Fintech: Removing cross-border FX fees for SMEs gets YouBiz $50MM round
YouBiz avoids regular FX fees when using marketing services through the likes of Google and Meta.
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You’re the best, today’s agenda below.
PAYTECH: Singapore-based fintech YouTrip adds broad-based SME financial services to its offering (link here)
LONG TAKE: Dissecting the 2023 Macroeconomy, from personal savings to global politics (link here)
PODCAST CONVERSATION: Embedding lending and credit into the fintech value proposition, with Canopy CEO Matt Bivons (link here)
CURATED UPDATES
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Digital Investment & Banking Short Takes
PAYTECH: Singapore-based fintech YouTrip adds broad-based SME financial services to its offering (link here)
Let’s examine Singaporean fintech YouTrip’s multi-currency wallet for SMEs and retail consumers, providing users with an offering that has no FX fees and fee-less ATM withdrawals across 150+ countries. The company is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and its services include FX, remittances, cards, and payments. YouTrip is differentiated from many other SME fintechs that do not own their own licenses directly, and have to rely on third parties.
Since 2018, YouTrip has processed circa $10B in annualized transaction volume, with its e-commerce payment volume growing 240% in annualized transaction volume since 2021, along with 3x user base growth. The growth is largely a result of post-pandemic travel picking up and Southeast Asian e-commerce rebounding. Between 2020 and 2021 e-commerce in the region rose from $69B to $102B.
YouTrip launched YouBiz in May 2022, a B2B product that has since onboarded 3,000 enterprises. The benefit YouBiz brings its customers goes beyond business travel, solving the FX challenges faced by non-US companies with their digital marketing spend and supporting remittances to suppliers and remote workers.
The major players in digital marketing, Google and Facebook, generally bill in USD. YouBiz helps its customers avoid having to pay regular FX fees when using these services, which tend to be essential for small digital businesses. The YouBiz service also features a perks program to provide cash-back deals for more frequent or larger transactions.
As evidence of this model working, the company recently closed a $50MM cash injection in Series B funding led by Lightspeed, which brings the total funds raised since inception in 2018 to $100MM.
Singapore recently proposed raising e-wallet transaction caps by 3-4x, giving YouTrip good scope for offering larger-scale FX and remittance services. Digital adoption also still has room to grow, with 99% of SMEs currently using traditional banks rather than their fintech counterparts. In an increasingly globalized world, YouTrip differentiates itself from other providers minimizing FX fees, like Revolut or Wise, by focusing on solving the spending challenges faced by digital businesses looking to use cross-border products. Given that neobanks still only have 3.3% user penetration, there is plenty more market share to be taken.
Operating across multiple geographies is complicated enough. It shouldn’t also be expensive — we think most cross-border payment costs should trend to zero over time, especially as stablecoins become connected into embedded finance rails and used as a global settlement layer.
👑Related Coverage👑
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👉 November 8, 2023 at 2pm ET
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Blueprint Deep Dives
Long Take: Dissecting the 2023 Macroeconomy, from personal savings to global politics (link here)
Economic analysis indicates we might be at the peak of the interest rate environment with rates surpassing inflation, but banks show vulnerabilities with massive unrealized losses.
Personal financial health is concerning, with savings at an all-time low and escalating debt. Corporate debt maturing in the coming years poses significant threats in the high borrowing cost scenario, coupled with the growth of unprofitable public companies. Amidst these challenges, global political instability is rising, evidenced by U.S. governance issues and increased geopolitical risks. The 2023 growth forecast presents a modest outlook, marked by potential geopolitical and debt-related downturns.
🎙️ Podcast Conversation: Embedding lending and credit into the fintech value proposition, with Canopy CEO Matt Bivons (link here)
In this conversation, we chat with Matt Bivons - Founder & CEO at Canopy. Canopy’s loan management and servicing platform helps Fintechs and brands service customer accounts through automations and APIs to help improve borrower repayment rates, increase net promoter scores, and decrease the cost of servicing for lending and credit card products.
Prior to Canopy, Matt served as a VP of Growth & GM of Consumer at GreenSky (a Goldman Sachs Company), Head of Growth at fintech startup Earnest, and Director of Growth at vacation rental marketplace VaycayHero.
Curated Updates
Here are the rest of the updates hitting our radar.
AI
Insurtech
Payments
⭐ JP Morgan’s Pay-by-Bank product goes live - Finextra
Wealthtech
⭐ The Landbanking Group raises $11M in Seed funding for eco-fintech platform - Tech EU
Fintech startup Statement raises $12 million for multi-banking, global liquidity management platform - CTECH
Financial Operations
⭐ Banking Startup Rho in Talks to Buy MrBeast-Backed Creative Juice - The Information
IRS will pilot free, direct tax filing in 2024 - TechCrunch
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