Does everyone want to be a landlord, or what? • TechCrunch

Welcome to Interchange!If you receive this in your inbox thank you for signing up and trusting and voting. If you read this as a post on our site please sign up here You can receive it directly in the future. Each week we take a look at the hottest fintech news from the previous week. This includes everything from funding rounds to trends to analysis of specific spaces to hot takes on specific companies and phenomena. That’s my job. That way you can get the latest information. Mary Ann

Hello and Happy New Year! It feels like it’s been a while since I sat down to write this newsletter. Missed it!

Before we jump into the news, I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable vacation. I admit it took me a while… so be patient.

On Friday, I published an article doorsteadin a $21.5 million Series B financing. This article was his one of the most read on the site that day. TRUE Especially when it comes to investments, I am interested in technology related to the real estate rental market. Doorsted says it is more than a full-service property management company in insuring homeowners with minimum rent. If you don’t get the promised amount, you will have to pay the difference. Anything over that amount will be taken by the owner, not by the company. Doorstead says it deliberately chose to make a profit only by charging an 8% management fee. By willing to pay the difference, the company says it can reduce the amount of time a rental property is vacant. So not only are homeowners getting guaranteed rental income, but they’re renting out their properties faster and making more money, say the company’s founders Ryan Waliany and Jennifer Bronzo. . Notably, Doorstead also announced in 2021 that it had acquired the Boston assets of He Knox Financial, a proptech backed by another venture I interviewed. In 2023, we expect to see more of this sort of thing. By “sort of” I mean startups acquiring assets from other startups. To hear what his Equity Podcast crew has to say about Doorstead’s model, go here.

During my break, I published an interview I did GGV Capitalof Hans Tung and Robin Li joined in Q4. For those who don’t know, GGV is his $9.2 billion venture under management, with seed to growth stages in various sectors including consumer, internet, enterprise/cloud and fintech. Investing in startups. Interview highlights include Tung’s view that his round down isn’t the end of the world. He told me that he would rather have a funding round than a startup shut down, and in the end it’s the results that matter. refreshing! He also shared some of the advice he gives to his own portfolio companies, among other things, while Li shared his thoughts on why embedded fintech continues to attract attention.

I’m sure there were already a lot of down rounds in 2022, but Tung says we’ll see more down rounds in 2023 as startups that raised money in 2021 started running low on cash. I expect. I agree with his view that there is no shame in raising down rounds. Valuations are overvalued, and down rounds announced this year almost always reflect more realistic and easier-to-defend valuations.

weekly news

Jan 6, self-proclaimed family fintech green light Launched Greenlight Level Up, an interactive curriculum-based financial literacy game. Clearly the company is trying to appeal to the love of a younger generation of playing games digitally, but one has to wonder why it took so long to include the game in the product. A representative told me: He cultivates one of the essential skills that will be needed throughout life. Of course, financial gamification is not a new concept. Last year, I wrote about how one of the largest US financial institutions, Truist, acquired fintech startup Long Game to appeal to a younger customer base.

bath start up Syntera said he was teaming with Wahed (meaning ‘One’ in Arabic) is a digital Islamic investment platform that claims to be the world’s first halal investment app. Synctera says he provides Wahed with the infrastructure to make services available to his 3.5 million Muslim residents in the United States. announced an app-linked debit card program for Muslim Americans. Specifically, a Synctera spokesperson told TechCrunch: Synctera will enable Wahed to offer its customers bank accounts (which make transferring money easier and smoother) and debit cards (which make accessing funds more convenient). ” Synctera’s CEO/Founder Peter Hazlehurst wrote in his email. futures. “In recent years, we’ve seen more fintechs offering products to cater to very specific demographics, including Hispanics, Blacks, Asian Americans, and immigrants in general.” Only time will tell if the niche focus pays off.

In that sense, Boston-based Mendoza Ventures — The company, which describes itself as a “Fintech, AI and cybersecurity venture capital firm founded by women and Latinos,” has announced the first closing of its $100 million fund. This is her third time. Unfortunately, the company could not disclose how much money it has raised so far, but in a press release, the fund “prioritizes investments in early growth stage startups with a focus on a diverse founding team. ‘ said. Hey, we’re always here for initiatives aimed at promoting diverse founding teams. Leading the first close containing.

at the beginning of the year, happy venturesManaging Director Victoria Treyger shares her predictions and opportunities in the fintech space in a TechCrunch guest post. Meanwhile, his Charles Birnbaum of Bessemer Venture Partners said in an email: Clearinghouse adoption of his RTP scheme has been modest so far, but FedNow’s use of his existing FedLine network is expected to accelerate adoption of faster payments from 2023. Enable a more seamless B2B and consumer payment experience at the application layer, including payroll, insurance payments, and supplier payments. He is also bullish about the continued institutional adoption of blockchain technology in some large areas of financial services. , more banks will join the USDF consortium to facilitate the compliant transfer of value via blockchain via bank-issued tokenized deposit stablecoins.” doing.

Speaking of blockchain mercuryA crypto-focused startup that has built a cross-border payment network, has launched a BaaS solution. It claims to “unleash the unique capability of managing bank and crypto accounts within a single platform.” In an email, a company spokesperson said it would be easier for traditional banks to open cryptocurrency accounts for their users, and that clients could open bank accounts on the cryptocurrency platform where they could store, transfer and pay in fiat currency. The goal is to provide a method. / crypto. We covered the company’s capital increase in June 2021.

It was great to see one of the funded startups we featured last year selected for the 2022 Time Best Invention. other raised $18 million last May to expand its services aimed at helping people build trust through recurring payment forms such as digital subscriptions from Netflix, Spotify and Hulu. Personally, I’m a fan of startups’ comprehensive credit-building efforts that challenge the outdated credit-scoring model here in America.

Darrell Etherington and Becca Szkutak joined us last week. Brex Co-founder and co-CEO Henrique Dubugras explained why he and co-founder Pedro Franceschi started a corporate card company and how friends they met online in their teens decided to become co-CEOs. He told me why. Others.

According to payment transparency tracker Comprehensive.io: stripes is not so transparent about its salary. The fintech giant does not include salary ranges in its CA or NYC job postings. Tracker also found that his executive could take a strategic account in his fintech startup Bolt. Are you ready? $374,000 to $462,000 OTE/year. (If you can see me, I have Kevin in “Home Alone” with a shocked face right now).

As reported by Manish Singh, it states: Bharatpewill leave the top role later this week as the Indian fintech startup scrambles to steer the ship after kicking out its founder last year for allegedly misusing company funds. ” Click here for details.

Financing and M&A

While we don’t see many mega rounds in the fintech space here in the US, TechCrunch’s Manish Singh reports that India has seen two significant funding rounds in the fintech world in recent weeks.

Indian fintech Money View is valued at $900 million in new funding

Indian Fintech Firm Creditbee Nears $700 Million Valuation in New Funding

Meanwhile, in South Korea, fintech Toss has pushed its valuation to a staggering $7 billion.

South Korean financial superapp Toss closes $405M Series G, valuation rises 7%

Other funding deals reported on the TC site include:

Gynger launches in stealth, lending companies software cash

Fintech Vint wants to turn wine and spirits into a mainstream asset class

Early-stage Mexican fintech Aviva makes lending as easy as a video call

and elsewhere:

Saudi startup Manafa raises $28 million for expansion

And it’s rap. I usually don’t think of solutions, but morning This year is about to start on a brighter note. The last year has been challenging in many ways, but being negative or pessimistic doesn’t help. We still have a lot of good news and things to be grateful for. So my wish for 2023 is to be more resilient and optimistic for all of us. can Control how we react. Thank you for reading and for your support. I am always here for your feedback! Until next week…xoxoxo Mary Ann