Announcing SXSW Pitch 2021 Finalists

Announcing SXSW Pitch 2021 Finalists

This year’s SXSW Pitch finalists and alternates feature over 50 interactive technology companies from 8 different categories. These companies will virtually pitch and participate in a 5-minute Q&A with three judges as a part of SXSW Online.

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Amazon Go faces competition from tech companies that want to get rid of checkouts

Amazon Go faces competition from tech companies that want to get rid of checkouts

Amazon Go stores are known for their “walk in, walk out” checkout-free experiences, and the tech giant is also acting as a vendor for its cashier-free technology toolset.

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Goldman Sachs rolls out digital investing for customers with as little as $1,000

Goldman Sachs rolls out digital investing for customers with as little as $1,000

Goldman Sachs, the famed Wall Street investment bank, is increasingly moving to Main Street with the rollout of consumer financial services offices offerings, the latest being Marcus Invest this week.

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AI ‘banking brain’ company Personetics closes $75M funding round

AI ‘banking brain’ company Personetics closes $75M funding round

With the rush to automate banking transactions during the coronavirus pandemic, companies offering banks the tools to create their own bots and automated spending analyzers are getting a boost.

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Pandemic pushes Canada to accelerate government-backed digital currency efforts

Pandemic pushes Canada to accelerate government-backed digital currency efforts

As consumers transact digitally en masse during the pandemic, Canada’s central bank is accelerating its central bank-backed digital currency (CBDC) efforts.

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Monzo names new US CEO as it crosses 5 million customers

Monzo names new US CEO as it crosses 5 million customers

U.K. challenger bank Monzo is putting its eggs into the competitive U.S. market. In pursuit of that goal, it appointed Carol Nelson, former CEO of Cascade Bank and senior vice president of Bank of America, as the company’s new U.S. CEO.

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Lemonade taps Bestow for life insurance offerings, expanding marketplace

Lemonade taps Bestow for life insurance offerings, expanding marketplace

Lemonade, which offers insurance for renters, homeowners, and pets, is tapping fellow insurtech Bestow on a life insurance product offering that will allow Lemonade customers to apply for instant life insurance coverage in minutes via Bestow’s Protect API.

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Shopify’s payment option Shop Pay now available on Facebook, Instagram

Shopify’s payment option Shop Pay now available on Facebook, Instagram

E-commerce and omnichannel business platform Shopify is integrating its payment button Shop Pay with Facebook and Instagram, allowing all Shopify merchants to offer it on their Facebook and Instagram stores.

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Goldman Sachs hires former Stripe exec to run consumer banking offerings

Goldman Sachs hires former Stripe exec to run consumer banking offerings

Goldman Sachs has hired Swati Bhatia, who was most recently chief of risk operations at payments giant Stripe, to head up the bank’s consumer banking business.

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Goodbye Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion? Credit underwriting methods a likely focus for Biden CFPB

Goodbye Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion? Credit underwriting methods a likely focus for Biden CFPB

New leadership at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), including the likely nomination of Rohit Chopra as director, is fueling industry speculation around possible changes to the credit system, credit bureaus, and high-interest lending.

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Tesla invests $1.5B in bitcoin and plans to accept bitcoin payments

Tesla invests $1.5B in bitcoin and plans to accept bitcoin payments

Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk has been tweeting in support of bitcoin and dogecoin, confirmed on Monday, Feb. 8 that the company has invested $1.5B in bitcoin and will accept the cryptocurrency as a payment method in the future.

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The GameStop effect: Robinhood puts market volatility under the microscope

The GameStop effect: Robinhood puts market volatility under the microscope

While brokerage platforms have lifted prior limits on trading of GameStop, AMC Entertainment and other shorted stocks, regulators are examining the fallout from recent events.

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PayPal boosts new unit focusing on crypto and digital currencies

PayPal boosts new unit focusing on crypto and digital currencies

PayPal, which launched capabilities to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies last October, said it’s seeing strong crypto transactional activity and plans to grow a recently-launched unit dedicated to the rollout of these offerings.

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‘Buy now, pay later’ firm Klarna reaches 15 million users in the US

‘Buy now, pay later’ firm Klarna reaches 15 million users in the US

Klarna, a firm that’s best known for its point-of-sale financing toolset, reports that it more than doubled its total number of U.S. users to 15 million compared to just one year ago.

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Visa taps challenger bank First Boulevard for crypto API pilot

Visa taps challenger bank First Boulevard for crypto API pilot

Visa this week inked a partnership with First Boulevard, a challenger bank aimed at the Black community, to allow First Boulevard to pilot Visa’s new suite of crypto APIs.

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