#481
Funds For The Folks Back Home

Published:

Mar 27, 2023


Author:

Sarah Parsons Wolter

Published:

Mar 27, 2023


Author:

Sarah Parsons Wolter


Share:

In 2022, remittances to Mexico grew by 13.4%, amounting to a total of $58.5b for the year. In another record-breaking year, Mexico expects that number to grow to over $60b in 2023. Remittances have surpassed all other sources of the country’s foreign income, including tourism, manufacturing and oil exports, making Mexico the second largest remittance-receiving nation in the world after India. The record flows in Mexican remittances are in large part attributable to the resilience of the US labor market. But looming fears of a US recession have casted doubts over the nation’s ability to sustain that same level of growth.

However, Mexico may have one more economic ace up its sleeve to buoy their economy as we head into the current macro environment. Earlier this month, Elon Musk confirmed that a manufacturing facility would be built in Nueva Leon - signaling the production of the first Tesla cars in Mexico. In what is being touted as “the biggest electric vehicle plant in the world”, the $5b investment into the gigafactory would employ 6000 workers.

As nearshoring gathers momentum, Mexico looks set to benefit from the shifting landscape of the global supply chain, particularly as companies think about diversifying exposure from China. As the governor of Nueva Leon said in a speech, “The president, by authorizing and backing Tesla, sent a message to the world that they should come to Mexico.” Remittances may no longer be the only game in town, Mexico may have just found its newest catalyst for growth.

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Portfolio News


B2B BNPL player Mondu continues to make waves as it enters UK market - With the UK B2B e-commerce sector worth an estimated $200b, Mondu’s arrival was nothing but inevitable. And so arrives the day, as BNPL for B2B transactions player Mondu expands to its fourth market with the UK, having experienced tremendous and rapid growth across Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Read more

MoneyLion announces evolution of its embedded finance technology with rebranding of "Even Financial" to "Engine by MoneyLion" - The Engine by MoneyLion brand is designed to reflect the expanded breadth and capabilities of the combined company, while continuing to focus on its premier financial product search engine, API and embedded finance marketplace SaaS platform, delivering personalized recommendations through any consumer touchpoint. Read more

Marqeta announces partnership with Stables (fka Tiiik) in Australia to power prepaid card - Based in Sydney, Australia, Stables (formerly Tiiik) is a digital wallet that allows users to spend, send and earn stablecoins, all on one balance. With Marqeta’s dynamic spend controls and Just-in-Time funding capabilities, Stables’ customers will be able to convert stablecoins into fiat and spend wherever Mastercard cards are accepted online and in-store globally. Read more

CapIntel adds ESG data as it pushes US expansion - CapIntel, which specializes in automated proposal generation, workflow and fund analysis for advisors, announced the new ESG data component to the service this week. The firm uses ESG data from MSCI to provide ratings, scores and various metrics for funds, portfolios and individual stocks. Read more

Bitgo taps Coincover to allow clients to store backup keys for wallet recovery - Digital asset protection provider Coincover has expanded its partnership with BitGo to enable clients to benefit from wallet access failure by holding recovery data with a trusted third party. Collaborating on digital asset security features for institutional clients since 2019, Coincover and BitGo are now bringing wallet recovery capabilities for users that lose access to their keys. Read more

Funds For The Folks Back Home


Carlos Serrano: "Remittances will break the record and exceed 60b dollars" - When asked if he thought remittances to Mexico will continue to break records in 2023, Carlos Serrano, chief economist of BBVA in Mexico said that he thought they will continue to break records, even with growth slowing slightly due to the labor market in the US suffering the effect of high rates. Read more

Western Union and 7-Eleven team up to enable cross border remittances in Mexico - Western Union expanded its cross-border remittance capabilities with the announcement it is partnering with 7-Eleven Mexico to enable money transfers from 1,800 7-Eleven locations in Mexico. The agreement will enable Mexican citizens to send money to more than 200 countries and territories in which Western Union operates, in addition to 14 states within Mexico. Read more

Industry News


UBS to buy Credit Suisse in $3.3b deal to end crisis - The all-share deal includes extensive government guarantees and liquidity provisions and the price per share marked a 99% decline from Credit Suisse’s peak in 2007. The Swiss National Bank is also offering a 100b-franc liquidity assistance to UBS while the government is granting a 9b-franc guarantee for potential losses from assets UBS is taking over. Read more

JPMorgan Chase buys data platform for startups in push to serve venture capital investors - While terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, JPMorgan is paying roughly what the startup was valued for at its last fundraising in 2021, according to a source, which was $232m. Read more

Crypto fugitive Do Kwon is arrested in Montenegro - The 31-year-old was detained in Podgorica along with Hon Chang Joon while trying to fly to Dubai using falsified Costa Rican traveling documents. Kwon’s whereabouts have been the source of constant speculation since September, when authorities in his native South Korea issued a warrant for his arrest on allegations including breaches of capital-markets law. Read more

US regulator sells most of Signature Bank’s operations - Flagstar Bank owner New York Community Bank has agreed to buy most of the operations of Signature Bank, the failed New York City-based lender. As part of the deal, the FDIC said NYCB would acquire “substantially all” of the deposits of Signature Bank and just over a third of its assets, including nearly $13b in loans, which were sold at a discount. Read more

Vanguard said to shutter business in China, exit Ant Venture - The moves will mark a complete exit from China for the $7.1t giant, which once saw significant potential in the world’s second-largest economy. The reversal stands as a cautionary tale for global peers including BlackRock and Fidelity International, that are still racing to build up local operations as the nation’s recovery and pension reform brighten prospects. Read more

Global central banks announce joint action to keep dollars flowing - The Federal Reserve, along with the ECB, BoE, BoC, BoJ, and SNB aimed to make dollar swap lines more readily available. The move is a sign of the severity of the risk global central banks see from the series of strains in the banking system worldwide since Silicon Valley Bank failed nine days ago. Read more

JPMorgan owned the LME ‘nickel’ that was actually bags of stones - The LME last week announced it had canceled nine nickel contracts — worth about $1.3m — after discovering “irregularities” at a certain warehouse owned by Access World. Read more

SEC threatens to sue Coinbase over staking, more - The company said Wednesday evening that it received a Wells notice from the SEC — a formal communique alerting a recipient of possible enforcement action. Coinbase said the Wells notice touched on aspects of its exchange, its staking service called Earn, and its non-custodial wallet following an SEC investigation it described as "cursory." Read more

Nasdaq eyes crypto custody launch by end of second quarter - Nasdaq expects its custody services for digital assets to launch by the end of the second quarter as it joins a growing pool of traditional financial firms that could fill the role of crypto middlemen following a spate of bankruptcies in the industry. Read more

Insurer Zurich experiments with ChatGPT for claims and data mining - Insurer Zurich is testing how it can use ChatGPT AI technology in areas such as claims and modelling, as it responds to the challenge posed by start-ups and bigger rivals. Zurich Notes that AI could create “a huge amount of efficiency” in jobs such as extracting information from long documents and writing code for statistical models. “You’re not going to replace a developer or an underwriter, it’s a co-pilot.” Read more

Select Financings


Caramel - Los Angeles based checkout platform for car sales raised $12m in Seed funding led by Zeev Ventures. Read more

Cast.ai - Miami based automation and cost management company raised $20m in new funding led by Creandum. Read more

Credable - Tanzania based digital banking infrastructure company raised $2.5m in Seed funding led by The Continent Venture Partners. Read more

CrossX - New York based crypto trading venue from Crossover Markets raised $6.35m in Seed funding led by Two Sigma. Read more

Focalpay - Stockholm based retail operations and payments platform raised $1.5m in new funding led by SKEL. Read more

Gravie - Minneapolis based employer health benefits company raised $179m in growth funding led by General Atlantic. Read more

Gryfyn - Decentralized custodial wallet joint venture between Animoca Brands and Hex Trust raised $7.5m in new funding led by Liberty City Ventures. Read more

ID Finance - Spain based alternative lending company raised €30m in new funding led by Kingsway Capital. Read more

Janus Healthcare - New York based revenue cycle management company raised $45m in new funding led by Enhanced Healthcare Partners. Read more

Kredivo - Indonesia based provider of credit to underbanked consumers raised $270m in Series D funding led by Mizuho Bank. Read more

Monite - Berlin based embedded B2B payments company raised $5m in Seed funding led by Third Prime. Read more

Rain - Los Angeles based earned-wage access company announced it raised $66 million in Series A funding led by QED. Read more

Recognise Bank - UK based SME lender and savings company raised £25m in growth funding led by PV27. Read more

Rippling - San Francisco based employee onboarding and workforce management company raised $500m in Series E funding led by Greenoaks. Read more

Togal.AI - Florida based provider of construction estimating software raised $5m in Series A funding led by Florida Funders. Read more

Turnkey - New York based maker of private key infrastructure for crypto developers raised $7.5m in Seed funding led by Sequoia Capital. Read more


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