Posted In:

Payments, Africa, Crypto


#580
Outsmarting Robots

Published:

Mar 01, 2025


Author:

Sarah Parsons Wolter

Posted In:

Payments, Africa, Crypto

Published:

Mar 01, 2025


Author:

Sarah Parsons Wolter


Share:

The life insurance industry may be on the brink of a major shift, thanks to smartwatches. A study by Munich Re and Klarity reveals that daily step counts and other health metrics from smartwatches can significantly predict mortality risk. People taking at least 7,000 steps daily have a lower risk, regardless of age, smoking status, or BMI, and this data could be a game-changer for insurers.

Just as auto insurers use in-car monitors to more accurately price premiums, life insurers can now use smartwatch data. Consumers already share this data with fitness apps, presenting insurers with a unique opportunity. This type of technological innovation isn't unique to life insurance. Amazon, for instance, is revolutionizing its warehouses with robotics, driven by cost - cutting and labour shortages. The company is also investing in talent to employ generative AI in these warehouse robots.

Morgan Stanley analysts project that Amazon's investments in a new generation of robotics-led warehouses could generate approximately $10 billion in annual savings by the end of this decade. Similarly, smartwatches are redefining life insurance, making it more data-driven and potentially more inclusive. Time to take those 7,000 steps…

Portfolio News


The virtual card revolution powering $7b in transactions, with Extend CEO Andrew Jamison - Fintech Blueprint interviews Andrew Jamison, CEO of Extend, a financial infrastructure platform revolutionizing virtual cards. Jamison discusses how virtual cards enhance spend management, streamline reconciliation, and integrate seamlessly with banks and platforms like SAP Concur. The conversation explores the future of financial management, embedded B2B payments, and the evolving role of the CFO in a digital-first economy. Read more

Flutterwave launches in Zambia - Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company, has officially secured a Payment System License to operate in Zambia. This new license positions Flutterwave to deliver affordable and secure mobile money services to enterprises in Zambia, facilitating both local and international trade, while boosting financial inclusion and economic growth. Read more

Raise nets $63m in round led by Haun Ventures to build a crypto platform for gift cards - Raise CEO George Bousis believes blockchain technology can help retailers tamp down on gift card fraud, as well as simplify a decades-old payments system. And he’s investing what he said will eventually amount to more than $100m to build what he calls “Smart Cards.” Read more

Outsmarting Robots


Smartwatches measuring mortality risks are new tool for insurers - The study uses data from UK Biobank, which tracked more than 500,000 volunteer participants over more than a decade to obtain risk insights based on metrics such as daily step counts, minutes of inactivity or vigorous movement, average heart rates and daily sleep duration. Read more

Amazon bets savings from automation can help fuel AI spending boom - The Seattle-based group is expected to spend up to $25b on its retail network, including investment in a new generation of robotics-led warehouses, as it seeks efficiencies across the business and to improve delivery times in the face of growing competition from low-cost rivals such as China’s Temu. Read more

Industry News


BNY, America’s oldest bank, signs multiyear deal with OpenAI - Under the deal, America’s oldest bank will gain access to cutting-edge OpenAI tools such as Deep Research and its most advanced reasoning models, supercharging the bank’s internal AI platform, Eliza. In return, OpenAI said it hopes to gain insight into how well its models work for complex tasks in the real world. Read more

Stripe finalizes tender sale at a $91.5b valuation, says payment volumes grew to $1.4t in 2024 - Digital payments platform Stripe has yet to lay out plans to go public, but in the meantime the company has thrown past and present employees a line for some liquidity. The tender offer is a decent jump on the company’s valuation from its last secondary sale a year ago, which was valued at $70b. However, Stripe still fell short of its high-watermark $95b valuation back in 2021. Read more

The first AI copyright win is here — but it’s limited in scope - On Feb. 11, Judge Stephanos Bibas granted a summary judgment to Thomson Reuters, which makes the legal research service Westlaw, against a company named Ross Intelligence. The judge found that Ross infringed on Reuters’ copyrights by using Westlaw headnotes — essentially case summaries — to train its own legal research AI. Read more

JPMorgan sets aside $50b more for direct lending push - Traditional lenders such as JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, opens new tab are rushing to grab a bigger slice of the booming market that has been dominated by private capital providers. The asset class is expected to expand, opens new tab to $3t by 2028, reflecting stronger momentum than in the past two years, according to Moody's. Read more

Citadel Securities plots jump into crypto trading after Trump’s embrace - The firm aims to get added to the roster of market makers on various exchanges, including those run by Coinbase, Binance and Crypto.com, according to people familiar with the matter. Once the firm is approved on exchanges, it initially plans to set up market-making teams outside the US. Read more

SEC calls off probe into Robinhood's crypto business - Robinhood said this week that it got a letter from the SEC informing the company that the commission concluded its investigation and had no plans to follow up with enforcement action. The company’s announcement came days after another crypto firm, Coinbase, said the SEC was set to dismiss its lawsuit against the company. Read more

Bybit sees over $4b ‘bank run’ after crypto’s biggest hack - Major cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has seen total outflows of over $5.5b after it suffered a near $1.5b hack that saw hackers, believed to be from North Korea’s Lazarus Group, drain its ether cold wallet. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou addressed the incident, highlighting the need for loan coverage, user support, and the impact of a temporary shutdown of Safe wallet functionalities. Read more

When central banks hit instagram, cue the cringe - In order to rebuild trust—particularly with younger generations who haven’t felt much warmth from monetary policy in their lifetimes—the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and beyond are trying their hand at marketing and influencing on social media. Read more

Select Financings


Adaptive - Austin based parametric insurance startup raised $5m in Seed funding led by Congruent Ventures. Read more

Amnis - Zurich based international banking platform for SMEs raised $11m in Series B funding led by Swisscom Ventures. Read more

Auditoria.AI - San Jose based agentic AI startup for enterprise finance teams raised $38m in Series B funding led by Innovius Capital. Read more

Bitwise - San Francisco based crypto asset manager raised $70m in growth funding led by Electric Capital. Read more

Bridgetown Research - San Francisco based AI due diligence platform raised $19m in Series A funding led by Accel and Lightspeed. Read more

Camber - New York based healthcare payments platform raised $30m in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Read more

Capim - São Paulo based vertical SaaS platform for dental clinics raised $26.7m in Series A funding led by Valor Capital and QED Investors. Read more

COVU - San Francisco based insurance customer management startup raised $10m in Series A funding led by Benhamou Global Ventures. Read more

Ethos - New York based model risk management platform raised $6m in Seed funding led by Canapi Ventures. Read more

Flanks - Barcelona based wealth data platform raised €14m in new funding led by Motive Ventures. Read more

Floodbase - New York based parametric flood insurance platform raised $5m in new funding led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund. Read more

Lockchain.ai - Atlanta based blockchain risk management platform raised $5m in Series A funding led by White Star Capital. Read more

Metronome - San Francisco based billing platform raised $50m in Series C funding led by NEA. Read more

Mopso - Milan based financial crime prevention startup raised €1m in Seed funding led by Apside. Read more

Sparta - Geneva based AI-powered commodity trading platform raised €40m in Series B funding led by One Peak. Read more

Unique - Zurich based agentic AI platform for financial services raised $30m in Series A funding led by CommerzVentures and DN Capital. Read more

Vayu - New York based billing and revenue management platform raised $7m in Seed funding led by Flint Capital and The Garage. Read more

Venn - Toronto based financial platform for Canadian businesses raised $21.5m in Series A funding led by Left Lane Capital. Read more


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