FTC alleges neobank Dave misled customers

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week, we’re looking at neobank Dave’s “misleading marketing” according to a new FTC complaint, Affirm’s launch in the U.K. amid regulatory overhaul, and how Equal aims to combat India’s growing cyberfraud problem.

The big story

The FTC comes after Dave for “misleading marketing”

The FTC is taking action against online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.”

At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered, and the “Express Fee” it charged if customers wanted their money immediately. The FTC claimed Dave’s marketing implied that its cash advances would be “instant” without disclosing the fees involved until after the consumer gave Dave access to their bank account.

The complaint says that if the user chose not to pay the fee, which ranged anywhere from $3 to $25, they’d have to wait two to three business days for the transfer to go through. The FTC also alleged that Dave would sometimes charge a surprise fee, which it described as a “tip.”

Analysis of the week

Affirm has launched in the U.K., its first market outside North America.

The buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant’s long-anticipated arrival comes at an interesting point. U.K. lawmakers are mulling over new rules to bring BNPL firms into line with other traditional consumer credit services, but such laws aren’t expected to come into effect until at least 2026. That could give Affirm plenty of time to build traction and curry favor with consumers and regulators alike.

Affirm isn’t launching in the U.K. with any of the big-name partnerships it has back home, but the fact that it counts the likes of Amazon, Shopify, and Apple as customers in the U.S. means that it wouldn’t be a huge stretch to also expand its commercial partnerships across the pond.

Dollars and cents

Brazilian fintech Tako is emerging from stealth with a $13.2 million seed round co-led by Ribbit Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Tako’s employee life cycle platform automates tasks like onboarding and payroll to save companies time and bring employee information into one place.

MoradaUno, a proptech company that aims to make it easier to rent apartments in Mexico, just raised a $5.6 million Series A round co-led by Flourish Ventures and Cometa. The funds will be used to help with expansion, co-founder and CEO Santiago Morales told TechCrunch.

Equal has raised a Series A round of $10 million at a post-money valuation of $80 million to scale its operations. The Hyderabad-based startup aims to address India’s growing cyberfraud problem with its suite of identity verification and financial data-sharing products.

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