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Finovate Global Thailand: Digital Assets, Agentic Transactions, and Moving Money

Finovate Global Thailand: Digital Assets, Agentic Transactions, and Moving Money
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, MasterCard

This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews recent fintech news and headlines from Thailand.

DV8 Public Company to Acquire Rakkar Digital

Pending regulatory approvals, DV8 Public Company has announced plans to acquire Rakkar Digital, a digital asset custody provider, and invest up to $3 million (THB100 million) in the firm. DV8 has inked a share sale and purchase agreement to buy Rakkar’s ordinary shares from its existing shareholders. The transaction marks DV8’s latest entry into regulated digital asset operations. The company invested in Korean digital asset treasury platform Bitplanet in 2025.

Rakkar Digital was established in 2022 as a joint project between SCBX, the parent company of Siam Commercial Bank, and Fireblocks, a global digital asset infrastructure provider. Headquartered in Singapore, Rakkar Digital provides institutional-grade digital asset and cryptocurrency custodian services and has more than $700 million in assets under custody. In a statement, DV8 noted that Rakkar Digital’s regulatory standing, operational framework, and trust among institutional customers made the company a wise acquisition and will help DV8 compete in Asia’s rapidly growing digital asset ecosystem.

Founded in 1978, DV8 Public Company is a media and advertising agency based in Bangkok, Thailand. Formerly known as Demeter Corporation Public Company Limited, the company rebranded in 2020 and is currently transforming itself into a builder of regulated digital asset infrastructure. DV8 announced this pivot last summer, appointing Thai business leader Chatchaval Jiaravanon as its new Chairman and raising approximately $7.4 million (THB 241 million) in funding.

Mastercard and Krungthai Complete Agentic Transaction in Thailand

Mastercard announced that it has completed a pilot project in Thailand to deliver its first authenticated agentic transaction in partnership with Krungthai Card Public Company Limited (KTC). The project featured Mastercard Agent Pay and was initiated by AI agents in a secure, transparent pilot environment with full consumer control. The transaction used tokenized credentials, authenticated by Mastercard Payment Passkeys, to provide customer verification and data protection.

“AI-driven innovation in payments marks a significant step forward for the financial industry,” Krungthai Card President and CEO Pittaya Vorapanyasakul said. “Our collaboration with Mastercard reflects our strategic commitment to integrating agentic commerce into KTC’s ecosystem—enabling smarter, more secure, and intuitive experiences for consumers. This milestone reinforces our role in advancing payment innovation in Thailand.”

The pilot project demonstrated how AI can complete everyday tasks for consumers safely and efficiently. In this instance, an AI agent booked transportation from Suvarnabhumi airport to Central Chidlom via global mobility provider Elife. Both the booking and the agentic transaction were facilitated by the AI agent, which was connected to Elife’s services network.

Thailand is the latest country where Mastercard has tested its innovations in agentic commerce. So far in 2026, the company has completed authenticated agentic transactions in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

“Thailand continues to be one of the region’s most attractive travel destinations, and its dynamic travel environment provides an ideal, real-world testbed for agentic commerce,” Mastercard Country Manager for Thailand and Myanmar Winnie Wong said. “Through this collaboration with Krungthai Card (KTC), Mastercard’s first partner in Thailand to test agentic AI transactions, consumer-authorized AI agents can help make travel experiences more seamless, while embedding trust, authentication, and security directly into payments.”

KTC is a major Thai financial services provider that specializes in credit cards, personal loans, and other payment services. Founded in 1996, the company is headquartered in Bangkok.

Wise Secures Licenses for Wallet and Card Services in Thailand

International money transfer innovator Wise (formerly TransferWise) has obtained five licenses that will enable the firm to offer banking and financial services in Thailand. The UK-based company is the first non-bank to secure five licenses in the country: an electronic money service license, an electronic fund transfer license, an authorized money transfer agent license, an authorized electronic money business operator license (also known as an FX e-Money License), and a foreign business license.

These licenses reflect the relatively complex nature of Thailand as a market for international payments. However, the effort is likely to prove worthwhile. Thailand one of the most internationally connected economies in Southeast Asia, and the APAC region is an especially important one for Wise, accounting for 20% of the fintech’s global revenue.

“Thailand’s cross-border payments market has long been dominated by traditional banks, and Wise is bringing a faster, more transparent alternative,” Wise Head of Banking and Expansion for APAC SK Saraogi said. “With these licenses, customers will soon be able to manage money seamlessly whether they are sending it abroad or using it locally. Beyond Thailand, we see strong demand for our products across APAC and will continue to increase our regulatory footprint to bring our products to even more customers.”

A Finovate alum since 2013, Wise is an international fintech specializing in global money movement and management. Launched in 2011 as “TransferWise” by Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus and headquartered in the UK, Wise supported more than 15 million individuals and businesses with its fund transfer services in fiscal 2025. The company processes £9 billion in cross-border transactions every month, saving customers around £1.5 billion a year.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Mastercard completed a pilot project that delivered the first authenticated agentic transaction in Thailand with Krungthai Card Public Company Limited.
  • Australian Payments Plus agreed to sell its payments app Beem to Bolt Group.
  • StraitsX and KBank established real-time payments between Singapore and Thailand.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • African fintech Moniepoint acquired Sumac Microfinance Bank, accelerating its entry into the Kenyan market.
  • Paytech Flutterwave announced plans to establish a regional hub in Anambra, in the southeast part of Nigeria, to help target small businesses.
  • The Fintech Times reviewed Ghana’s fintech ecosystem.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Polish fintech ZEN.COM launched in Ukraine.
  • Fintech analyst Chris Skinner took a look at the “State of Fintech in Germany.”
  • Latvia announced a new type of banking license in a bid to encourage new market entrants.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian lending platform KreditBee achieved a valuation of $1.5 billion after raising $280 million in new funding.
  • A merger between CityPay and Chhito Paisa is expected to bolster Nepal’s fintech sector.
  • Glaas, an India-based embedded credit infrastructure company, raised $5 million in funding from Devesh Sachdev, who joined the company as co-founder and managing director.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Stablecoin issuer and infrastructure company Balboa Corporation launched in Panama.
  • Mexican retail bank BanCoppel announced a partnership with payment solutions provider BPC.
  • TikTok has applied for EMI and credit licenses in Brazil.

Photo by DUYTRG TRUONG

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Finovate Global Africa: Stablecoins, Digital Payments, and Funding Infrastructure

Finovate Global Africa: Stablecoins, Digital Payments, and Funding Infrastructure
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, MasterCard, Revolut

This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights recent fintech headlines from Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa.

Circle and Sasai Fintech team up to boost adoption of USDC

Digital asset platform Circle announced a new partnership between one of its affiliates and Sasai Fintech, a business of Cassava Technologies. The partnership is designed to boost adoption of Circle’s USDC stablecoin and expand internet-native financial infrastructure across Africa.

“Africa’s digital economy is entering a new era, propelled by entrepreneurship, a mobile-first generation, and the acceleration of intra-regional trade,” Cassava Technologies Founder and Executive Chairman Strive Masiyiwa said. “By integrating with the trusted and widely adopted USDC network, we can drive financial inclusion and open transformative opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.”

Stablecoin adoption in Africa is accelerating due to increases in the number of mobile-first consumers, the growth of cross-border commerce, and the overall expansion of the digital economy. USDC is a fully-reserved, transparent payment stablecoin redeemable 1:1 for US dollars. The stablecoin has been used to power programmable payments and financial applications around the world. This week’s partnership announcement between Circle and Sasai Fintech calls for further exploration into practical applications for USDC. The two companies will also investigate ways that Circle’s full stack platform can lower costs, friction, and settlement time for Sasai’s enterprise and retail customers.

“Emerging markets are at the forefront of stablecoin adoption, and Africa represents a significant opportunity for internet-native innovation,” Circle Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO Jeremy Allaire said. “Working with Cassava, we can extend the benefits of USDC and on-chain infrastructure into high-growth payment corridors to deliver always-on global connectivity.”

Sasai Fintech is a pan-African digital payment solutions provider. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, and founded in 2021, Sasai Fintech has enabled more than 250 million wallets and more than 85,000 POS terminals. A division of Cassava Technologies, Sasai Fintech has 20+ enterprise partners and is active in 30+ cross-border markets.

IFC Partners with Cashi to expand digital payments infrastructure

International Finance Corporation (IFC) has teamed up with digital payment infrastructure company Cashi. The fintech offers a digital payment platform that allows users to send and receive money via mobile phones, point-of-sale devices, and SMS-based tools. Cashi’s platform links users with banks, telecoms, and other financial institutions in a single interoperable ecosystem that makes everyday transactions easier in an economy that still relies heavily on cash and faces significant obstacles to accessing comprehensive banking services.

“IFC’s upstream support allows us to adapt our proven, crisis-tested platform to the realities of central Africa,” Cashi CEO Tarneem Saeed said. “This partnership enables us to work closely with regulators and ecosystem partners, build trust with local merchants, and deliver practical financial tools that people can use in their daily lives, even in low-connectivity environments.”

Cashi’s platform helps address and alleviate digital infrastructure bottlenecks in economies that are cash-dependent and underbanked. The company offers a range of financial products and services that enable businesses and individuals to send, receive, and spend money. Cashi offers instant settlement, reliable uptime, and dedicated support for both merchants and users. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan, Cashi operates as part of Alsoug.com, the country’s largest digital classifieds and marketplace.

Financial infrastructure startup Littlefish raises $9.4 million

A South African fintech infrastructure startup, littlefish, has scored $9.4 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Partech, and featured participation from TLcom Capital, Flourish Ventures, and Proparco. The investment is the latest fundraising for the company since its 2021 seed round, and the firm expects to use the new capital to grow its team, advance product development, and enter new markets such as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.

“This raise is a validation of our belief that the best way to serve Africa’s small businesses is to work with the institutions they already trust, not around them,” Brandon Roberts, Co-Founder and CEO of littlefish, said. “We’ve proven the model in South Africa, and this capital gives us the runway to deepen those relationships and bring what we’ve built to millions more merchants across the continent. The little guys deserve world-class financial infrastructure, too, and we’re building it.”

Littlefish offers a merchant operating system that empowers banks to deliver fintech products and services to small businesses by integrating payments, POS software, CRMs, APIs, and more into a unified layer. This enables banks and other financial institutions to offer modern, digital services to merchants without disrupting their existing relationships with customers. Littlefish helps banks deliver more services to their business customers more efficiently, and gives small businesses the opportunity to gradually modernize and digitize their operations.

Littlefish counts institutions such as Standard Bank, First National Bank, and Absa among its clients. The company was co-founded in 2021 by Roberts and Miod Davith Kahwa.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexico-based digital commerce platform, Clip, introduced Tap to Pay functionality on the iPhone.
  • Mastercard executed a series of live, end-to-end agentic payment transactions across Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Cross-border payments technology company Reap obtained a Money Transmitter Registry in Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore-based fintech Fingular unveiled Shariah-first digital financing brand in Malaysia, Tazee.
  • Enterprise on-chain settlement infrastructure company Capital Layer forged a distribution partnership with Taiwan-based domestic system integrator Stark Technology Inc.
  • Vienamese police dismantle fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme that cost investors billions of dollars.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Operating system for African banks and merchants, Littlefish, raised $9.5 million in Series A funding.
  • Western Union partnered with Sasai Fintech to bring digital remittance access to South African consumers.
  • African financial ecosystem platform Moniepoint acquired cloud-based restaurant management platform Orda Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Georgia-based TBC Bank partnered with GDS Link to power credit decisioning for retail lending.
  • German fintech Solaris announced plans to become an “AI-native bank,” cut 20% of its workforce.
  • PA Turkey looked at the strength of fintech investment in Turkey in 2025.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Saudi Arabia’s central bank issued its first Major Payment Institution license for open banking services to Lean Technologies.
  • Vault22 announced plans to launch its Islamic finance platform Hafiq in the UAE by the middle of 2026.
  • Banque Misr inked a Memorandum of Understanding with Microsoft Egypt to launch an open fintech innovation program for the Egyptian market.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Sri Lanka-based commercial bank Hatton National Bank enabled its debit cards to be added to Google Wallet.
  • Indian employee health and insurance platform Plum raised $20.6 million in Series B funding.
  • Revolut announced plans to boost its India-based workforce by 5,500 by the end of 2026.

Photo by Adrien Olichon

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Mastercard Acquires Stablecoin Infrastructure BVNK for $1.8 Billion

Mastercard Acquires Stablecoin Infrastructure BVNK for $1.8 Billion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Mastercard is acquiring stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8 billion to bridge fiat and on-chain payments within a single network.
  • The deal positions Mastercard to connect cards, bank rails, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits to create a unified, multi-rail payments ecosystem.
  • While competitor Visa relies on a partnership-led approach to stablecoin integration, Mastercard is seeking to own the infrastructure layer outright.

Mastercard is making a move to own the rails that bridge stablecoins and fiat this week. The payments giant is acquiring stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments. 

The announcement comes at a time when the current stablecoin market capitalization exceeds $316 billion, a figure that is up 2.5x from 2023. It also comes as users across the globe are increasingly open to holding stablecoins. In a recent survey of over 4,000 stablecoin and crypto holders, BVNK found that 56% of participants expressed plans to acquire more stablecoins within the next 12 months.

This increased utility of stablecoins is creating a need in the traditional financial space as users require a bridge between fiat and stablecoins. As a result, banks and fintechs need to offer their customers payment options enabled by stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

Mastercard anticipates that acquiring BVNK’s stablecoin infrastructure will allow it to become the bridge between fiat and stablecoins. The company will connect stablecoin rails to its own network to offer consumers the accessibility and interoperability they have come to expect in the traditional finance realm.

“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services, be it with stablecoins or tokenized deposits. We want to support them and their customers with a best-in-class, highly compliant, interoperable offering that brings the benefits of tokenized money to the real world,” said Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert. “This acquisition reinforces what we have always done, using innovation and technology to power economies and empower people. Adding on-chain rails to our network will support speed and programmability for virtually every type of transaction.”

Mastercard isn’t the first traditional card network making a move to establish a foothold in the stablecoin space. Visa has formed partnerships with Circle and Bridge to support USDC payments and enable on-chain settlement flows. Mastercard, however, is taking things a step further. Instead of relying on a partnership-led approach, the network giant is acquiring the stablecoin infrastructure outright. Bringing the infrastructure in-house will allow Mastercard to connect traditional finance, on-chain assets, and enterprise payment flows within a single network.

BVNK was founded in 2021 and currently processes over $25 billion each year on behalf of enterprises and payment service providers. The UK-based company leverages stablecoins to enable businesses to move value instantly across borders and networks. Through its partnerships with global licensing bodies and Tier 1 banks, BVNK serves clients such as Worldpay, Deel, and dLocal.

“This partnership is about complementary strengths: Mastercard brings 200+ countries and territories, institutional trust and settlement rails. BVNK brings proven stablecoin infrastructure, deep expertise and an enterprise customer base,” said BVNK Co-founder and CEO Jesse Hemson-Struthers in a post on LinkedIn. “More trust attracts more users. More users attract more businesses. More businesses attract more developers. And suddenly, moving money on stablecoin rails becomes as routine as moving money on traditional rails—accessible to everyone.”

Once the acquisition is finalized later this year, Mastercard will be able to offer a single network to connect cards, bank rails, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits. The new, multi-rail approach will let customers choose the solutions that work best for them without tying them down to a single platform.

“This deal brings together complementary capabilities to define and deliver the future of money,” said Hemson-Struthers. “Together, we’re able to deliver an unprecedented infrastructure for digital currency-based financial services.”

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Mastercard Launches Virtual C-Suite to Offer Small Businesses Executive-Level Insight

Mastercard Launches Virtual C-Suite to Offer Small Businesses Executive-Level Insight
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, MasterCard

Mastercard is launching a Virtual C-Suite for small business customers this week, introducing agentic AI agents that act as digital executives to provide strategic insights and decision-making support.

The new Virtual C‑Suite is a set of agentic AI-powered tools that are specifically focused on small and medium-sized businesses, which represent roughly 90% of enterprises across the globe and more than half of global employment. By introducing AI agents that mimic executive roles such as CFO, Mastercard is aiming to close the gap between the resources available to large enterprises and those accessible to small businesses.

Mastercard is using its vast experience in payments, data, and security to bring a deeper understanding of how a customer’s money moves. Virtual C-Suite brings intelligence into small businesses’ accounting systems, business software, and banking applications to analyze business performance, identify risks and opportunities, predict likely outcomes, and recommend actions. The tool relies on insights from the billions of transactions processed on Mastercard’s network annually, combined with a business’ financial activity to provide relevant, trusted recommendations on how businesses pay, get paid, and manage working capital.

“Small businesses are the cornerstones of communities, but it’s easy for owners to lose sight of the passions that inspired them when they’re buried in spreadsheets and stretched across multiple roles,” said Mastercard Global Head of Small and Medium Enterprises Mark Barnett. “We hear these pressures from entrepreneurs every day. With Virtual C-Suite, we are bringing the innovative technology, quality data at scale, and strategic expertise usually available to large enterprises to small business owners. Our goal is to turn operational complexity into clarity—helping entrepreneurs regain time, make smarter decisions, and translate their ambition into measurable growth.”

After integrating the new tool, business users and their teams will have access to dashboards and natural language conversational platforms through which they can ask agents direct questions about their accounts, trends, or recommended actions.

Virtual C-Suite will initially launch with a Virtual CFO capability. Mastercard will make additional executive-function roles over time, delivered through financial institutions, accounting platforms, and software providers.

The launch is part of Mastercard’s broader push into agentic AI. The company’s Virtual C-Suite is an advancement beyond basic analytical capabilities, recommending and executing actions across the commerce lifecycle. The new offering highlights how payments networks are adding value by bringing AI intelligence layers to small businesses, combining transaction data with agentic AI to deliver financial insights that traditionally required dedicated finance teams.

Virtual C-Suite’s small business focus is among a series of Mastercard’s recent initiatives aimed at SMEs. In 2024, the company introduced Biz360, a platform designed to help entrepreneurs consolidate and manage the digital tools they rely on to run their operations. Mastercard also rolled out Small Business Navigator to connect business owners with productivity services and remote talent resources, and introduced an SME credit card with built-in cybersecurity protections to help small businesses defend against growing digital threats.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 10x Banking, Fintech Rundown, MasterCard, Worldline

Welcome to March! Women’s History Month, Holi (the Hindu “Festival of Colors”), the start of spring, St. Patrick’s Day, Eid al-Fith, Cesar Chavez Day … there’s a lot to celebrate and look forward to over the next few weeks.

Here on Finovate’s Fintech Rundown, we’re looking forward to the rush of industry news and announcements that typical comes with the seasonal thaw.

Payments

Private equity firm Incore Invest completes its acquisition of CoreOrchestration AB from Worldline.

Apple is in conversation with banks in India to bring Apple Pay to the country later this year.

Embedded finance

Confido, an embedded financial infrastructure platform for law firms and legaltechs, raises $9 million in funding.

Fraud prevention

ThetaRay and Matrix USA team up to help financial institutions modernize their transaction monitoring programs.

Stablecoins

MoonPay builds infrastructure platform for PYUSD-backed stablecoins.

Agentic AI

Colt Technology Services announces proof of concept for an agentic AI engine developed in partnership with Microsoft.

Banco Santander and Mastercard complete Europe’s first live agentic AI payments transaction.

DeFi

US-based FundBank acquires Irish blockchain startup Trrue.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Shanghai Data Bureau (SDB), and the National Technology Innovation Center for Blockchain ink a Memorandum of Understanding between Shanghai and Hong Kong to apply blockchain technology to develop a cross-border platform to facilitate trade finance.

Open finance

Promoteo teams up with Fiskil to help implement Open Finance across Latin America.

Digital banking

10x Banking teams up with Validata in a strategic partnership designed to help banks accelerate innovation.

Wealthtech

OneVest launches its Agentic Wealth Operating System to help automate middle office operations for advisors.

Photo by Pixabay

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Experian, Fintech Rundown, Fiserv, MasterCard

2026 begins in earnest today as the first full working week of the year gets underway. Be sure to check in with Finovate’s Fintech Rundown over the next few days to get you up and running with the latest in fintech news and announcements!

Open banking

Flutterwave acquires African open banking infrastructure company Mono.

Credit and analytics

Experian announces availability of its commercial data via its Ascend platform.

Investing and wealth management

Universal Exchange (UEX) Bitget opens its TradFi trading suite to all users.

TradeStation unveils the upcoming launch of TITAN X, its next generation of its flagship trading platform designed for active traders.

Crypto and DeFi

Telcoin, a digital asset bank that just won final charter approval from the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, launches its eUSD stablecoin.

Kast, a financial platform built on stablecoin rails, expands global payouts to 11 new local currencies including GBP, EUR, and CAD, as well as a multiple currencies in the Asia Pacific region.

Insurtech

Zurich North America partners with modularized AI underwriting, data, and intelligent document automation workbench company Convr.

Insurance broker and risk management firm M3 Insurance turns to SimplePin to modernize its finance and accounting operations.

Commerce

Fiserv and Mastercard extend their partnership to advance agentic commerce for merchants, leveraging Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework at scale.

Swap secures $100 million in Series C funding to develop commerce solutions platform.

Lending

India-based digital lender Knight Fintech raises $23.6 million in Series A funding.

BMG Money unveils tightened controls and institutional capital-markets program to support the next phase of scalable growth.

Pluto Financial Technologies launches AI-powered lending platform purpose built for private markets.

Digital banking

Egypt’s Bank NXT partners with IBM and inspire for Solutions Development.

Sanibel Captiva Community Bank selects Jack Henry to modernize its technology and streamline operations.

Payments

Solutions by Text acquires Triple Play Pay to accelerate payments innovation and expand FinText payment capabilities.

Gr4vy selects Affirm to bring flexible and transparent payment options to merchants.

Paychex and PayPal team up to bring direct deposit alternatives into Paychex Flex perks.

Worldline launches One Commerce in the UK.

Chase to become new issuer of Apple Card.

DailyPay announces new $195 million senior secured revolving credit facility.

Blink Payment launches Card Present API to connect in-person payments.

Compliance

Ripple’s GTreasury acquires no-code financial automation, data management, and analytics solutions company Solvexia.

European Merchant Bank selects AMLYZE to strengthen compliance framework.

Onboarding

SMBC Americas selects Fenergo to transform client onboarding.

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash

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Finovate Global South Africa: Acquisitions and Licensing Innovation in Banking

Finovate Global South Africa: Acquisitions and Licensing Innovation in Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: MasterCard, Napier, PayQuicker, Revolut

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks 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.

That said, the move could be a major expansion for Pepkor, which would benefit significantly from its relationship to its sizable—and largely underbanked—low-income customers. And leveraging the businesses’ nearly 6,000 retail outlets to offer those customers banking services geared toward their specific needs could give Pepkor’s new bank a strong start and make it an instant competitor to current providers.

Revolut applies for South African banking license

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.
  • Revolut has 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.
  • Mastercard introduced 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.
  • Israel-based fintech PayMe announced plans to expand into the European market.

Central and Southern Asia

  • 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.
  • Colombian fintech Addi raised $50 million in debt funding.

Photo by Madiba.de African Inspiration on Unsplash

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Finovate Global Netherlands: Insurtech, SME Financing, and Digital Banking

Finovate Global Netherlands: Insurtech, SME Financing, and Digital Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, MasterCard, Nubank, VISA

This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews recent fintech news from the Netherlands.

Dutch insurtech RISK acquires Amsterdam-based fintech Dyme

Dutch insurtech RISK has acquired Amsterdam-based savings app Dyme. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal will enable Dyme to boost its presence in the Netherlands as well as enter the German market. Courtesy of the agreement, both Dyme’s brand and management team will remain intact.

“From being featured on Dragon’s Den to becoming one of the largest finance apps in Europe and reaching profitability, our mission has always been the same: helping people take control of their money,” Dyme noted on its LinkedIn Page. “This step opens up some great opportunities for Dyme and its customers: expand the product, especially with great insurance packages and service, reach millions more people through the RISK ecosystem, and take Dyme international, beginning with Germany.”

Dyme currently has more than 600,000 consumers who have linked their bank accounts to the Dyme platform. The company’s app serves as a personal financial assistant to help users lower costs, and uses smart algorithms to automate subscription cancellations and provide financial guidance. Dyme announced its first profitable quarter in 2024, and has said that it has helped users save more than €40 million since inception. The acquisition will combine RISK’s market expertise and technological platforms with Dyme’s user-friendly financial solutions that enable users to easily manage their expenses, budgets, and more.

RISK offers an advanced IT platform, SureBase, that assists financial advisors, online labels, and insurers in product comparison and distribution. SureBase, according to RISK CEO Harm Vollmuller, will serve a key base for the new synergy between RISK and Dyme. “By combining that with our platforms and market knowledge, we can reach people at a time when financial breaking space is more important than ever,” Vollmuller said.

Factris raises €100m to power SME financing

A new funding partnership with Brand New Day Bank will enable Factris to expand its ability to provide financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Dutch fintech has secured a €100 million facility to support financing SME factoring across Europe. This will enable Factris to finance sellers in nine countries and manage receivables from debtors in 27 countries.

“This new facility is a testament to the trust and confidence Brand New Day Bank has placed in Factris and our vision for SME financing,” Factris CEO Brian Reaves said. “As we continue to scale across Europe, this partnership ensures we can meet the increasing demand for alternative financing and provide SMEs with the liquidity they need to thrive.”

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Amsterdam, North Holland, Factris specializes in invoice factoring for small and medium-sized enterprises. The company offers selective factoring to enable companies to decide which specific invoices to factor, fund availability within 24 hours of invoice submission, credit insurance to protect against customer non-payment or bankruptcy, and debtor management for collections and account receivables.

Brand New Day Bank is a Netherlands-based digital-first, challenger bank and fintech that began operating in 2010. The financial institution serves both individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses with savings accounts, investment and pension products, tax-advantaged savings and investment solutions, and annuity payment services. Brand New Day Bank has more than €8 billion in assets.

Dutch fintech Plumery unveils Canada-based solutions

Digital banking experience platform Plumery announced a suite of new features and integrations designed especially for credit unions in Canada. These new capabilities will give these institutions the ability to provide personalized, compliant, and modern digital banking experiences for their members.

The Amsterdam-based fintech leveraged a collaboration with Aequilibrium, a digital services and technology consultancy headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, to make sure its Canadian-ready platform is built based on the way that Canadian credit union members prefer to bank. This includes not just hyper-personalized, mobile-first, and intuitive digital journeys, but also support for everyday payments and transfers including billpay and Interact e-Transfers, and Canadian savings and lending products like GICs.

Plumery’s move comes as Canadian banks and credit unions face a range of challenges including evolving customer expectations, fintech competition, and the pressure to modernize their legacy systems. More immediately, Canadian credit unions are scrambling in the wake of Central 1 Credit Union’s announcement that it will wind down its digital banking platform Forge (formerly MemberDirect). More than 170 credit unions across Canada had been relying on the technology.

“With Forge winding down, Canadian institutions have a rare opportunity to modernize on their own terms, rather than being tied to outdated systems,” Plumery CEO and Founder Ben Goldin said. “Our platform provides an immediate, future-ready option that puts control back in the hands of credit unions. By working with Aequilibrium, we are combining global banking innovation with local expertise to deliver experiences that meet the unique needs of Canadian credit unions’ members.”

Founded in 2016, Plumery enables financial institutions to offer unique mobile and online experiences on top of either their modern or legacy core banking platforms up to 80% faster. Plumery’s technology features foundations that are pre-integrated into its digital banking journeys that accelerate app development and shorten time-to-market while maintaining complete control over both design and functionality.

Check out my interview with Plumery’s Goldin from earlier this year.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Mastercard teamed up with African fintech Smile ID to introduce new digital identity solutions across the continent.
  • South African mobile payment platform Street Wallet partnered with Plush Car Wash to deliver secure, cashless payments.
  • Visa and digital payments network Onafriq launched Visa Pay in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Lithuania-based identity verification and fraud prevention company iDenfy launched its Criminal Background Check tool.
  • Hungarian payment service provider Barion Payment completed its acquisition of PSC CEE Ltd, the company behind the SmartKassa brand.
  • Turkey’s Türk Ekonomi Bankası (TEB) partnered with Provenir for its AI-powered decisioning platform.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

  • India’s Bank of Baroda launched its eRUPI Person-to-Person (P2P) gifting solution.
  • TBC Uzbekistan extended financial services to non-residents.
  • Indian fintech Kiwi unveiled its interest-backed EMI on UPI.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian digital banking giant Nubank has applied for a US national bank charter.
  • Unlimit announced securing Principal Membership with Mastercard and Visa in Peru.
  • Brazi-based proptech Lastro raised $15 million in Series A funding in a round led by Prosus Ventures.

Asia-Pacific

  • Cambodian MSME-focused bank Chief Bank teamed up with payment solutions provider BPC to launch its new Chief Mobile 3.0 mobile app.
  • The People’s Bank of China opened a digital yuan operation center in Shanghai.
  • The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) launched IADS Developer Hackathon to promote bank-fintech collaboration.

Photo by Javier M. on Unsplash

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Mastercard Launches Mastercard Commerce Media to Leverage Consumer Data

Mastercard Launches Mastercard Commerce Media to Leverage Consumer Data
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard
  • Mastercard Commerce Media has launched to leverage consumer-permissioned transaction data, giving 25,000 advertiser partners smarter targeting and delivering up to 22x ROAS across industries like retail, travel, and dining.
  • Mastercard’s partnerships with Citi, American Airlines, Microsoft, and WPP will expand scale, reach, and brand integration.
  • Retail media networks are surging, with spending projected to hit nearly $100 billion by 2028. Chase Media Solutions, which launched in 2024, is an example of how financial institutions are monetizing first-party data to serve personalized offers.

Mastercard announced that it will begin leveraging consumer-permissioned data via its new digital media network, Mastercard Commerce Media. The new media network will give Mastercard’s 25,000 advertiser partners access to transaction data from the 500 million enrolled consumers in order to power smarter, personalized commerce.

Through Mastercard’s proprietary Offers platform, advertisers can deliver tailored campaigns, such as cashback, discounts, and incentives, to audiences defined by their business goals. Using insights from consumer-permissioned data, Mastercard identifies the right customers and delivers relevant advertising content. Consumers can then activate offers on their enrolled card and complete the purchase, with Mastercard directly attributing the transaction to the campaign.

Beyond traditional cashback, Mastercard Commerce Media helps publishers strengthen brand loyalty by enabling programs where consumers earn rewards in a brand’s own cash currency, giving shoppers more purchasing power and brands deeper engagement. Looking ahead, Mastercard plans to expand distribution to new channels and deepen integrations across its broader services portfolio beginning in 2026.

Mastercard processed more than 160 billion transactions in 2024, and its new media network will deliver proprietary insights from transactions like these processed by Mastercard. Mastercard Commerce Media currently delivers a return on ad spend (ROAS) of up to 22 times for advertisers across retail, travel, entertainment, dining, and more.

“We understand how to connect advertisers to consumers and consumers to the products, services and experiences they value,” said Mastercard Chief Services Officer Craig Vosburg. “Mastercard Commerce Media is a natural extension of the trusted connections we’re known for and the work we already do across our unique suite of services. That means we’re not just well-positioned to bring a full-scale commerce media network to life—we’re best-positioned.”

Mastercard Commerce Media is launching in partnership with  Citi, which will help the program grow faster, reach more users, and deliver more value. Mastercard already has ongoing ties with Citi, which will give Mastercard’s media network a head start in leveraging Citi’s infrastructure, customer base, and channels. Mastercard is also partnering with American Airlines, Microsoft, and WPP, which will help extend its footprint and connection to brands in the traditional media space.

As the use of consumer-permissioned data gains popularity across fintech subsectors, so too has the adoption of retail media networks. These networks allow institutions to monetize their first-party data by connecting brands with highly targeted audiences through trusted digital channels.

According to eMarketer, retail media networks will expand in the coming years. The firm estimates that retail media network spending will reach nearly $100 billion through 2028, reflecting both advertiser demand and consumer engagement with personalized content. An early trailblazer in the space is Chase Media Solutions, which launched in 2024 to leverage its transaction and cardholder data to serve personalized offers and marketing to its 80 million customers.

Photo by Collis

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Verification Specialist Argyle Announces Strategic Investment from Mastercard

Verification Specialist Argyle Announces Strategic Investment from Mastercard
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Argyle, Funding, MasterCard
  • Verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard, Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire.
  • The investment follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard’s open finance technology earlier this year.
  • New York-based Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco. Shmulik Fishman is Co-Founder and CEO.

Consumer-powered verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard as well as existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

“This investment is more than capital—it’s validation,” Argyle CEO and Co-Founder Shmulik Fishman said. “We’re deepening our ability to serve customers with a comprehensive verification platform built on real-time payroll connections and open finance capabilities. By combining these strengths, we’re eliminating friction from verification workflows and giving lenders, fintechs, and tenant screeners a smarter path to faster, more accurate decisions.”

Argyle’s investment announcement comes a year and a half after the company reported securing $30 million in Series C funding. That round was led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund. This week’s investment also follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard open finance technology in June of this year. This new offering enables Argyle customers to access real-time consumer-permissioned payroll connections covering 90% of the US workforce. Customers are also now able to generate GSE-compliant reports—including verification of income (VOI), verification of employment (VOE), verification of assets (VOA), and combined verification of assets/income (VOAI)—from a single platform.

Argyle noted that the investment is a sign of growing demand for consumer-permissioned verifications. In a statement, the company highlighted a series of recent partnership accomplishments, including Checkr’s ability to reduce verification timelines from days to seconds at 90% lower cost compared to legacy solutions, Regional Finance’s success in automating verifications for more than 65% of borrowers, and Mutual of Omaha’s saving of more than $50,000 per month on verification costs.

“Argyle has built critical infrastructure for a category that’s long been overlooked by modern fintech,” Bain Capital Ventures partner Ajay Agarwal said. “We’ve supported the company from the early stages, and this latest round reflects our continued belief in their team, their momentum, and the long-term potential of consumer-permissioned data to transform verifications across financial services.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Link 4.0 design update, which provides a more transparent and trustworthy experience for customers when linking their accounts.

Photo by Pixabay

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Alloy and Mastercard Team Up to Accelerate the Onboarding Process

Alloy and Mastercard Team Up to Accelerate the Onboarding Process
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, MasterCard
  • Identity and fraud prevention solution provider Alloy has teamed up with Mastercard to launch an enhanced customer onboarding solution for financial institutions and fintechs.
  • The joint offering will use both identity verification technology and open finance to streamline onboarding and fight fraud.
  • Founded in 2015, Alloy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Identity and fraud prevention platform provider Alloy has inked a global partnership with Mastercard to introduce an enhanced customer onboarding solution for financial institutions and fintechs. The new offering comes as these businesses cited a 60% increase in fraud in 2024, according to Alloy’s 2025 State of Fraud Report. The report further noted that 93% of those financial organizations surveyed planned to invest in ongoing fraud prevention measures this year, with 64% planning to deploy identity risk technology, as well.

“Fraud continues to be a significant challenge for financial institutions and consumers alike, underscoring the urgent need for robust fraud prevention measures,” Mastercard EVP and Global Head of Identity, Dennis Gamiello said. “This joint onboarding solution will be a game-changer in the fight to reduce fraud and deliver a seamless and secure customer experience.”

The joint offering from Alloy and Mastercard will leverage both identity verification and open finance to simultaneously streamline onboarding and fight fraud. The solution provides a consistent identity risk strategy and onboarding experience across channels. Alloy will leverage Mastercard’s global digital identity verification capabilities and suite of open finance-powered account opening solutions to support financial institutions as they manage fraud, identity risk, and secure account funding throughout the customer lifecycle.

At the same time, Mastercard solutions will be integrated and pre-configured in Alloy to enable seamless deployment. Customers will have access to 200+ risk and identity solutions available via Alloy that are designed to help boost customer conversion rates, reduce the amount of manual reviews, and provide comprehensive end-to-end coverage.

“Successful fraud prevention starts with a holistic approach to understanding identity. Our partnership with Mastercard will allow more financial institutions and fintechs to evaluate customer identities holistically,” Alloy Chief Product Officer Parilee Wang said. “The end result for those companies will be a better digital experience and less fraud risk, allowing their businesses to grow effectively.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Alloy introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinDEVr SiliconValley 2016, and returned to the Finovate stage six years later for FinovateFall 2022 in New York. More recently, Alloy was included in CNBC World’s Top Fintech Companies roster for 2025 and, in June, the company announced a partnership with IG Group to help the FTSE 250 online trading firm maintain regulatory compliance as it grows.

Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash

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Finovate Global: Workforce Management and Capacity Planning with Cinareo Solutions’ Karen Elliott

Finovate Global: Workforce Management and Capacity Planning with Cinareo Solutions’ Karen Elliott
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CEO Interview, Cinareo Solutions, Finastra, Finovate Global, Mambu, MasterCard, Nubank

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features an interview with Karen Elliott, CEO and Co-Founder of Cinareo Solutions.

Headquartered in Ontario, Canada and founded in 2022, Cinareo Solutions complements workforce management platforms, helping them streamline contact center operations and mitigate risk by enabling precise resource allocation and decision-making that is driven by data.

Cinareo made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, demonstrating how its SaaS solution provides scenario-based capacity planning for both contact center agents and support staff. The company’s technology leverages industry-recognized statistical models and simulations to help businesses meet customer demands as well as vital financial KPIs.

We caught up with Karen Elliott recently to learn more about the field of capacity planning, the role of enabling technologies like AI, and how Cinareo Solutions helps contact centers ensure that the right person with the right skills is in the right place at the right time.

What role does capacity planning have in workforce management? What makes it challenging and how does Cinareo help companies better meet those challenges?

Karen Elliott: Capacity planning is the strategic backbone of workforce management. It determines how many people you need with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, to meet service levels without overspending on labor. In contact centers, capacity planning sits upstream of scheduling—it uses historical data, forecasts, and business assumptions to set headcount and budget requirements weeks, months, or even years in advance. Effective planning ensures customer demand is met efficiently and profitably.

The challenge is that unpredictable demand, scattered data, and outdated tools make planning a constant challenge. Most organizations resort to using Excel spreadsheets and spend hours or even days of manual labor and embedded formulas to try to figure out the optimal plan. Cinareo streamlines the process by ingesting your data and enabling rapid “what-if” scenario modeling and multi-skilling simulation to create optimized plans for both agents and support staff with the click of a button. 

Not only does Cinareo handle planning with ease, but the platform also creates financial budgets and recruitment and training plans so you know who to hire, and when, to ensure you meet your service targets.

Who are Cinareo’s primary customers? How do you reach them?

Elliott: Cinareo is an industry-agnostic platform for all contact centers.  We have customers worldwide in financial institutions, telecom, travel, utilities, retail, and even government.  We partner with CCaaS and WFM solutions to integrate directly into their platforms so that data can flow seamlessly into Cinareo.  Any organization with variable demand, labor-intensive operations and service or cost targets would get huge benefits from using a platform like Cinareo. 

We have a wide network of referral agents and ISV partners that recommend Cinareo to their clients when they see a clear need.  Cinareo offers webinars and monthly product showcases to demonstrate the power behind the platform—or can even arrange custom demos and proof of concepts to make sure potential customers truly understand the benefits of a modern planning platform like Cinareo.

What in your background led you to pursue innovation in this field?

Elliott: I spent 12 years at the IBM Innovation Center earlier in my career within the User Experience group with a key focus on user-centric software solutions.  After leaving IBM, I co-founded a professional consulting firm that specialized in contact center optimization that helped organizations improve their people, processes, technology, and knowledge. 

Years of consulting highlighted a huge gap in the market in regard to capacity planning.  We worked with countless private and public sector organizations that would build these complex spreadsheets to determine their optimal staffing and we decided there needed to be a better way, so we created Cinareo.  It was built to complement any CCaaS or WFM platform in the market and integrate into whatever was the customer’s platform of choice.  If customers switch platforms, they can take Cinareo with them—having a portable, agnostic solution was key to the design. 

Another important goal was designing a platform that was simple and intuitive based on years of experience in user-centric design.  We even have our customers as active members of the planning and design of the solution—this ensures that everything we build is focused on the needs and requirements of the people using the software.

What role do enabling technologies like AI play in developing innovative workforce management solutions?

Elliott: Capacity planning remains relevant in contact centers even if AI is involved, and it can take on a different but crucial role in optimizing the overall performance. While AI can now handle routine queries or simple updates, the reality is much more complex. Cinareo helps determine the right mix of AI-driven processes and human resources to meet the demand efficiently. Our customers are modelling their operations using Cinareo to determine the ideal balance of human agents vs bot and the ROI on an investment in AI as well.  

Incorporating AI into Cinareo is a given—we are already full steam ahead in our strategic plans to ensure that AI-driven capacity planning can make a dramatic difference. But true innovation in customer support isn’t about replacing the people—it is about giving people the ability to work faster and smarter – and we are doing that with Cinareo. 

You recently launched Flexible Monthly Planning. What is the value proposition with this new offering?

Elliott: We initially offered Cinareo as a strategic, long-term capacity planning platform where users could build 12-, 24- or 36-month plans.  However, as we continued to enhance Cinareo, our customers were telling us they wanted more flexibility in their planning, so we built in the capability to do weekly planning up to 52 weeks in order for contact centers to create tactical plans over the short or medium term. 

To continue to expand on Cinareo’s flexible platform, we recently launched more flexibility into our monthly planning as well, so customers can build a plan for any number of months up to 3 years in advance.  These enhancements were all driven by the needs of our clients since our goal is to have our software reflect “the voice of the customer” and truly be user-centric.

You made your Finovate debut at FinovateSpring earlier this year. How was the experience?

Elliott: We had a fantastic debut at FinovateSpring!  We generated a lot of great interest in the solution from the demo we provided. Prior to FinovateSpring, we had recently started onboarding more fintech clients and noticed an uptick in interest from banks, credit unions, and insurance agencies looking for a solution like Cinareo.  We thought FinovateSpring would be a great opportunity to demo Cinareo to a wider audience and get fintech companies to see the realm of the possible with a modern capacity planning solution. There is such a clear need in this sector for a solution that will not only improve CX and EX, but also provide important KPIs like the cost per contact to help with financial management.

What can we look forward to seeing from Cinareo in the months to come?

Elliott: We are excited over some of the new features that are set to launch in the months to come—we have been scaling up significantly to meet customer demand.  A couple new features that are soon to be released are multi-lingual functionality in addition to the ability to compare a plan with your historical data in a quick and easy way.  We will be offering our clients a way to see how their plan performed against their actuals in both performance and staffing—down to the 15-minute interval level.  This new feature will help our customers understand trends and patterns and be able to improve their planning moving forward.

That is just the tip of the iceberg—we have so many more exciting things planned over the next while. We would love to increase our customer base to have even more voices driving the future of our software! If you want to see how Cinareo can solve your capacity planning challenges, feel free to contact us.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Whish Money teams up with Mastercard to enable cross-border payments to Lebanon.
  • Bank of Algeria joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) launched by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
  • Qatar-based AlRayan Bank went live with Finastra Corporate Channels.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India celebrated National Fintech Day earlier this week.
  • Ukrainian fintech Fintech Farm launched its mobile banking service Tezbank in Uzbekistan.
  • The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) announced plans to unveil new Information Systems Audit Standards to enhance audit practices for startups, fintechs, and e-commerce companies.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazil-based digital financial services platform Nubank introduced Armando Herrera as new CEO of its Mexican operations.
  • Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal teamed up with cross-border marketplace platform Tiendamia.
  • Puero Rico-based transaction processor and fintech EVERTEC announced plans to acquire a controlling stake in Brazilian fintech vendor Tecnobank.

Asia-Pacific

  • Japanese fintech JPYC announced plans to launch the first yen-denominated stablecoin this fall.
  • Thailand unveiled a new pilot program to enable visitors to convert cryptocurrencies into the local Thai Baht to facilitate purchases.
  • New Zealand-based small business management platform Xero partners with UAE-based Wio Bank PJSC.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Digital payments provider Peach Payments launched real-time clearance (RTC) payouts for merchants on its platform in South Africa.
  • South African fintech Street Wallet raised $350,000 in new funding.
  • African business bank Absa Business Banking selected Network International as its digital payments technology partner.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • OYAK ANKER Bank GmbH migrated its core banking systems to Berlin, Germany-based Mambu’s platform.
  • Turkish investment platform Midas raised $80 million in Series B funding.
  • Disruption Banking looked at the increasing popularity of crypto in Lithuania.

Photo by Derek Sutton on Unsplash

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