Top Fintech stories about startups, banks, hedge funds

TGIF! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC for the last newsletter of 2022. What a strangely long ride it’s been.

Quick Programming Note: We’re off on Monday, but I’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday to get you ready for the week.

Today we’re going to summarize all the great stories we’ve done this year about financial technology, whether it’s upcoming startups or the projects in the biggest banks and investment companies.

But first, as Huey Lewis and the News would say, Sports!

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1. From Goldman to goalposts.

Wall Street and sports have a long history together.

For a period of time, sports served as the primary training ground for life on the street. A college teammate was the best bet to get a foot in the door at a company.

These days, jocks don’t hero run the trading floors and the deal rooms, but Wall Street’s fascination with sports has not dimmed. Sports aren’t a pipeline for talent as much as they are one for deals.

One of the key players in the area is Gerry Cardinale, a former Goldman Sachs partner and the current founder and managing partner of the $7.5 billion investment firm RedBird Capital.

Cardinale, who was profiled by Insiders Hayley Cuccinello and Dakin Campbell, has invested in or with some of the biggest names in sports, including the New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Boston Red Sox, Pittsburgh Penguins and Liverpool Football Club.

And while RedBird has built a name for itself since it was founded in 2014, it’s not alone. Private equity companies are quickly catching on to the investment opportunities in sports.

Investments in sports teams come with many benefits (who doesn’t want to sit in the owner’s suite?), but the return on investment is what has Wall Street really excited. One of RedBird’s funds has an internal rate of return of 34%, Hayley and Dakin report.

One of the sport’s greatest assets is the live audience it commands, which translates into lucrative deals for streaming rights.

Click here to read more about Gerry Cardinale, the best deal maker in the world of sports.

Here are our top fintech stories in 2022:

2. A Walmart-backed fintech’s future plans left some customers feeling left behind. When a Walmart-backed fintech venture bought One at the beginning of the year, there was a lot of talk about what the future would bring for the digital bank. But it didn’t take long for One to start shutting down tools and features its longtime customers had come to rely on. More on why One customers have been so frustrated in the wake of the retail giant’s fintech purchase.

3. JPMorgan wants to run like a startup. The country’s largest bank by assets overhauled its technology organization to be more agile. Part of this transition included the appointment of 25 day-to-day managers who act as “mini-CEOs”. Here is JPM’s new technology team.

4. These are the startups you should keep an eye on. We surveyed more than 40 top fintech investors to identify the most promising fintechs. These are the 61 startups that made it. Check out what the future of fintech looks like.

5. How the top Wall Street firms are testing cutting-edge technology. Everyone likes to credit startups with bringing innovative ideas to the financial industry, but big banks and investment firms are doing their fair share. From Goldman Sachs to Two Sigma and DE Shaw, here are 10 of the most innovative technology projects at top Wall Street firms.

6. What’s next for improvement? Fintech established itself as a disruptor in wealth management when it was launched more than a decade ago. But its core product, a so-called robo-advisor, was quickly replicated by larger players in the space, leaving it scrambling for a way to stay relevant. More on Betterment’s pivot from robo-advice.

7. If you’re going to start your own business, these fintechs can help you get started. They may be small businesses, but there are many opportunities for fintechs serving that clientele. We have mapped the 12 fintechs you should consider if you run a small business.

8. The leaders of the cloud revolution. When it comes to financial technology, it all starts with the public cloud, which serves as the backbone for any innovative plans a firm may have. We surveyed the 14 managers at financial firms who lead cloud teams. And we’ve also identified the top Big Tech leaders who could be poached by Wall Street firms looking to do more in the cloud.

9. This is how employees at Robinhood reacted amid the GameStop debacle. Congressional reports can sometimes be a bear to get through, but the US House Committee on Financial Services’ report on 2021’s meme stock frenzy was fun reading. We pulled the best bits from the 140-page report, including some funny internal messages.

10. These pitch decks helped fintechs raise millions. If you’re looking to raise money for your own startup, or are just curious about how the competition presents itself to investors, check out our library of pitch decks. We have more than 50 decks from a variety of fintechs.

Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email [email protected], tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.