The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | Oct 9th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements for Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Why does it matter: Nasdaq’s backing highlights growing demand for modern trading infrastructure, creating opportunities for FinTechs to enhance trading, risk management and market efficiency through next-generation platforms.

Nasdaq Ventures has invested in One Trading to advance next-generation derivatives of market infrastructure and continuously operating markets. The investment aligns with Nasdaq Ventures’ focus on backing technologies that support the modernisation of global capital markets and establishes a foundation for future collaboration between the two companies. 

One Trading has developed a unified trading, risk management and settlement platform designed to support cross-collateral netting, continuous settlement and automated liquidations at scale. The platform aims to reduce margin requirements for market participants while eliminating the need for a mutualised default fund.  It combines features commonly associated with digital asset markets, including 24/7 trading and automated liquidations, with the transparency and safeguards of a regulated European trading venue. 

Alongside the investment, Nasdaq and One Trading began exploring opportunities to combine Nasdaq’s expertise in market infrastructure, global distribution capabilities and client relationships with One Trading’s cloud-based low-latency trading and risk engine, as well as its regulatory position within the European Union.  The companies said they would assess opportunities to modernise derivatives market infrastructure and broaden the range of products available to market participants, including long-dated futures contracts 

Deals of the week

• Recur Club launches $57.5m growth capital fund for D2C brands
• Aurionpro wins $15.6m AI data centre project from hyperscaler
• ai raises $3.3m to expand AI solutions for BFSI
• Thought Machine launches AI banking migration with AWS
• Saudi enterprise AI startup Gaia raises $1.5m pre-seed round
• Parlay partners with nCino to simplify SBA loan process
• Mynt aims to raise up to $971m in Philippine IPO
• Basware acquires Trustpair to enhance payment security
• Alchemy brings Mastercard Agent Pay to enable AI-powered purchases
• Mizuho Bank selects Traydstream to digitise trade finance operations

Be on the lookout for

Yiren Digital, the New York-listed Chinese FinTech company, reported a sharp reversal in performance, posting a net loss of about RMB 1 billion (roughly $141 million) compared with a profit in the same period a year earlier. The deterioration was largely attributed to significant write-downs on legacy assets and mounting pressure on its traditional lending business as China’s stricter regulatory environment continued to weigh on online consumer finance firms.

The company’s core credit solutions segment recorded a steep decline in loan facilitation volumes as management accelerated its shift away from capital-intensive lending toward a lighter, technology-driven business model. Loan originations, borrower numbers, and outstanding loan balances all fell sharply year-on-year, reflecting the strategic transition and tougher market conditions.

Despite the weak earnings, Yiren Digital highlighted improvements in credit quality, with delinquency rates declining and repeat borrowers accounting for a growing share of total lending activity. The company also pointed to strong growth in its insurance brokerage business, where customer numbers expanded substantially from a year earlier.

Management said it will continue pursuing its “AI-first” strategy, investing in artificial intelligence and technology services while reducing balance-sheet risk. To support investor confidence, the board also approved a $20 million share buyback programme.