India’s Paytm raises $1bn with SoftBank’s contribution
Indian financial technology giant Paytm has raised $1 billion in a new financing round led by U.S.-based global asset manager T Rowe Price and backed by existing investors Ant Financial, SoftBank Vision Fund and Discovery Capital, the company said Monday. The Series G funding round values Paytm at about $16 billion and comes as the company is set to start preparations for an initial public offering in the next 22-24 months. Ant Financial contributed $400 million, while SoftBank Vision Fund invested $200 million in the latest round. The financing sees Paytm outstripping fellow high-profile Asian startups such as Grab and Gojek in valuation and boosts the firm’s war chest to […]
The latest marker of Chinese interest in African fintech is a $120 million funding round for OPay
Chinese interest in African fintech has just stepped up another gear. OPay, the payments service operating in Nigeria, has raised $120 million in a Series B round led mainly by Chinese investors including familiar names like Sequoia China, IDG Capital and Source Code Capital. The round also included participation from Softbank Ventures Asia, Meituan-Dianping, DragonBall Capitak, GaoRong Capital and GSR Ventures. It’s the second major funding announcement by OPay this year and comes just five months after it raised $50 million back in July in a round also led by Chinese investors. OPay was incubated by Opera, the China-owned internet browser. OPay says the new funding will be deployed to […]
Boost and U Mobile partner UnionPay to expand digital payment options in Malaysia
UnionPay International (UPI) has tied up with Malaysian e-wallets U Mobile’s GoPayz and Boost to offer greater ease and convenience of payment to Malaysian consumers. UPI’s partnership with GoPayz enables users to make digital payments locally and overseas by using the new UnionPay Virtual Card available on the app. GoPayz users can make payments by scanning the merchant-presented QR code to enjoy various promotions at participating UnionPay QR merchants worldwide. GoPayz users also have the option of paying with their GoPayz UnionPay physical card. GoPayz is also looking into enabling NFC payment on the app soon so users can easily make payments locally and overseas with a simple tap of their mobile phones […]
Fintech-as-a-Service provider Rapyd brings together Singapore’s key payment methods into the first all-in-one “Singapore Platform”
Rapyd, a global Fintech-as-a-Service company, announced today its partnership with key players of Singapore’s payments ecosystem to provide a single “Singapore Platform” to enable businesses to go “cashless”, in line with the country’s vision of becoming a smart digital nation and a center for Fintech innovation. Rapyd’s “Singapore Platform” will bring greater convenience to local consumers and businesses, by enabling consumers and businesses to easily make payments electronically, convert cash to electronic payment methods, or receive funds instantly by enabling the following capabilities via a single technical integration: Real-time interbank payments via FAST, PayNow, and PayNow QR Leading digital wallets GrabPay, DBS PayLah!, and OCBC Pay Anyone Accept mobile payment […]
Alipay sets sights on digital payments outside Asia as it teams up with Russia’s Mail.ru
Alipay, one of China’s dominant digital payments providers, has teamed up with Russian internet firm Mail.ru in an e-wallet joint venture to develop digital payments in the country. The joint venture is Alipay’s first outside Asia, where it already partners with local e-wallet providers such as Hong Kong’s AlipayHK, Indonesia’s Dana and Malaysia’s Touch ‘n Go. Alipay is operated by Ant Financial, the financial affiliate of Alibaba Group, the parent company of the South China Morning Post. Mail.ru will take a 40 per cent stake in the venture, making it the largest shareholder. Apart from Alipay, other partners include Russia’s sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), mobile operator […]
GrabPay rated most popular e-wallet in Singapore
Grabpay has emerged as the most popular e-wallet in Singapore over the past two years, as e-payment systems catch on in the city-state. It was followed by e-wallets DBS PayLah!, FavePay, EZ-Link app and Alipay. A report by meta-search website iPrice Group, in collaboration with mobile data and analytics platform App Annie Intelligence, said the contactless payment rendered by Grab has been the most actively used e-wallet app by Singaporeans since the end of 2017. The report released last week analysed over 30 e-wallet apps and tracked the developments of e-wallets using vital app metrics, such as the number of monthly active users and total downloads from late 2017 to […]
Dutch fintech to bring mobile payments to South America’s smallest country
Dutch fintech Move4Mobile has developed a mobile payments app for Hakrinbank, bringing online payments to Suriname, the smallest country in South America. The app, named Mopé, will enable anyone with a smartphone to make purchases and transfer money electronically in a country where the majority of transactions are performed using cash. Mopé provides a mobile wallet from which payment requests can be made using a QR code to receive funds in a number of currencies from elsewhere in the world. A former Dutch colony, one third of all Surinamese people live in the Netherlands, which would make Mopé a useful tool for sending funds to family back home. Large numbers […]
Iraqi company and Lebanese fintech launch the first digital-only payment card ‘Neo’ in Iraq
Iraq-based International Network for Cards and Digital Payment Services (INC Iraq) and a Lebanese fintech startup NymCard that is digitizing how payments cards are issued, delivered, and used, in collaboration with Visa have launched the first digital-only (prepaid) payment card ‘Neo‘ in Iraq to serve the underbanked Iraqi population, the two companies announced in a joint-statement to MENAbytes. The virtual card that can be requested through Neo’s mobile app within seconds will enable users to make online purchases on both local and international websites. The entire KYC process is digital. Neo’s mobile application (available for both iOS and Android) comes with a mobile wallet that allows users to keep an […]
