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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
The conversation continues with Greg Palmer, host of the Finovate Podcast. This week, we share three of Greg Palmer’s latest podcast interviews with leaders, innovators, and analysts in fintech and financial services.
Elizabeth Osborne, Chief Operations Officer at Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU), and Greg Palmer talk about successfully onboarding third-party fintechs, from strategy to selection to implementation. EP 231.
Osborne is an experienced operations and information technology leader with a background in both the credit union and banking industries. In her role as COO for GLCU, Osborne oversees areas such as technology, digital, contact center, deposit operations, payments, and PMO.
Max Grande, VP of Vertical Market Solutions at Onbe, and Greg Palmer discuss why you should be thinking about B2C payments. EP 230.
Onbe is a Chicago, Illinois-based fintech that manages and modernizes both consumer and workforce disbursements for corporate clients. The company’s platform powers a suite of turnkey, managed distribution solutions that enable clients to outsource their entire B2C disbursement operation.
Greg Palmer talks with Howard Xiao, Head of Partnerships at VGS, about payments, security, and the importance of staying flexible as an innovator. Ep 229.
As Head of Partnerships at VGS, Xiao leads the global partnership team, managing both VGS’ Payments Partners Channel and Alliance Partners.
VGS is a universal vault that supports the storage and transmission of payment credentials for its business customers around the world. The San Francisco, California-based company demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022.
Revolut has announced the launch of Revolut Terminal, a wireless POS device aimed at larger businesses in the U.K. and Ireland.
Revolut Terminal offers advanced features like multi-location management, customer analytics, and integration with Revolut Pay.
Revolut Terminal is different from the Revolut Reader, which targets micro-businesses.
International challenger bank Revolut is pushing further into the business-to-business space this year. The company just announced the pending launch of Revolut Terminal, an advanced Point of Sale (POS) device designed for larger businesses across the U.K. and Ireland.
The new payment terminal, which is wireless and claims 99.9% uptime, is geared toward helping businesses manage transactions efficiently and securely across multiple physical locations. Revolut plans to launch the Revolut Terminal just ahead of Black Friday, which is timely for businesses that want to prepare for the increase in retail traffic before the holiday season.
Revolut’s new POS device integrates with Revolut Pay and will allow customers to make payments directly from their Revolut accounts without having to enter card or bank details. For merchants, Revolut Pay provides competitive transaction fees, which, at 0.5% + £0.02, are considerably less than traditional card processing fees.
“We’re excited to be offering Revolut Terminal as an all-in-one, powerful POS solution for our business customers,” said Revolut General Manager of Merchant Acquiring Alex Codina. “This launch comes as we continue to invest into our B2B offering and particularly double down on the hospitality and retail industries as an acquirer. A truly reliable payment solution is the difference between closing the sale and losing money, with Black Friday round the corner, Revolut Terminal is built to withstand high customer demand; and it could be yours in time for the busy season at an exclusive, reduced rate.”
In addition to the competitive pricing, the Revolut Terminal provides access to advanced POS features, including multi-location management, table mapping for restaurant businesses, analytics and insights into customer behavior, and integration with customer catalogues.
The Revolut Terminal builds on the success of the Revolut Reader, which the company launched in 2022. The Revolut Reader is a smaller, wireless dongle-type of payment acceptance tool aimed to help micro-businesses and entrepreneurs accept payments at 0.8% + £0.02 per transaction. The lightweight, portable card reader integrates with Revolut Business accounts and offers essential POS functionalities, including tipping and analytics.
Revolut offers an entire suite of tools for its business users. In addition to its flagship multi-currency accounts, the company also provides expense management tools, corporate payment cards, as well as a line of payment acceptance tools that includes hardware, APIs, analytics, and integrations.
“We’re continuing to see lots of momentum in Revolut Business, having this summer surpassed $500 million in annualized revenue and onboarding over 20,000 new customers per month,” said Revolut Business General Manager James Gibson. “Revolut Terminal marks the latest investment in our business customers, with merchants of all sizes now able to easily accept payments directly into their Revolut Business accounts, without juggling multiple providers.”
Last month, the company spun out its wealth management app into a standalone entity. And earlier this year, the company cemented its reputation as Europe’s most valuable fintech after receiving a $45 billion valuation.
Financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank.
TSB bank will visit schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s financial literacy app.
Headquartered in London, Doshi made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024.
Gamified financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank. The financial institution will spend the next six months traveling to schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s app to learn about responsible savings and spending, as well as other issues critical to financial literacy.
The initiative is targeting 1,000 students between the ages of 13 and 18. Doshi features a series of interactive lessons on financial topics based on financial goals such as managing debt or avoiding stress over saving and spending. The app leverages gamification strategies including awarding points and showcasing leaderboards to enable users to check their progress. The app also rewards students who complete the learning modules with perks like shopping vouchers to help boost engagement.
“Entering adulthood Money Confident is vital to ensuring young people are set up to enjoy a lifetime of stable finances and informed financial decisions,” TSB Head of Responsible Business Kate Osiadacz said. “We’re on a mission with Doshi to help young people boost their knowledge using the app’s innovative learning platform, so that they start their financial lives in the best place possible.”
According to the Young Persons’ Money Index, more than 81% of young people worry about money and/or personal finances. Additionally, the same percentage of young people also want to learn more about better managing their finances as part of their school curriculum.
“Only two out of five young adults have received financial education in secondary school,” Doshi CEO Daniel Rose said. “At Doshi, we believe that financial education is essential for building healthy, confident lives.”
In addition to the Doshi app, the company’s technology is available via its own branded, out-of-the-box website as well as via API integration. Regardless of environment, Doshi delivers more than 1,000 pieces of financial wellness and education content, tools, and videos. With more than 30,000 engaged users, the platform has provided more than 100,000 hours of learning and handed out thousands of rewards to users.
Headquartered in London, Doshi App made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company demoed its white-label app that helps banks, credit unions, and fintechs promote financial literacy via a personalized, gamified, learning journeys. In August, the company partnered with Yorkshire Building Society to help provide financial education to first-time, prospective homebuyers.
The partnership between Doshi and TSB Bank is a product of the financial institution’s Money Confident Communities program. This program sends TSB Bank professionals to schools as volunteers to help young people learn more about financial wellness and financial independence. Doshi was one of the companies to successfully apply to TSB Bank’s TSB Labs program which partners with fintechs to enhance the bank’s financial literacy offering.
At the same time, such partnerships are fuel for innovation for fintechs, as well. “As a startup, you don’t get many opportunities to collaborate with senior leaders of a leading U.K. bank,” Rose noted. “Working with TSB has enabled us to co-create an exciting solution with the potential to change the lives of thousands of young adults.”
The idea of a black box has always been unacceptable in financial services. Financial institutions must be able to explain to clients and regulators how decisions are made – are they fair, justified, and sensible?
This is where observability comes in and it can do much more than setting your moral compass right.
In this in-depth discussion, the panel will explore the integration of AI-powered observability and financial services, focusing on how organizations can enhance their operations, ensure data protection, and comply with regulations. The experts will delve into the transformative potential of AI, including Generative AI, in boosting overall productivity and maintaining regulatory compliance.
Why should you attend?
Gain strategic insights: Learn from industry leaders about the latest trends and strategies in AI-powered observability tailored specifically for financial services.
Enhance operational efficiency: Discover how to leverage AI and automation to streamline operations, mitigate risks, and ensure compliance.
Real-world applications: See live demonstrations and hear real-life use cases from Dynatrace customers, showcasing practical implementations and outcomes.
Interactive learning: Participate in a live Q&A session with experts, allowing you to get personalized answers to your specific challenges and questions.
Among the panel of experts is Wayne Segar, Field CTO at Dynatrace; Paul Barnhill, Managing Director at Deloitte; and Eric Baran, Principal Segment Leader- DevOps – Global Financial Services at AWS.
With Halloween and the U.S. election on the horizon, things may be getting spookier, but that’s not the case in fintech! We’ve seen some potential good news in VC funding trends and expect that there is more to come. Stay tuned throughout the week to read the latest news this week as we post updates and evolutions.
Regulatory reporting software provider Regnology is acquiring CG3-1, a company that specializes in regulatory calculations for the U.S. broker-dealer industry.
Relyanceraises $32 million to help companies comply with data regulations.
Open banking
Token.io and Santander team up to leverage open banking to enhance credit card repayments.
This edition of the Finovate eMagazine brings you insights from FinovateFall 2024. We spoke to dozens of experts, innovators, and strategists from banks, credit unions, wealth management firms, and insurance companies about the hottest topics in fintech. Learn how they:
Elevate customer experiences From approaching Gen Z and addressing the painpoints of change to empowering employees and enhancing customers’ digital journeys.
Build partnerships As financial institutions share their approaches and how they bring cultures together.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global features news from the fintech scene in Hong Kong.
Worldline partners with BOCHK
International payment services company Worldline has forged a partnership with the Bank of China (Hong Kong), also known as BOCHK. The partnership makes the bank the first Hong Kong-based customer of Worldline’s open platform card solution, Paysuite Essential Edition. Previously called “Cardlite,” the solution will enable BOCHK to enhance the customer experience with new offerings, including its multi-currency Mastercard debit card.
“We are excited to partner with BOCHK, a prestigious bank in the region, to launch our new innovative Paysuite Essential Edition in Hong Kong,” Worldline’s Head of Financial Services Asia-Pacific, Noel Chow, said. “The partnership highlights the trust and confidence from leading financial institutions in our innovative open platform solutions. We believe the partnership paves the way for other banks to modernize their card systems and migrate from legacy systems to open systems.”
BOCHK’s partnership with Worldline reflects the trend in the payments industry toward open platform solutions. Already available in other markets, Worldline’s Paysuite Essential Edition offers issuing, acquiring, authorization, switching, and routing functionality. The technology supports Mastercard’s multi-currency card, and provides an infrastructure that accelerates time-to-market and deployment of new products and services.
Additionally, Worldline will provide a local support team with local expertise to assist BOCHK as it scales its operations in the future. This team will also help ensure the institution will meet Hong Kong banking industry compliance requirements.
“As open platform solutions are the future in digital payments, BOCHK is pleased to partner with Worldline, known for its comprehensive innovative fintech solution and unparalleled local support it offers, to provide our customers with the Mastercard multi-currency debit card powered by its Paysuite Essential Edition,” said Daniel Li, Chief Digital Officer of Personal Banking & Wealth Management, BOCHK. “This collaboration marks a significant step forward in our commitment to delivering seamless payment experiences to our valued customers and promote the wider use of digital payments.”
Worldline made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017. At the conference, the company demoed its Connected Piggy Bank, which helps parents provide financial education for their young children via a “playful” end-to-end savings solution. Today, Worldline processes more than 43 billion payment transactions a year, serves more than 14 million merchants, and is active in 170 countries. Founded in 1972, Worldline is headquartered in Bezons, France.
RD Technologies secures $7.8 million investment
RD Technologies, a Hong Kong-based financial platform that seeks to “bridge the worlds of Web2 and Web3,” has raised $7.8 million in Series A1 financing. Participating in the round were HongShan, Hivemind Capital, Aptos Labs, Hash Global, SNZ Capital, Solana Foundation, Anagram, and Upward Capital. The company will use the funds to further build out its financial platform and help encourage the development of the Web3 ecosystem in Hong Kong.
“The legacy payment industry is ripe to be disrupted using blockchain technology and stablecoins to provide more efficient and cheaper cross-border payment networks,” RD Technologies CEO Rita Liu said. “Hong Kong is leading the world in virtual asset regulation. We are confident that compliant and transparent stablecoins will invigorate the market and address the pain points of traditional payments and finance to bring in institutions and help Hong Kong become a global Web3 hub.”
Founded in 2020, RD Technologies offers two primary solutions via its subsidiaries: the RD Wallet and the HKDR stablecoin (HKDR). RD Wallet is a licensed Stored Value Facility that enables businesses around the world to open multi-currency fiat accounts via mobile device anywhere and at any time. The wallet supports eight currencies — HKD, CNY, USD, JPY, SGD, EUR, GBP, and AUD — that are commonly used in the region, offers fund transfer via TT and CHATS, and provides competitive FX rates with a 0% fee.
Issued by RD InnoTech Limited, the HKDR stablecoin is backed 1:1 by the Hong Kong dollar, with high-quality, liquid assets kept in segregated custody accounts with licensed financial institutions. In July, the firm was one of the first companies to be admitted to the stablecoin issuer sandbox by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
“Hivemind is thrilled to support RD Technologies as they seek to lead the future of stablecoins and cross-border payments,” Hivemind Partner and Head of Asia Stanley Huo said. “We believe regulated stablecoins are a critical growth area in crypto, offering real product-market fit, particularly as global demand for regulated stablecoins rises among enterprises and institutions.”
Checkout.com launches Octopus in Hong Kong
London-based Checkout.com is the first international payment services provider (PSP) to offerOctopus, the leading payment method in Hong Kong, as a payment option at checkout.
With 98% penetration in a region with 7.5 million residents, Octopus is Hong Kong’s first, “homegrown” fintech. Octopus was launched in 1997 as a contactless card for multimodal transportation. In the years since, the solution has grown into a popular and versatile payment system, used for retail and shopping as well as food and beverage transactions both in Hong Kong and abroad. The company introduced its mobile app in 2012 and now reports that there are more than 4.5 million Octopus digital wallets.
“At Octopus, we pride ourselves (on) making everyday life easier,” Octopus Head of Business Development and International Business Edwin Lai said. “This partnership with Checkout.com will enhance and broaden the payment experience not just for our customers, but also merchants within Hong Kong and beyond. We anticipate robust demand from global and local businesses eager to access Hong Kong’s consumers. We hope this collaboration will help support the growth of the city’s digital commerce.”
“Catering to local payment preferences is crucial for success in the Hong Kong market,” Checkout.com General Manager of APAC Brian Sze said. “Our strategic partnership with Octopus underscores Checkout.com’s commitment to investing in our Asia footprint, delivering localized payment solutions that empower merchants to thrive in this dynamic region.”
Founded in 2012, Checkout.com processes payments for thousands of companies around the world. The company’s international digital payments network supports more than 145 currencies, and processes billions of transactions a year. Checkout.com’s technology helps merchants increase acceptance rates, lower processing costs, fight fraud, and transform payments into a significant source of revenues. The company has raised $1.8 billion in funding, most recently closing a $1 billion Series D round in January 2022. Guillaume Pousaz is founder and CEO.
Hong Kong’s fintech celebration only weeks away
Some of the biggest fintech news in Hong Kong is likely less than three weeks away. Hong Kong Fintech Week begins on October 28 and extends through November 1. The event expects to host 30,000 participants and feature 800 speakers and 500 startups. Finovate participated in the city’s Fintech Week back in 2018 as part of FinovateAsia.
We’ll have more to say about fintech in Hong Kong in the wake of the city’s conference. For now, check out this interview with Lareina Wang, who was appointed chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) in August. In this interview, Wang — who is also executive director, head of digital and innovation at DBS Bank Hong Kong — talks about some of the major issues facing both the growth of the association as well as fintechs in Hong Kong.
“We have some of the world’s best universities in town, while, overall, the fintech industry is short of fintech talent,” Wang told FinanceAsia. “Advocating for policies and reaching collaborations might not appeal to them, but they are interested in being educated around fintech topics.”
Founded in 2017, the FTAHK has 300 corporate members.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
86400, a payments technology firm based in India and formerly known as Mobileware Technologies, raised $1.8 million (INR 15.6 crore).
The New South Wales (NSW) government teamed up with Indian incubator Afthonia Labs to help NSW fintech startups enter the Indian market.
An industry organization consisting of fintech lenders, Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), secured “self-regulatory organization” status from the Reserve Bank of India.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazilian paytech Barte raised $8 million in Series A funding in a round led by AlleyCorp.
Norway’s MeaWallet partnered with Peru-based neobank B89.
Grupo Bancolombia’s crypto platform, Wenia, launched its WeniaCard that lets users pay with cryptocurrency at any merchant that accepts Mastercard.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based fintech Surfin announced a $12.5 million Series A investment from Insignia Ventures Partners.
JCB enabled Google Pay for customers in Japan starting on September 6.
Checkout.com added Octopus as a payment method in Hong Kong.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Mastercard and ACI Worldwideteamed up to bring real-time card payments to South Africa.
Network International went live with new payments services in Kenya.
Nigerian’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a crackdown on fraud in the country’s fintech industry.
Central and Eastern Europe
INDEXO Bank partnered withMambu as part of its launch in Latvia.
Austrian payment orchestration platform IXOPAY introduced new CTO Ronnie Thomson.
Croatia-based fintech Fonoa acquired PwC UK’s GITC product to faciliate management of partial tax exemptions.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Calcalist interviewed former CEO of Bank Leumi and current Managing Partner at Team8 Rakefet Russak-Aminoach on the current state of fintech in Israel.
The UAE announced that cryptocurrency transactions will be exempt from value-added tax (VAT) effective November 15.
American Express Middle East forged a partnership with Dubai-based payment gateway Telr.
ANNA, a small business banking and tax app for SMEs, has implemented biometric re-authentication strategies to fight fraud.
The new re-authentication procedures are designed to help combat the threat of Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud.
U.K.-based ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin.
All-in-one business and tax app for SMEs, ANNA, has become one of the first financial institutions in the U.K. to deploy biometric re-authentication strategies to fight financial crime. The new procedures are being used specifically to prevent fraudsters from using accounts they have accessed illegally.
“ANNA was one of the first in the industry to start pushing these changes live and we continue to make updates and improvements,” ANNA Chief Compliance Officer Leven Li said. “Our random biometric re-authentication programme went live this week and we expect that other financial institutions will likely follow our lead.”
The re-authentication process is initiated whenever someone attempts to access an ANNA account on a mobile device that is different from the one used to initially set up the account. When this occurs, a request for a selfie is issued. Insofar as the fraudster will not be able to produce an accurate facial match, the access attempt is stopped and the account is immediately suspended. Additionally, ANNA has introduced random biometric authentication checks that also leverage a customer selfie to re-verify identity.
The new procedures come as new laws designed to stop Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud in the U.K. came online this week. APP fraud occurs when a person is tricked into sending money to a fraudster who is posing as a legitimate payee. The new regulations require payment services providers (PSPs) such as ANNA to reimburse eligible claims from APP victims when the fraud takes place via faster payments and CHAPs.
And while ANNA currently has a number of strategies to help prevent fraud, including the use of national databases like CIFAs and limiting ANNA accounts to U.K. residents and businesses, the new requirements are designed to help financial institutions, fintechs, and their customers stay one step ahead of continuously-evolving fraud threats – without compromising the customer experience.
“While these measures are mainly aimed at detecting accounts accessed and misused by criminals who have not been through our Know Your Customer process, there’s no friction at all for our regular customers,” Li said. “It’s just a quick selfie — which we are all used to doing — and it’s keeping our customers and their accounts much safer from day-to-day threats, like fraudsters trying to scam their way in or phone snatchers who try to access accounts by bypassing security protections.”
ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference, the company demoed its automated tax calculation solution that manages self-assessment and VAT return. The technology automatically categorizes and reconciles expenses, and calculates VAT and tax in real time. The solution then completes and submits tax and VAT returns to the HMRC.
This spring, ANNA acquired business spend management platform GetCape for an undisclosed sum. The transaction enabled ANNA to enter the Australian market; GetCape is headquartered in Sydney. The goal of the acquisition was to provide a challenge to Australia’s Big Four banks when it comes to offering expense management and corporate cards to SMEs.
ANNA was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in the U.K. Boris Dyakonov and Eduard Panteleev are Co-CEOs.
Digital bank Pockit has acquired multi-currency account provider Monese.
Pockit plans to continue operating both brands separately while combining efforts to process $6.52 billion (£5 billion) in annual transactions.
Monese’s B2B arm, XYB, will be spun off as a standalone business, and Monese’s 100 employees will join Pockit.
U.K.-based digital bank Pockit announced that it has acquired multi-currency account provider Monese. While financial terms of the deal were undisclosed, Pockit is rumored to have paid a “modest sum” for Monese.
According to the Times, Pockit CEO and Co-founder Virraj Jatania said that the deal would be “transformational” for the company and “great news for millions of customers poorly served by traditional banks.”
Pockit was founded in 2012 and now offers a prepaid card for everyday use, as well as a travel-specific prepaid card that can be used in multiple currencies. The company also offers joint account cards, a credit building tool, a cash advance product, and more. Pockit has raised just shy of $50 million, with its most recent $10 million round led by Puma Private Equity in August of 2023.
Also founded in 2013, Monese offers both personal and business accounts that come with a multi-currency debit card suited for traveling. The company also offers international money transfers for both sending and receiving funds. The company is backed by $201 million in funding, having secured its most recent 2022 round from HSBC Ventures, which wrote off its investment earlier this year.
Monese also has a business-to-business arm called XYB. This core-less banking platform, which helps banks and other financial services companies create and launch new financial services solutions, was spun off as a standalone business earlier this year.
For now, it appears that Monese’s two million customers across 30+ countries will remain with Monese. Pockit has said that, while Monese’s 100 employees will join the Pockit team, they will continue to run both Monese and Pockit as two separate brands. Combined, Pockit and Monese will process around $6.52 billion (£5 billion) worth of transactions each year.
At FinovateFall last month, Finovate’s David Penn sat down with Wysh Founder and CEO Alex Matjanec to discuss the concept of micro life insurance.
We’ve highlighted pieces of the conversation below, and included the entire 10-minute video for you to check out the full story.
Tell us a little bit about Wysh and your approach to embedded life insurance.
Alex Matjanec: I think the first thing that surprises most people about Wysh is that we’re actually a life insurance company…. Our product is called Life Benefit, and Life Benefit is micro life insurance that sits on top of their deposit accounts…. We sell the policy to the institution, and they give it as a benefit to their customers or members as a way to differentiate their story beyond just credited interest rate, helping to bring a real protection to that story.
You spoke in the past about the context of the protection offering that Wysh provides. How does Life Benefit extend the capacity for protection.
Matjanec: Today, there is protection being offered… we have deposit insurance, FDIC insurance, overdraft protection, fraud protection. The issue with a lot of that protection is that it comes from a world of being in a negative place. What we want to do with Life Benefit is show how protection can help you from a positive direction. As you grow your deposits, you’re growing this policy and benefit along with it. That is how we’re following along with you in your journey. As you’re trying to become financially independent, we’re giving you a little bit of protection along the way.
How does an institution go about adopting Life Benefit?
Matjanec: One of the things we’re really proud about is that it takes less than 45 days to go from contract to launching Life Benefit…. We give you a one-page disclosure that you amend to your existing contract. That allows us to bring this benefit to market without requiring any sign-up, opt-in, or underwriting… That turns this into a 72-hour ability to turn on.
What makes Life Benefit really powerful is when you show the customer the benefit they’ve earned and it growing over time as you’re raising your deposits– much like showing people the value of interest rates or return on investments. That is a little bit of a larger lift, but we’ve made integrations with other cores and banking platforms, as well as built a low-code, no-code option that some of our partners have implemented, and that’s why we’re confident that… it takes less than 45 days to go live.
Catch all of this, and more, including Matjanec’s explanation of how Life Benefit can help firms avoid the “sea of sameness,” as well as a discussion on the tool’s affiliate offering, and the company’s future plans, in the full video below.
Enhancing financial inclusion with micro life insurance
This week, Klarna Checkout, also known as KCO, announced its official rebrand as Kustom. The rebrand comes 12 years after the launch of Klarna Checkout, which at the time set a new standard for e-commerce in Northern Europe. The rebrand also arrives months after Klarna sold KCO to a consortium of investors led by BLQ Invest CEO and Founding Partner Kamjar Hajabdolahi.
“Klarna Checkout is very dear to me, and the impact it’s had on Klarna’s journey is immense,” Klarna CEO and Co-Founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in June when the divestment was announced. “I’m so pleased it’s finding a new home, with owners who are carefully handpicked to continue to create outstanding value for our merchant partners.”
A new home back then, and now, a new name. As Kustom, the digital checkout solution stands as one of the largest digital checkout providers in Europe. Kustom has 24,000 e-merchants and annual transaction volume of more than $14 billion (150 billion SEK). Kustom will focus on e-merchants and will add to its suite of payment methods, while keeping Klarna a key component of Kustom’s offering. Additionally, Kustom will focus on optimizing the checkout experience and building related services as opposed to offering its own payment methods or credit products.
“Our full focus will now be on our merchants and continuing to develop this great product based on their needs,” Hajabdolahi said. “We have an incredibly strong customer base, we are profitable, and we have secured financing for strategic acquisitions, which provides an excellent foundation. In the coming months, we will put all our efforts into further developing our infrastructure to expand our offering in 2025, including the introduction of new payment methods.”
Here are a trio of top takeaways from the rebrand.
Kustom will start strong
The rebrand comes at a time of strength for the digital checkout platform. The solution has a market share of more than 40% in Sweden and more than 20% across the Nordics. Kustom will also benefit from its new owners who have been credited for their “Buy and Build” strategy when it comes to acquisitions.
Strategic partnership with Stripe
In addition to its rebrand announcement, Kustom also shared news of a new strategic partnership with payments innovator Stripe. Stripe’s platform will be instrumental to Kustom’s plans to introduce new features and payment methods for e-merchants, starting in the first half of 2025.
Continued collaboration with Klarna
Despite the summer sale and the autumn rebrand, Kustom will retain its relationship with Klarna and, in fact, plans to offer Klarna’s payment methods in the future. Also many of the personnel moves accompanying the rebrand reflect more continuation than separation. Jesper Eriksson, previously Country Manager for Klarna in Sweden, will become Chief Commercial Officer for Kustom. Rasmus Fahlander, previously Senior Product Director for Klarna Checkout, will become CPO. Alexander Olsson, former finance director for the U.S. at Klarna, will take the role of CFO.
Worldline and Online Payment Platform have partnered to launch an embedded payments solution in Europe.
The new tool will enable platforms and marketplaces to integrate features like split payments, escrow, and mediation handling.
The embedded payments solution is currently available in the E.U., and Worldline plans to expand it to Switzerland and the U.K., as well as add enhancements such as tap-on-mobile and POS integrations.
The new solution combines OPP’s payment technology with Worldline’s capabilities in acquiring, acceptance, and point of sale. Using the new embedded payments tool, platforms and marketplaces in Europe can add features such as split payments, advanced escrow, and unique mediation handling. Wordline anticipates that these new tools in an embedded experience will help businesses find new revenue opportunities and boost user engagement.
“Our partnership with OPP reflects our commitment to innovation in payments,” said Worldline CEO Marc-Henri Desportes. “By combining OPP’s robust platform capabilities with our extensive acquiring expertise, we are delivering an embedded payments solution that provides platforms and marketplaces a unique pathway to integrate and leverage new payment opportunities.”
Worldline designed its new embedded payments tool to offer a holistic, turnkey solution that works across multiple currencies and payment methods. The user-friendly interface allows for fast onboarding with a high level of security that can help reduce fraud and increase consumer trust. Additionally, the embedded payments tool is compliant with both E.U. and U.K. regulatory standards.
“With this joint offering, we are setting a new benchmark in the payments landscape,” said OPP Founder Richarad Straver. “Our approachability, combined with Worldline’s unrivalled footprint, allows us to provide a seamless and efficient experience for platforms and their sub-merchants. This solution not only facilitates transactions but also supports our clients with features like escrow and mediation, enhancing trust and security in every transaction.”
The new embedded payments tool is currently available in the EU. Worldline and OPP have plans to expand availability into Switzerland and into the U.K., having recently secured the EMI license for the latter region. The company also notes future plans for advancements such as tap-on-mobile and point of sale integrations, which it anticipates will further enhance the user experience.
Embedded payments in the U.K. are quickly growing and evolving as businesses across multiple sectors seek to enable companies to offer payment services within their existing interfaces rather than redirecting their customers to third-party payment processors. This is especially true in the E.U., where the growth of open banking and open APIs has accelerated the adoption of embedded payments as merchants seek to make transactions more seamless and ultimately enhance their customer experience.
France-based Worldline began facilitating card transactions in 1973 and currently has 18,000 employees in more than 50 countries and counts annual revenue of around $4.4 billion. Gilles Grapinet is CEO.
