Welcome again to The Interchange, the place we check out the most popular fintech information of the earlier week. If you wish to obtain The Interchange straight in your inbox each Sunday, head right here to enroll!
Disrupt!
Final week, our workforce was at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which featured a devoted fintech stage for the primary time (!) and dozens of Battlefield 200 firms within the fintech house. Christine even moderated a fintech pitch session! Mary Ann sadly couldn’t make it as a consequence of a household matter — and after spending months main the programming for the fintech stage, she was actually heartbroken. However all was a convincing success with the room so packed for the fireplace chats and panels that folks needed to arise within the again to catch them! Total, there was an estimated 13,000 attendees on the occasion — up considerably from even final yr.
One-on-one chats on the fintech stage included Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, Plaid founder Zach Perret, Checkout.com president and COO Céline Dufétel. There was additionally a panel of bankers discussing a put up–Silicon Valley Financial institution world. In actuality, although, SVB remains to be alive and kicking.
Listed below are the tales that summarized the highlights of these chats and panels:
Battlefield 20
MakersHub deciphers accounts payable information so development firms don’t must
Battlefield 200
Kenyan fintech FlexPay helps buyers save for future purchases
Don’t need that commuter stipend? Bundl allows workers to decide on their very own firm advantages
Picture Credit: Ian Tuttle (opens in a brand new window) / Getty Photographs
Making well being financial savings be just right for you
This week, I wrote about Truemed, an organization that desires to place meals in entrance of medication.
Calley Means and Justin Mares began the fee integration firm final yr to make it simple for shoppers to pay for wholesome meals, train and dietary supplements utilizing their tax-free well being financial savings accounts or versatile spending account {dollars}. And with regulatory compliance.
Most sufferers want some sort of letter of medical necessity to make use of HSA or FSA {dollars} on objects exterior of procedures or treatment. Tapping into telehealth legal guidelines, Truemed collects sure information factors after which seamlessly and asynchronously supplies that letter with no physician’s go to.
About $140 billion is sitting in these accounts, largely going unused, and the IRS elevated the quantity you may contribute to well being financial savings accounts to $4,150 for a person and $8,300 for a household. This may hopefully allow individuals to extra simply put these {dollars} to work.
The corporate launched this week with $3 billion of gross merchandise quantity already amassed from companies, together with CrossFit, Magic Thoughts and Kos. It additionally obtained $3.5 million in SAFEs (easy settlement for future fairness) from traders, together with useful medication pioneer Mark Hyman and founders from Thrive Market, Eight Sleep and Ranges.
I individually corresponded with Kevin Robertson, government managing director and chief income officer at HSA Financial institution, a division of Webster Financial institution, about how HSA and FSA advantages are getting used as a retention piece for tech firms.
A pattern Robertson is seeing is that employers are more and more matching pre-tax worker HSA and FSA contributions. There’s additionally curiosity in doing extra of what’s referred to as a life-style spending account, extra fashionable in Canada presently.
LSAs aren’t pre-tax {dollars}, although he notes these specific accounts present a extra customized profit expertise. For instance, an employer can designate these accounts be used for pet care, spa remedies and even health reimbursement.
“In at present’s tight labor market, extra firms are enhancing their core profit choices to point out themselves as a beautiful place to work,” Robertson mentioned. “That is notably true for expertise firms who typically are recognized for flashy perks like free lunches, informal costume and comfortable hours.” Learn extra. — Christine
Different weekly information
Mercury mentioned final week that it has transitioned Mercury Increase from a seasonal, cohort-based program into “an always-available” platform, which options new instruments, applications, and networks. The corporate informed TechCrunch by way of e-mail that three years in the past, it launched Mercury Increase as a program to assist founders increase their seed or Sequence A rounds. It added: “After working with hundreds of founders, we started to note that they had been persistently encountering roadblocks centered round three distinct themes: elevating cash, discovering neighborhood, and getting professional steering.” Learn TechCrunch’s newest protection on Mercury right here.
Arc revealed a brand new checking account referred to as Platinum, with its CEO telling TechCrunch over e-mail: “The actually thrilling half about Arc Platinum is that it’s the primary and solely working account constructed on a ‘Too Large to Fail’ financial institution companion. We constructed this partnership in stealth over the past 6 months, after receiving suggestions from hundreds of founders and boards which were pressured to decide on between the security of the world’s largest banks (JPM, Goldman, Citi, BofA) and the person expertise & yield obtainable solely by way of B2B Fintechs (Brex, Arc, Mercury). Because of Arc Platinum, startups get each security & UX for the primary time in a digital financial institution.” Learn TechCrunch’s newest protection on Arc right here.
Brex launched what it described as “a proactive assistant that offers each worker their very own EA (expense assistant).” By way of e-mail, the corporate informed us that: “Brex assistant makes use of the facility of pure language, autonomous AI brokers, and spend information to assist workers file bills compliantly and effectively. With Brex Assistant, each worker now will get the identical ‘swipe and neglect’ company card expertise as their government workforce. Because of this, finance groups can even look ahead to elevated productiveness throughout the corporate.” Learn TechCrunch’s newest protection on Brex right here.
Different objects we’re studying:
Block’s inventory has been a laggard currently. Will administration shakeup present a wanted jolt?
Strong faked income numbers, particular committee appointed to analyze, sources reveal (We coated Strong’s $63 million Sequence B spherical again in 2022.)
Nova Credit score companions with HSBC for cross border credit score sharing
Varo goals to displace Venmo, Money App quantity with new P2P characteristic
Apple formally launches Faucet to Pay in Brazil as worldwide enlargement continues
Tipalti lights up bills answer and Tipalti card
Treasury Prime declares integration with Astra to deliver actual time fee capabilities to clients
Fundraising and M&A
Seen on TechCrunch
ZayZoon, which lends workers cash for a charge, raises $34.5M
IFC leads $5M extension spherical in Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform ANKA
As seen elsewhere
Allocate closes $10M strategic capital
Dallas healthcare advantages platform take command will get $25M development funding
Brazenly secures $100M in Sequence D funding
Picture Credit: Bryce Durbin