Friday June 4, 2021 –
Here are the new and noteworthy stories we have been following this week.
GrabPay announces payments tie-up with Stripe
GrabPay, the online payments offering of Grab, and payments company Stripe are collaborating to enable Southeast Asian businesses to offer the GrabPay Wallet as a payment method through Stripe; the partnership will kick off in Singapore and Malaysia and support payments in both Singaporean dollars and Malaysian ringgit.
https://www.techinasia.com/grabpay-announce-payments-tieup-stripe-singapore-malaysia
Worldline to acquire Cardlink, the leading Network Services Provider in Greece
Worldline a European payments provider is acquiring CardLink, the major merchant acquiring company and network services provider in Greece for an enterprise value of € 155 million; CardLink has about a 53% share of merchant transactions in Greece through its network of 240,000 POS terminals and 10,000 online merchants.
African payments startup Chipper Cash raises $100m
African cross-border payments startup Chipper Cash has raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by SVB Capital; Chipper Cash is a mobile money transfer app and is currently available in seven African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda – as well as the UK.
https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/38155/african-payments-startup-chipper-cash-raises-100m
SoFi stock closes up more than 12% after debut on Nasdaq
SoFi went public by merging with Social Capital Hedosophia Corp V, a blank-check company; based on the closing price of the stock last week, SoFi has a valuation of $16.65 billion. (SoFi was last valued at $5.7 billion in the private markets.)
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/01/sofi-shares-rise-after-debut-on-nasdaq.html
Synctera raises $33M Series A to pair fintechs with banks
Synctera, an early-stage company that is building a business around serving as a ‘matchmaker’ for community banks and fintech firms, has raised $33 million in a Series A round led by Fin VC; Synctera offers what it calls “fintech-as-a-service” supporting community bank and fintech partnerships with compliance, reconciliation, and operations services.
Mexican payments network Prosa seeks buyer at $1 bln-plus valuation
Mexican payments network Prosa is reportedly exploring a sale that could value it at more than $1 billion; Prosa, one of the two major payments networks in Mexico is owned by a consortium of banks including Banorte, HSBC, Santander, Scotiabank, Invex, and Banjercito.
Ally Bank is eliminating overdraft fees once and for all
Ally Bank has announced that it is eliminating overdraft fees on all accounts; according to Ally, in the future smaller transactions will likely be approved even if there aren’t enough funds to cover them, but larger transactions may be declined.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/ally-bank-eliminates-overdraft-fees-for-all-customers.html
Ant to Change How It Makes Loans With New Consumer-Finance Company
China’s banking and insurance regulator has approved an application by Ant Group Co. to set up a consumer-finance company, the first milestone in the company’s restructuring; the new company, Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., is licensed to conduct consumer lending and other operations and will be owned by Ant (50%) and six other shareholders (50%).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ant-wins-chinas-approval-to-set-up-consumer-finance-company-11622710885
Uruguay’s dLocal Jumps Almost 54% After $617.4 Million IPO
dLocal, the Uruguay-based payments provider went public in the US at a $10+ billion valuation raising about $617 million; dLocal focuses on emerging markets and provides global companies the ability to accept local payment methods and send payouts.
https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/uruguay-s-dlocal-is-said-to-raise-617-4-million-in-u-s-ipo
Enfuce partners with Visa to enable card issuing for fintechs in just eight weeks
Finland’s Enfuce has partnered with Visa to allow fintech firms to launch their debit / prepaid card issuing programs (physical and virtual) in about eight weeks; Enfuce’s new service is a fully turnkey card issuing service including BIN sponsorship, card network integration, processing, fraud management, and and dispute management.
