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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Barclays’ US consumer banking subsidiary, Barclays Bank Delaware, is acquiring Best Egg for $800 million.
Barclays aims to use the purchase to diversify its US consumer business and strengthen its presence in unsecured lending.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.
Barclays‘ US consumer banking subsidiary, Barclays Bank Delaware, unveiled plans this week to expand its US footprint, acquiring personal loan origination company Best Egg. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026 for $800 million.
Best Egg offers a direct-to-consumer personal loan origination platform that specializes in lending to prime borrowers. Since it was founded in 2013, the Delaware-based company has facilitated over $40 billion in personal loans to more than two million customers. By the end of this year, Best Egg will have facilitated more than $7 billion in personal loan originations.
Best Egg currently services approximately $11 billion in personal loans which are funded through structures such as securitization programs and forward flow arrangements provided by a range of alternative asset managers. The company generates fee-based income from its loan origination and servicing activities.
Best Egg CEO Paul Ricci said the acquisition marks a major milestone in the company’s mission to help consumers achieve financial confidence through modern lending products. “At Best Egg, we are driven by a mission to empower people with financial confidence and flexibility through our suite of lending products and financial health tools,” said Ricci. “Joining forces with Barclays marks a pivotal moment in our journey—one that amplifies our ability to reach even more people through innovative lending solutions that truly make a difference. This transaction is a testament to the strength of the incredible business we’ve built over the past 12 years, our talented team, and the trust we’ve earned from our customers. Together with Barclays, we’re excited to accelerate our growth and continue shaping the future of consumer finance in ways that are both meaningful and impactful.”
Barclays’ US Consumer Bank will leverage Best Egg’s digital and risk capabilities to enhance its credit card business that provides unsecured personal lending to customers by partnering with co-brand card partner programs. Buying Best Egg provides the bank an on-ramp into a well-established lending platform with proven underwriting and distribution capabilities. It also signals Barclays’ intent to diversify beyond credit cards and move into unsecured lending.
Barclays Group Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan described the acquisition as a key growth opportunity within the bank’s long-term US strategy. “The deep and sophisticated US consumer finance market offers rich prospects for growth at Barclays,” said Venkatakrishnan. “The transaction will strengthen our US Consumer Bank and offers an exciting opportunity to significantly bolster our capabilities in personal lending.”
Once the acquisition is complete, Barclays plans to leverage this same model while retaining a small portion of Best Egg’s new lending flow on its balance sheet.
Denny Nealon, CEO of Barclays US Consumer Bank, said the move supports the company’s broader goal of diversification and scale in US retail banking. “This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our strategy to grow and diversify our US consumer banking business,” said Nealon. “As a leader in the personal loans market, Best Egg gives us the ability to reach more US consumers through a proven platform that has been successful for over a decade. We look forward to welcoming Best Egg’s customers as well as its talented and experienced management team and colleagues upon closing in 2026.”
Digital payment solutions company Thredd has teamed up with lending and credit platform LoanPro this week. The UK-based company will leverage LoanPro’s credit platform to underpin its new suite of credit solutions, which will allow it to deliver full-stack embedded issuing and processing capabilities.
Thredd was founded in 2007 and offers real-time card issuing and processing capabilities to help clients personalize and differentiate their credit offerings. Integrating LoanPro’s composable credit infrastructure into its offerings will help Thredd expand further into the credit and lending space, enabling clients to launch and manage credit programs with greater flexibility and speed.
Commenting on the partnership, Thredd CEO Jim McCarthy emphasized the growing importance of credit-led innovation in embedded finance. “Credit-based value propositions drive not only more opportunities for both B2B and B2C verticals, but also generate more revenue for issuers, fintechs, and enterprises,” said McCarthy. “LoanPro’s platform solves much of the inherent complexity in providing truly differentiated credit, allowing us to offer our clients the tools to build sticky, profitable credit products, while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency.”
Founded in 2016, LoanPro has helped 600+ lenders launch 2,000 unique credit programs, upgrading their borrower, agent, and back-office operations. The Utah-based company’s composable architecture, built on a modern lending core, allows lenders to enhance their origination, servicing, payments, and collections operations.
LoanPro Co-Founder and CEO Rhett Roberts said that the partnership combines the strengths of both companies to accelerate how credit products are designed and deployed. “There is a massive opportunity to launch credit products in the U.S. and globally in a way that truly meets consumers and businesses where they are,” Roberts said. “The future of finance is personalized. Thredd brings together the entire ecosystem needed to launch revolving credit products, and with LoanPro’s modern, composable platform, clients can personalize and differentiate their offerings at scale in a way that drives share of wallet. We’re proud to support Thredd’s vision for global credit innovation.”
The partnership highlights how embedded finance providers are converging around full-stack, credit-enabled platforms. As banks, non-banks, and fintechs continue to embed lending and credit capabilities into their platforms, partnerships like this one blur the lines between payment processing, issuing, and credit management. Teaming up with LoanPro will place Thredd at the intersection of modern card issuing and next-generation credit infrastructure.
LoanPro has participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr 2021, and demoed its loan management system at FinovateSpring 2021.
Data intelligence platform GoodData has unveiled a suite of finance-focused applications for its recently launched composable AI platform.
The company’s new offering combines its AI Lake, AI Hub, and AI Apps into a single platform that will give financial institutions the tools they need in order to build and deploy AI agents.
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, GoodData most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2017 in New York.
The challenge of managing unstructured and unorganized data across multiple platforms—let alone turning that data into actionable insights—is a difficult one for financial institutions. And for those firms looking to take advantage of AI to add personalization, greater efficiency, and agility to their operations, these data management challenges are all the more acute.
Add to this the unique regulatory and data governance demands in financial services, including transparency and auditability, and it is clear to see why a growing number of fintechs are working to create solutions that enable firms to deploy trusted AI technologies at scale that feature built-in governance, including semantic grounding and compliance controls.
One such innovator is full-stack data intelligence platform GoodData, which has just launched a set of new finance-focused applications for its recently unveiled composable AI platform. The new offering combines GoodData’s AI Lake, AI Hub, and AI Apps into a single platform for enterprise data intelligence, giving financial institutions the tools they need to build and deploy AI agents.
GoodData’s platform will bring trusted automation to banks, insurers, and other financial institutions via embeddable, compliant, and auditable AI agents. The agents detect and investigate fraud in seconds, providing the kind of audit trails that regulators can rely on and keeping portfolios compliant in real-time. This makes the compiling, checking, and disclosure submission processes of regulatory reporting easier, while still maintaining the high standards for compliance, governance, and security that are required in financial services.
“Financial institutions face some of the world’s strictest data governance rules, and our goal is to make compliance simpler,” GoodData CEO Roman Stanek said. “This platform lets them innovate with AI while ensuring transparency, trust, and regulatory alignment, modernizing client experiences and improving risk management without compromise.”
GoodData’s layered platform features AI Lake, which transforms structured and unstructured financial data into a governed semantic layer, ensuring AI agents are grounded in accurate, compliant, and context-aware data to enhance decision-making. The platform also includes AI Hub, which delivers orchestration and governance with built-in guardrails, escalation paths, and compliance workflows; and AI Apps, embeddable agents, copilots, and automations that add personalization to client-facing applications and enhance back-office operations, including regulatory reporting and fraud detection.
Headquartered in San Francisco, California and founded in 2007, GoodData last demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2017. The company’s composable platform empowers businesses to turn data into insights and insights into action, and integrates into any data environment across public, private, on-premises, or hybrid cloud. GoodData leverages no-code interfaces, SDKs, and APIs to support the full data analytics lifecycle from data modeling to AI-powered insights. Today, more than 140,000 organizations and 3+ million users including Visa, Travelodge, and Twilio rely on GoodData’s technology.
The initial agenda for FinovateEurope 2026—February 10 and February 11 at the Intercontinental O2 in London—has just been released. And while there are still plenty of elements to be added to the two-day event, we are already seeing the contours of a conference that will help attendees better understand the opportunities in emerging technologies like quantum computing, learn the latest strategies for fighting fraud and financial crime, and find the most effective use cases for both AI and digital assets like stablecoins.
There’s plenty to share in the weeks to come. For now, here are six of the early highlights from Days One and Two.
Day One: All About AI
Boom, bubble, or something else entirely, the AI revolution in technology continues to be one of the defining characteristics of innovation in our times. To this end, the first day of FinovateEurope 2026 will feature a number of sessions dedicated to the AI phenomenon and how banks and other financial institutions are putting this new technology to use to offer new products and services faster and better serve their corporate and retail customers.
On the afternoon of Day One, FinovateEurope will host an Executive Briefing titled The AI Competitive Imperative & Ten Solutions You Need to Know About Today. This session will discuss how firms can successfully integrate AI into core financial services operations. The briefing will cover strategies to deploy AI safely and compliantly, ensure that AI initiatives are aligned with the company’s business and change management strategy, and successfully scale their AI projects from pilot to production.
Later that afternoon, FinovateEurope will feature a Keynote Address: Agentic AI—A New Frontier in Banking, How Can FIs Harness it to Reimagine Enterprise Processes. Agentic AI is one of the most exciting developments in AI, with applications from cybersecurity to e-commerce. What needs to happen to ensure that Agentic AI delivers real value for both customers and banks? And what about the issues of trust and identity? How should banks operate in a brave new world in which bots are customers? Our keynote address on Agentic AI will cover all this and more.
FinovateEurope 2026 wraps up Day One with a Power Panel: AI, Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, Beyond the Hype—How Financial Institutions Can Use AI to Make Money or Save Money. This panel will showcase a variety of viewpoints on where we are in terms of AI, fintech, and financial services. Where are the greatest opportunities: product innovation or customer journeys? What are the best use cases for financial institutions and do we have the right KPIs to measure success? And what does it mean for financial institutions to “lean into” the opportunities in AI—where do the potential rewards most clearly outweigh the potential risks?
Day Two: Cyber Security, Quantum Computing, and Stablecoins
If Day One is dedicated to all things AI, Day Two offers a tour of many of the other enabling technologies and top challenges in fintech and financial services.
Wednesday morning, FinovateEurope will feature a Power Panel: Financial Crime & Cyber Security—How Banks & Fintechs Can Work Together to Meet the Challenges of the Digital Era. This session will look at some of the new tools and technologies that are available to help combat financial crime. The conversation will cover the role of digital identity and biometric authentication—as well as AI and machine learning—in the current fight against the fraudsters. The panel will also examine ways that fintechs and banks can partner to better defend customers from both contemporary and evolving threats.
AI is not the only advanced technology that fintechs and banks are exploring. Quantum computing, with processing power that dwarfs that of supercomputers, could have a major impact on industries from technology to communications to defense. FinovateEurope’s Quick Fire Keynote: How Quantum Computing Could Transform Banking—What Are the Use Cases for Banks? will provide insightful commentary on what bankers—and their technology partners—need to know about the promise and risks of quantum computing.
There are many areas where the UK and Europe are ahead of the US—sustainability, open banking and open finance, for example. But has the new clarity in stablecoins in the US courtesy of the Genius Act given the States an edge vis-à-vis the UK and Europe when it comes to these digital assets? FinovateEurope’s Fireside Chat: Stablecoins and Tokenized Deposits in the Real World—Hype vs Reality will look at the current regulatory status of digital assets like stablecoins in the EU and discuss what to look for in the next phase of cryptocurrency adoption in the region.
There’s plenty more conversation coming—from discussions about bank modernization and the power of platform banking partnerships to the growth of open banking, open data, and open finance. Be sure to check out our FinovateEurope 2026 hub—as well as our coverage here on the Finovate blog—for the latest updates.
As AI agents begin transacting on behalf of users, traditional payment and identity models fall short of providing the trust these systems require.
Prove is introducing its Verified Agent solution that links verified identity, intent, payment credentials, and consent through a cryptographically backed chain of custody for every autonomous transaction.
By replacing weak verification methods with multi-factor authentication and cryptographic proof, Prove aims to make agentic commerce safe enough to scale globally.
There has been plenty of hype around agentic commerce this fall, but many of the announcements surrounding agentic shopping and payments have leap-frogged an important issue: agent identity verification.
Digital identity company Prove is helping to solve this issue today with its new launch, the Prove Verified Agent, which aims to provide a trust and verification layer for autonomous agents acting on behalf of consumers and businesses. The new Verified Agent tool works by creating an end-to-end chain of custody that links verified identity, intent, payment credentials, and consent backed by cryptographic proof.
Agentic commerce, which could add more than $1 trillion in annual economic value, is different from the traditional four-party payment model that leverages legacy rails and identity verification. These models were not designed to allow AI agents to act on behalf of users, and agentic commerce can’t scale on traditional identity rails.
Recognizing that agentic commerce depends on verified trust between humans and machines, Prove’s leadership emphasized how identity must sit at the heart of this new ecosystem. “The vision and benefits of agentic commerce cannot be realized without trust,” said Prove CEO Rodger Desai. “Our foundational principle has always been to enable secure transactions by verifying identity and consent without friction. That approach positions Prove to lead in the agentic economy. Our platform is purpose-built for a future where bots act on our behalf, with identity that is native to every transaction and built on frontier identity principles.”
Prove’s Verified Agent offers a new trust framework that is built on the Prove Identity Graph, creating a cryptographically backed “chain of custody” for every autonomous transaction. The system begins by anchoring a verified digital identity to real-world attributes—such as phone numbers, national IDs, and payment credentials—tying each agent’s actions to a legitimate individual or business.
After tying the verified person or entity to an attribute, Prove issues signed digital credentials to authorized agents. These credentials enable agents to transact on behalf of their users, while counterparties can instantly verify their authenticity using cryptographic checks. Every identity and transaction is cross-referenced against a live registry of agent publishers, relying parties, merchants, payment networks, and CDNs to filter out unverified automation. Once verified, agents are authorized to act on behalf of a verified individual or entity, and Prove maintains the link between verified identity, intent, payment credentials, and consent.
To further protect users, Prove’s Verified Agent replaces text-based verification and one-time passwords with multi-factor authentication and session-level authorization limits, reducing phishing attempts and ensuring that each agent operates strictly within a user’s explicit consent. Additionally, every interaction is completely auditable. The interactions among agents, merchants, and users are co-signed by both user and merchant keys to provide cryptographic evidence for dispute resolution, chargeback protection, and regulatory reporting.
By creating this trust, Prove anticipates that it will enable global ecosystems to participate in the agentic economy without fear of identity violations.
Modern treasury solutions company Qolo has forged a “strategic alignment” with Huntington National Bank.
The alignment comes as the two companies unveiled a new virtual account management (VAM) platform, Connected Deposits, and follows a strategic investment Huntington made in Qolo earlier this year.
Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.
There is a wide range of challenges facing banks when it comes to treasury management these days. Interest rate uncertainty, rising regulatory scrutiny and compliance costs, working capital optimization, and technology challenges—from modernization to cybersecurity—are all issues that have made treasury management that much more difficult for CFOs, treasury managers, and their teams.
Over the summer, PwC published its 2025 Global Treasury Survey which showed how “the role of treasury continues to evolve into a more strategic, innovative and data-driven partner” that is a fundamental part of value creation for businesses. Quantitatively, the survey noted that approximately 40% of its 350 respondents—treasurers from around the world—said that they were not leveraging an in-house banking or payment centralization model. 65% of organizations queried said that they are planning to expand API use in the next few years.
This is the context in which we learn that modern treasury solutions provider Qolo has announced a “strategic alignment” with Huntington National Bank. The alignment follows a minority strategic investment the financial institution made in the Fort Lauderdale-based fintech earlier this year, and comes as the two companies announced the launch of a new virtual account management (VAM) platform, Connected Deposits, for Huntington National Bank’s commercial customers.
“Our alignment with Huntington reflects a shared vision for the future of commercial banking,” Qolo Founder and CEO Patricia Montesi said. “Treasury management is getting more complex and dynamic across almost every industry, making Virtual Account Management tools like the one Huntington is launching with Qolo increasingly essential. Together, we’ve built a solution that empowers businesses to operate with greater agility, transparency, and control.”
Connected Deposits is a Virtual Account Management (VAM) platform, built on Qolo’s technology, that enables real-time cash visibility, automated reconciliation, and seamless fund segregation for multi-entity businesses—all within a single parent account. The new offering is designed to help the bank’s corporate customers better manage their complex operational needs—from payments to reporting—via an API-first architecture.
Qolo anticipates that Connected Deposits will show banks how technology can enhance treasury management by reducing account maintenance costs and eliminating manual payment reconciliations. Instead, Connected Deposits, with its real-time visibility into cash positions across all entities and projects, not only enhances compliance and risk controls, but also generates new fee income opportunities for banks via modern treasury services.
“With Qolo’s technology powering Connected Deposits, we’re able to offer enhanced efficiency across complex cash management needs for our commercial clients,” Huntington’s head of national deposits, Alex Tsarnas, said. “This platform strengthens our ability to serve clients with specialized requirements while reinforcing Huntington’s commitment to innovation and client-centric solutions.”
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its Companion Core provided banks with fintech functionality that worked in tandem with their current systems, enabling them to offer their customers a range of new services without the need to undergo a disruptive, wholesale core replacement.
The final week of October is always a little extra spooky, as it signals that the start of the holiday season is just days away. The week also generally brings an onslaught of company announcements, as organizations rush to publish their latest news before audiences become distracted by the holidays. Here is some of the biggest news from this week so far. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Payments
Mastercard and CitibringCiti Flex Pay Installments to more retailers at checkout.
Worldpayunveils AI-powered 3D Secure optimization service to increase payment approvals.
PayQuickerannouncesFlex, a business-ready stablecoin alternative for global payouts.
Bold.orgpartners with Wildfire to launch first debit card rewards program for purchases on AI platforms.
PayNearMeenhancesPayXM with the rollout of AI-powered Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA).
Modern Treasury announced its first acquisition, purchasing stablecoin and fiat payments company Beam to expand its real-time money movement capabilities.
The deal unifies fiat and stablecoin rails under Modern Treasury’s single API and will support RTP, FedNow, ACH, wires, Push-to-Card, and stablecoin payments while streamlining compliance through built-in KYC, KYB, and AML.
By combining Beam’s stablecoin technology with Modern Treasury’s scale, the company is positioning itself as a bridge between traditional and blockchain payments.
Payment operations platform Modern Treasury marked its first acquisition today. The San Francisco-based company announced this week it has purchased payments company Beam for an undisclosed amount.
Modern Treasury plans to use Beam, which offers both stablecoin and fiat payments capabilities for customers like Sling Money, to broaden its own money movement platform to include both traditional and stablecoin settlement rails.
Beam was founded in 2022 and has since processed more than $350 million in payments across the globe that have enabled small and medium-sized businesses to manage their cross-border operations. The company has raised $7 million and is backed by investors including Archetype, Castle Island Ventures, Arca, A*, and Soma.
“Instant payments and stablecoins are the future of money movement,” said Modern Treasury Co-founder and CEO Matt Marcus. “Beam has proven traction delivering real-time payments for stablecoin-native payment flows. Modern Treasury has processed hundreds of billions of dollars on our platform. Together, we’re creating the best infrastructure to move money instantly—without the delays and limitations of banks or card-first payment providers.”
Modern Treasury will support real-time payments via stablecoins, Push-to-Card, and traditional rails like RTP, FedNow, ACH, and wires. The company simplifies the application with its single API that handles compliance elements such as KYC, KYB, and AML, which allows it to replace six months of onboarding and compliance work with just a few API calls.
“Beam was founded on the belief that stablecoins can play a major role in the future of payments, but to make that real, you need scale, regulatory strength, and trusted infrastructure,” said Beam Founder and CEO Dan Mottice. “By joining forces, we’re accelerating that vision. Beam’s stablecoin and fiat orchestration capabilities will be woven directly into Modern Treasury’s platform to unlock instant pay-ins and payouts, FX efficiency, and next-generation liquidity management, all within a trusted enterprise-grade system.”
Mottice, who previously led Visa’s crypto settlement products and Visa Direct Payouts, is joining Modern Treasury as Head of Beam as part of today’s deal.
Modern Treasury’s acquisition of Beam is a great example of how stablecoins are not only becoming mainstream, but they are also becoming a key way for organizations to differentiate themselves in the enterprise payments space.
As stablecoins gain regulatory clarity and businesses demand faster, always-on settlement, Modern Treasury is positioning itself as the connective tissue between fiat and blockchain rails. Because it brings both traditional and stablecoin payments under one API and compliance framework, Modern Treasury sets itself apart in the crowded global money movement space.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global examines recent fintech news from Mexico.
Earlier this month, ResearchAndMarkets.com published its Mexico Embedded Finance Databook Report for 2025. The 230-page report noted that the embedded finance market in Mexico is expected to reach more than $18 billion this year and top $22 billion by the end of 2030. Among the key takeaways from the report is the increasing traction of embedded credit products such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), and the growth of embedded payments in mobility, food delivery, and social commerce driven by growing smartphone use and government support for digital, real-time payments options. Embedded finance solutions such as lending are enabling non-fintech businesses in Mexico to leverage APIs and BaaS to expand their offerings, the report notes. This is helping bring more financial services to underserved communities in the country. It is also creating greater competition for companies in both the lending and payments spaces.
Mexican Fintech Plata Double Valuation on Latest $250 Million Fundraise
Mexican digital financial platform Plata has secured $250 million in new equity funding. The round, which includes both a primary equity raise and a secondary equity transaction, was led by Kora and featured participation from Moore Strategic Ventures, Audio Ventures, Spice Expeditions, Hedosophia, as well as several US and European family offices. The funding builds on an earlier investment by Televisa-Univision and boosts Plata’s valuation to $3.1 billion.
“The growth we have achieved in such a short time demonstrates a clear strategy and a shared conviction: build a strong institution from its foundations,” Plata CEO and Co-Founder Neri Tollardo said. “This transaction reflects investors’ confidence, the strength of our technological model, and the talent we have assembled. We set out to create a digital bank built on innovation, operational excellence, compliance, and efficiency—and today, we are seeing the results of that effort.”
Plata received its banking license in December 2024 and is waiting for authorization to begin banking operations. The company boasts its own technological and operational infrastructure, including a core banking system that enables a fully digital, branchless model with automated risk management and 24/7 personalized customer service. Over the past 30 months, Plata has topped the two million mark in terms of active credit customers, making it one of the fastest-growing digital financial platforms in Latin America. The company’s Plata Card gives users two months to pay without interest and up to 15% of cash back in real money.
“We believe Plata represents the new standard for digital banking in emerging markets,” Kora Co-Founder Nitin Saigal said. “In a very short time, the company has demonstrated impressive execution, combining technological innovation with a clear vision for financial inclusion. We are excited to continue strengthening our partnership and to support Plata in this new phase of growth.”
Revolut obtains Mexican banking license; SumUp goes live
This week we learned that two Finovate alums—Revolut and SumUp—are actively exploring opportunities in Mexico. Revolut announced this week that it has received final regulatory approval to initiate banking operations in Mexico. The authorization came from the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), with approval of the Bank of Mexico. Now a Multiple Banking Institution in Mexico, Revolut is the first independent digital bank to directly apply for and complete the full licensing and approval process in the country.
“We are exceptionally proud of our team and the bank we have built here in Mexico,” Revolut Bank S.A., Institución de Banca Múltiple CEO Juan Miguel Guerra said. “We are very grateful to the authorities for this vote of confidence and their commitment to fostering competition in the industry, and we are confident that our offering will benefit millions of people across the country.”
Revolut is a digital banking and financial services platform that offers a wide range of solutions, including multi-currency accounts with real-time exchange rates; stock, cryptocurrency, commodity, and ETF investing and trading; as well as business accounts, corporate cards, and expense management tools. Founded in 2015, Revolut serves as a financial services “super app” for more than 65 million customers around the world.
Meanwhile, payments platform SumUp announced its official launch in Mexico this week. The company has introduced its SumUp Go card reader to the Mexican market, enabling merchants to accept payments anytime, anywhere, with no monthly fixed costs. The card reader is compatible with all major credit and debit cards and features both exceptional battery life and unlimited 4G cellular connectivity due to its built-in SIM.
“Expanding into Mexico marks a pivotal step in SumUp’s strategic growth across Latin America,” SumUp North America CEO Andrew Helms said. “We see remarkable potential in the region and recognize a strong demand for accessible, user-friendly payment solutions that streamline business operations. At SumUp, our mission is to simplify business for our merchants and we’re delighted to bring this commitment to Mexico.”
Founded in 2012, SumUp counts more than four million merchants in 37 markets as users of its payment processing solutions and business management tools. These include mobile card readers and point-of-sale (POS) systems, as well as solutions for sales tracking and inventory management, customer loyalty programs, and financial reporting and analytics.
Revolut has been a Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope 2015. SumUp won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. Both companies are headquartered in London.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Oman’s BankDhofar launched its new braille debit card.
The Cooperative Bank of Oromia, a regional bank based in Ethiopia, partnered with digital transformation company JMR Infotech to go live with Oracle Financial Services Crime and Compliance Studio.
Saudi National Bank subsidiary Samba Bank unveiled its new fraud detection system powered by BPC’s SmartVista Fraud Management.
Central and Southern Asia
Mongolian fintech AND Global raised $21.4 million in Series B funding in a round led by the International Finance Corporation and AEON Financial Service.
Karandaaz Pakistan and Walee Financial Services forged a strategic partnership to launch Pakistan’s first Shariah-compliant, digital asset financing solution for female entrepreneurs.
Three of Japan’s largest banks—MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsuio Banking Corp, and Mizuho Bank—announced plans to collaborate on the launch of a unified stablemcoin.
Tracxn’s recently released Southeast Asia FinTech Reportnoted that fintech startups in the region raised $839 million in the first nine months of 2025, a decline from previous years.
African all-in-one financial platform Moniepoint secured more than $200 million in Series C funding.
Sanlam teamed up with TymeBank to build a co-branded fintech super app for consumers in South Africa.
Capitec Bank partnered with accounting software company Stub to provide South African small and micro-sized businesses with direct access to their transactional data.
Central and Eastern Europe
German fintech Aifinyo AG announced that it was converting its balance sheet to bitcoin, becoming the first German firm to adopt a full bitcoin treasury model.
SoftPOS solutions company MineSec inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU with Turkish digital payments company Paymore.
Latvian fintech Eleving Group raised €275 million ($319.5 million) via a public bond issue.
Splitit and DXC Technology are partnering to bring AI-powered, card-linked installment payments to banks using DXC’s Hogan core banking platform, enabling personalized BNPL functionality directly from existing cards and accounts.
The collaboration will help banks reclaim BNPL market share by eliminating friction while giving institutions the flexibility to originate installment loans on their own books or through Splitit.
DXC’s bank clients will be able to embed installment capabilities within their own traditional banking infrastructure, helping them modernize, retain customer relationships, and compete on flexibility and user experience.
Georgia-based BNPL solutions provider Splititannounced it is collaborating with DXC Technology (DXC) to help banks compete on BNPL.
DXC Technology and Splitit have joined forces to bring card-linked installment payments to banks using DXC’s Hogan core banking platform. The integration enables banks to offer personalized, AI-powered installment plans at checkout or post-purchase, both online and in person, using cards and accounts customers already trust.
Hogan supports more than 300 million accounts across 40+ major banks with $5 trillion in deposits. By partnering with Splitit, banks can compete directly with BNPL providers while avoiding the friction of new account openings and serving customers who prefer to pay with debit. The collaboration aims to help banks reclaim market share lost to traditional BNPL players and deliver the flexibility today’s consumers expect.
“For decades, Hogan has been the backbone of the world’s largest banks. This partnership with Splitit shows how that foundation can now be used to create new revenue streams at the point of sale,” said DXC Global Head and General Manager of Financial Services Sandeep Bhanote. “By normalizing installment capabilities across existing accounts, we’re enabling issuers to modernize their offerings without replacing their core—and empowering consumers with flexible payments that use the cards they already trust.”
The benefits of the partnership extend beyond simply providing more payment options for end users. Banks will be able to deploy branded installment offers that appear natively at checkout or within the bank’s online banking portal. Additionally, partnering with Splitit will help DXC offer its bank clients the choice to originate the installments directly on their books or to have Splitit originate the installments.
“BNPL players have disintermediated banks by offering transactional lending at the merchant checkout. This partnership resets the playing field,” said Splitit CEO Nandan Sheth. “Together with DXC, we’re empowering banks to compete head-on with BNPL providers by bringing installments directly into existing bank accounts or issued debit cards. With DXC’s access to over 300 million bank accounts through its core banking platform, our joint technology gives financial institutions a seamless, low-lift way to automatically deliver installment functionality to existing customers. This innovation enables banks to maintain greater control of their customer relationships and attract new younger customers.”
Splitit was founded in 2012, went public in 2019, and went private again in 2023 after it was acquired by Motive Partners. The company seeks to simplify flexible payments, launching a partner program called the Agentic Commerce Partner Program earlier this month. The new initiative will allow autonomous shopping agents to make payments using card-linked installments.
While BNPL has fallen off the list of top trends in the past few years, its use has not dropped. The installment payment solution market is set to grow from $2.23 billion in 2024 to $3.44 billion by 2031, with 72% of merchants saying that they prefer card-linked installments for their simplicity and reach.
By embedding installment functionality into existing cards and core systems, DXC can help banks compete on flexibility without sacrificing customer relationships to third-party fintechs. As BNPL grows, the next wave of BNPL innovation isn’t about new entrants, but about how legacy infrastructure adapts to meet changing consumer expectations.
Deepfake detection company Neural Defend and India’s Zee News have teamed up to launch the country’s first AI-powered, deepfake verification system for news media.
The partnership will enable Zee News consumers to upload suspicious videos, audio clips, or images and have Neural Defend’s technology determine within seconds whether or not the material has been artificially manipulated.
Founded in 2024 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Neural Defend made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London. Piyush Verma is CEO.
Deepfake detection specialist Neural Defend has teamed up with Mumbai-based Zee News to launch India’s first deepfake verification system for news media—powered by AI. The new solution empowers individuals with direct access to advanced verification technology, enabling them to authenticate videos, images, and audio files in real time.
“Our goal was to ensure deepfake detection is fast, accurate, and simple for every citizen,” ZMCL Chief Technology Officer Vijayant Kumar said. “By integrating Neural Defend’s advanced AI with Zee News’ platforms, we’ve created a solution that can detect even the most sophisticated manipulations within seconds. This is not only an innovation for today, but a future-proof safeguard for tomorrow’s information ecosystem.”
The partnership will enable individuals to upload suspicious videos, images, or audio clips and have Neural Defend’s technology analyze the files and confirm their authenticity—or identify the files as artificially manipulated—within seconds. At a time when the average viewer is struggling to differentiate increasingly sophisticated manipulated content, including video, from non-manipulated content, the collaboration between Neural Defend and Zee News gives media consumers new tools to help them “separate fact from fiction in an age where misinformation spreads fast,” said ZMCL Marketing Head Anindya Khare.
“While Gen Z and younger viewers are particularly vulnerable to being misled by fake videos and audio, this initiative ensures a safe and credible space for everyone,” Khare added. “For advertisers and partners, it creates the most reliable environment to engage with audiences—where advanced technology and authenticity come together. This is the future of brand-safe and responsible media.”
Mumbai-based Zee News is one of the leading Hindi news channels in India with more than 52 million viewers. The company is owned by Indian media conglomerate Essel Group and is the flagship channel of Zee Media Corporation. Zee News is publicly traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE), and has a market capitalization of $75 million.
Founded in 2024 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Neural Defend made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London. At the conference, the company demonstrated its agentic AI-powered deepfake detection solution that can be integrated into any video, audio, or image verification platform to offer real-time identity verification to EKYC firms, verification companies, banks, payments service providers, fintechs, and more. Neural Defend’s technology leverages proprietary, multi-layered AI to spot even subtle alterations and manipulations with precision. The solution also boosts security for video and audio calls by instantly detecting and mitigating deepfakes in real time.
What is supplier enablement and why does it offer businesses a way to optimize vendor payments to maximize cash flow or another business outcome? How does the revolution in data management help businesses deal with the challenge of important data that is sequestered in accounting systems? And, finally, what role do automation and AI have in opening up access to that data?
Last month at FinovateFall, I interviewed Peter Zhou, Co-Founder and CEO of Rutter. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in New York City, the company offers a unified API to help companies add accounting, commerce, and payment integrations into their B2B product workflows. A trusted integration partner for companies such as Airwallex, Mercury, and Ramp, Rutter empowers businesses to build and launch products in lending, expense management, AP/AR automation, and more.
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Peter Zhou is a graduate of Yale University, with both Bachelor’s and Master of Science degrees in Computer Science. Before co-founding Rutter, Zhou was a software engineer with San Francisco, California-based professional services company Atrium.
