Daily Fintech Podcast - March 18th, 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 YieldX. Digitalization is revolutionizing the world of fixed income and YieldX is building the tools to bring the benefits to all investors. The time has come to replace your antiquated technology with a modern, 100% digital end-to-end investment and insights platform. THE NEWS HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY IS In a conversation at SXSW, Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company plans to introduce NFTs into Instagram in the “near term.” JUST IN: Affirm delayed a proposed asset-backed securities sale after a good portion of it had already been sold to money managers. ALSO: Customers at six 7-Eleven stores in Japan can now make contactless payments using a holographic screen projected from the self-checkout terminal. FURTHERMORE, Dinesh Khara, chairman of the State Bank of India, said that the mobile application, YONO, has gone beyond payment transactions, and is transforming itself into a bank within a bank WHAT ABOUT CRYPTO? According to research conducted by Fast Private Jet, the capital city of Slovenia is by far the most crypto-friendly capital in Europe. It boasts 72 shops and 33 sports venues accepting payments through digital currencies. Travelers looking to leave their fiat at home could call this place paradise. WHAT ARE THE LATEST INSIGHTS? In recent years, the number of fintech unicorns has grown dramatically. In fact, 15 unicorns reached their $1bn valuation in 2021, suggesting that a real surge in fintech startups followed covid lockdowns. AS FOR PARTNERSHIPS Risk management platform Sentinels has been selected by Spanish neobank Rebellion Pay to enhance its anti-money laundering and risk profiling capabilities. WHAT ABOUT FUNDING ROUNDS AND INVESTMENTS? Payrails has just raised over 5.7 million euros to launch its next-generation financial operations platform. Kamino raised $6.1 million in pre-seed funding. PayMongo announced that it has secured US$31 million in a Series B funding round. Playter raised $1.7 million in a seed funding round co-led by Fin Capital and 1818 Venture Capital.