Advisory Insights: March Edition

Thanks for being part of our network and our growing readership. Whether you’ve been with us since we launched this newsletter nearly a year ago or you’re joining us for the first time, we appreciate your interest. Each month, we bring you the latest stories we’re following, an interview with someone from our network, a summary of notable fintech product launches, and a list of upcoming events shaping the fintech community.

The Storyline

The Trump administration continues to reshape the regulatory landscape. Jonathan Gould was nominated as Comptroller of the Currency and Jonathan McKernan to lead the CFPB. McKernan’s nomination comes as the acting director, Russell Voight, has ordered staff to cease “all supervision and examination activity”. Meanwhile, the FDIC released 175 documents detailing its supervision of banks involved in crypto-related activities following a court-ordered deadline, providing transparency into the regulator’s approach to digital asset oversight. The SEC announced that it was dropping several high profile digital asset related investigations.

Public markets activity continues to gain momentum, with several fintechs exploring public offerings. Brex is reportedly eyeing $500 million in 2025 revenue as it considers a potential IPO. Gemini is in discussions for an IPO as soon as this year, while crypto custodian BitGo is also considering going public as soon as the second half of the year as institutional demand for digital asset services grows. In private markets, secondary transactions are providing liquidity for early investors and employees, with activity including Plaid’s reported $400 million potential secondary sale and Deel’s completion of a $300 million secondary transaction that brought General Catalyst on as an investor. Stripe confirmed a tender offer valuing the company at $91.5 billion, up from $70 billion a year ago, as the company announced its payment volume grew 38% to $1.4 trillion in 2024.

The fintech funding landscape showed continued momentum, with Sardine raising $70 million in Series C funding to make fraud and compliance teams more productive, and Taktile securing $54 million in Series B funding to help fintechs build automated decision-making workflows. FairPlay secured $10 million in funding to help financial services companies eliminate bias in AI-driven lending decisions. Mercury is in talks with Sequoia to lead new funding at over $3 billion valuation. After raising $1 billion previously, Varo closed another $29 million round and replaced its founder CEO. ModernFi raised $18.7 million in Series A funding to power deposit growth at community and regional banks. In the digital assets space, stablecoin blockchain startup Plasma raised $20 million to enhance its payment infrastructure.

M&A transactions showed strategic consolidation across various fintech segments. Marqeta announced the acquisition of TransactPay, strengthening its card program management capabilities in Europe. The announcement coincided with leadership changes as the company named Mike Milotich as interim CEO. Betterment expanded its robo-advisory capabilities by acquiring Ellevest’s automated investing business, strengthening its position in the wealth management space. Drata acquired SafeBase to enhance its trust management offerings, while private equity firm Veritas engaged in discussions to acquire business data firm Dun & Bradstreet at around its current market cap of $5.4 billion. Coinbase continued its expansion beyond cryptocurrency trading by acquiring ads platform Spindl to address the “onchain discovery problem”. LexisNexis Risk Solutions completed its acquisition of IDVerse, bolstering its identity verification capabilities. Core banking provider nCino acquired Sandbox Banking, while Worldpay added AI-powered fraud prevention to its suite through the acquisition of Ravelin. Lastly, Alkami announced it will acquire MANTL in a $400 million deal.

Strategic partnerships continue to reshape financial services delivery models. Klarna signed with J.P. Morgan Payments to expand its merchant services offerings, while FIS partnered with Affirm to bring integrated pay-over-time capabilities directly to debit issuing banking clients. Canopy Servicing and Moov joined forces to transform loan repayments for lenders, and Square selected Peach to power its innovative credit card program. Lithic and Veritex Community Bank partnered to expand credit-based financial solutions, while Jack Henry and Moov implemented Visa Direct to enable fast, seamless payments. TransUnion tapped Credit Sesame for direct-to-consumer credit scores in the U.S., and Spade partnered with Stripe to unlock real-time merchant intelligence.

The stablecoin and cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to evolve. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan indicated that the bank will likely launch a stablecoin if comprehensive U.S. legislation is passed. Figure launched the industry’s first yield-bearing stablecoin as an SEC-registered public security, while Cedar Money raised $9.9 million in seed funding led by QED Investors to enable cross-border stablecoin payments. Kraken introduced its payment service, Kraken Pay, and secured a MiFID license to offer a regulated derivatives exchange. London fintech startup Brava launched a stablecoin management system, and Fold expanded its relationship with Visa to accelerate Bitcoin rewards card programs. Coinbase obtained VASP registration in the U.K. to strengthen its regulated status.

Network Spotlight

We sat down with Pradeep Goel, CEO of Solve.Care, a blockchain-based healthcare platform. He discussed the potential of blockchain to transform the patient-provider relationship and create efficiencies in health payments and care coordination. Goel highlighted Solve.Care’s work in building decentralized care networks that connect patients, providers, employers, insurers, and government agencies in a secure and transparent way. He also reflected on the challenges of introducing blockchain technology into a complex, highly regulated industry and emphasized the importance of building trust through transparency and patient-centric design.

Product Launches

• PayPal launched a buy now, pay later savings program allowing customers to earn interest on installment payments.
• Chime introduced “Credit Builder Plus” offering cash advances and higher spending limits.
• Affirm rolled out a subscription payments product enabling merchants to offer recurring BNPL options.
• Revolut launched a family account product in Europe with parental controls and allowances.
• SoFi announced a student loan refinancing marketplace integrating multiple lenders.
• Cash App launched investment circles to allow users to pool funds for group investments.
• Robinhood unveiled a retirement match program where the company matches a portion of customer contributions.
• Brex rolled out automated accounts payable tools to simplify vendor management.
• Monzo introduced a small business cash advance product in the UK.
• Coinbase launched a self-custody wallet for institutions.

FS Vector Calendar

• August 8 – Fintech Happy Hour, Washington, DC
• August 12–13 – Fintech South, Atlanta, GA
• August 20 – DC Fintech Week Kickoff, Washington, DC
• September 5–7 – Money 20/20 Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
• September 23–24 – RegTech Summit, New York, NY
• October 7–9 – DC Fintech Week, Washington, DC