The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | June 6th

By Gaia Lamperti

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

More layoffs in FinTech

💼 E-commerce FinTech Bolt announced that it will lay off a number of its employees as part of “structural changes”, according to an announcement made by the firm’s CEO Maju Kuruvilla, as Bloomberg reported. About 250 employees could be impacted, constituting one-third of the firm’s total workforce.“It’s no secret that the market conditions across our industry and the tech sector are changing, and against the macro challenges, we’ve been taking measures to adapt our business,” said Kuruvilla in a message to employees earlier last week.

🖐🏽The latest announcement of more FinTech layoffs came from Berlin-based neobank Nuri. The company is also a victim of the market turbulence and following 45 job cuts, plans more layoffs citing various macro-economic reasons for its decision. In a letter on the company website, CEO Kristina Walcker-Mayer referred to “massive” corrections in tech and fintech valuations, the interest rate turnaround in the US and rapidly rising inflation as reasons for the market volatility. “Venture capitalists have become more cautious,” she says. “To get funding now and in the near future, companies have to show that they are on the home stretch to profitability – and this is also true for us.”

The Web3 craze continues

🛍️ Worldline is the latest company to enter the metaverse with the launch of a dedicated virtual showroom to help merchants bridge the gap between virtual and real worlds for commerce scenarios. The Worldline showroom is located in Decentraland in the Crypto Valley area, Switzerland. Worldline is working with crypto processing partner Bitcoin Suisse to enable shoppers to convert fiat into crypto to ease the effort of purchasing goods and services at metaverse stores.

💻Digital asset exchange Binance has closed a $500 million venture fund for investing in Web3 and blockchain-based projects. The funding, led by Binance Labs, is supported by global institutional investors such as DST Global Partners, and Breyer Capital. Changpeng Zhao, Founder and CEO of Binance, says: “In a Web3 environment, the connection between values, people, and economies is essential, and if these three elements come together to build an ecosystem, that will accelerate the mass adoption of the blockchain technology and crypto. The goal of the newly closed investment fund is to discover and support projects and founders with the potential to build and to lead Web3 across DeFi, NFTs, gaming, Metaverse, social, and more.”

Where is the buzz

Money 2020 Europe kicks off tomorrow in Amsterdam! The show is the region’s biggest event for the financial industry, with a number of world-famous key speakers giving their insights on the biggest trends and the transitions in the FinTech scene and the most influential companies of the ecosystem attending. IBS Intelligence will be there too, follow our coverage of the event!