Fintech isn’t doomed, it just needs more time

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Hello, and welcome back to Equity, the podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This episode usually airs on Mondays, but we’re bringing it to you today on account of the holiday in the U.S. yesterday.

Here’s what we got into:

Stocks are down around the world, but we have something to look forward to this week: TSMC reports its Q4 2023 results this Thursday. We’ll be happily drowning in a ton of earnings data next week as the tech reporting deluge begins, so get ready! To many people’s surprise, bitcoin’s price failed to jump after the spot ETF products started trading last week. Also surprising was the value jump that the Ethereum blockchain offers. Buy the rumor, sell the news? Elsewhere, a crypto exchange raised around $100 million. In 2024! Who would have expected that!? Uber is killing Drizly: You can still get booze delivered to your house, but Axios notes that Uber’s plans for the company it acquired for $1.1 billion seem to have run their course. Pour one out. Spot Technologies raised $2 million, and it appears Kuda quietly raised $20 million last year at a flat valuation — that’s pretty solid a result for a fintech startup that last raised money in 2021. To close out, Apple is the world’s smartphone king and it may have found a way to sell its newest smartwatches sans legal issues in the U.S. Meanwhile, Microsoft is very busy with AI.