Discover more from Fintech Radar
Issue #129: Walmart To Go Real-Time With Pay-by-Bank, Monzo Flexes Apple Pay, And Brex’s Embedded Finance Push
Your go-to source for fintech insights and updates, delivered weekly by Fintech Radar.
👋 Welcome back to another edition of Fintech Radar!
If you’re new, here is a breakdown of what you can expect from each issue.
If you missed our recent editions, you can catch up here. Some previous issues you might want to check out if you’re new include “A Deep Dive Into The Cash App's Growth Machine”, “The Future Of Payment Initiation”, and “Current: Doing It Differently”.
Thank you to Goodface FinTech Design & Development Agency for being this week’s presenting partner.
Want to reach 3,700+ fintech founders, investors, and operators? If that’s your target audience, becoming a presenting partner of FR is a cost-effective way to do so.
If this sounds like a good fit for your brand, head to our sponsorship page for more details and to secure your advertising slot. Prices start at $100 per issue!
Here are TOP 3 strategies that fintech industry leaders use to convert more website visitors:
Addressing common objections upfront (Stripe)
Personalising the onboarding process (Corefy)
Simplifying complex offerings (PayPal)
If you want to read more, there is a whole research paper on 30 Tactics FinTech Unicorns Use to Convert Better, made by Goodface FinTech Design Agency. It's a super interesting read; take a look now.
Walmart, Fiserv team to offer real-time payments, Payments Dive
🏃♂️ The Rundown: Walmart is partnering with Fiserv to enable consumers to make real-time payments directly from their bank accounts for online purchases, aiming to reduce reliance on credit cards. The new service, set to launch next year, will utilise U.S. real-time payment rails, offering faster transaction settlement than traditional ACH payments.
🥡 Takeaway: More activity in the A2A/pay-by-bank space is on the horizon. While this service won’t launch until next year, the real test will be consumer uptake. The article notes that Walmart has been offering pay-by-bank services since June, but via ACH—which lacks the speed and efficiency of real-time payment rails. In theory, this shift will be like moving from dial-up to broadband and could be the exposure A2A/pay-by-bank needs in the U.S.
Despite concerns about consumers’ reluctance to abandon credit cards, retailers are under greater pressure to expand payment options and push customers toward lower-cost alternatives. It’s not a sea change yet, but as more major retailers adopt these solutions, it could signal a coming wave for A2A payments.
Brex Launches Embedded Payments Solutions for B2B Software Vendors, Pymnts
🏃♂️ The Rundown: Last week, Brex announced its embedded finance offering. Brex Embedded allows businesses to integrate Brex virtual cards into their B2B software, enabling global payments and transaction reconciliation without the complexities of managing credit and fraud risks. Tailored for procure-to-pay and travel workflows, the solution helps customers quickly unlock new revenue streams and improve operational efficiency.
🥡 Takeaway: This is a super interesting move from Brex. Expanding into the embedded finance space feels like a strategic power play as they hunt for new growth channels.
That said, every fintech dreams of taking the infrastructure they’ve built (though few actually build any meaningful part of their stack themselves 🫢) and turning it into an embedded offering à la AWS. But the road to success here is littered with failures.
What might set Brex apart is its existing customer base, which likely includes tech companies eager to explore embedded fintech solutions (or move to a new partner) within their products. A quick look at the logos on Brex’s website suggests they already have some strong leads for the Brex Embedded team to pursue.
There’s no doubt it’s a bold move from them. Time will tell if it’s inspired or foolhardy.
Monzo brings monthly payments to Apple Pay purchases, Finextra
🏃♂️ The Rundown: Monzo Flex customers with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 can now spread payments over multiple months directly through Apple Pay at checkout. This feature enhances convenience by allowing users to understand costs and choose repayment options before purchase. Monzo is the first UK bank to offer this, as Apple shifts to third-party partnerships for instalment loans.
🥡 Takeaway: There’s no need to harp on the numbers; we all know BNPL is still a fast-growing payment segment. Now that Apple has shelved its own BNPL product and returned to being a platform provider—at least in the BNPL space—players like Monzo integrating natively on Apple devices could give the segment even more momentum, much like how Apple Pay accelerated tap-to-pay adoption in many markets.
JPMorgan could take over Goldman’s Apple Card business, Techcrunch
🏃♂️ The Rundown: JPMorgan Chase is in discussions to acquire Goldman Sachs' Apple Card business, which Goldman has managed since its launch in 2019. Goldman is moving away from consumer banking, viewing the Apple Card's $17b programme as a distraction, and has approached other lenders for partnerships, but challenges arose due to the card's high loss rate.
🥡 Takeaway: The Apple Card has truly become a golden albatross for Goldman Sachs. What was once seen as the partnership in the partner banking space has quickly become one of the most difficult customer portfolios to offload. Based on reports, it looks like Goldman will end up taking a big financial hit on this.
What I’m curious about is Apple’s next move. While it’s high likely that someone will take over the programme, the terms and how restrictive they become remain open questions. This, in turn, could raises questions about the future of the Apple Card itself. I think it could be an interesting story to continue to monitor.
Fintech Giant Revolut Said to Be Planning Stablecoin, Coindesk
🏃♂️ The Rundown: According to reports, Revolut is reportedly planning to issue its own stablecoin as part of its strategy to expand crypto offerings.
🥡 Takeaway: Revolut’s stablecoin move may not be groundbreaking, but it’s certainly a smart play. Following PayPal’s lead and joining other European banks, they’ll likely peg it to the Euro rather than the Dollar — a logical choice, given Europe’s their biggest market and the new MiCA regulations provide a clear path forward. Revolut isn’t new to crypto, and with big names like BBVA and SocGen also exploring Euro stablecoins, they’re in good company.
I think the big question here is: what’s the end game for all these siloed stablecoins? Is it a winner-takes-all scenario, or will we see everyone carving out their own little niche stablecoin? And if it’s the latter, it raises another question—why bother in the first place? Without interoperability or broader use cases, it’s hard to see the long-term value beyond specific ecosystems.
Credit card fintech Yonder raises £23.4m as it eyes EU expansion, Sifted
🏃♂️ The Rundown: Yonder, a UK-based credit card fintech focusing on reward points, has raised £23.4m in a funding round, bringing its valuation to over £100m and preparing for European expansion. The company, founded in 2021, targets young professionals and expats with unique rewards like local experiences and has seen significant growth, now aiming for profitability.
🥡 Takeaway: Consumer fintech is making a comeback. Not long ago, it was hard to find even one consumer fintech fundraising announcement, and now it seems like another company is securing the bag every week.
Yonder has been grinding in a space many believed wouldn’t produce a winner—especially in the consumer sphere. Specifically, most assumed that the battle for Gen Z’s rising spending power was BNPL’s to lose, as consumer credit cards were thought to be unappealing to that demographic. However, as the article notes, AMEX has seen a sharp rise in spending from Gen Z, now accounting for 33% of total spending on its cards.
Consumer fintech is back; let’s just hope this funding cycle isn’t a dead-cat bounce, and that we see some real long-term brands emerge.
🏃♂️ The Rundown: Last week, Orb announced it had raised $25m in a Series B funding round led by Mayfield, bringing its total funding to $44m. The platform supports usage-based pricing, addressing issues with legacy billing systems and enabling rapid pricing evolution for software companies.
🥡 Takeaway: Billing software isn’t exactly what people wake up excited to work on in a startup, but it’s a vital artery in a company’s financial health. Important, but not always inspiring.
As you’d expect, it’s a big business. For context, earlier this year Stripe mentioned that “Stripe Billing manages hundreds of millions of subscriptions for more than 300,000 companies.” But the real game now is about providing a solution that can handle complex metered billing, especially for AI infrastructure companies. It’s no surprise that Orb’s press release highlights customers like Vercel, Pinecone, and Perplexity.
This is shaping up to be a fascinating battleground for players like Stripe, Adyen, and others. The basics of billing are easy to build, but the real challenge—and value—lies in handling edge cases, where specialist companies like Orb have an advantage. It’s the classic long tail vs. power law battle—watching which approach wins out will be interesting.
Stablecoins The Emerging Market Story, Castle Island Ventures & Visa
A fascinating report on the world of stablecoins, packed with data and insights on what’s happening in the space. It's one of the best deep dives from a data perspective I’ve seen — definitely worth a read!
Will Gaybrick on Capital Allocation, Org Design, AI, and Global Growth, Logan Bartlett Podcast
In this episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, Will Gaybrick, President of Product and Business at Stripe, shares his career journey from studying Math at Harvard to becoming a software engineer and attending Yale Law, eventually landing at Stripe. It’s a wide-ranging conversation that touches on a variety of topics beyond fintech, including capital allocation, organisational design, AI, and global expansion—a must-listen for all Stripe fanboys.
❤️ Show Some Love For FR
📧 Feel free to reach out if you want to connect. I'm @alantsen on Twitter, or you can D.M. me directly by clicking the button below ↴
Ps. If you like what I'm doing with FR, please share it on your social disinformation network of choice. I'd also appreciate it if you forwarded this newsletter to a friend who might enjoy it.
🙏 What did you think of this week's issue of FR?
I Love It! ◌ I Like It ◌ Not Bad ◌ I Don’t Like It ◌ It’s Awful
Do they work in latín América?
I have to admit I don't understand why so many fintechs want to launch their own stable coin. What's the benefit?