Fintech Focus For April 21, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

Source: Coco Chanel

One Big Thing In Fintech: The rise of fintech innovation and demand for online banking tools amid the pandemic has propelled Latin America to undergo a digital transformation.

Large banks in the region have enjoyed a lack of competition for decades, allowing them to avoid creating financial products that could serve the region’s largely underserved population—until now.

"Fintech has continued to grow in scope and impact on the venture capital landscape, and Latin America is no exception to that," said Ben Savage, a partner at Clocktower Technology Ventures. Last month, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based firm announced the launch of its first fund focused on investing in Latin America's financial services sector.

Source: PitchBook

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Fintech IPOs: The keys to success.
• Stealth accepts crypto as payment.
• Commerzbank launches FX algos.
• A16z leading $28M round for Aleo.
• Fintor raises for new investing tech.
• MIAX is expanding futures division.
• Zilch banks $80M Series A round.
• Deutsche Telekom invests in Celo.
• UK to create a new fintech sandbox.
• A pitch deck that’ll get you $20M.
• Curve taps Credit Kudos for offer.
• Upstart’s value has nearly doubled.
• STACs raises $3.6M for DLT tech.
• FirstClose has bought HomeScout.
• Insurtechs look to growth for funds.
• Open Co taps Goldman for $270M.
• Amex, JPM joined Candex round.
• Lunar Bank plans to acquire Lendify.
• Hash raises $15M for growth, tech.
• Injective raises $10M from Cuban.
• CapitalG leads $40M Mantl round.
• FintechOS nabs $60M for banking.
• Venmo has added cryptocurrencies.
• First Financial investing in NYDIG.
• CNote launched customization tool.
• MCB acquires Trabian Technology.
• Confluence expands partnerships.
• Lemonade adds insurance bundle.
• Unifimoney adds new reward cards.
• Balancer intros largest bug bounty.
• Binance adds OCC head for CEO.
• Unpacking open banking this year.
• MX, Moov partner on verifications.
• Strive added kids crypto education.

Watch Out For This: The man-made lakes that store water supplying millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico are projected to shrink to historic lows in the coming months, dropping to levels that could trigger the federal government’s first-ever official shortage declaration and prompt cuts in Arizona and Nevada.

Source: AP

Interesting Reads:

• Everything Apple launched Tuesday.
• FL wastewater disaster foreseeable.
• Lessons from Bezos’ annual letters.
• SpaceX preparing to launch for ISS.
• How Sarajevo impacted war reports.
• Tesla mulling cars tailored to China.
• Should you cash-out equity on car?
• J&J resumes Europe vaccine rollout.
• Netflix unpacks slowing sub growth.

Market Moving Headline: An abundance of harvest-ready trees has kept stumpage fees extremely low across the U.S. South, home to half of the country’s production. Meanwhile, lumber futures are up 85% in 2021 because of soaring demand. Sawmills profit from the premium lumber commands over the stumpage fee -- think of it like the lumber crack spread.

“As soon as the supply disruptions sort themselves out and everything gets back to normal, we expect a major correction in prices,” said Joshua Zaret, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “But right now, if you’re producing lumber in the U.S. South -- or anywhere for that matter, but particularly in the U.S. South, where your log cost hasn’t come up -- it’s very profitable.”

Source: Bloomberg