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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Wealthfront filed an S-1 with the SEC, planning to raise up to $485 million by offering 34.6 million shares at $12 to $14 each, targeting a $2 billion valuation.
The wealthtech firm was founded as kaChing and rebranded to Wealthfront in 2010 and has expanded from robo-advisory into high-insurance checking, savings, and credit products.
The IPO follows a previously canceled $1.4 billion UBS acquisition, and positions Wealthfront among a new wave of fintechs going public, including eToro, Chime, and Klarna.
Wealthtech firm Wealthfront revealed this week that it has filed an S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, taking its first formal step toward an IPO.
According to the filing, Wealthfront plans to offer 34.6 million shares at $12 to $14 each, which would raise up to $485 million and value the company near $2 billion. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol WLTH.
Founded in 2008 and making its Finovate debut as kaChing a year later, the company rebranded to Wealthfront in 2010 and has since solidified its place as a pioneer in the wealthtech space. Since launch, Wealthfront has evolved its platform to add challenger banking features such as a checking account with up to $8 million in FDIC insurance, which is made possible via the company’s partnerships with 32 program banks. The fintech also offers a high-yield savings account, a portfolio line of credit, an automated bond ladder, and is working on a mortgage lending product.
Wealthfront generally targets younger investors who hold an average balance of $67,000, while 180,000 of its clients hold more than $100,000 in assets and over 10,000 clients have assets more than $1 million in assets on the platform.
This isn’t Wealthfront’s first move toward an exit. In January 2022, the company formed a $1.4 billion deal to be acquired by UBS. At the time, that price reflected a premium of at least 2x on Wealthfront’s most recent private market valuation. Wealthfront called the acquisition a “strategic partnership” that would enable the company to offer new services and give its customers access to “UBS’s industry-leading investing insights and research.”
Two weeks after unveiling the acquisition plans, however, UBS called off the deal. Shareholders were reportedly spooked, as it came during a period of significant decline in fintech valuations. Notably, however, Wealthfront’s current $2 billion target valuation is significantly higher than the $1.4 billion acquisition price UBS had offered in 2022, which would equate to roughly $1.55 billion in today’s dollars after adjusting for inflation.
In going public, Wealthfront is in good company with other fintechs including eToro, which debuted in January of 2025; Chime, which went public in June of 2025; and Klarna, which debuted in September 2025 after postponing the move for six months.
With the S-1 now public, Wealthfront will enter the SEC review process and prepare for a roadshow, which places its likely IPO window in early 2026.
Backbase and Unblu have forged a new strategic partnership to transform self-service banking into a trusted, human-connected experience that combines the best of both worlds.
The partnership will integrate Unblu’s Conversational Engagement Platform with Backbase’s AI-powered banking solution, adding features such as live chat, voice and video calling, and AI-powered chatbots.
Both Unblu and Backbase most recently appeared on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021 in New York. Backbase is a four-time Best of Show winner that first demoed on the Finovate stage in 2009.
A new strategic partnership between Backbase and Unblu is designed to help transform self-service banking into a trusted, human-connected experience. The two companies will offer a joint solution that combines Unblu’s Conversational Engagement Platform with Backbase’s banking platform, adding features such as live chat, voice and video calling, co-browsing, and AI-powered chatbots.
“Digital banking should never come at the expense of human connection,” Backbase Global VP of Marketplace Mayank Somaiya said. “By embedding Unblu’s collaboration tools into our ecosystem, banks can deliver effortless transitions from automated service to expert guidance, helping customers feel supported throughout their digital journey.”
The goal is to enable customers to transition seamlessly from digital self-service to human-assisted interactions in a single engagement. The solution will enable relationship managers, case workers, and frontline service agents to access the customer’s individual context in order to better serve them. A unified employee workbench connects capabilities that were previously isolated across the bank’s tech stack. This empowers bank employees to deliver seamless human-digital interaction within the Backbase platform, benefit from AI-enhanced productivity that automates routine tasks and produces real-time insights, and maintain complete regulatory compliance via encrypted communications, audit trails, and built-in data residency controls.
Use cases for the joint offering include onboarding and account opening, wealth management, customer service, and enabling hybrid branch experiences. The pre-integrated solution will be available to Backbase customers around the world in early 2026.
“We’re excited to partner with Backbase to help financial institutions deliver the kind of personal, frictionless customer experiences today’s users expect,” Unblu Co-CEO Jens Rabe said. “By bringing our digital interaction tools directly into the Backbase platform, we’re enabling banks to build deeper relationships while maintaining the compliance and security standards they can’t compromise on.”
A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase is a four-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Based in Amsterdam, Backbase offers an AI-powered banking platform that helps banks modernize their operations across retail, SME, commercial, and private banking, as well as wealth management. Backbase has enabled financial institutions to achieve year-over-year increases in retail transactions by 51%, customer satisfaction rates of 78%, and app onboarding in less than five minutes. Founded in 2003, Backbase forged a partnership with Facilization, a consulting, system integration, and financial services software firm, in October. The company also teamed up with Akkuro, a core banking technology provider, and Prove, a digital identity company, in September. Founder Jouk Pleiter is Backbase’s CEO.
Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Unblu most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021. At the conference, the company showed how its technology helps 170+ financial institutions around the world deliver an “in-person” experience online. The company’s customers include UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Intesa Sanpaolo, and the firm has forged partnerships with fintechs—and fellow Finovate alums—such as Temenos, Avaloq, Q2, and ebankIT.
Just days after the company announced its partnership with Backbase, Unblu reported that founder and Co-CEO Luc Haldimann would be transitioning into the newly created role of Chief Strategy Officer. Rabe, who joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer and later served as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, has been serving as Co-CEO and will become the company’s sole CEO as of January 2026.
“Luc built Unblu from the ground up and shaped it into an internationally respected technology leader,” Rabe said. “As CEO, I look forward to continuing the collaboration with Luc in his new strategic role to ensure Unblu remains at the forefront of secure, human-centered digital engagement.”
The holiday season is well underway, and once it wraps up, FinovateEurope will be right around the corner. And with fintech evolving faster than ever, next year’s event, taking place February 10 and 11 in London, is shaping up to be one of the most important gatherings of the year for anyone working in financial services, banking, and fintech. The event features more than 100 expert speakers, 30+ live demos, and a packed agenda with deep dives into AI, embedded finance, decentralized finance, and cross-border banking.
As someone who studies and writes about fintech, here are the handful of sessions I’m most excited about and why I think they matter for the next wave of fintech:
Keynote Address: AI First Banking – Why Agentic AI is Truly A New Frontier In Banking
Alpesh Doshi, Managing Partner at Redcliffe Capital will examine how banks can harness agentic AI, discuss agentic commerce, and take a look at a future where bots are customers.
AI, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once: Getting Beyond The Hype – How Financial Institutions Can Use AI To Make Money Or Save Money
This panel, featuring Theo Lau, book author and Founder of Unconventional Ventures; Arthur J. O’Connor, Academic Director of Data Science & Generative AI at CUNY School of Professional Studies; and Norman Tambach, Group Chief Financial Officer at Mashreq; will spend 25 minutes filtering out AI hype from reality. The group will unpack how to measure the success of AI investments, reveal what they see as the biggest opportunities when it comes to leveraging AI, examine AI regulation, and more.
Analyst All Stars: How financial services have been changed forever
This is always one of my favorite sessions, because it offers a fast-paced look at the top up-and-coming trends. Four leading fintech analysts will each be given seven minutes on stage to present their analysis of what has changed, what is new, and what is coming next in the industry.
Digital Banking In The Artificial Intelligence Era – How Can Banks Adapt To Serving Non-human Customers?
This fireside chat with David Birch, Principal at 15Mb, will offer a peek into the new era of digital banking, one that will be fueled by AI. While banks are prepping their own AI tools for internal use, consumers are also adapting to the AI-first world. Birch will discuss how banks can serve the new era of non-human customers.
Live Demo Sessions + 30+ Fintech Innovation Showcases
Far more than just talking points, Finovate’s hallmark demos give attendees a first look at real, deployable fintech products across payments, lending, compliance, and more. For anyone serious about fintech transformation or looking for new tools, the demo stage is the best place to see the future before it hits the market.
As FinovateEurope gets closer, we’ll be covering more highlights and takeaways from the agenda, as well as speaker highlights and a deeper dive into the demos. If you missed it, be sure to take a closer look at three of the Executive Briefing sessions.
Behavioral and device metadata analytics innovator Credolab has unveiled its Income Prediction Model.
The new offering will enable lenders to estimate applicant income using privacy-consented smartphone metadata. This will help them serve would-be borrowers with limited credit histories and proof-of-income.
Founded in 2016, Credolab made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2018 in Singapore. Peter Barcak is Co-Founder and CEO.
One of the biggest challenges for lenders seeking to expand into new markets—especially emerging, underbanked, and digital-first markets—is accessing accurate proof-of-income and credit history information. Even in a world in which open banking is embraced—making financial data more accessible overall—customers who have little data to share will remain on the outside, unable to benefit from a growing range of critical banking and financial services.
To meet this challenge, behavioral and device metadata analytics company Credolab has launched its Income Prediction Model. The new offering leverages machine learning to enable lenders to estimate applicant income by using privacy-consented smartphone metadata. The solution analyzes thousands of anonymized behavioral signals that, put together, correlate with income levels. These signals include app ownership patterns, device model and age, and interaction habits. Individual client institutions can train models on their own specific datasets and customize them based on the unique characteristics of their local populations. Importantly, Credolab’s Income Prediction Model never accesses personally identifiable information (PII) or demographic data like age, gender, or education.
Credolab uses proprietary feature engineering to convert raw metadata—collected with explicit user consent via its SDK—into more than 11 million behavioral features. The technology uses selection strategies based on information value, correlation filtering, and gradient boosting to narrow these features into a few dozen highly predictive indicators. The models use elastic-net logistic regression and tree-based ensemble techniques and validate them with out-of-time and out-of-sample testing to ensure both robustness and explainability.
“In many markets, a lack of verified income data is the biggest barrier to financial inclusion,” Credolab Co-founder and CEO Peter Barcak said. “Our new model gives lenders a privacy-safe and statistically sound way to infer income levels using only device behavior. It’s a powerful step toward fairer, faster, and more inclusive credit decisions, especially among populations for whom traditional data simply doesn’t exist.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Singapore, Credolab made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2018. Since then, the company has become the device and behavioral data partner for more than 150 banks, financial services companies, and fintechs around the world. The company’s solutions for risk management, fraud prevention, and insight-driven marketing have delivered decreases of up to 21.9% in the cost of risk and fraud, increases of up to 32% in applicant approval rates, and decreases of up to 28% in the cost of acquisition.
Sokin raised $50 million in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $96 million and boosting its valuation to $300 million following 100% year-over-year revenue growth.
The fintech offers global payments, multi-currency accounts, and treasury tools across 170+ countries, positioning itself as a fast-scaling competitor in the $56 trillion cross-border payments market.
Investors see Sokin as part of a new wave of infrastructure-focused payments challengers aiming to solve cross-border complexity at a global scale.
Global payments fintech Sokinraised $50 million in Series B funding this week. The round boosts the UK-based company’s total raised to $96 million since it was founded in 2019.
Today’s investment was led by Prysm Capital with additional contributions from Watershed Ventures and existing investors including investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Aurum Partners, Gary Marino, former Chief Commercial Officer at PayPal, and Mark Britto, former Chief Product Officer at PayPal.
With the new round, Sokin’s valuation has increased to $300 million. Prysm said that it invested in Sokin because of its “rapid and profitable growth” in the global business payments market, a subsector that is projected to see $56 trillion in transaction volume by 2030. The company’s revenues have increased by 8x since 2022, rising 100% year-over-year since then.
“Sokin is at a transformative stage, having demonstrated impressive year-on-year business growth,” said Prysm Capital Co-founder and partner Muhammad Mian.“The company is perfectly positioned to become the definitive leader in cross-border payments. Critically, Sokin has already built the infrastructure to capitalize on what we see as a huge addressable market.”
Sokin’s platform brings together global payments, payment acceptance, and treasury management tools to support businesses operating across borders. The company provides access to more than 70 currencies and enables customers to hold 26 currencies in multi-currency accounts, facilitating transactions in over 170 countries.
“We’ve spent the past six years building a comprehensive financial infrastructure that makes global business faster and more efficient,” said Sokin CEO and Founder Vroon Modgill. “For too long, payments, treasury management, and international accounts have been fragmented and outdated. We’ve built the platform that brings it all together, and this funding lets us accelerate that vision globally.”
In the next year, Sokin will continue to build out its global infrastructure across Asia, the Middle East, and South America, including securing additional regional licenses and banking partnerships. Sokin will also invest in its platform and embedded solutions to expand its accounts payable and receivable capabilities.
This funding round positions Sokin on a growing list of challengers building global payments infrastructure, competing not just with banks but also with new providers like Airwallex, Nium, and Rapyd. Investor appetite for these organizations shows that the winners in this new era of payments will be those that solve cross-border complexity at the infrastructure level, not just through front-end interfaces. If Sokin can turn its rapid revenue growth into market share, it may emerge as a key operator in the growing cross-border payments market.
The final month of the year is upon us. And with some of the season’s biggest holidays only weeks away, expect a crush of news from banks, fintechs, and other financial service providers over the next several days. We’ll keep you in the know—right here on Finovate’s Fintech Rundown!
Digital Banking
Southland Credit Union choosesEltropy’s unified conversations platform via its partnership with digital sales and service platform provider Alkami Technology.
Digital bank Grasshopper and digital banking platform provider Narmiannounced new enhancements to their Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, including expanded functionality to support ChatGPT and OAuth 2.0-based data access authorization.
interface.aiintroduces agentic AI BankGPT platform purpose-built for credit unions and community banks.
Lending
Nova Creditunveils its Eligibility Compass to modernize eligibility verification for affordable and public housing.
FISexpands its asset finance platform to include US consumer auto finance capabilities.
Insurtech
Insurance payments company SnapRefundlaunches digital claim payments solution ClaimsSnap.
Insurtech startup Pibit.AIsecures $7 million in Series A funding to leverage AI to enhance the underwriting process.
Fraud prevention
DataVisorannounces availability of its DEFEND training, a free, self-pace program to help workers better defend themselves against fraud and AML threats.
Digital banking fraud prevention and payment security company EntersektunveilsEntersekt Orkestrate, which makes it easier to add authentication and real-time decisioning to digital banking systems.
Kraken is launching the Krak Card, a crypto-to-fiat debit card offering 1% cash back and multi-asset spending across 400+ crypto and fiat currencies, with initial rollout in the UK and EU.
The card supports direct deposit, no foreign exchange or monthly fees, and flexible funding rules that let users choose which assets cover each purchase.
With the Krak Card, Kraken is positioning itself closer to a full-service financial platform, further blurring the lines between TradFi and DeFi and enabling everyday spending of digital assets.
Cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken revealed plans to launch a crypto-to-fiat debit card that pays 1% cash back rewards on all purchases. The Krak Card will first be available to users in the UK and EU, and will be offered to customers in additional markets in the coming weeks.
In addition to paying rewards, the Krak Card also allows direct deposit for salaries and offers expanded wealth-building opportunities. Kraken anticipates that the new upgrades will bring users one step closer to replacing their traditional banking relationships by helping them explore the unique opportunities available within digital assets.
“To us, everything is money. You should be able to use whatever assets you hold to pay for everyday goods and services in the digital era we live in,” said Kraken Global Head of Consumer Mark Greenberg. “From groceries to getaways, the Krak Card makes value move freely, no matter who you are or how you choose to store your money.”
Powered by Mastercard, the physical Krak Card comes in two color options and is available in a virtual format, as well. With no foreign exchange or monthly fees, the card delivers instant spending using multiple balances with no FX or monthly fees. Uniquely, the Krak Card offers multi-asset spending, supporting more than 400 crypto and fiat assets. Purchases can be funded from either crypto, fiat, or a mix of both. The app lets users preset which assets are used first and allows them to exclude specific holdings from payments.
The 1% cash back on every purchase is paid in either the local fiat currency or Bitcoin. The cash back rewards help differentiate Kraken from other debit products, as it is quite rare to find a debit card that pays cash back.
Since its debut six months ago, the Krak app has seen over 450,000 downloads in over 130 countries. Kraken expects that the launch of its debit card will accelerate this number. In the coming months, Kraken plans to launch new features, including credit products, additional card options, enhanced merchant rewards, simplified onboarding, and broader support for assets.
Kraken’s move, as it positions itself against traditional banks and neobanks, is an example of the pending convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). By combining multi-asset spending, direct deposit, and cash-back rewards into a single debit product, Kraken is offering another way to spend crypto while building an everyday money hub. The new capabilities allow consumers to bridge their digital assets and real-world payments without the friction of conversions or fees.
Klarna revealed plans to launch KlarnaUSD, a new stablecoin built on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempoblockchain.
Set to debut on the Tempo mainnet in 2026, KlarnaUSD will leverage early access to Tempo for testing and integration.
The move positions Klarna to capture value in the $120 billion cross-border payments market, using stablecoins to cut costs for both consumers and merchants as stablecoin usage surpasses $27 trillion annually.
Two months after reaching one million card sign-ups in the US, BNPL leader Klarna has revealed plans to launch its own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD.
Klarna is launching its new stablecoin on the Tempo blockchain. Launched in September 2025, Tempo is an independent, layer-1 blockchain created by Stripe and Paradigm that’s built for payments. KlarnaUSD is built on Open Issuance by stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge.
“With 114 million customers and $118 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’s scale and Tempo’s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone,” said Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale. This is the beginning of Klarna in crypto, and I’m excited to work with Stripe and Tempo to continue to shape the future of payments.”
Klarna will launch its stablecoin on the Tempo mainnet in 2026. Tempo has granted Klarna early access to its infrastructure in advance of the KlarnaUSD launch to allow the fintech to conduct advanced testing, prototyping, and integration.
Klarna and Stripe first teamed up in 2021 when they partnered to allow Stripe users in 20 countries to offer Klarna’s BNPL option, with Stripe as the preferred payments partner in the US and Canada. The partnership between Klarna and Stripe’s blockchain, Tempo, deepens the relationship between the two players.
Today’s announcement comes as cross-border payments are estimated to generate $120 billion in transaction fees annually, and as stablecoin transactions top $27 trillion a year. Launching its own stablecoin isn’t just a way for Klarna to jump on a recent trend. The company will leverage the benefits of stablecoins to reduce costs for both consumers and merchants.
The agenda for FinovateEurope 2026 (February 10—11) in London is still taking shape. We’ve already shared a preview of some of the top themes that the conference will address. Today we’re looking at a trio of Executive Briefings that will offer attendees concentrated deep dives on a few key issues and trends in fintech and financial services.
This year, women in fintech, integrating AI into financial services, and the embedded finance revolution are the three areas of focus for our FinovateEurope Executive Briefings. Stay tuned for more on our moderators and speakers. For now, check out this advance look at how we’re tackling these top issues for 2026.
Women in Fintech: How Can We All Make Sure We Are Moving The Needle?
Ladies first! Tuesday morning will feature the first of three Executive Briefings at FinovateEurope: our Women in Fintech Briefing. This session, open to all attendees, will examine and discuss the status of women in fintech and financial services today. From strategies to encourage intentional change at the executive level to ideas on how to make mentoring relationships successful, our Women in Fintech Briefing will share experiences with successful initiatives to grow and retain female talent. The session will also explore ways that fintech and financial services professionals can drive change in their companies and the industry, at large.
How Can We All Make Sure We Are Moving the Needle? And How Can We Support Women in the Toughest Job Market We Have Seen In Years? Tuesday, February 10. 10:40am—11:20am
The AI Competitive Imperative: Ten Solutions You Need to Know About Today
On Tuesday afternoon our Executive Briefing on the increasing importance of AI in fintech and financial services will take place. This session will focus on practical, real-world applications of AI technology in core financial services operations ranging from fraud prevention and compliance to lending and customer intelligence. Our Executive Briefing on AI will discuss every aspect of the integration process: from pilot to production, emphasizing the best practices that have enabled leading financial institutions to successfully deploy AI-powered solutions to increase profitability, lower costs, boost efficiency, and better engage customers.
The AI Competitive Imperative & the Ten Solutions You Need to Know About Today. Tuesday, February 10. 3:20pm—4:00pm
From Embedded Finance to Platform Banking
On Wednesday, Day Two of FinovateEurope, we will present our Executive Briefing on the latest developments in the field of embedded finance and the growth of platform banking.
Embedded finance continues to be one of the most revolutionary developments in fintech. As the ability to offer banking and financial services becomes increasingly ubiquitous, what are the opportunities for banks to expand their own distribution footprint? This session will examine the current challenges faced by banks from nonbank rivals and discuss ways—including platform banking—that can enable them to compete with the integrated user experiences from Big Tech, Big Retail, and super apps.
From Embedded Finance to Platform Banking—How Can Banks Capture This Huge Opportunity, Create a Robust API Strategy & Defend Against Super Apps & Ecosystem Threats? Wednesday, February 11. 11:30am—12:10pm
From AI-enabled commerce to AI-powered voice agents in insurance, companies across the fintech spectrum are busily integrating AI into their operations to boost efficiency, cut costs, and enhance the customer experience. It is a holiday-shortened week, so be sure to check in to Finovate’s Fintech Rundown to keep you informed on the latest fintech headlines.
This week’s edition of Finovate Globallooks at recent fintech headlines from South Africa.
Lesaka Technologies to Acquire Bank Zero
Lesaka Technologies, a fintech that provides low-cost financial services to underbanked South Africans, has secured approval from the Competition Commission to acquire Bank Zero. An app-only bank co-founded by Michael Jordaan in 2018 and publicly launched three years later, Bank Zero today has more than 40,000 funded accounts and deposits of more than $22 million. The financial institution offers personal and business banking solutions to both underbanked and tech-first customers.
Initially announced in July, the acquisition is valued at $60 million. The transaction consists of a combination of newly issued shares in Lesaka and up to $5 million in cash. Post-transaction, Jordaan will remain as Bank Zero’s chairman, and co-founder Yatin Narsai will continue to serve as CEO. Bank Zero’s entire management team will also remain in place.
Lesaka anticipates that the acquisition will fortify its balance sheet, enhance lending performance, and reduce the firm’s dependence on bank debt. The fintech suggested that the move could lower its gross debt by $57 million.
“The acquisition of Bank Zero is a transformative event in Lesaka’s journey, enabling us to better serve our consumers, merchants, and enterprise clients, by embedding a trusted, well-engineered neobank capability into our fintech platform,” Lesaka Chairman Ali Mazanderani said. “I am delighted to welcome the Bank Zero team to Lesaka as partners.”
Lesaka Technologies offers banking, lending, and insurance products to consumers and cash management, billpay, business funding, and card acquiring solutions to retail merchants in both the formal and informal sectors. Founded in 1997, the company is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
South African Retailer Explores New Banking Venture
One of South Africa’s largest discount retail groups may be getting into the banking business.
Pepkor Holdings operates more than 5,800 stores across a wide number of brands including PEP, Ackermans, and Tekkie Town. A subsidiary of Steinhoff International, Pepkor is reportedly looking to launch a new banking venture—informally referred to as “Pep Bank”—that will leverage the company’s market reach to offer zero-fee banking to millions of consumers with lower incomes. The company is said to be in conversation with Investec, seeking a partner to support the new bank’s regulatory, operational, and financial infrastructure.
There has been no public commentary from Pepkor on the initiative, and press reports assert that the talks are in “early stages.” Further, the launch of a new bank would require approvals from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the National Credit Regulator, and no such engagement has been reported to date.
Speaking of launching banking operations in South Africa, Revolut announced that it has officially begun the process of securing a banking license in the country. The company has confirmed that it submitted a Section 12 application under the country’s Banks Act, the first step in becoming a licensed bank in South Africa. Revolut first signaled its intention to launch a bank in South Africa in September, highlighting the country as a “key growth market” with increasing rates of digital adoption and an openness to innovative financial products and services.
“Becoming a licensed bank will allow us to bring a full suite of products to the market and ensure we become the go-to financial app for millions of South Africans,” Revolut South Africa CEO Jacques Meyer said.
As a sign of the company’s growing engagement with the South African market, Revolut has appointed Dr. Gaby Magomola as Chairman of Revolut South Africa. A pioneer in the history of banking in South Africa, Dr. Magomola has served in senior executive roles at Citibank, Barclays Bank, First National Bank, and African Bank. He most recently served as Deputy Chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
“Dr. Magomola’s experience is invaluable as we deepen our commitment to the South African market,” Meyer said. “His strategic counsel will be critical in navigating the local regulatory environment, ensuring we build a locally relevant service that addresses the financial needs of all customers in South Africa.”
Revolut’s presence in South Africa would bring significant additional competition to the country’s digital bank industry, which consists of TymeBank, Discovery Bank, and Bank Zero, which has been acquired by Lesaka Technologies, as we noted in this week’s column. Already one of the largest digital banks in the world, Revolut has said its expansion in South Africa is part of the company’s goal to grow its customer base from 65 million to 100 million by 2027. Revolut also seeks to be active in 30 markets by 2030.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Japan’s largest trust bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, selected SCSK Corporation and OneSpan to enhance security for its mobile banking operations.
Australian superannuation fund Brighter Super partnered with Napier AI to enhance its compliance infrastructure.
Is Jack back? South China Morning Post featured Alibaba Group Holding founder Jack Ma’s return to the campus of Ant Group.
Sub-Saharan Africa
South African fintech Lesaka Technologies received approval to acquire Bank Zero in a deal valued at $60 million.
Revoluthas applied for a banking license in South Africa.
South Africa’s Discovery Bank announced new crypto trading offering.
Central and Eastern Europe
Lithuanian regtech iDenfy unveiled its new solution that conduct instant license checks during the KYC process.
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) announced that Wero for e-commerce is now live in Germany.
Mastercardintroduced open loop transit payments in Azerbaijan.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Crypto payments company MoonPay expanded its partnership with Israel-based Zengo Wallet. The firm’s venture arm, MoonPay Ventures, also announced a strategic investment in the self-custodial crypto wallet.
First Abu Dhabi Bank teamed up with Thunes to enable global mobile wallet payouts.
Yuze Digital, a AI-powered fintech platform for freelancers and independent businesses, launched its pilot in India.
Pakistani fintech Abhi partnered with UAE-based digital platform Numou to help SMEs access financial services.
Indian fintech Yubi raised $46.4 million to enhance its debt marketplace, collection systems, and AI capabilities.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uruguay-based cross-border payment platform dLocal partnered with global payouts orchestration company PayQuicker to help the firm serve more merchants in emerging markets.
Latin American accounts receivable management and collections automation platform Moonflow acquired Mexican fintech Kobro.
How can financial institutions determine the correct digital modernization strategy that will help them achieve their goals while respecting the role of legacy technologies? Can organizations effectively modernize their operations, leveraging enabling technologies like AI, without risking the potential disruptions that change—even positive change—can bring?
This year at FinovateFall 2025, I caught up with Casey Ferguson, VP of Marketing at Zoot Enterprises to discuss the company’s phased approach to modernizing financial systems and integrating legacy technologies. Ferguson explains how effective transformations should embrace incremental progress, cross-functional collaboration, and layered fraud defenses.
At Zoot we look at modernization this way: it’s not about tearing everything down. When you look at this kind of ‘rip and replace’ mentality, you have to remember it can be pretty risky. It can be very expensive and it can be slow, as well. When you think about the pace of change, architecting the perfect environment, the world may have changed by the time you have a perfect picture of all this. So working on things incrementally and in phases can really make a difference.
Headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, and founded in 1990, Zoot Enterprises provides acquisition, origination, and decision management solutions for businesses ranging from leading banks and payment providers to automobile manufacturers and retailers. Zoot’s technology leverages advanced analytics to deliver actionable insights for compliance, risk management, fraud prevention, customer experience, workflow efficiency, digital transformation, and more. The company boasts more than 90 partners and providers, and 300+ data connections to access the most accurate and reliable data in real time.
