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<ul><li><keyword id="266210" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="FINO">Fino</keyword> has filed its DRHP with SEBI today.</li><li>The IPO includes fresh issue of ₹300 crore</li><li>The bank may consider a pre-IPO placement aggregating up to ₹60 crore.</li></ul>Fino Payments Bank has filed preliminary papers with markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to raise an estimated ₹1,300 crore through an initial share-sale.  The initial public offer (IPO) includes a fresh issue of equity shares worth ₹300 crore and an offer-for-sale of 15,602,999 equity shares by promoter Fino Paytech, according to draft red herring prospectus (DRHP). <br /><br /> Proceeds from the fresh issue would be used towards augmenting the bank's tier-1 capital base to meet its future capital requirements. <br /><br /> The bank may consider a pre-IPO placement aggregating up to ₹60 crore. If such placement is completed, the fresh issue size will be reduced. <br /><br /> According to merchant banking sources, the IPO is expected to fetch ₹1,300 crore. <br /><br /> Fino Payments Bank or FPBL is a scheduled commercial bank serving the emerging India market with its digital based financial services. <br /><br /> The company is a fully-owned subsidiary of Fino Paytech, a pioneer in technology enabled financial inclusion solutions. Fino Paytech is backed by investors like Blackstone, ICICI Group, Bharat Petroleum and International Finance Corporation (<keyword id="85860" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="IFC">IFC</keyword>). <br /><br /> Over the last few years, FPBL has witnessed a steep surge in transaction volumes on the back of digitization and proliferation of its banking points. <br /><br /> The payments bank's platform has facilitated more than 434 million transactions with a gross transaction value of ₹1.32 lakh crore in financial year 2020-21, as per the draft papers. <br /><br /> It has a strong leadership position in the fintech industry having the largest network of micro ATMs as of March 2021 with a market share of 55 per cent, a robust merchant network of 6.4 lakh and 25.7 <keyword id="11649328" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lakh-bank">lakh bank</keyword> accounts. <br /><br /> Its revenue for 2020-21 stood at ₹791 crore that grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29 per cent in the last three years and the bank registered a profit of ₹20.5 crore in the year. <br /><br /> Axis Capital, CLSA India, ICICI Securities and Nomura Financial Advisory Services have been appointed as investment bankers to advise the bank on the IPO.<br /><strong><br />SEE ALSO</strong>

Fino Payments Bank files papers for ₹1,300 crore IPO

Check out the more than 50 pitch decks fintechs used to raise millions in funding from top investors

<ul><li><strong><keyword id="431929" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="sofi">SoFi</keyword> announced on Friday that it will allow its users to directly invest in <keyword id="35156" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="ipos">IPOs</keyword>.</strong></li><li><strong>The announcement comes a day after popular <keyword id="6368158" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trading">trading</keyword> app <keyword id="1268253" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Robinhood">Robinhood</keyword> said it is looking to allow its users to also buy into IPOs, including its own.</strong></li><li><strong>SoFi said its IPO product offering will be available to users who have at least $3,000 in total account value across all of SoFi Invest. </strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/10-things-opening-bell">Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell</a></strong></li></ul><p>Financial technology firm SoFi announced on Friday that it will be allowing its users to directly invest into initial public offerings, an opportunity usually reserved for institutional investors. </p><p>Retail traders at present are not able to buy stocks of newly listed companies until they start trading, unlike Wall Street investors or high net-worth individuals. SoFi's new initiative will be considered a win for retail traders as shares often trade higher when they debut in what is commonly known as a first-day pop.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210326005077/en/SoFi-to-Break-Down-the-Barriers-and-Offer-Members-Early-Access-to-IPOs">announcement</a> of SoFi comes a day after Robinhood said it is looking to <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-looks-to-allow-users-buy-directly-into-ipos-2021-3-1030247988">allow its users</a> to also buy directly into IPOs, including its own upcoming public debut.</p><p>"IPO Investing reflects our continued effort to make investing more accessible, by pioneering fractional shares, offering commission-free trading, creating unique SoFi-branded ETFs, and now, IPO investing," Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi, said in a statement.</p><p>The company said its IPO product offering will be available to users who have at least $3,000 in total account value across all of SoFi Invest. Noto told <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/sofi-to-give-amateur-investors-early-access-to-ipos-in-break-from-wall-street-tradition-.html">CNBC</a> that less than 1% of SoFi accounts are "active," referring to traders that trade more than three times per day.</p><p>SoFi, which is currently only available to residents in the US, started out as a company focusing on student loan refinancing and personal loans in 2011. Since then, the company has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/sofi-invest-review">expanded into other areas</a> of personal finance, including insurance, checking and savings accounts, and investment options.</p><p>The <keyword id="2461546" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="FinTech">fintech</keyword> company in January announced it is <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/sofi-to-go-public-via-spac-backed-by-chamath-palihapitiya-2021-1-1029941577">going public</a> <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/sofi-to-go-public-via-spac-backed-by-chamath-palihapitiya-2021-1-1029941577">is via </a>a merger with <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/ipoe-stock?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingestgest">Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings</a>, a SPAC backed by billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya. The merger will value SoFi at nearly $9 billion.</p>

Fintech firm SoFi to allow users to buy directly into IPOs

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Alana Kakoyiannis</span></p><p class="caption">Fintech investor, Peter Thiel.</p></div><p></p></div></div>PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel - one of the biggest names in the world of fintech, or financial technology - is on a European investment spree right now.</p><p>He's just invested €1 million (£744,000, $1.1 million) into German startup Deposit Solutions, a company created to allow people to use products from multiple banks without having to actually switch banks, and to "transform the EUR 9 trillion European market of retail savings deposits with a unique b-to-b approach".</p><p>The investment is Thiel's third in a German fintech startup in the past year. <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a10794f2-b55b-11e5-8358-9a82b43f6b2f.html#axzz3wY8zPH7z">As the Financial Times points out</a>, Thiel's VC firm Valar Ventures has already invested in two German startups in the last year. Valar backed Kreditech, a startup for people without much of a credit history, and Number 26, a mobile banking app. Both startups are Berlin based.</p><p>His investment in Deposit Solutions is part of a €6.5 million funding round for Deposit Solutions, led by German VC firm FinLab, but no valuation was given on Deposit Solutions as a whole.</p><p>In an emailed statement from Deposit Solutions, Thiel said: "With its unique approach, Deposit Solutions is revolutionizing the value chain in the retail deposit business by creating significant advantages for savers and banks. It offers a clear, distinct competitive alternative secured by a proprietary technology with the potential to become the new back-end for the European retail deposit market."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Deposit Solutions</span></p><p class="caption">Deposit Solutions founder Dr. Tim Sievers.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Tim Sievers, who founded Deposit Solutions in Hamburg in 2011, welcomed Thiel's investment and explained the company's product, saying: "We introduce to the retail deposits business what has long been a standard for other bank products such as mutual funds and mortgages: an open architecture for instant-access and fixed-term deposit products.</p><p>"With this innovation, we enable banks to reach a new level of customer service and efficiency in their retail deposit business."</p><p>Thiel is one of Silicon Valley's most recognisable investors, and is probably best known as one of the cofounders of PayPal, one of the first successful fintech companies, and for being one of Facebook's first outside backers.</p><p>As well as investment into German fintech startups, Thiel has backed British companies, putting cash into AI company DeepMind before <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f92123b2-8702-11e3-aa31-00144feab7de.html#axzz3wY8zPH7z">it was bought by Google in 2014</a>. He also invested in fintech unicorn Transferwise, which allows people to transfer money overseas at a far lower cost than traditional methods.</p><p>Thiel's European investments are a pretty big contrast to his comments about the continent's tech scene last year. <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05e1b5b8-4593-11e4-9b71-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3wYwuJK4V">In an interview with the FT</a>, he described Europe as a "<span>slacker with low expectations" and "<span>pessimistic and unmotivated".</span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-cramer-come-back-jon-stewart-beatdown-show-up-motivational-speech-2016-1">Jim Cramer's inspiring words on how to come back from a beatdown</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="43czgxMDE6GqIsZB86yhV6ZIeE5-jMiE" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

One of fintech's biggest pioneers is on an investing spree

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="1268253" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Robinhood">Robinhood</keyword> has hired <keyword id="6361649" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword> to lead an <keyword id="35216" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="initial-public-offering">initial public offering</keyword> next year that could value the <keyword id="2461546" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="FinTech">fintech</keyword> startup at more than $20 billion, <a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/exclusive-trading-app-robinhood-hires-goldman-sachs-to-lead-ipo-sources-2020-12-08">Reuters</a> reported Tuesday.</li><li>The stock-trading app, which was last privately valued at $11.7 billion, recently started interviewing bankers and is aiming for an <keyword id="6354763" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ipo">IPO</keyword> in Q1 2021, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-17/robinhood-is-said-to-seek-advisers-for-potential-ipo-next-year?srnd=premium">Bloomberg</a> reported earlier this month.</li><li>Robinhood pioneered commission-free <keyword id="45597" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Stock-trading">stock trading</keyword> and helped popularize it among millennials, but has also been plagued by <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-stock-market-controversial-week-traders-cyberattack-accounts-trading-margin-2020-10-1029690410">data breaches</a>, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-sec-finra-investigation-march-trading-service-outage-stock-brokerage-2020-8-1029548651">outages</a>, and <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-stock-market-controversial-week-traders-cyberattack-accounts-trading-margin-2020-10-1029690410">investigations from regulators</a>.</li></ul><p>Robinhood, the popular stock-trading app, has hired Goldman Sachs to lead its initial public offering next year, <a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/exclusive-trading-app-robinhood-hires-goldman-sachs-to-lead-ipo-sources-2020-12-08">Reuters</a> reported on Tuesday.</p><p>The offering could value the fintech company at more than $20 billion and will come sometime in 2021 depending on market conditions, according to Reuters.</p><p>Robinhood declined to comment and Goldman did not respond to a request for comment.</p><p>Robinhood was last privately valued at $11.7 billion following a September fundraising round and recently started interviewing potential bankers for an IPO in Q1 2021, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-17/robinhood-is-said-to-seek-advisers-for-potential-ipo-next-year">Bloomberg</a> reported earlier this month.</p><p>Its plans go to public aren't new, however - former Robinhood co-CEO Baiju Bhatt <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baiju-bhatt-robinhood-plans-ipo-2018-9">said as early as 2018</a> that the company was eyeing an eventual IPO. (Robinhood announced in November that Bhatt had stepped down as co-CEO and would continue to serve on the company's board, while co-founder Vlad Tenev will continue as the sole CEO, according to <a href="https://fortune.com/2020/11/20/robinhood-ipo-ceo-vlad-tenev-founder-baiju-bhatt-stock-trading-app/">Forbes</a>).</p><p>Robinhood's investors include Andreessen Horowitz, D1 Partners, Google's venture arm GV, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia, according to PitchBook.</p><p>Robinhood, which helped popularize commission-free stock trading, particularly among millennials, has seen a new generation of novice traders flock its stock, options, and cryptocurrency trading platform during the pandemic. The platform currently has around 13 million users.</p><p>But that growth has brought its own set of challenges, including users being impacted by <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-stock-market-controversial-week-traders-cyberattack-accounts-trading-margin-2020-10?r=ts-sub">trading volatility around the US presidential election</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-hackers-accessed-2000-trading-accounts-bloomberg-2020-10?r=ts-sub">hackers gaining access to nearly 2,000 users' accounts</a>.</p><p>Critics have accused Robinhood of "gamifying" investing to the point that inexperienced clients can cause themselves <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-experts-stock-picking-no-longer-generating-alpha-2020-10?r=ts-sub">substantial financial harm</a>. This came to a head in June when a young options trader <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-trader-college-student-dies-suicide-options-negative-cash-balance-2020-6">killed himself</a> after seeing an extremely large negative portfolio value that was not reflective of his actual balance.</p><p>Some investors have also accused Robinhood's novice traders of skewing the market, though a <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-traders-impact-stock-market-prices-none-study-popularity-effect-2020-9?r=ts-sub">recent study</a> found Robinhood's traders had little impact.</p><p>The company has also faced scrutiny from federal regulators. In 2019, Robinhood launched checking and savings products, hawking them as fully insured accounts with sky-high interest rates. However, that wasn't completely true, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/robinhood-millennial-stock-trading-app-ignored-rules-money-safe-2019-7">the company was forced back to the drawing board</a>.</p><p>More recently, Robinhood was targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in an investigation for its <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-sec-finra-investigation-march-trading-service-outage-stock-brokerage-2020-8?r=ts-sub">handling of a day-long outage in March</a> and separately by the SEC in an investigation into alleged failures to properly disclose its <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/robinhood-sec-investigation-high-speed-trading-firm-deals-market-makers-2020-9?r=ts-sub">deals with high-speed traders</a>.</p>

Robinhood has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to lead an IPO that could value the stock-trading app at more than $20 billion

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>GoCardless</span></p><p class="caption">Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of GoCardless.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Hiroki Takeuchi founded GoCardless, a pioneering British fintech company founded in 2011.</strong></li><li><strong>Takeuchi first got involved in tech startups after a friendship at university bagged him an internship at Y Combinator, which had little profile in the UK at the time.</strong></li><li><strong>He has since said goodbye to his cofounders, overcome a life-changing bike accident, and raised $122 million for his company.</strong></li><li><strong>Now Takeuchi is navigating the unknowns of Brexit in a fiercely competitive environment for tech talent.</strong></li></ul><p>It all started when 32-year old Hiroki Takeuchi, then a freshman at Oxford University, got dragged along to an event in his first week of university.</p><p>A student in the year above corralled Takeuchi, who had just started studying Mathematics, into attending a gathering of the Oxford Entrepreneurs in 2004.</p><p>"There wasn't really like a tech scene in the UK," Takeuchi told Business Insider. His awareness of tech startups was basically nil, but his experience at the Oxford Entrepreneurs event sparked an interest in starting a company.</p><p>"It was through that society that I kind of got quite involved, learnt all about startups in general, but also in particular tech startups," he told Business Insider.</p><p>Takeuchi's journey towards becoming a founder took off when in the summer following his first year, he managed to swing an internship with a programme which had little to no profile in the UK - Y Combinator.</p><h2>Y Combinator to GoCardless</h2><p>Two of Takeuchi's friends, brothers Harjeet (Harj) and Kulveer Taggar, went out to Silicon Valley in 2007 to join Y Combinator, a startup incubator famous for producing prodigies such as Airbnb, Dropbox, and Twitch.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-y-combinator-2019-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">Sam Altman, one of the world's most influential tech investors, has stepped down as president of Y Combinator</a></em></p><p>Harj and Kulveer were setting up a company called Boso, a student marketplace. "It was like eBay for students," Takeuchi said, and luckily he talked his friends into letting him come along for the ride as an intern.</p><p>While in the Valley, Harj and Kulveer ended up clubbing together with Patrick and John Collinson - who would go on to found payment company Stripe - on a new company called Auctomatic, a super-niche inventory management system for eBay power sellers (people who sell high volumes of items on eBay).</p><p>Takeuchi interned for a summer, doing odd jobs and learning about how tech startups work. "I was just doing loads of random stuff," he said, adding that all of them were learning on the fly. "They were building this product that none of them had ever used before, none of them were eBay power sellers."</p><p>He recalled that, at one point, the group bought a bunch of lasers from China to sell on eBay to gauge how their product was working. After that summer of odd jobs and lasers, he knew what he wanted to do.</p><p>"I got the startup bug," he says.</p><h2>Chance encounters with the GoCardless founders</h2><p>After graduating from Oxford, Takeuchi didn't feel he was quite ready to found his own company - so he took a placement at consultancy firm McKinsey. He picked the placement specifically because after two years, McKinsey would shove him out the nest.</p><p>In his first week at McKinsey he met his future cofounder: Matt Robinson. "We immediately hit it off, " he remembers. "Through the whole of that [time] we would think about various ideas and brainstorm things on whiteboards and all that sort of stuff - ultimately none of it came to anything."</p><p>When the time came to leave McKinsey the pair knew they wanted to work together, but they ended up roping in another cofounder - Tom Blomfield, the CEO of unicorn fintech Monzo.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-fintech-35-under-35-list-2018-3?r=US&amp;IR=T#8-hiroki-takeuchi-31-ceo-and-cofounder-of-gocardless-28">Meet the 35 most exciting young entrepreneurs, engineers, and advisors in UK fintech</a></em></p><p>Blomfield had been in the year above Takeuchi at Oxford. Blomfield was a cofounder of Boso with Harj and Kulveer Taggar, but had been on a year abroad in Paris so his and Takeuchi's paths came close but never crossed.</p><p>By strange coincidence, however, Blomfield was just due to start at McKinsey as Takeuchi and Robinson were getting kicked out and setting up shop. Lucky for them, Blomfield was moving between consultancy jobs and so had a few months of gardening leave.</p><p>"If you know Tom, you know it doesn't take long to realise there's no way the guy's going to take three months of gardening leave," Takeuchi says.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Noam Galai/Getty Images for TechCrunch</span></p><p class="caption">Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Blomfield never started at McKinsey, and Takeuchi is acutely aware of the interwovenness of GoCardless' origins. "It's all weirdly connected," he laughs.</p><p>The trio started work on what was then an idea for a group-payments startup, and Takeuchi's knowledge of Y-Combinator proved a massive advantage for the fledgeling firm. "I remember when Tom and I were first starting out and I said, 'it's a no brainer, we're doing YC,' and they were like 'what's YC,'" he says.</p><p>In 2011 GoCardless was born, a startup focussing on building tech to ease recurring payments between businesses. Takeuchi still vividly remembers his first fundraise, which he managed at the age of 24.</p><p>"The first fundraise was super hard," he says. How did they pull it off? "A lot of mistakes and persistence," he says, chuckling. Since that first raise, GoCardless has secured $122 million of investment, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/17/gocardless-raises-75m-series-e-for-its-recurring-payments-network-and-heads-to-america/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$75 million of which came in February.</a></p><p>"It always comes down to momentum... especially [in] the last 10 years it's so cheap to go and start something. You can go and spin up servers with AWS at almost zero cost. With the click of a few buttons you can write code and build products that can go and be used by... millions of people from your bedroom," he says.</p><p>Both his cofounders have now left, leaving Hiroki at the helm of GoCardless. Matt Robinson departed in 2015 and now heads up home sale startup Nested, while Blomfield left in 2013 and now runs Monzo.</p><p>Takeuchi describes the breakup as amciable. "I don't think [Blomfield] wanted to ever be involved in a B2B company. When we started GoCardless, we weren't aware enough of what we were doing to really realise what we're building," he explains.</p><p>He also says Blomfield talked to him about Monzo while they were still starting GoCardless. "We were like, retail banking sucks, there must be a better way to do this."</p><p>Takeuchi radiates pride that Robinson and Blomfield have branched out an set up their own companies. "That's one of the coolest things about it all," he said.</p><p>He speaks highly of Monzo. "In 10, 15, 20 years, what bank is not going to be a technology company? I think there's going to be a fundamental shift, and I think Monzo are doing a great job of leading the way with that."</p><h2>A catastrophic accident</h2><p>Since GoCardless was founded in 2011, British fintech has exploded. "I feel like I've been really lucky to be part of that," Takeuchi says. "We ended up raising money mainly from Europen investors, but it was through learnings in America that we were able to go and do that. That, and a lot of rejection."</p><p><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/63a30da2-3137-11e9-ba00-0251022932c8">GoCardless' recent $75 million raise</a>, included backing from GV (previously Google Ventures), Salesforce, and Adam Street Partners.</p><p>This was GoCardless' first raise following a life-changing event for Takeuchi. In September 2016, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gocardless-ceo-hiroki-takeuchi-bike-accident-2016-9?r=UK">the founder was left paralysed after a cycling accident</a>. He now uses a wheelchair, and was <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gocardless-founder-hiroki-takeuchi-spoke-about-his-life-after-being-paralysed-in-a-serious-bike-crash-2017-4?r=UK">back to work just six months after the accident</a>.</p><p>Takeuchi prefers not to dwell on the accident or his recovery during his interview with Business Insider. He told <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/18/hiroki-interview/">TechCrunch's Steve O'Hear in 2017</a> that he occasionally has flashbacks to the accident but, for the most part, he doesn't remember it.</p><p>At the time, he told O'Hear that he was dialling into board meetings just 24 hours after major surgery. Told by doctors it would take him six-to-12 months to complete a rehab programme, Takeuchi did the job in just seven weeks. He gave a speech at the GoCardless Christmas party in December 2016, just two months after the accident.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>GoCardless</span></p><p class="caption">Takeuchi was back to work just six months after the accident.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Along with its latest fundraise, GoCardless also announced it's been working on a system facilitating international recurring payments. Takeuchi says the company has been working on it for a few years, stitching together all the different financial systems across different countries.</p><p>"It's clearly not done, there's hundreds of countries around the world and each one has different systems, but by the middle of this year we'll cover about 70% of the global recurring payment volume," he says.</p><h2>The shadow of Brexit</h2><p>While GoCardless has been busy stitching together a global payments system, its been having to allow for major political upheaval which could radically change financial systems in the UK.</p><p>Brexit has forced GoCardless' development teams to make technical provisions for all the potential outcomes, and Takeuchi said they've had to make "drastic changes" on the backend.</p><p>"It's been frustrating because we've had to divert resources and investments into doing things that I hope will have been a complete waste of time, but we've taken the approach of saying - no matter what happens, even if we crash out at the end of this month, we need to be in a position where we can support our customers without there being any kind of blip in the service," he explains.</p><p>"If we crash out then all financial services companies don't know what's going to happen with passporting and financial regulation. We assume we won't be able to passport anymore, [but] who the f--k knows," he says.</p><p>"Brexit will end up being a missed opportunity for London and the UK more broadly," Takeuchi adds. "It's not gonna shrink [the London tech scene] because there's just too many companies growing very fast that are not likely to move out of London. What worries me for the London ecosystem is more the next companies - will they start in London or will they go somewhere else?"</p><p>He says that he's already starting to see an impact on recruitment for GoCardless, as European hires are becoming more difficult to convince. People are apprehensive about taking up a job in Britain. That's a problem when half of your product developers come from Europe.</p><p>"It's potentially a lot harder to scale up big product development teams in London when so much of the talent has historically come from across Europe," he says.</p><p>Frustrated though he is by Brexit, Takeuchi doesn't seem daunted. He says engineers have always been tough to hire, "but we're quite good at it." Takeuchi has come a long way since those early days in Oxford.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-stadia-video-game-streaming-platform-console-event-watch-2019-3">Watch Google's Stadia video-game-platform event in 5 minutes</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

This 32-year-old CEO went from having little awareness of tech to raising $122 million for a pioneering fintech, while also overcoming a life-changing bike crash

<p>Good morning and welcome to Insider <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="finance">Finance</keyword>. I'm Dan DeFrancesco, and here's what's on the agenda today:</p><ul><li>Everything you need to know about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rblx-roblox-going-public-direct-listing-ipo-stock-date-nyse-2021-2">Roblox's</a> direct listing today</li><li>BlackRock outlined new <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-new-diversity-equity-inclusion-strategy-careers-2021-3">diversity and inclusion </a>changes</li><li>Chamath Palihapitiya and Michael Dell's investment firm MSD Capital back<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-pipe-raises-50-million-chamath-palihapitiya-marc-benioff-fintech-2021-3"> fintech </a>Pipe </li></ul><p>We are also looking for nominations for upcoming list of top equity research analysts under 35. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/seeking-nominations-rising-stars-equity-research-wall-street-analysts-2021-1">Find out more about the list, and how to nominate someone here. </a></p><p><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://newsletter.businessinsider.com/join/4np/insider-finance">If you're not yet a subscriber, you can sign up here to get your daily dose of the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.</a></p><p>Like the <keyword id="621414" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Newsletter">newsletter</keyword>? Hate the newsletter? Feel free to drop me a line at <a href="mailto:ddefrancesco@businessinsider.com">ddefrancesco@businessinsider.com</a> or on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/dandefrancesco">@DanDeFrancesco</a>. </p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rblx-roblox-going-public-direct-listing-ipo-stock-date-nyse-2021-2">Roblox delayed its public debut when IPOs were red-hot. Now it's about to launch a direct listing into choppy markets.</a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rblx-roblox-going-public-direct-listing-ipo-stock-date-nyse-2021-2"><div type="image" title="Roblox CEO David Baszucki" height="2000" width="2666" msid="81430812" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>The video-game maker is set to go public in a direct listing today, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America advising. It's arrival to the public markets comes after a series of hurdles and delays, and as volatility returns to <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> stocks.</p><p><a style="font-family: Georgia, Times, sans-serif;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rblx-roblox-going-public-direct-listing-ipo-stock-date-nyse-2021-2">Click here to read the entire story.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/m1-finance-raises-75-million-series-d-coatue-management-fintech-2021-3">M1 Finance just raised a $75 million Series D led by Coatue after a red-hot 2020. The fintech's CEO explains its push to digitize the private bank experience.</a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/m1-finance-raises-75-million-series-d-coatue-management-fintech-2021-3"><div type="image" title="Brian Barnes M1 Finance" height="4015" width="5354" msid="81430818" hostid="261"></div></a></p>After three rounds in nine months, CEO Brian Barnes said M1 is "getting close" to being a unicorn. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/m1-finance-raises-75-million-series-d-coatue-management-fintech-2021-3">Read more here.</a><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cuna-mutual-group-acquire-assurant-prearranged-funeral-insurance-business-aiz-2021-3">Assurant just inked a $1.3 billion deal to sell its prearranged funeral business as the insurer looks to lean into tech-focused coverage</a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cuna-mutual-group-acquire-assurant-prearranged-funeral-insurance-business-aiz-2021-3"><div type="image" title="Bob Trunzo Portrait" height="2211" width="2948" msid="81430828" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>CUNA Mutual Group has agreed to buy Assurant's prearranged funeral insurance business. The $1.3 billion deal signifies expansion in a well-known business for CUNA Mutual and marks an increased focus on digital offerings for Assurant. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cuna-mutual-group-acquire-assurant-prearranged-funeral-insurance-business-aiz-2021-3">See more here.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ion-groups-4-billion-loans-investor-demand-debt-leveraged-loans-2021-3">A software company that struggled to raise money last year just nabbed $4 billion from investors - and it's a case study in the 'insatiable' appetite for risky debt deals</a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ion-groups-4-billion-loans-investor-demand-debt-leveraged-loans-2021-3"><div type="image" title="new york stock exchange" height="1666" width="2222" msid="81430831" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>As debt increased for Ireland's ION Group, investors balked at its previous attempts to raise loans. Now, ION is nearing $4 billion in transactions to refinance debt held by its companies. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ion-groups-4-billion-loans-investor-demand-debt-leveraged-loans-2021-3">Get the full rundown here.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/luke-bergstrom-latham-dealmaker-credit-karma-intuit-spac-law-mergers-2021-2">A top Latham tech M&amp;A lawyer talks mega deals, the SPAC frenzy, and keeping clients happy remotely</a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/luke-bergstrom-latham-dealmaker-credit-karma-intuit-spac-law-mergers-2021-2"><div type="image" title="Bergstrom_Luke_03716_32_SF_MIT" height="1500" width="2000" msid="81430834" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>Luke Bergstrom, Latham &amp; Watkin's M&amp;A leader, walked Insider through brokering one of 2020's biggest deals and what's on the horizon for 2021. <a style="font-size: 15px;" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/luke-bergstrom-latham-dealmaker-credit-karma-intuit-spac-law-mergers-2021-2">Find out more here.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-pipe-raises-50-million-chamath-palihapitiya-marc-benioff-fintech-2021-3">Pipe, a venue for companies to get cash up front for their subscription revenue, just raised $50 million from high-profile investors like Chamath Palihapitiya and Marc Benioff</a></h3><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-pipe-raises-50-million-chamath-palihapitiya-marc-benioff-fintech-2021-3"><div type="image" title="Harry Hurst headshot" height="1584" width="2112" msid="81430836" hostid="261"></div></a></p><p>Pipe, which helps companies with recurring revenue get cash up front, just nabbed $50 million from some high-profile investors. Founder and co-CEO Harry Hurst told Insider how he'll use the capital. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startup-pipe-raises-50-million-chamath-palihapitiya-marc-benioff-fintech-2021-3">Read more here.</a></p><h3><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-new-diversity-equity-inclusion-strategy-careers-2021-3">BlackRock just held a town hall to roll out its diversity and inclusion strategy after recent complaints. Here are all the details.</a></h3><h2><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-new-diversity-equity-inclusion-strategy-careers-2021-3"><div type="image" title="Larry Fink" height="3456" width="4608" msid="81430837" hostid="261"></div></a></h2><p>BlackRock outlined its diversity and inclusion strategy at a company town hall on Tuesday. The asset manager has been in the spotlight after former employees alleged they experienced harassment and discrimination at the firm. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/blackrock-new-diversity-equity-inclusion-strategy-careers-2021-3">See more here</a>.</p><h2><strong style="color: #222222; font-size: 15px;">Odd lots:</strong></h2><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/they-created-the-spac-in-1993-now-theyre-reaping-the-rewards-11615285801?mod=hp_lead_pos4">SPAC Pioneers Reap the Rewards After Waiting Nearly 30 Years (WSJ)</a></p><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/sofi-is-buying-a-community-lender-to-speed-up-banking-expansion-11615291202?mod=hp_lead_pos4">SoFi Is Buying a Community Lender to Speed Up Banking Expansion (WSJ)</a></p>

You Searched For "fintech pioneer" and got 7 results

Fino Payments Bank files papers for ₹1,300 crore IPO

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Check out the more than 50 pitch decks fintechs used to raise millions in funding from top investors

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Fintech firm SoFi to allow users to buy directly into IPOs

Isabelle Lee

One of fintech's biggest pioneers is on an investing spree

Will Martin

Robinhood has reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to lead an IPO that could value the stock-trading app at more than $20 billion

Tyler Sonnemaker

This 32-year-old CEO went from having little awareness of tech to raising $122 million for a pioneering fintech, while also overcoming a life-changing bike crash

Isobel Asher Hamilton,Isobel …

Roblox's big day is finally here - Chamath backs new fintech - BlackRock outlines D&I plans

Dan DeFrancesco,Jordan Parker…

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