594. News: Fintech funding ramps up as Brex, Qonto and others all hit record valuations

Our expert hosts, Benjamin Ensor and Nasir Ahmad, are joined by some great guests to talk about the most notable fintech, financial services and banking news from the past week. This week's guests include: Samim Abedi, Chief Investment Officer at Wahed Kate Drew, Director of Research, CCG Catalyst We cover the following stories from the fintech and financial services space: Fintech Brex confirms $12.3B valuation, AND snaps up Meta exec to serve as its head of product - 2:50 Wahed Debuts First Shariah-Compliant and ESG-Aware ETF on Nasdaq - 14:50 Business banking startup Qonto raises $552 million at $5 billion valuation - 29:14 Revolut launches as a bank in 10 Western European countries - 35:45 UK FS regulator takes aim at cloud giants - 47:14 Citi to sack unvaccinated staff at the end of the month - 48:42 UK parliament launches crypto group - 50:50 A technical issue sees a bank accidentally hand out £130m on Christmas morning - 52:40 This episode is sponsored by Primer. Primer is the world's first automation platform for payments. With Primer, merchants and developers have all the underlying infrastructure and "lego blocks" they need to build the best buying experiences for their customers. Learn more and book a demo at primer.io (https://primer.io/?utm_source=11fs&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=fintech_insider_) This episode is sponsored by Fintech Meetup. Join Fintech Meetup, the world’s largest fintech meetings-only event! That’s right - no speakers or content….just 30,000+ double opt-in online meetings that result in Deals, Partnerships and Funding. Meet 3,000+ participants from Fintechs, Banks, Credit Unions, Community Banks, Investors, Networks, Solution Providers, Tech cos, Retailers & Merchants and many others! Online, March 22-24. Learn More & Get Your Ticket (https://fintechmeetup.com/) Fintech Insider by 11:FS is a podcast dedicated to all things fintech, banking, technology and financial services. Hosted by a rotation of 11:FS experts including David Brear, Simon Taylor and Jason Bates, who are joined by a range of brilliant guests. We cover the latest global news, bring you interviews from industry experts or take a deep dive into subject matters such as APIs, AI or digital banking. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe and please leave a review Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/fintechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, alternatively email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: Kate Drew and Samim Abedi.