Kalshi has mostly done things by the books, cozying up to the federal government in search of regulation and unmitigated approval. Meanwhile, Polymarket has seemed to make its own rules, letting users bet on controversial topics like civil war and nuclear detonation to rake in massive profits.
February's headline number was lifted considerably by four rounds of $200M or more - Vestwell ($385M), Runway ($315M), Talkiatry ($210M), and Whop ($200M) - that collectively contributed $1.11B to the monthly total. The 50.6% capital increase over January despite a 32.7% drop in deal count tells a clear story: fewer, larger rounds defined February.
I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. I chose the latter. We're already seeing that the intelligence tools we're creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company.
Laplanche, who was also the co-founder of LendingClub before leading Upgrade to a $7.3 billion valuation, was unsparing in a recent interview with Fortune. The fintech sector itself, he claimed, "would not even exist if, frankly, banks had done a better job really delighting their customers with product innovation that moves the needle," Laplanche said, arguing that the industry's reliance on "nickel and dime" fees and "unpredictable" costs created the very void that he's spent his whole career filling.
Investors have committed new capital to fintech company MyCredit, backing its strategy of scaling technology-driven credit platforms rather than a conventional lending operation. The investment reflects a broader shift in fintech funding toward platforms where software, data infrastructure and AI form the primary drivers of innovation, growth, enabling companies to expand across markets without proportional increases in staffing or operational complexity.
After working on the compliance team at the stablecoin infrastructure company Paxos, Lawrence decided to ride the generative AI wave and enter one of the first Y Combinator batches after the launch of ChatGPT. His thesis was that anti-money laundering and know-your-customer compliance operations would be one of the breakout use cases for applying AI to financial services. Lawrence's bet turned out to be prescient.
Step, which raised half a billion in funding and has grown to over 7 million users, offers financial services geared toward Gen Z to help them build credit, save money, and invest. The company has attracted celebrity investors like Charli D'Amelio, Will Smith, The Chainsmokers, and Stephen Curry, in addition to venture firms like General Catalyst, Coatue, and the payments company Stripe.
What's fascinating about this season of "Industry" is how well it speaks to this moment. Tender starts as a payment processing platform for adult content. The show references the very real (and still controversial) Online Safety Bill that the UK introduced, which has led to age verification and other enhanced rules for consuming adult content online. Because of its affiliation with adult content, Tender finds itself at odds with the new government's regulation and must pivot or die, as the saying goes.
This past year, Visa Inc. ( NYSE: V) has unveiled a scam disruption initiative, adoption of its "Tap to Phone" technology has soared, it unveiled its vision for artificial intelligence (AI) in commerce, and it expanded its capabilities in the digital currency space. The company also has launched a pilot program enabling businesses and platforms to send payouts directly to stablecoin wallets. All this has helped buoy the stock despite economic uncertainty.
I was a CFO myself for five years previously before going into venture [...] We had thousands and thousands of customers, and we would have several people in my team that were basically just replying to queries and chasing people all day.
SoFi Technologies (Nasdaq: SOFI) crossed the $1 billion quarterly revenue threshold for the first time in company history, delivering Q4 2025 results that beat estimates across the board while adding a record 1 million new members. The fintech platform reported revenue of $1.01 billion versus the $982 million consensus, alongside GAAP EPS of $0.13 that surpassed the $0.12 estimate by 8%.
Mine, a credit card and financial planning company founded by two Gen Z college dropouts, is attempting to buck the trend. Mine is announcing $14 million in fresh funding in a 359 Capital-led Series A, with participation from existing investor Kleiner Perkins. Cofounders Carlo Kobe and Scott Smith are confident they can convince their generation to stop spending their hard-earned money on betting whether the U.S. will invade Greenland or Eric Adams's latest memecoin.
So imagine this: The year is 2016. You open Instagram (just a six-year-old app at that point) and posts of King Kylie and videos of the viral mannequin challenge flood your feed. As social media booms, so does the consumer industry. Many of today's cult-followed brands are launching and growing -like Khloe Kardashian and Emma Grede's Good American jeans, Jen Rubio and Steph Korey's Away luggage, and now megapopular health tracker Oura, to name a few.
Every year, workers around the globe send approximately $900 billion to their families back home and, when it comes to helping them send that money, the market is suddenly up for grabs. The reason is the recent momentum behind stablecoins, which offer an easy way to move money across borders-and for a far cheaper price than legacy transfer systems, whose fees can reach as high as 6%.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said on Friday he would call for a one-year cap of 10% on credit card interest rates, arguing that consumers are being "ripped off" by rates that he said can be as high as 20% or 30%. Congress, not the president, has the power to implement such a cap. Similar proposals have previously stalled on Capitol Hill.
There was a time when banks and fintechs competed mostly on bells and whistles: smoother apps, faster checkout, appealing rewards. But in the world of public markets and quarterly earnings, functionality gives way to fundamentals. At the intersection of traditional banking and modern fintech lies a simple but growing question: what actually drives sustainable value for banks today? Is it the buzz‑worthy growth of payment volumes and new revenue streams - or the old‑school strength of deposit balances and net interest income?
I was entirely on my own when I was 19. While I was enrolled in college, I worked full-time at night in the call center of a fintech company, Jack Henry & Associates. It was a gritty, hands-on role, but an exciting time to be with the company, which was growing quickly. I didn't have a typical college experience. I worked a lot so I could pay for my car and home. At work, I put my hand up any chance I could. I was never the smartest person, but I worked really hard and was always willing to figure out problems. Even if I'd never done something, I would figure it out. I couldn't afford to fail, personally or professionally.
SoFi Technologies Inc.'s ( NASDAQ: SOFI) chief executive officer stated at a conference earlier this year that the fintech company is targeting 30% member growth and 20% revenue growth. The stock is trading for 2.9% less than a week ago, after SoFi launched a fully reserved U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. Note that the share price is still up 71.2% from six months ago, far outperforming the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. SoFi's one-year gain is 72.5%.
Givefront, a YC-backed startup founded by 21-year-old Harvard dropout Matt Tengtrakool and UC Berkeley's Aidan Sunbury, aims to change that. The company is building a financial platform designed specifically for nonprofits, including food banks, animal rescues, non-governmental organizations, churches, and homeowner associations. Nonprofits generate roughly 6% of the U.S. GDP and contribute trillions of dollars each year, yet most still rely on outdated financial tools. Givefront believes that modern spend management, compliance, and reporting infrastructure-tailored to nonprofit realities-can unlock significant efficiency gains across the sector.
It wasn't just shoppers with strapped budgets that boosted buy-now, pay-later services to a record-setting $1 billion in transactions on Cyber Monday. It was also the brands and fintech companies that pushed the services front and center. This holiday season, more brands deployed BNPL services with different payment options beyond the more familiar "pay-in-four" structure, whether a six-month payment plan at 0% interest or a 24-month installment loan with interest. And the services are showing up in more digital wallets.
