Venture capital

The bank helped raise $25 million for the fintech because of its potential to bring banks and nonbanks together in a virtual marketplace.

Farmers will pay $40 million for the bank, which is in an affluent area in northeast Ohio.

Traditional players are getting innovative, and upstarts are becoming more sophisticated. The survivors will be companies that offer consumers an array of easy-to-use services, a venture capitalist says.

Blooma has developed a software product that combs databases to create property profiles for commercial real estate lenders. It can drastically cut origination costs and approval times and help banks identify safer loans, the company says.

Checkout-free technology is very limited in availability and very much a work in progress, but developers and investors are relying on its promise to accelerate payments' broader evolution from streamlining execution to determining intent.

Changing consumer attitudes about these companies and the emergence of open banking have made them appealing to venture investors, whose commitments rose 15% in the first half of the year.

VCs have been devoting more attention — and funding — to U.K.-based digital remittance providers such as TransferWise, Revolut, WorldRemit and their smaller rival Paysend.

Investors are making bets on checkout-free retail, a category that is just as challenging as it is innovative. But it's payment technology's race to the moon, a chance to seize a favorable position in the struggle to save retail.

A centerpiece of her “economic patriotism” bill is to transform private equity firms, which she said will buy a company and bleed it dry before “walking away enriched even as the company succumbs.”

The new funding comes as the challenger bank inches closer to gaining regulatory approval for a national bank charter.

Raisin, an online marketplace that aggregates high-yield savings accounts in Europe, aims to launch in the U.S. in the next nine to 12 months.

In a downturn, some fintechs, such as independent lenders, will be more vulnerable to economic forces than those working to service banks' regulatory needs.

The fast-growing data company, which says its mission is to help banks be better consumer advocates, will use its cash infusion for hiring, software development and new partnerships.

The Dutch company is no longer a bank in some countries, but more of a digital matchmaker between consumers and financial products provided by third parties, explains innovation chief Benoit LeGrand.

The Los Angeles company has established a network that is designed to help verify the identities of consumer and small-business borrowers. It says 20 lenders are participating and that it is trying to recruit more.

Digital payments are creating a wealth of data that can be used to inform other types of financial services for managing debt or promoting financial inclusion — and these services are, in turn, attracting the interest of venture capitalists.

Alkami Technology said it would use its latest round of funding to expand its white-label services for small banks and credit unions.

A trio of big deals in the payments and financial tech area and continued bank and venture capital interest in fintech investments are creating expectations for a banner year.

Some of the biggest venture capitalists in the field are backing a new digital currency being offered by a leading blockchain academic.

Although the euphoria over blockchain has dissipated recently, many still see it as vital to the future of banks and the economy at large. Following are key issues being hashed out.