#459
How Did Your Country Score?

Mondu sets its sights on the Netherlands, marches on with €20m in VVRB-backed debt financing round - Mondu will use the capital to further develop its product lineup, as well as push forward with ongoing expansion plans. Specifically, the startup is targeting the Netherlands, and opening an office in Amsterdam later this month. Read more

Restaurant group D.ream partners with Qlub - The group, which looks after brands such as Nusr-Et, Zuma, Coya and Günaydin, will now use Qlub to allow customers to pay by scanning a QR code on the table. No app is required and splitting the bill is made easy. concepts and new experiences is pioneering new technology across the industry. Read more

Buhari confers national honors on Flutterwave CEO, others - President Muhammadu Buhari, this week, conferred national honors on CEO of Flutterwave, Olugbenga Agboola and 446 others in Abuja. The Act empowers the President to honor deserving citizens, who have contributed to the development of Nigeria in any field of endeavor. Agboola was conferred with the national honor of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in recognition of his contribution to fintech growth in Africa. Read more

MetaStreet secures $10m for NFT loans in the Metaverse - The $10m capital raise — ahead of the launch of what MetaStreet dubs “PowerSweep” — brings the company’s one-year funding haul to $24m. The round received participation from existing investors from Dragonfly Capital, Nascent and Ethereal Ventures. New investors include Fintech Collective, DCG, TheLAO, Focus Labs, Mirana Ventures, Metaversal, OpenSea Ventures, Ledgerprime, Meta4 and Flying Falcon. Read more

Uniswap Labs valued at $1.66b in $165m new funding - The Series B funding was led by Polychain Capital, the startup said. Existing backers a16z crypto, Paradigm, SV Angel and Variant also participated in the new round. The decentralized exchange commands 64% of all DEX volumes, according to DeFi Llama, and in recent months, Uniswap Labs has shared plans to add “several new products.” One of the new offerings will allow customers to trade NFTs on Uniswap from a number of marketplaces and another is a wallet. Read more

CafecitoTalk interview with Mayor Suarez and Daisy - Daisy CEO Yotam Cohen spoke with Miami Mayor Suarez in an interview about the company's expansion into Miami. Read more

These are the world’s best and worst pensions in 2022 - Iceland, the Netherlands and Denmark again took the top three rankings in this year’s Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index. But the report recommended that retirement ages need to be lifted almost everywhere in the face of mounting threats from aging populations, ballooning government debt and low birth rates. Read more

Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index 2022 highlights key challenges of defined contribution plans for retirees - The Index compares 44 retirement income systems, covering 65 percent of the world’s population. It benchmarks retirement income systems around the world, highlighting some shortcomings in each system, and suggests possible areas of reform that would help provide more adequate and sustainable retirement benefits. Read more

The U.S. retirement system gets a ‘C+’ grade, experts say - even though it’s worth $39t. Here’s why - There are shortcomings in the U.S. approach to retirement saving, such as a lack of 401(k) access. But improvements have been made in the past 15 or so years. Read more

Apple partners with Goldman Sachs to introduce high-yield savings accounts for Apple Card holders - Apple is taking a big step toward offering more banking services to its customers. The company announced today it’s partnering with Goldman Sachs to soon launch a new Savings account feature for its Apple Card credit cardholders which will allow them to save and grow their “Daily Cash” — the cashback rewards that are earned from their Apple Card purchases. Read more

America’s oldest bank, BNY Mellon, will hold that crypto now - BNY Mellon won the approval of New York’s financial regulator earlier this fall to begin receiving select customers’ bitcoin and ether starting this week. The bank will store the keys required to access and transfer those assets, and provide the same bookkeeping services on those digital currencies that it offers to fund managers for their portfolios of stocks, bonds, commodities and other assets. Read more

Google selects Coinbase to take cloud payments with cryptocurrencies and will use its custody tool - The deal, announced at Google’s Cloud Next conference, might succeed in luring cutting-edge companies to Google in a fierce, fast-growing market, where Google’s top competitors do not currently permit clients to pay with digital currencies. Coinbase, which generates a majority of its revenue from retail transactions, will move data-related applications to Google from the market-leading Amazon Web Services cloud. Read more

PayPal says it never intended to fine users for ‘misinformation’ - The issue gained traction over the weekend after the company published policy updates prohibiting users from using the PayPal service for activities identified by the company as “the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” promoting misinformation, in an Acceptable Use Policy due to kick in on Nov. 3. A penalty of $2,500 could be imposed for each violation. Read more

Under pressure, Goldman CEO ditches dream of consumer domination - Cost overruns and missed profitability goals have set off a rising tide of discontent inside the firm, concerned questions from regulators and most worryingly, the dismay of shareholders. Now, the bank is restructuring and reorienting those operations. Rather than catering to just about anyone, Goldman will sling some of its key consumer products through its wealth-management business, augmenting what is already one of the bank’s strengths. Read more

Portugal to tax crypto gains in next year’s budget plan - Portugal currently does not tax crypto gains unless they come from professional or business activities. But that’s about to change. A provision in the country’s proposed 2023 budget would tax gains on crypto holdings held for less than one year at a rate of 28%, according to the plan submitted to parliament on Monday. Crypto assets held for longer than 365 days will continue to be exempt from taxes. Read more

Google selects Coinbase to take cloud payments with cryptocurrencies and will use its custody tool - Google said Tuesday that it will rely on Coinbase to start letting some customers pay for cloud services with cryptocurrencies early in 2023, while Coinbase said it would draw on Google’s cloud infrastructure. Read more

Adyen launches payment platform in Mexico - In a press release announcing the launch, Adyen said it has recently enabled full acquiring capabilities in Mexico, allowing it to offer the platform thanks to direct payment connections to local and global card and banking networks. Read more

Abu Dhabi’s IHC expands into Latin America, invests $200m in Lulo Colombia - Abu Dhabi based International Holding Company (IHC) has injected a capital investment of Dhs734m ($200m) in Lulo Colombia, the holding company of Colombia’s first regulated digital bank, Lulo Bank, through one of its subsidiaries. Founded by Colombian businessman Jaime Gilinski, Lulo Bank is Columbia’s first fully digitalized bank. Read more

PWC releases Q3 2022 Capital Markets Watch - PwC capital market analysts expect that Q3 economic activity will likely show a soft rebound in real GDP growth with inventory growth and net trade driving positive growth. While higher inflation continues to erode consumer purchasing power, consumer demand should remain a positive driver of growth over the next few quarters. However, with the Federal Reserve expected to continue hiking interest rates at a relatively aggressive pace, they expect economic growth to slow further in the near term. Read more