This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Money transfer company Paysend has raised $65 million in funding. The round featured a strategic investment from partner Mastercard.
The investment adds to Paysend’s $125 million Series B round, which closed in 2021.
Paysend made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2016.
International money transfer company Paysend has secured $65 million in funding. The round included a strategic investment from Mastercard, which announced a partnership with Paysend earlier this year. That alliance helped enhance cross-border payments for SMEs by way of its Open Payments Network (OPN).
Existing investors Infravia Growth Capital, One Peak, and Hermes GPE Innovation Fund also participated in the round. This week’s investment follows the company’s $125 million Series B round, which closed in 2021.
A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2016, Paysend provides fund transfers to more than 170 countries. The company’s platform ensures transparency by displaying currency rates, transfer fees, and the receivable amount before each transfer. Paysend users can make transfers via bank cards, accounts, and even mobile numbers. Money transfers are certified by Visa, Mastercard, China UnionPay, and are PCI DSS certified, as well.
“This significant investment is a testament to the strength of Paysend’s vision,” Paysend CEO and co-founder Ronnie Millar said, “to build the best-in-class cross border solutions for businesses and consumers, making money transfer simple for everyone.”
Paysend’s funding news comes just days after the company announced a partnership with CalQRisk. The company offers a governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) solution that Paysend will use to enhance its current risk management processes. In October, Paysend teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Western Union. This partnership provided Western Union customers with a new direct to card payout option.
Paysend is headquartered in London, U.K. The company entered the Israeli market this summer after partnering with Israel-based fintech Okoora.
Payments platform Paysend announced a partnership with Western Union this week.
The partnership will enable consumers to send money via Western Union directly to Visa and Mastercard debit cards.
Paysend made its Finovate debut in 2016 at FinovateEurope.
International payments platform Paysendinked an agreement with Western Union today. The partnership will enable consumers to send money via Western Union’s branded digital solution directly to both Visa and Mastercard debit cards. Paysend will provide a single API that ensures seamless processing of these Western Union customer payments at live FX rates, 24/7, 365 days a year.
“Paysend’s mission is to make money transfer easier for everyone,” Paysend Executive Chairman and co-founder Abdul Abdulkerimov said. “We are thrilled to join forces with Western Union, a company known for its global reach and commitment to financial inclusion. Together, we will empower millions with accessible cross-border money transfer services.”
The remittance market continues to be a major source of economic growth for communities around the world. The World Bank estimated that remittances grew 5% to more than $800 billion last year. This week’s partnership comes in the wake of a pilot program recently launched by the two companies. The program will help customers send money from the U.S. and U.K. to Pakistan, the U.K., and Spain easier -with additional locations coming soon. The news also follows strategic collaborations between Paysend and Visa and between Paysend and Mastercard that were announced last month. These partnerships are part of the company’s effort to expand its ability to improve cross-border payments for SMEs and individuals. “Our mission at Paysend is simple,” Abdulkerimov said, “to deliver the world’s simplest money transfer service.”
Founded in 1851, Western Union today serves as one of the largest money transfer businesses in the world. The company is active in more than 200 countries and territories, and facilitates fund transfers in nearly 130 currencies. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Western Union offers wire transfer, mobile money transfer, and other fund transfer services. These offerings include Western Union Connect, which facilitates fund transfers between the U.S. and China. Last week, Western Union reported Q3 results that, according to company President and Chief Executive Officer Devin McGranahan, “exceeded our expectations and demonstrate a continued positive trajectory against our ‘Evolve 2025’ goals.”
Paysend made its Finovate debut in 2016 at FinovateEurope, and returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateSpring. Headquartered in London, the company this year has forged partnerships with global onboarding and payroll platform RemotePass, payroll platform Ontop, and Spanish-language content and media company, TelevisaUnivision.
Paysend has raised more than $272 million in funding. Global PayTech Ventures and InfraVia Capital Partners are among the company’s investors.
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.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent fintech developments in Germany where green banking, embedded finance, and open banking are the themes at the top of this week’s fintech headlines.
First up, Berlin-based Sustainability-as-a-Service innovator ecolytiqannounced that it was teaming up with Slovakian financial institution Tatra Banka. The climate engagement fintech will provide Tatra Banka with the technology the firm needs in order to launch new green banking functionality on its online banking brand, Blue Planet. The new feature, which will be made available to Tatra Banka’s more than 600,000 customers, will enable users to monitor the impact their transactions may have on the environment (for example, with CO2 emissions), provide users with ideas on how to reduce their environmental impact, and offer rewards for spending that is environmentally friendly.
Founded in 2020, ecolytiq demonstrated its technology at Finovate’s developer event, FinDEVr 2021, which was held as a part of FinovateSpring that year. Putting accurate data at the center of the ability to move toward greater environmental sustainability, ecolytiq demonstrated how its open knowledge graph and streaming technology keep its data relevant and current. More recently, the company announced a strategic partnership with exceet Card Group, makers of sustainable payment cards made from wood and, the following month, teamed up with French sustainable neobank Green-Got.
Peter Golha, a director at Tatra Banka said that the institution believed it had a a role to play in the transition toward a more environmentally sustainable economy. “Not only have we a chance to change our own trajectory, but also a chance to live the topic of sustainability alongside our clients,” Golha said.
Founded in 1990, Tatra Banka was the first private bank to be established in Slovakia. Winner of the TREND Bank of the Year award for two years in a row, Tatra Banka announced this spring that it had achieved its greatest profit to date, reporting $164 million (EUR 162.1) in consolidated profits for the financial year 2021.
Second, German financial management platform for businesses Airbank inked a deal with Klarna Kosma this week. Klarna Kosma is an open banking platform launched by Swedish e-commerce innovator Klarna this spring. Seen as a rival to fellow Finovate alum Tink and its open banking platform, Klarna Kosma offers financial institutions, fintechs, and merchants connectivity to more than 15,000 banks in 24 countries around the world via a single API. Kosma was made possible in many ways by Klarna’s acquisition of direct, bank-to-bank payments company SOFORT in 2014, and Klarna has been developing and expanding the service ever since.
“Over the past year, the demand for Open Banking services from financial institutions and fintech startups has reached a tipping point,” Klarna Kosma VP Wilko Klaassen said. “(This) is why we have built a dedicated business unit which brings together engineering, product management, sales and marketing all together in the same team to focus on this $15 billion, fast-growing market.”
Airbank will leverage its new relationship with Klarna Kosma to “accelerate” its expansion into European markets and beyond. Airbank enables businesses to consolidate their bank accounts in a single location, allowing them to more easily automate bill management, make payments, and manage their finances. Companies also can use Airbank’s platform to track their financial transactions and forecast future liquidity. The partnership with Klarna Kosma will make it possible for Airbank to securely access account information from thousands of banks around the world, expand more aggressively, and better serve its SME customers that have global requirements.
“By the end of this year, we will serve over 50 counties, making Airbank the most comprehensive global banking solution for SMEs in the industry, with the ability to connect bank accounts from almost anywhere in the world,” Airbank founder and CEO Christopher Zemina said. “We are delighted to have Klarna Kosma as an experienced and dynamic partner that shares our ambition to shape the future of B2B financial management.”
Lastly, early in the week we learned that Berlin-based embedded finance startup Monite had teamed up with Codat, a U.K. firm that offers a universal API to enable access to consented business data from banking, accounting, and ecommerce platforms. The partnership will enable both SaaS platforms and financial institutions to integrate invoicing and billing functionality into their apps. This will allow platforms and institutions to offer businesses a unified solution for managing their financial operations.
In a statement, the CEOs of both Monite and Codat praised the great variety of financial apps and platforms dedicated to serving SMEs. The challenge, according to both Monite CEO Ivan Maryasin and Codat CEO Pete Lord, is that the variety can be overwhelming for many small businesses. “What’s still missing are the ‘super apps’ that bring everything together,” Maryasin said. “It can be time-consuming to manage and get the most out of them all,” concurred Lord.
Founded in 2020, Monite has raised $7.8 million in funding for its technology that empowers financial institutions and platforms to offer financial services such as multi-banking, AP automation, invoicing, and more to their customers. London, U.K.-based Codat neared unicorn status last month upon raising $100 million in Series C funding. The investment took the company’s total funding to more than $176 million and gave Codat a valuation of $825 million. The round was led by JPMorgan Partners, and featured participation from Plaid and Shopify.
In a round led by One Peak, and featuring participation from Infravia Growth Capital, Hermès GPE, Plug and Play, and others, U.K.-based mobile payments platform Paysend has secured $125 million in Series B funding. The round takes the company’s total capital to more than $700 million according to estimates from TechCrunch, and puts the firm in a position to expand geographically, add talent, and develop new products.
“Paysend’s vision is to develop the next generation integrated global payment ecosystem for consumers and SMEs,” Paysend CEO Ronnie Millar said. “Our innovative technology is connecting 12 billion cards worldwide to pay and send instantly anywhere, anyhow and (in) any currency – we call this Money for the Future. This saves time, saves money and connects millions of people and businesses around the world.”
Paysend offers international, cross-border money transfers, and card processing, as well as banking and e-commerce services for SMEs. With 90% of its transfers arriving in 15 seconds or less, Paysend leverages its own global network of banks, international and local payment systems – as well as partnerships with the major card networks – to reduce the “significant barriers to entry” for consumers and businesses sending money internationally. “Our platform aims to democratize the service by providing a one-stop-shop to pay and send money to families, suppliers, employees and partners in any currency anywhere in the world at a significantly reduced cost,” Millar said.
A Finovate alum since 2016, Paysend now serves more than 3.7 million consumers; 17,000 small and medium-sized businesses; and 110 receiving countries with its end-to-end, vertically-integrated technology. This month, the company announced that its U.S. customers would now be able to send money to Canada. Paysend also announced the opening of a new regional headquarters in Singapore.
How’s $7 billion for good karma? One of Finovate’s earliest alumsCredit Karma is reportedly the target of what would be Intuit’s biggest acquisition to date. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cash and stock deal could be announced as early as Monday.
Credit Karma will continue to function as an independent company with founder and CEO Kenneth Lin at the helm. The acquisition gives Intuit, maker of online tax filing service TurboTax, another contact point with the online personal finance world. Credit Karma provides its members with access to their credit scores and borrowing histories, helps them monitor their accounts for security breaches and, perhaps most relevantly, has offered a free online tax preparation service since 2017.
If the deal holds up, Intuit will be paying a significant premium for Credit Karma. The personal financial wellness company was last valued at $4 billion, based on a 2018 private market transaction.
With another Finovate conference in the books, our Finovate Best of Show ranks has a new set of members. Congratulations to Dorsum, Glia, Horizn, iProov, Sonect, and W.UP for taking home top honors earlier this month at FinovateEurope!
The victory may have been especially sweet for Sonect, whose Best of Show award-winning demo was also the company’s Finovate debut. The Switzerland-based start-up offers what it calls “the world’s first social cash network” that enables consumers to access cash without having to visit a bank branch or ATM. Sonect offers merchants the ability to grow their business via increased traffic and gives financial institutions a way to extend their ATM networks without the cost of additional hardware.
The Best of Show win was also a first for Horizn. The company, which made its Finovate debut three years ago at FinovateEurope, offers a platform that helps employees and customers maximize the opportunities of digitized financial services. Horizn uses simulator microlearning, as well as gamification and advanced analytics, to promote digital adoption across channels.
And last but not least, a special tip of the hat to Dorsum, Glia, iProov, and W.UP, all of whom won Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope for a second year in a row.
Here’s a round up of recent news from our Finovate alumni.
Larkyenters reseller agreement with Access Softek.
Bison Bank in Lisbon, Portugal selects PSD2-ready software from ndigit.
OurCrowdexpands focus on growing early stage tech companies.
Finovate Alum Features and Profiles
eToro’s Evolution – Social trading and investment platform eToro has never been one to stand still for very long. The company’s development cycle is fast enough to make even the most sprightly fintech jealous.
Lending Club Snaps Up Radius Bank for $185 Million – When Lending Club was founded in 2007, the startup aimed to serve as a place to help borrowers avoid dealing with banks. In a somewhat ironic move today, that same startup is becoming a bank itself.
Nutmeg CEO Martin Stead will leave his post in early 2020, and will be replaced by CFO and COO Jason Alexander.
Datasineforges technology partnership with digital marketing platform Mapp.
MacKay Municipal Managers chooses open architecture digital platform from Artivest for its financial advisors.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Last week, the international fintech buzz was all about the booming investment in African startups. As you can see in our sub-Saharan Africa section below, that buzz continues as analysts wonder how African fintechs can best leverage their good financial fortunes of late.
But this week, it’s all about Latin America as fintechs from Mexico to Argentina lock in triple digit investments. What’s especially interesting is that two of the week’s biggest beneficiaries – Konfio and Uala – have the same participating benefactor in SoftBank.
The investment in Argentina’s Uala was the first time the Japanese-based firm had funded a company from Argentina, but not SoftBank’s first funding in the region. The firm invested $1 billion in Colombian delivery app Rappi in April of this year. SoftBank has a deeper history investing in Mexican startups, having funded payments startup Clip and used car buying platform Kavak. SoftBank is also especially active in Brazil; the firm led a $140 million round for the country’s e-commerce solution provider VTEX in November.
FinovateEurope Goes to Berlin!
It’s not too early to start thinking and planning for 2020 – especially with our first conference right around the corner in February.
After six years of basing our annual European fintech conference in London, Finovate is crossing the channel and setting up our stage in Berlin, Germany next year. Our new FinovateEurope location will also feature a new event format designed to ensure attendees maximize their time at the conference. Take a look at our developing agenda to see what we have in store February 11th through the 13th.
Here’s our weekly look at fintech around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore’s FinAccel, maker of Kredivo, raises $90 million in round led by Asia Growth Fund and Square Peg.
Maybank Group, the fourth largest bank by assets in Southeast Asia, goes livewith Avaloq’s banking suite.
South Korea announces plans to launch opening banking system before year’s end.
Vymobrings AI-powered sales coaching to insurance giant Sompo.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Can Africa’s fintech startups learn from the experience of M-Pesa? TechCrunch considers the opportunities now available thanks to recent positive funding trends.
A partnership between Smartstream and Union Systems will help African FIs digitize their post-trade environments.
QuartzAfrica takes a look at the “niche ecosystems” that are developing amid Africa’s rapidly expanding fintech industry.
Central and Eastern Europe
Berlin, Germany-based SME digital banking platform Penta teams up with SumUp.
First Investment Bank (Fibank) goes live with the first, PSD2-compliant, open banking platform in Bulgaria.
Tinkoff GDRs will be included in MOEX Russia indices next month.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Sudan’s Nile Bank is the latest FI to choose Oracle’s Flexcube core banking solution.
Temenosteams up with Egyptian National Post Organization.
Dubai Financial Services Authority inks fintech pact with Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier.
Central and Southern Asia
DriveWealthhelps Indian investors access U.S. stocks via new partnership.
Indian banking technology provider TCS Financial Solutions migrates three credit unions to a cloud-version of its TCS Bancs system.
Paysendintroduces worldwide money transfers to Uzbekistan.
Sri Lanka’s central bank examines the possibility of applying blockchain technology to streamline KYC processes for FIs.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Uala, a money management app from Argentina, raises $150 million in Series C round led by Tencent and SoftBank.
Mexican SME credit assessment specialist Konfio closes $100 million investment from SoftBank.
MercadoLibre picks up $125 million loan from Goldman Sachs.
As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
DriveWealthteams up with SBI Thai Online Securities, bringing access to U.S. stocks to Thai investors.
Open banking platform Tinkannounces expansion to Portugal and Italy.
New partnership with Smart Pension will enable Revolut to offer its business customers the ability to automate monthly pension contributions.
Artivestannounces new partnership with Wellington Management.
Paysendintroduces worldwide money transfers to Uzbekistan.
Jumiotakes home top honors in the “Software Security Enterprise Product of the Year” category at the 2019 Best in Biz Awards.
Finastrainks deal with Pancreta Bank of Greece to deploy its Fusion Risk solution to help automate regulatory reporting.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Worldline closes 36.4% stake acquisition in equens Worldline.
Moven parent company receives patent for financial wellness product.
MastercardlaunchesThreat Scan to assess bank fraud exposure.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Paysendreaches one million customer mark for its card-to-card money transfer service, Global Transfers.
Tinkoffgoes live with Pulse, a free social network for investors.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Cross-border remittance startup Paysend has received a money transfer of its own this week. The London-based company landed $10.6 million (£8.5 million) in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $30.7 million.
There’s no word on an updated valuation but before today’s round, the company was valued at $155 million.
The investment comes courtesy of GVA, which contributed almost $5 million (£3.95 million), as well as a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign that brought in $5.6 million (£4.6 million). Launched last month, the Seedrs campaign garnered contributions from investors, including Plug and Play and Digital Space Ventures, which co-led the round.
Regarding company’s decision to crowdfund the round, Paysend CEO Ronald Millar said, “This funding round has been the next step in our journey to create money for the future, and we’ve been delighted that we’ve been about to open it up to our customers in order to give them the opportunity to join us on the exciting next phase of the Paysend journey.”
Paysend, which demonstrated its Global Account at FinovateSpring 2018, competes with the likes of Transferwise and CurrencyFair to help users request money from 50 countries and send money across 70 countries. On a monthly basis, the company facilitates more than 2 million transactions totaling $55 million for its 900,000 users.
The company recently releasedPays XDR, its own digital currency. Pays XDR is a stable coin backed by cash reserves, matched to the proportion of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights.
Adding to its already busy year, in May Paysend launchedPaysend Link, an app that allows users to send money to anyone with just their phone number. Fund recipients can immediately transfer payments they receive to their Mastercard, Visa, or UnionPay card. The money is immediately available to use or to withdraw.
