FinTech Breakfast with WTM | March 1, 2024

Come and join us for coffee and sparkling news from the finance and tech world this week.

▪️ Turkish challenger Papara reportedly set to acquire digital wallet fintech SadaPay, Fintech Futures
▪️ Nuvei begins direct local acquiring in Colombia, Finextra
▪️ CEO warns of unicorns leaving Lithuania due to its strict fintech policy, Delfi
▪️ Forex Crisis: Nigerian govt blocks Binance, OctaFX, Coinbase, others, Premium Times
▪️ Cross River Launches Premier Fintech Investment Banking Franchise, Business Wire
▪️ Jack Dorsey's plan to reshape Square, American Banker
▪️ EU Makes Instant Payments the Law of the Land, Pmnts
▪️ Revolut to launch advanced cryptocurrency exchange, Paypers
▪️ Qatar Central Bank to launch an instant payment service, Paypers
▪️ OKX's services are no longer available in Uzbekistan, OKX
▪️ EBay Japan marketplace Qoo10 adopts Adyen’s payment platform, Finextra
▪️ Klarna says its AI assistant does the work of 700 people after it laid off 700 people, Fast Company

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Some more stats about SweFinTech

This is the fifth edition of SweFinTech’s annual report, primarily aimed at increasing the knowledge about the Swedish fintech industry and helping to create even better conditions for its growth.

▪️ SweFinTech has grown during the year and gone from 87 member companies in 2022 to 93 companies in 2023.
▪️The number of fintech investments in the Nordics dropped by 77 percent in the third quarter of 2023 compared to the same period the previous year, and the total capital invested has plummeted by a full 97 percent.
▪️Sweden has also been prominent in fintech, as several internationally well-known fintech companies such as Klarna, Zettle (formerly iZettle), and Trustly were founded here.

?? Learn more about Sweden: WTM country profile
? Read Anna Kuzmina's personal outlook of Sweden's fintech and payment habits on Finextra

Fintech Saudi Arabia: Fuelling the Transition

Findexable has shared its latest research on GCC and, in particular, Saudi Arabia's fintech. Here are key insights:

▪️ KSA is the 5th largest digital payments market globally (8 billion transactions - from close to 0 in 2018)
▪️ The number of BNPL customers has grown 130x
▪️ 1 in 4 microfinance customers are women (from 0 in 2019)

The Kingdom’s roadmap of transforming itself into a cashless society got a massive boost in September 2023 as Mastercard and Fintech Saudi signed an agreement to boost a core part of the Gulf state’s high-tech vision of the future.

?? Read Saudi Arabia – WTM one-pager free report for more insights

Revisiting Fraud Challenges in 2023

This latest report focuses on financial institutions and solutions that combine payment innovation with a proactive approach to fraud prevention. Across the industry, there has been measurable improvement in addressing fraud risk. However, there’s a long road ahead given the sophistication of today’s fraud threats.

? Read NICE Actimaze report
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Cross-Border Payments and Ecommerce Report 2023–2024

The hottest December edition from ThePaypers includes:
▪️ AI and GenAI’s potential in ecommerce and finance
▪️ Social selling in the context of cross-border trade
▪️ Expert discussions on the topics of localization, payment optimization, and FX
▪️ A close look at two leading ecommerce verticals: retail and digital goods – gaming
▪️ Insights from seasoned industry professionals

? Dig in the report above

Buy Now, Pay Later: a Cross-Country Analysis

Or installment loans, or purchases in multiple payments. So well-known to customers in the CIS market, the trend goes around the world hyping on the technology that is not a breakthrough in fact.

Bank for International Settlements has released a review of the performance of BNPL in 2023, its regulations, pros and cons vs. credit cards, drivers, and investors of BNPL schemes. In general, BNPL is rising rapidly, particularly in economies with robust e-commerce, high rates of inflation, ineffective banking systems, and lax regulations. Often, BNPL schemes are used by young adults with low credit ratings and significant debt levels.

? Learn more from the report above
? Send thanks and tips to the WTM team

Fintech funding continues falling (not so hopelessly as before, spoiler)

According to the 'State of Fintech Q3’23 Report' by CB Insights, global fintech funding showed signs of stabilizing in Q3'23, falling by just 3% QoQ. Fintech deal activity also continued to trend down in Q3’23. Deal count slid back to 2017 levels, falling by 18% QoQ to hit 754.

Here are key takeaways from the report:

▪️ Global fintech funding falls 3% QoQ to hit $7.4B.
▪️ US fintech funding experiences a 5% drop in Q3’23.
▪️ Unicorn births remain at 3 in Q3’23.
▪️ Fintech mega-round funding climbs 50% QoQ.
▪️ Digital lending funding jumps 70% while deals fall 56% QoQ.

Get your personal copy from this link of dive into the PDF-copy above.

Geography of crypto

Here is one of the most awaited reports in the crypto industry. Chainalysis studies how crypto adoption differs from region to region, including interviews with local experts and covering trends and topics such as:

◾ Why Central & Southern Asia may be the future of cryptocurrency
◾ The impact of policy and regulation on crypto usage
◾ How retail and institutional investors have responded to crypto winter

Get your personal copy or dig in the report above.

Namibia and its trust in people

Might not be the most developed in tech, but you sure make up on the vibes.

The most amazing piece of fintech we found on the Namibian soil was… the cashierless stands selling crystallised salt. Competely cashierless, based on trust. You take, you give. Just have some faith in people.

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Medium

Namibia and its trust in people

Namibia is quite small in terms of population. Also it has been under South Africa’s wing for a long time before going independent. These…