Payments

Investors are preparing to give fintech app Revolut £50 million even though it’s bleeding money

Fast-growing fintech app Revolut is close to sealing a £50 million funding round that will value the nascent company at £300 million, Sky News reports. London VC Index Ventures, already an investor in Revolut, is leading the round, Sky says. Silicon Valley investor Ribbit Capital is also said to be taking part in the round. CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky told TechCrunch earlier this month that the company was close to “large equity round.” London-based Revolut offers a pre-paid international currency card, initially offering zero-fee, zero-commission foreign exchange. Cash is pre-loaded to the card through an app. The big round and chunky valuation are eye-catching for a number of reasons. […]

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Jun
28

Britain leading the way in fintech adoption, report shows

Britain is leading the way in fintech adoption in the developed market, according to a new report from professional services and Big Four firm EY. EY’s fintech adoption index showed that 42 per cent of consumers in the UK are now using fintech services. However, there has been growth worldwide when it comes to the adoption of financial technology, with usage rates being high in emerging markets such as South Africa, China, India, Brazil and Mexico. Highest Emerging markets topped the fintech adoption index, with China having the highest adoption rate at 69 per cent, followed by India at 52 per cent. The report, which was based on findings from […]

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Visa buys stake in fast-growing fintech group Klarna

Visa is taking a stake in Klarna in a sign of the Swedish fintech’s growing presence in online payments. A week after Klarna became the largest European fintech to receive a banking licence, Visa said it was making a strategic investment through the purchase of a stake of less than 10 per cent as well as offering a future partnership. The price paid by Visa was not revealed. Klarna has become a big participant in Germany and the Nordics for online payments, allowing its 60m customers to buy goods on the internet quickly and pay only after receiving them. It is looking to make a similar splash in the UK […]

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Jun
16

Why India’s Fintech startups are flocking to disrupt the UAE

India’s technology startup ecosystem has grown exponentially in recent years and now appears to have caught the eye of startup enthusiasts in the UAE. The Middle East nation is keen to elevate disruptive Indian fintech startups by providing them an international platform and financial support. UAE’s affinity for disruptive fintech According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry in India (ASSOCHAM), India now stands third after the UK and USA in fostering the growth of technology startups. With the UAE aspiring to be a technology hub, there has been considerable interest in identifying appropriate Indian technology startups that could address the nation’s immediate needs across sectors, especially finance. Sandeep […]

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May
31

BITPoint wants to bring Bitcoin to Japan

BITPoint Japan Co. is reportedly gearing up to enable hundreds of thousands of Japanese retail outlets to accept the digital currency bitcoin, reported Bloomberg News. In a Bloomberg report, Genki Oda, BITPoint’s president, said the company is in talks with a retail-related company and that “by going through a company providing payment terminal services to shops, we have the possibility of increasing its use at one stroke. It’s easier than talking to lots of individual retailers.” Bloomberg pointed out that BITPoint is joining a growing list of companies that are embracing regulations enacted in Japan in April that recognize digital currencies as a way to pay for things. Bic Camera […]

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May
29

Malaysia Fintech firm Soft Space raises US $5 Million from Japan’s Transcosmos

Malaysia Fintech firm Soft Space, which offers mobile payment solutions, announced it has secured US $5 million in funding from Japanese e-commerce company Transcosmos Inc. Mobile POS and E-Commerce Soft Space offers mobile point-of-sale services for small and large merchants in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia. Businesses can plug a small device into a smartphone or tablet that allows them to swipe customer credit cards for payment. The company takes a small transaction fee every time a card is swiped. Soft Space also offers an online management console where businesses can track and manage customer data, sales history, and even fraud management. Transcosmos, which is based in Japan, […]

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May
26

Digital wallet services gain growing acceptance

Money and wallets simply aren’t what they used to be. Tech giants’ card-less payment services — including Apple Pay, Android Pay from Google and Samsung Pay — aim to ease the path to the truly digital wallet, and researchers project huge growth in adoption by retailers and consumers. Even staid financial giants such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America are behind a push to encourage and enable customers to access ATMs without their debit cards. Yet the digital wallet business has gotten off to a rough start, said Bay Area-based analyst Trip Chowdhry, managing director with Global Equities Research. “There have been many false starts in this industry,” Chowdhry […]

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May
26

Southeast Asia’s biggest startup files for $1 Billion IPO

Sea Ltd., Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, has filed confidentially for a potential U.S. initial public offering that could raise about $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Singapore-based company, formerly known as Garena, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the past few weeks, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Sea is considering listing in early 2018, though no final decisions have been made, one of the people said. Sea is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley on the share sale, the people said. Under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, […]

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