The interchange is where you'll find us. Thank you for signing up and voting for confidence after you received this. If you read this as a post on our site, you should sign up here so you can receive it in the future. I take a look at the hottest news from the last week. This will include everything from funding rounds to trends to an analysis of a particular space. My job is to stay on top of the news and make sense of it so I can keep you up to date.
I was caught up in the downfall of FTX. While I don't cover the space directly, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the goings-on.
The general coverage of that debacle can be found here.
I couldn't help but notice the train wreck of Musk taking over Twitter and Meta's letting go of 11,000 people You can find more on those topics on our Equity show.
I'm not sure what to say.
I said last week that I hoped this week would bring more positive news. That wasn't the case.
In response to the continued slowing of the housing market, real estate tech company Redfin laid off more than 800 employees. Opendoor laid off more than 500 people, or 18% of its workforce, the week before and Zillow cut 300 people in October. In June, Redfin let go of 465 employees.
The iBuying division is going to be closing. One problem is that the share gains we could attribute to iBuying have become less certain as we rolled it out more broadly, especially now that our offers are so low... Hundreds of millions of dollars were tied up in houses that you wouldn't want to own right now.
Kelman said that the June layoffs were in response to the expectation that the company would sell less houses in the future. It is assumed that the downturn will last at least through the year 2023.
There are other companies in the industry. Better.com, a digital mortgage lender, has laid off employees in the last couple of weeks. There were over 200 employees let go on November 4. Better.com said it was not able to provide notification earlier as the separations were the result of a "dramatic deterioration", according to Alex Barreira, a reporter for the San Francisco Business Times. The company was focused on making prudent decisions that account for current market dynamics when I contacted them.
Back to Red finn. Kelman's candor as he addressed employees was one thing that stood out to me. He thanked the departing employees who put their faith in Redfin. I apologize that we don't have enough money to pay you.
Kelman co-invested in a Seattle startup that is focused on buying and selling realestate in foreign markets.
CEOs have been very public in their remorse as their companies have deteriorated. Other examples this week include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitting he overestimation how long the post-pandemic revenue surge would last.
FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down from his role after admitting he "fucked up" and "should have done better" before the company filed for Chapter 11. The exchange was worth $32 billion this year. In early August, Tenev took responsibility for the company's letting go of 23% of its staff.
The CEO of Even Better.com admitted at one point that he had not been disciplined over the previous 18 months.
This tells us something. CEOs are people. Humans are just as flawed as the rest of us. Some decisions, such as over-hiring, were made out of the belief that people would be needed in the future. Some decisions were less honorable and more about furthering the executive's agenda.
Thousands of employees are paying the price.
The image is called Kuzma and it was taken by the same photographer.
Truist Financial Corporation acquired gamified finance mobile app startup Long Game months ago and has now introduced the Truist Foundry, an innovation division that will function as a startup within the bank. Delivery of "game-changing projects" and serving the bank's lines of business will be the goal. The Truist Foundry will build software solutions that drive value and market leadership for the bank. One of the United States' largest banks is getting more serious about its digital efforts.
Adyen is an additional payments processing partner. As part of the new partnership, the companies said in a press release that Adyen will be used to further increase authorization rates for an even more seamless customer experience. There is more here.
This is another example of the benefits of financial technology. Banking-as-a-service startup Synctera is partnering with Solvent, a company that is building "affordable financial services" for people who were previously imprisoned. A part of the link-up is the Smart Charge Card, which does not require a credit review or a company to fund its customers' balances. A group of Americans often underserved and overlooked, the ex-cons, are the focus of a suite of personal finance and banking tools, products and services supplied by the company.
Affirm reported mixed financial results. The fiscal first quarter revenue of $361.62 million was better than expected but the net loss was greater than expected. Its stock plummeted to a new 52 week low of $11.94 last week before bouncing back to $15.88 on Friday. The company tried to put a positive spin on the results, sharing via email that active consumers grew 69% year-over-year and total transactions increased to over 13 million. Delinquencies and net charge-off rates were at or below pre-pandemic levels.
During a live-streamed meeting with Twitter advertisers, Elon Musk outlined his vision for the payments market. The new owner suggested that in the future, users would be able to send money to others on the platform, extract their funds to authenticated bank accounts and possibly be offered a high-yield money market account to encourage them to move their cash toTwitter.
The user choice billing pilot will allow developers to use other payment systems besides their own. The program will be available in new markets, including the US, Brazil and South Africa. The implementation of the program will start this week, according to the announcement. In March of this year, the company announced that it would be testing a third-party billing option. There's more here.
Kuda, the London-based startup taking on incumbents in the country with a mobile-first and personalized set of banking services, is expanding to the United Kingdom. Since launching in Nigeria, the digital bank has had some success. Kuda raised $55 million in a Series B round last August and claims to have up to 5 million users. Kuda has decided to launch in the United Kingdom as part of a major global expansion drive.
The image is from TechCrunch.
It was seen on a website.
SurePrep will be acquired by Thomson Reuters for $500 million.
The market for pet insurance is being chased by startup companies.
Bond is the leader of the super app.
A company called Quona Capital sunk $332 million into financial inclusion companies.
The former Tink employees launched Atlar.
Hopper raised $96 million from Capital One.
The company raises $32 million in debt and equity.
Tellus wants to make it easier for consumers to save money. It is possible to do here.
Elsewhere.
The capital raise by Savvy Wealth has been completed.
After selling his two startups to Box and Elph to Brex, the CEO and COO of Savvy formed the company. He was advised to seek out a financial advisor, and after sampling several different options, he was inspired to start Savvy in 2021.
It's a reminder that we love scoops. If you have an inside information about a topic we have covered, please let us know. I am interested in hearing from you. You can get in touch with me by sending me a message. You can leave a note at tips@techcrunch.com Click here to contact us if you prefer to remain anonymous
For this week, that is what I have to say. There will be more good news next week. Take good care, Mary Ann...until then.
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