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the-axios-show

In addition to the usual beer and car commercials, Super Bowl LVI was punctuated by an influx of fintech ads, with a whole lot of crypto.

Why it matters: The Super Bowl is one of the biggest national showcases for introducing mainstream viewers to new apps and services, and crypto exchanges were out in force.

Details: Four crypto companies bought airtime during the Super Bowl this year, with first-time advertisers including Coinbase, Crytpo.com, eToro, and FTX.

They weren't the only financial companies with ads to run during the big game. Old standby E-Trade brought back the baby, and Intuit had two ads — one for Quickbooks & Mailchimp, and another for TurboTax.

One notable new entrant was Greenlight, which offers a banking and debit card service for kids.

Viewer response was mixed, according to USA Today's ad meter. FTX's spot, focused around a skeptical Larry David, ranked pretty well, but Coinbase's floating QR code failed to capture viewers' imagination.

That said, the ads seem to have worked: Coinbase shot up to #2 on the App Store rankings, with FTX and eToro also receiving a big bump in downloads.

The Coinbase ad might have even worked too well. The service crashed in response to high demand, causing shares in the publicly-traded company to decline.

Yes, but: Dot-com companies ate up ad space during the 2000 Super Bowl, when the price of a 30-second slot averaged around $2.2 million. And we all know how that went.

1 big thing: The fintech bowl

Illustration of a credit card headed towards a goal post to score a touchdown.

FNZ plans to acquire a business worth potentially $3 billion or more to jump-start its entry into the U.S., CEO and founder Adrian Durham tells Lucinda.

Why it's the BFD: The wealth management space is expected to grow to $145.4 trillion by 2025. FNZ and its investors are betting that the market for tech companies servicing the space is fractured enough that it can capture a good chunk of the updraft. 

FNZ automates back-office work in the wealth management space, and also handles trade execution, custody, and investor communication. 

FNZ's assets under management have roughly grown by five times to $1.5 trillion over the course of three years. It's valuation has jumped even further, rising $2.2 billion to $20 billion.

Now it plans to grow that even further by buying a company in the U.S. likely to be worth between $3 billion to $4 billion, if not more. 

Effectively, FNZ could buy some $1.5 billion in equity and fund the rest with debt or additional capital from shareholders.

Driving the news: On Friday, the U.K. wealth management company raised $1.4 billion in funding from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Motive Partners, notching a $20 billion valuation. 

Context: If not for its acquisition plans, the company would've likely not needed the funding. With about $1 billion in annual recurring revenue and profitability (not just EBITDA, net income too), the business was self-sustaining.

But FNZ has been highly acquisitive: Just last year, it closed a deal to acquire a majority stake in State Street’s Wealth Manager Services business in the country. It's made eight or nine acquisitions in the last 18 months, per Durham.

Financial tech infrastructure is extremely sticky, meaning having both employees that already know the market on the ground and a built-in customer base can help break into new markets. says Durham.

Bottomline: Robo-advisers were all the rage a few years ago. Now big dollars are flowing into companies that seek to aid the human investment professional, with companies like Addepar and Vise also diving into the space.

2. The BFD: FNZ aims for a $3 billion-plus buy

Illustration of the FNZ logo with Ben Franklin's eye, from the hundred dollar bill, contained within it. 

NFT marketplace OpenSea launched a venture arm Friday to invest in other companies and creators in the crypto and blockchain space. Dubbed OpenSea Ventures, it will also make out grants.

Why it matters: NFTs have been one of the breakout stars of this crypto boom, with investors betting it has even further to go. Now even startups are going in early to build out the ecosystem — and thereby getting a potentially lucrative stake, too.

Context: The likes of Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain, and Paradigm have already raised billions of dollars to invest in the broader crypto economy.

What they're saying: OpenSea is pitching startups on access to its leadership team, help with security and compliance, guest blog posts on its site, and access to its investors and creators.

3. OpenSea Ventures forth

Illustration of a shopping basket full of pixelated coins.

U.K. tax authorities seize NFTs for the first time (the Verge)

The U.K.'s tax department seized three NFT artworks and some $6,762 worth in crypto as part of a $1.9 million fraud case. It was the country's first official seizure of NFTs.

Pick for Federal Reserve's banks regulator lobbied for fintech, says Toomey (CNBC)

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey says Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden's pick as the Federal Reserve's banks regulator, advocated for fintech company Reserve Trust in 2017.

4. Credit score

Illustration of a Scrabble board with letter tiles spelling "credit."

• Stitch, a South African embedded finance startup, raised $21m in Series A funding. Spruce House led, and was joined by PayPal Ventures, TrueLayer, Firstminute Capital, Raba Partnership, CRE VC and Village Global. http://axios.link/oYa5

• Gaia, a British IVF treatment financing startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. Atomico led, and was joined by insiders Kindred Capital, Seedcamp Clocktower Technology Ventures. http://axios.link/8Zx2

• Banked, a maker of an alternative to the cards system, raised $20m in Series A funding. Bank of America and Edenred Capital Partners led. http://axios.link/UBAY

• Revolut acquired Arvog Forex, an Indian money transfers and currency exchange company. http://axios.link/xQ7O

5. Deals of the day

Tweet describing 50 Cent's performance at the Super Bowl 

6. Memes and mumbles

Happy Valentine's Day, Fintech Deals readers! We hope you are recovering well from any Super Bowl hangover on this lovely Monday morning.

🚨 Situational awareness: The SEC ratcheted up its crypto crackdown, laying a $100 million penalty on BlockFi, which was recently valued by VCs at $4.75 billion. Ryan and Axios' Hope King have the details.

Tell your fintech friends, family, crypto pals, and others about this newsletter. They can sign up here.

February 14, 2022

1 big thing: The fintech bowl