According to McKinsey & Co, revenues for African financial technology companies could rise to $30.3 billion by 2025 - eight times higher than in 2020 - as a growing, young, underbanked population gains more access to the Internet. Financial services revenues in Ghana and Francophone West Africa will grow fastest, followed by Nigeria and Egypt.
FinTelegram launched a new series about the search for the vanished Wirecard millions. The only big question at Wirecard was and is where around €1.9 billion remained. The Wirecard collapse in 2020 triggered one of the biggest financial scandals in Germany. While founder and CEO Markus Braun is still in pre-trial custody, his Chief Operating Officer Jan Marsalek is on the run. The real question at Wirecard, however, is how the organization was structured at the time and whether the money was really ever at Wirecard in the first place. FinTelegram tries to connect some dots!
Fintech company Bespoke Financial plans to expand its "buy now pay later" service for cannabis businesses in California and Massachusetts later this year, its CEO George Mancheril said Thursday. The push comes after a successful pilot in July that allowed cannabis retail stores to buy products from producers using the service to pay them back after the sale.
German fund company DWS has appointed André Bajorat (LinkedIn) as head of the new Digital Strategy, Products and Solutions division. Bajorat is to take over the department on September 1. He has worked at Deutsche Bank since 2020 as head of the strategy at the corporate bank. Previously, he was the founder and chief executive of fintech Figo and worked at Giropay, among others.
US-based Argyle (website), which aims to help businesses and institutions access employment data, has laid off several employees across all departments. The figure cited by Argyle does not include contractors who may be affected by the layoff. The startup raised a $20 million Series A in October 2020 and announced that it was processing 10 million user employment records per month.
Pan-African banking group Ecobank Group announced the launch of the fifth edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, encouraging African fintech entrepreneurs to participate in the competition. The group says the best fintech selected that aligns with the bank's strategic objectives will have the chance to win a USD 50,000 cash prize and partner and spread their solutions across Ecobank's 33 African markets.
Wise, Revolut & Co have made a name for themselves with low fees for foreign transfers. Atlantic Money says: We can do it better and much cheaper. The founders of FinTech Atlantic Money do not lack self-confidence and aim to surpass their competition.
Berlin-based Fintech Vivid has received permission to provide investment advice through its Dutch subsidiary. Neobank aims to offer a "super app" for all financial services. The neobank has received an investment license from the Dutch Financial Markets Authority (AFM).
Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB) is stepping on the accelerator and taking another tech company on board. The largest bank in the Basel area is also pursuing big goals in the FinTech sector. The portfolio of participations and cooperations has been growing recently at a relatively high pace.
