On January 26, Walmart’s fintech venture firm, Hazel, announced that it is acquiring two financial technology companies as it aims to develop a financial services super app where consumers can manage their money.
Hazel, a fintech startup that Walmart created and backed, said that it is acquiring a fintech firm called ‘Even Responsible Finance’ as well as another fintech company, ‘One Finance.’ Financial terms were undisclosed.
Last year, Walmart partnered with Ribbit Capital, one of the investment companies behind Robinhood, to launch an independent fintech startup. During that time, Walmart stated that the startup would build unique affordable financial products for its clients and employees.
Walmart owns the majority stake in the startup. The Board of Directors of the startup include several top executives, including the CEO of Walmart US, John Furner and Brett Biggs, the Chief Financial Officer of Walmart.
The new combined business will rebrand itself as ‘ONE’. The new entity seeks to become a one-stop financial services app that allows consumers to manage and increase their finances. With two acquisitions closed, the combined business will have over $250 million in cash on the balance sheet and over 200 employees to develop growth.
The combined entity brings together the financial benefits of the platforms ‘One Finance’ and ‘Even Responsible Finance.’ The development will see the integration of the three businesses into one app which is available to customers everywhere worldwide as ‘ONE.’
In the future, the ONE app plans to become part of Walmart’s digital and physical channels to extend financial services to the retail giant’s 100 million-plus weekly shoppers and 1.6 million US associates.
Furner stated: “Walmart is constantly looking for new ways to deliver on our core mission of helping our customers save money and live better. Customers have made it clear that they want more from us in the financial services arena. Creating a simple personalized app that allows users to manage their money in one place is the natural next step toward fulfilling that.”
Walmart Is Committed to Accelerating Financial Inclusion
The announcement by the fintech backed by Walmart demonstrates the commitment being made by the giant retailer to develop modern innovative affordable financial solutions that fulfil consumers’ financial needs. For many years, Walmart has been offering domestic and international money transfers, tax preparation, bill pay services, prepaid debit cards and other financial services through its partnerships with fintech companies like PayPal, MoneyGram, NetSpend, Jackson Hewitt, American Express, Green Dot and others. In October last year, Walmart launched its pilot of Bitcoin ATM machines in 200 of its stores across the US to enable customers to buy Bitcoin at some of its stores. The move by Walmart expanding Bitcoin access to more people gave the cryptocurrency further legitimacy among skeptics.
