Published:
Dec 05, 2022
Author:
Sarah Parsons Wolter
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Just in time for the holidays, December marks the 6th year of Spotify Wrapped - the platform’s biggest marketing and most anticipated event of the year. Wrapped is a day where countless listeners and artists can enjoy a “lookback” moment of musical taste, where user data is harnessed to serve up most played albums and most streamed artists in a way that is entirely personalized and unique which makes it more meaningful, relevant and shareable.
While Wrapped has morphed into somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, it has also served to massively boost Spotify’s brand awareness and return engagement, which is coming up on almost half a billion users this year (~456m). It is a huge business driver for the company, impacting everything from reactivation to new user growth.
Other brands have also attempted to humanize data in the same way year-end, with Apple Music Replay and Youtube Music in Year Review. But such attempts have not materialized into the same cultural moment and organic “word-of-mouth” marketing that Spotify has managed to generate. Spotify still has a clear edge over its competitors, retaining users by building powerful brand loyalty.
We often talk about how Spotify has created an experience rather than a service. But Spotify has a bigger goal of becoming a one-stop shop for all forms of content creation. They have evolved beyond just music and have begun signing exclusive contracts with top podcasters, made investments into publishing platforms and developed original content to spur the creator economy. The music to creator path has grown Spotify’s web traffic considerably and the wedge into the creator economy - building out more tools and products for creators - may be the key to truly cementing their dominance in the space. That’s (almost) a wrap - 2022!
Portfolio News
Orda raises 3.4m seed round to digitize African restaurants with its cloud-based operating system - We are excited to announce FinTech Collective’s investment in Orda, a Lagos-based company that is digitizing the long tail of African restaurants. The company is already operational in Nigeria and Kenya, and the new capital will enable Orda to continue to expand its footprint of small and medium restaurants across the continent. The round was led by FinTech Collective and Quona Capital, with participation from existing investors including LoftyInc Capital, Enza Capital and Norrsken Foundation, as well as new venture capital firms like Outside VC and Far Out Ventures. Read more
Cryptocurrency tax software provider, CoinLedger, announces integration with Solana blockchain - Customers who work together with Solana by way of decentralized functions and wallets can now import their transaction historical past on to CoinLedger to automate all of their capital positive factors, losses, and earnings tax reporting. Read more
The technologies leading the way in fighting financial crime - A study earlier this year found that financial crime continues to be extremely prevalent in the financial services industry and across the wider sector. These challenges are somewhat brought on by inefficient and legacy technologies that are not meeting the standards necessary for the modern day. However, there are a handful of companies and technologies that have emerged, including FTC portfolio company Sigma ratings, that are leading the way in combating this. Read more
CapIntel partners with Aviso Wealth to provide credit union advisors with new digital tools - This unique partnership will bring CapIntel’s industry-leading technology to Aviso Wealth’s Canadian credit union partners, helping credit union financial advisors provide more value to their members. Advisors will leverage instant, powerful analytics to inform better investment decisions, easily compare investment scenarios, and articulate investment information, helping members improve their understanding of their financial goals and outcomes. Read more
Uniswap launches an NFT aggregator after acquiring Genie - Unlike an individual NFT marketplace, the Uniswap aggregator allows users to view listings from OpenSea, LooksRare, NFTX, and others all at once. Users can then assess prices across the board and determine whether they want to buy or sell their own NFTs, either individually or in batches. Read more
Spotify Wrapped: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
Spotify is entering the creator economy and cementing its podcast dominance - Spotify is far from the only tech company making the pivot to podcasts and creators. Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok are fighting for creator loyalty with new features and funds. Twitter acquired podcasting app Breaker in an attempt to enter the audio space. Clubhouse initially made waves in audio-focused social media. Spotify is a bite away from eating the podcast industry, but the relationship between audio and the creator economy is in flux. Read more
Spotify's video podcast publishing tools expand to creators worldwide - Spotify has expanded its video podcasting capabilities to creators in more than 180 markets worldwide, which means the functionality is now available in nearly all the markets where Spotify's podcast creation software, Anchor, is currently available. The move puts Spotify in closer competition with YouTube, where video podcasts have been growing in popularity. Read more
Instafest app lets you create your own festival lineup from Spotify - The free web app, created by developer Anshay Saboo, is pretty straightforward to use: sign in with your Spotify account, and it will generate a poster based on the artists to whom you most listened. You can customize the poster based on time intervals — last four weeks, last six months and all time. Read more
Apple Music Replay misses the point - The statistics it shows you are not as in depth or interesting as the deluge of fascinating and Instagrammable information that folks get from Spotify, but no matter — you get the basics like top songs, top artists, and top albums. Except, there’s a problem. The problem is that Apple Music Replay is not easy to share. And for that reason, it misses what makes Spotify Wrapped such a cultural phenomenon. Read more
Industry News
JPMorgan, other banks in talks to reimburse scammed Zelle customers - The idea is to boost security and consumer trust in Zelle, the peer-to-peer payment system jointly owned by a consortium of banks, the people said. The pandemic supercharged money-transfer services. Zelle recorded some 1.8b transactions in 2021 totaling $490b, more than double prepandemic levels. Scammers often seek to trick Zelle users into sending them money under the guise of customer support. Read more
Crypto lender BlockFi follows FTX into bankruptcy - BlockFi blamed its chapter 11 filing on the downturn in cryptocurrency prices this summer and this month’s failure of FTX. FTX’s affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, defaulted on $680m owed to BlockFi earlier this month, the firm disclosed in court papers. Bankruptcy gives BlockFi a chance to formulate a repayment plan for creditors and get back what it can from FTX, though any potential recoveries are a long way off. Read more
Brazil's congress moves to regulate crypto payments - Brazil's Congress this week passed a bill that would regulate the use of cryptocurrency as a means of payment throughout the country, potentially providing a boost toward the adoption of digital assets in the South American nation. The bill, which still requires the signature of the president, would give legal status to payments made in cryptocurrencies for goods and services—but would not grant them the status of legal tender. Read more
Robot landlords are buying up houses - For some renters, never speaking to a landlord might sound like a dream. But high-tech real estate companies are taking this idea to the extreme, completely cutting out property managers in favor of online tools and services. A handful of firms have started rolling out systems that automate the entire home rental process, with no need for an on-the-ground assistant (the one exception: maintenance workers). Read more
Cyber Monday online sales hit a record $11.3b, driven by demand, not just inflation, says Adobe - Expectations for this year’s holiday spend online were lukewarm, but initial activity — driven by deep discounts — has bucked predictions. Cyber Monday pulled in $11.3b in sales online according to figures from Adobe Analytics, which tracks seasonal e-commerce activity. This is 5.8% more than consumers spent on the same day last year (when $10.7b was recorded in sales, a drop on 2020’s $10.8b), and sets a record both for the day and the year so far. Read more
Ready to trade? Fidelity finally opens retail crypto accounts - In spite of some recent pushback from lawmakers in Washington, Fidelity has opened up retail crypto trading accounts after first announcing a waiting list earlier this month. Once opened, the account promises commission-free trading of bitcoin and ether. Read more
RBC bets on immigration in $10.1b HSBC Canada deal - Royal Bank of Canada said it would pay $10.1b for HSBC Holdings PLC’s Canadian operations, a move meant to position Canada’s biggest bank to expand during an expected immigration surge. Canada’s government has said it expects to boost immigration to 500,000 people a year by 2025, up from 405,000 last year. The HSBC deal, RBC CEO Dave McKay said, isn’t about acquiring loans or deposits as much as acquiring clients. Read more
Coinbase wallet app update disables NFT functionality at Apple’s request - Coinbase Wallet application users are caught in the fray over Apple’s in-app purchase system that takes a 30% cut from app developers who annually make more than $1 million through the App Store. The tech giant is now trying to collect 30% of the gas fee of any NFT transaction that occurs on the Coinbase Wallet mobile app as well. Read more
Stripe enables fiat-to-crypto on-ramp - Stripe’s new transactions solution is billed as a customizable widget, which can be directly embedded within different DeFi platforms. As a major payments processor for prominent Web2 companies, such as Apple and Walmart, Stripe’s decision to step further into the crypto world during a time when centralized exchanges are under heightened scrutiny can help DeFi become more accessible to mainstream consumers. Read more
Select Financings
Atoa Payments - London based payments company raised $2m in pre-Seed funding led by Leo Capital. Read more
Atom Bank - UK based digital lender raised £30m in growth funding from investors including BBVA, Toscafund, and Infinity Investment Partners. Read more
Buckzy - Canada based real-time cross-border payments startup raised $14.5m in Series A funding led by Mistral Venture Partners and Uncorrelated Ventures. Read more
Ejara - Cameroon based decentralized wallet company raised $8m in Series A funding led by Anthemis. Read more
Finery Markets - Cyprus based institutional crypto trading platform raised $5.5m in Seed funding led by G1 Ventures. Read more
Fleek - New York based web3 developer platform raised $25m in Series A funding led by Polychain Capital. Read more
FrankieOne - Melbourne based identity verification and fraud detection platform raised A$23m in Series A funding led by AirTree Ventures. Read more
Greenwood - Atlanta based digital banking platform for Black and Latino individuals and businesses raised $45m in growth funding led by Pendulum. Read more
Igloo - Singapore based consumer insurance company raised $27m in Series B funding led by KfW. Read more
Keyrock - Belgium based digital asset market maker raised $72m in Series B funding led by Ripple. Read more
Kiln - Paris based crypto staking company raised €17m in Series A funding led by Illuminate Financial. Read more
KreditBee - India based digital lender raised $80m in Series D funding from Premji Invest, Motilal Oswal Alternates, NewQuest Capital Partners, Mirae Asset Ventures and MUFG Bank. Read more
Nucleo - New York based crypto infrastructure security startup raised $4m in Seed funding led by Bain Capital Crypto and 6th Man Ventures. Read more
Shield - Tel Aviv and New York based communication and compliance platform for financial institutions raised $20m in Series B funding led by Macquarie Capital and UBS Next. Read more
T3rn - Decentralized cross-chain interoperability protocol raised $6.5m in new funding led by Polychain Capital. Read more
Teampay - New York based spend management startup raised $35m in Series B funding led by Fin Capital. Read more
TreeCard - London based climate-conscious digital money app raised $23m in a Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures. Read more
X1 - San Francisco based consumer fintech startup raised a $15m in Series B1 funding led by Soma Capital. Read more
XanPool - Hong Kong based cross-border payments infrastructure company raised $41m in growth funding led by Target Global. Read more
XDao - Decentralized multichain DAO builder raised $2m in Seed funding led by DWF Labs. Read more
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