Today In Payments: Grab To Go Public At $40 Billion Valuation; Apple Eyes Products For Connected Home Market

In today’s top news, Grab is merging with Altimeter to go public, and Apple is developing a new product for the connected home market. Plus, Coinbase will IPO on Wednesday (April 13).

Grab To Go Public At Colossal $40 Billion Valuation

Grab, Southeast Asia’s biggest technology platform, announced that it will merge with the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Altimeter to go public, a deal that would give the ride-hailing and delivery giant a valuation close to $40 billion, making it the largest SPAC merger in history.

Apple Eyes New Products For Connected Home Market

Apple is developing a smart product to take on a wide array of at-home tasks. The product will include an Apple TV set-top box and a HomePod speaker, along with a camera for video conferencing through a connected TV.

Coinbase IPO To Test Crypto’s Staying Power

Coinbase is aiming to go public on the tech-heavy NASDAQ exchange next week, selling roughly 115 million shares in a direct listing. The rewards may be heady, with a rocketing share price, but it seems the risks are also significant.

Digital Pound Could Help UK Compete As Financial Hub

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been heralded for a number of potential use cases, from retail payments to cross-border B2B payments to staving off bitcoin and Diem. At least one think tank also posits that a digital British pound could help the U.K. cement a standing as a digital financial services hub.

Report: Real-Time Transaction Analysis Helps Firms Root Out Fraud, Money Laundering

Any effort to stop money laundering has to address the root cause of the fraud that underpins it. In this month’s AML/KYC Tracker, Max von Both, senior vice president of compliance at payments provider Paysafe, explains how real-time transaction analysis helps stop fraud at its point of origin while dismantling the money laundering it enables.

NEW DATA: Consumers Are Willing, But Banks Miss Opportunity On Digital-First Life Insurance

More than a quarter of consumers would consider buying life insurance from their primary financial institutions (FIs), but just 7 percent have done so — a disconnect that FIs must overcome to capture new revenue streams. In the Life Insurance Engagement Report: Consumers, FIs and The Life Insurance Digital Path To Purchase, PYMNTS surveyed 2,326 consumers to examine what FIs must do to win over today’s digital-first life insurance buyers.

Reopening 2021: Travel Industry Struggles To Get On The Road Again

The numbers from 2020 defy description for the travel business. But in this first installment in a series that examines the prospects for reopening, optimism reigns in the industry — and PYMNTS data shows that consumers are ready to ride.

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