Hola,

Klarna, a “buy now, pay later” fintech company based in Sweden, just raised another $1B (see This Week in Data below for more detail).

And that comes soon after the IPO of competitor Affirm in the US. These lenders target their installment plans to shoppers on the checkout pages of e-commerce sites. With the pandemic accelerating e-commerce growth, Klarna, Affirm, and others are transforming the way consumers pay.

There’s more great new data in our latest report on how the BNPL trend could disrupt the $8T US payment card industry.

Still staying safe and healthy?

Following last year’s record-breaking healthcare funding, investors are continuing to funnel cash into the industry, with total funding expected to top $26B this quarter.  

Here's our sneak peek of the global healthcare investment trends taking hold in Q1'21.

Straight to the bank

Despite the pandemic, the top US banks are holding steady in their fintech investments. Goldman's honed its focus on wealth management while Citi is doubling down its capital markets focus, in line with its efforts to enhance its Institutional Clients Group business.

Take a look at where the top US banks are betting on fintech here.

Cloudy with a chance of insurance

Earlier this week, Google announced it had partnered with Allianz and Munich Re to help them provide more personalized cyber insurance products to Google Cloud customers. 

Read more about what this partnership means for the future of cloud security and insurance here.

$1B: “Buy now, pay later” (BNPL) platform Klarna raised $1B at a valuation of $31B. The company has now raised $2.8B in total disclosed funding. We dig into how the growth of BNPL services threatens to reshape the US payments card industry in this client-only report. 

$39B: Grocery delivery service Instacart raised $265M at a valuation of $39B — more than doubling its valuation since its last funding round in October. Online grocery has boomed over the last year and is unlikely to slow down even after the pandemic subsides. We dig into this trend, and many more, in our report on 24 industries that will shape a post-Covid world.

556 unicorns: The global unicorn club reached 556. Recent additions include pre-owned fashion marketplace Vestiaire Collective and cybersecurity company Axonius, which both raised mega-rounds at $1B+ valuations. See every unicorn on our real-time tracker. 
 

$200M: Dispatch Health, which provides medical care to patients in their homes, raised $200M. We look at the rise of “hospital-at-home” services, including remote patient monitoring and in-home lab testing, in our report on 12 Tech Trends To Watch Closely In 2021.

40 qubits: Israel’s defense ministry announced plans to build a quantum computer with up to 40 qubits. Other countries, including the US and China, are also ramping up their investments in the nascent tech. Learn how quantum computing works and why it could shake up national security in our explainer. 

Mosquitoes are hard to swat because they fly really well. 

MIT scientists are trying to mimic that agility to build flying drones that have applications from rescuing victims trapped in building collapses to pollinating crops — though they're not quite as small as a mosquito yet.    

Previous iterations have resulted in rigid robots made from ceramic materials, which have a difficult time with collisions. However, MIT’s new, dragonfly-sized version is built with more flexible materials, allowing it to do somersaults and survive collisions, according to the team.

Have a great rest of the week.

Marcelo

P.S. Love the Buy Now, Pay Later Report? Want to join the fintech team that put it together? See our job opening here.