Hi there ♀️,
Welcome back to the Atomic Intelligence newsletter after the long Labor Day Weekend. This Summer we’ve seen egg prices cracking benchmark levels, natural gas costs driving shocking electricity bills, and higher interest rates making buying an apartment untenable.
If inflation is affecting every industry, I couldn’t help but wonder… what does “fin-flation” mean for the fintech industry?
Fintech funding fumbles
The condensed version is that fintech is also going through leaner times under tense economic pressures. Digging into the latest fintech report from CB Insights, my alma mater, quarterly funding plummeted to $20.4B in Q2’22, down 33% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) and 46% year-over-year (YoY). Deals also fell 17% QoQ to 1,225 in Q2’22. The quarterly drop is steep when reflecting on Q1’22, when investments in VC-backed fintech firms dominated prior records in funding, deals, exits, and mega-rounds.
Indeed, venture capitalists (VCs) have slowed investments amid market volatility and recessionary pressure.
Other factors impacting the cooldown are fewer $100M+ mega-rounds and down rounds, or rounds at a valuation lower than the previous round. Unicorn darlings such as Klarna, an early leader in the buy-now-pay-later sector, raised at 85% discount with its valuation dropping to under $7B from roughly $46B. Several fintech companies that rushed to IPO are also trading well below their pre-IPO price.
For startups raising with previous round valuations at 100X+ revenues, lower unicorn comparables will reset funding benchmarks, signaling more down rounds are imminent in a tighter funding environment. Alternatively, some companies are preserving cash by scaling back on headcount. Regardless, the downturn has been a catalyst for demand, and competitors with capital on hand are in a prime position to capture market share.
The crown jewel of venture
As the formerly disgraced WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann has proven with his recent $350M raise, you can bounce back from almost anything, and there are several brighter spots ahead in fintech.
You may recall that in Q2’21, $1 of every $5 in venture investments went to the fintech sector.
Despite a broader pullback in venture investments globally, fintech remains the crown jewel for VCs, still accounting for ~20% of the $250.1B raised in the first half of 2022.
There is available capital and there has been no slowdown in new firms and fund announcements. Already, 2022 is the second largest year for fintech since 2018, but is projected to fall below 2021’s record. Deals also remain above pre-pandemic levels and are projected to set an annual record, assuming early-stage investments continue to pick up and well-capitalized funds find cheaper rounds.
Fintech’s time to build
While the data signals lower price and valuation expectations for founders, it’s a positive signal deals are getting done, albeit unlikely this week during the Burning Man festival. I’m personally optimistic about the pickup in early-stage deals. Borrowing from Winston Churchill and Andreessen Horowitz, it’s exciting to see founders seizing the crisis as an opportunity to start something new and secure funds to build.
At Atomic, we’ve been channeling that “time to build” mentality and in this edition of the Atomic Intelligence newsletter, share what we’ve been up to, including:
- August solutions upgrades and highlights from the conversion conversation
- Why Verify is the automated, pain-free way to validate income and employment data
- Where to meet us this fall including at Finovate and my next round in the Fintech Fight Club ring and our session at the MX Money Summit
- Podcasts where Jordan shares how to Think Like a Leader and Bank on It
Have a great week,
Lindsay
The latest Atomic product updates
This month, Atomic focused on improving our user experience including:
- Expanding strategic coverage
- Improving end-user search
- Improving fractional deposit success
- Supporting returning users
- Improving accessibility
- Launching emulator 2.0 in console
The Conversion Conversation
“Banking” on a payroll API that has large coverage may seem great. But, if you really want to supercharge your deposit and verify wins, you should be asking about conversion rates.
In this brief, our co-founder and CTO, Scott Weinert, pulls back the curtain on recent work we’ve done at Atomic to boost conversion rates for customers, results unlocking +14% in conversion rate gains, and improving the end-user experience.
Verify: The Automated, Pain-free Way to Validate Income and Employment
Music used to be recorded on cassettes. Movies used to be played in VCRs. Now, with Verify, manual income and employment verifications (VOI/VOE) are a thing of the past, too.
Learn how financial institutions and fintech firms can digitally authenticate borrower and applicant information verifications to increase efficiency and lend with confidence.
Fintech Fight Club
No, it’s not your ordinary panel. Fintech Fight Club is a cage match of ideas and opinions. Join us as Lindsay Davis, Head of Markets, enters the ring with Mary Wisniekski, Editor at Bankrate and Jason Henrichs, CEO of Alloy Labs to duke it out over some of the most challenging questions facing financial services.
If you haven’t purchased tickets yet, use our discount code for 20% off: FKV2439SPK
Leveling the Financial Playing Field for Non-Standard and Gig Workers
Employment today means everything from a traditional 9-5 to picking up shifts when and where you want to everything in between. Nearly 2 in 5 Americans have taken part in the gig economy. But gigs also complicate personal finances, such as qualifying for loans, saving for retirement, and filing taxes.
Catch Jordan as he moderates a conversation between Adam Roseman, Co-founder and CEO of Steady and Adrian Haro, CEO of The Workers Lab as they discuss how we can create a more level playing field for non-standard and gig workers.
Podcast Playlist
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Another Jordan for the Record Books
Whether you’re talking Michael Jordan, Jordan Fisher or Atomic’s own CEO Jordan Wright, there’s just something Wright about Jordans. Replay these podcasts featuring our own in-house Jordan as he shares his journey to entrepreneurship, the inspiration for co-founding Atomic with Scott Weinert, and their experiences as serial fintech entrepreneurs.
| Bank On It Episode | Speak Like a Leader Episode |
Media Spotlight
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