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Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus

Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, Finovate Global, Nubank, Torus, Wise

This week, Finovate Global travels to Lithuania to talk about payment card optimization with Torus’ Kirill Lisitsyn.

The payment card business is among the most competitive areas of financial services. But are some of the greatest opportunities for companies to profit being overlooked? A growing number of fintechs have developed strategies and technologies to help card issuers and acquirers access millions of dollars in cost savings and missed revenue by better controlling card network fees and enhancing transactional profitability.

Lithuania-based Torus is one such fintech. Founded in 2021 and making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Torus offers a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and acquirers that enhances profits on card transactions by up to 50%. The company enables card issuers and merchant acquirers to optimize card scheme fees and boost transactional earnings via pricing optimization and profitability analysis at the card and merchant level.

To discuss this field, and the opportunities it presents for card issuers and merchant acquirers, we caught up with Torus Co-Founder and CEO Kirill Lisitsyn (pictured). Lisitsyn brings to bear more than 15 years of experience leading payments consulting projects at firms such as Accenture and Mastercard.

Torus most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope in February.

What problem does Torus solve and who does it solve it for?

Kirill Lisitsyn: Torus is a SaaS platform for in-depth analysis and optimization of scheme fees (Visa, Mastercard) for issuers, merchant acquirers, and now large merchants. We automate the collection, forecasting, and reconciliation of both transaction flows and invoice data, so that our clients can see accurate cost and profit metrics at the level of transaction, product, merchant, region—and beyond.

How does Torus solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?

Lisitsyn: We provide nearly 98% fee prediction accuracy, and our plug-and-play setup enables end-to-end analytics with minimum resources needed from the customer side. Torus goes beyond pretty dashboards to deliver optimization recommendations backed by industry benchmarks and detailed “what-if” simulations.

Who are Torus’ primary customers. How do you reach them?

Lisitsyn: Our clients include banks, fintechs, BaaS providers, PSPs, and large merchants across Europe, the UK, Central Asia, and Japan. We reach them through targeted outreach, industry conferences, high-visibility publications, and strategic partnerships with top-tier industry players.

We’re also building a community around card economics. I run a LinkedIn page where I share insights on scheme fee mechanics, analysis pitfalls, and market updates.

Many clients come to us after seeing just one number: $1M+ in annual losses that could be avoided with better visibility.

Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?

Lisitsyn: One EU-based e-commerce acquirer used to assess profitability by portfolio averages—and was losing up to 10% on hidden merchant-level losses. With Torus, they switched to granular analysis, identified low-margin segments, updated pricing, and increased overall portfolio margin by 30%. These are real, realized gains—not slideware.

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Lisitsyn: We have productized over a hundred years of joint team expertise in the card payments industry—coming from different segments of the industry, players like Mastercard, Global Payments, Societe Generale, Worldline, and various other banks. This is our unfair advantage which gives us a deep understanding of where the pain points are. When your team includes former scheme insiders, “scheme fees” stop being scary and start becoming manageable.

What is the fintech ecosystem in Lithuania like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in Lithuania?

Lisitsyn: Lithuania is a magnet for fintech startups: a responsive regulator, fast-track licensing, and tech-forward infrastructure. Banks here are increasingly open to partnerships, and startups are learning to scale responsibly and operate under real-world pressures. 

Torus is a great example of how legacy banking know-how and fintech velocity can combine into something powerful. We are proud to both actively contribute to the Lithuanian ecosystem and represent it internationally.

You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?

Lisitsyn: This year we demoed our product for BaaS providers. We showcased how Torus enables these players to accurately calculate scheme fees and interchange per transaction, allocate costs, and build margin-based pricing for their fintech partners.

We demonstrated that BaaS can move beyond volume games and become a margin game.

Finovate is built for showing working products to real decision-makers—and our demo generated several highly relevant inbound requests for our BaaS module.

What are your goals for Torus? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?

Lisitsyn: We’re scaling fast. This year includes multiple product launches and major feature updates. Just a month ago, we released our new product, Merchant Cost Indicator—a tool that estimates transaction costs without needing real data. It predicts interchange and scheme fees based on country, MCC, and channel, giving acquirers and BIN sponsors instant, reliable margin calculations.

Coming next is a dynamic profit-based pricing module, embedded analytics for BaaS, and AI agents to support profitability control, pricing and decision workflows.

We’re shaping a new standard of transparency and profitability controls in card economics. Our strength lies in combining deep industry expertise with true product velocity. We know where the market is heading—and we’re already moving to clear the path.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • The Stock Exchange of Thailand announced deployment of risk and surveillance platforms courtesy of its expanded strategic technology partnership with the Nasdaq.
  • Adyen selected Fiskil as its data-sharing partner to enhance onboarding and account verification for merchants in Australia.
  • Vietnam-based securities company Kafi went live with Horizon Trading Solutions.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Israel-based BioCatch and The Knoble co-launched an anti-scam guide and cost calculator.
  • MENA-based virtual assets trading platform BitOasis expanded to Bahrain.
  • The government of Dubai partnered with Crypto.com to enable crypto payments for government fees.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Forbes profiled Razorpay co-founder Harshil Mathur.
  • Pakistani fintech ABHI partnered with UAE-based LuLuFin to enhance financial inclusion and remittance solutions.
  • Indian fintech unicorn Moneyview readies for an initial public offering.

Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alkami Technology, Fintech Rundown, Finzly, Kani Payments, Nubank, Payoneer

Fintech was relatively busy last week, and so was the Finovate events team. FinovateSpring makes its San Diego debut next week, kicking off on May 7, and our speaker roster is fabulous! Here’s a look at more of this week’s fintech news. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!

Payments

Reporting, reconciliation, and compliance software company Kani Payments announced a strategic partnership with UK-based travel payments company Swiipr.

Payoneer invests $2 million over the next three years to support Endeavor, the Global Network of Trust of, by and for entrepreneurs. 

Finzly’s AWS-powered platform Payment Galaxy completes a benchmarking initiative in collaboration with AWS, validating that it can handle large transaction volumes.

Thunes raises $150 million in Series D funding.

Business financial management

Versapay names Elizabeth Bramlage as Chief Marketing Officer.

Digital banking

NuMark Credit Union selects Alkami to power its digital banking platform.

Nubank’s Mexico arm receives regulatory approval from the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission to begin the process of becoming a full-service bank.

Photo by fauxels

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Finovate Global Brazil: Debt Management, BNPL, and Building a Bigger Bitcoin Reserve

Finovate Global Brazil: Debt Management, BNPL, and Building a Bigger Bitcoin Reserve
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Nubank

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features the latest fintech news and headlines from Brazil.

Nubank unveils Recomeço to help borrowers renegotiate debt

Brazilian fintech Nubank unveiled its latest and largest campaign to help customers with outstanding payments renegotiate their debts. The program, Recomeço, enables eligible customers to receive discounts of up to 99.9% for a limited time. These customers will be notified via the Nubank app, where they will be provided personalized details about their renegotiation options and next steps.

“At Nubank, our customers and their financial well-being are our priority,” CEO of Nubank in Brazil, Livia Chanes, said. “This was the main reason for creating Nubank: to combat complexity and empower people. We are committed to providing personalized solutions with the best possible conditions, contributing to long-term financial health. We want to support our customers, who have trusted Nubank, to start over.”

Eligible customers will need to have a “generally good credit history” and engagement with Nubank. The fintech hopes that the program will benefit those customers who do not tend to have recurring debts, but may have recently experienced financial difficulties. Recomeço also features resources and tools to support credit recovery and smart financial decision-making. These resources include a blog with tips on financial wellness and education.

Nubank’s Recomeço news comes less than a week after the fintech unveiled NuScore, a credit rating tool for its customers. NuScore provides customers with a score from 0 to 1,000, a classification—very high, high, average, low, and very low—and access to the behavioral and historical factors that guided the scoring. These factors include credit card usage, savings patterns in Nubank’s personalized digital savings accounts called Caixas, the amount of debt in the market, and the customer’s score analysis from credit bureaus. Customers will also benefit from recommendations on how they can improve their credit profile and overall financial health.

“Our goal is to establish a solid partnership with our customers to build a robust credit profile, promoting satisfaction, increasing eligibility and engagement with credit products that meet their needs in a responsible manner,” said Arthur Valadão, general director for Nubank’s Roxinho (credit card) segment.

Founded in 2013, Nubank is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil. The company is an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr, having participated in the event in New York in 2016. Today, Nubank offers one of the region’s and the world’s biggest digital banking platforms, with more than 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.

Brazilian BNPL provider raises $26.7 million in series A funding

Capim, a startup that offers a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment option for Brazilians paying for dental services, has secured $25.7 million in Series A funding. The round, which consisted of two parts, featured Valor Capital and QED Investors as co-leads. Existing investors ONEVC, Canary, and NXTP also participated, along with new investors Endeavor, Saison, and Actyus. The Series A takes Capim’s total capital raised to $29 million. Valuation information was not disclosed.

A vertical SaaS company specializing in the dental sector, Capim helps dentists leverage digital technology to better manage their offices. In addition to providing payment options like BNPL, Capim helps dental patients schedule their appointments digitally at connected clinics. The funding will help Capim expand its offerings to include a point-of-sale (POS) terminal that will offer dentists lower merchant discount rates. Terminals will accept credit and debit cards, and payments from Brazil’s real-time payment system, PIX. The terminals will be fully integrated with Capim’s SaaS financial management module.

“At Capim, we know that being a dentist is much more than taking care of smiles—it is transforming lives every day,” the company noted on LinkedIn when the investment was announced. “With our verticalized software, we develop, with our customers, incredible products, ensuring resources and all the support that really make a difference.”

Founded in 2021, Capim is headquartered in São Paulo.

Méliuz proposes expanding bitcoin reserves

Brazilian fintech Méliuz is considering an expansion of its Bitcoin holdings and making the digital asset a strategic asset on the company’s ledger. The company initiated its bitcoin strategy earlier this year, devoting 10% of the company’s cash to purchase 45.7 Bitcoin worth $4.1 million. According to the Brazil Crypto Report, this marks the first time a Brazilian, publicly listed company used cash funds from its treasury to buy Bitcoin for investment purposes.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Belo Horizonte, Méliuz provides digital solutions via a platform that integrates marketplaces and financial services. With more than 800 partner stores, Méliuz promotes discounts, services, and coupons through its website, app, and browser extension. The company also builds special cashback programs for its marketplace and financial services partners.

The final decision on expanding Méliuz’s Bitcoin holdings will be based on a shareholder meeting and vote on May 6, the company noted in a securities filing.

Earlier this year, Méliuz reaffirmed its strategic alliance with Banco Votorantim (banco BV), initially forged in 2022. Also that year, Méliuz announced a partnership with Liqi, a blockchain-based asset tokenization startup.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Emirates NBD teamed up with Visa to enhance international money transfers.
  • Egyptian fintechs Basata Holding for Financial Payments and Connect Money launched a new card to boost payment security.
  • CTech interviewed Israeli fintech entrepreneur-turned-investor Alon Huri.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian fintech Nubank launched its credit rating tool, NuScore, for Nu customers.
  • Latin American Open Finance platform Belvo raised $15 million in funding.
  • Chilean acquiring network Klap went live with Visa and Mastercard acquiring services in partnership with BPC.

Asia-Pacific

  • Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) launched phase two of their cross-border QR payment scheme.
  • Australia-based lender Bizcap brought its same-day funding solution to Singapore.
  • The Bank of Thailand (BOT) approved three new digital banks led by Krungthai Bank, SCBX, and Ascend Money.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Photo by F Cary Snyder on Unsplash

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NuBank Weighs Moving Legal Domicile Location to the U.K.

NuBank Weighs Moving Legal Domicile Location to the U.K.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Nubank
  • Brazil-based digital bank Nubank is considering moving its legal domicile from the Cayman Islands to the U.K.
  • The domicile move is pending approval from HM Revenue & Customs, as part of the U.K.’s efforts to attract tech companies.
  • The potential move involves legal and tax registration changes rather than relocating management or operational offices, offering potential benefits like a favorable tax environment and better access to international markets.

According to a Bloomberg report yesterday, digital bank Nubank is considering moving its legal domicile to the U.K. This would shift the Brazil-based company’s domicile from the Cayman Islands, where its current holding company is based.

If finalized, the move, which is still pending approval from the U.K.’s HM Revenue & Customs authority, would be part of the U.K.’s initiative to bring more tech companies into the country.

“Nubank continuously reviews its corporate legal structure to align with the footprint of its operations,” a Nubank spokesperson said in a statement. “At this time, no decision has been made regarding the redomiciliation of Nu Holdings Ltd. or any other legal entities within our group. As a publicly traded company, we are committed to transparency and will follow standard communication protocols if and when any such decisions are made.”

Relocating a domicile location is different from shifting headquarters location. The latter would mean moving primary executive offices and central operations to the headquarters location. A headquarters change would impact where the company’s management and administrative functions are based, while a domicile change would primarily come with tax implications.

Moving its domicile to the U.K. would involve Nubank changing its legal registration and tax residency to the U.K. This shift would subject the company to U.K. corporate laws and tax regulations, which could potentially come with benefits, such as a more favorable tax environment or enhanced access to international capital markets.

Since it was founded in 2013, Nubank serves 92 million customers in Brazil, over 7 million in Mexico, and close to 1 million in Colombia. The company surpassed 100 million customers earlier this year and has a strong foothold in Brazil, where its app is found on the phones of around 60% of all Brazilian adults. Nubank, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, has a current market capitalization of $65.7 billion.

Photo by David Peterson

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5 Tales from the Crypto: Acquisitions, New Markets, New Rules, and New Tools

5 Tales from the Crypto: Acquisitions, New Markets, New Rules, and New Tools
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, Cryptocurrency, Nubank

This week in 5 Tales from the Crypto we look at a pair of acquisitions, an expansion into a new market, new guidelines for crypto providers, and a new solution for executing cryptocurrency swaps.

Crypto.com acquires Australia’s Fintek Securities

Cryptocurrency trading platform Crypto.com has acquired brokerage service and trading company Fintek Securities. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition will help Crypto.com extend its services to crypto traders and investors in Australia. Fintek Securities holds an Australian Financial Services license and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

“The path of the Crypto.com roadmap is to ambitiously expand our offering by providing customers (with) the most comprehensive set of financial services, and this acquisition is the latest step in that journey,” Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said. “The goal is to create one destination for all financial services where users can simplify their experience and maximize rewards.”

Crypto.com offers eligible customers financial products including deposits, derivatives, securities, foreign exchange, managed investment schemes, and more. Investors and traders on its platform can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more than 350 other cryptocurrencies. They can also access, manage, and spend their funds at any time using their Crypto.com Visa Card, which offers 5% cash back on all purchases.

Founded in 2016, Crypto.com has its corporate headquarters in Singapore and American headquarters in Tyler, Texas. The company serves more than 100 million customers around the world, and is a leader in regulatory compliance, security, and privacy in the crypto space. Crypto.com’s latest acquisition comes less than a month after it announced the purchase of SEC-registered broker-dealer Watchdog Capital. In August, Crypto.com added PayPal as a payment method to fund cryptocurrency purchases on its platform.

Cryptocurrency platform Gemini goes live in France

Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license in hand, cryptocurrency platform Gemini has gone live in France. The platform secured its VASP registration earlier this year, and this week announced that it is taking advantage of growing interest in crypto in France to begin operations in the country.

Gemini Head of Europe Gillian Lynch wrote on the company’s blog that the percentage of crypto owners in France has grown to 18%, a two-point increase since 2022. Gemini’s 2024 Global State of Crypto report further revealed that trust in crypto is higher in France (23%) compared to both the U.S. (21%) and the U.K. (19%). Additionally, most crypto owners in France (62%) are so-called HODLers who see their holdings as part of their long-term investments rather than as short-term trading vehicles. Nearly half of those responding bought their first crypto assets more than three years ago.

“Gemini’s entry into France is a strategic choice for our next phase of growth,” Lynch wrote. “France’s proactive engagement with and support of the crypto sector has fostered the development of a crypto hub, making it a key market for us.”

Lynch credited regulators for much of the positive sentiment in France toward crypto. Specifically, Lynch pointed to France’s VASP regime, as well as the European Union’s passage of the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation (MiCA) in 2023. MiCA provides a comprehensive framework and regulatory guidance for E.U. companies involved in digital assets.

“We believe in empowering individuals through crypto, and our expansion into France marks a significant milestone in our mission to make crypto accessible to everyone,” Lynch said. “Gemini’s research into the French market shows its growing interest in digital assets. (A) robust regulatory framework presents a unique opportunity to introduce our platform to the trading community and extend our presence in the European market over the coming months.”

Founded in 2015, Gemini is headquartered in New York.

EBA publishes new regulations for crypto providers

The European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued two sets of guidelines that specify measures that Crypto Asset Service Providers (CASPs) and Payment Service Providers (PSPs) must adhere to when transferring funds or cryptocurrencies. In effect as of December 30, 2025, the regulations will require CASPs and PSPs that transfer funds or crypto assets to use a reliable screening system that will ensure compliance with their “restrictive measures” obligations.

“These Guidelines clarify how restrictive measures policies and procedures interact with financial institutions’ wider governance and risk management frameworks, to avoid operational and legal risks for financial institutions and ensure an effective implementation of restrictive measures,” the EBA wrote.

Further, CASPs and PSPs must screen relevant information to manage the risk that entities or individuals could violate the EU’s restrictive measures or seek to circumvent them.

The new compliance requirements are designed to address perceived vulnerabilities in the banking system that can lead to both legal and reputational risks for financial institutions. This can weaken the effectiveness of the E.U.’s restrictive measures regime and, ultimately, destabilize the region’s financial landscape.

The regulations build on legislation first issued in 2021 by the European Commission as part of a reform of the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) program. These regulations, adopted in June of last year and going into effect on December 30 of this year, include a proposal for new rules with regard to fund and crypto asset transfers.

Coinbase acquires Utopia Labs

Digital currency wallet and platform Coinbase announced that the team from Utopia Labs will join its efforts to enhance Coinbase’s onchain payments roadmap within Coinbase Wallet.

“The Utopia team has been on the ground floor building onchain payments products for years. We’re pumped for them to join us to accelerate our goal of bringing low-cost, fast, and global payments to everyone around the world,” Coinbase Head of Base and Coinbase Wallet Jesse Pollak wrote on the company’s blog. “Together, we’ll create a future where individuals and businesses large and small use onchain payments to make their lives better every day.”

Specifically, the Utopia Labs team will join Base, Coinbase’s decentralized Ethereum Layer 2 scaling network. Base provides a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly way to build decentralized apps onchain. Coinbase Wallet enables users to store and manage all of their digital assets — from cryptocurrencies to NFTs — as well as multiple digital wallets in a single location. The wallet provides support for hundreds of thousands of coins, as well as many decentralized apps, and can readily be funded from bank accounts, local payment options, or card payments in more than 130 countries.

As Pollak explained, the connection between the acquisition, Base, and Coinbase is a strong one. “There’s a natural flywheel here,” Pollak said. “Base is supporting developers who build onchain apps, those apps attract users onchain, Wallet onboards those users, and in turn more users incentivizes more developers to build onchain.”

Operating in more than 100 countries, Coinbase supports $185 billion in quarterly volume traded on its platform, and safeguards $273 billion in assets. The company was founded in 2012 and made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014. Brian Armstrong is CEO.

Earlier this month, Coinbase launched a new engineering hub in Singapore to support the local developer community. Also in November, Coinbase introduced USDC Rewards for Coinbase Wallet users. The new program enables them to earn 4.7% APY by holding USDC onchain in their wallets. Rewards are paid directly into user wallets on Base every month. Currently available “in most regions” around the world, U.S. Coinbase Wallet users are gaining access to the service this week.

Nubank introduces cryptocurrency swap tool

Brazilian fintech giant Nubank has introduced a new solution to help simplify cryptocurrency transactions for its customers. The new tool enables Nubank customers to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Uniswap for the digital dollar USDC and vice versa.

“Swap is in demand by customers as they start including crypto assets into their strategies,” Nubank Executive Director of Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets Thomaz Fortes said. “The initial implementation involving USDC and the four most popular cryptos is a way to ensure potential profits from value appreciation without losing market position and with a lower fee compared to selling for value in reais.”

Integrated into the firm’s Nubank Cripto solution, the new functionality will be released over the coming weeks. Additional token pairs will be introduced within the next few months.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, Nubank made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr New York in 2016. Today, Nubank offers one of the largest digital banking platforms in the world. In fact, the company’s swap tool news arrives a few days after it reported reaching the 100 million customer milestone in Brazil. This figure represents 57% of the country’s adult population. Nubank also recently noted major gains in other Latin American markets, reporting nearly nine million customers in Mexico and more than two million in Colombia.

Photo by Michel Meuleman

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Finovate Global Nigeria: A New Unicorn, Mobile Wallets, and the Pursuit of Financial Inclusion

Finovate Global Nigeria: A New Unicorn, Mobile Wallets, and the Pursuit of Financial Inclusion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Mambu, MasterCard, Nubank, Wise

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features news from the fintech industry in Nigeria.

Africa’s newest fintech unicorn raises $110 million

African fintech Moniepoint is the continent’s latest fintech unicorn. The firm, Nigeria’s largest merchant acquirer, announced this week that it has raised $110 million in a funding round led by private equity firm Development Partners International (DPI). The round also featured participation from Google’s Africa Investment Fund, Verod Capital, and Lightrock. The infusion of capital boosts Moniepoint’s valuation above $1 billion, and is providing a positive light at a time when many fintechs in Africa are struggling to secure funding.

The funding takes Moniepoint’s total capital to more than $180 million.

Formerly known as TeamApt, the nine-year-old fintech will use the capital to accelerate the company’s growth across the continent. Moniepoint is building an all-in-one, seamlessly integrated platform for African businesses that features services including digital payments, banking, foreign exchange, credit, and business management tools. Speaking on behalf of DPI, Adefolarin Ogunsanya praised the company for its “combination of innovative technology, fast growth, and positive impact on the continent.”

CEO Tosin Eniolorunda co-founded the company in 2015. In the years since then, Moniepoint has grown into an all-in-one financial ecosystem that serves 10 million businesses and individuals. The company powers most of the point of sale transactions in Nigeria and, via its subsidiaries, processes $17 billion a month for its customers. Headquartered in London, Moniepoint maintains offices in Lagos, Nigeria; and Nairobi, Kenya, as well as in the U.S.

“This milestone validates the work we’ve put in for almost a decade,” the company noted in a post on its LinkedIn page. “And with this raise, we’ll be making financial happiness a reality for every African, everywhere. This is just Day One, and we’re excited for where this takes us.”

CB Insights also named Moniepoint to its 100 most promising startups roster for 2024. The Nigerian fintech is one of seven African startups to make this year’s list.

MTN Nigeria aims for higher quality mobile wallet users

There’s good news and bad news in the latest financial report from African telecommunications company MTN Nigeria. The bad news is that the company reported a significant after-tax loss of $312.7 million (₦514.9 billion), due largely to volatility in the currency market. MTN also noted that though active data users grew by more than 5% to 45.3 million, the company’s mobile money wallet business declined by more than 21%.

The good news? MTN’s fintech division grew revenues by 18%, with much of the gains coming from its mobile money service, MoMo. The decline in active mobile money wallets noted above was attributed in part to a shift in the company’s sales strategy to focus more on “high-quality wallet users” rather than just maximizing the number of users in general. MTN Nigeria also noted that its MoMo service has recently added functionality to support cross-border transactions.

“In the fintech business, we focused on executing our growth strategy, prioritizing increasing wallet quality, focusing on advanced services, and the MoMo PSB app to enhance the user experience and engagement,” MTN Nigeria CEO Karl Toriola explained. “We have introduced cross-border remittances with 13 fellow African countries to boost adoption and monetization. Taking advantage of their interoperability, we are now leveraging the existing network of agents and merchants … in the industry to bring our services closer to our customers.”

PalmPay wins recognition for financial inclusion

Lagos, Nigeria-based fintech platform PalmPay was recognized as the “Most Outstanding Fintech Driving Financial Inclusion” at the 2024 BrandCom Awards held late last month. Sponsored by Brand Communicator, the award acknowledges the fintech’s work in bridging financial gaps and promoting financial inclusion in Nigeria.

“At PalmPay, we believe financial inclusion is the foundation for economic empowerment, and we’re dedicated to ensuring that every Nigerian has access to secure, user-friendly, and reliable financial services,” PalmPay Head of Marketing and Communications, Hanson Femi said.

Founded in 2019, PalmPay has more than 35 million users. The company connects more than one million businesses via its mobile money agent and merchant network, and provides services ranging from instant transfers and billpay to its new USSD feature. This feature enables customers to perform a variety of banking transactions without needing internet connectivity by dialing *861# on their mobile phones.

“We aim to bridge the gap in digital access, and the introduction of our USSD service aligns with that mission,” PalmPay Managing Director for Nigeria, Chika Nwosu, said when the service was launched in September.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • South Korean fintech unicorn, Viva Republica, which operates the mobile financial super app Toss, announced plans to debut in the U.S. market.
  • Singapore has established a “Global Finance & Technology Network” (GFTN) to support the region’s reputation as an international fintech hub.
  • Wise became the first non-bank operating in Japan to earn approval to join the country’s domestic payment network, Zegin.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Stanbic Bank Kenya, in partnership with Mastercard, has launched a pair of new credit cards designed to serve the institution’s affluent customers.
  • Nigeria-based fintech Moniepoint achieved unicorn status after raising $110 million in new funding.
  • Côte d’Ivoire-based investment platform Daba Finance won the Ecobank Fintech Challenge.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Lithuanian identity verification and fraud prevention company iDenfy partnered with O2Factoring.
  • Erste Group teamed up with Neterium to help the firm bring its transaction screening solution to markets in Central and Eastern Europe.
  • Tech Times profiled Germany fintech billionaire and founder of Black Banx, Michael Gastauer.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

  • TBC Uzbekistan forged a strategic partnership with Mastercard.
  • Indian fintech unicorn Slice completed its merger with North East Small Finance Bank.
  • Walee Financial Services went live with Pakistan’s first Islamic nano-financing product.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian fintech Nubank announced the launch of a new mobile phone service NuCel.
  • Berlin-based Mambu teamed up with Kuady to help the company go live with its digital wallet in Latin America.
  • Uruguayan fintech dLocal partnered with advanced management software provider Fourvenues to expand into markets in Latin America and Southeast Asia.

Photo by Ovinuchi Ejiohuo on Unsplash

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Nubank Exceeds 100 Million Customer Mark

Nubank Exceeds 100 Million Customer Mark
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Nubank
  • Nubank has surpassed 100 million customers, stating that it is the first digital banking platform outside of Asia to reach this customer milestone.
  • Nubank serves 92 million customers in Brazil, over 7 million in Mexico, and close to 1 million in Colombia.
  • In 2023, Nubank achieved record financial results, reaching more than $1 billion in net profit and over $8 billion in revenue.

Brazilian challenger bank Nubank announced this week it has surpassed 100 million customers across Latin America. The fintech estimates it is the first digital banking platform outside of Asia to reach this customer milestone. Nubank is currently active in three countries, serving 92 million customers in Brazil, over 7 million in Mexico, and close to 1 million in Colombia.

The company has a mission of “fighting complexity to empower people,” offering users a digital bank account, credit card, mobile phone insurance, life insurance, personal loans, and investing tools. The company launched business accounts in 2019 to offer small business users a bank account, credit card, and a phone-based payment acceptance app.

“In 2013, we had set ourselves the ambitious goal to reach one million customers in five years, which seemed almost impossible at the time,” said Nubank Founder and CEO David Vélez. “In a decade, we have surpassed 100 million, which is a testament to the trust our customers place in us and to the power of a truly customer-centric business model. These 100 million customers have written their stories together with ours, and we want to honor them in a special way.”

Since its inception, Nubank has been instrumental in helping its customers save more than 440 million hours of waiting in service queues. Additionally, the company estimated that it helped users save 11 billion dollars in banking fees in 2023.

Perhaps more notable than savings consumers on fees and their time waiting in line, Nubank has also been instrumental in promoting financial inclusion in Brazil, a region notorious for its high rate of unbanked adults. Between July 2021 and July 2022, Nubank added 5.7 million credit cardholders to the country’s credit card market. In a survey it conducted of accountholders from 2021, Nubank found that 60% of Brazilian customers improved their financial journey in the first 24 months, citing frequent and responsible use of credit cards and other financial products.

“Being customer-centric has been guiding us since the very beginning,”said Nubank Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer Cristina Junqueira. “Today, we want our customers to see themselves the way we see them: at the center of everything. In reaching this milestone, we want to focus on the real people and individual stories of empowerment and advance our mission to help improve people’s lives.”

From a U.S. perspective, Nubank’s customer number is not the only impressive metric surrounding the fintech. The company closed last year with record financial results, recording more than $1 billion in net profit and over $8 billion in revenue. The positive financials are especially admirable, given that many U.S.-based challenger banks are still seeking to reach the break even point.

Photo by John Petalcurin

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Finovate Global Denmark: Financing Spend Management Solutions and Small Business Tools

Finovate Global Denmark: Financing Spend Management Solutions and Small Business Tools
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Nubank, Signicat, Temenos

A few days ago, we highlighted the $25.7 million (€24.1 million) investment secured by Danish challenger bank Lunar. Also this week, we noted partnership news from Denmark-based real estate tokenization platform – and FinovateSpring alum – DigiShares.

With all this Danish fintech news, we are devoting this week’s edition of Finovate Global to the fintech scene in Denmark: a Nordic country with a population of nearly six million and a per capita GDP that’s among the top ten in the world. We’ll also highlight some of the Danish fintechs that have demonstrated their innovations on the Finovate stage.

Danish fintech unicorn Pleo raises €40m in debt financing

Pleo, a Danish B2B spend management platform founded in Copenhagen in 2015, secured a $43 million (€40 million) debt financing facility this week. The financing came courtesy of HSBC Innovation Banking UK, a subsidiary of HSBC Group.

Pleo enables companies to centralize their business spending – expenses, reimbursements, invoices, and more. Pleo also offers physical, temporary, virtual, and vendor company cards to help businesses better track and manage spending. Pleo integrates readily with common business tools such as NetSuite, Xero, and Quickbooks, making its solution a viable option for companies ranging from start-ups to enterprises. With more than 30,000 customers using its spend management platform, Pleo notes that its technology saves administrative teams 138 hours every year and has a satisfaction rate of 90%.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with HSBC Innovation Banking. Starting at €40 million, the debt financing available to us can extend based on future requirements – which will expand our existing reach even further into more countries, enable us to increase limits and offer more currencies,” Pleo VP of Credit and Treasury Amit Kahana said. “Beyond this milestone partnership and imminent launch in the Netherlands, Pleo is expecting to see exciting developments over the coming 12 months as Pleo prepare(s) to launch in even more markets.”

Pleo initially earned its unicorn status in the summer of 2021, courtesy of a $150 million investment that drove the company’s valuation to $1.7 billion. Pleo secured an additional $200 million in funding in an extension of its Series C round in December of that year, giving the company a valuation of $4.7 billion.

Pleo announced last summer that it had nearly doubled its revenue and transaction volumes in 2022. The company began this year with a new chief financial officer, Søren Westh Lonning who had been working with the company in an advisory capacity.

Ageras raises €82m in oversubscribed private placement round

From its origins in 2012 as an online marketplace to help small businesses connect with financial professionals like accountants and bookkeepers, Denmark-based fintech Ageras has grown into a more comprehensive financial services provider, offering cloud-based accounting services to more than 300,000 small businesses in Europe.

This week, the company announced that it has raised $88 million (€82 million) in an oversubscribed private placement round led by Investcorp. The round, which also featured participation from Norwegian state pension fund Folketrygdfondet and American fund manager Lazard, was successful enough that Ageras CEO Rico Anderson said that it “reinforced the company’s desire to ‘become a market leader and then go public’.“

“We want to make it easier to be a small business in an increasingly difficult administrative and regulatory landscape by offering a fully integrated platform where companies can manage their banking, accounting, and tax in one financial cockpit,” Anderson said.

The investment takes Ageras’ total equity capital to more than $231 million, according to Crunchbase. The funds will also support Ageras’ plans for new acquisitions, with Anderson admitting that there are a number of potential targets already under consideration.

Ageras operates in more than 100 countries and boasts more than a million users of its technology. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Ageras was acquired by Investcorp, which took a minority stake in the company in 2017.

Here come Finovate’s Danish alums

Over the years, Finovate has been proud to showcase a large number of innovative fintechs from Northern Europe, including a handful from Denmark. Here are some of the Danish fintechs that have demoed their innovations on the Finovate stage.

Cardlay Payment Systems – FS24 – Cardlay Payment Systems will make its Finovate debut later this month at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. The company offers a white-label card and expense management solution, Cardlay Expense, that delivers an exceptional, real-time experience for cardholders.

Subaio – FEU22 – Subaio made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany, and returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateEurope 2022 in London. The company helps financial companies generate new revenue streams by identifying recurring payments and insights, and delivering different use cases based on this data.

Aiia – FEU21 – Aiia demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2021 in London. The leading open banking platform in Northern Europe, the company provides open banking services to a sizable number of financial instituitons including Lunar, Pleo, DNB, and Santander Consumer Bank. Aiia was acquired by Mastercard in 2021.

DigiShares – FS21 – DigiShares introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinovateSpring 2021 in San Francisco. The company offers a white-label tokenization platform for real estate, bringing both automation and liquidity to the property market.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Vietnamese fintech startup M_Service, operator of mobile e-wallet Momo, secured $28 million (£ 19.7 million) in funding.
  • A new inclusive instant payment system (IIPS), Higala, launched in the Philippines.
  • Fintech Australia and the Thai Fintech Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding to foster fintech capabilities between the two countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • The Central Bank of Nigeria paused account opening for new customers at four fintechs: Kuda Bank, Moniepoint, OPay, and Palmpay.
  • Digital financial solutions provider Payless Africa launched in Kenya.
  • FX and cross-border payments provider Crown Agents Bank teamed up with business platform Invest Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Norway-based digital identity solution provider Signicat became the first international aggregator to integrate mojeID Poland into its digital identity portfolio.
  • Romanian fintech Finqware teamed up with FwF to help European companies automate financial operations.
  • Lithuanian fintech Softloans raised $1 million (€1 million) in pre-seed funding.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • National Bank of Iraq (NBI) went live with core banking and payments technology from Temenos.
  • Israel-based fintech Nayax acquired Brazilian payment technology provider VMtecnologia.
  • Egypt’s Bokra raised $4.6 million in pre-seed funding for its platform that offers investment products via asset backed securities.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Bangladesh-based Eastern Bank (EBL) teamed up with Mastercard to launch a dual currency prepaid card for medical tourists in India.
  • Indian cross-border payments platform BriskPE secured $5 million in seed funding.
  • Bank of Thailand launched QR code cross-border payments to India.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazil-based banking-as-a-service company QI Tech became the country’s latest unicorn after securing an extension of its $200 million Series B round from last October.
  • Uruguyan cross-border payment platform dLocal partnered with online English-learning platform Open English.
  • Brazilian fintech Nubank launched its new banking experience Nubank+, offering cashback, streaming video courtesy of a partnership with Max, and more.

Photo by Sushil Ghimire

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Wise Platform Powers New Global Account and Card Program for Brazilian Fintech Nubank

Wise Platform Powers New Global Account and Card Program for Brazilian Fintech Nubank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Nubank, Wise
  • Brazilian fintech and financial services giant Nubank has teamed up with Wise Platform.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, Wise Platform will power a new global account and international debit card for Nubank.
  • Wise Platform offers banks, financial institutions, and businesses the ability to leverage its infrastructure to make cheaper, easier payments.

Brazilian fintech Nubank has partnered with Wise Platform to power its global account and international debit card. Wise Platform, Wise’s infrastructure solution for banks, financial institutions, and businesses, now counts more than 85 partners around the world, including Bank Mandiri, Monzo, and Google Pay.

The partnership will power Nubank’s new global account and international debit cards for the fintech’s premium tier, “Ultravioleta,” customers. The collaboration will also enable Nubank customers to hold both U.S. dollars and euros, as well as use their card to spend in local currencies in 200 countries and territories.

“Through this partnership, we’re helping Nubank customers access fast, transparent payments and the ability to easily manage money across currencies,” Wise Platform Global Managing Director Steve Naudé said. “Across the sector, we are seeing a real push from banks and financial institutions to provide their customers with best-in-class international payments services. By working with Wise Platform, banks are able to achieve this in a matter of months or even weeks.”

Wise’s partnership with Nubank represents continued growth for the company in Brazil; Wise reports that it has issued more than one million Wise cards within 15 months of its going live in the country. For its part, Nubank has more than 90 million customers in South America, with more than 85 million in Brazil.

Nubank introduced itself to Finovate audiences in 2016 with its presentation at FinDEVr NewYork. In the years since, the company has grown from a financial services startup to the largest digital bank in Brazil and the second largest financial institution in the country. Late last month, Nubank announced that it has reached the four million customer milestone for its Nubank PJ offering, launched in 2019, which provides solutions for entrepreneurs. This week, the firm’s subsidiary, Nu Colombia, secured a $150 million loan from DFC, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, to help expand its services in the country.

Making its Finovate debut as TransferWise in 2013, the company rebranded as Wise in 2021 to reflect its evolution beyond its origins as an innovator in the international money transfer space. Today, the company supports three main lines of business: its global money transfer service and international account; Wise Business, a global business account with features such as mass payouts and multi-user access; and Wise Platform, which enables companies to give their customers easier, cheaper payments by leveraging Wise’s infrastructure. Co-founder Kristo Käärmann is CEO.

Photo by Caroline Cagnin

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Finovate Global Switzerland: Temenos Unveils Enterprise Services, Rivero Raises $7 Million

Finovate Global Switzerland: Temenos Unveils Enterprise Services, Rivero Raises $7 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finastra, Finovate Global, MasterCard, nanoPay, Nubank

Swiss fintech Temenos launched its end-to-end Temenos Enterprise Services on the Temenos Banking Cloud this week. The new offering will enable banks to lower the cost, complexity, and risk of modernization, and deploy new software solutions in 24 hours.

Temenos President Product and Chief Operating Officer Prima Varadhan called the offering “a game-changing approach.” Varadhan added, “the ability to deploy fast, take advantage of a functionally-rich system from day 1, and benefit from continuous updates, help banks to attack the largest cost elements of running core banking software.”

Temenos Enterprise Services features 120+ pre-packaged banking products, predefined customer journeys, and more than 700 pre-configured APIs. The offering enables banks, regardless of size, to launch a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), and have a build and test environment within 24 hours. Whether the goal is the launch new business lines or to modernize legacy systems, Temenos Enterprise Services enables banks to benefit from continuous updates, optimal security controls, resilience, and high-performance Service Level Agreements. Banks and FI will also get immediate access to the Temenos Exchange ecosystem with another 115+ complementary solutions.

“Speed, security, and business agility are key for banks to compete and thrive in the digital world,” Varadhan said. “With our end-to-end Temenos Enterprise Services on Temenos Banking Cloud, banks of all sizes can have a ready-to-go system in 24 hours with pre-configured banking products, turn on new features, and benefit from faster time to value.”

A Finovate alum since 2013, Temenos counts more than 700 banks and 3,000+ FIs across 150 countries as users of its technology. The Swiss fintech’s offerings support retail, business, and corporate banking, as well as wealth management and services for fund administrators. Temenos ended 2023 with a new partnership with Lesha Bank, a Qatar-based investment bank that migrated to Temenos’ core banking platform in December.

Swiss payments technology company Rivero raised $7 million in Series A funding this week. Inference Partners and 6 Degrees Capital led the round. Kraken Ventures, Seed X Liechtenstein, the venture arm of PostFinance and angel investor and former Adyen COO, Robert Kraal, also participated in the funding. The company will use the capital to fuel expansion into new markets, enhance product development, and add to its workforce.

“We’re thrilled to share the news of our Series A round,” Rivero CEO and co-founder Thomas Müller said, “especially given the current challenging market conditions. We take this as confirmation of our strong business model and clear market demand for our products.”

A specialist in payment digitization and automation, Rivero makes payments easier for financial institutions, especially issuing banks. The company has two primary SaaS offerings: Kajo, a payment scheme compliance solution, and Amiko, which provides tools for fraud recovery and dispute management. Rivero has forged partnerships with more than 20+ financial institutions including Swiss bank Cembra, which deployed Amiko, and payment card issuer Cornercard, which deployed Kajo.

“Globally, banks spend billions of dollars on scheme compliance and payment dispute management,” 6 Degrees Capital partner Thibault D’hondt noted. “Rivero is the first of its kind to offer a suite of SaaS solutions to help banks and processors address the challenge.”

Founded in 2019, Rivero is based in Zurich, Switzerland.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • German crypto custodian Fiona raised $15 million in strategic funding at a valuation of $100 million.
  • Estonian fintech Money Industries secured a $1.5 million investment led by Caucasus Ventures.
  • Omnicredit, Romania’s first micro financing, scoring and factoring company, won the “Best Digital Lending in CEE Among Fintechs” award from the SME Banking Club Association.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • MENA-based Paymob teamed up with GCC-based shopping and payments platform Tamara.
  • Ooredoo, a Qatar-based fintech, forged a partnership with Commercial Bank to launch its direct debit solution.
  • MENA-based payments solutions provider Magnati collaborated with Oxinus Holdings to enhance payments in the food and beverage business.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian pay tech Mylapay raised $550,000 in seed funding.
  • nanopay brought its remittance solution, Foree Remittance, to Pakistan courtesy of a partnership with the National Bank of Pakistan.
  • India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) integrated with Singapore-based PayNow to support remittance flows from Indian’s in Singapore back home.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Conta Simples, an expense management and corporate card services platform based in Brazil, secured $41.5 million in new funding.
  • Argentina-based fintech Ualá launched the country’s first no-fee credit card.
  • Brazilian fintech Nubank to expand into Colombia.

Asia-Pacific

  • Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LPBank) partnered with Finastra.
  • BitGo secured in principle approval to launch operations in Singapore.
  • Funding for fintech startups in Indonesia fell by more than 50% last year, according to a report from Tracxn Technologies.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Mastercard partnered with illicocash to launch virtual card program in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
  • IT Web Africa looked at the potential for fintech development in Ethiopia.
  • Vienna Payment Solutions teamed up with Interswitch East Africa (Kenya).

Photo by H. Emre

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The Best of Finovate Global 2023: Digital Transformation, Financial Inclusion, AI and Automation

The Best of Finovate Global 2023: Digital Transformation, Financial Inclusion, AI and Automation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, FIS, Interview, Mambu, MasterCard, Nubank, WorldPay

Our final Finovate Global column of 2023 celebrates the conversations we’ve had this year with fintech innovators from around the world.

Stay tuned in 2024 for more interviews with some of the most interesting founders, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in fintech and financial services.

“We developed BehaviorQuant because every financial decision is ultimately made by a person or a team. BehaviorQuant solves a core problem that underlies the entire investment industry: we don’t have systematic knowledge about the people and teams behind investment decisions. And that’s true for financial professionals and clients alike.” Dr. Thomas Oberlechner, founder and CEO of BehaviorQuant. Interview.

“Moniepoint solves the problem of fragmented, inaccessible, and low-quality financial services for businesses in emerging markets.  It is a full-service business banking platform seeking to provide all the digital financial services a typical business needs.” Tosin Eniolorunda, founder and CEO of Moniepoint. Interview.

“Eight hundred million voice conversations are recorded daily in Europe and many more worldwide. A tiny 1% of these conversations are checked for quality control, employee training, and business results improvement. Ender Turing is a conversations intelligence and automation platform to close 99% of the conversation gap for business growth.” Olena Iosifova, CEO of Ender Turing. Interview.

“Capital raising is broken. Private companies spend months and even years in the fundraising process, learning how to raise capital and repeating the same mistakes, approaching the wrong investors and often spamming them with irrelevant investment opportunities.” Ulyana Shtybel, CEO of Quoroom. Interview.

“At Refine intelligence, our mission is to help banks regain that superpower of really knowing their customers’ life stories, so their financial crime teams can quickly clear AML or scam alerts triggered by legitimate customer activity. We work with Risk, Financial Crime, BSA and AML teams. Fraud teams look at our technology to help with scam operations.” Uri Rivner, co-founder and CEO of Refine Intelligence. Interview.

“It was an honor to be ranked by CB Insights in its Fintech 250 list and, as one of only seven African start-ups featured, it speaks to the pioneering approach we are introducing to the world – revolutionizing payments and creating a financial services ecosystem for Africa.”

“As sub-Saharan Africa gains recognition on the global stage, we are seeing innovative and pioneering products emerge and rise in popularity amongst consumers, diversifying the products they can choose from.” Tayo Oviosu, founder and CEO of Paga. Interview.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Berlin, Germany-based cloud banking platform Mambu to power the new Neobank Engine launched by Trigger Software.
  • Mintos, a multi-asset platform based in Latvia, announced addition of personalized ETFs to its product suite.
  • Hungary’s OTP Bank partnered with Intellect Global Consumer banking (iGCB), the consumer banking arm of Indian banking technology copany Intelltect Design Arena.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Finovate Global: Capitalise.ai in Dubai, Cashless in Egypt, Accelerating Women in Tech

Finovate Global: Capitalise.ai in Dubai, Cashless in Egypt, Accelerating Women in Tech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Capitalise, Finovate Global, Marqeta, Nubank

Standard Chartered has teamed up with Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) to launch the fifth cohort of Women in Tech accelerator program. The program is designed to empower female entrepreneurs in the UAE’s technology sector, and encourage innovation, diversity, and economic development. Participants in the program receive training, workshops, mentorship, and access to seed capital. Applications to join the accelerator can be submitted up until the end of July. Ten startups will be chosen to participate. The program ends with a demo day in October, giving each of the startups the opportunity to present their business model to a panel of industry thought leaders and experts, as well as potential investors. The top three startups in the program will be awarded a total of $100,000 in non-equity seed capital.

“By joining forces with DIFC Innovation Hub, we are also taking significant strides toward building a more inclusive and thriving tech ecosystem that supports women-led startups and harnesses the diverse talents and perspectives of women, ultimately shaping a brighter future for all,” Standard Chartered UAE CEO Rola Abu Manneh said.

Eligible companies must have a gender-diverse team. This includes a minimum of one female co-founder. Companies must demonstrate an innovative and scalable solution, as well as the technology’s sustainable impact. The program is for UAE-based startups only.

CFI Financial Group has partnered with Finovate Best of Show winner Capitalise.ai to bring AI-enabled, automated trading to clients in the Middle East. Capitalise.ai leverages code-free automation to enable traders and investors to implement their trading strategies more accurately and reduce human error. Capitalise.ai’s platform enables traders to plan trades in advance as well as take advantage of preset trading strategies. The platform then automatically executes trading decisions based on parameters decided in advance by the trader. This helps ensure that the trades taken are both timely and accurate.

In addition to executing trades, the Capitalise.ai platform also monitors the market for potential trading opportunities based on pre-set parameters. The platform notifies users when specific market conditions line up with their trading strategies, alerting them to potential opportunities in the market.

Capitalise.ai co-founders Shahar Rabin (Chief Product Officer) and Amir Shiovich (Chief Executive Officer) at FinovateSpring 2017.

“We are excited to introduce Capitalise.ai as a game-changer in the MENA trading landscape,” CFI Financial Group co-founder and MD Hisham Mansour said. “By offering this code-free AI trading technology, we are empowering our clients with the ability to automate their trading strategies effortlessly.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Capitalise.ai demoed its trading automation technology at FinovateSpring 2017, winning Best of Show. In the years since then, Capitalise.ai has forged partnerships with crypto spot and regulated futures market ErisX, accounting software company Clear Books, U.S. spot FX trading platform Forex.com, and CFD/Forex broker AvaTrade. Capitalise.ai has raised $10 million in funding, and includes Poalim Equity and Binance among its investors. Amir Shiovich is co-founder and CEO.

Egyptian cashless payments app Flash secured $6 million in seed funding. The round was led by Addition, and featured participation from Flourish Ventures as well as other angel investors. The company will use the capital to accelerate product development, as well as customer and business acquisition in Egypt. Additionally, Flash has secured approval from the Central Bank of Egypt – in partnership with Banque Misr – to serve as a technical payment aggregator.

Flash gives consumers and businesses a cashless payment option via a scan-and-pay service. By adding their existing bank card or digital wallet to the Flash app, consumers can make purchases using their phones simply by scanning the QR code provided by the business. Flash enables businesses to accept payments from consumers directly without requiring point-of-sale (POS) systems or complex technical integrations.

Uber alumni Erik Gordon and Sherine Kabesh founded Flash in 2021. “Our mobile application removes transactional challenges for businesses looking for an easier solution than the POS,” Gordon said. “Our goal is to make payments easier, safer, and faster for everyone. We are also excited to be releasing new features to help consumers make better spending decisions.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Stag, a financial education-related startup based in Vietnam, raised $600,000 in seed funding from Viet Capital Ventures, NH Securities Vietnam, and Singapore-based Resolution Ventures.
  • Hong Kong-based fintech Eddid Financial signed an agreement with Malaysian fintech MPAY establishing a joint venture to boost fintech expansion in Malaysia.
  • South Korean fintech U Fintech Hub secured $4 million in funding in a round led by Forest Partners.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Ten Southern African fintech startups received grant funding from the World Bank as part of the Fintech Challenge initiative of the Southern Africa Innovation Bridge Portal.
  • African paytech Flutterwave launched a new payment solution, Tuition, to enable users to pay for educational fees using local currencies.
  • Global Brands Magazine recognizes Access Bank Mozambique as “Best Banking Brand” based on customer service, satisfaction, and digital innovation.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Marqeta announced an expansion to Brazil.
  • International remittance company Viamericas Corporation launched new program with Guatemala-based financial organization Banco GyT to promote financial inclusion for people with severe disabilities.
  • Brazilian fintech EBANX partnered with Nubank to help the company launch a new alternative payment service, NuPay.

Photo by Nextvoyage

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