WorldPay

Worldpay Partners with BVNK to Enable Stablecoin Payouts

Worldpay Partners with BVNK to Enable Stablecoin Payouts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, WorldPay
  • Worldpay is partnering with BVNK to enable stablecoin payouts for businesses across 180+ markets.
  • The integration simplifies stablecoin adoption for traditional companies by embedding BVNK’s wallet infrastructure into Worldpay’s existing payouts platform.
  • The move reflects broader momentum in stablecoin adoption, following similar initiatives from R3, Solana, Circle, Mastercard, and MoonPay, as demand for faster, borderless, and more efficient payment solutions increases.

Payments and banking services company Worldpay and multi-rail payments infrastructure platform BVNK are teaming up this week to help businesses across the globe use stablecoins for payouts.

Worldpay is leveraging BVNK’s embedded wallet infrastructure to allow its commercial clients across more than 180 markets to pay customers, contractors, creators, sellers, and other third parties using stablecoins in near-real-time.

By integrating with BVNK, Worldpay is making stablecoin payments accessible to organizations that lack expertise in decentralized finance. Under the new partnership, businesses will not need to hold or handle any digital assets themselves in order to pay with them.

Worldpay business clients can access the new stablecoin payout service through their existing integration with Worldpay’s payouts platform. The company plans to pilot stablecoins on the platform in the second half of this year.

With 135 fiat currencies currently available on its platform, Worldpay began offering stablecoin settlement in 2022, allowing merchants in a limited number of geographical regions to receive payments in USDC. In 2023, the company piloted a project with Visa to receive funds more quickly from the network. 

“We’re delighted to work with BVNK to bring this enterprise-grade stablecoin payout solution to market,” said Worldpay SVP, Head of Payouts John McNaught. “With a history of delivering innovative payout solutions, we are excited to meet the rising interest from clients seeking faster, more efficient global payment methods.”

The partnership, which BVNK calls “an important milestone,” will help BVNK bridge traditional and digital payment systems, ultimately creating a more accessible, efficient financial ecosystem.

The move reflects growing demand for faster, borderless payments, especially for global payout platforms paying gig workers, creators, or remote teams. Stablecoins offer the speed of crypto with the stability of fiat, reducing delays and costs in cross-border transactions.

As demand for stable DeFi increases, so have the solutions facilitating mainstream adoption. Recently, we’ve seen a partnership between R3 and Solana, Circle’s launch of the Circle Payments Network, and a collaboration between Mastercard and Moonpay, all of which exemplify the trend of traditional finance converging with blockchain-based solutions to make stablecoin payments more accessible, secure, and scalable for everyday business use.

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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: Eltropy, Fenergo, Fintech Rundown, Plaid, Sikoia, WorldPay

As the holiday-shortened week begins, we’re learning that analysts expect UK hiring in fintech to boom in 2025. Meanwhile in the US, is the CFPB about to “86” open banking?

We’ll keep you covered on all the latest fintech news here in Finovate’s Fintech Rundown!

Payments

Fintech platform Adyen goes live with Tap-to-Pay on iPhone in seven European markets.

Flywire accepted into global luxury travel group Virtuoso.

Palla secures $14.5 million Series A funding to drive expansion and innovation in cross-border payments.

DeFi / Crypto

Worldpay teams up with BVNK to offer stablecoin payouts.

Volante Labs launches Volante Card, a Web3-enabled prepaid card for salary payments.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget unveils yield-bearing stablecoin asset, BGUSD.

Garanti BBVA Crypto goes live with its new mobile app.

Investing / Wealth Management

River Valley Credit Union partners with InvestiFi to offer cryptocurrency and securities investing.

Blend360 and Fin Capital partner to accelerate enterprise innovation.

Hidden Road launches digital asset swaps prime brokerage for the US market.

Identity management

Identity verification specialist Sikoia wins the 2024 Innovation Labs programme, along with Credit Canary and Aperidata.

Metro Credit Union partners with Illuma to enhance security and streamline member authentication.

Communications

Eltropy launches office phone to unify telephony for CFIs.

Customer data

Plaid introduces Transactions for Business to help power real-time business tools.

Fraud and security

ParaScript enhances check fraud detection capabilities with advanced endorsement reading feature.

Fenergo launches FinCrime operating system with Agentic AI layer to supercharge productivity.

Photo by Rohi Bernard Codillo

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Finovate Global Germany: Funding for Startups and Financing for Sellers

Finovate Global Germany: Funding for Startups and Financing for Sellers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Finovate Global, Temenos, WorldPay

This week’s edition of Finovate Global showcases fintech news from companies operating in Germany.

Aufinity raised $26 million in Series C funding

A specialist in the field of payment management for the automotive market, Aufinity Group announced this week that it has successfully completed a $26 million Series C round of funding. The round was led by BlackFin Capital Partners, and featured re-investments from current investors PayPal Ventures and Seaya Ventures. The German fintech will use the funds to power its European expansion and to help forge partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

“With this round, we are focusing on accelerating our growth across Europe even further, “Aufinity Group Co-Founder and CEO Lasse Diener said. “Through new strategic partnerships with leading OEMs and by continuing our focus on dealerships, we are preparing to redefine the industry standard for the whole of Europe.”

Aufinity Group’s eponymous platform offers car dealers and OEMs a digital payment management solution that is optimized and white-label-capable. The technology serves both vehicle sales and after-sales, and features optimized payment processes to provide faster incoming payments, greater liquidity and efficiency, and a superior customer experience. Founded in 2018, Aufinity Group is headquartered in Cologne; the company pointed to growing demand for its technology and a successful expansion to Italy and Spain in 2024 in explaining its goal to pursue more international markets in 2025.

“Our core business in Germany is already solidly positioned,” Diener added. “However, the high level of interest from the international market has prompted us to push ahead with our expansion into more countries earlier than planned, which is a great market confirmation for our business and platform.”

YouLend and eBay Germany team up to help finance marketplace sellers

Embedded financing platform YouLend has partnered with eBay Germany to provide integrated financing to sellers on the platform. Part of the eBay Seller Capital Program, the partnership will enable German eBay sellers to access pre-approved financing of up to €2 million ($2.26 million). Financing is based on the sellers’ performance data, and does not require an additional, separate application process.

“Sellers benefit from a chain reaction: quicker inventory restocks, improved product listing, or targeted marketing leading to greater visibility, higher sales, and more growth opportunities—all of which can be financed through YouLend,” Leonard Strigel, YouLend General Manager Germany, said. “This cycle of funding, growth, and reinvestment helps increase seller revenues.”

The partnership will give sellers personalized, pre-approved financing offers, informing them of exactly how much capital they are eligible for before they apply for funding. Direct integration of YouLend’s technology into the eBay platform supports a seamless application process that is “simple, digital, and reliable,” Strigel added.

Founded in 2016, YouLend launched in the UK and Ireland in 2018, entered Europe in 2022, and went live in the US the following year. In 2024, YouLend announced a £4 billion financing investment from J.P. Morgan.

eBay has maintained a presence in Germany since the company’s 1999 takeover of auction platform Alando. eBay Germany currently has more than 150 million visits per month.

German expense management platform Circula secured €15 million

An extended Series A round has given Berlin-based, AI-powered expense management platform Circula €15 million ($17 million) to help bring autonomous finance workflows to medium-sized business in Germany and beyond. The investment will enable the firm to boost its AI capabilities and offer additional automation features for finance teams.

Participating in the funding were existing investors Alstin Capital, Capnamic Ventures, Peak Capital, Wenvest Capital, and Storm Ventures. CIBC Innovation Banking also participated in the investment.

“We have a clear goal: to become Germany’s AI-based champion in expense and spend management for small and medium-sized businesses,” Circula CEO Nikolai Skatchkov said. “With hundreds of millions of euros in transaction volume, hundreds of thousands of active users, and the trust of countless tax advisory firms, we are in an ideal position to realize our vision of a seamless workday for finance teams in the coming years.”

Circula, founded in 2017, counts firms such as Aston Martin, DATEV, and Securitas among its customers. The company’s modular SaaS platform streamlines business expense management with features including AI-powered receipt capture, automated tax-compliant data extraction, and real-time booking verification. More than 150,000 workers throughout Europe rely on Circula’s technology to manage their business travel expenses, credit card transactions, employee benefits, and more.

Circula’s announcement comes at a time when less than 9% of medium-sized businesses in Germany report fully automating their expense workflows, according to research from ERP firm Diamant. In contrast, Circula captures 70%+ of employee expenses when they happen, and enables companies to reduce manual work by 80% and reduce monthly closing cycles.

“Circula is transforming traditional paperwork into smart, AI-powered processes—setting new standards in digital expense management,” CIBC Innovation Banking Director Charlotte Goggin said. “We are excited to support this growth.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • CIMB Bank, Malaysia’s second largest financial services provider, teamed up with payments technology innovator ACI Worldwide.
  • Singapore-based payments platform Airwallex raised $300 million in Series F funding at a valuation of $6.2 billion.
  • Philippine-based universal bank EastWest Bank turned to Temenos to modernize its core.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Payment infrastructure company areeba and digital banking solutions provider Foo forge strategic partnership to enhance digital payments in the Middle East.
  • Zawya looked at how the Qi card is bringing greater digitization to Iraq’s financial services industry.
  • Egyptian-based digital lending marketplace Qardy agreed to be acquired by Catalyst Partners Middle East (CPME) via SPAC.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Photo by anna-m. w.

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Worldpay Acquires Ravelin to Help Merchants Battle Fraud

Worldpay Acquires Ravelin to Help Merchants Battle Fraud
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, WorldPay
  • Worldpay plans to acquire AI-driven fraud detection company Ravelin.
  • The acquisition will help Worldpay enhance its e-commerce offerings by adding fraud prevention technology and improve business clients’ authorization rates.
  • Ravelin’s cloud-based platform helps merchants combat online fraud, secure accounts, and improve payment authorization rates through partnerships with data providers like Ekata and Ethoca.

Payments and banking services company Worldpay announced plans today to acquire fraud detection company Ravelin. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close later this quarter.

“Our acquisition of Ravelin aligns with our strategy to invest in innovation and AI technology, enhancing the value we provide customers and accelerating our e-commerce growth,” said Worldpay CEO Charles Drucker. “In today’s online world, equipping merchants with next-generation AI-powered fraud prevention products is vital, and we believe Ravelin’s technology and expertise will significantly enhance Worldpay’s overall value proposition to the marketplace. We look forward to partnering with Ravelin’s leadership and their talented team to help our customers address their most complex challenges.”

Ohio-based Worldpay anticipates that buying Ravelin will complement and enhance its existing portfolio of solutions. The company will also leverage Ravelin’s cloud-based AI platform to help its merchant clients improve authorization rates.

Worldpay was founded in 1971 and enables merchants of all sizes to grow faster and protect their businesses as fraud activity accelerates globally. The company offers processing solutions that allow businesses to take, make, and manage a variety of payments, including online, in-person, and embedded payments. The company processes over 50 billion transactions each year across 146 countries and 135 currencies. 

Fraud prevention and payments optimization company Ravelin helps ecommerce merchants combat online payments fraud, implement account security, accept returns while blocking fraudsters, and set limits on promotional redemptions. The company also performs 3D Secure identification. Ravelin works with third parties including Ekata, Ethoca, and Chargebacks 911 to bring a wealth of data and disputes, and can integrate with other external data sources, as well.

“Ravelin is thrilled to be joining Worldpay, a true global leader in the payments industry,” said Ravelin Co-Founder and CEO Martin Sweeney. “Worldpay’s scale and reach, including processing approximately $2.5 trillion in payments volume and more than 50 billion transactions in 2024, will be an immense asset as we accelerate Ravelin’s momentum and advance our mission to eradicate fraud from the internet. Together, we will be able to deliver innovation at scale, driving the adoption of our industry-leading fraud solutions to customers as they respond to increasingly sophisticated threats and rising fraud-related costs.”

In a world where consumers are demanding faster payments, fraud is taking place at a faster rate, as well. The methods of fraud are also evolving as AI tools become more advanced, making fraud more sophisticated and harder to detect. By integrating Ravelin’s fraud prevention tools with its payment processing services, Worldpay will provide businesses with the ability to protect themselves against fast-moving fraud.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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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: Fintech Rundown, Jack Henry, nCino, WorldPay

New leadership for digital banking solutions provider nCino and the fallout from the recent ouster of CFPB director Rohit Chopra are among the major fintech headlines as the first full week of February begins.

Be sure to check back here at the Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest updates and announcement in fintech!

Digital banking

nCino introduces new President and Chief Executive Officer Sean Desmond.

Azura Credit Union modernizes technology infrastructure with Jack Henry.

Payments

Jack Henry and Moov team up to offer Visa Direct via its Jack Henry Rapid Transfers solution.

The Clearing House’s RTP Network announces surpassing one billion payments milestone.

UK-based paytech Sokin raises $15 million in debt funding.

MoneyGram announces Luke Tuttle as Chief Technology Officer.

Pomelo launches first-ever rewards program for international money transfer.

NCR Atleos’ Cashzone Network expands into Italy.

Crypto / Defi

Uphold, an infrastructure provider for on-chain payments, banking, and investments resumes staking services for its UK customers who hold cryptocurrencies.

London-based fintech Brava unveils stablecoin management system.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken launches payment service.

Banking-as-a-Service

German Banking-as-a-Service platform Solaris secures $144 million (€140 million) in new funding.

Open banking

Payments orchestration infrastructure firm Pay.com chooses real-time payments platform Volt as its strategic open banking partner.

Adyen selects open banking infrastructure platform Yapily to enhance its open banking offering.

Plaid unveils new brand identity.

Wealth management

Wealth management technology platform OneVest secures $20 million in Series B funding.

Dubai-based wealth and asset tracking platform Myne raises $2 million in pre-seed funding.

AI solutions provider for financial advisors, Jump, raises $20 million in Series A funding in a round led by Battery Ventures.

Fraud prevention

Payments technology company Worldpay agrees to acquire AI-powered fraud prevention platform Ravelin.

Backbase and Feedzai partner to launch deeply integrated financial crime prevention in the Engagement Banking Platform.

Salus selects authID’s Biometric Identity Platform to secure its financial services solutions for the underprivileged.

Photo by David Kanigan

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Finovate Global Ireland: Payments, Regtech, and a Central Bank’s Search for Tech Talent

Finovate Global Ireland: Payments, Regtech, and a Central Bank’s Search for Tech Talent
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fenergo, Finovate Global, WorldPay

This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights recent fintech headlines from Ireland.

Dublin-based regtech Fenergo has inked a partnership with Caribbean-based PROVEN Bank. The financial institution will leverage Fenergo’s transaction monitoring solution to enhance and streamline its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance operations.

PROVEN Bank Deputy Chief Executive Officer Nikita Kissoon underscored increasing regulatory pressure on financial institutions as one of the reasons the bank sought the partnership with Fenergo. Kissoon praised the company’s “excellent reputation for expertise in both AML regulations and cutting-edge compliance technology,” and said that enhanced AML compliance “aligns with our commitment to combat financial crime and remain future-proofed against fast-evolving regulatory changes across our offshore locations.”

Fenergo’s technology will help boost operational efficiency for the Caribbean-based financial institution. PROVEN Bank will benefit from the automation of multiple manual AML processes, which will reduce the number of false positives and free up compliance resources to focus on more complex situations and higher-risk customers. The bank will begin deploying the technology at its Cayman Islands location and subsequently expand the solution to its offices in St. Lucia and its affiliate company, PROVEN Wealth, based in Jamaica.

The partnership is especially timely. The Cayman Islands, where PROVEN Bank is based, was only recently removed from the Financial Action Task force’s AML grey list and the European Union’s black list earlier this year.

Fenergo Chief Strategy Officer Stella Clarke pointed out that banks like PROVEN that operate in multiple jurisdictions often struggle to keep up with local regulations with regards to AML. “Our transaction monitoring solutions offers PROVEN Bank the flexibility to seamlessly adapt to fast-evolving regulatory environments, while empowering it to more effectively cross-sell services to existing customers based on rich data insights,” Clarke said.

Fenergo made its Finovate debut 12 years ago at FinovateEurope in London. The company has raised more than $760 million in funding, and includes TLG Capital and Bridgepoint among its investors. Fenergo’s partnership news comes at the same time that the firm announced that it had formed an alliance with Deloitte Ireland to help deliver Fenergo’s CLM solutions to financial institutions throughout EMEA.

The Bank of Ireland wants you!

If you are a technology specialist looking to drive fintech innovation in the Republic, that is.

The Bank of Ireland just announced that it is recruiting for 100 technology roles in a variety of digital projects, including fighting fraud and advanced data analytics. The Bank is specifically looking for talent with experience in data, delivery management, engineering, resilience and cybersecurity. Open banking, cloud computing, APIs, and AI are also among the areas of emphasis.

“We continue to invest in our talent, technology, and infrastructure to ensure customers have the very best banking services,” Bank of Ireland Group Chief Operating Officer Ciarán Coyle said, “We’re currently progressing a range of innovative digital projects across the Group and we want to recruit talented specialists who can enhance the banking experience for our customers.”

The bank’s search for tech talent comes as the institution has increased its investment in financial technology. After making more than 60 enhancements to its mobile banking app, including biometrics and fraud monitoring, the bank saw an 18% year-on-year increase in active digital users. The bank announced the largest single investment in ATMs in the last decade earlier this year, as well as an investment of €15 million on new fraud prevention technology.

“We are looking for the very best talent to join our technology team as we continue to deliver improvements for customers and colleagues across the organization,” Coyle said.

To find out more about the current available roles, visit the Bank of Ireland’s website.

Ireland’s PTSB has extended its agreement with Worldpay, giving the bank’s customers access to an additional range of services from the company, including e-commerce and ePOS. PTSB will also gain access to Worldpay DCC, a dynamic currency conversion solution that allows cardholders to pay in the currency of their choice.

PTSB Head of Personal Banking at PTSB Jeff Harbourne said that the ability to offer “a best-in-class merchant services solution” was key to the bank’s “ambition of becoming Ireland’s best personal and business bank.” Harbourne added, “By partnering with Worldpay, we’re offering a competitive advanced payments solution to our existing and new customers that enables them to grow their businesses and accept payment across all channels.”

With more than 1.2 million customers, PTSB has a presence in 98 locations throughout Ireland. Founded in 1816, the financial institution rebranded from Permanent TSB last fall following its acquisition of a sizable portion of Ulster Bank, including the firm’s Retail, SME, and Asset Finance businesses.

A Finovate alum since 2015, WorldPay today is a major payments technology and solutions company that processes more than 40 billion transactions across 146 countries and 135 currencies. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and founded in 1971, WorldPay announced an extension of its strategic partnership with fellow Finovate alum ACI Worldwide in July, and inked a new partnership with another Finovate alum, American Express, in May.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Colombian payment orchestration platform Yuno teamed up with Medellin-based financial services app Nequi.
  • Mexico City-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitso partnered with blockchain company Coincover for its non-custodial disaster recovery service.
  • Peruvian investment and asset management arm of Credicorp, Credicorp Capital, went live with Temenos’ Multifonds accounting and investor servicing solution.

Asia-Pacific

  • Thailand announced plans to launch a regulatory sandbox to test crypto-based services and solutions.
  • Financial Times profiled Kim Beom-su, founder of Kakao and one of the richest men in South Korea, who was recently arrested on stock manipulation charges.
  • Digital identity verification provider ADVANCE.AI signed an agreement with the Credit Information Corporation (CIC) to become the newest credit bureau in the Philippines. Read more about fintech in the Philippines in last week’s edition of Finovate Global.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Singapore’s Prytek bought a controlling stake in Israeli fintech Tip Ranks, giving the company a valuation of $200 million.
  • UAE-based fintech Yuze raised $30 million in funding from Osten Investments to fuel expansion into new markets.
  • Arab Financial Services (AFS) teamed up with Samsung Gulf Electronics to bring Samsung Pay to Oman.

Central and Southern Asia

Photo by Kelly

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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: ACI Worldwide, Boku, NCR Corporation, WorldPay

The week begins as banks, fintechs, and financial services companies alike work to recover from Friday’s historic IT outage.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we continue to track the latest in fintech news and announcements.

Cybersecurity

BBVA inks agreement with Telefónica Tech; opens international cybersecurity center in Mexico.

Galileo Financial Technologies adds 3D Secure to bolster online fraud protection.

Identity verification

IDenfy launches automated bill verification tool for utilities.

Veriff enhances biometric authentication solution to prevent account takeover fraud.

Payments

International payment services company PXP Financial launches its Partner Portal.

Online payment service provider PayU GPO introduces new Chief Risk Officer Simona Covaliu.

ACI Worldwide extends its strategic partnership with Worldpay.

Payment processor and ledger infrastructure provider Episode Six announces that its issuer payment solution is now available on the AWS Marketplace.

Mobile payment solutions provider Boku introduces new Chief Financial Officer Rob Whittick.

Pay-by-Bank solutions company Aeropay launches its proprietary bank aggregator, Aerosync.

Accounting

Legaltech Clio unveils Clio Accounting, the latest addition to its suite of fintech offerings for legal professionals.

Investing and wealth management

Franklin Templeton partners with investment management, accounting, reporting, and analytics provider Clearwater Analytics.

Data management and operations technology provider Arcesium unveils its investment lifecycle management platform, Opterra.

AI and innovation wealth platform TIFIN announces international expansion to India and strategic investment from DSP Group.

Credit unions

Black Hills Federal Credit Union ($2.3 billion in assets) teams up with NCR Atleos’ ATM-as-a-Service and ITM-as-a-Service offerings.

Small business

AI-powered spend management platform Brex introduces new Chief Compliance Officer Sibongile Ngako.

Digital banking

Rabobank selects Zafin to power digital transformation efforts.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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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, Alumni News, American Express, Daily news, Entrust Datacard, Fintech Rundown, FIS, Fyle, Jack Henry, Lending Club, MX, nCino, Onfido, Temenos, Thought Machine, Trustly, Weekly Alumni News, WorldPay

This week’s Fintech Rundown features partnership and expansion news from a handful of Finovate alums, as well as some interesting fundings in the cryptocurrency and charitable giving space.

Wealth Management

Digital wealth and payments company Mogo expands its relationship with data cloud company Snowflake.

U.K.-based wealth app Chip launches its first Cash ISA.

WiseAlpha unveils new wealth management portal and white-label solution.

Digital Banking

Segura Bank International (SBI), an FI based in Puerto Rico, launches a new digital bank powered by Temenos’ core banking platform.

North Carolina-based Mechanics & Farmers Bank has gone live on the nCino Cloud Banking Platform.

Indian payment solutions provider PayU migrates its credit service LazyPay to Thought Machine’s core banking platform.

10x Banking announces expansion to Africa, starting in South Africa.

Core banking provider Tuum raises $26.8 million (EUR 25 million) in Series B financing.

HSBC U.K. introduces its Cash Pod to expand customer access to cash in areas without bank branches.

Mortgagetech

Phoebus launches its SaaS-based mortgage servicing platform.

Raymond James Bank deploys ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass lending solution.

Payments

Atlantic Money secures authorization to bring its money transfer service to the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Overflow, a fintech that facilitates charitable giving, raises $20 million in new funding.

Worldpay completes its separation from FIS.

Airwallex forges multi-year partnership with McLaren Formula 1 team to support its treasury management and cross-border payout operations.

MENA-based payment orchestration solution provider PayTabs Group partners with Saudi Arabian payment-infrastructure-as-a-service fintech Nearpay.

Lending

Pagaya secures a five-year, $280 million credit facility led by BlackRock, JPMorgan, and others.

Allica Bank completes more than £2 billion in lending to businesses in the U.K.

Challenger banking

LendingClub moves closer to fulfilling the requirements to launch a new bank.

Open banking / Open finance

MX and Jack Henry announce an expanded agreement to enhance data sharing.

Trustly integrates MX data enhancement as part of its Open Banking product suite.

Norway-based open banking company Neonomics teams up with credit management firm Lowell.

Expense management / BFM

The Boston Celtics name Brex as its corporate card and spend management partner.

Expense management platform Fyle forges new integration with American Express.

Cryptocurrencies / DeFi

Oobit, a cryptocurrency payments app based in Singapore, raised $25 million in Series A funding.

Fnality to bring its blockchain-based payment system to the U.S. following its successful launch in the U.K.

Embedded finance

EY announces an alliance with embedded finance platform MoneyLion.

Identity Verification/Management

Entrust confirms that it is negotiating a potential acquisition of ID verification firm Onfido.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

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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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Worldpay Adds More Cross-Border Payment Options with Alipay+

Worldpay Adds More Cross-Border Payment Options with Alipay+
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FIS, WorldPay
  • FIS-owned Worldpay is integrating Alipay+ to broaden the payment acceptance tools it offers merchants.
  • The rollout will begin with AlipayHK, a standalone e-wallet that is limited to Hong Kong dollars.
  • “By tapping into Worldpay’s market leading footprint, together we can help more merchants globally accelerate their growth journeys and expansion into strategic markets,” said General Manager of Ant Group in Europe and the Middle East Guoming Cheng.

Worldpay revealed its latest partnership today. The FIS-owned electronic payment and banking company announced it will integrate Alipay+ as an option among its e-commerce and POS offerings.

To initiate the rollout, Worldpay will start by enabling its merchant clients to support Alipay’s AlipayHK e-wallet. AlipayHK will be available to Worldpay’s clients in phases. Alipay launched AlipayHK as a standalone app in 2017. The AlipayHK wallet differs from Alipay because, as the name suggests, it is limited to transactions that are made and settled in local Hong Kong dollars.

“To stay competitive, merchants must understand and offer the payment methods that their customers prefer. Local wallet providers are extending their dominance in several APAC markets,” said Worldpay from FIS General Manager for Global E-commerce, APAC Phil Pomford. “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with Ant Group to provide our global merchants access to the Alipay+ platform starting with the AlipayHK wallet.”

Developed by Ant Group, the wider Alipay+ brand provides global cross-border mobile payment tools that help merchants enable Alipay’s one billion active consumers to pay with apps they’re already using, including MPay, Kakao Pay, GCash, and more. Alipay+ also offers merchants digital marketing tools to better target and serve customers.

“The collaborative effort with Worldpay will empower merchants to sell globally and contribute to our mission of providing more open, digitalized, and inclusive financial services to global audiences,” said General Manager of Ant Group in Europe and the Middle East Guoming Cheng. “Alipay+’s suite of innovation solutions is connected with more than one billion consumers worldwide. By tapping into Worldpay’s market leading footprint, together we can help more merchants globally accelerate their growth journeys and expansion into strategic markets.”

Originally acquired in 1971, Worldpay now processes $130 million daily for more than one million merchants across the 146 countries. FIS acquired the company in 2019 for an estimated $34 billion. Earlier this year, FIS sold a majority stake in Worldpay to private equity firm GTCR.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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FIS Sells Majority Stake in Worldpay to Private Equity Firm GTCR

FIS Sells Majority Stake in Worldpay to Private Equity Firm GTCR
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FIS, Mergers & Acquisitions, WorldPay
  • Fintech giant FIS announced that it will sell a majority stake in Worldpay to private equity firm GTCR.
  • The move comes just over four years after FIS acquired Worldpay in a deal valued at $43 billion.
  • The transaction is the largest to date for GTCR and the biggest leveraged buyout of 2023.

Four years after acquiring payments company Worldpay, fintech titan FIS has announced plans to sell a majority stake in the firm. Private equity company GTCR is the purchaser, and will gain 55% of Worldpay, which is currently valued at $18.5 billion. Note that when FIS acquired the company in 2019, Worldpay was valued at $43 billion.

The sale is expected to close by the first quarter of 2023. Former Worldpay CEO Charles Drucker will be re-appointed as Chief Executive.

The transaction is the largest to date for the PE firm. The deal is also the largest leveraged buyout of the year. GTCR will finance half of the transaction with equity financing and the other half via borrowed capital. GTCR also has committed to an additional investment of as much as $1.25 billion in Worldpay to facilitate future acquisitions. According to Reuters, GTCR was able to outbid Advent International, a rival firm that was also interested in a major stake in Worldpay.

FIS will use the capital raised from the sale to retire debt and buy back shares from its current shareholders. The sale comes after months of strategic review and pressure from activist investors concerned with what they have referred to as “underinvestment,” “operational missteps,” and an overall “unsuccessful integration” of Worldpay into FIS. The acquisition will help Worldpay reduce its debt from $20 billion at the end of March to $10 billion when the deal closes next year. The strategic review, led by FIS CEO Stephanie Ferris, is designed to help the firm cut costs by $1.25 billion.

Sans Worldpay, FIS will continue to operate its core processing systems business for banks and FIs, as well as its capital markets division for investment firms. FIS’ capital markets business represents just under 25% of the company’s revenues. The company’s banking technology division provides 46% of revenues and its merchants business accounts representing approximately 30%.

Founded in 1968, FIS has been a Finovate alum since 2010. Worldpay is an alum of our developers conference, presenting its technology to FinDEVr audiences in 2015 and again in 2016.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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FIS Breaks Off Merchant Solutions, Plans to Restore Worldpay Brand

FIS Breaks Off Merchant Solutions, Plans to Restore Worldpay Brand
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FIS, WorldPay
  • FIS is letting go of its Merchant Solutions business, along with the Worldpay brand, which it originally acquired for $34 billion in 2019.
  • The company states that Worldpay needs a different capital allocation strategy to enable the brand “to pursue more aggressive investment opportunities, including M&A.”
  • The spin-off is expected to take 12 months.

FIS acquired Worldpay for $34 billion in 2019, and after rumors of a break-up swirled last week, the Florida-based firm announced plans to let go of and restore the Worldpay brand. Specifically, FIS is spinning out the Merchant Solutions business it created from the Worldpay acquisition.

Jeffrey A. Goldstein, FIS Chairman of the Board, said that “… the spin-off of Worldpay will unlock shareholder value by improving both companies’ performance, enhancing client services, and simplifying operational management. We are confident that this is the right time for the separation of Worldpay.” Goldstein added that the Merchant Solutions business requires “increased investment in growth and a different capital allocation strategy” than FIS.

In its press release announcing the change, FIS explained that this different capital allocation strategy will enable Worldpay “to pursue more aggressive investment opportunities, including M&A.” The long-term goal of the spin-off is for Worldpay to expand geographic coverage of its eCommerce tools, strengthen its enterprise offerings, and shift toward software-led payments.

After the split, which is expected to be completed in the next 12 months, FIS and Worldpay will retain strong ties. As a result, FIS’ Merchant Solutions business will take on the Worldpay brand, which will be restored. Originally founded in 1971, Worldpay conducted $2 trillion in payments volume in 2022. Charles Drucker, who was Worldpay CEO from 2004 until the acquisition in 2019, will oversee the spin-off and will once again serve as the company’s CEO when the separation is finalized.

Founded in 1968, banking technology company FIS has acquired a total of 17 companies, two of which were purchased after the Worldpay acquisition in 2019. The company offers 450+ solutions and processes more than 110 million transactions each day. FIS is publicly listed on the NYSE and has a current market capitalization of almost $40 billion.

Photo by Monstera

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