Your Daily FinTech Podcast - June 27th, 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. THE NEWS HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY IS Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that Facebook Pay has officially been renamed Meta Pay. The current product features and overall user experience that people are used to with Facebook Pay will remain the same across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. The change is rolling out in the United States and will then launch globally over time. Zuckerberg says although the service will remain the same, the rename represents Meta’s first step toward creating a digital wallet for the metaverse. JUST IN: Amsterdam has the second most valued tech ecosystem in Europe. Research by Dealroom shows that Amsterdam-based startups raised €698M in 2022 YTD. This funding comes after a record year in 2021 but is a 75 percent decline year on year. Link here. ALSO: SleekFlow, an Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund-backed SaaS omnichannel social commerce platform, announced that it has raised a US$8 million Series A funding round. Link here. WHAT ABOUT FUNDING ROUNDS AND INVESTMENTS? Ethis Group, an ethical investment and social finance platform operator, is collaborating with venture capital firm Gobi Partners to structure and set up a US$20 million Shariah-compliant seed fund. Link here.