The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | May 9th

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.

BNPL’s up and downs

😥 Nearly one in 10 (9%) people have used ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) schemes to cover essentials, a survey by Hargreaves Lansdown has found. One in 16 people (6%) said they have bought groceries using BNPL, and the same proportion have used it to buy a takeaway, as the cost-of-living crisis makes it harder for some households to pay for goods in one go. While this scheme can help people to avoid having to pay interest on their borrowing, there have been concerns about people potentially taking on debt that will not comfortably be able to pay back.

🦄 Scalapay, a European BNPL provider, has raised $27 million in a Series B extension round led by Poste Italiane, Italy’s largest service infrastructure network. The funding comes as an extension of Scalapay’s $497 million Series B round which took place in February 2022. Scalapay says that the money injection will go towards hiring new staff, product development, brand building, and expansion abroad. Founded in 2019, the company has raised $727 million in funding to date and hit unicorn status earlier this year with a valuation of over $1 billion.

Fin for good

🍲 Visa has announced a donation of AED 1 million to support the humanitarian efforts of the UAE, the region’s largest campaign of its kind to provide food support to the underprivileged and undernourished in less fortunate communities across 50 countries. The 1 Billion Meals initiative aims to alleviate global hunger and battle malnutrition.

🤗 As part of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, Apple has committed $25 million to eradicate systemic racism in the US and empower entrepreneurs of colour via a partnership with California-based FinTech CNote. The FinTech has already funnelled a round of insured deposits to mission-driven financial institutions such as Education Credit Union in Texas, First Southwest Bank in Colorado and Kaua‘i Federal Credit Union to name a few. With the CNote platform providing deposits across a network of vetted financial institutions, it aims to plug a gap for corporate and other institutional investors that want to support financially underserved communities, while generating returns on cash allocations.

Where is the buzz

Last week, the eighth annual British Bank Awards were announced. After winning the title of Best British Bank for four years in a row, Starling Bank was pipped to the top spot as Monzo took the crown for the very first time. The latter also won the Best Business Banking Provider and Best Banking App awards away from Starling, as chosen by some 81,000 votes cast by customers for this year’s awards. Starling held onto its Best Current Account Provider award and took the Best Children’s Financial Provider award from previous winner GoHenry. Where’s the buzz