Greetings from Outbanked!
If there’s one theme this week, it’s that the “what if” phase of fintech is over – the money and the moves are REAL.
Saudi’s Tamara raised $2.4B to double down on Shariah-compliant BNPL, which is a signal that Gulf fintech is building on its own rules of the game. Meanwhile, Curve’s messy showdown with Lloyds shows what happens when once-high flyers get forced into exits that don’t match the hype.
In Germany, Scalable Capital pulled in $177M as part of a $666M quarter – proof that Europe’s fintech spotlight may be shifting east. And ClearScore? They quietly tripled profits by helping millions actually get loans approved.
Taken together, it feels less like “fintech experiments” and more like fintech growing up: real revenue, real fights, real infrastructure.
– Janelle Cardozo, Publisher
