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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Monzo launched Team, a new offering aimed at larger small businesses that outgrow its Business Pro and Lite plans.
Team includes the same tools as Pro and Lite plans, but also offers features such as employee expense cards, bulk payments, and account access for up to 15 members.
Team is available in the U.K. and is priced at £25 per month.
U.K.-based digital banking platform Monzo is building out its small business offerings this week with the launch of Team.
Monzo’s Team offering complements Monzo Business Pro and Monzo Business Lite plans, which collectively serve more than 500,000 businesses. The digital bank created Team to serve businesses that are too large to have their needs met by either the Pro or Lite plans.
“With Team, we’re bringing that to bigger small businesses by introducing features that teams need to help run the business day-to-day,” the company said in its blog post announcement. “Bigger, more complex teams up and down the country whose needs weren’t being met by our Lite and Pro plans before.”
Monzo’s Team product comes with all of the products and services that Lite and Pro offer, including Tax Pots for tax savings accounts, invoicing, integrated accounting and more. Additionally, the new Team accounts come with employee expense cards, offer the ability to create payment approval limits, as well as the capabilities to tailor individual account access levels for up to 15 people.
Notably, Team also allows for bulk payments. Businesses can use Team to upload payee details and make multiple payments at the same time for things like salaries and suppliers, without having to worry about manually entering the payee details every time.
Limited companies can have up to 15 team members and sole traders can have a team of three people and set what individual team members can see and do. Pricing for Teams, which is currently only available to businesses in the U.K., starts at $32 (£25) a month.
Founded in 2015, Monzo is one of the earlier small business digital bank providers. The company also offers personal accounts. With 10 million personal credit card holders, Monzo also provides savings, pension, investments, debit cards, and loan products. Monzo’s competitors include well known brands such as Revolut, Starling, N26, and Monese.
Payments credit union service organization (CUSO) Velera has turned to Arroweye Solutions for its dual interface debit and credit card portfolio.
The multi-year partnership will provide faster speed to market and change orders, as well as zero inventory to avoid having to manage stores of pre-printed cards.
Headquartered in Nevada, Arroweye made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2011.
Payments credit union service organization (CUSO) Velera has partnered with Arroweye Solutions to provide card production, personalization, and fulfillment for Velera’s dual interface debit and credit card portfolio.
The multi-year partnership announced this week will enable Arroweye to provide Velera and its financial institution partners with a variety of benefits for their card programs. These include fast speed to market and change orders; dynamic card personalization; zero inventory as cards are manufactured, personalized, and fulfilled as needed; quality materials, vertical or horizontal orientation, and other options.
“Supporting Velera’s card diversification strategy, Arroweye’s capabilities will help Velera enhance time to market and deliver a more seamless, frictionless card personalization experience to our financial institutions’ clients,” Velera SVP for Product Enablement & Growth, Cody Banks said. “We view Arroweye as a true financial services partner and look forward to integrating their suite of capabilities into our core offering.”
Arroweye CEO Dan Oswald praised Velera as a “premier fintech solutions provider for credit unions in North America.” Oswald added, “Arroweye’s solutions and capabilities align perfectly with Velera’s card issuance needs today and into the future, and we look forward to providing Arroweye’s best-in-class services to their financial institutions.”
Created via a merger between PSCU and Co-op Solutions earlier this year, Velera is both a premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO) and an integrated fintech solutions provider. Velera serves more than 4,000 financial institutions throughout North America, offering a product portfolio that features solutions for payment processing, fraud and risk management, data and analytics, digital banking, instant payments, strategic consulting, ATM and POS networks, and more. Charles E. Fagan III is President and CEO.
Founded in 2000, Arroweye Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2011. In the years since, the Henderson, Nevada-based company has grown into a leading card delivery firm, offering EMV, dual-interface, and magnetic stripe cards approved by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and UnionPay.
This year, Arroweye has formed partnerships with small business financial services platform Affinity Finance and professional banking services provider BankPro, a subsidiary of FxPro Group. The company has raised more than $76 million in funding according to Crunchbase, and includes Multiplier Capital and Landa Ventures among its investors.
Tyfoneannounced the formation of a new spinout today. The company launched the new entity, Payfinia, to provide instant payment solutions to both financial institutions and third-party organizations.
Payfinia aims to help financial institutions access and establish ownership of their instant payments services. The company also helps third-party organizations across various industries integrate instant payments with traditional payment tools into their existing payment and money movement use cases including A2A, P2P, Bill Payment, B2B and B2C disbursements.
Tyfone formed Payfinia by shifting its IP and technology, including advanced UX and security protocols, to the new company. Payfinia hinges on Tyfone’s Instant Payment Xchange (IPX), a money movement gateway to FedNow that will serve as Payfinia’s flagship offering.
Tyfone launched its IPX platform in July 2023, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve’s FedNow instant payment service. Since launch, IPX has converted nearly 30% of same-day ACH credit transactions into send transactions on push instant payment systems, routing existing payment solutions through networks like FedNow. Launching Payfinia will help Tyfone further build on the instant payments experience.
“We’ve seen remarkable results with our Instant Payment Xchange, achieving 50% less fraud compared to Same-Day ACH and fourfold reductions over other P2P solutions,” said Tyfone CEO Siva Narendra. “As we launch Payfinia, we’re doubling down on security with cryptographic, deterministic methods aimed at countering AI-driven fraud risks, while ensuring instant payments remain efficient, secure and accessible. This is just the beginning of Payfinia’s impact across industries.”
Integrating FedNow’s instant payments service, which the U.S. Federal Reserve launched in July of 2023, has led to a host of challenges for banks. These challenges include building a complex integration for real-time payment systems, maintaining compliance with security standards, and ensuring a seamless user experience across digital platforms.
With IPX, Payfinia is positioned to help financial services companies overcome these obstacles. That’s because the IPX platform offers real-time connectivity to both FedNow and RTP networks, helping banks eliminate the need for multiple integrations when adopting both instant payment systems. Additionally, Payfinia provides enhanced security and compliance as well as user-friendly digital tools that can help firms integrate the new technology into their existing interface. Payfinia also ensures a scalable, unified experience across multiple channels.
Tyfone is one of the earlier Finovate alums, having demoed at the first Finovate event to take place in San Francisco– FinovateSpring 2008. At the show, Tyfone Co-Founder Siva Narendra demoed a memory card for a mobile phone that facilitated contactless payments. The company, which used to focus on mobile-only solutions, began developing for multiple channels in 2014.
Tyfone was founded in 2004 and provides digital banking and payment solutions. In addition to its instant payments tools, the Oregon-based company offers nFinia, an enterprise solution that allows community financial institutions to deliver a hyper-personalized digital banking experience to both retail and commercial customers. The configurable solution offers more than 300 financial functions and provides an open ecosystem with direct integrations with more than 160 players.
Brex and Navan have teamed up to launch BrexPay for Navan, a business travel and payments solution that combines Brex’s global payments infrastructure with Navan’s travel-booking system.
The new tool leverages Navan Connect and Brex Embedded, and will allow companies to use their existing payment cards while benefitting from automated receipts and reconciliation.
This partnership will offer Navan a competitive edge by creating a scalable travel program with local currency cards and a seamless payments integration.
Corporate card and expense management fintech Brex has partnered with travel and expense solution Navan to launch a joint offering.
The new product, BrexPay for Navan, is an integrated business travel and payments solution for Navan users that streamlines travel payments into a single workflow when using the Navan travel management system. The new tool taps Navan Connect, a card-link technology that allows companies to use their existing payment cards and banking relationships, and Brex’s embedded finance tool, Brex Embedded.
The result of the collaboration is a direct integration between Brex’s global payments infrastructure and Navan’s travel-booking infrastructure. The new tools offer Navan’s business clients higher limits than legacy cards and local currency cards across more than 50 countries, a scalable travel program that facilitates compliance and helps reduce costs, and automated receipts and reconciliation that saves companies hours of accounting time each month.
“With BrexPay for Navan, we are bringing something truly unique and monumental to the market,” said Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi. “By combining Brex’s fast onboarding, global acceptance, and homegrown financial stack with Navan’s end-to-end business travel offering into one solution, customers now have access to a payments and travel experience that is beyond any other corporate travel and payments solution.”
For Navan, integrating payments into its existing corporate travel booking tool has the potential to both attract new clients and maintain its existing client base. That’s because for Navan, integrating payments into its existing corporate travel booking tool has the potential to both attract new clients and maintain its existing client base by offering businesses a single, cohesive solution for managing both travel and payments, eliminating the need to juggle multiple platforms.
By combining Brex’s multi-faceted financial infrastructure with Navan’s travel management system, companies benefit from higher credit limits, local currency options, and automated reconciliation, making it easier to scale travel programs globally while saving time and reducing costs. The move not only simplifies operations, but also enhances the overall user experience, giving Navan a competitive edge in a market that values efficiency and innovation.
Brex was founded in 2017 to create a digital-first business banking solution. The company offers business bank accounts with credit cards that have built-in rewards, spend controls, and expense tracking. The accounts provide businesses access to their online revenue, billpay tools, and integration with popular accounting tools.
Brex quickly rose to prominence in the fintech space after positioning itself as a digital bank account and card offering for startups. The company sought to solve pain points that often come with corporate cards, including lengthy approval processes and restrictive credit limits. Within just two years, Brex managed to raise billions of dollars in funding and achieve unicorn status.
In 2022, however, as Brex expanded its focus from small businesses to larger, venture-backed companies, the company experienced a downward shift. Because Brex discontinued some of its services geared toward small businesses– its original customer base– many customers left to seek alternative solutions. negative backlash.
Despite the dip, Brex remains a major player in the fintech space, serving “tens of thousands of businesses” ranging from small private companies to large public brands, including Airbnb and Classpass.
The goal of the collaboration is for the bank to leverage Token.io’s open banking connectivity and infrastructure to enhance the customer experience and develop new, real-time payment solutions. Santander will first use Token.io’s infrastructure to enable direct payments from external bank accounts as an option for credit card repayments, creating a more seamless payment experience compared to both direct debit and manual bank transfer. These direct account-to-account payments for card repayments also support biometric Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for payments made on mobile devices.
“We are thrilled to partner with Santander, a forward-thinking institution committed to driving open banking innovation and enhancing the experience of millions of customers,” Token.io CEO Todd Clyde said. “Token.io’s technology, combined with Santander’s dedication to exceptional service, will undoubtedly set new standards for how financial institutions leverage open banking to create innovative value propositions that meet the evolving needs of consumers and businesses.”
A subsidiary of Banco Santander, Santander UK has more than 14 million customers in the U.K. The bank offers mortgages, auto financing, unsecured loans, credit cards, banking, savings and investment accounts, as well as insurance products. In addition to using Token.io’s technology to support its A2A offering, Santander UK also plans to leverage the fintech’s infrastructure to enhance its real-time money movement capabilities for its retail banking customers.
This week’s news from Token.io comes just days after the U.K.-based fintech announced that it had expanded its partnership with global payments platform Ecommpay. The global payments platform added Token.io’s virtual accounts in four new markets — France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain — to its Open Banking Advanced solution. The virtual accounts will enable e-commerce companies to get real-time settlement confirmation and make API-powered refunds or payouts, boosting both the speed and efficiency of transactions.
“Our partnership with Ecommpay continues to demonstrate the immense potential of open banking in transforming payment experiences and also highlights the opportunities that PSPs can realize when they embrace innovative, customer-centric solutions,” Clyde said.
Token.io made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 and returned to the Finovate stage two years later at FinovateEurope in London. The company provides direct connectivity to more than 567 million bank accounts in 20 markets. Token.io’s customers include HSBC, BNP Paribas, and Global Payments, as well as fellow Finovate alums Mastercard and ACI Worldwide. The company has raised $90 million in funding according to Crunchbase, most recently securing a Series C investment of $40 million in 2022.
The conversation continues with Greg Palmer, host of the Finovate Podcast. This week, we share three of Greg Palmer’s latest podcast interviews with leaders, innovators, and analysts in fintech and financial services.
Elizabeth Osborne, Chief Operations Officer at Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU), and Greg Palmer talk about successfully onboarding third-party fintechs, from strategy to selection to implementation. EP 231.
Osborne is an experienced operations and information technology leader with a background in both the credit union and banking industries. In her role as COO for GLCU, Osborne oversees areas such as technology, digital, contact center, deposit operations, payments, and PMO.
Max Grande, VP of Vertical Market Solutions at Onbe, and Greg Palmer discuss why you should be thinking about B2C payments. EP 230.
Onbe is a Chicago, Illinois-based fintech that manages and modernizes both consumer and workforce disbursements for corporate clients. The company’s platform powers a suite of turnkey, managed distribution solutions that enable clients to outsource their entire B2C disbursement operation.
Greg Palmer talks with Howard Xiao, Head of Partnerships at VGS, about payments, security, and the importance of staying flexible as an innovator. Ep 229.
As Head of Partnerships at VGS, Xiao leads the global partnership team, managing both VGS’ Payments Partners Channel and Alliance Partners.
VGS is a universal vault that supports the storage and transmission of payment credentials for its business customers around the world. The San Francisco, California-based company demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022.
Revolut has announced the launch of Revolut Terminal, a wireless POS device aimed at larger businesses in the U.K. and Ireland.
Revolut Terminal offers advanced features like multi-location management, customer analytics, and integration with Revolut Pay.
Revolut Terminal is different from the Revolut Reader, which targets micro-businesses.
International challenger bank Revolut is pushing further into the business-to-business space this year. The company just announced the pending launch of Revolut Terminal, an advanced Point of Sale (POS) device designed for larger businesses across the U.K. and Ireland.
The new payment terminal, which is wireless and claims 99.9% uptime, is geared toward helping businesses manage transactions efficiently and securely across multiple physical locations. Revolut plans to launch the Revolut Terminal just ahead of Black Friday, which is timely for businesses that want to prepare for the increase in retail traffic before the holiday season.
Revolut’s new POS device integrates with Revolut Pay and will allow customers to make payments directly from their Revolut accounts without having to enter card or bank details. For merchants, Revolut Pay provides competitive transaction fees, which, at 0.5% + £0.02, are considerably less than traditional card processing fees.
“We’re excited to be offering Revolut Terminal as an all-in-one, powerful POS solution for our business customers,” said Revolut General Manager of Merchant Acquiring Alex Codina. “This launch comes as we continue to invest into our B2B offering and particularly double down on the hospitality and retail industries as an acquirer. A truly reliable payment solution is the difference between closing the sale and losing money, with Black Friday round the corner, Revolut Terminal is built to withstand high customer demand; and it could be yours in time for the busy season at an exclusive, reduced rate.”
In addition to the competitive pricing, the Revolut Terminal provides access to advanced POS features, including multi-location management, table mapping for restaurant businesses, analytics and insights into customer behavior, and integration with customer catalogues.
The Revolut Terminal builds on the success of the Revolut Reader, which the company launched in 2022. The Revolut Reader is a smaller, wireless dongle-type of payment acceptance tool aimed to help micro-businesses and entrepreneurs accept payments at 0.8% + £0.02 per transaction. The lightweight, portable card reader integrates with Revolut Business accounts and offers essential POS functionalities, including tipping and analytics.
Revolut offers an entire suite of tools for its business users. In addition to its flagship multi-currency accounts, the company also provides expense management tools, corporate payment cards, as well as a line of payment acceptance tools that includes hardware, APIs, analytics, and integrations.
“We’re continuing to see lots of momentum in Revolut Business, having this summer surpassed $500 million in annualized revenue and onboarding over 20,000 new customers per month,” said Revolut Business General Manager James Gibson. “Revolut Terminal marks the latest investment in our business customers, with merchants of all sizes now able to easily accept payments directly into their Revolut Business accounts, without juggling multiple providers.”
Last month, the company spun out its wealth management app into a standalone entity. And earlier this year, the company cemented its reputation as Europe’s most valuable fintech after receiving a $45 billion valuation.
Financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank.
TSB bank will visit schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s financial literacy app.
Headquartered in London, Doshi made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024.
Gamified financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank. The financial institution will spend the next six months traveling to schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s app to learn about responsible savings and spending, as well as other issues critical to financial literacy.
The initiative is targeting 1,000 students between the ages of 13 and 18. Doshi features a series of interactive lessons on financial topics based on financial goals such as managing debt or avoiding stress over saving and spending. The app leverages gamification strategies including awarding points and showcasing leaderboards to enable users to check their progress. The app also rewards students who complete the learning modules with perks like shopping vouchers to help boost engagement.
“Entering adulthood Money Confident is vital to ensuring young people are set up to enjoy a lifetime of stable finances and informed financial decisions,” TSB Head of Responsible Business Kate Osiadacz said. “We’re on a mission with Doshi to help young people boost their knowledge using the app’s innovative learning platform, so that they start their financial lives in the best place possible.”
According to the Young Persons’ Money Index, more than 81% of young people worry about money and/or personal finances. Additionally, the same percentage of young people also want to learn more about better managing their finances as part of their school curriculum.
“Only two out of five young adults have received financial education in secondary school,” Doshi CEO Daniel Rose said. “At Doshi, we believe that financial education is essential for building healthy, confident lives.”
In addition to the Doshi app, the company’s technology is available via its own branded, out-of-the-box website as well as via API integration. Regardless of environment, Doshi delivers more than 1,000 pieces of financial wellness and education content, tools, and videos. With more than 30,000 engaged users, the platform has provided more than 100,000 hours of learning and handed out thousands of rewards to users.
Headquartered in London, Doshi App made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company demoed its white-label app that helps banks, credit unions, and fintechs promote financial literacy via a personalized, gamified, learning journeys. In August, the company partnered with Yorkshire Building Society to help provide financial education to first-time, prospective homebuyers.
The partnership between Doshi and TSB Bank is a product of the financial institution’s Money Confident Communities program. This program sends TSB Bank professionals to schools as volunteers to help young people learn more about financial wellness and financial independence. Doshi was one of the companies to successfully apply to TSB Bank’s TSB Labs program which partners with fintechs to enhance the bank’s financial literacy offering.
At the same time, such partnerships are fuel for innovation for fintechs, as well. “As a startup, you don’t get many opportunities to collaborate with senior leaders of a leading U.K. bank,” Rose noted. “Working with TSB has enabled us to co-create an exciting solution with the potential to change the lives of thousands of young adults.”
The idea of a black box has always been unacceptable in financial services. Financial institutions must be able to explain to clients and regulators how decisions are made – are they fair, justified, and sensible?
This is where observability comes in and it can do much more than setting your moral compass right.
In this in-depth discussion, the panel will explore the integration of AI-powered observability and financial services, focusing on how organizations can enhance their operations, ensure data protection, and comply with regulations. The experts will delve into the transformative potential of AI, including Generative AI, in boosting overall productivity and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Why should you attend?
Gain strategic insights: Learn from industry leaders about the latest trends and strategies in AI-powered observability tailored specifically for financial services.
Enhance operational efficiency: Discover how to leverage AI and automation to streamline operations, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.
Real-world applications: See live demonstrations and hear real-life use cases from Dynatrace customers, showcasing practical implementations and outcomes.
Interactive learning: Participate in a live Q&A session with experts, allowing you to get personalized answers to your specific challenges and questions.
Among the panel of experts is Wayne Segar, Field CTO at Dynatrace; Paul Barnhill, Managing Director at Deloitte; and Eric Baran, Principal Segment Leader- DevOps – Global Financial Services at AWS.
With Halloween and the U.S. election on the horizon, things may be getting spookier, but that’s not the case in fintech! We’ve seen some potential good news in VC funding trends and expect that there is more to come. Stay tuned throughout the week to read the latest news this week as we post updates and evolutions.
Regulatory reporting software provider Regnology is acquiring CG3-1, a company that specializes in regulatory calculations for the U.S. broker-dealer industry.
Relyanceraises $32 million to help companies comply with data regulations.
Open banking
Token.io and Santander team up to leverage open banking to enhance credit card repayments.
This edition of the Finovate eMagazine brings you insights from FinovateFall 2024. We spoke to dozens of experts, innovators, and strategists from banks, credit unions, wealth management firms, and insurance companies about the hottest topics in fintech. Learn how they:
Elevate customer experiences From approaching Gen Z and addressing the painpoints of change to empowering employees and enhancing customers’ digital journeys.
Build partnerships As financial institutions share their approaches and how they bring cultures together.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global features news from the fintech scene in Hong Kong.
Worldline partners with BOCHK
International payment services company Worldline has forged a partnership with the Bank of China (Hong Kong), also known as BOCHK. The partnership makes the bank the first Hong Kong-based customer of Worldline’s open platform card solution, Paysuite Essential Edition. Previously called “Cardlite,” the solution will enable BOCHK to enhance the customer experience with new offerings, including its multi-currency Mastercard debit card.
“We are excited to partner with BOCHK, a prestigious bank in the region, to launch our new innovative Paysuite Essential Edition in Hong Kong,” Worldline’s Head of Financial Services Asia-Pacific, Noel Chow, said. “The partnership highlights the trust and confidence from leading financial institutions in our innovative open platform solutions. We believe the partnership paves the way for other banks to modernize their card systems and migrate from legacy systems to open systems.”
BOCHK’s partnership with Worldline reflects the trend in the payments industry toward open platform solutions. Already available in other markets, Worldline’s Paysuite Essential Edition offers issuing, acquiring, authorization, switching, and routing functionality. The technology supports Mastercard’s multi-currency card, and provides an infrastructure that accelerates time-to-market and deployment of new products and services.
Additionally, Worldline will provide a local support team with local expertise to assist BOCHK as it scales its operations in the future. This team will also help ensure the institution will meet Hong Kong banking industry compliance requirements.
“As open platform solutions are the future in digital payments, BOCHK is pleased to partner with Worldline, known for its comprehensive innovative fintech solution and unparalleled local support it offers, to provide our customers with the Mastercard multi-currency debit card powered by its Paysuite Essential Edition,” said Daniel Li, Chief Digital Officer of Personal Banking & Wealth Management, BOCHK. “This collaboration marks a significant step forward in our commitment to delivering seamless payment experiences to our valued customers and promote the wider use of digital payments.”
Worldline made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017. At the conference, the company demoed its Connected Piggy Bank, which helps parents provide financial education for their young children via a “playful” end-to-end savings solution. Today, Worldline processes more than 43 billion payment transactions a year, serves more than 14 million merchants, and is active in 170 countries. Founded in 1972, Worldline is headquartered in Bezons, France.
RD Technologies secures $7.8 million investment
RD Technologies, a Hong Kong-based financial platform that seeks to “bridge the worlds of Web2 and Web3,” has raised $7.8 million in Series A1 financing. Participating in the round were HongShan, Hivemind Capital, Aptos Labs, Hash Global, SNZ Capital, Solana Foundation, Anagram, and Upward Capital. The company will use the funds to further build out its financial platform and help encourage the development of the Web3 ecosystem in Hong Kong.
“The legacy payment industry is ripe to be disrupted using blockchain technology and stablecoins to provide more efficient and cheaper cross-border payment networks,” RD Technologies CEO Rita Liu said. “Hong Kong is leading the world in virtual asset regulation. We are confident that compliant and transparent stablecoins will invigorate the market and address the pain points of traditional payments and finance to bring in institutions and help Hong Kong become a global Web3 hub.”
Founded in 2020, RD Technologies offers two primary solutions via its subsidiaries: the RD Wallet and the HKDR stablecoin (HKDR). RD Wallet is a licensed Stored Value Facility that enables businesses around the world to open multi-currency fiat accounts via mobile device anywhere and at any time. The wallet supports eight currencies — HKD, CNY, USD, JPY, SGD, EUR, GBP, and AUD — that are commonly used in the region, offers fund transfer via TT and CHATS, and provides competitive FX rates with a 0% fee.
Issued by RD InnoTech Limited, the HKDR stablecoin is backed 1:1 by the Hong Kong dollar, with high-quality, liquid assets kept in segregated custody accounts with licensed financial institutions. In July, the firm was one of the first companies to be admitted to the stablecoin issuer sandbox by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
“Hivemind is thrilled to support RD Technologies as they seek to lead the future of stablecoins and cross-border payments,” Hivemind Partner and Head of Asia Stanley Huo said. “We believe regulated stablecoins are a critical growth area in crypto, offering real product-market fit, particularly as global demand for regulated stablecoins rises among enterprises and institutions.”
Checkout.com launches Octopus in Hong Kong
London-based Checkout.com is the first international payment services provider (PSP) to offerOctopus, the leading payment method in Hong Kong, as a payment option at checkout.
With 98% penetration in a region with 7.5 million residents, Octopus is Hong Kong’s first, “homegrown” fintech. Octopus was launched in 1997 as a contactless card for multimodal transportation. In the years since, the solution has grown into a popular and versatile payment system, used for retail and shopping as well as food and beverage transactions both in Hong Kong and abroad. The company introduced its mobile app in 2012 and now reports that there are more than 4.5 million Octopus digital wallets.
“At Octopus, we pride ourselves (on) making everyday life easier,” Octopus Head of Business Development and International Business Edwin Lai said. “This partnership with Checkout.com will enhance and broaden the payment experience not just for our customers, but also merchants within Hong Kong and beyond. We anticipate robust demand from global and local businesses eager to access Hong Kong’s consumers. We hope this collaboration will help support the growth of the city’s digital commerce.”
“Catering to local payment preferences is crucial for success in the Hong Kong market,” Checkout.com General Manager of APAC Brian Sze said. “Our strategic partnership with Octopus underscores Checkout.com’s commitment to investing in our Asia footprint, delivering localized payment solutions that empower merchants to thrive in this dynamic region.”
Founded in 2012, Checkout.com processes payments for thousands of companies around the world. The company’s international digital payments network supports more than 145 currencies, and processes billions of transactions a year. Checkout.com’s technology helps merchants increase acceptance rates, lower processing costs, fight fraud, and transform payments into a significant source of revenues. The company has raised $1.8 billion in funding, most recently closing a $1 billion Series D round in January 2022. Guillaume Pousaz is founder and CEO.
Hong Kong’s fintech celebration only weeks away
Some of the biggest fintech news in Hong Kong is likely less than three weeks away. Hong Kong Fintech Week begins on October 28 and extends through November 1. The event expects to host 30,000 participants and feature 800 speakers and 500 startups. Finovate participated in the city’s Fintech Week back in 2018 as part of FinovateAsia.
We’ll have more to say about fintech in Hong Kong in the wake of the city’s conference. For now, check out this interview with Lareina Wang, who was appointed chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) in August. In this interview, Wang — who is also executive director, head of digital and innovation at DBS Bank Hong Kong — talks about some of the major issues facing both the growth of the association as well as fintechs in Hong Kong.
“We have some of the world’s best universities in town, while, overall, the fintech industry is short of fintech talent,” Wang told FinanceAsia. “Advocating for policies and reaching collaborations might not appeal to them, but they are interested in being educated around fintech topics.”
Founded in 2017, the FTAHK has 300 corporate members.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
86400, a payments technology firm based in India and formerly known as Mobileware Technologies, raised $1.8 million (INR 15.6 crore).
The New South Wales (NSW) government teamed up with Indian incubator Afthonia Labs to help NSW fintech startups enter the Indian market.
An industry organization consisting of fintech lenders, Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), secured “self-regulatory organization” status from the Reserve Bank of India.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazilian paytech Barte raised $8 million in Series A funding in a round led by AlleyCorp.
Norway’s MeaWallet partnered with Peru-based neobank B89.
Grupo Bancolombia’s crypto platform, Wenia, launched its WeniaCard that lets users pay with cryptocurrency at any merchant that accepts Mastercard.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based fintech Surfin announced a $12.5 million Series A investment from Insignia Ventures Partners.
JCB enabled Google Pay for customers in Japan starting on September 6.
Checkout.com added Octopus as a payment method in Hong Kong.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Mastercard and ACI Worldwideteamed up to bring real-time card payments to South Africa.
Network International went live with new payments services in Kenya.
Nigerian’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a crackdown on fraud in the country’s fintech industry.
Central and Eastern Europe
INDEXO Bank partnered withMambu as part of its launch in Latvia.
Austrian payment orchestration platform IXOPAY introduced new CTO Ronnie Thomson.
Croatia-based fintech Fonoa acquired PwC UK’s GITC product to faciliate management of partial tax exemptions.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Calcalist interviewed former CEO of Bank Leumi and current Managing Partner at Team8 Rakefet Russak-Aminoach on the current state of fintech in Israel.
The UAE announced that cryptocurrency transactions will be exempt from value-added tax (VAT) effective November 15.
American Express Middle East forged a partnership with Dubai-based payment gateway Telr.
