Singapore’s Nium to acquire alternative payments network Socash
The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 2022, subject to customary regulatory conditions.
E-commerce
Video: Greg Palmer at Finovate Europe 2022 – The future of fintech
Finovate’s Greg Palmer on how the pandemic accelerated the digitisation of financial services.
Anti-fraud platform SEON raises $94m Series B to fuel global expansion
The start-up will use the fresh capital to expand throughout North America, LatAm and APAC.
FinTech Futures: Top five stories of the week – 15 April 2022
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week.
Crypto paytech MoonPay receives $87m from entertainment and sporting stars
MoonPay CEO says: “Web3 is radically changing the way we approach the business of entertainment, sports and music.”
Colombian fintech Truora raises $15m Series A led by BBVA fund
Accel, Kaszek and Y Combinator also participated, as well as a number of angel investors.
Creator economy e-commerce platform SamCart raises $82m Series B
The round saw participation from Eldridge, TTV Capital, Fin VC, George Kaiser Foundation and eGateway Capital.
Stripe-backed one-click checkout fintech Fast folds
Fast CEO Domm Holland says: “Sometimes trailblazers don’t make it all the way to the mountain top.”
Spain’s Ritmo lands $200m in debt funding to drive growth
The Madrid-based company has raised $225 million to date in debt and equity funding.
Bolt to acquire crypto API provider Wyre in push to “democratise commerce”
Bolt will integrate Wyre’s crypto stack, giving developers blockchain protocols to build financial products.
Spanish payments firm PayRetailers scoops up two LatAm e-commerce platforms
The firm has acquired Chile’s Paygol and Colombia’s Pago Digital.
ANZ and Worldline launch new payment service in Australia
Worldline holds a 51% stake in the new entity, with ANZ holding the remaining 49%.
FinTech Futures Jobs: Three great London-based jobs to apply for this week
Exciting open vacancies at Freetrade, Shopify and Railsbank. Apply today!
Citi plans to scale global e-commerce payments platform to 30 countries
Spring by Citi enables the bank’s institutional clients to accept consumer payments online.
UAE’s Mashreq Bank launches paytech subsidiary Neopay
The new wholly-owned subsidiary will consolidate all of Mashreq’s existing payment systems into a single platform.
Shortlist announced for Banking Tech Awards USA 2022
Congratulations to all of this year’s finalists.
Aussie fintech Parpera launches to help people grow their businesses
Founded in April 2020 by Daniel Cannizzaro, Parpera has already raised AUD 2.7 million in equity funding.
PayPal hires IT veteran Archana Deskus as EVP and CIO
Deskus joins PayPal from tech titan Intel, where she served as senior vice president and CIO.
E-commerce paytech Reach lands $30m growth investment
The round, led by Vistara Growth, saw participation from Bluesky Equities, Tribune Capital and Rising Tide.
BNPL platform ChargeAfter raises $44m Series B
The Series B brings the company’s total amount raised to date to $60 million.
How embedded finance can help brands cater to the needs of Gen Z
Payments are now just as important to brand identity as top-of-funnel activities like advertising.
Rutter raises $27m in Series A to become “Plaid of commerce”
Rutter’s $27 million Series A funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Pakistani B2B e-commerce platform Bazaar lands $70m Series B
The latest investment takes Bazaar’s total capital raised to more than $100 million.
Green paytech ReforestPay to launch in UK and EU
The firm says it will plant a tree for every transaction it processes.
Fintech start-up Chari acquires Axa Credit in Morocco for $22m
The acquisition will enable Chari to launch buy now, pay later (BNPL) services.
US paytech Stax hits $1bn valuation with $245m funding round
Stax has grown 500% in the past three years and processed more than $23 billion in payments.
LHV Group set to acquire Estonian paytech EveryPay
LHV CEO says growing its payment services business has become an important part of the firm’s growth strategy.
Aussie BNPL firm Zip confirms Sezzle acquisition
The deal values Sezzle at approximately $360 million (AUD 491 million).
Boku offloads ID verification division to focus on mobile payments
Boku CEO says the sale will allow the firm “to focus on developing our mobile payments solutions”.
Shift4 to acquire cross-border payments provider Finaro in $575m deal
The company also confirmed the acquisition of cryptocurrency fundraising platform The Giving Block.
Australian fintech Zeller lands $73m Series B funding
Zeller says it has signed up more than 10,000 Australian businesses within eight months.
Lloyds partners fintech Bink to create unified customer loyalty programme solution
Lloyds has also made an equity investment for a minority stake in Bink.
Sustainability paytech Helpful’s digital wallet cuts transaction CO2 by 80%
Helpful says the average amount of CO2 every checkout payment produces is 3.78g.
Mastercard, Pine Labs and DBS Bank to roll out BNPL credit card offering
The solution will be available on all DBS Mastercard, Visa and American Express credit cards.
Why instant loans are catching fire with fraudsters
Fraudsters are now increasingly finding clever ways to exploit this innovative form of financing.
Chat commerce platform Clickatell raises $91m Series C to boost expansion plans
Clickatell says chat is the largest digital platform in the world, with 7.7 billion users.
Italian BNPL provider Scalapay raises $497m in Series B
Scalapay has also launched a checkout experience platform for e-commerce called Magic.
Kenyan start-up MarketForce lands $40m Series A funding
The oversubscribed round was led by Africa-focused investment vehicle V8 Capital Partners.
India’s Pine Labs secures $150m funding from Alpha Wave
The fintech has previously seen investment from the likes of PayPal and Mastercard.
Philippines’ PayMongo raises $31m Series B to support nation’s SMEs
The Manila-based start-up has now raised around $46 million in total capital.
