#597
I'll Be Watching You
Published:
Jun 28, 2025
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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Consumers once chased loyalty points; now loyalty points chase consumers. Brands are collapsing the space between impulse and incentive, embedding themselves directly in the lock-screen, the wrist, the checkout flow. The goal? To capture not just the transaction—but the trajectory. The closer the rewards program sits to the moment of decision, the more exhaust it collects, and the more precisely it can steer the next one.
Coffee chains perfected the drill. Order-ahead apps at Greggs, Starbucks, Gail’s and Blank Street promise queue-less pickup while quietly harvesting location pings, purchase cadence and even birthdays. Greggs already routes one in five coffees through its app; every barcode beep funds the next precision-timed push offer far better than cash ever could.
In the credit-card arena, the sprint to stay closest to the user is picking up speed. Last week, American Express unveiled its largest-ever Platinum refresh—three new Centurion Lounges and a buffet of travel-lifestyle perks meant to weld the card to your daily spend. A day later, Chase countered, hoisting Sapphire Reserve’s annual fee to $795 and layering on $500 in hotel credits, richer dining boosts, and a business edition aimed squarely at status chasers. These aren’t just benefits—they’re gravitational pulls, designed to keep you circling one ecosystem over another.
Just remember: whether it’s a barcode at Greggs or a Centurion Lounge check-in, every reward is just the glossy front of a surveillance console. Every scan, swipe, and skipped line is quietly logged, modeled, and looped into a system that knows exactly when—and how—to reel you back in.
Portfolio News
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Flutterwave named to TIME100 Most Influential Companies list for second time, highlighting global payments influence - Founded in 2016, Flutterwave was first included on the TIME100 list in 2021. This followed a historic campaign that helped thousands of businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to sell online. Its 2025 return testifies to the company’s ongoing influence as a fintech leader, transforming payments across Africa and beyond. Read more
bunch launches White Paper on why the Netherlands is an attractive jurisdiction for fund managers - This white paper breaks down why the Netherlands is becoming a top choice for fund managers across Europe. From tax-transparent structures to low ongoing costs and fast regulatory approvals, it’s a jurisdiction designed for efficiency and growth. Read more
Flutterwave's Cameroon license expands African reach - The company received the authorisation from Cameroon's National Payment Systems Department, which enables it to offer a full range of digital payment solutions to businesses and individuals in Central Africa. This development strengthens Flutterwave's growing presence across Africa as the company has secured regulatory milestones, including a Payment System licence from the Bank of Zambia, an Enhanced Payment Service Provider licence in Ghana, and a Payment Systems Operator licence from the Bank of Uganda. Read more
Plaid CEO says its next five years will look a lot different than the last five - While Plaid has become widely known for its connectivity rails, Perret highlighted the shift toward leveraging the vast amounts of data flowing through its platform to solve complex problems like financial fraud, to improve credit scoring and enhance payments analytics. Looking ahead five years, Perret stated that he wants Plaid to be known as “the analytics platform for financial services or the data platform for financial services.” Read more
CoinCover unveils new report examining what’s next for crypto regulation - As the crypto industry stands at a crossroads between mass adoption and increased scrutiny, CoinCover has launched its new whitepaper titled ‘The Trust Factor,’ which uncovers the urgent public demand for smarter and stronger cryptocurrency regulation. Amongst market volatility, high-profile collapses and renewed attention from global regulators, the whitepaper explores a timely and critical question, what will it take for trust to become crypto’s most valuable currency? Read more
I'll Be Watching You
Coffee apps: they eliminate queues but will cost you your data - The “free lunch” for the coffee chains is all the customer data they collect. Most apps ask to enable notifications and location services (even if this was only used to find nearby stores while the app is open). If you want all the offers, you must opt into marketing communications. Setting up an account to order ahead, pay and collect points requires providing personal data including an optional date of birth (most chains offer a free birthday treat). Read more
Amex plans ‘largest investment ever’ in platinum credit card - Card upgrades are critical for new-card acquisition and fees to fuel Amex’s revenue growth targets. Amex raised its Platinum card annual fee to $695 in July 2021, when it also added $200 in annual hotel credits. Since then, the New York-based company has faced intensifying competition for premium credit-card customers, including from JPMorgan Chase’s Sapphire Reserve card and Capital One’s Venture X Rewards card. Read more
Industry News
Crypto industry moves into the U.S. housing market - The nation’s largest mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will begin accepting crypto as an asset on a mortgage application, in another significant step by the Trump administration to bring digital currencies into mainstream finance. Read more
FICO to offer credit scores including buy-now, pay-later data - The introduction of these scores comes as concerns grow about consumers' ability to afford purchases made through buy-now, pay-later plans, with an annual survey by the Federal Reserve finding a sharp increase in people falling behind on payments last year. Read more
Young investor demand for alternative assets is reshaping Wall Street's playbook - Young, affluent Millennials and Gen Z investors are moving their money into alternative assets, such as pre-IPO unicorns, real estate, crypto, and collectibles, due to skepticism about traditional markets. Despite concerns about the risks and fees associated with alternative investments, many investors are drawn to them as a way to potentially achieve higher returns and rebel against traditional markets and institutions. Read more
Wealthfront files to bring DTC wealth management to market - Wealthfront, the robo-adviser that nearly sold to UBS for $1.4b three years ago, has filed confidentially to go public, it announced Monday. The company joins a string of companies testing the 2025 markets, but it's a unique test as Wealthfront advises its customers to have a buy-and-hold mentality, making it potentially the first direct-to-consumer wealth management to try the markets depending on the ultimate timing. Read more
Fiserv launches new FIUSD stablecoin for financial institutions - FIUSD presents Fiserv customers with access to a new, more efficient, and interoperable digital asset service for their banking and payment flows. Offering FIUSD across the company’s global multi-sided network will provide instant scale for FIUSD while creating a digital asset network that clients can use to build new products and services. Read more
Xero to acquire Melio, a leading US SMB bill pay solution, to accelerate global growth - New Zealand-based small business platform Xero is set to acquire Melio for $2.5b. The deal gives Xero access to Melio’s service, a small and medium-sized business (SMB) bill pay platform linking accounting and payments. Read more
Chainlink, Mastercard tie-up to let nearly 3b cardholders by crypto on-chain - The partnership is part of Mastercard's expanding efforts in the cryptocurrency space and integrates multiple players, including Shift4, zerohash, XSwap, and Uniswap, with Chainlink's interoperability protocol facilitating transaction data exchange between the card network and multiple blockchains. Read more
Europeans seek 'digital sovereignty' as US tech firms embrace Trump - Interest in European-based digital services has jumped in recent months, data from digital market intelligence company Similarweb shows. More people are looking for e-mail, messaging and even search providers outside the United States. Read more
Bank of New York Mellon approached Northern Trust to discuss potential merger - Any deal would be huge. Chicago-based Northern Trust has a market value north of $21b after its share price has risen about 9% year to date. The Trump administration has signaled more willingness to approve big banking deals, after few have been tried in recent years. The two firms each have an array of businesses that safeguard, manage and move money for companies, investment firms and financial advisers. Read more
CoreWeave in talks to buy Core Scientific - A transaction could be finalized in the coming weeks, and while the exact terms are unknown, Core Scientific - one of the largest owners and operators of high-powered digital infrastructure for bitcoin mining and hosting services in North America - has been growing rapidly and would likely command a healthy premium. It has a market value of close to $3.7b, after its share price dropped roughly 15% year to date. Read more
Select Financings
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Clearspeed - San Diego based voice based risk assessment platform raised $60m in Series D funding led by Align Private Capital. Read more
Conquest Planning - Winnipeg based financial planning platform raised $80m in Series B funding led by Goldman Sachs. Read more
COVR Global - London based AI powered insurance decision platform raised $2.5m in Seed funding led by MTech Capital. Read more
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Farsight AI - New York based AI workflow automation platform for financial institutions raised $16m in Series A funding led by SignalFire. Read more
Finom - Amsterdam based SMB financial platform raised €115m in Series C funding led by AVP. Read more
Ledgebrook - Needham based tech enabled excess and surplus lines MGA raised $65m in Series C funding led by The Stephens Group. Read more
Meridian - New York based deal management platform for private market investors raised $7m in Seed funding led by 645 Ventures. Read more
Niural - New York based AI native PEO platform raised $31m in Series A funding led by Marathon Management Partners. Read more
Orus - Paris based digital insurer for SMBs raised $29m in Series B funding led by Singular. Read more
Sibill - Milan based financial management platform for Italian SMEs raised €12m in SeriesA funding led by Creandum. Read more
Spinwheel - Oakland based consumer credit data platform raised $30m in Series A funding led by F-Prime Capital. Read more
Stackup - California based digital asset management platform for crypto businesses raised $4.2m in Seed funding led by 1kx. Read more
SuperDial - San Francisco based voice AI platform for outbound healthcare phone calls raised $15m in Series A funding led by SignalFire. Read more
Quinn - New York based financial planning platform raised $11m in Seed funding led by Viola Fintech. Read more
Veda - New York based defi infrastructure platform for crypto yield products raised $18m in new funding led by CoinFund. Read more
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