Consumer fintech Stash raised $65M from Union Square Ventures, Breyer Capital, and others. The platform partners with Green Dot's banking subsidiary for FDIC-insured accounts and launched a stock-back debit card rewards feature. With over 2 million users, the funding supports Stash's embedded banking and micro-investment product suite.
Entities: Stash · Green Dot Bank · Union Square Ventures · Breyer Capital
Omidyar Network released Flourish, a fintech venture fund with $200 million in portfolio companies focused on digital-first financial services for underserved populations. The fund targets low- and middle-income households globally. This investment vehicle aimed to accelerate embedded and accessible financial services innovation.
Chime, a US mobile banking challenger that relies on bank partners to offer FDIC-insured checking and savings accounts, raised $200 million in Series D funding led by DST Global. The round valued the neobank at $1.5 billion. The raise underscores growing investor appetite for fintechs built on top of chartered bank infrastructure.
Entities: Chime · DST Global · The Bancorp Bank · Stride Bank
Hong Kong-based SME trade financing platform Qupital secured $15M in Series A funding led by CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund, with participation from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and MindWorks Ventures. The round brought total funding to $17M, supporting Qupital's online financing infrastructure for small businesses.
Entities: Qupital · CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund · Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund · MindWorks Ventures
UK personal finance app Emma partnered with Salt Edge to expand its bank connectivity using Salt Edge's financial data aggregation APIs and open banking infrastructure. The integration enabled Emma to access over 3,100 banks across 61 countries. This highlights Salt Edge's role as a white-label banking and data infrastructure provider for fintechs.
Standard Chartered's innovation unit SC Ventures launched Fintech Bridge, a platform connecting fintechs with the bank's business challenges across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The program funds proofs-of-concept and offers market exposure. It represents a major bank embracing embedded fintech partnerships at scale.
TechCrunch profiled Cross River Bank as a pivotal partner bank enabling fintech companies to offer banking services. The FDIC-chartered bank built a model fostering bank-fintech harmony, becoming a critical infrastructure provider amid a post-2008 drought in new bank charter approvals.
PayPal expanded its Instant Transfer feature enabling users to move PayPal balances to U.S. bank accounts or debit cards within 30 minutes, leveraging JPMorgan Chase and The Clearing House's Real Time Payments network. The service charges a 1% fee capped at $10. This embedded finance initiative aimed to provide faster liquidity for consumers and merchants competing with Square and Stripe payout offerings.
Entities: PayPal · JPMorgan Chase · The Clearing House
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the OCC continued litigation over the OCC's authority to issue special purpose national bank (SPNB) charters to fintech companies. The OCC argued no charter was imminent enough for judicial review, while CSBS challenged the legality of the program. No fintech SPNB charter was granted in March 2019, with approvals described as 'several stages away.'
Entities: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) · Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS)
TeamApt raised a $5.5 million Series A round led by Quantum Capital Partners to expand its white-label digital finance products for banks. The company provides solutions like Moneytor and Monnify to major Nigerian banks including Zenith, UBA, ALAT, and Sterling Bank. The funding will also support a consumer-facing app launch and international expansion into Europe and Canada.
Entities: TeamApt · Quantum Capital Partners · Zenith Bank · UBA · ALAT · Sterling Bank Nigeria
HSBC US Commercial Banking partnered with fintech lending platform Neptune Financial (NepFin) to provide commercial banking services and global network access to NepFin's middle-market business clients. The collaboration targets US firms with $10–100 million in revenue, combining HSBC's multinational banking capabilities with NepFin's machine learning-driven lending platform. The deal aligns with HSBC's broader launch of a Digital Partner Platform for corporate and fintech clients.
In a court brief filed February 26, 2019, the OCC confirmed that no fintech company had filed an application for a special purpose national bank charter. The OCC argued that CSBS lawsuits challenging its 2018 fintech charter policy were premature. This regulatory uncertainty continued to shape the BaaS and embedded finance landscape by deterring fintechs from pursuing direct bank charters.
Entities: Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) · Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS)
Discovery, a South African financial services company, announced its digital bank Discovery Bank would go live publicly in March 2019 after successful testing. Branded as the 'world's first behavioural bank,' it applies Discovery's rewards-based model to banking. The project received its banking license in 2016 and required approximately ZAR 6 billion ($432.7 million) in investment.
TymeBank went live on February 22, 2019, as South Africa's first fully digital bank, offering embedded banking via kiosks in Pick n Pay and Boxer retail stores. The cloud-based open banking platform provides transactional accounts, savings tools, money transfers, and a financial coaching app. The launch represents a significant embedded finance play, leveraging retail partnerships to drive financial inclusion without legacy banking infrastructure.
Entities: TymeBank · African Rainbow Capital · Pick n Pay · Boxer
Mambu, a SaaS cloud banking engine used by banks and fintechs to launch financial products, closed a €30 million Series C round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Acton Capital and CommerzVentures also participated. The funding supports Mambu's growth as a core banking infrastructure provider powering BaaS and embedded finance use cases.
Bud, a UK-based fintech platform that connects banks to fintechs and financial service providers, raised $20 million in a Series A round. Investors included HSBC, Goldman Sachs, ANZ, Investec's INVC fund, InnoCells (Banco Sabadell's venture arm), Lord Fink, and 9Yards Capital. The funding supports Bud's pivot from a consumer app to an open banking platform helping banks comply with PSD2 regulations.
Credorax, a licensed European fintech bank, deployed Temenos' T24 Transact core banking platform on the cloud to expand beyond merchant acquiring into cross-border payments and banking services. The deployment enhances Credorax's scalability and enables it to serve enterprises and small businesses with broader banking capabilities. This positions Credorax to offer embedded banking infrastructure for cross-border commerce.
Lighter Capital and Silicon Valley Bank announced a partnership to provide pre-venture funded tech startups with access to debt capital and banking services. Lighter Capital offers revenue-based loans, term loans, and lines of credit from $50K to $3M, while SVB provides its StartUp Banking Solution. The deal combines fintech lending with traditional bank accounts and cards.
Stripe raised $100 million in a Series E extension led by Tiger Global Management, reaching a $22.5 billion valuation. This made Stripe the world's most valuable private fintech, ahead of Square and Coinbase. The funding supported Stripe's expansion into embedded finance-like services including POS terminals and cash advances.
Zafin, a SaaS banking platform provider, raised $17.2 million in Series B funding led by Vistara Capital Partners, Beedie Capital, and Accenture Ventures. The platform modernizes legacy bank IT systems via APIs, supporting open banking, core transformation, and AI capabilities. Funds will go toward sales, marketing expansion, and product innovation.
Entities: Zafin · Vistara Capital Partners · Beedie Capital · Accenture Ventures
Fiserv announced the acquisition of First Data for $22 billion, creating one of the largest fintech consolidations in payments and financial services. The deal integrates First Data's e-commerce payments capabilities with Fiserv's banking solutions for merchants and financial institutions. The combined entity aims to compete against embedded finance disruptors like PayPal, Stripe, and Square.
MetaBank was named the preferred prepaid provider for EML Payments under a five-year agreement extension. The deal covers general-purpose reloadable cards, gift and incentive cards, and virtual B2B payments. MetaBank, a known BaaS sponsor bank, provides the banking infrastructure behind EML's prepaid and payments solutions.
Banking software provider Temenos announced the acquisition of Avoka Technologies, a digital onboarding and customer acquisition platform for banks. The deal, announced in December 2018 with closing expected in early 2019, strengthens Temenos's digital banking toolkit. The acquisition supports banks seeking to modernize front-end experiences for account opening and lending origination.
Plaid, a banking API infrastructure company, raised $250 million in a Series C round at a $2.65 billion valuation, led by Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins. New investors included Andreessen Horowitz and Index Ventures, bringing total funding to $310 million. Plaid's APIs connect fintech apps like Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase to over 10,000 U.S. and Canadian banks, powering apps used by 25% of U.S. bank account holders.