Some of the hottest headlines in international fintech in recent days involved industry innovators from the Land Down Under. Late in the week, financial consultancy firm Synechron announced that it had agreed to acquire Australian payments provider Attra. Headquartered in Melbourne, Attra is notable for being one of pure play payments solution providers in Australia, with reach throughout the region as well as into North America, Europe, and MENA. Attra will retain its brand identity post-acquisition.
Meanwhile, National Australia Bank (NAB) unveiled a new smart receipt solution developed in collaboration with Australian fintech Slyp. The offering, Slyp Smart Receipts, are available via the NAB mobile app, and enable NAB customers to automatically get itemized smart receipts from participating retailers.
“Receipts are a burden for customers, create unnecessary cost for businesses and have a negative impact to our environment,” Slyp CEO and co-founder Paul Weingarth said. “The introduction of smart receipts allows businesses to offer a seamless and frictionless customer experience far beyond what we know it as today.”
On the e-commerce front, the buy now pay later revolution rolls on. Zip, a BNPL company based in Australia, inked a deal with Facebook this week that will enable small businesses to use its installment payment service to pay for Facebook ads.
Zip’s partnership with Facebook is its second big, e-commerce collaboration in recent months. In August, the company teamed up with eBay, bringing its buy now pay later offering to the online marketplace.
Looking to learn more about fintech in Australia? Check out KPMG Australia’s report on the country’s fintech industry from last fall. And for a more recent snapshot, take a look at FintechNews Singapore’s “9 Hottest Aussie Fintech Startups” from earlier this year.
We’ve covered a healthy amount of international fintech news on the blog this week. Here’s a quick digest of what you might have missed.
Tink Lands $103 Million in Funding, Boosts Valuation to $824 Million – The new round for the Swedish fintech was co-led by new investor Eurazeo Growth and existing investor Dawn Capital.
Xoom Adds Money Transfer Capabilities to 12 African Countries – The expansion focuses on facilitating remittances to underbanked consumers in 12 African nations.
How to Manage and Exceed Evolving Customer Expectations – Our interview with the co-founder of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based FI.SPAN.
Here is our look at fintech around the world.
Asia-Pacific
- Risk decisioning leader Provenir announces data integration partnership with Philippines-based alternative credit scoring company FinScore.
- South Korean payments firm CHAI scores $60 million in Series B funding.
- Mastercard and Pine Labs to bring their integrated buy now pay later solution to five markets in Southeast Asia early in 2021.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- The Banker looks at how Nigeria’s fintech industry is thriving in the face of economic challenges.
- TechFinancial reviews the growth of fintech in South Africa through the lens of the country’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
- Convergence Partners, a South African technology investment management company, announces $5 million investment in sub-Saharan mobile money services company Channel VAS.
Central and Eastern Europe
- German digital asset custody technology provider Bitbond partners with Bankhaus von Der Heydt to issue a Euro stablecoin on the Stellar network.
- Hungary’s Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) inks cooperation agreement with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to boost collaboration in fintech innovation between Hungary and Singapore.
- Berlin-based plug and play, European securities API provider Upvest raises additional €five million to boost its Series A to €12 million.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Egyptian fintech Zeal Rewards secures “six-figure” seed investment from an unnamed angel investor.
- Israeli entrepreneur Uri Levine predicts that the next unicorn from the MENA region will come from the UAE.
- SME10x looks at how the buy now pay later movement is transforming ecommerce in the Middle East.
Central and Southern Asia
- IBS Intelligence features five top digital lenders in India.
- Bangalore-based i-exceed reports gains in digital onboarding adoption rates in corporate banking.
- SafePay, a company that enables B2C payments, secures funding from new Pakistan-based VC firm backed by Gobi Ventures.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Bitso, a cryptocurrency platform based in Mexico, raises $62 million in Series B.
- Cross border B2B paytech provider TransferMate announces licensing approvals in Brazil and Chile.
- Mexican challenger bank albo secures $45 million in funding.
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