Fintech Focus For October 21, 2021

Quote To Start The Day: “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

Source: Robert Louis Stevenson

One Big Thing In Fintech: One would likely not purchase a house without first looking at comparable home sales.

That is according to Saad Hussain, founder and CEO at Vesica Technologies, the company behind SHIFT, a search engine for the options market.

“As a former broker, it’s not about the democratization of finance. It’s really the democratization of data. That’s where the money is,” Hussain said in an interview alongside CTO Dr. Alessandro Warth, a former software engineer at Alphabet Inc-owned Google.

Read below to find out more on how Vesica’s SHIFT Search is making market data more accessible and actionable for market participants.

Source: Benzinga

Other Key Fintech Developments:

• Voyager: Bitcoin going to moon.
• Stripe makes India acquisition.
• Proportunity adds $150M round.
• PayPal may purchase Pinterest.
• tZERO ATS receives approvals.
• UBS AM, FundsDLT ended pilot.
• Multiverse adds an investment.
• Lukka has bought Blox Finance.
• Animoca adds new $65M round.
• Embed secured $60M in funds.
• Pismo secures $108M Series B.
• Pimco looks into crypto trading.
• Unstoppable Finance adds $5M.
• Primer secures $50M Series B.
• Cboe adds ErisX for digital offer.
• NBA lands crypto sponsorships.
• MDM adds cash trading feature.
• Element Finance secures $32M.
• Hash raises $40M in new round.
• IBKR added crypto for advisors.
• Picasso added crypto payment.
• Sommelier adds $23M Series A.
• UpEquity adding a $50M round.
• Cosmos, Forte have teamed up.
• MX introduces MXdata offering.
• Goldman partnering with AmEx.
• Wells Fargo, Trovata partnering.
• Alloy eyeing credit underwriting.
• Chargebee releases integration.
• Citi taps new global digital head.

Watch Out For This: Stagflation isn’t quite the word. But for a world economy still trying to find its post-pandemic footing, the combination of lower growth and higher inflation evident in the latest readings from Bloomberg Economics’ nowcasts still isn’t good news.

Source: Bloomberg

Interesting Reads:

• California’s ports very inefficient.
• Facebook looks to refresh brand.
• UK on edge amid COVID surges.
• FDA allows booster, mix & match.
• S&P debate: cryptos versus gold.

Market Moving Headline: Despite U.S. Equities trading near all-time highs, various market indicators and surveys suggest that sentiment is in neutral territory at best and thus remains a supporting factor for higher index levels.

Source: Merrill