News

After a robust first quarter in which fintech startups gripped the headlines for unprecedented VC fundraisings, the momentum continues. Last week was no exception — including a multi-billion dollar exit for a Utah-based fintech unicorn. In addition, fintech firms are raising capital at a dizzying pace in emerging markets, while they have also moved into the conversation for one of the hottest niches in crypto — central bank digital currencies (CBDCs.)

When Susan Theder of Advisor Group first launched MyCMO in 2017, it was the culmination of a clear vision: Creating a user friendly, integrated platform of digital marketing communications tools for independent financial advisors to adopt for the purposes of winning new clients while engaging with existing relationships.

After a year in which digital communications took center stage in enabling financial advisors to stay connected with clients and prospects, Advisor Group has announced new internal reporting on the results achieved by users of its MyCMO digital marketing platform.

We're back into stratosphere territory, with the top fintech deal of the week topping a jaw-dropping $600M and the second at $300M.

For those of you who haven't gone out to fund-raise to this sector, let me share a little about it with you. You come to an institutional investor with a new strategy - backtested and perhaps even running money currently. They then look at you and ask for a series of greeks on the strategy - deltas, alphas, betas - god knows what else - and then tell you they need you to have a 3 year live track record and at least $200M in AUM before they can continue the discussion.

Feeling sad you missed out on the big money making run up in crypto? Outbid for that digital art NFT? Not invited into that SPAC that just merged with Elon Musk's spaceship? Well, don't despair. There is HUGE money in New Jersey delicatessens.

We're back again today with another round of top 5 VC deals for the week in the digital wealth sector.

Try being Janet Yellen. Yes J-Yell, the new U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, certainly has her hands full. She is attempting to convince investors that printing gobs of money is non-inflationary and also convince global nations joining the U.S. in raising taxes is really good for them.

This week - all but one deal exceeded $100M USD in funding - again. The THREE deals topping $200M+ USD were in retail fraud protection, insurtech and neo-banking (back end platforms).

It's a very diverse set of funding rounds we have this week including a challenger bank (Current), an interesting automated receivables funding platform (Pipe) which apparently is quite the fintech darling these days, two rewards platforms - one in Wisconsin and the other in India, an a LatAm cross-border payments platform out of Uruguay.