Daily FinTech Podcast - April 7th, 2022

Sign up for my Daily Fintech or Daily Digital Banking Newsletters here. Check out my latest podcast episode below: Welcome to another episode of our Daily Fintech Podcast. This podcast episode is sponsored by PayRetailers. PayRetailers’ payment platform leverages API technology to connect Latin American consumers with international merchants, offering a seamless payment experience. From the merchant’s perspective, the solution has the distinct advantage of eliminating the hurdles associated with integrating multiple acquirers and payment methods. Learn more! www.payretailers.com THE NEWS HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY IS Fast is shutting down. It’s a stunning collapse for a FinTech company that had raised $120 million in funding from backers including payments giant Stripe, Index Ventures, and Lee Fixel’s Addition. Business Insider previously reported that FinTech, which offered one-click checkout software for online merchants, planned to cut half of its staff as it explored options for a possible sale. That was just over a year after raising a $102 million Series B round. JUST IN: Growsari, a Manila-based platform for digitizing small businesses in the Philippines, announced that it has raised a total of $77.5 million for its Series C round. ALSO: Vivid Money, a Berlin-based challenger bank whose backers include Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp., has withdrawn its application to secure an e-money license from the Central Bank of Ireland. FURTHERMORE, United Arab Emirates’ Mashreq Bank has launched NEOPAY, a unified merchant acquiring and consumer paytech business. WHAT ABOUT CRYPTO? Dank Bank, a Dover, DE-based provider of an NFT trading platform dedicated entirely to memes, viral videos, and other iconic moments in internet history, raised $4.2069M in Pre-Seed funding.