This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent fintech developments involving companies headquartered in France.

First up is news that European Buy Now, Pay Later firm Alma has partnered with BNP Paribas and new Finovate alum Numeral to automate payments.

“As part of our goal to create the most fluid and seamless experience for both merchants and customers, paying our 11,000 and growing merchants reliably and efficiently is critical,” Alma COO and co-founder Guillaume Desloges said. “Numeral enables us to scale with confidence and focus on our core business.”

Alma Finance and Strategy Senior Manager Simon Shohet explained that the integration of Numeral into both its systems as well as BNP Paribas’ systems, audit trails, and approval rules will enable automation of the process of managing “thousands of daily payments at scale.” Shohet added, “Thanks to Numeral, we can focus on the most critical incidents and rapidly solve merchant’s issues.”

Alma plans to eventually use Numeral’s platform to become a SEPA participant via BNP Paribas. This would enable Alma to issue IBANs in its own name, a strategic advantage for the firm.

Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London earlier this year. At the conference, the Paris-based company showed how financial institutions can leverage Numeral’s platform to automatically send, receive, and reconcile SEPA payments. The platform also enables financial institutions to manage payment errors via SEPA R transactions. The company is on track to process €5B in 2023.

Also this week, we learned that Revolut will begin offering customer credit products in France at the end of the month. The company announced that consumer loans will be available to Revolut’s more than two million French users starting on May 30th.

Revolut currently offers lending products in other European markets. These markets include Ireland, Lithuania, and Romania. Mortgage products are not part of the current package. But Revolut VP of Growth Antoine Le Nel said that these products are in the pipeline.

Thanks to Revolut’s embrace of open banking, prospective borrowers will be able to apply for loans without having to deal with hardcopy paperwork. Instead, applicants will get virtual “instant feedback” on their loan requests. Loans come with zero opening fees and are available from as low as €1,000 to as high as €50,000. Terms range from three months to 84 months and interest rates range from a low of 3.9% to 21.12%.

France has earned a reputation for being friendly to the cryptocurrency industry. This week’s news of a partnership between Canada’s Advanced Payment Solutions (APS), Cyprus’ Armenotech, and France’s Tempo France is another modest testament to this.

Back in at the beginning of the year, Armenotech and payments company Tempo Finance teamed up to develop an ecosystem supported by the Stellar blockchain. This week, we learn that London-based Advanced Payment Solutions has joined the pact.

APS CEO Serik Igbayev highlighted the importance of giving businesses the ability to work with traditional and digital assets. And in a statement, Igbayev praised the partnership with Armenotech for playing a key role in making this happen. “Clients increasingly demonstrate a demand for services that would enable them to operate both traditional and digital assets, combining various payment methods,” Igbayev said. “We have successfully been using state-of-the-art Armenotech solutions to meet this demand.” These solutions included tools that facilitate the conversion between fiat and digital assets, as well as products for fraud protection, security, KYC, and ALM.

Tempo France is serving as the corporate payment operator for the alliance. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Paris, Tempo France provides a fast and secure bridge between cash and cryptocurrencies. The company offers online, offline, and digitally backed remittances to nearly 100 countries with more than 300 physical agent locations. Alla Zhedik is CEO.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Nigerian payment service provider Nomba raised $30 million in pre-Series B funding, earning a valuation of more than $150 million.
• Kenya’s Fingo teamed up with Ecobank Kenya to launch its new banking app.
• Grey, a fintech based in Nigeria that offers international money transfer services, selected Kenya for its East African hub.

Central and Eastern Europe

• iProov and digital banking security company Wultra teamed up to bring biometric technology to banks in the Czech Republic.
• Rapid Finance integrated with German-based Mambu’s cloud-based lending platform.
• Revolut teamed up with Germany’s Upvest to support fractional ETF and European stock trading.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Standard Chartered launched its digital asset custody services in Dubai this week.
• The Jordan Payments and Clearing Company (JoPACC) established its fintech incubator.
• Tarabut Gateway and Visa announced an open banking partnership.

Central and Southern Asia

• Market intelligence platform Tracxn reported that Indian fintechs raised $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2023.
• Pakistan bank Bank Alfalah partnered with SendSpend to launch a new international remittance service.
• New Delhi-based Bueno Finance merged with BetterPlace to expand its ability to serve the financing needs of blue-collar workers.

Latin America and the Caribbean

• Card-to-card payments platform Paysend forged $30 million media-for-equity partnership with TelevisaUnivision.
• Rapyd and Belvo teamed up to support open finance in Latin America
• Sagicor Bank Barbados went live with BaaS technology from Mbanq.

Asia-Pacific

• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a pair of Swiss agencies inked a cofinancing agreement to develop financial technologies to boost financial inclusion in Vietnam.
• Mastercard opened a new data hub in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Tokyo-based Incubate Fund jointly launched a $200 million fund to invest in Asian fintechs.

Photo by Chait Goli