Upvest Secures $125M Funding, Valued at €640M to Upgrade Europe’s Banking Infrastructure
On March 18, 2026, Berlin fintech Upvest announced a $125 million financing round—$90 million in equity led by Sapphire Ventures and Tencent and a pending $35 million debt facility—valuing the company at €640 million. The capital will fuel expansion across Europe’s largest markets, new pension‑product wrappers, and AI‑driven investment engines after the firm processed over 100 million orders in 2025 for more than 30 banks and neobanks, including Revolut, N26 and Santander’s Openbank.
PayQuicker Partners with Avalara to Launch New Tax Reporting Solution
PayQuicker, a payouts and treasury platform, has introduced a new 1099 tax reporting solution built on Avalara’s compliance technology. The offering automates W‑9 collection, real‑time TIN matching, and electronic filing of federal and state 1099 forms. By leveraging Avalara’s AI‑driven...
Usio Inc (USIO) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
Usio Inc reported record processing volumes in Q4 2025, handling 16.2 million transactions, an 8% year‑over‑year rise, and set seven quarterly volume records across its payment channels. Revenue grew sequentially by $1.2 million, driven primarily by a 30% jump in ACH revenues,...
Embedded Finance Platform Array Acquires Penny Finance, Chimney, EarnUp
Array, the embedded‑finance platform, announced a rapid acquisition spree, buying Penny Finance, Chimney and EarnUp within weeks. The deals add financial‑education tools, real‑time property analytics and pay‑cycle‑aligned loan payment technology to Array’s modular suite. By integrating these capabilities, Array aims...
Flourish Launches Mortgage Platform to Help RIAs Retain Assets
Flourish, an advisor‑tech provider, has launched Flourish Lending, a residential mortgage platform that lets registered investment advisors originate loans up to $10 million. The service, now available to more than 1,100 RIA firms, covers refinancing, cash‑out and new‑home purchases for primary...
Bridging the Digital Divide Between B2B and Consumer Payments
Dean M. Leavitt, CEO of Boost Payment Solutions, highlights the widening gap between frictionless consumer payments and the cumbersome, legacy‑driven B2B payment landscape. He argues that B2B transactions suffer from slow settlement, rigid processes, and limited personalization due to high‑value...
Crypto.com Brings Crypto Payments to Tourists Visiting South Korea
Crypto.com has teamed up with KG Inicis, South Korea’s leading payment gateway that controls roughly 40% of the market, to enable crypto‑based payments for inbound tourists. The integration routes crypto transactions through Crypto.com Pay, instantly converting them to Korean won...
Ndovu Targets Kenya’s High-Income Investors with New Multi-Asset Fund
Ndovu Wealth has launched the Kibaba Multi‑Asset Special Fund, a regulated product with a KES 250,000 (≈$2,500) minimum ticket aimed at Kenya’s higher‑income investors. The fund bundles global equities, fixed income, REITs, ETFs and commodities into a single mobile‑first interface. By...
USA₮ Turns Times Square Green With St. Patrick’s Day Brand Activation Introducing Digital Dollar Payments
USA₮, a digital dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, launched a high‑visibility brand activation in Times Square on St. Patrick’s Day. The campaign synchronized multiple digital billboards and distributed 25,000 QR‑coded postcards, giving each scanner $10 in USA₮ via the Rumble...
Combatants in the Fight to Overturn Illinois’s Interchange Law Gear Up for an Appeals Battle
Three banking‑industry groups and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency filed amicus briefs urging the appellate court to overturn Illinois’s Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (IFPA) exemption. The IFPA, set to take effect July 1, shields Illinois merchants from interchange...
AI Joins Africa’s Rulebook as Nigeria Orders Automated AML, Gives Fintechs 2 Years to Comply
Nigeria’s Central Bank has issued a circular requiring banks and fintechs to adopt automated, AI‑driven anti‑money laundering (AML) systems. Institutions must submit detailed implementation roadmaps within 90 days, with banks given 18 months and other firms 24 months to fully...
Safaricom, Vodacom Launch Tap-to-Pay M-Pesa in Tanzania
Safaricom and Vodacom have launched a tap‑to‑pay option for M‑Pesa users in Tanzania, allowing Android smartphones to make contactless payments at Visa‑enabled terminals. The service, built on Paymentology’s NFC infrastructure, eliminates the need for Paybill numbers or physical cards. It...
In Profile: Cumbuca CEO Daniel Ruhman
Cumbuca, led by CEO Daniel Ruhman, provides a licensed proxy that lets global fintechs tap Brazil's regulated payments ecosystem without building their own licences. The platform connects clients directly to infrastructure such as Pix and open‑finance while handling compliance, allowing...
Why the Digital Euro Needs Worker Input
The European Central Bank’s digital euro proposal aims to cement Europe’s digital sovereignty and foster fair competition ahead of a potential 2029 launch. Advocates argue that the CBDC must be sovereign, public, and inclusive to win trust from citizens and...
13 AGs Sue OneMain over Add-On Sales Policy
Thirteen state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against OneMain Financial, alleging the lender misled subprime borrowers into purchasing costly add‑on products such as credit insurance. The complaint says employees pressured borrowers, financed premiums into loans, and sometimes charged add‑ons...
EWS Pairs with Citi to Offer Paze
Early Warning Services (EWS) has teamed up with Citibank to bring its Paze digital wallet to Citi credit‑card holders, marking the first partnership with a non‑owner bank. The rollout is slated for the coming weeks, expanding Paze’s reach beyond the...
Super Funds Ignored AI Risks, Need Immediate Action
A Silicon Valley Wake-Up Call for Big Super Funds: AI Demands Urgent Focus and Capability Building Now Question: If super funds managing hundreds of billions need "10x more attention" on AI AFTER Silicon Valley trip, what were they doing before? Risk:...
Riksbank Turns up Pressure on Banks over Instant Payments
Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, has warned banks to roll out broader instant domestic payment services within a year or face possible legislation. The regulator set a March 2027 deadline for banks to launch or present credible plans for real‑time...
FlySafair Introduces Apple Pay & Google Pay for Faster Flight Bookings
FlySafair has added Apple Pay and Google Pay to its mobile app, enabling one‑tap flight purchases. The new options, powered by South African payments infrastructure firm Stitch, aim to streamline checkout and enhance security. The functionality is live in the...
Executive Interview Series: Petru Metzger, CEO at Payforge
Petru Metzger, CEO of Payforge, emphasized three core convictions shaping his company: deep payments domain expertise, outcome‑driven execution, and AI‑enabled development. He argues that true differentiation comes from unifying strategy, analytics, and engineering rather than siloed modernization projects. The interview...
Polygon's Open Money Stack Targets Trillion‑dollar Payments Market
We've been acquiring, building, shipping nonstop at @0xPolygon for a reason. And that is to build the one thing crypto payments has been missing: a complete, end-to-end payments stack that actually works. The Polygon Open Money Stack. This is a trillion...
Press Release: Palm Launches Pulse: The AI Assistant for Treasury Teams
Palm introduced Pulse, an AI‑driven conversational assistant that sits atop treasury management systems and ERPs. The tool lets treasury professionals ask natural‑language questions about cash positions, forecasts, investments, debt and FX exposures, delivering answers and charts in seconds. Pulse combines...
Where Are the Biggest Opportunities in the Commercial Prepaid Market?
Commercial prepaid card loads reached $426 billion in 2025, signaling a rapidly expanding B2B market. Javelin Strategy’s 2026 report highlights healthcare benefits, employee incentives, and state‑run government programs as the most promising growth segments over the next five years. Corporate travel...
Mastercard Embeds Stablecoin Layer via $1.8B BVNK Acquisition
🚨 MASSIVE: Mastercard just acquired BVNK for $1.8B. This one hits different. --- BVNK had a rough road. Previous acqusitions that fell through. Competing against massive companies. But they made it. Now they're the stablecoin infrastructure layer inside the world's second-largest card network. 130+ countries....
Lower‑income ZIP Codes Outpace Wealthier Areas in Spending Growth
"We can also crudely proxy for consumer spending by income quartile, based on consumer MCC transactions and average income in the ZIP code of the spender...at least on Stripe, lower-income ZIP codes have seen more robust spending growth than the...
Sage Capital Adds Swiss FINMA License, Opens Zug Office
Sage Capital Management announced the launch of a Zug, Switzerland office after securing a Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) SRO/VQF licence. The new licence recognises Sage as a regulated financial intermediary, allowing it to offer spot digital‑asset trading and...
SGHO: Simple, No‑Cooldown On‑Chain Savings
sGHO is the simplest way to save onchain. Deposit and withdraw on your own terms with no cooldowns or slashing.
Policy Matters as Real Users Drive Global Digital Finance
Policy matters because real users are already here. @AdrianWall8395 and @DSAForg are advancing dialogue as digital financial infrastructure scales globally.
Intercontinental Exchange Introduces ICE Private Credit Intelligence with Apollo as Anchor Partner
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced the launch of ICE Private Credit Intelligence, a data‑infrastructure platform designed to bring public‑credit‑style transparency to the private credit market. Apollo Global Management is joining as the anchor partner, with ICE planning to add additional originators,...
Tokenization Built on Spec Chases Nonexistent Demand
.@baehr says that tokenization is being built "on spec," chasing demand that doesn't exist yet, like trading on a Saturday night in Europe. https://t.co/R6b65MEHmp
Top Non‑Stripe Payment Solutions for Quick EIN Setup
what are the best non-stripe options to accept payments? trying Square for online payments (can never do PayPal I'd rather use crypto) but any other for quick setup with an EIN?
Exclusive: Candex Extends Series C To $40M+ To Help Enterprises Easily Onboard Global Vendors
Candex has extended its Series C round to $40 million, bringing total funding above $120 million, with HSBC joining as an investor. The New York fintech acts as a master vendor, allowing large enterprises to pay one‑off or irregular suppliers without separate onboarding,...
AI Agents Gain Expense Cards, Breaking Financial Limits
AI agents are getting expense cards. Ramp and Stripe are both building infrastructure that lets autonomous agents buy, spend, and transact end-to-end without a human in the loop. The ceiling on what agents can do has always been money. That...
Aave Shifts Focus to Core Product, Reconsiders DAO
"The Aave team realized that it should focus on its main product after they started feeling competition, and they realized they couldn't do it with the current state with the DAO." https://t.co/sigF6mfZGm
Cihan Duezguen, CEO & Co-Founder of Green Banana | Episode 475
In this episode, Cihan Duezguen, CEO and Co‑Founder of Green Banana, explains how a neutral, agnostic payment orchestration layer can solve the complexities of BNPL across borders by offering a single API that connects multiple providers while remaining invisible to...
Lightspark Stands Alone as Independent Global Money Platform
Congratulations to our colleagues at @BVNKFinance for their acquisition by @Mastercard. After @Stablecoin got acquired by @stripe last year, @lightspark is now officially the only independent global stablecoin + Bitcoin +fiat global money movement platform on a neutral network.
Circle Dominates Tokenization of Fiat, Funds, and Stocks
Circle sits at the heart of tokenization: - USDC the largest regulated tokenized dollar - EURC the largest regulated tokenized euro - USYC the largest tokenized money fund - CIRCLE - now the largest tokenized stock in the world (RWAxyx shows the leaderboard: ...
UK Consumer Awareness of ‘Pay by Bank’ Plummets Despite Open Banking Boom
Yaspa’s 2026 Index shows UK open‑banking transactions jumped 53 percent year‑on‑year in 2025, yet consumer familiarity with the term “Pay by Bank” fell to 38 percent, down from 55 percent a year earlier. The survey of 2,157 adults highlights fragmented terminology—merchants use multiple...
Stablecoins Threaten Deposits, Payments, and Liquidity for Community Banks
Stablecoins: What Community Banks Need To Know And Do Now Stablecoins won’t disrupt banks overnight, but they will pressure deposit economics, reroute payments value, and introduce new liquidity and operational risks. https://t.co/OZJUTRUWEc
BVNK and Mastercard Team Up to Accelerate Global Money Movement
Congrats to the @BVNKFinance and @Mastercard teams on putting together a great combination. As strong @Circle partners and @USDC adopters, we are excited to see how you can accelerate our common vision around global money movement.
Bank Reconciliation Software vs Excel: What Works in 2026
Finance teams face rising transaction volumes and tighter reporting standards, prompting a reassessment of Excel‑based reconciliations. While spreadsheets remain flexible for small, low‑volume operations, they struggle with version control, manual matching, and error risk as data scales. Dedicated bank reconciliation...
Mastercard Invests $1.8B, Acquires BVNK to Boost Stablecoins
$MA spending $1.8B for a bigger push into Stablecoins... acquires BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure company $CRCL
Upvest’s Remarkable Journey To Become Europe's Investment Infrastructure Leader
Upvest has evolved from a 2019 Notion Capital-backed startup into Europe’s leading API‑first investment infrastructure, processing over 100 million orders a year for more than 30 financial institutions including Revolut and Santander’s Openbank. The company announced a $125 million financing round led...
Stablecoins Evolve: Stripe, PayPal Signal Next‑Gen Finance
This afternoon at #MPE2026 I’ll don my @chyppings hat to explore the history and trajectory of stablecoins, and what the recent moves by Stripe, PayPal and others signal for next-gen financial services in 'Stablecoins – Quietly Going Live'. 📍 17 March...
Romania’s Fintech Sector Enters a New Phase of Growth and Integration
Romania’s fintech sector has entered a mature growth phase, bolstered by a 180,000‑strong IT workforce. A new fiscal rule effective Jan 1 2026 forces every business to hold a bank account and accept electronic payments, driving near‑saturation digital payment adoption. Turnover rose...
#275 How to Choose Between AI-Native Tools and Proven Finance Platforms, Gavin McGahey, CTO & Co-Founder, AccountsIQ
In this episode, Gavin McGahey, CTO and co‑founder of AccountsIQ, discusses the evolution of finance technology from early cloud accounting to today’s AI‑enhanced platforms. He explains how AccountsIQ is integrating tightly scoped, audit‑able AI agents to automate routine tasks like...
Ironlight Group Raises $21M for Crypto Tokenized Securities:
Ironlight Group announced a $21 million Series A round to build blockchain infrastructure for tokenized securities. The round was led by former TD Bank CEO Greg Braca and other senior fintech investors. Ironlight aims to enable digital issuance, trading, and settlement of...
APAC Buy-Side Firms Embrace AI, Automation To Optimize Business Processes
A new Bloomberg‑WatersTechnology survey of 50 APAC buy‑side firms shows AI and automation have moved from pilot projects to production‑grade deployment. Seventy‑two percent of respondents use AI moderately, primarily for research and market analysis, while 84 percent have integrated APIs...
Can Blockchain Decentralise Money, Contracts, and Finance?
Bitcoin’s blockchain, valued at $1.3 trillion, has operated uninterrupted since 2009, embodying the original promise of trust‑less money, contracts, and finance. In a new LTI report, economists Yackolley Amoussou‑Guenou, Bruno Biais, and Sara Tucci‑Piergiovanni assess how much of that promise has...
On the Decentralisation of Money, Contracts, and Finance Using Blockchain
The fifth LTI Report surveys how blockchain aims to decentralise money, contracts, and finance by replacing central authorities with distributed ledgers and native cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s $1 trillion market cap and Ethereum’s $0.5 trillion ether supply illustrate the scale of monetary decentralisation achieved...