All Access

Fintech Deals

Standard

Fintech Deals Alerts

Alert

Fintech Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Private Credit

BFD Expert Voices

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

jobs

transportation

business

stock-market-news

retail-news

crypto

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

pittsburgh

atlanta

san-diego

charlotte

boulder

washington-dc

kansas-city

dallas

denver

detroit

des-moines

austin

boston

chicago

cleveland

columbus

houston

indianapolis

miami

nashville

new-orleans

nw-arkansas

philadelphia

phoenix

portland

richmond

salt-lake-city

san-antonio

san-francisco

seattle

tampa-bay

twin-cities

raleigh

huntsville

colorado-springs

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

The iPhone has become a platform for thousands of financial services companies, including buy now, pay later providers (BNPL). The one guaranteed winner is Apple, which has ensured it takes no risk itself. 

Why it matters: An iPhone doesn't just act as a metaphorical wallet; it's also the store where the money is spent. That means Apple can just collect fees on every transaction, rather than finance them. 

Driving the news: Apple has dropped its in-house BNPL product in favor of partnering with specialist providers like Affirm. 

It's also building in the ability to redeem rewards from credit card partners.

Between the lines: Apple Pay has become the most popular digital wallet for consumers paying in stores, with five times the market share of Google Pay. 

In most cases, the card used comes from one of Apple's thousands of global bank partners. Even when it is an Apple Card, it's issued by Goldman Sachs.

By the numbers: Apple reportedly receives a 0.15% fee on every Apple Pay credit card transaction, no matter the issuer, and is opposing attempts to bring that fee down. 

The amount it's charging BNPL companies and rewards points providers has not been made public but is probably significantly higher. 

Zoom out: Apple is a global company that has little if any desire to become a financial services provider in dozens of different jurisdictions. 

Its short-lived in-house BNPL product served as an effective proof-of-concept, showing how easily such deals could be transacted within Apple's iOS operating system. 

Apple is now opening up that capability to BNPL providers worldwide and will be collecting fees from all of them. 

The bottom line: Lending money to consumers is risky — ask Apple's partner Goldman Sachs, which has lost a 10-figure sum on the Apple Card. 

Charging fees to financial services providers, on the other hand, carries almost no downside risk at all.

Apple's financial services strategy

Animated illustration of a hand infinitely scrolling through screens on a phone that show dollar bill signs in different colors. 

Investors have put $4.3 billion into crypto so far in 2024, compared with $3.6 billion in the same period in 2023, data from DeFiLlama shows.

Why it's the BFD: Crypto enthusiasm is creeping back up from last year's lows.

Between the lines: This comes as some crypto-focused funds are beginning to raise big dollars once again, with Paradigm raising $850 million for an early-stage vehicle and a16z expected to come to market next year.

Yes, but: It's a modest uptick, and the sector still plays a distant second fiddle to AI, the real first chair of recent quarters. 

Generalist firms have turned their attention to all things AI, leading investors to pour an estimated $12.2 billion in AI-related deals in the first quarter alone, according to Crunchbase.

The bottom line: Just imagine the monster that would come of a company straddling the AI-crypto spaces.

Crypto's comeback

❌ How X plans to become the next Venmo (Bloomberg)

Dozens of documents that X — f.k.a. Twitter — has submitted to state regulators give a view into plans to build a Venmo-like payments feature enabling users to store money on their accounts, pay other users, and buy goods and services in physical stores.

🇮🇳 Indian financial watchdog fines Binance $2.25M (The Block)

India's Financial Intelligence Unit imposed a fine for violating the country's Prevention of Money Laundering Act rules. The FIU additionally sent specific directions to Binance to ensure compliance with its AML laws.

🏷️ Sainsbury's to sell its banking business to NatWest (Axios)

Sainsbury's (LSE: SBRY), the British grocery giant, agreed to sell its banking business to NatWest (LSE: NWG), which will receive both the customer assets and £125 million in cash.

Credit score

Illustration of an exam answer sheet with the words "credit score" hand written in red ink.

Go deeper into our full database with the Axios Pro Deals Tracker.

• Celcoin, a Brazilian BaaS company, raised $125m led by Summit Partners. celcoin.com.br

• Clip, a Mexican payments and commerce enablement platform, raised $100m from investors, including Morgan Stanley Tactical Value. The company says the valuation is "in line" with its 2021 Series D round. axios.link/3Rz9Klk

• Daydream, an e-commerce platform led by Julie Bornstein (The Yes, Stitch Fix), raised $50m in seed funding. Forerunner Ventures and Index Ventures co-led and were joined by GV and True Ventures. daydream.ing

• Gynger, a financing platform for technology purchases, raised a $20m Series A led by PayPal Ventures. Gradient Ventures, Velvet Sea Ventures, BAG Ventures and Deciens Capital also participated. axios.link/3VOyLvA

• Renzo, an ethereum restaking protocol, raised $17m in funding led by Galaxy Ventures and Brevan Howard Digital Nova Fund. axios.link/4c5yVEl

• Hero, a French banking services platform for small businesses, raised €11.3m led by Valar Ventures. axios.link/45uP3wR

• Travel Wallet, a South Korean startup offering a pre-paid card for travelers, raised $10m led by Lightspeed. axios.link/4be4zyr

• Cadana, an emerging markets payroll services provider, raised a $7.1m seed led by Costanoa Ventures, with Better Tomorrow Ventures and 500 Startups participating. axios.link/45uaFcN

• Chexy, a Canadian rent payments and rewards company, raised $3m led by Venrex, alongside Crossbeam Ventures, Groundbreak Ventures and Antler Global. axios.link/3xrogVy

• Numerated, a Boston commercial lending platform raised an undisclosed strategic investment from Citi. axios.link/4cMg8OD

• Société Générale sold Shine, a French neobank for freelancers that it acquired in 2020, to Investcorp-backed accounting software provider Ageras. axios.link/3VSzThS

• Riskonnect, backed by Arrowroot Capital and TA Associates, acquired Camms, an Ellerston Capital backed provider of governance, risk and compliance software. axios.link/3KTPozM

• Carlyle and KKR are among the final bidders for a $10b U.S. student loan portfolio from Discover Financial, per the FT. axios.link/3KRPLKY

• Global Payments (NYSE: GPN) has acquired U.K. payments firm Takepayments in a deal valuing it at more than $250m. axios.link/3xlN9lz

• Shift4 acquired a majority stake in Vectron Systems, a European supplier of point-of-sale (POS) systems. axios.link/4bkbGWc

• Corpay (NYSE: CPAY) agreed to acquire GPS Capital Markets, a B2B cross-border and treasury management solutions provider. axios.link/3KSkY0G

• Zilch, a London-based BNPL provider, raised £100m in securitized debt financing from Deutsche Bank. axios.link/3VN0w7K

• Kapitus, an NY-based SMB financing startup, secured $45m in corporate note financing. axios.link/4cLms95

• French VC firm Breega raised $75m to invest in African seed-stage companies working in agtech, climate, energy, infrastructure and mobility, as well as ed tech, fintech and health tech. axios.link/4eyUSxa

Deals!

• Lisa Scott, former European CEO at Banked, joined TrueLayer as chief strategy officer. axios.link/3zi1UWY

• PayPal hired Walmart's Srini Venkatesan as chief technology officer. He previously led the U.S. Omni Platforms and Tech organization. axios.link/3VyMViZ

• Bluevine is laying off 20 people, 12% of its Israeli workforce. axios.link/4b6b2LG

It's personnel

👀 @Lucinda is looking forward to the ABT's production of "Onegin."

Thanks to George Moriarty and Rob Reinalda for today's edits.

And thanks to you for reading this edition of Fintech Deals. Please tell your fintech friends and Celtic fans about this newsletter. They can sign up here.

June 20, 2024

1 big thing: Apple's financial services strategy