SME


SumUp teams with BancoEstado for cool mobile card deal in Chile

SMEs in Chile have just won a new ally when it comes to making it easier to accept mobile card payments. The country’s largest national bank, BancoEstado de Chile, has partnered with SumUp to launch a joint venture (JV) that will give Chilean businesses the ability to offer “anytime, anywhere” mobile card acceptance without fees […]

Fintech funding round-up: 8 November 2017

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s (7 November) fintech funding round-up, here’s more money action. Features WeSwap, OakNorth Bank and OTCX. Peer-to-peer currency exchange platform WeSwap has revealed its £8 million series B investment round led by London-based private equity firm IW Capital. As WeSwap nears the end of 2017, it says further product features include […]

Cashplus Expands with £30 Million Debt Facilities Led by RBS

Cashplus, a London-based alternative financial services provider—and Top 5 Best Challenger Bank—has announced two new, three-year funding arrangements totaling £30 million (US$40.52 million). The company will use the credit to expand its lending products for SMEs.

Innovators’ Spotlight: SPENT Money

Rather than being top of wallet, SPENT Money wants to help consumers manage and earn rewards from what’s already there—at least for now.

Fintech funding round-up: 21 September 2017

Following swiftly on from the fintech funding round-up on 19 September, here’s more concise, cash-coated action. Features CivilisedBank, HighRadius, Swirlds and Luno. UK challenger CivilisedBank, which got its banking licence in May, has agreed terms for a further round of funding from current investor Warwick Capital Partners. No more details on that but the bank […]

Bento for Business Names Jeff Pomeroy VP of Product

Blackhawk Network veteran Jeff Pomeroy has joined the Pay Award-winning Bento for Business, a provider of employee expense management solutions for small businesses, as vice president of product.

Square wants to be a bank, sort of

Mobile point-of-sale pioneer Square Inc. is applying for an Industrial Loan Company (ILC) charter to support the expansion of its lending business, the volume of which grew 68 percent year-over-year in Q2 to $318 million.

Lloyds Bank’s new bookkeeping service is a keeper

Lloyds Bank has launched a new service to help businesses manage their bookkeeping without manual intervention. Called Lloyds Bank Direct Bank Feed it allows clients to receive their statement information directly into their accounting software – “eliminating the need for businesses to manually input their bank statements and reduce the time spent reconciling accounts”. Steve […]

Square Opens Manhattan Store

Mobile POS pioneer Square is venturing into new territory with its own brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan.

SME lender Kabbage collects $250m investment from Softbank

Online small business lender Kabbage has raised $250 million in funding from Japan’s SoftBank Group. The capital, which takes Kabbage’s total funding to more than $488 million, will be used to support new lending products for small businesses, as well as “exploring non-lending products and services” for its customers, the company says.

xPressTap Wants to Eliminate Payment Card Readers, Reduce Fees

With the Aug. 1 launch of its Tap2App merchant payment solution and pilot program, xPressTap Inc. is enabling micro-retailers and small business owners to use their smartphones to accept card payments without a dongle or a portable card reader.

Payably and CardConnect want to simplify mobile payments for small businesses

Payably, which offers a platform that integrates mobile payments with QuickBooks Online data in real time, is working with CardConnect to “simplify and speed up” mobile payments for merchants, including initial onboarding and processing and receiving payments, reports Paybefore, Banking Technology‘s sister publication. The strategic partnership also gives Payably the ability to offer “competitive” card […]

Fintech funding round-up: 25 July 2017

Whether you call it dinero or dough, the fintech funding does flow! This latest round-up features Revolut, Constellation Digital Partners, Paytm, Mobiquest Mobile Technologies and Wesleyan Bank. Following on from the $66 million raised in a Series B round, UK-based payments start-up Revolut is looking for an additional £4 million in exchange for shares in […]

Microblink’s Photopay expands to new European markets

Photopay, the payment receipt scanning solution from Microblink, is now available in more countries including France, Norway, Spain and Sweden, reports Finovate (Banking Technology’s sister company). The news is the latest step in Microblink’s European expansion – begun four years ago – and brings the company’s data extraction technology to an even wider range of SME customers. […]

Fintech funding round-up: 20 July 2017

It’s a treble yell! Following quickly on from 18 July and 19 July, this latest fintech funding round-up features Receipt Bank, Billon Group and TickSmith. Receipt Bank, a bookkeeping automation platform (not an actual bank), has raised $50 million in Series B funding from Insight Venture Partners. The investment will be used to accelerate growth […]

Nesta names 20 fintechs fired up for £5m SME innovation fund

UK-based innovation foundation Nesta has revealed the 20 fintech firms who will participate in its Open Up Challenge as it looks for services, apps and tools for SMEs – with a £5 million prize fund on offer. As reported in March, Nesta launched its challenge – open to entries from anywhere in the world that […]

Curve Hits 50-50 Milestones; Consumer Card to Come

Curve and its all-cards-in-one Curve Mastercard and accompanying banking app apparently has struck a chord with small businesses and freelancers. More than 50,000 SMEs have signed up for the London-based startup’s program, which recorded £50 million (US$63.3 million) in user spending since the beta period began last year.

Moroku’s Marrakash makes a splash with POS software deal

German payments company AEVI and Australian software firm Moroku have teamed up to offer POS software in AEVI’s B2B app store. Called Marrakash, Moroku’s software is for small retail and hospitality merchants that integrates their business, products, customers and payment systems into one platform. Moroku says it lets firms run their business “entirely from a […]

Mastercard launches digital payment B2B hub for SMEs

Mastercard has unveiled its B2B Hub to help SMEs speed up invoice and payment processes with accounts payable and payment automation tools. According to the firm, a majority of all B2B payments in the US are still made via cheque with manual payment processes. The Mastercard B2B Hub, delivered through card issuers, is an automated […]

WorldFirst launches international payments platform for SMEs

WorldFirst has unveiled World Account, an international payments platform for SMEs and online sellers. The company states the account offers international banking functionality on one platform. It says “many businesses waste time and money” trying to open up bank accounts in new currencies. These accounts are also often held in the UK resulting in “additional […]

i2c and Bento team to offer SMEs more spending control via prepaid card

i2c Inc. has joined forces with expense management specialist Bento for Business to launch a new prepaid card designed to give small business owners and their employees a better way to manage spending and expenses. Powered by i2c’s Agile Processing payments platform, the Mastercard-branded Bento employee expense card features integrated alerts, card-level restrictions and digital dashboards to enable companies to track and control employee spending in real-time, the companies said.