Hi fintech friends! 🤑

Welcome to the FIRST ever WTFintech? newsletter!

Every Tuesday and Thursday I’ll be delivering the news and analysis you need to stay ahead of the curve, plus interviews and insights from diverse thinkers in our industry.

P.S. Got feedback? I’d love to hear it, please reply to any newsletter any time 🙏

GIVEAWAY

Since you're one of my very first subscribers (and it means the 🌎 to me you're here) I wanted to treat you to something swaggy.

If you reply to this email letting me know you forwarded it to a friend, you'll be entered to win one of these fancy Workweek totes because who doesn't love free swag?

I'm giving away 5 of these totes because just look at em...

Now, off to the news 🚀 🚀 🚀

EARNINGS

MoneyLion roaring onto Wall Street

Fintech banking and investing app MoneyLion posted its first-ever earnings Wednesday.

Here’s how else they did:

119% YoY increase to $42M in adjusted revenue (Q3)
131% YoY increase to 9.4M total registered users (YTD)
135% YoY increase to $275M total originations (Q3)
Net loss of $20.3M (Q3)

What's next?

When MoneyLion updates us next it’ll be 2022 (wow).

I expect to keep seeing its acquisition of Wealth Technologies Inc. come to life as MoneyLion looks to bring the previously exclusive experience of financial planning with personalized advice to the masses.

But the strategy that really gets me jazzed is MoneyLion’s big investments in Q4 to push its social media/creator/influencer marketing strategies to drive scale for Q1 2022.

As the CEO said on the earnings call, “We are 100% investing significantly in financial content in different regions to be a part of the MoneyLion ecosystem.”

Here's what their CEO told me:

When I caught up with MoneyLion CEO Dee Choubey on the phone, he explained to me those post-merger blues → he believes SPACs are “decidedly an imperfect product.”

Because:

Volatility in trading after the “de-SPAC” process
No investment bank underwriter to support the stock (like in a traditional IPO)

But it made sense for MoneyLion to SPAC because it's:

An efficient way to raise capital ($250M from investors)
Going Public = increased awareness, confidence, and credibility with customers

Today, MoneyLion is finally seeing the fruits of its labor.

ALT INVESTING

A glass of wine with your investment?

Vinovest, a fintech democratizing access to fine wine investing, just dropped a mobile app.

No expensive wine cellar is required. Just cell service.

Now, retail investors can build, track, and analyze their own fully-insured wine portfolios — an asset class that's traditionally only been available to less than 1% of all investors (and one that's appreciated 127% over the last 10 years).

Alt investing fintechs like this are blowing up 🚀

The aggregate value of alts, $4.1 trillion in 2010, is projected to increase over 300% to $17.2 trillion, by 2025.
Other alt investing fitnechs like Yieldstreet & iCapital are growing fast

What the CEO is saying:

"Inflation continues to surge making it even more important that today’s investors have access to a low risk, diversifying investment that has little correlation to traditional investments," said Anthony Zhang.

TL;DR alt Investing fintechs are making it possible for folks like you and me to diversify our portfolios with assets we've never had access to — and it's just getting started.

CYBERSECURITY

Robinhood fumbles — again

Robinhood let everyone know this week it experienced a “security incident” where a hacker accessed the personal information of 7 million users (~1/3 of its customers).

Most of them had either their email address or full names exposed, while about 310 had more extensive information compromised (like date of birth, and zip codes).

Why am I not surprised?

I’ve reported on Robinhood’s long list of woes — from run-ins with the SEC to AOC. With its growing popularity and a user base that outpaces any other online brokerage, I’d think RH would put its cybersecurity top of mind.

Alas, RH is still focusing its energy on expanding offerings like crypto instead of protecting its users. I applaud their *tiny bit* of transparency with this data breach though.

To be fair, plenty of online platforms are exposed to data breaches — happens more and more as our world is dependent on digital infrastructure.

With that in mind, check out this article for steps to take if you’re compromised.

Speaking of Robinhood… Let's not forget just last week Burger King and RH partnered up to give away $2M in Dogecoin to uninformed users. Classic RH.

DIVERSITY

Shocker: Study finds Women in fintech are underrepresented

I believe knowledge is power. Recognizing the diversity problem we face in the global fintech industry is critical — we must acknowledge these problems before we can truly address them.

Only 1.5% of global fintech firms are founded solely by women, and women-led companies receive just 1% of total fintech funding, according to a study by Findexable.

The study also found that...

Women are only 11% of all board members and 19% of company executives
The majority of women (26%) hold positions like chief people officer or head of HR, followed by chief marketing officer and chief financial officer
Of all fintech CEOs globally, 5.6% are women, and less than 4% of women hold the title of chief innovation or technology officer

I highly recommend downloading the full report and reading all the stats.

On the bright side...

Progress is happening (see Anthemis). It just takes time…

In the wise words of one of my favorite people on the planet CEO of eToro U.S. Lule Demmissie said to me:

“You don't eat the elephant all in one go. You take one bite at a time.” 🥚

FUNDING + ADOPTION

Fintech is at its mass adoption moment

Fintech is booming and there’s no doubt about it. Annual global funding clocked in at $31.1B in Q3 — a 147% jump from last year.

Digital adoption is going through the roof.

U.S. consumers using digital apps and services to manage their finances grew to 88% from 58% between 2021 and 2020. By comparison, the adoption leaps fintech experienced in one year took the refrigerator 20 years, the computer 10 years & the smartphone 5 years 🤯

Fintech fam, we're reaching an era in which financial technology is no longer on the sidelines of the financial system, but approaching its center.

WTF ELSE?

Bitcoin's rollercoaster ride: Bitcoin falls below $65K after hitting an all-time high
YouTube video: Robinhood Crypto COO talks data breach & crypto wallet waitlist
SoFi bumps member growth: SoFi also reported earnings this week for Q3
eToro adds four new coins: EToro now offers access to 40 crypto assets
Current ramps up C-suite: Ravi Bhatia has joined as the Head of Credit
Amazon to add Venmo: The Paypal co will be an option for Amazon checkout
Stripe as eyes on crypto: Stripe has added Matt Huang to its board of directors
Revolut amps up crypto hiring: Revolut's LinkedIn page indicates its recruiting
Square profits high on bitcoin: Square reported a nearly 60% rise in gross profit

FINTUNES

🎵 Tuned in Freestyle, Megan Thee Stallion 🎵

Not only is Megan Thee Stallion’s music and “own your shit” vibe dope as hell, so is her commitment with Cash App to provide financial literacy content to the masses.

FOLLOW ME :)