canada. What is also still the same is a very high quality, high bar for product. We’re a very product led organization. We still grow mostly by expanding our product suite or improving existing products. What hasn’t changed is our brand strategy. It’s the same people making still unbelievable, unique, different ads.

JB: I had a question I wanted to ask you later about that. I see a lot of fintechs that reach a certain scale and all their marketing budget was performance, Facebook ads, TikTok ads. Then they realize huge companies like Airbnb are investing so much in branding, and they start to say, “Okay, we should probably put a percentage at least of our budget into branding.” In the Wealthsimple case, I’ve followed them since pretty much the beginning. They always had care for branding. I’ve seen billboards since way before it was worth $10 billion. What’s the role of branding at Wealthsimple and why do you think they invested in branding since the beginning?

SL: Yeah, I think there’s multiple ways to tell this story. When I think about it, it’s because that’s what the people at the time in the marketing team knew how to do. Rudy [Adler] was one of the three co-founders, and he worked in ad agencies in New York. He was this very creative guy, and he hired a bunch of people from very creative backgrounds. They didn’t really necessarily have the performance marketing DNA. In a way, that’s how we’ve operated. Hire really smart people and then let them do what they’re really good at. They’re really good at brand marketing. In retrospect, it was kind of interesting because it is an industry where you need a lot of trust and credibility for convincing people to move their life savings to you. All that brand investment they did in the first few years paid a ton of dividends.

When we went from $10 billion to $100 billion, we started to really accelerate with growth marketing. We had a lot of that trust and credibility and brand love in the bank, so to speak, to make those performance dollars go even further. The way I think about brand and performance marketing is that they have different time horizons. If you’re an early fintech startup, I usually would still advise you to invest first in performance marketing. I think Wealthsimple is maybe a bit unique in that sense, unless you have a crazy filmmaker on the team who can make amazing films, then let them do that. But you do performance marketing because you don’t know if you’re going to be alive in five years. Why would you invest in a brand that might not be around in two, three years? Eventually, as you gain confidence in your trajectory, you want to start investing in brand slowly and more and more. I see it as like a portfolio of investment where you need to have dollars going into next week, next month, next quarter’s results, but also start investing more in brand for the next two, three, five, 10 years. It compounds everything else.

JB: Do you know what the percentage of investments in branding versus measurable ROI driven performance marketing is today?

SL: We do more growth marketing, more performance marketing. I don’t know the exact percentage, but the way I think a brand marketing investment is sized, you set a budget based on how big your company is, how much you can spend without obviously bankrupting the company. Maybe you’re going to put 10, 20, 30% into brand. Whereas performance marketing budget, you don’t necessarily have a set budget to spend, but you have a target you want to hit in terms of return on investment or payback periods or IRR. If you find a pocket of profitable investment, you start to really press your advantage. It’s not even a cost center, it’s more revenue generating investment. We have found a few pockets like that, and we’ve been able to scale our investment into growth marketing to a point where it started to take over any other investment at the company at some point.

JB: How do you decide if you should invest in a campaign about the cash account or the trading account or the tax account? How do you make those types of decisions?

SL: In terms of growth marketing, we try to be a little bit more agnostic and say, how are we going to deploy our budget to get as many clients through the door in a profitable way? Eventually, what we’ve seen is once clients get through the door, they slowly but surely adopt most of our products.

JB: So if I understand well, the goal is to get as many new clients as opposed to being like, “This line of business is a little more profitable.” It’s not really a profitability calculus, but more how much it costs to get someone in the door. Maybe it’s not the most profitable product, but then the lifetime value is high, so you can cross sell.

SL: Yeah, it is a business, right? So we are trying to drive revenue growth to allow us to grow as a business. We do look at each product line and profitability. But like you said, the keyword we’re looking is lifetime value. There’s no point in you joining, getting burned into a very profitable product for us that was a bad fit for you, and then you’re going to leave after six months.

JB: As a marketer who manages millions of dollars per month in ad spend, what keeps you up at night?

SL: The fraud on Meta is out of control. I don’t know if you saw the recent report that about 10% of their revenue was potentially coming from fraudulent ads. If you go into the Facebook ads library today and you type the keyword “Wealthsimple,” there’ll be more fraudulent ads, but that works with any fintech brand, by the way. You can try Questrade, any, even the banks. There will be like 10 times more fraudulent ads than legitimate Wealthsimple ads. They use the name Wealthsimple in the copy and images. They use fake AI avatars of [Wealthsimple CEO] Mike Katchen or whatever. We report them every single day. We try to warn our customers about this, but it takes several days to take them down.

JB: Their AI is not able to do a simple keyword search?

SL: Clearly, their AI is able to do it, right? So it’s not about whether they have the technical capability. Google clearly allowed this a long time ago, where you can’t use my brand in your ad copy if I register my brand. Facebook just needs to do the same. I almost want to tell our customers “Never click on an ad online about Wealthsimple,” but I don’t want to say that because I still want to use those channels.

JB: I don’t see ads for financial scams on TV. Does it inform your decision as a strategist? On one hand, you want the performance, but on the other end, you might actually hurt your brand.

SL: Totally. We’re definitely thinking about that. If Meta is not moving fast enough, we will have to make decisions.

JB: I was listening to a podcast where you were interviewed and you were talking about an idea. I think you never did it, but the idea was to organize a Taylor Swift concert and use Taylor Swift tickets as a sign up incentive, a little bit the same way that you’re offering iPhones or other kinds of sign up incentives. Did you actually contact Taylor Swift? I wanted to know why it didn’t happen and are you working on another show or something like that?

SL: I haven’t heard back from Taylor Swift yet. So if she listens to your podcast, I would love for her to text me back. I do have a long list of ideas. There’s nothing I love more than spending my marketing budget and putting those dollars back into our clients’ pockets. It’s just amazing. I love my partners at these digital platforms, but if I can give my money to my clients instead of giving my money to Facebook or Google to convince my client to use my product, I’ll do that every day. The math works really well for us right now. We are contemplating a lot of ideas. I always talk to my clients like, “What’s the most exciting thing we can give you back?” Cash is fun and a lot of people love cash, but you also want to grab the attention and shift people’s perception.

JB: How do you figure out what’s the right sign up incentive? For the iPhone, I guess you have all the data in the world. You know what device your clients are using. But for Taylor Swift or other incentives you’ve given away, do you do surveys? How do you figure it out?

SL: We do surveys, we read our clients’ feedback. We are our own clients, so a lot of the times it’s like, “What would we be excited about?” Then it’s a lot of testing. We try to validate a lot of ideas with small groups of clients before we roll it out to large groups of clients. Two out of three ideas are just not working and we’re not rolling them out. That’s kind of how we do the market analysis. We look at what seems to work elsewhere. We’re all fintech nerds, we’re all bank nerds. We love to dig into offers that exist in other geos. We love to look at offers that existed in the past. I don’t know if you know, but banks used to give toasters in the fifties and the sixties to new customers. Nothing is ever created, right? It’s just the same idea over and over.

JB: It was the old iPad.

SL: You could literally bring a friend with you to the bank. The referral program in the past, and you would get some kind of catalog with appliances because that worked and that still works. I don’t know if you saw recently, we gave away the biggest thing you can think of. We gave away a house, a million dollar house.

JB: I missed that. Tell me more about it.

SL: We’re fascinated by giveaways and how they work in general. How do we find the most exciting one? A lot of our clients are saving for a home. We are the number one institution in terms of number of FHSAs market share. We also recently launched a mortgage product with Pine, another fintech in Canada. So, how do we combine all of these things? Mike, actually the CEO, is my number one idea guy at the company. He sends me new ideas all the time. He was like, “Hey, we should try this.” He had heard it on a podcast from another company. We went from idea to buying the house, furnishing it, staging it, organizing it, doing the microsite, the rules and regulations, and everything that goes into this in like six weeks.

JB: So how did someone get the house? How do I get the house? I don’t have a house.

SL: You could participate in October. Every dollar you deposited was an entry into the draw. Now it’s closed, but we still have clients who initiated transfers. That’s another big friction point in fintech. Those can take sometimes up to 60 days to complete. Most are like five days. We are waiting for everything to complete so we can combine entries and do the draw. The deadline has passed.

JB: Where’s the house?

SL: Keep your eyes open because it was the most successful campaign. The house was in Prince Edward County, a bit north of Toronto. We have a lot more ideas. If it’s not Taylor Swift, I’m sure we can make it almost as exciting as that.

JB: I mean, Drake is an investor. Is that telling us something?

SL: Yeah, maybe, maybe.

JB: On another podcast, you said that about 90% of your marketing budget is going in the pockets of your clients. I was like, how is it even possible? Because you need people to know they could win a house, or an iPad, or a concert ticket. Tell me more about how it works.

SL: I’ll give you a two part answer. First, it’s part of the shift that happened right after COVID. We acquired very quickly almost 2 million clients, but they only had a couple thousand dollars with us to buy a few stocks on crypto. A lot of our strategies since then, and that’s kind of how we went from $10 billion to $100 billion, was getting those clients to consolidate, to transfer assets to us. We built so much into our transfer products. I joke sometimes with my product colleagues that we are a transfer app with some banking and investing services attached to it because we innovated so much into how people can transfer their accounts from elsewhere into Wealthsimple.

We don’t need a ton of advertising to reach those customers because they are our customers. I think we have a great email notification and in app messages strategy that people pay attention to because we try to keep it interesting. People love our brand, they love the tone, and they love our offer, so they keep paying more and more attention to it. Once we launch an offer like that, we can get 500,000 people, a million people from our client base to already pay attention and participate. That’s the first part. The second part is we do a little bit of ads just to kick things off and get the word out. But most of the outside growth comes from word of mouth. A lot of our thinking goes into crafting offers that can go a little bit viral with your friends, with your Instagram DMs, with some forums on Reddit, on RedFlagDeals, et cetera. You get the word of mouth distribution instead of having to pay for it. If you’re giving away a house, a one million dollar house, you don’t need to do Facebook ads. It’s a good story, right? You might tell your friends. We also work a little bit with influencers to spread the word, but influencers are like paid word of mouth in a way.

JB: I feel like we’re touching the key of how you get from $10 billion to $100 billion. Just convincing the guy who put $1,000 to put $100,000, right? That’s really interesting. Is it different? Because it’s a different type of marketing. Do you have a team that is just like, “How do I get more asset management from existing clients” versus people that are trying to get people through the door? How does it work structurally?

SL: Yeah, precisely. My team is basically client growth and deposit growth, assets growth. I changed that maybe a year ago where it was like the acquisition team, the email team. No, let’s structure teams with goals and let them figure out the tools they want to use or become experts at. We have the client growth and deposit growth teams, and they have very different strategies. Most of our promotions and offers are run from the deposit growth team. If an offer has a goal of acquiring new customers, like the referral program or the affiliate program or SEO, SEM, that will be run out of the client growth team.

JB: Now that we’re talking about structure, in marketing there’s a bunch of titles around, and each company works differently. You’re Chief Growth Officer. I assume Wealthsimple also has a Chief Marketing Officer. Are they the same department, different departments? Do you have engineers working for you, or do you need to convince the CTO to lend you some engineers? How is it structured at Wealthsimple?

SL: If you work in tech in any company and it’s not the engineering department, half your time is trying to convince and lobby the CTO and the engineering team to work on your priorities, right? Growth marketing simply sits within the marketing team. The marketing team is like three big departments. It would be the creative group where you have brand marketing, creative production, art direction, et cetera. You have product marketing. They work very closely with the product team. Every time we launch a new product, they work to position it and have the page ready and have a bit of a go to market strategy. They also run our events at Wealthsimple Presents. Then you have the growth marketing team who will run the incentives, the ads, the referral program. It is part of the creative ecosystem.

JB: Is branding part of your team or part of the creative team? Do you have your own engineers or do you need to fight for them?

SL: Yes, we have a handful, I don’t know, like four to 10 engineers at all times who will help us work on these in product offers or new features where the first priority or the reason we’re launching the feature is to, for example, allow clients to more easily share the app to their friends, make the onboarding a little bit easier, make the transfer process a little bit easier. Growth oriented features.

JB: Wealthsimple has one of the largest dedicated communities [for a fintech], 121,000 members, last time I checked, on Reddit. I know some companies in fintech like Ramp hired a head of Reddit. Do you have a dedicated person? Also, is your community owned by Wealthsimple or is it owned by random fans of Wealthsimple? I’d like to hear about your Reddit strategy.

SL: It’s completely owned and operated by clients. We’re not really actively policing it or giving any sort of influence. We’re super lucky. We have awesome clients and fans. They participate in moderating the sub, and it’s a big part of the feedback loop. They’re super active. Every time we launch a new product, the joke internally is, “How quickly is it going to show up on Reddit?” Usually it’s a few minutes before someone posts something we just shipped, and it’s great to hear the feedback and read it.

JB: So you don’t even need to pay for community managers. What do you think about that?

SL: No, no, we don’t. We have started to engage with a few Ask Me Anythings, and the response has been great. I love our Reddit community, even when it’s hard to read. It’s important. Some weeks they say I should get a raise. “The guy who came up with this should get a raise.” But the next week it’s like, “This guy who came up with this should get fired.”

JB: In 2024, Wealthsimple became profitable for the first time since it was founded in 2014. Did Wealthsimple becoming profitable had an impact on your ability to do crazy growth campaigns?

SL: It hasn’t really changed that much other than it was a great moment and signal, because I think especially for Mike, he has been hearing from the start, “This business can’t go anywhere. You can’t make it work with such low fees. You’ll never be able to get market share from the big competitors.” As long as you’re not profitable, these critics can still say, “Sure, you can probably subsidize this growth and whatever in this product, but there’s nothing there.” I think the profitability is just a great validation for the team, for the business, for the customers as well. We’re here to stay. We don’t need anyone’s help or support if we don’t want to. We are a sustainable business. On the growth and operation side, it’s still full gas. That has not changed. If anything, now it’s more like we can be a little more comfortable and decide, okay, what level of profitability do we want to reach and how much do we want to invest? We’re just getting started. $100 billion is great. I think we’ll start to be happy if we reach a trillion in assets and start becoming one of the largest institutions.

JB: You guys keep repeating you want to be the largest financial institution in Canada. So how do you get there? You don’t have a banking license. Is it part of the plan? And how do you get from $100 billion to a trillion?

SL: We want to be the largest institution in Canada. That’s the first step at least. There’s two ways we look at this. First, in terms of clients, the major banks in Canada all have about 10 million plus clients. That’s one way we want to compete. We’re at 3 million plus and growing really fast. That gives you a measure. The other one is assets under administration. That includes assets under management and then self directed assets. Some of the banks are at $1 to $1.5 trillion. Some of the smaller ones are at $300 to $400 billion. We have 3 million clients. The way I think we get to 10 is by advertising more, by building more features around trust. But also we want to show up more in the real world so people understand we’re not just an online website to go buy a bunch of crypto. We’re a much more serious institution. On the banking side, this is our fastest ever growing product. It’s basically now just getting to parity with your traditional bank account, but we’re already seeing tens of thousands of people who use Wealthsimple Chequing account for their day to day banking needs, and that’s just getting started. I think we’re going to see a massive acceleration there in the coming years. Both the investing and the banking side of the business will compound to get there. We can for sure triple. It’s a matter of time. For me, it’s more like, how quickly can we triple versus can we actually triple? Also, don’t forget, time is on our side. We have the generation. For example, FHSA, a new account type that started. We had, I think at some point, more than 40% of market share in FHSA.

JB: Wealthsimple has 3 million clients and you mentioned Canada’s largest banks have 10 million. Given your previous growth trajectory, it seems likely you can triple your customer base. But if you want to become Canada’s largest financial institution, you need to do something much harder. You need to convince your clients to make Wealthsimple their primary bank like Nubank did in Brazil. How do you do that, given the fact that Canadians are known for being very loyal to their bank?

SL: I use that as a proxy. I don’t know the exact numbers. I don’t have the market data, but if we can get about half of Canadians who start investing to start investing with us, it’s kind of a matter of time until we can get half of the market. But we don’t want to wait for that. The other thing is you have the great wealth transfer from the boomers and the generation after that who are going to eventually share their wealth with their kids, their millennial kids who are in Wealthsimple. We also have that going for us. But then I think what’s interesting to me is, is the strategy to go from zero to 3 million going to be the same to go from 3 to 10 or 15 or 20? Or do we need a different strategy because this audience is a little different, is a little more reticent to use an online product? That’s something I’m very focused on trying to figure out. And then, how to make you use it for your daily banking. At its most simple, we need to make the product 10 times better, 10 times cheaper. If I try to think about it very simply, only then can you get a chance at someone to switch their primary banking. Nobody wants to change their primary bank. It’s so annoying to move away, to transfer your e-transfer contacts, your payees, etc. There is a ton of work that goes into this so you could switch in a click.

The same way we are almost there on the investing side, the same thing could happen with banking. But if the product is 10 times better, 10 times cheaper, and not only can we catch up with the features parity that we need to with the banks, but we can start innovating and creating unique features on the chequing account. I’m happy to share that with you, but we are seeing more new chequing account clients on a daily basis than new investing clients, despite chequing being a much younger product. The line is just going straight up and to the right. This is really exciting.

JB: You said in the past that the head growth of a startup is always the CEO. So my question is how closely do you work with Mike Katchen, the CEO of Wealthsimple?

Mike is awesome. He sends me growth ideas almost every day. One simple question that he asks often is, when you pitch an idea to him, “What’s the way more ambitious version? What is the 10X version of this idea?” It’s a great thought exercise to make your idea maybe not 10X bigger, but 20, 30, 50% bigger than you initially imagined.

JB: About six months ago, Wealthsimple announced the launch of a Visa card with 2% cashback. Within weeks, you had 200,000 people on the waiting list. Demand exceeding supply is generally a good thing in growth, but then people started to complain it was taking too long. As of now, how many people got the card so far?

SL: I can’t share specific numbers, but we do have a lot of demand for the card and it’s growing because I think the card is now in the wild in the hands of tens of thousands of people. They see how amazing it is and share it with their friends, which is creating a bit of a bigger headache for us, to be frank, because we have so much demand that we need to manage.

We are rolling out. If you are a Generation client by the end of the year, you’re going to have the option to apply for the card for sure. Or if you’re a Premium client, that’s $100,000 plus with us and you have your paycheck with us. Generation Client is $500,000 plus. So people with a lot of assets probably already have the card. Well, at least if you are with us with a lot of your assets, you will have access to the card. The third category of people we are prioritizing is people who have been with us for the longest, our most loyal clients. But yeah, it is a challenge. It’s not a simple product. It’s probably the most complex product we have launched so far.

JB: Why did you go with the waitlist approach? I know you used it for Wealthsimple Trade. Robinhood was launched with a waitlist. Is it to create scarcity? Because you could have done a private beta and waited and tried to keep it somehow secret and then said, “It’s open and now you’re able to send 50,000 cards a week.” But it would have taken probably much longer.

SL: We did a lot of testing, right? It was first with employees and then with small groups of people, and then eventually we opened it up. It was not to create scarcity. It’s just that there are constraints when you launch a credit card program. You want to build a bit of a track record when you launch a new credit product. We’re a bit new in the borrowing space. We launched margin, we launched a portfolio line of credit. We’re launching a credit card. It is a different business and we want to get it right. We don’t want to mess it up. We want to make sure we care about the trust that our clients put in us, but also our financing and funding partners put in us, because ultimately we are allowing you to use a card and paying us a month later. We want to make sure everything happens properly.

JB: Do you have a mechanism where I can invite my friends to the list and get up higher? What are the marketing benefits of the waitlist?

SL: Right now, we’re just really focused on giving it to Premium Plus clients who moved their paycheck to us, Generation Plus clients, and our most loyal clients.

We have a small amount of cards that we are reserving for growth experiments. What you’ve heard from me is we’re doing a lot of these small growth experiments. They’re not too big, to be honest with you, and they’re not really scalable because we have that waitlist. But we want to make sure we experiment with enough things so that the moment we can open up to more clients, we’ll be ready.

JB: That was Simon Lejeune, Chief Growth Officer at Wealthsimple. Thanks for listening to my show. Make sure to follow Fintech Growth Insider on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode. And if you are interested in stealing proven growth tactics from your fintech competitors, please sign up to my newsletter on fintechgrowthinsider.com.

Hi Guys!

Fintech Growth Insider is back and I think this first issue of 2026 lives up to our new mission of helping you grow faster. I also added a new section after the fintech ad of the week that includes noteworthy fintech stuff from around the web I think you should check out.

Also, I’m happy to announce the imminent launch of the Fintech Growth Insider podcast! By the way, feel free to reply to this email with guest suggestions! I am really looking to uncover the world’s best kept fintech growth secrets with the podcast, so I would be curious to know who you would like to get fintech growth advice from.

Julien

🇹🇷 Revolut Could Enter High-Inflation Turkey By Acquiring Local Digital Bank FUPS

UK-based neobank Revolut is in talks to acquire FUPS, a small Turkish digital bank with a banking licence, as it looks to fast-track its entry into the country.

According to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg, no final decision has been made, and any deal would require approval from Turkey’s banking regulator.

High inflation in Turkey, reaching 34.9% in 2025, have made holding foreign currency common in Turkey. Turks desperately need to hold their assets in USD, EUR, or gold to protect their savings, and it’s something the Revolut platform would be well positioned to offer.

Turkey’s fintech market is projected to grow from $2.2 billion in 2025 to between $7.2 billion and $7.9 billion by 2033 to 2034, implying annual growth of about 15%, according to research by market research firm IMARC Group.

FUPS, currently led by CEO Hüseyin Cem Başcı, was founded in 2022 with a capital of 1.5 billion liras, about $81 million at the time, and employed roughly 60 people as of September, according to Turkish Banks Association data.

Revolut, led by founder and chief executive Nik Storonsky (pictured above), serves around 70 million users globally and was recently valued at $75 billion.

Growth Metric: $7.9 billion fintech market opportunity

Revolut’s acquisition of FUPS could fast track the neobank’s entry into Turkey’s fintech market, which is projected to reach about $7.9 billion by the mid 2030s.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Bloomberg

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇺🇸 JPMorgan Chase Snaps Up Apple Card Portfolio as Goldman Exits Consumer Lending

JPMorgan Chase is taking over Apple’s credit card program from Goldman Sachs, acquiring approximately 12 million cardholders and $20 billion in outstanding balances.

The deal, expected to be announced soon after more than a year of negotiations, will see Goldman Sachs offloading $20 billion in card balances to JPMorgan Chase for $19 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Apple’s credit card customer base would add to JPMorgan’s 84 million banking customers. The discount is rare in card portfolio sales, where balances typically sell at premiums of up to 8%. This reflects high exposure to subprime borrowers and higher-than-industry charge-off rates.

As part of the transition, JPMorgan Chase plans to launch a new Apple-branded savings account, though, unlike the credit card migration, existing savings account holders will need to actively choose whether to move their funds to JPMorgan Chase or stay with Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs has lost more than $7 billion on a pretax basis since 2020 across its consumer lending businesses. The bank previously sold speciality lender GreenSky and the General Motors credit card program at significant losses.

Growth Metric: 12 million new cardholders

JPMorgan Chase is acquiring approximately 12 million Apple Card users, and $20 billion is outstanding balances.

Sources: Wall Street Journal & The Independent

🇬🇧 UK Households Rack Up Credit Card Debt at Fastest Pace in Two Years

UK households racked up credit card debt at the fastest pace in nearly two years, with borrowing surging 12.1% in November, Bank of England data shows.

The surge marks a jump from 10.9% in October and represents the highest figure since January 2024, when credit card borrowing peaked at 12.5%. Britons borrowed a net £1.0 billion (1.35 billion USD) through credit cards in November alone, up from £0.7 billion (941 million USD) the previous month.

Total consumer credit borrowing, including car finance and personal loans, rose to £2.1 billion (2.8 billion USD) from £1.7 billion (2.3 billion USD), with non-card lending accounting for £1.1 billion (1.4 billion USD).

Growth Metric: 12.1% credit card growth rate

UK credit card borrowing hit a 12.1% annual growth rate in November, the highest since January 2024.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🇸🇬 Singapore Robo-Advisor Syfe Reaches Profitability on Rising Demand From Asia’s Cash-Rich Households

Singapore-based robo-advisor Syfe has reached group-level profitability in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The company said client returns exceeded $2 billion in 2025, while total assets under management rose above $10 billion. Syfe also paid out nearly $127 million in passive, lower-risk income during the year. The platform is licensed to operate in Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was the clear growth driver as assets under management in said market increased almost sixfold in 2025, making it Syfe’s fastest-growing geography.

Founder and chief executive Dhruv Arora (pictured above) said Syfe is targeting a gap in Asian wealth management, specifically the “mass affluent,” professionals with significant investable assets and higher-than-average incomes, but not yet in the high-net-worth category.

“This demographic has historically been ‘stuck in the middle’: too large for basic retail banking, yet often underserved by traditional private banks,” he explains to Fortune in an interview.

Unlike their Western counterparts, Asian households keep as much as 50% of their net worth in cash, compared with around 15% in the United States and Europe.

Growth Metric: 600% Assets Growth in Hong Kong

Syfe’s Hong Kong assets under management rose almost sixfold in 2025, making it the company’s fastest-growing market.

Sources: Fortune & Fintech News Singapore

🇺🇸 PayPal Expands Ad Platform To Track Actual Purchases, Not Just Clicks

US-based digital payment giant PayPal has expanded its advertising platform with new tools that let advertisers track whether ads actually lead to purchases.

The new feature, Transaction Graph Insights and Measurement, links ad exposure directly to completed transactions across PayPal Checkout and Venmo. Advertisers get dashboards mapping customer journeys and quantifying incremental revenue.

Under chief executive Alex Chriss (pictured above), PayPal is leveraging its 430 million active accounts to give advertisers what Google and Meta cannot, proof of actual purchases.

The feature builds on PayPal’s ad network, first launched in October 2024, as reported by Fintech Growth Insider. It is currently available to US advertisers, with UK and Germany rollouts planned.

The only available test case for the new feature so far is beauty retailer Ulta Beauty, which used PayPal's Transaction Graph to target shoppers and reported a 20% increase in transaction spend and a 136% lift in brand favourability, according to PayPal’s press release.

Growth Metric: 20% sales lift

Early adopter Ulta Beauty saw a 20% increase in transaction spend during campaigns using PayPal’s verified purchase data

Source: PYMENTS

🇧🇷 Brazil's PicPay Pursues $500 Million IPO, First Major Latin American Listing Since Nubank

Brazilian digital wallet and credit lender PicPay is heading to the US stock market, aiming to raise $500 million through an IPO.

This move follows a strong financial performance in 2025, where the company saw its profits jump by 79% in just the first nine months. The Amsterdam-incorporated firm posted profits of 270.4 million real ($50.3 million) on revenue of 7.26 billion real ($1.35 billion) in the nine months ending Sept. 30.

The company has aggressively expanded into lending, far more profitable than basic payments, and now offers credit cards and personal loans to its 42 million active users, with a focus on secured loans like payroll-backed loans. The neobank is headed by Eduardo Chedid.

PicPay sets itself apart from Nubank by debuting in the black. While Nubank went public with a $165 million loss, despite having more users (48 million) and higher revenue ($1.7 billion), PicPay is already profitable, reporting $50 million in net income on $1.3 billion in revenue from its 42 million users, according to its IPO filings.

Growth Metric: 79% profit growth

PicPay achieved 79% profit growth year-over-year by pivoting from digital wallet to high-margin lending.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Bloomberg

🇬🇧 Fintech Ad of The Week: Updraft Visualizes “Falling” Into Debt With One Too Many Taps

UK lending app Updraft has launched a new ad campaign following the holiday season, reminding consumers that tapping away on credit cards can sink them deeper into debt.

The ad positions Updraft as a lifeline to help borrowers refinance credit card debt with a lower-interest debt consolidation loan. Updraft, launched in 2020, advertises rates as low as 14% APR, though that rate only applies to excellent credit profiles.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Noteworthy Fintech Stuff From Around The Web

• In the December issue of Fintech Takes that I finally read this morning, Alex Johnson writes an excellent piece about the Cash App’s own credit scoring model, which gives them a huge customer acquisition edge. Their proprietary model allows them to increase their approval rate by 38% compared to when they are using VantageScore’s model, and the charge-off rate is comparable!

• Donald Trump’s intention to cap credit card interest rates at 10% in the US could mean that credit card issuers could no longer serve in a profitable way Americans with a credit score below 740, resulting in 82% to 88% of all credit cards accounts in the US facing closure.

• Rakuten Advertising, one of the top 3 affiliate networks, has banned PayPal-owned Honey browser extension from its network due to repeated policy violations.

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇨🇳 Consensus Hong Kong will take place from February 18 to 20, 2026, at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with tickets priced between $399 and $799, with speakers such as Jordan Gray (CoFounder and CMO, PublicAI), Joelly Gloria (Business AI @ Meta), and Ming Wu (Co-founder/CTO, 0G)

🇬🇧 TradingTech Summit London will take place on February 26, 2026, at Hilton Canary Wharf, with tickets priced at £895, with speakers such as Nafisa Yusuf (Director and Head of International Market Structure, BlackRock), Stuart McDowell (UK Chief Information Officer, Societe Generale), and Monika Fernando (Head of Global FI Client Data Analytics and Head of FI eTrading Strategy EAP).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code

🇺🇸 ICBA LIVE will take place from March 6 to 9, 2026, in San Diego, with speakers such as Rebeca Romero Rainey (President and CEO, Independent Community Bankers of America), Jack E. Hopkins (ICBA Chairman and President and CEO, CorTrust Bank), and Alice P. Frazier (ICBA Chairman elect and President and CEO, Potomac Bank).

🇺🇸 T3 Technology Conference will take place from March 9 to 12, 2026, in New Orleans, with speakers such as John O’Connell (Founder and CEO, The Oasis Group), Raj Madan (Chief Information Officer, AdvisorEngine), and Oleg Tishkevich (Chief Executive Officer, Invent).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $200 on tickets using the T3GFI200 promo code!

🇬🇧 CBC Summit Europe will take place on March 17, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £906.43 and £1,246.53, with speakers such as Jason Allegrante (Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Fireblocks), Ajay Amlani (President and CEO, Aware, Inc.), and Sabih Behzad (Head of Digital Assets and Currencies Transformation, Deutsche Bank).

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

🇺🇸 Fintech Americas will take place from March 24 to 26, 2026, in Miami, with tickets priced between $795 and $2,195, with speakers such as Cristina Junqueira (Co Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Nubank), Biswa Sengupta (Managing Director for Generative AI, JPMorgan Chase), and Rohit Patel (Director, Meta Superintelligence Labs, Meta).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10 percent discount on tickets using the GFI10 promo code.

🇬🇧 PAY360 will take place from March 25 to 26, 2026, in London, with speakers such as Will Marwick (Chief Executive Officer, IFX Payments), Jas Narang (Chief Transformation and AI Officer, Santander), and Saira Khan (Head of Innovation and Partnerships, First Direct Bank).

🇺🇸 InsurTech NY Spring will take place from March 30 to 31, 2026, in New York City, with tickets priced between $657 and $1,017, with speakers such as Raj Kalahasthi (Chief Information Officer, The Baldwin Group), Patrick Gallic (Head of International AI Hub, Tokio Marine), and Greg Hendrick (Chief Executive Officer, Vantage Risk).

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Hi Fintechers!

Just wanted to let you know that this issue is the last of the year! I will take a little pause for the holidays. As a result, you can expect to get your next issue of Fintech Growth Insider on January 12.

I’m also working on a podcast I will unveil in January, so feel free to reply to this newsletter with the names of anyone you would like me to interview about fintech growth. I already secured interviews with pretty cool peeps, so nobody is off-limits.

Also, I just started a subreddit about fintech growth! If you want to hear from me before January 12, feel free to join!

🇺🇸 Bilt, The Credit Card for Rent Payments, Launched a Friends-like Sitcom With 500K Views Per Episode

Bilt, the fintech that allows Americans to pay their rent with a credit card, launched Roomies, a Friends-like sitcom optimized for phone consumptions. Since the series’ launch in June, it has amassed 15 million cumulative views. New episodes can reach up to 500,000 views across TikTok Instagram and YouTube Shorts, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The first season of the short form series runs about 50 minutes across 22 episodes. Instead of pushing product messages, the show follows a young woman who moves from Ohio to New York and shares an apartment with three other roommates, focusing on their working lives, relationships, and the everyday realities of surviving in the city. Bilt appears only in the background, through moments such as dining ou or paying a bill using the Bilt app. The second season is scheduled to debut in January 2026.

“The objective is to build brand awareness and positive sentiment at scale,” Cyrus Ferguson (pictured above), Bilt’s senior content director and co-creator of Roomies, told the Los Angeles Times. He said owning a scripted universe gives the company more control and longevity than creator-led strategies. The company was last valued at $10.8 billion after raising $250 million in fresh funding in July 2025.

Growth Metric: 15 million cumulative views

Bilt’s original series Roomies has surpassed 15 million views across TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram, with single episodes reaching up to 500,000 views, according to the company.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & LA Times

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇬🇧 Payroll Platform Deel to Pay $13.4M/Year To Sponsor English Football Club Arsenal

US-based payroll and HR platform Deel has secured a minor sponsorship with English football club Arsenal for £10 million ($13.4 million) annually, starting in the 2026-27 season.

The sponsor slot is on the team’s shirt sleeve and will replace Visit Rwanda, ending an eight-year partnership after Arsenal fans raised concerns about human rights violations by Rwanda’s government. Arsenal is currently ranked number one in the English Premier League with a valuation of $3.4 billion.

In a previous interview on the 20VC Podcast, Deel chief executive Alex Bouaziz explained that performance-based online advertising works when a company is small, but becomes less effective at scale. To grow from what he described as “between 10 million and 100 million” users, he believes brand recognition is far more important.

He argues that if Deel becomes a familiar name through partnerships with major sports teams, customers will come to the company naturally. “The bigger your brand, the less you need to pay per lead,” Bouaziz said in the podcast.

Bouaziz previously told the Financial Times that Deel has been profitable for three years. Its revenue passed $100 million in September, and it now generates between $15 million and $17 million a month in earnings before key costs, while still growing at about 70%.

Growth Metric: 70% Growth Rate

Deel combines fast scaling with strict discipline, achieving a 70% growth rate while maintaining profitability over the last three years

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider, Financial Times and The Athletic

🇺🇸 SoFi Gives "Your Rich BFF" Influencer Vivian Tu a C-Suite Title

Digital finance platform SoFi has formalised its partnership with financial influencer Vivian Tu, better known as “Your Rich BFF,” by appointing her as Chief of Financial Empowerment.

This is a C-suite title, which the company describes as honorary. The role builds on a two-year collaboration in which Tu hosted four seasons of SoFi’s YouTube series Richer Lives, interviewing public figures such as skateboard legend Tony Hawk and American actress Yara Shahidi about navigating major financial decisions.

Under the new arrangement, Tu will continue working with SoFi on financial literacy content and lead a Generational Wealth Fund initiative scheduled to launch in 2026.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Tu said the initiative mirrors SoFi’s previous cause-based partnerships with NBA player Jayson Tatum and American country singer Kelsea Ballerini, focusing on supporting communities and financial literacy for Gen Zs and millennials.

SoFi now serves more than 12.6 million members across borrowing, saving, spending and investing. In its latest quarter, SoFi reported record loan originations of $9.9 billion, up 57% year on year, as of September 2025, driven by strong growth in personal, student and home lending.

Growth Metric: 10 million creator-owned followers

SoFi’s new Chief of Financial Empowerment, Vivian Tu, better known as “Your Rich BFF”, have about 10 million followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and Snapchat.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🇬🇧 UK Digital Bank Monzo Acquires Habito to Start Selling Morgages In-App

UK digital bank Monzo has agreed to acquire mortgage broker Habito in order to allow its customers to secure a mortgage directly inside the Monzo app.

Monzo points to 2024 research showing that 87% of UK homebuyers used a mortgage broker, showcasing how important brokers remain to the buying journey of British house hunters. By folding Habito into its app, Monzo aims to simplify what its chief banking officer Kunal Malani described as a complex and stressful process.

The integration will build on Monzo’s existing Home Ownership feature, where more than 450,000 customers already track their property values and mortgage balances.

The bank reported revenue growth of 48% year on year to £1.2 billion in 2025, supported by a user base of 14 million consumers and about 800,000 businesses.

Growth Metric: 87% mortgage broker usage

Nearly nine in ten UK homebuyers use a mortgage broker, giving Monzo a clear reason to bring Habito directly into its app.

Sources: Financial Times & FinTech Magazine

🇬🇧 Revolut and Audi Lift the Curtain on New Formula One Team

The Audi Revolut F1 Team has officially revealed its new name and logo. Revolut Global CMO Antoine Le Nel confirmed in a LinkedIn post that the full car design and launch will take place in Berlin on January 20, 2026.

This announcement finalizes the major partnership signed in July 2025 between the German car giant and the UK-based digital bank. The team will use Revolut Business to handle its daily finances and make international payments as it prepares to join the grid for the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship.

As previously reported by Fintech Growth Insider, companies like Revolut, Airwallex, and OKX spent over $500 million on Formula 1 sponsorships in 2025 alone. The average F1 deal now costs more than $6 million, nearly double what it was in 2019, as companies pay for global attention.

Growth Metric: $500 million investment into F1 in 2025

Fintech companies collectively invested over $500 million into F1 for the 2025 season alone, using the sport’s global reach to find new users and build brand fame.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

🇮🇩 Lottery Style Savings Feature Drives Breakout Growth for Indonesian Digital Bank Superbank

A new gamified savings product helped Indonesian digital bank Superbank sign up 100,000 users in just two weeks. The feature, called “Kartu Untung” (Lucky Card), was developed with direct help from Korea’s largest internet bank, KakaoBank.

KakaoBank is a subsidiary of KakaoCorp, which runs South Korea’s dominant messenger app KakaoTalk, with over 48 million users in said country alone. KakaoBank, which bought a 10% stake in Superbank in 2023, designed the product to turn saving money into a game.

Superbank, which currently have 5 million customers, runs a daily, lottery-style cashback draw for small deposits of 50,000 rupiah ($3 USD). This strategy allows the Indonesian bank to grow its customer base, while also increasing its total deposits.

Superbank, which currently has led by President Director Tigor M Siahaan (pictured above), is set to list on the Indonesia Stock Exchange later this month, having reported a quarterly profit just nine months after launching.

Superbank’s growth relies heavily on using its partners to find customers. Nearly 60% of its users came directly from the South East Asia’s superapp Grab and Indonesia-based digital wallet OVO. KakaoBank now plans to use this same strategy in Thailand, where it recently received approval to launch a new virtual bank.

Growth Metric: 100,000 users in two weeks

By turning savings into a game with lottery rewards, Superbank signed up 100,000 new users in just 14 days.

Source: The Korea Times

🇺🇸 Imprint Reaches Unicorn Status With AI-Powered Co-Branded Credit Cards

Co-branded credit card startup Imprint Payments, that just raised 150 millions at a $1.2 billion valuation, grew almost 300% last year, according to CEO Daragh Murphy (pictured above).

Despite not being known by the public, the company managed to grow to such a scale by signing giant retailers such as Brooks Brothers, Crate & Barrel, and Booking.com. Imprint issued credit cards for those giant retailers, and those marketed it to their large customer base. Unlike traditional credit card issuing partnerships, however, Imprint embeds the financial experience directly into the retailer’s app.

CEO Daragh Murphy told Bloomberg that, while the business grew “almost 300% in the last year,” their headcount grew by less than 20%. He emphasized that the company can “buy or build an AI solution for many things” to avoid hiring waves.

In a LinkedIn post, Imprint said partners see eight times higher lifetime value and a 20% increase in customer spend after switching from legacy credit cards issuers.

Growth Metric: 300% growth in 12 month

By embedding its credit cards withing its retail partners’s portals and apps, Imprint achieved 300% business growth in the last year.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Bloomberg

🇺🇸 Fintech Ad of The Week: Bankless Mocks Traditional Banks With an AI Generated Chained Pen Billboard

Crypto media platform Bankless has posted an AI image of a billboard featuring a cheap pen chained to a bank counter.

The image, which was shared by Bankless on their official X account, reached 1.9 million views on X... without having to actually pay for a billboard. Bankless uses this to make a point of how traditional banks treat customers like potential thieves over a plastic pen.

The post positions crypto as a way to break free from a system built on suspicion rather than trust, urging people to go “Bankless” instead. The chained pen imagery is nothing new and has been used by other banks in the past. That said, given the number of views it got for free on X, it’s an interesting fintech marketing AI use case.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇭🇰 Consensus Hong Kong will take place from February 18 to 20, 2026, at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with tickets priced between $399 and $799, with speakers such as Jordan Gray (CoFounder and CMO, PublicAI), Joelly Gloria (Business AI @ Meta), and Ming Wu (Co-founder/CTO, 0G)

🇬🇧 TradingTech Summit London will take place on February 26, 2026, at Hilton Canary Wharf, with tickets priced at £895, with speakers such as Nafisa Yusuf (Director and Head of International Market Structure, BlackRock), Stuart McDowell (UK Chief Information Officer, Societe Generale), and Monika Fernando (Head of Global FI Client Data Analytics and Head of FI eTrading Strategy EAP).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code

🇺🇸 ICBA LIVE will take place from March 6 to 9, 2026, in San Diego, with speakers such as Rebeca Romero Rainey (President and CEO, Independent Community Bankers of America), Jack E. Hopkins (ICBA Chairman and President and CEO, CorTrust Bank), and Alice P. Frazier (ICBA Chairman elect and President and CEO, Potomac Bank).

🇺🇸 T3 Technology Conference will take place from March 9 to 12, 2026, in New Orleans, with speakers such as John O’Connell (Founder and CEO, The Oasis Group), Raj Madan (Chief Information Officer, AdvisorEngine), and Oleg Tishkevich (Chief Executive Officer, Invent).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $200 on tickets using the T3GFI200 promo code!

🇬🇧 CBC Summit Europe will take place on March 17, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £906.43 and £1,246.53, with speakers such as Jason Allegrante (Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Fireblocks), Ajay Amlani (President and CEO, Aware, Inc.), and Sabih Behzad (Head of Digital Assets and Currencies Transformation, Deutsche Bank).

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

🇺🇸 50% of New Sign-Ups To Wealthfront Come From Referrals

US-based robo-adviser Wealthfront revealed that 40% of its clients made at least one referral between October 2022 and July 2025, according to its latest SEC filing.

The company also disclosed that 19% of its total client base successfully converted at least one new user, a rate that helped grow its funded accounts by 42% in fiscal 2025 to over 1.2 million. Over the past two fiscal years, more than 50% of all new customers came through referrals.

Wealthfront, currently led by CEO David Fortunato (pictured above), attributed its growth to the fairness of its pricing model. In its filing, the company said it does not “charge hidden or unexpected transaction fees” as compared to traditional banks or some wealth management companies. Unlike many fintech platforms that rely on teaser rates or short-term sign-up incentives, Wealthfront also avoids promotional pricing that later reverts to weaker standard rates for its customers.

The disclosure comes as Wealthfront targets a $485 million IPO, offering 34.62 million shares at $12 to $14. At the top end, the listing would value the company at about $2.05 billion. The Palo Alto-based fintech manages $88.2 billion in assets and serves primarily younger digital-native investors through automated investing, high-yield savings and lending products. It reported $60.7 million in net income on $175.6 million in revenue for the six months ended July 31.

Annual net revenue retention has remained above 120% for 11 consecutive years, while client retention has held at around 95% across fiscal 2024 and 2025.

Growth Metric: 19% Successful Client Referral Rate

While 40% of Wealthfront clients attempted a referral, 19% of the total client base successfully converted a new user, creating a “viral loop” that drove over 50% of all new customer acquisition in the last two years

Sources: Bloomberg & Wealthfront SEC filing

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇨🇦 Canada’s Challenger Banks Buys Loblaw’s Financial Unit for $800M to Scale Past 3 Million Users

EQ Bank, Canada’s top independent challenger bank, is set to acquire PC Financial, the financial services arm of the country’s largest grocery chain, Loblaw.

The $800 million deal that will more than quintuple EQ Bank’s customer base from 607,000 to over 3 million, adding PC Financial’s roughly 2.5 million active customers to its ecosystem. The deal also brings $5.8 billion in assets, over $800 million in retail deposits, and exclusive access to the PC Optimum loyalty program of 17 million members.

EQ Bank’s parent company, Equitable Bank (EQB), reported strong momentum heading into the deal, according to EQB’s 2025 fiscal report. The neobank grew its customer base 18% year-over-year in 2025, adding 21,000 retail and business clients in the fourth quarter of 2025 alone, while deposits climbed 10% to nearly $10 billion.

In recent years, EQ Bank’s growth was fueled by a TV ad campaign involving Schitt’s Creek’s father and son Eugene & Dan Levy, as well as new products such as a notice savings account and a business banking platform.

CEO Chadwick Westlake said the acquisition “made so much more sense” than building credit card capabilities in-house, allowing EQB to fast-track its payments strategy. The merger creates reciprocal benefits: PC Financial users gain access to EQ Bank’s high-interest savings and investment products, while EQ Bank customers, who only had access to a debit Mastercard, enter the credit card market for the first time.

Growth Metric: 18% customer growth in 2025

EQ Bank reached 607,000 customers in 2025, a 18% increase compared to last year and should scale to beyond 3 million with the addition of PC Financial’s 2.5 million customers.

Sources: The Globe and Mail & EQB’s 2025 fiscal report

🇵🇭 Philippines Digital Bank Tonik Doubles Loan Book to $84M, Eyes 2026 Breakeven

Philippines Digital bank Tonik has doubled its loan book over the past year to $84 million, CEO and founder Greg Krasnov (pictured above) announced.

“This round is about scaling with discipline, doubling down on the model which is already working to world-class efficiency levels,” Krasnov wrote in the LinkedIn post.

He also confirmed that the company has recently secured $12 million in a pre-Series C round. Annualized revenue now exceeds $40 million. The bank also recorded a 4.5-fold increase in risk-adjusted margin while maintaining a return on risk-adjusted capital above 25%. Its contribution margin turned positive in late 2024.

Krasnov attributed the growth to Tonik’s credit-inclusion model, which combines low-cost deposits, an AI-driven risk engine, and B2B2C distribution across more than 400 employers and 500 retail partners.

Growth Metric: Loan book doubled to $84 million

Tonik’s lending portfolio doubled year-over-year as the bank pushes toward cash-flow breakeven by first half of 2026.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Fintech News

🇫🇷 French Crypto Bank Deblock Triples Revenue And Raises $35M for Europe Expansion

French crypto banking startup Deblock has tripled its revenue since the start of the year and raised a fresh fundraising round of €30 million (34.9 million USD) to accelerate expansion across Europe, CEO Jean Meyer (pictured above) announced.

The company now serves more than 300,000 customers, with around 100,000 monthly active users. Founded by former neobank Revolut and crypto wallet platform Ledger executives, Deblock combines a traditional current account with a self-custody crypto wallet.

Speaking to Les Echos, Meyer said Deblock is fixing the difficulty of moving money between digital assets and traditional bank accounts. Many banks block transfers from crypto exchanges because they lack proper compliance tools.

The company plans to deploy most of the fresh capital into commercial acquisition and market expansion, with Germany and Austria targeted for launches in early 2026. Deblock aims to hit one million users within six months as it scales beyond France.

Growth Metric: 300% revenue growth in 2025

Deblock has tripled revenue year-to-date, powered by rising demand for its crypto-to-bank bridge across retail users.

Source: Les Echos

🇸🇬 Chinese Payment Giant Targets Smart Glasses to Scale Iris Payments

Iris biometrics remain one of the least used authentication methods globally, according to 2025 recent survey by market research firm Javelin Strategy and Research.

The survey, cited by American Banker, found that 70% of consumers now use some form of biometric authentication, led by fingerprints at 45% and facial recognition at 34%. Iris scanning, by contrast, sits at just 4%.

Ant International is moving in the opposite direction of current consumer habits by building iris authentication directly into Alipay+ GlassPay, its augmented-reality payment system for smart glasses. The Singapore based payments firm, which is the global arm of Chinese payment giant Ant Group, says iris verification could scale much faster once wearable adoption takes off. It points to data from market research from IDC showing that global smart glasses shipments are expected to rise almost sevenfold to 18.7 million units by 2029.

Ant International argues that iris recognition offers a stronger defence against fraud, especially as AI-powered deepfakes proliferate using more than 260 biometric feature points to verify identity.

Growth Metric: 18.7 million projected smart glasses users by 2029

Smart glasses adoption is projected to grow nearly 7X from 2024 levels, creating a new hardware-driven payments surface for iris authentication.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & American Banker

🇺🇸 Kalshi Becomes CNN’s Official Prediction Markets Partner

US based prediction market platform Kalshi has secured a major media distribution deal after announcing a data integration with CNN.

The deal embeds real-time Kalshi probabilities directly into CNN’s live programming, newsroom workflows and on-screen graphics. CNN will also launch a Kalshi-powered real-time ticker for segments that feature prediction data, while newsroom teams gain direct access to Kalshi’s political, cultural and news-based markets for live storytelling and visual analysis.

According to Axios, CNN will not be paying to license Kalshi’s data, but the partnership is exclusive, meaning CNN will not be working with any other prediction market data providers.

In November 2025 alone, Kalshi processed around $5.8 billion in volume, while rival Polymarket hit $3.74 billion, according to data by crypto exchange BingX

While CNN TV audience is dwindling year after year with only 497,000 viewers on average during primetime (8-11pm) in the US, CNN website remains one of the most visited website in the world. Its website attract 126 millions visitors per month globally, according to SemRush, up about 3% compared to 12 month ago.

Growth Metric: 126 millions visitors per month

Kalshi deal with CNN means that CNN.com 126 monthly visitors, as well as its smaller TV audience, will be exposed to Kalshi’s predictions data.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Axios

🇺🇸 Fintech Ad of The Week: Cash App Tells Its Users They Can Change Their Mind After Buying Something & Finance It With Afterpay

US-based mobile financial platform Cash App has launched a new ad campaign on Facebook and Instagram showcasing the native integration of buy now pay later (BNPL) service Afterpay.

The ad shows the seamless connection between the two services, both owned by parent company Block, Inc. Afterpay is presented as a core feature rather than an add-on, allowing Cash App users to split purchases into four installments after making any purchase with Cash App, either online or in-store with its Cash App debit card.

Targeting Gen Z, the campaign also follows a content creator facing costly mishaps such a broken light panel, crashed drone, shattered vase, and headphones stolen by her parrot.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇬🇧 TradingTech Summit London will take place on February 26, 2026, at Hilton Canary Wharf, with tickets priced at £895, with speakers such as Nafisa Yusuf (Director and Head of International Market Structure, BlackRock), Stuart McDowell (UK Chief Information Officer, Societe Generale), and Monika Fernando (Head of Global FI Client Data Analytics and Head of FI eTrading Strategy EAP).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code

🇺🇸 T3 Technology Conference will take place from March 9 to 12, 2026, in New Orleans, with speakers such as John O’Connell (Founder and CEO, The Oasis Group), Raj Madan (Chief Information Officer, AdvisorEngine), and Oleg Tishkevich (Chief Executive Officer, Invent).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $200 on tickets using the T3GFI200 promo code!

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Hi Global Fintechers!

Global Fintech Insider is now Fintech Growth Insider.

That said, we will keep telling fintech stories from around the world. What is changing is the purpose of the newsletter.

Allowing you to keep up to date in term of fintech news did not make much sense anymore, since there are probably 50 other fintech newsletters whose value proposition is just that.

The new purpose of this newsletter is to help you grow your fintech faster by sharing with you growth strategies from around the world and even ads… with the ad of the week at the end of each issue.

Hope you like it and feel free to reply with any suggestion!

Julien Brault

🇺🇸 Michael Burry’s New Substack Newsletter Surges Past 120,000 Subscribers In One Week

(right), the former hedge fund manager portrayed by Christian Bale (left) in The Big Short, has launched a Substack newsletter called Cassandra Unchained that had drawn more than 120,000 subscribers in its first week. Thew news comes a few weeks after Burry announced the closing of his hedge fund Scion Asset Management.

The rapid subscriber growth is driven primarily by Burry’s global public profile, who has 1.6 million followers on X. His role in predicting the 2008 crisis, the bestselling book that followed, and the major Hollywood film have turned his name into a financial brand that commands instant attention

Substack now lets him monetize that profile directly without the overhead of a fund, investor relations team or compliance department. With more than 120,000 subscribers already, even a small conversion rate could turn Cassandra Unchained into a multi-million dollar creator business.

A realistic conversion to paid of just 5% of this 120,000 subscribers at $39/month would mean Burry is on course to generate over $2.8 million annually, almost as much as the $3.1 million he could have generated in management fee on the $155 millions Scion had under management (assuming a 2% management fee). Obviously, this does not include the carry (the share of the profit he was charging his clients), but it shows how attractive moving from the hedge fund business to the newsletter business could be for someone with a huge audience like Burry.

Growth Metric: 120,000 subscribers in one week

Michael Burry’s new Substack Cassandra Unchained surpassed 120,000 subscribers within its first seven days, powered by his global financial brand.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider, CNBC & Cassandra Unchained

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇬🇧 Revolut Adds 1 Million Users Every 17 Days, Powered by Word of Mouth and Loyalty Incentives

London-based neobank Revolut is adding 1 million customers every 17 days, according to chief marketing officer Antoine Le Nel (pictured above).

In a LinkedIn post, he confirmed the company has now reached 65 million users across 39 markets, with the company now looking to expand in Mexico and India “We earned this valuation by moving faster than the market thought possible. While others slowed down to consolidate, we accelerated,’’ he said, pointing to Revolut’s new $75 billion valuation, achieved just three months after it hit $45 billion.

More than 65% of new retail customers join through word of mouth or customer referrals, supported by $591 million (£463 million) in targeted sales, advertising, and marketing last year, according to a statement released by the company.

Revolut uses variable rewards, for example, “Invite a friend, get £50 (66 dollars USD) a year for accounts under 18 years old”, time-limited incentives and gamified progress bars that show users where their friends get stuck during onboarding.

Engagement is also deepening. Paid plan adoption climbed 45% year on year in 2024, and its loyalty programme RevPoints attracted 6.6 million users since launching in June 2024, creating additional recurring revenue.

Growth Metric: 1 million new users every 17 days

Revolut adds 1 million customers every 17 days, with growth remain largely organic with 65% of new retail customers join through word of mouth or referrals.

Sources: Fintech Growth Insider & Bloomberg

🇲🇽 Mexican Lending Startup Focused On Small Towns Records 85% Repeat Borrowing Rate

Mexican lending startup Aviva has raised a $50 million credit facility from Community Investment Management to expand its micro-lending operations in underserved communities in the country.

Aviva targets borrowers in towns with fewer than 500,000 residents, where access to traditional credit is limited. The company says the new financing will help it triple its size and reach 500,000 new customers, aiming at a segment avoided by larger players due to risk and limited data.

The company reported a 3.1% default rate in October 2025, with 85% of customers taking a second loan after repaying their first, indicating strong repeat usage. Aviva currently operates as a non-banking institution restricted to lending, but plans to pursue a banking license as it scales.

To underwrite loans without formal financial histories, Aviva uses AI-powered seven-minute video calls conducted through kiosks. These conversations are converted into structured data to generate real-time credit profiles. Co-CEO Filiberto Castro (pictured above) says the capital will go toward cities “the financial system does not see,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Launched in September 2022, Aviva lends between $100 and $1,000 to cash-based micro-businesses and has built a distribution network of 200 kiosks across nine states in Mexico, serving about 200,000 customers to date. Borrowers repay through more than 50,000 small shops acting as cash in or out points.

Growth Metric: 85% repeat borrowing rate

85% of Aviva customers return for a second loan after repaying their first, signalling strong product-market fit in underserved communities.

Source: Bloomberg

🇷🇺 Russia’s Largest Bank Launches Dual-Screen ATMs With 30-Second Health Diagnostics

Russia’s largest bank Sber, has unveiled dual-screen ATMs that integrate traditional banking services with rapid health assessments, reports CFO Tech Asia.

The machines perform standard functions like cash withdrawals and deposits, but now include a 30-second health check using an onboard camera and AI. Users aged 18 and above receive instant readings for 10 health indicators, including pulse, blood pressure, stress levels, BMI, estimated cholesterol, blood glucose, arterial stiffness, heart rhythm variability, and glucose metabolism risk. Results appear on-screen and sync to the SberHealth app.

Deployments begin across Russia in December. Sber Bank First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board Alexander Vedyakhin called it a “universal hub for human well-being,” reports CFO Tech Asia. Sber has integrated its GigaChat AI assistant for voice interaction, enabling customers to complete transactions using natural language.

The launches come as Sber reports RUB1,307.3 billion (16.87 billion USD) in net profit for the first nine months of 2025, up 6.5% year-over-year. The bank now serves 110.5 million active customers.

Growth Metric: 10 health indicators scan by new ATM

Sber’s new ATMs assess 10 health metrics in 30 seconds, transforming its ATM from typical cash machines into hybrid health-fintech service points.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider & CFO Tech Asia

🇸🇬 61% of Singaporean Investors Now Own Crypto, According to Survey

61% of Singaporean retail investors own cryptocurrency, according to a recent survey by personal finance company MoneyHero and crypto platform Coinbase.

Ownership is dominated by younger investors, with 70% aged 18-34 years old. The majority adopt a long-term stance, with 58% identifying as HODLers (hold on for dear life), investors who hold crypto regardless of market conditions, rather than active traders.

Despite high ownership, risk appetite remains measured, with 74% keeping crypto exposure below 10% of their overall portfolio. The survey points to growing market maturity, with 42% invested for more than two years, showing that Singapore’s retail investors tend to hold through cycles rather than exit quickly. When choosing platforms, 65% of respondents prioritize security, followed by regulatory compliance (58%), over lower fees (42%) and ease of use (34%).

Coinbase ranks highest in customer trust at 72%, followed by Binance (65%), Crypto.com (55%), Gemini (43%), and OKX (32%). Looking ahead, 27% of non-holders plan to invest within the next 12 months. The survey was conducted with 3,513 respondents from August 15-19, 2025.

Growth Metric: 61% crypto ownership rate

A new survey shows 61% of Singaporeans own crypto, a percentage that rise to 70% in the 18-34 years age group.

Source: MoneyHero & Coinbase Pulse of Crypto Survey report 2025

🇿🇦 Africa’s Largest Clothing Retailer Moves Into Banking, Targeting Millions of Underserved Customers

Africa’s largest family clothing retailer Pepkor, is officially entering banking after securing regulatory approval from South African regulators.

The company recently acquired a cloud-based digital banking software company, Cloudbadger, to support the launch of its new banking venture, according to Reuters. CEO Pieter Erasmus (pictured above) said the group’s scale and customer trust provide a strong foundation for financial inclusion efforts, adding that its digital and fintech strategy is now producing “tangible results.”

Pepkor’s fintech unit, which includes financial services like lending, retail credit, smartphone rental, digital payment infrastructure and insurance, surged in the latest fiscal year, with revenue up 31% to 16.6 billion rand ($970 million), representing 17% of total sales. The retailer operates over 6,000 stores across the continent, offering clothing, mobile devices and in-store financing.

Growth Metric: 31% fintech revenue growth

Pepkor’s fintech division generated 16.6 billion rand ($970 million), now accounting for 17% of total sales as it prepares to venture into banking.

Source: Reuters, Bloomberg, Moneyweb & Business Insider Africa

🇺🇸 Fintech Ad of The Week: Stripe Is Daring It’s Prospects to Ask ChatGPT What Payment Processor They Should Use

Stripe is leveraging its position as the dominent payment processor for small online businesses by running multiple ads on Meta and Instagram featuring a chatbot box in which questions are typed. The video ads are featured under different headlines such as “Go ahead, ask your AI” and the questions are ones that Stripe could be the answer to, such as: “How can my website start accepting credit cards today?”, “Which gateway works best for two-sided marketplace payouts?” and “What’s the best payment processor for SaaS subscriptions?”.

I checked on ChatGPT and, unsurprisingly, Stripe was mentioned before its competitors in each cases. While we don’t know if those answers were the result of a specific effort in term of generative engine optimization (GEO), what is interesting with this campaign is that Stripe seems to assume its clients value trust AI answers enough for it to be some kind of social proof vouching for Stripe.

Source: Fintech Growth Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇬🇧 TradingTech Summit London will take place on February 26, 2026, at Hilton Canary Wharf, with tickets priced at £895, with speakers such as Nafisa Yusuf (Director and Head of International Market Structure, BlackRock), Stuart McDowell (UK Chief Information Officer, Societe Generale), and Monika Fernando (Head of Global FI Client Data Analytics and Head of FI eTrading Strategy EAP).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code

🇺🇸 T3 Technology Conference will take place from March 9 to 12, 2026, in New Orleans, with speakers such as John O’Connell (Founder and CEO, The Oasis Group), Raj Madan (Chief Information Officer, AdvisorEngine), and Oleg Tishkevich (Chief Executive Officer, Invent).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $200 on tickets using the T3GFI200 promo code!

🇬🇧 Insurtech Insights Europe will take place on March 18 to 19, 2026, in London, with tickets priced between £399 and £999. Speakers include Sirma Boshnakova (Board Member), Cécile Paillard (Group Chief Transformation Officer), and Pravina Ladva (Group Chief Digital and Technology Officer).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Hi Global Fintechers!

While researching fintech ads to feature a fintech ad of the week, I stumbled upon this section of TikTok’s creative center that let you check out what are the most performing TikTok ads by industry and countries. That is how I found the fintech ad of the week of today’s issue (scroll to the end to see it), and I thought some of you might be as excited as me of this find.

🇬🇧 Revolut Hacked Its First 10,000 Users Thanks To Linkedin Messages & Affiliate Links

To get their first 10,000 users, Revolut went straight to a niche audience, which is targeting airline pilots and cabin crew. The team manually sent them personalized LinkedIn messages, and the strategy worked so well that their earliest user base was overwhelmingly from the aviation industry.

Another growth strategy Revolut employed in its early days was to secure the top spot on MoneySavingExpert, by proving they offered the cheapest foreign exchange, pairing the ranking with an affiliate link that brought in users at a customer acquisition cost (CAC) of £5.

Chad West (pictured above), the company’s first marketing lead, said that in the early days “pretty much everything you do doesn’t scale and you should embrace that.”

This story was shared by Lucy Heavens, founder of Fractional CMO, in a LinkedIn post about a Fintech Fringe Festival session she moderated with Chad and Irina Chuchkina, chief growth officer at Wallet in Telegram.

Growth Metric: £5 Customer Acquisition Cost

In its early days, Revolut acquired thousands of early users from affiliate site MoneySavingExpert at roughly £5 each.

Source: Global Fintech Insider

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇦🇺 Sydney’s Hello Clever Grows Revenue 660% to $7.6M in One Year

Hello Clever, the all-in-one shopping and instant-cashback app, grew revenue 660% in just over a year, from $1 million in 2024 to $7.6 million in 2025. The Sydney-based company, co-founded by Caroline Tran (right) and Gavin Nguyen (left), provides AI-driven merchant tools and have a global footprint across more than 20 markets.

Tran also announced in a LinkedIn post that the company has reached a compound annual growth (CAGR) rate of 1,333.91%, and placing ninth in the Australian Financial Review’s (AFR) 2025 fastest-growing startups list. AFR’s list calculated the ranks according to companies CAGR from the last three financial years (2023, 2024, 2025).

Its Hello AI Data Analyst offers real-time insights such as top sales, week-over-week shifts, risks, opportunities and suggested actions. In an interview with AFR, Tran says the goal is to turn “every transaction into an opportunity to optimize revenue”. The company employs 70 people and plans to double that while hiring across Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney. Fragmented regional payment methods remain a hurdle, so Tran is open to mergers and acquisitions with partners that hold the right licences and banking access.

Growth Metric: 660% revenue growth in just one year

Hello Clever grew revenue from $1 million in 2024 to $7.6 million in 2025, powered by AI merchant tools and global expansion.

Sources: Global Fintech Insider & Australian Financial Review

🇮🇳 UPI’s Cross-Border Surge Is Creating a New Growth Lane for Global FinTechs

India’s inbound remittances are expected to grow from $148.7 billion in 2025 to $235.1 billion by 2030, a 58% jump, according to the PwC’s Indian Payments Handbook 2025–2030.

According to the report, Industry leaders say cross-border transactions (22%) and micro-lending (17%) will be among the important drivers in Indian’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) utility expansion. UPI is India’s QR code-based payment system that dominates the Indian payment market, with a whopping 87.7% market share.

UPI is also rapidly internationalizing. It is now linked to Singapore’s PayNow, being rolled out in some capacity in Trinidad and Tobago, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the UAE and could eventually be accepted in Europe. With UPI projected to hit 1 billion transactions a day by 2028, its global footprint is becoming impossible for payment and remittance players to ignore.

Growth Metric: 58% remittance growth

India’s inbound remittances are projected to rise from $148.7 billion in 2025 to $235.1 billion in 2030, strengthening the case for global UPI integrations.

Sources: Global Fintech Insider & The Indian Payments Handbook 2025-2030

🇺🇸 Ramp Hits $32B Valuation Just Three Months After Reaching $22.5B

US-based payment processor Ramp has bumped its valuation to $32 billion after securing $300 million in funding, just three months after reaching $22.5 billion in July. The company has raised $2.3 billion in equity financing since its 2019 founding while surpassing $1 billion in annualized revenue.

Ramp has also doubled its customer base to 50,000, including real estate firm CBRE, e-commerce platform Shopify, defense company Anduril Industries and design software firm Figma. In an interview with Fortune, CEO Eric Glyman (pictured above) said Ramp “just about doubled revenue” in the past year.

Ramp competes with Brex, which was last valued at $12.3 billion during its peak in 2022. According to TechCrunch, Brex was reportedly projecting its annual net revenue to reach $500 million in 2025.

Ramp says its enterprise customer segment also expanded 133% year over year, reaching more than 2,200 enterprise clients. Across all customers, Ramp claims it now powers more than $100 billion in purchases annually.

Growth Metric: 133% enterprise customer growth

Ramp expanded its enterprise segment to more than 2,200 customers, a 133% increase year over year.

Sources: Crunchbase, TechCrunch & Fortune

🇩🇰 Flatpay Crosses $116M in Annual Revenue As Customer Base Surges To 60,000

Danish payments startup Flatpay CEO Sander Janca-Jensen (pictured above) confirmed the company has scaled its customer base to 60,000. This nearly 10x increase of 7,000 customers base since April 2024.

The company also crossed the €100 million (116 million USD) annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone in October. Janca-Jensen noted that ARR is now growing by nearly €1 million (1.16 million USD) daily, driven by aggressive on-the-ground expansion across Europe.

Flatpay’s surge of customers is fueled by a straightforward value proposition for small and medium business (SMB), namely flat transaction rates, transparent pricing, and in-person onboarding. With SMBs comprising 99% of European businesses, this high-touch model has proved highly effective.

Looking ahead, Flatpay targets 300% growth in 2026, aiming for €400–€500 million (460 million USD to 570 million USD) in revenue. The company is currently active in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K.

Fresh off a €145 million (169 million USD) funding round, Flatpay is now valued at €1.5 billion ($1.75 billion USD), officially joining Europe’s unicorn ranks.

Growth Metric: 60,000 customers

Flatpay has grown its merchant base nearly 10x since April 2024.

Source: TechCrunch

🇦🇷 MercadoLibre’s Fintech Arm Becomes ‘Most Defensible Moat’ as Revenue Jumps 48.9% In One Year

Latin America e-commerce giant MercadoLibre’s fintech arm continues to be the strongest driver of its ecosystem, according to an analysis by Seeking Alpha analyst Jack Elias (pictured above).

He points out that fintech adoption is becoming one of the company’s most defensible moats, with fintech revenue up 48.9% year over year to nearly $2.2 billion during the third quarter 2025 as Mercado Pago.

Total payment volume grew 41%, while MercadoLibre’s loan book reached $11 billion, a 83% year over year increase, reflecting deeper penetration of credit across Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.

Despite macro volatility in Argentina and higher funding costs in its lending business, Elias said MercadoLibre loan performance remained resilient, with non-performing loans contained even as the credit portfolio expanded sharply.

Growth Metric: 48.9% year over year fintech revenue growth

MercadoLibre’s fintech division grew almost 50% YoY, reaching nearly $2.2 billion in Q3.

Source: Seeking Alpha & Global Fintech Insider

🇦🇷 Fintech Ad of The Week: Western Union’s Pago Fácil Seduces Users With A Weekly 1M Pesos Draw

A new TikTok ad offering a chance to win 1,000,000 Argentine pesos (702 USD) for paying a bill is now ranking in the top 2% for click-through rate on TikTok. The campaign comes from Pago Fácil, the Western Union owned Argentinian service that lets people without credit cards make online purchases by depositing cash at its national network of kiosks or by paying directly through its app. The ad’s pitch is simple. Pay a bill through Pago Fácil, either online or at a kiosk, and you are automatically entered into the weekly draw.

Source: Global Fintech Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇬🇧 Fintech Connect will be held in London on December 2–3, 2025 (£299), with speakers such as Aleksi Grym (Head of Fintech, Bank of Finland), Apoorv Kashyap (Head of AI, Santander UK), and Ben Brophy (Head of Institutional Growth, Europe, Solana).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the AAA-PTN20 promo code!

🇨🇳 Insurtech Insights Asia will be held in Hong Kong on December 3–4, 2025 ($299–$1,999), with speakers such as Huynh Thanh Phong (Group CEO, FWD), Edward Moncreiffe (CEO, Insurance, HSBC Life), and Masashi Namatame (Group Chief Digital Officer, Tokio Marine).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Hi Global Fintechers,

I made a few changes to the newsletter to refocus on my specific fintech expertise, which is undeniably growth.

And growth is something that everybody in fintech cares about, as it’s the main thing that distinguishes traditional financial institutions from fintechs. Sure, fintechs tend to be better at tech, but in order to carve their niche in the marketplace and raise money, what they need to do is use this tech to grow faster than traditional finance businesses.

As a result, starting this week, we will highlight a growth metric at the end of each of our story, and each story will be selected based on their relevance for an audience looking to grow faster.

I also added a fintech ad of the week at the end, to give you a reason to read the whole thing.

PS: I thought about adding a podcast of the week in the newsletter, but to be honest, while I do listen to many podcasts, there are many weeks during which I don’t listen to any pod worth mentioning. That said, I came across two excellent episodes recently: an in-depth interview with Capital One founder Nigel Morris on Fintech Leaders and a strange interview with Coinbase COO Emily Choi on Masters of Scale, in which she insinuates that traditional banks discriminate on the basis of skin colour and ideology.

🇺🇸 Fintech Marketers Beware: You’re Competing With 15 Billion Scam Ads Per Day on Meta

Beware FinTech CMOs, your ads on Meta may be competing with 15 billion scam ads impressions shown every day across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Instead of blocking suspicious advertisers, Meta often charges them higher rates unless its systems are at least 95% certain fraud is taking place, according to internal Meta documents obtained by Reuters. The documents also show that up to 10% of the company’s 2024 revenue, roughly 16 billion dollars, came from scam or prohibited ads.

Industry figures say the problem is structural rather than accidental. Richard Berry, Managing Director of Good Money Guide, described it as “a corrupt business model” in a LinkedIn post, citing deepfake ads using his content that took Meta 1,024 days to remove. He added that UK regulators have “no power” to compel the company to act despite issuing thousands of takedown requests.

Marcus Mølleskov, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Januar, argued that platforms like Meta should be held liable like banks. “If politicians made Meta liable for the losses caused by their platforms, they would clean it up instantly,” he wrote on LinkedIn, noting that Revolut found 66% of all scam payments it reported originated on Meta platforms.

Meta’s internal research found its platforms are involved in about one-third of successful scams in the US. In a response to Reuters, Meta says the revenue estimate is overstated, but acknowledges fines are likely. The company claims that scam reports have dropped by 58% in the past 18 months and that it has removed over 134 million scam ads this year. Internal targets aim to reduce illicit ad revenue from 10.1% in 2024 to 7.3% in 2025 and to 6% in 2026.

Growth Metric: 15 billion scam ads per day

Meta estimated that one in every ten dollars it earned in 2024 come from scam and prohibited ads.

Source: Reuters

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇺🇸 Experian’s New Scoring Model Aims to Expand Loan Access for Thin-File Borrowers

US-based credit bureau Experian has released a new underwriting score that combines traditional credit data with cash flow, trended, and alternative data. Dubbed the Experian’s Experian Credit + Cashflow Score replaces multiple standalone products and uses real-time bank transaction data to help lenders approve thin-file and subprime borrowers. The score ranges from 300 to 850, matching the familiar FICO scale.

Early internal tests show a 40% improvement in predictive accuracy compared to conventional models, which could help lenders approve more applicants without increasing risk.

Unlike previous products, the Credit + Cashflow Score replaces separate models and does not require Plaid data, using Experian’s own bank transaction feeds and Clarity Services’ alternative credit dataset.

Scott Brown (pictured above), group president of financial and marketing services for Experian North America, says the goal is to let lenders “say yes” more often, while maintaining risk controls. For fintechs, declining less applicants means they could potentially spend more per lead or even use new channels that would not have been profitable before.

If this new score lives up to its promises, it could also mean more competition for large subprime lenders like Capital One, SoFi or Upstart, whose proprietary credit risk models were one of their most important moats.

Growth Metric: 40% Predictive Lift

Experian’s internal testing shows the combined score is 40% more accurate than traditional credit models.

Source: American Banker

🇺🇸 Instant Payouts Drive 60% Repeat Use, Survey Finds

A new PYMNTS Intelligence and Ingo Payments survey shows that instant payouts do more than move money fast: they also keep users coming back. The survey tracked over 4,000 US adults, including 2,200 payout recipients across wages, lending, insurance, and gig platforms, and found that nearly six in 10 recipients who try instant payments once make it their preferred way to receive funds. For those who depend on disbursements as core income, like gig workers, that number climbs even higher. Instant payouts can reduce churn and increase repeat usage, especially for lenders, gig platforms and insurance apps that compete on user experience.

Growth Metric: 60% Reuse Rate

6 in 10 payout recipients who try instant once make it their preferred method for all future disbursements.

Source: PYMNTS

🇸🇬 Airwallex Doubles Revenue to $1B by Targeting Global-First Customers Ramp and Brex Don’t Serve

Singapore-based payment processor and spend management platform Airwallex has doubled its annualized revenue from $500 million to $1 billion in just one year on the back of a global strategy.

The company also posted 90% year-over-year growth with gross margins above 60%, CEO Jack Zhang (pictured above) told Fortune. The company expects to return to profitability in Q4 2025. It took nine years to reach the first $500 million mark.

Previously, Airwallex reported on their blog of a strong global momentum in 2024, with revenue up 73% year-on-year and transaction volume rising 60% worldwide as of August of last year, with Asia Pacific region remaining a key driver of that growth, delivering an 83% revenue increase and 49% rise in transaction volume in Q3 of 2024.

In a separate interview with the Financial Review, co-founder Lucy Liu said the company is expected to double its revenue, even reaching $3 billion in the next 12 months. Unlike US-focused competitors in the spend management vertical, such as Ramp and Brex, Airwallex targets companies operating across multiple jurisdictions.

That segment remains underserved, and the bet is paying off, as Airwallex is expanding rapidly outside of its stronghold of Asia and Oceania. Indeed, 35% of the fintech’s revenue is now coming from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where the company had virtually zero revenue three years ago.

Growth Metric: 90% Year Over Year Growth

Airwallex doubled revenue from $500M to $1B in just one year and expects to return to profitability in Q4 2025.

Sources: Fortune & Financial Review

🇺🇸 Affirm’s Debit Card Lifts Revenue 34% as BNPL Pushes Into Credit Card Territory

The U.S.-based “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) company, Affirm reported a strong 34% year-over-year revenue growth in its first fiscal quarter of 2025. This growth was largely driven by its Visa-linked Affirm Card, which allows consumers to split purchases over time without interest, appealing especially to millennials and Gen Z. The card now has 2.8 million users, having added 500,000 new cardholders during the first quarter of 2025.

The Affirm card was first announced in 2021 and was then launched in 2023. Interestingly, this growth comes despite Affirm’s founder Max Levchin (pictured above) once declaring his product as the “anti-credit card”. The Affirm Card’s expansion into everyday spending traditionally dominated by credit cards represents an ironic evolution of BNPL toward becoming more like mainstream credit products. Affirm’s low-cost model and no late fees policy differentiate it from competitors like Klarna and Afterpay, which still generate revenue from late fees.

In an interview with the Financial Times last month, Levchin said companies that depend on such charges are effectively masking weak credit assessment.

Affirm says it cannot match credit cards on acquisition cost, but its low-cost model and growing card base suggest continued share gains, especially among millennials and Gen Z, who are wary of traditional credit products. More than half of US shoppers now use BNPL, according to Newsweek, and Morgan Stanley data shows 86% choose it to avoid interest.

Growth Metric: +22% Cardholders In One Quarter

Affirm added 500,000 new cardholders in the first quarter of 2025, accumulating a total of 2.8M cardholders, helping drive a 34% YoY revenue increase during the same quarter.

Source: CardRates.com, Financial Times & CNBC

🌍 Travel Sector to Drive Virtual Cards Usage to $17.4B by 2029

UK-based research firm Juniper Research forecasts that virtual card revenue will grow from $5.2 billion in 2025 to $17.4 billion in 2029, with the B2B sector making up 83.5% of total value by 2029. The use of virtual cards in the travel sector is set to grow the fastest in 2026 because more online travel platforms are processing payments themselves instead of using third parties, and airlines are upgrading to newer booking and payment systems that avoid old, slower settlement methods.

According to the research, Booking.com’s revenue from its merchant model jumped 21% in a year, and online travel agencies now need efficient ways to pay suppliers in different countries and currencies. Virtual cards help because they automate reconciliation, control spending, make safer payments, cut foreign exchange costs, and speed up payments to airlines, hotels and other travel partners.

Growth Metric: Virtual Cards To Grow 330% in 4 Years

Virtual card revenue is projected to grow 330% from $5.2 billion in 2025 to $17.4 billion in 2029, with B2B travel payments driving 83.5% of total value.

Source: Juniper Research

🇺🇸 Fintech Ad of The Week: Kalshi Try To Convince Kids To Gamble on Sports

US-based prediction market platform Kalshi’s latest campaign is built for the swipe-first generation that increasingly scrolls past anything that looks like a traditional ad. Instead of polished studio shots, it opens with quick, vertical street interviews filmed in what appears to be university campuses.

After asking many students what is the best NBA team, the video that looked like a typical TikTok video turn into an ad, when the interviewer ask one the student if he knows what Kalshi is. Unsurpringly, he does not know, and the interviewer proceed to explain to him that it’s an app that allow anyone to bet on their favourite sports or any other events.

This ad is one of many in the same style used by Kalshi to advertise on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

This approach seems to be working, since Kalshi recorded 4.4 billion dollars in volume in October, including 1.1 billion dollars in sports trades in a single week, according to Bitget. The company also recently raised over 300 million dollars from Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz and others, valuing the platform at $5 billion.

Source: Global Fintech Insider

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇩🇪 Banking 4.0 and Banking Innovation Conference will be held in Berlin on November 20–21, 2025 (€1,299–€4,999), with speakers such as Kamini Belday (Head of Global Payments & Transformation Executive, IBM), Sonja Marjanovic Vucic (Chief Data Officer, NLB Banka a.d. Banja Luka), and Nicole Onuta (AI Business Transformation Strategist, ING).

🚨 Save €100 on tickets using the promo code RQM8TEFV!

🇺🇸 RegTech Summit NYC will be held in New York City on November 20, 2025 ($995.50), with speakers such as Kenneth Lamar (Principal Partner, Lamar Associates LLC), Kristi Kunworee Baishya (AVP – Data and AI Product Management, Nomura Holding America), and Sepehr Irandoost (Head of Global Surveillance Calibration and Effectiveness, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code!

🇬🇧 Fintech Connect will be held in London on December 2–3, 2025 (£299), with speakers such as Aleksi Grym (Head of Fintech, Bank of Finland), Apoorv Kashyap (Head of AI, Santander UK), and Ben Brophy (Head of Institutional Growth, Europe, Solana).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the AAA-PTN20 promo code!

🇨🇳 Insurtech Insights Asia will be held in Hong Kong on December 3–4, 2025 ($299–$1,999), with speakers such as Huynh Thanh Phong (Group CEO, FWD), Edward Moncreiffe (CEO, Insurance, HSBC Life), and Masashi Namatame (Group Chief Digital Officer, Tokio Marine).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

🇺🇸 Digital Bank Chime Slashes Ad Costs by Millions, Replaces Agency With AI Tools

US-based Digital bank Chime has slashed ad production time by 60% and eliminated its creative agency retainer by leveraging AI tools, according its CMO Vineet Mehra.

The fintech reduced campaign turnaround from 10 weeks to four weeks by using AI tools such as Midjourney, Runway, and Veo3, with no additional headcount, saving millions in agency costs over the coming years.

“Our first AI-assisted brand campaign was storyboarded and edited using these tools, all in-house. It was probably the best storyboard as a CMO I’ve ever seen. It was almost like watching a movie,’’ Mehra told Business Insider in an interview.

He also explained that in a world where everyone has access to the same AI machines and algorithms, “the company that wins is going to be the company with a brand story that’s different.” he said in the same interview.

Beyond marketing, AI has transformed Chime’s operations with AI now handles 70% of customer support interactions (cutting costs 60% per interaction), powers a custom content GPT that reduced production costs 30%, and runs SPARKI, an internal research tool trained on years of consumer data that gives employees instant insights.

Source: Business Insider

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇬🇧 British Savings App Moneybox Rebrand To Widen Its Mass Market Appeal

UK Savings app Moneybox rebranded to be seen as more than a savings app. The app, whose initial value proposition was to round up their customers purchases and invest the spare change (like Acorns does in the US), has moved into financial planning and wealth management over the years, and now serves 1.5 million customers and hold £16 billion ($21 billion) in assets.

The rebrand, which has been qualified as ”evolution, not revolution,” by Marketing VP Charlotte Oates, includes updated visuals and a TV campaign demonstrating how Moneybox serves users throughout their lives, from purchasing their first home to retirement.

“We now see ourselves breaking a binary between traditional wealth managers, who have established businesses for decades, and smaller fintechs and neobanks. We’re trying to do wealth building for the mass market,” Oates told MarketingWeek in an interview.

The company exploited early-mover advantage in performance marketing, building app-first when mobile ad space was much cheaper than desktop’s.

Source: MarketingWeek & Global Fintech Insider

🇺🇸 Neobank Current Hits 70% Revenue Growth With Its Home-Built Banking Core

US-based neobank Current has posted over 70% year-over-year revenue growth and crossed six million users. This is driven largely by its decision to build its own banking infrastructure rather than rely on third-party providers.

Founded in 2015 by Stuart Sopp and Trevor Marshall, Current’s custom banking system allows faster product launches, tighter feature integration, and stronger unit economics compared to competitors using off-the-shelf banking platforms, according a statement by the bank cited by Axios

Current’s strategy of focusing on the 67% of US workers living paycheck to paycheck according to a 2025 PNC survey, is paying off.

Current is now expanding its offering with three new products which is Current Max (a $10 per month plan with savings boosts and rewards), Pay Anyone (instant transfers to any phone number), and fee-free overdraft coverage on small purchases via the Build Card.

Source: Axios

🇦🇪 Dubai’s latest Billion Dollar Company Eyes Global Expansion After $1.4B Johannesburg IPO

Dubai-based AI embedded finance company Optasia Group is targeting expansion in Africa, Asia, and Latin America after debuting on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange at a $1.4 billion valuation.

CEO Salvador Anglada said the company will widen its credit offerings to include buy-now-pay-later options and virtual credit, while considering acquisitions in Asia or Latin America to accelerate growth.

“If we find the right company that helps us accelerate growth, we will consider it,” Anglada told Bloomberg in an interview.

Optasia closed its share sale at 19 rand per share with 1.24 billion shares issued, giving it a market value of 23.5 billion rand ($1.4 billion), the biggest South African IPO for the year.

Founded in 2012, Optasia operates in 38 countries across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The company assesses creditworthiness to offer microloans and cash advances to underbanked customers.

Source: Bloomberg

🇬🇧 UK’s Neobank Starling Wins First North American SaaS Client With 10-Year Deal with Canada’s Tangerine

UK neobank Starling has secured its largest Software-as-a-Service deal to date with Canadian digital bank Tangerine.

The 10-year agreement will see Starling provide its banking platform, Engine, to support over 2 million Tangerine customers as the bank embarks on a “new phase of growth”, Raman Bhatia, Starling Group CEO said in a LinkedIn post.

Tangerine is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Scotiabank, one of Canada’s “Big 5” banks.

Tangerine becomes Engine’s first North American client following the company’s expansion into the region earlier this year with new offices in New York and Toronto, and the appointment of Jody Bhagat as North American President, according to a Linkedin post by Starling accompanying the announcement of the deal.

Source: Global Fintech Insider

🇩🇪 German Insurance Giant Latest to Shutter Corporate VC Arm To Invest in In-House Innovation

German insurance giant Munich Re is shutting down its corporate venture capital unit, despite multiple unicorn investments, to invest more in innovation interanally.

Munich Re Ventures, led by Jacqueline LeSage, managed $1.2 billion in assets with over 40 staff and invested in nearly 100 companies. Its portfolio included reinsurer Hippo, machine health detection firm Augury, and Next Insurance, which Munich Re itself acquired for $2.6 billion earlier this year.

The venture activities will be absorbed by MEAG, Munich Re’s asset management arm, with a small team remaining in San Francisco to manage existing assets through Q2 2026.

The shift, according to Global Corporate Venturing, is likely linked to a leadership transition, with CFO Christoph Jurecka set to succeed Joachim Wenning as board chair in early 2026.

Source: Global Corporate Venturing

🇺🇸 Direct-to-Investor Platform Raises $20M to Help Founders Tap Their Own Communities for Capital

US based fundraising platform DealMaker has raised $20 million in new financing to expand its infrastructure for direct-to-investor capital raising.

Co-founder Mat Goldstein framed the raise as validation of a broader shift in how founders are increasingly turning to their own customer communities rather than relying solely on venture capital.

“The data backs it up. Retail-first raises deliver faster closes, higher retention, and real distribution leverage. Companies that build investor communities early compound that advantage with every subsequent round,” he wrote in a Linkedin post.

According to an interview with Goldstein and CEO Rebecca Kacaba to Forbes, the co-founders said the new funding will accelerate its platform development, including AI tools to automate investor verification and streamline compliance.

DealMaker has processed over $2.4 billion across 1,000+ retail-driven raises, including campaigns for the Green Bay Packers and EnergyX. The round was led by Information Venture Partners, with participation from CIBC Innovation Banking.

Sources: Global Fintech Insider & Forbes

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇺🇸 Banking Transformation Summit will be held in Charlotte on November 17–18, 2025 ($2,280), with speakers such as Darius Wise (President & CEO, Red Rocks Credit Union), Priya Singh (Lead Data Scientist, Mastercard), and Rene Schuurman (Director – CashPro Product Manager, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the GFI20 promo code!

🇲🇾 Digital Finance Asia Summit – Malaysia will be held in Kuala Lumpur on November 18, 2025 (Price TBC), with speakers such as Sam Majid (CEO, National AI Office Malaysia), Nic Ngoo (CTO, Ryt Bank), and Farhan Ahmad (Group CEO, Payments Network Malaysia – PayNet).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the #GlobalFinDFA promo code!

🇩🇪 Banking 4.0 and Banking Innovation Conference will be held in Berlin on November 20–21, 2025 (€1,299–€4,999), with speakers such as Kamini Belday (Head of Global Payments & Transformation Executive, IBM), Sonja Marjanovic Vucic (Chief Data Officer, NLB Banka a.d. Banja Luka), and Nicole Onuta (AI Business Transformation Strategist, ING).

🚨 Save €100 on tickets using the promo code RQM8TEFV!

🇺🇸 RegTech Summit NYC will be held in New York City on November 20, 2025 ($995.50), with speakers such as Kenneth Lamar (Principal Partner, Lamar Associates LLC), Kristi Kunworee Baishya (AVP – Data and AI Product Management, Nomura Holding America), and Sepehr Irandoost (Head of Global Surveillance Calibration and Effectiveness, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code!

🇬🇧 Fintech Connect will be held in London on December 2–3, 2025 (£299), with speakers such as Aleksi Grym (Head of Fintech, Bank of Finland), Apoorv Kashyap (Head of AI, Santander UK), and Ben Brophy (Head of Institutional Growth, Europe, Solana).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the AAA-PTN20 promo code!

🇨🇳 Insurtech Insights Asia will be held in Hong Kong on December 3–4, 2025 ($299–$1,999), with speakers such as Huynh Thanh Phong (Group CEO, FWD), Edward Moncreiffe (CEO, Insurance, HSBC Life), and Masashi Namatame (Group Chief Digital Officer, Tokio Marine).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

🇨🇦 Arrested Development’s Will Arnett Stars In RBC Ad Dismissing Fintechs As a Trend

RBC, Canada’s largest bank, released a one-minute ad featuring Netflix’s Arrested Development star Will Arnett that dismisses digital banks as mere trends. In the commercial, the Canadian actor walks past a street vendor wearing a sandwich board for “Kule Bank” who tries to hand him promotional material, to which the actor responds “Nah, I’m good.” The ad concludes with Arnett pointing to the RBC logo inside a branch, declaring “track record, not a trend.”

The ad sparked immediate pushback from two Canadian neobank founders. Neo Financial co-founder Jeff Adamson responded with humour in a LinkedIn post: “I’m super flattered that RBC is thinking of Neo Financial and other ‘trends’, so this year for Halloween, I’m going as ‘Kule Bank.’” KOHO founder and CEO Daniel Eberhard corrected the bank’s spelling: “It’s pronounced KOHO, not KULE.” Michael Fox, Chief Risk Officer at KOHO, added that “Fintechs like us will take the extra publicity here. Thanks to RBC for creating extra awareness.”

Source: Global Fintech Insider

🇬🇧 Monzo Replaces CEO After Board Clash Over London vs NYC Listing

UK neobank Monzo is replacing CEO TS Anil with former Google executive Diana Layfield in a surprise shake-up. Layfield spent nine years at Google as general manager of search, international, and growth.

Anil, who led Monzo for nearly six years, will step down in February after clashing with the board over where to list as the company weighs a stock market float. The board favours London while Anil pushed for New York, according to the Financial Times.

In a LinkedIn post, Anil called the move “bittersweet,” saying he and the board had initially searched for a UK chief executive to report to him. But during the process, they decided Layfield should replace him entirely.

Under Anil’s leadership, Monzo grew from a startup to a major player, reaching 13 million customers and posting over £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in annual revenue for the first time in March 2025.

Source: Financial Times

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇺🇸 Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Manipulates Prediction Markets Live On Earnings Call

During Coinbase's quaterly earnings call last week, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong admitted he was “a little bit distracted” because he’d been tracking prediction markets about what words he would say during the call, then deliberately blurted out “Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain, Staking, and Web3”.

By intentionally saying these words, Armstrong caused bettors who had wagered against him mentioning them to lose their positions. Brian Armstrong later explained on X that manipulating prediction markets while on a quarterly call was not something he prepared: “lol this was fun – happened spontaneously when someone on our team dropped a link in the chat.”

The response on X was harsh, with one bettor replying “Brian, I lost around $10,000 on all of these words. Do you still think this was fun?”. Others were wondering whether Armstrong’s employees benefited from his spontaneity: “Did you investigate if that team member had any positions open??”, one X user asked him.

Sources: Global Fintech Insider

🇲🇽 Jack Ma’s Ant Group Pumps Cash & AI Technology Into Mexican Startup R2

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant International invested an undisclosed sum in Mexican embedded-lending startup R2, one year after raising $59 million from other investors. As part of the deal, Ant International will equip R2 with AI-powered tools to lower credit costs and improve underwriting accuracy. R2 allows its clients, like food delivery and ride-hailing platforms Rappi and InDrive, to offer loans to their gig workers, with repayments automatically deducted as a percentage of their earnings.

Source: Bloomberg

🇺🇸 Western Union Plans to Launch Stablecoin on Solana to Cut Global Transfer Costs

US-based money transfer giant Western Union is preparing to issue its own US dollar–backed stablecoin, dubbed the USDPT, on the Solana blockchain.

Western Union is partnering with San Francisco-based crypto bank Anchorage Digital, which will handle the stablecoin’s issuance, custody, settlement, and treasury operations.

In an interview with Bloomberg last July, Western Union CEO Devin McGranahan said stablecoins could solve two key challenges in emerging markets, which are currency conversion and value preservation.

“Converting stablecoin into fiat currencies, particularly in harder-to-convert markets, is an opportunity for us. For many of our customers, a stablecoin presents a store of value that’s tough to achieve in their country,’’ he said in the Bloomberg interview, adding that about 60% of Western Union’s business is outside the United States.

Sources: American Banker & Bloomberg

🇵🇰 A16z Backs $12.9M Round to Make Stablecoins Available on Every Pakistani Street Corner

Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is leading a new funding round for a Pakistani-based startup to make dollar-backed stablecoins as easy to access as mobile top-ups.

The firm is leading a $12.9 million funding round for ZAR, where the one-year-old startup plans to use local corner stores, kiosks, and money agents to let users swap cash for stablecoins stored in mobile wallets linked to Visa cards.

The model targets over 100 million unbanked adults in Pakistan, one of the world’s fastest-growing crypto markets. “Most people don’t need to understand blockchain to use stablecoins, they just need access,” co-founder Brandon Timinsky (left) said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Founded in 2024 by Timinsky and Sebastian Scholl (right), who previously sold their mobile wallet startup SadaPay to Turkey’s Papara, ZAR has now raised $20 million in total and plans to expand to Africa in 2026.

Source: Bloomberg

🇨🇦 WonderFi Sale to Robinhood Pushed to 2026 Over Regulatory, Tech Delays

Canada’s largest crypto-exchange WonderFi has announced that its sale to US trading platform Robinhood Markets has been delayed until the first half of 2026.

WonderFi attributed the delay to additional development work and regulatory approvals required for Robinhood to deploy its proprietary technology across WonderFi’s platforms.

The deal, first announced in May for $250 million CAD ($178 million) in cash, was initially expected to close in the second half of 2025. WonderFi, which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has already secured shareholder and Competition Bureau approvals and received a final court order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia. WonderFi currently oversees $1.9 billion in client assets across regulated exchanges Bitbuy and Coinsquare.

Source: Betakit

🇺🇸 Startup Charter Space Wants to Break the Space Insurance Bottleneck with AI

San Francisco-based Charter Space is tackling a massive satellite insurance bottleneck with AI-powered underwriting that makes coverage faster and cheaper.

Founded in 2021 by former space lawyer Yuk Chi Chan, Charter connects satellite manufacturers’ engineering data directly to an underwriting platform linked with six major insurers. According to Chan, out of 13,000+ active satellites, fewer than 300 are insured due to complex and expensive risk assessments.

Source: TechCrunch

🇳🇱 Dutch Neobank Bunq Wins US Broker-Dealer License, Eyes American Expansion

Amsterdam-based neobank Bunq has successfully entered the US market after securing a broker-dealer license. The approval, granted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), allows Bunq to offer securities trading and investment services to American customers. The neobank first applied for the license in April.

Founded in 2012 by Ali Niknam, Bunq had previously sought a US banking license under the Biden administration in 2023 but withdrew the application. With the Trump administration’s fintech-friendly stance, the company is now expected to revisit those plans.

Source: Bloomberg

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇺🇸 NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum – USA will be held in Austin on November 13–14 ($785–$1,249), with la ist of speakers to be announced closer to the dates.

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets using the qube10 promo code!

🇺🇸 Banking Transformation Summit will be held in Charlotte on November 17–18, 2025 ($2,280), with speakers such as Darius Wise (President & CEO, Red Rocks Credit Union), Priya Singh (Lead Data Scientist, Mastercard), and Rene Schuurman (Director – CashPro Product Manager, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the GFI20 promo code!

🇲🇾 Digital Finance Asia Summit – Malaysia will be held in Kuala Lumpur on November 18, 2025 (Price TBC), with speakers such as Sam Majid (CEO, National AI Office Malaysia), Nic Ngoo (CTO, Ryt Bank), and Farhan Ahmad (Group CEO, Payments Network Malaysia – PayNet).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the #GlobalFinDFA promo code!

🇩🇪 Banking 4.0 and Banking Innovation Conference will be held in Berlin on November 20–21, 2025 (€1,299–€4,999), with speakers such as Kamini Belday (Head of Global Payments & Transformation Executive, IBM), Sonja Marjanovic Vucic (Chief Data Officer, NLB Banka a.d. Banja Luka), and Nicole Onuta (AI Business Transformation Strategist, ING).

🚨 Save €100 on tickets using the promo code RQM8TEFV!

🇺🇸 RegTech Summit NYC will be held in New York City on November 20, 2025 ($995.50), with speakers such as Kenneth Lamar (Principal Partner, Lamar Associates LLC), Kristi Kunworee Baishya (AVP – Data and AI Product Management, Nomura Holding America), and Sepehr Irandoost (Head of Global Surveillance Calibration and Effectiveness, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code!

🇬🇧 Fintech Connect will be held in London on December 2–3, 2025 (£299), with speakers such as Aleksi Grym (Head of Fintech, Bank of Finland), Apoorv Kashyap (Head of AI, Santander UK), and Ben Brophy (Head of Institutional Growth, Europe, Solana).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the AAA-PTN20 promo code!

🇨🇳 Insurtech Insights Asia will be held in Hong Kong on December 3–4, 2025 ($299–$1,999), with speakers such as Huynh Thanh Phong (Group CEO, FWD), Edward Moncreiffe (CEO, Insurance, HSBC Life), and Masashi Namatame (Group Chief Digital Officer, Tokio Marine).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Hey Global Fintechers!

As you might have noticed, this is the first issue of Global Fintech Insider that has a sponsor. That does not mean that the content of the newsletter itself is promotional.

Quite the contrary. Sponsors like OGMA Risk & Analytics are allowing a small media organization like GFI to become sustainable and keep its editorial independence.

The only thing that is actually promotional in this newsletter is the little blurb presenting our sponsor, which starts with the word “SPONSORED” to avoid any possible confusion and the banner on top.

After realizing that less people than I thought were willing to pay for fintech news, I decided to start monetizing GFI through consulting, services like our LinkedIn Growth Engine & Reddit Growth Engine and sponsorships.

And so far, it looks like I made the right choice.

Thanks for reading GFI every week!

🇨🇦 Cannabis Brand Founder Questions Why Shopify Bans Weed Payments… Except for Seth Rogen’s Company

Co-founder of Canadian lifestyle brand Another Room, Chloe Popove has called out e-commerce giant Shopify, seemingly giving preferential treatment to celebrity-backed cannabis brands.

In a LinkedIn post, Popove said her company, like other cannabis merchants, is forced to pay a 2% fee to be allowed to use a third-party payment processor. Yet, Shopify bars them from using its in-house payments platform, Shop Pay.

That rule, however, didn’t seem to apply to Houseplant, the cannabis brand co-founded by Seth Rogen (center), Michael Mohr (left), and Evan Goldberg (right), which recently opened its first-ever pop-up at Shopify’s New York office and use Shop Pay on its website.

“I like Seth Rogen as much as anyone. And if humour unlocks Shop Pay, I’ll start workshopping a tight five,” she wrote in the post. Shopify had previously featured Seth Rogen’s Houseplant on their blog as an example of a “creator archetype” powering the creator economy.

Source: Global Fintech Insider

🇺🇸 Need a Chief Risk Officer but Can’t Justify the Full-Time Hire? Matthew Komos Has the Solution

SPONSORED - When risk oversight starts stretching your bandwidth, OGMA Risk & Analytics steps in. Founded by Matthew Komos, former VP at TransUnion and 25-year risk management and analytic veteran, OGMA delivers fractional CRO expertise to fintechs and financial institutions.

Their Fractional Chief Risk Officer and Risk Department On Demand programs give immediate access to top-tier risk leadership, analytics, and compliance expertise without the full-time cost. Whether you’re scaling, facing regulatory scrutiny, or building your governance framework, OGMA embeds seamlessly with your team to bring structure, clarity, and control.

Because in a fast-moving market, managing risk shouldn’t slow your growth: it should drive it.

Learn more

🇳🇬 African Neobank Moniepoint Raise Another $90M From Visa & Google

Nigerian neobank Moniepoint has raised $90 million in fresh funding to fuel its growth in its home market of Nigeria and expand to 4 other undisclosed African countries.

With over 10 millions customers, Moniepoint is one of the most valuable fintech in Africa, where it operates as digital retail bank as well as a payment processor for retailers. While it only operates online for now, Moniepoint applied last year for a full banking license from Nigeria’s central bank, which would allow the fintech to open physical branches in Nigeria.

Moniepoint’s senior VP Ross Strike (left) told Bloomberg in an interview that the round maintain the company’s valuation of over $1 billion and lifts its latest funding round, whose first closing happened last year, to $200 million.

Founded in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda (right) in Lagos, Moniepoint now processes over $250 billion in transactions annually. The round was backed by Visa, Development Partners International, Leapfrog, and Google’s Africa Investment Fund.

Sources: Bloomberg, Crowdfund Insider & TechCabal

🇨🇦 Canada’s Wealthsimple Doubles Its Assets to $100B in Just One Year

Canadian online financial services provider Wealthsimple doubled its assets to $100 billion in a single year. CEO Michael Katchen said he did not expect to hit the milestone until December 2028.

“It took 10 years to get to $50 billion. We doubled that in a single year,” said Katchen at an event in Toronto on October 22, according to The Globe and Mail. The figure marks a sharp rise from $52 billion a year ago and $31 billion at the end of 2023.

The surge reflects a broader trend of more Canadians taking ownership of their own savings and retirement, driven by younger demographics, social media financial influencers, and a booming stock market.

According to financial research firm Investor Economics, more than 2.9 million new trading accounts were opened across Canada in the 12 months ending June 2025.

Founded in 2014 as a robo-advisor, Wealthsimple currently serves about three million clients and has since expanded into stocks and crypto trading, credit cards, loans, tax filings, and mortgages.

Source: The Globe and Mail

🇺🇸 Trump Pardons Binance Founder CZ, Critics Ask: Is SBF Next?

US President Donald Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of crypto platform Binance, erasing his money-laundering conviction.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who confirmed the pardon, said the move signals the end of the Biden-era “war on crypto,’’ as reported by The New York Times. The pardon could allow Zhao to regain control of Binance and re-enter the US market, reigniting competition with crypto platforms such as Coinbase and Kraken.

“Deeply grateful for today’s pardon,” Zhao wrote on X, pledging to help “make America the Capital of Crypto.”

The pardon follows Zhao’s outreach to Trump-aligned lawyers and lobbyists, as well as Binance’s partnership with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto venture.

Financial crime expert Jim Richards, who predicted the pardon in an April op-ed, said he disagreed with framing the conviction as anti-crypto. “It was a war against terrorism, cybercrime, and child abusers,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Former Federal Reserve and Treasury official Donald F. Billings wrote a pointed remark on the same LinkedIn thread, stating, “Next up: SBF? How many Trump sh!tcoins do you have to buy for a pardon? Just a hypothetical question, of course,” referencing FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of fraud in 2023.

Zhao, known as CZ, pleaded guilty in 2023 to failing to implement anti-money-laundering controls at Binance, which prosecutors said enabled transactions tied to sanctioned countries and terrorist groups. He served four months in prison.

Sources: New York Times & Global Fintech Insider

🇺🇸 Founder of Green Neobank Aspiration Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Leonardo DiCaprio, Drake, Orlando Bloom and Robert Downey Jr.

Co-founder of the now-defunct US green banking startup Aspiration, Joseph Sanberg has pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud over a $248 million investor scheme.

The 46-year-old entrepreneur attracted many celebrity backers, including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and many fintech celebrity investors that made it into GFI’s top 40 such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Robert Downey Jr., and Drake. Sentencing for Joseph Sanberg, who faces up to 40 years in prison, is set for February 23, 2026.

Prosecutors said Sanberg fabricated financial statements to make Aspiration appear solvent, including a fake audit letter claiming it held $250 million in cash when it had less than $1 million. The false figures were used to secure loans and new investors.

Once a darling of sustainable finance, Aspiration planned a $2.3 billion SPAC in 2021 before collapsing a year later. Its fintech arm was acquired by Mission Financial Partners in 2024, led by ex-Tesla executive Tim Newell, and rebranded as GreenFi, which continues to offer climate-focused banking and investment products.

Sources: Business Insider & Global Fintech Insider

🇷🇺 Moscow Firm Bets on Smart ATMs to Tap 1,000 Tons of Russia’s Private Bullion

Moscow-based gold trading startup Goldexrobot is betting on AI-powered ATMs to turn the nation’s purported 1,000 metric tons of private gold hoard into cash.

They intend to deploy these machines that buy and verify bullion directly from citizens.

Co-founder Evgeny Gorodilov said the machines solve a longstanding trust problem with pawnshops and online trading. “We’re using AI to make valuation transparent and eliminate fraud,” he told Reuters in an interview.

The company is planning 600 machines that use spectral and density analysis to verify gold and price it in real-time using Moscow Exchange data. Users authenticate themselves, deposit jewellery or coins, and receive instant payment to their bank cards.

Regulators approved the technology after trials in the Central Bank’s sandbox, but uptake remains slow as many Russians still view gold as a desirable hedge against inflation and sanctions.

Source: Reuters

🇸🇪 Klarna vs Google $8.3B Antitrust Trial Kicks Off in Sweden

Swedish BNPL giant Klarna’s $8.3 billion lawsuit against Google for anti-competitive manipulation of search results kicked off in Stockholm on October 20.

The Swedish fintech giant and its UK-based shopping price comparison arm, PriceRunner, accuse Google of abusing its market dominance by prioritising its own shopping service in search results, a practice first flagged by the European Commission in 2017 and confirmed by the EU’s top court in 2024.

Klarna spokesman John Craske told AFP in an email reply that the company is seeking the billions in damages based on economic analysis of losses incurred, adding that the amount “continues to grow daily.”

Google denies wrongdoing, saying it has already complied with the EU ruling. The trial at Sweden’s Patent and Market Court is expected to continue until December 19.

Source: AFP

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇺🇸 Money20/20 USA will be held in Las Vegas on October 26–29, 2025 ($1,495–$5,995), with speakers such as Leigh Brady (President & CEO, SECU), Bill Cheney (CEO, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union), and Beverly Anderson (President & CEO, BECU).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $250 on tickets using the GFI250 promo code!

🇨🇳 Hong Kong Fintech Week will be held in Hong Kong on November 3–7, 2025 ($99–$299), with speakers such as Forest Lin (Corporate Vice President & Head of Tencent Financial Technology, Tencent), Eric Jing (Chairman, Ant Group), and Bill Winters (Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets using the HKFTWXSMUGLOBALFT10 promo code!

🇺🇸 Blockchain Futurist Conference will be held in Miami on November 5–6, 2025 ($349–$599), with speakers such as Tom Bilyeu (CEO & Co-Founder, Impact Theory), Shan Aggarwal (Chief Business Officer, Coinbase), and Mike Belshe (Co-Founder & CEO, BitGo).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets using the GLOBAL25 promo code!

🇺🇸 NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum – USA will be held in Austin on November 13–14 ($785–$1,249), with la ist of speakers to be announced closer to the dates.

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets using the qube10 promo code!

🇺🇸 Banking Transformation Summit will be held in Charlotte on November 17–18, 2025 ($2,280), with speakers such as Darius Wise (President & CEO, Red Rocks Credit Union), Priya Singh (Lead Data Scientist, Mastercard), and Rene Schuurman (Director – CashPro Product Manager, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the GFI20 promo code!

🇲🇾 Digital Finance Asia Summit – Malaysia will be held in Kuala Lumpur on November 18, 2025 (Price TBC), with speakers such as Sam Majid (CEO, National AI Office Malaysia), Nic Ngoo (CTO, Ryt Bank), and Farhan Ahmad (Group CEO, Payments Network Malaysia – PayNet).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the #GlobalFinDFA promo code!

🇩🇪 Banking 4.0 and Banking Innovation Conference will be held in Berlin on November 20–21, 2025 (€1,299–€4,999), with speakers such as Kamini Belday (Head of Global Payments & Transformation Executive, IBM), Sonja Marjanovic Vucic (Chief Data Officer, NLB Banka a.d. Banja Luka), and Nicole Onuta (AI Business Transformation Strategist, ING).

🚨 Save €100 on tickets using the promo code RQM8TEFV!

🇺🇸 RegTech Summit NYC will be held in New York City on November 20, 2025 ($995.50), with speakers such as Kenneth Lamar (Principal Partner, Lamar Associates LLC), Kristi Kunworee Baishya (AVP – Data and AI Product Management, Nomura Holding America), and Sepehr Irandoost (Head of Global Surveillance Calibration and Effectiveness, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code!

🇬🇧 Fintech Connect will be held in London on December 2–3, 2025 (£299), with speakers such as Aleksi Grym (Head of Fintech, Bank of Finland), Apoorv Kashyap (Head of AI, Santander UK), and Ben Brophy (Head of Institutional Growth, Europe, Solana).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the AAA-PTN20 promo code!

🇨🇳 Insurtech Insights Asia will be held in Hong Kong on December 3–4, 2025 ($299–$1,999), with speakers such as Huynh Thanh Phong (Group CEO, FWD), Edward Moncreiffe (CEO, Insurance, HSBC Life), and Masashi Namatame (Group Chief Digital Officer, Tokio Marine).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast and YouTube’s most popular creator with 447 million subscribers, has filed a trademark for what appears to be a neobank.

According to a US Patent and Trademark Office filing on October 13 under Beast Holdings LLC, the application lists downloadable software for short-term cash advances, consumer lending, investment management, and financial education. It also covers services related to cryptocurrency exchange, decentralized trading (DEX), and credit and debit card issuance.

While the there is huge gap between a trademark application and bank license application, the filing seems to indicate Jimmy Donaldson is preparing the launch of a neobank in the US.

The development follows a Business Insider report from March citing a leaked investor pitch deck that suggested MrBeast was exploring financial services.

Donaldson is no stranger to fintech. As previously featured in GFI’s Top 40 Celebrity Fintech Investors, he has backed Current, a neobank for teens and young adults, and invested in crypto ventures such as NFT platform Refinable (acquired by Artifact Labs) and crypto wallet company Bitski (acquired by Phantom).

Sources: Newsweek, Business Insider & Global Fintech Insider

🇬🇧 Revolut Snaps Up German AI Travel Agent Startup Swifty

UK-based neobank Revolut has acquired Swifty, a German AI travel agent startup, to ramp up its AI assistant capabilities. Swifty uses AI agents to autonomously handle travel bookings through a conversational interface. The technology will be integrated into Revolut’s loyalty program.

Swifty’s co-founders Tomasz Przedmojski (left) and Stanislav Bondarenko (right) will join Revolut under the deal. Financial terms, however, were not disclosed.

“We’re gaining both talent and expertise in AI-driven travel solutions, which will help us deliver even more personalized and seamless experiences to our customers,” said Christopher Guttridge, Head of Loyalty at Revolut in a statement released by the company.

Revolut first entered travel services in 2021 with in-app accommodation booking and has since expanded to airline miles products and travel experience bookings like tour tickets.

Source: Sifted

🇲🇽 Mexican Plata Bags $250M, Hits $3.1B Valuation as It Gears Up to Become a Bank

Mexico-based neobank Plata has raised $250 million in fresh equity funding at a $3.1 billion valuation.

Plata received regulatory approval for a banking licence in December 2024 and is now completing final audits before operations begin. The licence will allow it to expand beyond credit cards into payroll, debit, and deposit services.

Plata, which started operations in 2023, is currently led by CEO Neri Tollardo. The company has grown from 100 to 3,000 employees and now serves over two million active users across Mexico.

It began operations by targeting Mexico’s vast and underserved population, offering services that range from Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) to cashback credit cards and mobile top-up credits.

The round follows a $160 million raise earlier this year in March.

Source: Bloomberg

🇺🇸 Online Lender Upgrade Now Valued at $7.3B Thanks to a $250M Pre-IPO Round

San Francisco-based online lender Upgrade has raised $165 million at a $7.3 billion valuation, building cash reserves ahead of a planned IPO within the next year.

“We were probably 12 to 18 months away from an IPO at this stage. So we wanted to go ahead and make sure everyone could sell a little bit of stock now without having to wait for the IPOm’’ said Upgrade Founder and CEO Renaud Laplanche to CNBC in an interview.

Founded in 2016 by the LendingClub founder, Upgrade began with small personal loans before expanding into checking and savings accounts, credit cards, credit monitoring, and buy now, pay later services.

Upgrade’s revenue has more than doubled since 2021, surpassing $1 billion in annualized revenue as of May.

Source: CNBC

🇺🇸 “Cable Cowboy” John Malone Among Backers Pumping $65M Into Handset Financing Company Glow

Cable mogul John Malone is among the backers who pumped in $65 million into phone financing company Glow Services Corp to help mobile operators offload the mounting debt tied to handset financing.

Glow partners with telecoms like BT Group and handset makers such as Samsung to provide point-of-sale loans for smartphones. It was founded in 2014 by Andrew Cole, a Liberty board member and GB News co-founder, and CEO Christiaan Ross.

The new funds will allow Glow to finance handset loans while carriers handle billing and collections, removing debt from operators’ balance sheets.

The round values the Miami-based firm at $325 million, led by Apollo Global Management with $35 million, Citigroup with $15 million, and $10 million from John Malone, known as the “Cable Cowboy” for his pioneering work in the cable TV industry, through his firm Silver Spur Capital.

Source: Bloomberg

🇲🇦 Moroccan eCommerce Startup Chari Raises $12M to Scale Super-App Across Africa

Moroccan ecommerce platform Chari has raised $12 million in Series A funding to scale its merchant superapp across Africa. Founded in 2020 by Ismael Belkhayat, Chari helps 15,000 merchants across Morocco, Tunisia, and Ivory Coast order supplies and access financial services through a single mobile platform. It recently secured a payment institution license from Morocco’s central bank, enabling it to offer debit cards, bill payments, and microinsurance.

The round was co-led by SPE Capital and Orange Ventures, with participation from Verod-Kepple, Global Founders Capital, UM6P Ventures, Axian Group, and other backers.

Source: Start Up Morocco

🇺🇸 LendingTree Founder and CEO Doug Lebda Dies in ATV Accident

Founder and CEO of US-based online lending marketplace LendingTree, Doug Lebda, died Sunday in an all-terrain vehicle accident at a family farm in North Carolina. He was 55.

Lebda founded LendingTree in 1996 after experiencing frustrations while shopping for his first mortgage. The platform, which was designed to “simplify the loan shopping process”, launched nationally in 1998 and went public in 2000. It was later acquired by IAC/InterActiveCorp before spinning off again in 2008. Chief Operating Officer and President Scott Peyree has been appointed CEO effective immediately, while Lead Independent Director Steve Ozonian will assume the role of board chairman.

Source: CNN

Upcoming Fintech Events

🇺🇸 Money20/20 USA will be held in Las Vegas on October 26–29, 2025 ($1,495–$5,995), with speakers such as Leigh Brady (President & CEO, SECU), Bill Cheney (CEO, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union), and Beverly Anderson (President & CEO, BECU).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Save $250 on tickets using the GFI250 promo code!

🇨🇳 Hong Kong Fintech Week will be held in Hong Kong on November 3–7, 2025 ($99–$299), with speakers such as Forest Lin (Corporate Vice President & Head of Tencent Financial Technology, Tencent), Eric Jing (Chairman, Ant Group), and Bill Winters (Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets using the HKFTWXSMUGLOBALFT10 promo code!

🇺🇸 Blockchain Futurist Conference will be held in Miami on November 5–6, 2025 ($349–$599), with speakers such as Tom Bilyeu (CEO & Co-Founder, Impact Theory), Shan Aggarwal (Chief Business Officer, Coinbase), and Mike Belshe (Co-Founder & CEO, BitGo).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets using the GLOBAL25 promo code!

🇺🇸 NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum – USA will be held in Austin on November 13–14 ($785–$1,249), with la ist of speakers to be announced closer to the dates.

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets using the qube10 promo code!

🇺🇸 Banking Transformation Summit will be held in Charlotte on November 17–18, 2025 ($2,280), with speakers such as Darius Wise (President & CEO, Red Rocks Credit Union), Priya Singh (Lead Data Scientist, Mastercard), and Rene Schuurman (Director – CashPro Product Manager, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the GFI20 promo code!

🇲🇾 Digital Finance Asia Summit – Malaysia will be held in Kuala Lumpur on November 18, 2025 (Price TBC), with speakers such as Sam Majid (CEO, National AI Office Malaysia), Nic Ngoo (CTO, Ryt Bank), and Farhan Ahmad (Group CEO, Payments Network Malaysia – PayNet).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the #GlobalFinDFA promo code!

🇩🇪 Banking 4.0 and Banking Innovation Conference will be held in Berlin on November 20–21, 2025 (€1,299–€4,999), with speakers such as Kamini Belday (Head of Global Payments & Transformation Executive, IBM), Sonja Marjanovic Vucic (Chief Data Officer, NLB Banka a.d. Banja Luka), and Nicole Onuta (AI Business Transformation Strategist, ING).

🚨 Save €100 on tickets using the promo code RQM8TEFV!

🇺🇸 RegTech Summit NYC will be held in New York City on November 20, 2025 ($995.50), with speakers such as Kenneth Lamar (Principal Partner, Lamar Associates LLC), Kristi Kunworee Baishya (AVP – Data and AI Product Management, Nomura Holding America), and Sepehr Irandoost (Head of Global Surveillance Calibration and Effectiveness, Bank of America).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 15% discount on tickets using the GFI15 promo code!

🇬🇧 Fintech Connect will be held in London on December 2–3, 2025 (£299), with speakers such as Aleksi Grym (Head of Fintech, Bank of Finland), Apoorv Kashyap (Head of AI, Santander UK), and Ben Brophy (Head of Institutional Growth, Europe, Solana).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 20% discount on tickets using the AAA-PTN20 promo code!

🇨🇳 Insurtech Insights Asia will be held in Hong Kong on December 3–4, 2025 ($299–$1,999), with speakers such as Huynh Thanh Phong (Group CEO, FWD), Edward Moncreiffe (CEO, Insurance, HSBC Life), and Masashi Namatame (Group Chief Digital Officer, Tokio Marine).

🚨 GFI Exclusive Offer: Enjoy a 25% discount on tickets using the GFI25 promo code!

Who Am I?

Hi, my name is Julien Brault.

From 2017 to 2024, I was the CEO of Hardbacon, a fintech I co-founded, which reached 400,000 unique visitors at its peak.

A Google update ultimately sealed the company’s fate, and I started this newsletter to keep myself busy in the aftermath.

I then launched an another fintech affiliate site called MooseMoney, but I still find the time to publish this newsletter weekly.

Why share this?

Because my goal is to use my experience as an economic journalist, fintech entrepreneur and product manager to present the most essential fintech news from around the world through the eyes of an insider.

If you like what I do, feel free to share this newsletter and follow me on LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube & TikTok.

If you would like me to accompany you on your fintech entrepreneurship journey and provide you with ongoing feedback, feel free to hire me as coach on MentorCruise.

If all you need is to pick my brain on specific topic in the field of fintech marketing, product or strategy, feel free to book a one hour consulting call with me instead.

P.S : Once you refer a new subscriber to the newsletter using your unique share link, you'll receive a personalized social media shout-out from me to promote your work or professional profile. Just write to me at jrbrault@icloud.com once your referral is confirmed on our leaderboard and include your social media account(s) URL(s) and who you are.

Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank is making its biggest crypto bet yet. PayPay, the mobile payment app owned by SoftBank’s Japanese telecom arm, just acquired a 40% stake in Binance Japan.

This gives PayPay’s 70 million users direct access to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through their existing accounts using PayPay Money. While unknown outside of Japan and South Korea, PayPay is a household name in Japan, where it lets people make QR code payments at shops and send money to each other for free, similar to Venmo or PayPal.

PayPay corporate officer Masayoshi Yanase emphasized the value of partnering with “the world’s largest digital asset exchange by trading volume” in the press release announcing the deal.

The investment follows the classic Masayoshi Son playbook. The SoftBank founder uses his dominance over Japan’s telecom market to help international tech companies expand there in exchange for taking a stake. He famously did this with Yahoo Japan, where his stake eventually became more valuable than Yahoo itself. He also did something similar with OpenAI, creating a joint venture called SB OpenAI Japan that sells OpenAI’s enterprise products exclusively to major Japanese corporations.

Source: Global Fintech Insider & Bloomberg

🇬🇧 Revolut’s Storonsky Becomes Latest Billionaire to Leave UK Over Taxes

Revolut co-founder and CEO Nik Storonsky is the latest billionaire to shift his residence away from the UK after the government axed a tax break that saved the ultra-wealthy millions.

Corporate filings cited by Forbes show Storonsky’s family office changed his residence from the UK to the United Arab Emirates in October 2024. Forbes estimates his stake in Revolut is now worth over $7.9 billion, with the London-based digital bank reportedly in talks to raise funds at a $65 billion valuation.

The move follows the British government’s decision in April to scrap special tax privileges for “non-domiciled residents,’’ a 200-year-old rule that allowed the wealthy to avoid UK taxes on overseas earnings for up to 15 years.

Since the change, several high-profile figures have departed, including Egyptian billionaire Nassef Sawiris, startup investor Christian Angermayer, and property developers Ian and Richard Livingstone.

Source: Forbes

🇺🇸 Prediction Markets Go Mainstream as NYSE Parent Invests $2B in Polymarket

One of Wall Street’s major establishments is going all-in on crypto gambling.

Intercontinental Exchange or ICE, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, is investing up to $2 billion in Polymarket, valuing the prediction market at $8 billion.

Under the deal, ICE will become a global distributor of Polymarket’s data, expanding the platform’s reach.

The deal represents a sharp jump from Polymarket’s $1 billion valuation in its August funding round and “marks a major step in bringing prediction markets into the financial mainstream,” said founder and CEO Shayne Coplan to the New York Times.

Prediction markets, which allow users to bet on outcomes ranging from politics to sports and entertainment, surged into the mainstream last year after correctly predicting the US presidential election outcome.

Source: The New York Times

🇺🇸 Billionaire Mark Cuban Backs Yendo’s $50M Round for Vehicle-Secured Credit Cards

Texas-based Yendo has raised a $50 million round, in which billionaire Mark Cuban participated, to expand the first-ever vehicle-secured credit card for subprime borrowers.

The company targets consumers with credit scores of 600 or below, often locked out of traditional credit and pushed toward payday loans. Yendo’s cards carry a 29.88% fixed annual interest rate, with credit limits up to $10,000, secured by the borrower’s vehicle even if not fully paid off.

Founder Jordan Miller (pictured below) told Bloomberg in an interview that “I think people are really missing out,” adding that non-prime US consumers hold over $1 trillion in untapped vehicle equity.

Most applicants receive a credit offer within a minute of submitting vehicle information and Miller said Yendo’s repossession rate remains below 2%, compared to the 2.3% national average for auto loans.

Source: Bloomberg

🇧🇲 Crypto Insurer Raises $22M to Launch World First’s Ethereum-Based Life Insurance

Want your life insurance payout in Ethereum?

Bermuda-based crypto life insurer Anthea just raised $22 million to make that happen, launching what it claims is the world’s first crypto-denominated life insurance product.

The Series A funding, led by Hong Kong-based Yunfeng Financial Group, will accelerate product development, expand Anthea’s footprint across Asia, and support operations as it builds out its crypto-linked in .

Anthea, led by CEO Alex Pei, has received in-principle approval from the Bermuda Monetary Authority to offer insurance denominated in digital assets.

The policy structure mirrors traditional life insurance, except that premiums, claim payments, maturity payouts, and loans will all be handled in cryptocurrency.

Source: CoinDesk

🇬🇧 UK Banking Faces “Shadow AI” Threat as Two-Thirds Use Unapproved Tools

The growing use of unsanctioned generative AI tools by employees, known as “shadow AI”, is fast emerging as a cybersecurity risk across the UK’s financial sector.

According to a new study by AI firm DeepL, cited by Finextra, around 65% of UK finance professionals admit to using unapproved AI tools when communicating with customers. Despite the potential breaches of internal policy and data protection rules, 70% said such tools had improved their response times and accessibility.

“In financial services, where every interaction is highly regulated and reputational risk is acute, staff will inevitably look for workarounds if the tools provided don’t meet their needs,” DeepL chief revenue officer David Parry-Jones told Finextra.

Currently, 37% of banking interactions are powered by AI, with multilingual support and transaction monitoring among the most common applications.

A separate study by Cybernews, also cited by Finextra, found the trend extends globally, with 59% of US workers using unapproved AI tools. “If employees use unapproved AI, there’s no way to know what kind of information is being shared,” said Cybernews security researcher Mantas Sabeckis.

Source: Finextra

🇨🇳 Ant Group Releases Open-Source AI Model Claiming Edge Over OpenAI, DeepSeek

Chinese payment giant Ant Group has entered the trillion-parameter race with Ling-1T, its new open-source AI model touted to outperform DeepSeek and OpenAI.

In a recent company announcement, it says the LLM model surpass rivals in mathematics, coding, and logical reasoning.

Ant said Ling-1T, features over one trillion parameters and demonstrated “superior complex reasoning ability” across benchmarks, achieving 70.42% accuracy on the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), matching Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Ant’s chief technology officer Zhengyu He, who leads the company’s AI division, was also part of its elite “Plan A” team of researchers mentoring top graduates through an internal talent programme, in a bid to attract leading AI minds to the firm, according to a separate news report by the SCMP last May.