Partnerships Dominate FinTech IPO Index News Ahead of Earnings

On Friday (April 12), big banks will weigh in with their latest quarterly results, kicking off earnings season in an official manner.

JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citi will give insight into the trends tied to consumer spending, commercial loans and delinquencies. Earnings supplementals and management commentary will provide a read-across to the platforms and digital lenders who make up a significant slice of our FinTech IPO Index.

Absent any earning-related news, the last week was dominated by partnerships and product announcements.

The FinTech IPO Index barely budged, up 0.4%, despite OppFi’s more than 36.5% surge through the week.

The company announced on Tuesday (April 9) a special dividend and a $20 million share repurchase program.

Lemonade shares gathered 4.2%.

The FinTech company announced Tuesday the launch of homeowners insurance in France, in partnership with insurance provider BNP Paribas Cardif. The launch, the platform said, builds on Lemonade’s entrance into France in December 2020, offering AI-powered renters insurance. BNP Paribas Cardif France will be able to propose this fully-digital home insurance to its distribution partners, Lemonade said, adding that other coverage such as school insurance and theft outside the home coverage will be made available.

Nuvei said Thursday (April 11) it has launched its new invoice financing services, which have been integrated into several enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, including Sage and Acumatica. This new service enables merchants to access Nuvei’s invoice financing tools directly within their ERP systems to optimize cash flow and unlock working capital more efficiently, according to the announcement. Customers also gain speedy access to capital within 24 hours as outstanding invoices are converted into immediate working capital.

In a separate announcement, the FinTech said on Tuesday that its Singapore entity, Nuvei Singapore Pte Ltd, has been granted a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The company said the license enables Nuvei to operate three types of payments services in Singapore, including domestic money transfer, cross-border money transfer and merchant acquisition services.

Nuvei shares were 0.9% higher through the last five sessions.

Robinhood’s stock was 3% higher. The company was profiled earlier in the month by The Wall Street Journal, which took note of its Gold service initiative. The company’s recent forays into retirement and other accounts, the media outlet said, helps “propel Robinhood into the wider business of wealth management.”

Opendoor shares gave up 10.8% as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said that it would send nearly $62 million in refunds to sellers the FTC said were “deceived by advertising and marketing claims made” by the FinTech company.

According to the FTC’s August 2022 complaint, Opendoor cheated home sellers by tricking them into thinking that they could make more money selling their home to Opendoor than on the open market using the traditional sales process while saving them money on costs, per the FTC announcement.

Upstart shares lost 1.4% after the company announced last week that in Hawaii, Kaua’i Federal Credit Union is partnering with the lending marketplace to provide personal loans to new and existing members. Kaua’i FCU became an Upstart Referral Network lending partner in March 2023. Per the new announcement, applicants on Upstart.com who meet Kaua’i FCU’s credit policies will receive tailored offers.