Powell Testifies; Wealthfront Files to IPO; Acorn Acquires Zeta

Fed Chair Powell testifies to Congress. Consumer sentiment drops. Student borrowers face wage garnishment. Wealthfront, Navan prep IPOs. Quinn emerges from stealth. Spinwheel raises Series A. FICO rolls out BNPL scores. X teases investing features. Klarna and Google team up. Acorns acquires Zeta.

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Powell Testifies

Fed Chair Powell testified before the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees last week. Despite plenty of opportunities, Powell assiduously avoided making a pledge to cut rates at the next FOMC meeting. Powell has been careful but consistent in asserting the Fed’s independence, particularly when it comes to interest rate policy. He continued to reiterate that, so far, the economy and employment have remained strong, so there is no rush to cut rates, particularly in the face of continued inflationary pressures. “If it turns out that inflation pressures do remain contained, then we will get to a place where we cut rates, sooner rather than later,” Powell said in response to a question during last week’s hearings.

But Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman seems to disagree. At a speech the recently confirmed Vice Chair gave last week in Prague, Bowman said she’d be open to cutting rates at the next FOMC meeting, as long as inflation pressures remain subdued. She has expressed support for the idea that any inflationary pressure from Trump’s tariffs is likely to be minimal and temporary.

While some policymakers have a more upbeat view of the economy, that sentiment wasn’t shared by consumers, at least in June. Consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped, falling 5.4 points to 93 in the Conference Board’s monthly gauge. Finally, almost two million student loan borrowers are now at risk of having their wages garnished, according to estimates from TransUnion. The bureau estimates that about a third of the roughly 6Mn borrowers who are 90 or more days past due could move into default and begin having their wages garnished this summer.

Wealthfront, Navan Prep IPOs

The IPO window is open, and early roboadvisory pioneer Wealthfront confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering, though few details are known at this point. The company declined to specify the number of shares or price range in a statement last week. Wealthfront offers automated investment management, including bond ladders and individual stocks, as well as a cash management account. Previously, Swiss bank UBS was slated to acquire the company, but abandoned the deal in 2022, making an investment via a convertible note instead.

Speaking of IPOs… travel and expense management startup Navan has also confidentially filed to IPO. As is the norm with such early, confidential filings, the company did not disclose terms of the potential offer. Navan, previously known as TripActions, counts Lightspeed and Andreessen Horowitz among its investors and was valued at $9.2Bn in a funding round in 2022. In addition to its core travel management offering, Navan has expanded into broader expense management and corporate payments over the years.

Quinn Emerges from Stealth

Embedded financial planning and advice platform Quinn emerged from stealth and announced it has raised $11Mn in seed funding. Quinn aims to help existing financial institutions expand access to financial planning capabilities through its AI-powered platform. Quinn can be fully embedded/white labeled or cobranded and can easily be deployed via API, the company said in its announcement. Quinn CEO Royi Markowitz said of the news, “The future of wealth management isn’t about replacing advisors it’s about amplifying them. We’re enabling institutions to offer deeply personalized, actionable advice to every customer, without compromising quality or trust.”

Spinwheel Raises $30Mn Series A

Consumer liability data infrastructure startup Spinwheel announced it has raised $30Mn in Series A funding. The round was led by F-Prime, with participation from QED, Fika Ventures, and Foundation Capital. According to the company’s release, the average American has between 10 and 14 credit accounts, leading to a complex, fragmented experience. Spinwheel, somewhat similarly to “open banking” startups like Plaid or MX, offers infrastructure that simplifies how liabilities are accessed, activated, and resolved. Spinwheel cofounder and CEO Tomas Campos described the challenge by saying, “Financial providers are faced with immense customer service friction, high operational and acquisition costs, missing or outdated data sets and a cumbersome, disjointed experience for consumers who, in turn, are struggling to view, understand and manage numerous liability and credit accounts. We are transforming this challenge by building the foundational infrastructure to power the future of the consumer credit ecosystem.”

FICO Rolls Out BNPL Scores

FICO is rolling out new scores that incorporate buy now, pay later tradeline data, the company announced last week. The company developed the products, FICO Score 10 BNPL and FICO Score 10 T BNPL, after consulting with some of the largest U.S. lenders and BNPL providers. The models, trained on a sample of more than half a million BNPL users in a joint effort with Affirm, group together multiple of the small BNPL loans when evaluating applicants’ creditworthiness.

X Promises Trading Features “Soon”

X, formerly Twitter, is planning to roll out trading and investing features “soon,” CEO Linda Yaccarino told the FT during an interview in Cannes last week. Yaccarino and X owner Elon Musk have long-touted the transformation of X into an “everything app,” in the vein of popular Chinese service WeChat. While there has been progress behind the scenes, including acquiring state money transmission licenses and a vendor deal with Visa, those have yet to result in meaningful changes to user-facing features. “You’ll be able to come to X and be able to transact your whole financial life on the platform. And that’s whether I can pay you for the pizza that we shared last night or make an investment or a trade. So that’s the future,” Yaccarino told the FT.

Klarna Now Available via Google Pay

Klarna is teaming up with Google to make its signature buy now, pay later offering available via Google Pay, the company’s digital wallet (they’ve rebranded it so many times, we can barely keep up.) Shoppers using Google Pay can split transactions over $35 into four interest-free payments, and larger ticket sizes may be eligible for longer-term interest-bearing financing. Google Pay already offers BNPL financing from Afterpay, the division of Cash App and Square parent company Block.

Acorns Acquires Zeta

Micro-investing platform Acorns has acquired family financial management app Zeta, the companies announced last week. Zeta makes the fifth product acquisition for Acorns in the past two years. Zeta offers financial planning and wellness tools designed for couples and families, which neatly dovetails with Acorns existing suite of financial education, investing, and spending products. Zeta cofounders Aditi Shekar and Kevin Hopkins will join Acorns as part of the acquisition. Of the deal, Acorns CEO Noah Kerner said, “Financial wellness evolves with every life stage, and this acquisition addresses a critical transition from singles to couples. We’re excited to make it easier for couples to grow their wealth together—with a shared plan for the long-term.”