Rojin Nair, Advisor
June 1st, 2021
TechCrunch | Mary Ann Azevedo | Apr 6, 2022
The London-based company provides identity, data and payments products that it says gives developers a way to capture consent permissions and “securely” connect payment cards to a service or application.
“With this infrastructure, developers are able to create highly contextualized and event-driven user experiences at the point of purchase,” it claims. Fidel API is industry agnostic, with customers ranging in the “hundreds,” from startups to giants such as Google, Royal Bank of Canada and British Airways. Developers use the company’s tools to power a range of features, including digital receipts, omnichannel attribution, loyalty and rewards, expense management and personal finance management.
The raise is another example of how infrastructure companies in the fintech world continue to be resilient despite an apparent slowdown in global funding overall. The ability to empower other companies in the world of financial services is proving to be lucrative as well as attractive to investors. Just last week, Cross River Bank landed a $620 million investment that pushed its valuation to more than $3 billion. In February, blockchain infrastructure startup Alchemy announced that it had closed on a $200 million Series C1 equity round that valued the company at $10.2 billion.
In the case of Fidel API, Subrata says the company has built the infrastructure that can help developers create “programmable money.”
“Our role in the ecosystem is to enable other developers to build what we call programmable experiences on top of existing money flow that can be quite archaic,” Subrata said. “What we have done is build a modern connectivity layer that sits on top of the payment systems on the global net core networks. And then we expose that through a modern API for other developers to innovate on top of.”
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada ![]() Not to be missed! Registration NOW OPEN! |
FDATA NA and Paytechs of Canada | Steve Boms and Alex Vronces | Apr 4, 2022
April 4, 2022, Toronto and Washington, DC: More than half of Canadians feel stress when interacting with Canada’s financial services sector and believe they would benefit from increased competition and transparency in the financial services market, according to a landmark survey commissioned by FDATA North America and Paytechs of Canada. The findings indicate this is especially true among women, young people, and new Canadians. Among the biggest sources of dissatisfaction are high fees and a lack of choice.
The findings are derived from two surveys conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights. One was of a randomly-selected sample of 2,001 Canadians 18 years of age or older. The other was of a randomly-selected sample of 600 Canadian small business owners. In each, respondents were asked about their experiences with Canada’s financial services sector.
Key Findings:
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada ![]() Not to be missed! Registration NOW OPEN! |
Rich Turrin | Cashless | Apr 1, 2022
First, let me congratulate the EU for actually surveying citizens to get an idea of their concerns for the digital euro. The Fed should watch and learn from the European Central Bank (ECB)!
The most shocking thing we learned is that privacy is, amazingly enough, not "top of mind" for most users, many of whom feel that much of their purchasing is already tracked. That was a real shocker for me and apparently for the ECB. Still, it shows the sad state of digital privacy.
Interestingly, free and immediate contactless payment seemed to be a hit, provided it was universal. Users don't want to worry about whether or not it would be accepted. They have had their fill of being told: "Sorry, we accept Visa, not Mastercard." The good news is that universal acceptance is precisely the experience a CBDC national currency can deliver. More on the ECB digital euro user survey
What makes this so interesting is that in the same week that the EU launched these results, US Senators from the Financial Services Committee published a draft law proposing privacy-protecting eCash!
ECash is tokenized money that does not get transported on a network. It is not a CBDC! ECash is a token on your phone or offline card and can be used as we do cash with no risk of being tracked. I think it's a great idea and may just compliment a CBDC. CBDCs would cover higher value transactions and eCash lower day-to-day expenses. This looks almost exactly like the e-CNY's anonymous payment for low value (RMB 2000 max) transactions.
eCash is designed for privacy. Lack of AML/KYC is its "Achilles heel."
eCash is not without flaws. Suppose you lose your digital wallet; it's gone, just like cash. The biggest issue is that eCash requires no KYC or AML. I don't see this as a flaw, in fact, I love it! Still, I am sure this will cause a battle with regulators who will deem eCash unacceptable. Still, I think it advances the digital dollar discussion. More about the eCash act and PDF of the full act in this post here.
What makes this so interesting is that the US is investigating a privacy-protecting eCash system, while the ECB is getting actual survey results saying that privacy is not the number one concern. I find the divergence interesting. It makes me wonder if the nation addicted to privacy vampire Facebook is as concerned about privacy as a vocal minority makes them out to be? In the EU, we now know that this is not a primary concern. Sadly, for the US, we have no idea.
I back this statement up with a post earlier in the week that shows how the e-CNY is being used for transactions over US$ 100,000 in trials in China. The PBOC is clearly signaling that e-CNY will be used to carry large sums of money that WeChat and Alipay were never designed to move. Moreover, it proves that the e-CNY can do far more than buy coffee.
This is a big question but has to be asked. While the yuan certainly has many flaws, is it "good enough?" The US dollar was once considered "risk-free," but it now has real questions surrounding its usability following widespread global sanctions. Can you use it if sanctions hit? This is why as a "risk management exercise," many nations are looking for dollar replacements, and the yuan just might be "good enough." It's not a question of loving the yuan, so much as that there are few alternatives, and most countries import goods from China. So why wouldn't they convert some of these purchases to yuan to reduce dollar dependence?
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada ![]() Not to be missed! Registration NOW OPEN! |
Forbes | Ron Shevlin | Mar 27, 2022
The Apple-oids in Cupertino must eat this stuff up. Every time Apple makes an acquisition, the technology world—and increasingly now, the fintechaverse—goes into hyper speculation mode, trying to figure out why the company made the purchase and what it plans to do with the acquired firm.
via their Website: “Credit Kudos’ intelligent products enable businesses to leverage Open Banking to enhance affordability and risk assessments. Our predictive insights are built by combining transaction and loan outcome data. Our products help lenders streamline underwriting, improve accuracy in decision-making, and support customers after acquisition through our engagement tools.”
BNPL acquisitions have been occurring faster than Ben Affleck finds new girlfriends:
It would be a real coup for Apple to acquire a BNPL capability for just $150 million.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
![]() | ![]() | ![]() |
Support NCFA by Following us on Twitter!Follow @NCFACanada ![]() Not to be missed! Registration NOW OPEN! |