Despite the ups and downs of the fintech area, individuals nonetheless actually care about it

Image Credits: Ross Marlowe/TPG for TechCrunch / Flickr

Welcome again to The Interchange, the place we check out the most popular fintech information of the earlier week. If you wish to obtain The Interchange straight in your inbox each Sunday, head right here to enroll!

Disrupt!

Last week, our crew was at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, which featured a devoted fintech stage for the primary time (!) and dozens of Battlefield 200 firms within the fintech area. Christine even moderated a fintech pitch session! Mary Ann sadly couldn’t make it as a consequence of a household matter — and after spending months main the programming for the fintech stage, she was really heartbroken. But all was a powerful success with the room so packed for the hearth chats and panels that folks needed to arise within the again to catch them! Overall, there was an estimated 13,000 attendees on the occasion — up considerably from even final yr.

One-on-one chats on the fintech stage included Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, Plaid founder Zach Perret, Checkout.com president and COO Céline Dufétel. There was additionally a panel of bankers discussing a put up–Silicon Valley Bank world. In actuality, although, SVB continues to be alive and kicking.

Here are the tales that summarized the highlights of these chats and panels:

Battlefield 20

MakersHub deciphers accounts payable knowledge so development firms don’t need to

Battlefield 200

Kenyan fintech FlexPay helps buyers save for future purchases

Don’t need that commuter stipend? Bundl allows staff to decide on their very own firm advantages

Image Credits: Ian Tuttle (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Making well being financial savings be just right for you

This week, I wrote about Truemed, an organization that desires to place meals in entrance of medication.

Calley Means and Justin Mares began the fee integration firm final yr to make it straightforward for shoppers to pay for wholesome meals, train and dietary supplements utilizing their tax-free well being financial savings accounts or versatile spending account {dollars}. And with regulatory compliance.

Most sufferers want some sort of letter of medical necessity to make use of HSA or FSA {dollars} on gadgets exterior of procedures or treatment. Tapping into telehealth legal guidelines, Truemed collects sure knowledge factors after which seamlessly and asynchronously supplies that letter and not using a physician’s go to.

About $140 billion is sitting in these accounts, mostly going unused, and the IRS increased the amount you may contribute to well being financial savings accounts to $4,150 for a person and $8,300 for a household. This will hopefully allow individuals to extra simply put these {dollars} to work.

The firm launched this week with $3 billion of gross merchandise quantity already amassed from businesses, together with CrossFit, Magic Mind and Kos. It additionally obtained $3.5 million in SAFEs (easy settlement for future fairness) from traders, together with purposeful medication pioneer Mark Hyman and founders from Thrive Market, Eight Sleep and Levels.

I individually corresponded with Kevin Robertson, govt managing director and chief income officer at HSA Bank, a division of Webster Bank, about how HSA and FSA advantages are getting used as a retention piece for tech firms.

A pattern Robertson is seeing is that employers are more and more matching pre-tax worker HSA and FSA contributions. There can also be curiosity in doing extra of what’s referred to as a way of life spending account, extra well-liked in Canada at the moment.

LSAs aren’t pre-tax {dollars}, although he notes these specific accounts present a extra personalised profit expertise. For instance, an employer can designate these accounts be used for pet care, spa therapies and even health reimbursement.

“In today’s tight labor market, more companies are enhancing their core benefit offerings to show themselves as an attractive place to work,” Robertson stated. “This is particularly true for technology companies who generally are known for flashy perks like free lunches, casual dress and happy hours.” Read extra. — Christine

Other weekly information

Mercury stated final week that it has transitioned Mercury Raise from a seasonal, cohort-based program into “an always-available” platform, which options new instruments, packages, and networks. The firm advised TechCrunch by way of e-mail that three years in the past, it launched Mercury Raise as a program to assist founders elevate their seed or Series A rounds. It added: “After working with thousands of founders, we began to notice that they were consistently encountering roadblocks centered around three distinct themes: raising money, finding community, and getting expert guidance.” Read TechCrunch’s latest protection on Mercury right here.

Arc revealed a brand new checking account referred to as Platinum, with its CEO telling TechCrunch over e-mail: “The really exciting part about Arc Platinum is that it’s the first and only operating account built on a ‘Too Big to Fail’ bank partner. We built this partnership in stealth over the last 6 months, after receiving feedback from thousands of founders and boards that have been forced to choose between the safety of the world’s largest banks (JPM, Goldman, Citi, BofA) and the user experience & yield available exclusively via B2B Fintechs (Brex, Arc, Mercury). Thanks to Arc Platinum, startups get both safety & UX for the first time in a digital bank.” Read TechCrunch’s latest protection on Arc right here.

Brex launched what it described as “a proactive assistant that gives every employee their own EA (expense assistant).” Via e-mail, the corporate advised us that: “Brex assistant uses the power of natural language, autonomous AI agents, and spend data to help employees file expenses compliantly and efficiently. With Brex Assistant, every employee now gets the same ‘swipe and forget’ corporate card experience as their executive team. As a result, finance teams can also look forward to increased productivity across the company.” Read TechCrunch’s latest protection on Brex right here.

Other gadgets we’re studying:
Block’s stock has been a laggard lately. Will management shakeup provide a needed jolt?

Solid faked revenue numbers, special committee appointed to investigate, sources reveal (We lined Solid’s $63 million Series B spherical again in 2022.)

SentiLink launches Facets

Nova Credit partners with HSBC for cross border credit sharing

Varo aims to displace Venmo, Cash App volume with new P2P feature 

Apple officially launches Tap to Pay in Brazil as international expansion continues

Tipalti lights up expenses solution and Tipalti card

Treasury Prime announces integration with Astra to bring real time payment capabilities to customers

Fundraising and M&A

Seen on TechCrunch

ZayZoon, which lends staff money for a payment, raises $34.5M

IFC leads $5M extension spherical in Ivorian SaaS e-commerce platform ANKA

As seen elsewhere

Flex secures $20M equity and $100M debt fundraise to build a one-stop-shop financial hub for SMBs

Allocate closes $10M strategic capital

Dallas healthcare benefits platform take command gets $25M growth investment

Openly secures $100M in Series D funding

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin