Inflation Could Hit 4.2%; Spade Raises $40Mn; Klarna Grows Elliott Debt Deal

The OECD forecasts U.S. inflation could hit 4.2%. U.S. has growing number of ultra-wealthy households. VALT gets conditional charter OK. Spade raises $40Mn. Klarna expands Elliott debt deal. Glimpse raises $35Mn Series A. Venmo and PayPal go global. Plaid acquires a newsletter.

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OECD Forecasts 4.2% Inflation

Global forecasters are projecting a potentially sharp jump to inflation, stemming from the fallout of the war in Iran. In its latest update on economic conditions, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast inflation in the U.S. to hit 4.2% for 2026. The update is markedly higher than the group’s previous, pre-Iran war forecast of 2.8% and significantly higher than the Federal Reserve’s estimate of 2.7%. U.S. tariffs are also putting upward pressure on inflation forecasts, the OECD report said.

Meanwhile, in the latest data point supporting the “K-shaped” economy narrative, recent analysis of Federal Reserve data show the number of ultra-wealthy households in the U.S. is rising. About 430,000 are worth $30Mn or more, a sharp increase vs. the 1990s. The wealthiest, whose net worth is primarily driven by assets, rather than employment income, have benefited from rising values across asset classes, including real-estate, businesses they own, and the stock market. With U.S. consumption increasingly driven by a smaller but wealthier segment of consumer, retailers and service providers looking to grow are looking to cater to this demographic.

VALT Gets Conditional Charter Approval

Digital bank VALT is the latest to receive conditional approval of its charter application from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The approval, received on March 13th, took approximately just four months from VALT filing its application for a full-service charter application. VALT now must actually operationalize the bank, including by raising $25Mn in equity capital. Once it secures final approval and begins operating, VALT will be required to maintain a 9% tier 1 leverage ratio for its first three years of operations. The bank intends to serve what it describes as “digitally demanding” SMBs, targeting those with $2Mn to $10Mn in revenue. The proposed chief executive for the bank, Matt Gediman, commented on the conditional approval, saying, “Banking doesn’t look a whole lot different today than when I first started. At VALT, we’re not introducing necessarily new products and services – but they’re largely improved to align with more of a digital-native experience in the way that we deliver them.”

Spade Raises $40Mn

Data and AI platform Spade announced it has raised $40Mn in new funding. The Series B round was led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Flourish, Gradient, NAventures, Andreessen Horowitz, and Y Combinator. Spade, founded in 2021, began with a focus on cleaning and enriching transaction data. Spade’s platform matches raw transaction data with verified business information, improving the signal of card, ACH, and wire transactions. The company plans to use the new funding to expand its platform’s capabilities and to grow its team. According to the company’s news release, Spade processed as many as 1.9Bn transactions daily last year and achieved 470% year-on-year revenue growth. Commenting on the fundraise, Spade cofounder and CEO Oban MacTavish said, “This funding allows us to become the default data and intelligence layer for financial services, and we’re thrilled to be backed by investors who deeply understand the value of transaction data. As AI adoption accelerates, banks can only move toward fully automated, agentic workflows if those systems are built on detailed, verified, and structured consumer behavior powered by enriched transaction data. Spade delivers just that.”

Klarna Expands Elliott Debt Deal

Buy now pay later lender Klarna announced it has expanded its loan sale deal with Elliott Investment Management. Elliott has agreed to double the $1Bn facility agreed to in November 2025 to $2Bn. The updated agreement extends the term from two to three years. Klarna notes that, over the life of the agreement, it can facilitate as much as $17Bn in lending, because as underlying assets in the facility amortize, new loans will “continuously” enter the facility. The expanded facility will allow Klarna to further scale its U.S. lending products, including its “Fair Financing” offering, a longer-term interest-bearing loan. Klarna’s chief financial officer Niclas Neglen commented on the updated agreement, saying, “Klarna's US Financing is growing fast because it gives Americans something the credit card industry never has: real choice, clear terms, and no surprises. This partnership sets the foundation for us to meet the accelerating demands of our American consumers.”

Glimpse Announces $35Mn Series A

Retailer dispute management startup Glimpse announced it has a $35Mn Series A. The company, which pivoted from an earlier business model focused on Airbnb product placements, helps brands track, investigate, and dispute deductions on invoices claimed by their retail partners. A retail partner may claim a deduction on an invoice for reasons like missing or damaged merchandise, but errors in the process are surprisingly common, according to Glimpse’s CEO Akash Raju. Raju explained to TechCrunch the process for brands to investigate deduction claims is highly manual and time consuming, saying, “Teams log into multiple retailer systems, pull scattered documents, review line items, reconcile against internal records, and manage disputes end-to-end. The challenge is driven by fragmented, unstructured data and siloed workflows across systems and teams.” The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Y Combinator and 8VC.

Venmo Goes Global with PayPal Integration

PayPal, which owns Venmo, will bring access to the service to more than 90 countries, the company announced last week. The move marks the first time transacting with Venmo users will officially be possible outside of the U.S. The company said the expansion is possible thanks to “new connectivity” between Venmo and PayPal, enabling Venmo users to send and receive funds with PayPal users outside the U.S. Diego Scotti, the general manager of PayPal;s consumer group, explained, “By bringing these two ecosystems together, we're making it seamless for Venmo and PayPal users to pay one another without friction or borders. It's about meeting people where they are and delivering simple, secure ways to move money in the moments that matter most, no matter what your preferred app is.”

Plaid Acquires This Week in Fintech

Open banking aggregator Plaid is acquiring fintech news platform This Week in Fintech (TWIF), the companies announced last week. Plaid said that it plans “to help it grow with more resources, more formats, and more ways for the community to connect — all while preserving the editorial independence and voice that TWIF subscribers trust.” According to the statement, the TWIF team will “continue to decide what to cover and how,” while TWIF and Plaid work together to expand the platform and the fintech community it has developed.