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Deals•Feb 26, 2026
Brink's to Acquire NCR Atleos in $6.6 Billion Deal
The Brink's Company announced a cash-and-stock acquisition of NCR Atleos for $6.6 billion, creating a leading financial‑technology infrastructure firm. The definitive agreement was signed on Feb. 26, 2026, with closing expected in the first quarter of 2027. The combined entity will generate about $10 billion in revenue and target $200 million in annual synergies.
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Deals•Feb 11, 2026
Bedrock Robotics Raises $270M to Scale Autonomous Construction Systems
Bedrock Robotics announced a $270 million fundraising round to expand its AI-driven autonomous construction equipment, aiming to address labor shortages and improve safety. The capital will be used to retrofit traditional machinery with AI systems for earthwork tasks. The raise...
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Deals•Feb 10, 2026
Equal Parts Secures $23M Series A Funding Led by Inspired Capital
Equal Parts, a platform that acquires independent insurance agencies, announced a $23 million Series A round led by Inspired Capital. The funding will fuel its growth network, supporting plans to acquire 25 agencies this year and target $1 billion in premiums within two...
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Deals•Feb 10, 2026
Agibank Slashes IPO Share Count and Price Range to $12-$13 Amid PicPay Share Drop
Brazilian fintech Agibank announced on Feb. 10 that it is reducing its U.S. IPO size from 43.6 million to 20 million shares and lowering the price range to $12‑$13, down from $15‑$18. The adjustment follows a 20% decline in competitor PicPay’s shares after...
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News•Feb 9, 2026
FinTechs Reshape Middle East Money Movement as Capital Returns
The Middle East is emerging as a fintech hotbed, driven by high smartphone usage, youthful demographics, and state‑backed payment infrastructure. After a global funding slowdown, capital surged back in 2025, with MENA fintech investment climbing 77% to $7.5 billion, 58% of...
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News•Feb 9, 2026
EU Banking Chief Calls for Visa and Mastercard Alternatives
European Payments Initiative chief Martina Weimert warned that the Eurozone relies heavily on Visa and Mastercard, which handle roughly two‑thirds of card transactions. Thirteen EU members lack any domestic alternative, prompting calls for a cross‑border European network. EPI has launched...
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News•Feb 9, 2026
TrueCar’s $227 Million Reckoning — and the Founder Betting He Can Fix What He Broke
TrueCar was taken private for $227 million, with founder Scott Painter returning as CEO to revive the marketplace. Painter admits the original transparency model alienated dealers by broadcasting list prices, turning pricing into a “third rail.” The revamped TrueCar 2.0 replaces...
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News•Feb 9, 2026
Visa Says Cybersecurity Decides Who Wins Digital Commerce
Visa’s cyber‑solutions leader Jeremiah Dewey argues that cybersecurity is no longer a defensive checkbox but a core business function that fuels growth in digital commerce. He cites a 126% surge in ransomware attacks and $5 million average breach costs to illustrate...
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News•Feb 9, 2026
Buy Now, Pay Later Moves to Groceries, Utilities and Travel as Millennials Lead the Shift
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) and credit‑card installment plans are moving beyond discretionary purchases into everyday essentials like groceries, utilities and subscriptions. The PYMNTS Intelligence February 2026 report shows 45% of millennials and 42% of bridge‑millennials used credit‑card installments in...
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Deals•Feb 9, 2026
Beast Industries Acquires FinTech Step to Expand Financial Wellness
Creator-driven platform Beast Industries announced the acquisition of financial‑literacy app Step on Feb. 9, 2026. The deal combines Step’s technology and 7 million‑user base with Beast Industries’ audience reach to deliver financial wellness solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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Deals•Feb 9, 2026
NatWest Pays $3.6 Billion for Wealth Manager Evelyn Partners
U.K. banking group NatWest announced it will acquire wealth manager Evelyn Partners for about $3.6 billion (£2.7 billion). The acquisition, disclosed on Feb. 9, 2026, aims to expand NatWest's savings and investment services. Evelyn Partners is being bought from private-equity...
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News•Feb 8, 2026
Banks Lobby for Faster Turnarounds on European IPOs
European banks are cutting the marketing window for IPOs, with the average book‑building period dropping to a record low of five days this year, down from ten in 2022. The shift reflects heightened risk aversion amid market volatility, as exemplified...
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News•Feb 8, 2026
Bilt Users Get Surprise Wells Fargo Cards as Partnership Ends
After nearly four years, Wells Fargo’s partnership with rent‑rewards platform Bilt is ending, prompting the bank to mail Autograph credit cards to customers who had already closed their accounts. Bilt gave cardholders a February 1 deadline to select a new partner card,...
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News•Feb 7, 2026
The Friction Economy: Why Gen Z Is Trading Smartphones for Dumb Devices
Gen Z is swapping smartphones for "dumb" devices such as landlines, dumbphones, and vintage cameras, sparking a retro‑tech movement. Universities and museums are creating hands‑on labs that let students interact with floppy disks, early PCs, and mechanical keyboards to teach...
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News•Feb 7, 2026
Credit Data Shows Spending Discipline as Card Balances Rise
The Federal Reserve’s December G.19 report shows consumer credit expanding at a 5.7% annualized pace, driven by a 12.6% jump in revolving balances after a November dip. Outstanding consumer credit now totals roughly $5.11 trillion, with credit‑card APRs hovering near 21%....
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Deals•Feb 7, 2026
Databricks Secures $7B in New Funding to Power AI Agent Database
Databricks announced a $7 billion financing round on Feb 7, 2026, comprising $5 billion in equity and $2 billion in debt, lifting its valuation to $134 billion. The capital will be used to expand its Lakebase serverless Postgres database for AI agents and its Genie conversational...
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News•Feb 6, 2026
Crypto.com CEO Launches Platform to Mainstream Personal AI Agents
Crypto.com co‑founder Kris Marszalek is launching ai.com, a consumer‑focused platform that lets users create personal AI agents without coding. The service, debuting on Feb. 8 alongside a Super Bowl commercial, offers free access and paid tiers for higher token limits. Agents...
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News•Feb 6, 2026
Consumer Sentiment Improves but Workers See Little Income Growth Ahead
U.S. consumer sentiment edged up 1.6% in February, buoyed by cooling inflation and modest gains in personal finances. Year‑ahead inflation expectations slipped to 3.5%, the lowest level since early 2025, while current‑condition assessments rose 5.4%. Despite the lift, sentiment gains...
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News•Feb 6, 2026
SoftBank Earnings Results Could Clarify $30 Billion OpenAI Funding Rumors
SoftBank’s third‑quarter earnings on Feb. 12 could confirm whether the group will boost its OpenAI investment by an additional $30 billion, raising its stake beyond the 11% it holds after a $22.5 billion infusion. The firm has already committed roughly $40 billion to the...
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News•Feb 6, 2026
Citi Argues Tokenized Deposits Belong at the Core of Finance
Citi’s global head of partnerships, Biswarup Chatterjee, argues that tokenized bank deposits—digital representations of regulated deposits on distributed ledgers—are poised to become the primary on‑chain dollar for institutional and wholesale use. He emphasizes that banks should start with client needs,...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 6, 2026
Nearly Two-Thirds of Credit Unions Turn to FinTechs to Upgrade Core Products
Credit unions are increasingly partnering with FinTech firms to modernize existing offerings rather than launch brand‑new products. A PYMNTS Intelligence study of 500 credit‑union executives and 100 FinTechs found that about two‑thirds of credit unions rely on these collaborations to...
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News•Feb 6, 2026
Small Businesses Dump Manual Workflows for BILL AI Tools
Bill.com reported strong growth in its SMB customer base during Q2 FY2026, now serving 498,000 businesses and 9,500 accounting firms, up from 481,000 a year earlier. Invoice financing adoption jumped nearly 50% year‑over‑year with origination volume rising over 30%, while...
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News•Feb 6, 2026
Consumer Group Attacks CFPB Plan to Limit Complaints
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a Federal Register notice proposing tighter controls on its complaint portal, including limits on the number of submissions per phone number, mandatory sensitive‑information fields, and IP‑address restrictions. The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) blasted...
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News•Feb 5, 2026
Mastercard and UAE Team to Counter Cyberthreats
Mastercard has entered a strategic cybersecurity partnership with the United Arab Emirates Cyber Security Council to develop forward‑looking policies and publish a joint report on the nation’s threat landscape. The report warns that malicious actors are increasingly targeting critical sectors...
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News•Feb 5, 2026
WEX Sees Virtual Card and Accounts Payable Solutions Offset Flat Mobility
WEX Inc. reported fourth‑quarter revenue of $672.9 million, up 5.7% year over year, driven primarily by strong performance in its corporate payments division. Virtual‑card issuance and accounts‑payable solutions delivered a 17.9% revenue jump, while travel‑related payments surged over 30%. The mobility...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 5, 2026
Bolt Picks Socure to Secure ID Verification Platform
Bolt, the checkout and payments platform, announced a partnership with identity‑verification specialist Socure. By embedding Socure’s RiskOS and its global Identity Graph into Bolt ID, the service gains predictive risk signals and compliance decisioning. The integration is designed to boost...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 5, 2026
Industrial Loan Charters Emerge as Go-To Path for De Novo Banking
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent highlighted the shortage of de novo banks, urging regulatory tailoring to revive community banking. Industrial loan companies (ILCs) are emerging as a favored route for fintechs, manufacturers, and payments firms to create FDIC‑insured banks without traditional holding...
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News•Feb 5, 2026
Smarsh CFO Says Finance Now Shapes Product Decisions
Smarsh CFO Ian Goodkind says finance has moved from a back‑office function to a strategic engine that shapes product decisions. He notes that modern CFOs must monitor macro trends, assess strategic and operational risks, and sit alongside product and strategy...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 5, 2026
Two-Thirds of Cardholders View Issuers More Positively After Credit Limit Increases
A PYMNTS Intelligence study of 2,199 cardholders reveals that 67% of limit‑increase requests are denied, while 56% of granted increases occur automatically. Subprime borrowers experience a 94% denial rate, and after a denial, 31% cut usage, 20% seek a new...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 5, 2026
ECommerce Growth Makes Tokenized Checkout the Baseline
Digital wallets have moved from niche to mainstream, propelled by Apple Pay’s rapid adoption and the pandemic‑driven eCommerce surge, making tokenized checkout the new standard. Over the past five years issuers expanded Apple Pay across markets, while consumers shifted to...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 4, 2026
Senate Bill Would Require Online Platforms to Prevent Fraudulent Ads
Senators Ruben Gallego and Bernie Moreno introduced the Safeguarding Consumers from Advertising Misconduct Act (SCAM Act) on Feb. 4, requiring online platforms to take reasonable steps to block fraudulent and deceptive ads. The bill expands the Federal Trade Commission’s and...
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News•Feb 4, 2026
AT&T Turns to Autonomous AI Agents to Slash Fraud and Customer Wait Times
AT&T is rolling out autonomous AI agents to combat spam and fraud calls while streamlining internal processes. The network‑integrated digital receptionist, ActiveArmor, engages unknown callers in real time, disconnecting suspicious interactions or taking messages. Internally, the company’s partnership with Microsoft...
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News•Feb 4, 2026
Equifax Says AI Tools Help Drive New Product Innovation to Record High
Equifax reported that AI tools and its cloud platform powered a record‑high Vitality Index in 2025, with 90% of employees using AI and 1,900 developers leveraging AI coding assistants. The firm added 40 AI patents, bringing its total to over...
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News•Feb 4, 2026
Embedded Payments Give SaaS a Lifeline as AI Reshapes Workflows
AI-driven agentic systems are unsettling traditional SaaS subscription models, prompting a sharp sell‑off that saw software indexes tumble over 14% and marquee names like Thomson Reuters and Salesforce plunge double‑digit percentages. Investors fear that conversational AI could bypass entire application...
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News•Feb 4, 2026
Mastercard Debuts Fleet Management Tools in Asia Pacific
Mastercard introduced a new portfolio called Mastercard Fleet: Next Gen across the Asia‑Pacific region, bundling payments, data capture and control tools for fuel, electric‑vehicle charging, maintenance, tolls and other fleet expenses. The solution offers globally accepted digital fleet cards, point‑of‑sale data...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 4, 2026
Same-Day Pay Becomes a Hiring Edge as Paycheck Gaps Bite
Instant, same‑day pay is emerging as a competitive advantage in talent acquisition as workers grow intolerant of traditional payroll delays. The lag between work completion and wage access forces many to rely on high‑APR credit, effectively eroding 20‑30 % of earnings....
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 4, 2026
Pay Flexibility Rises as More Workers Earn Variable Income
A PYMNTS Intelligence study shows 66% of U.S. consumers still live paycheck to paycheck, with 42% doing so out of necessity. Income volatility is rising as six‑in‑ten Americans now earn their primary income from hourly wages, gig platforms, or contracts,...
By PYMNTS
News•Feb 4, 2026
Billing Shifts From Back-Office Chore to Customer Loyalty Test
Paymentus CEO Dushyant Sharma argues billing is evolving from a back‑office cost to a loyalty driver. Over the past five years, tech innovations have turned billing and payments into a value‑generating function, enabling hyper‑personalized engagement and reducing service costs. Intelligent...
By PYMNTS
Deals•Feb 4, 2026
Resolve AI Raises $125 Million for AI Agents That Maintain Software
Resolve AI announced a $125 million Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, taking its total funding above $150 million and valuing the startup at $1 billion. The capital will accelerate development of its AI agents that act as site‑reliability engineers, helping enterprises...
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Deals•Feb 4, 2026
EnFi Raises $15M to Expand AI Agents for Bank Credit Decisions
Boston-based fintech EnFi announced a $15 million fundraising round led by Fintop, with participation from Patriot Financial Partners, Commerce Ventures, Unusual Ventures and Boston Seed Capital. The capital will be used to deploy AI agents that automate credit analysis and...
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Deals•Feb 3, 2026
Experian to Acquire AI-Powered Mortgage Shopping Platform Own Up
Experian announced it will acquire Own Up, an AI-powered mortgage shopping platform, to expand its mortgage offerings within the Experian Marketplace. The acquisition was announced in a Feb. 3 press release and is expected to close within 90 days pending...
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Deals•Feb 2, 2026
Varo Bank Secures $123.9M Series G Funding Led by Warburg Pincus and Coliseum Capital
Varo Bank, the all‑digital nationally chartered bank, announced a $123.9 million Series G round led by existing investor Warburg Pincus and new investor Coliseum Capital Management. The funding will support Varo’s next growth phase, including expansion of its AI‑driven lending products. The round...
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Deals•Feb 2, 2026
Fifth Third Bancorp Completes Merger with Comerica, Forming $294B Regional Bank
Fifth Third Bancorp and Comerica Incorporated closed their merger on Feb. 2, creating a $294 billion institution that becomes the ninth‑largest U.S. bank. The deal combines Fifth Third’s consumer digital platform with Comerica’s commercial franchise, expanding digital banking and embedded‑finance capabilities across...
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Deals•Feb 2, 2026
TransUnion to Acquire Mobile Division of RealNetworks
TransUnion announced a definitive agreement to acquire the mobile division of RealNetworks, aiming to boost its communications solutions and fraud‑prevention portfolio. The deal, disclosed in a Feb. 2 press release, will bring AI, machine‑learning and real‑time analytics capabilities to TransUnion, with...
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Deals•Feb 2, 2026
Loop AI Secures $14M Series A Funding to Expand AI Platform for Restaurant Back Offices
Loop AI announced a $14 million Series A round led by Nyca Partners to expand its AI-driven platform for restaurant and retail back offices. The funding will be used to broaden its product suite and increase headcount, as detailed in...
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Deals•Feb 2, 2026
Waymo Raises $16B in Funding Round, Valuation Climbs to $110B
Google-owned autonomous vehicle startup Waymo is close to finalizing a $16 billion funding round that would value the company at $110 billion. Google will contribute more than 75% of the capital, and the round is reported to be three times oversubscribed, underscoring...
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Deals•Jan 27, 2026
Anthropic Nears $20B Fundraising at $350B Valuation
Anthropic, the AI startup, is close to finalizing a new fundraising round that would raise $20B and value the company at $350B, according to the Financial Times on Jan. 27, 2026. The round follows a $13B Series F raise in...
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Deals•Jan 27, 2026
Mesh Raises $75M in New Funding Round, Hitting $1B Valuation
Crypto payments network Mesh announced a $75 million funding round that values the company at $1 billion. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital and will fund Mesh’s expansion into Asian, European and Latin American FinTech markets. The company previously raised...
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Deals•Jan 22, 2026
TikTok and ByteDance Form Joint Venture with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX
TikTok and its parent ByteDance have signed agreements with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX to create a new TikTok U.S. joint venture, slated to close on Jan. 22, 2026. The partnership will secure TikTok’s continued operations in the United States and...
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Deals•Jan 20, 2026
Walmart’s PhonePe Gets Regulatory OK for Indian IPO
India’s largest digital payments firm PhonePe, backed by Walmart, has received SEBI approval for its upcoming Indian IPO. The offering could raise up to $1.5 billion, valuing the company at roughly $15 billion, with existing shareholders Walmart, Microsoft and Tiger Global expected...
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Deals•Jan 15, 2026
BlackRock and Microsoft Raise $12.5B for AI Partnership
BlackRock announced that its AI partnership with Microsoft has raised $12.5 billion, bringing the collaboration closer to its $30 billion target. The partnership, which also includes Nvidia, xAi and UAE‑based MGX, aims to fund data‑center infrastructure for AI workloads. The capital raise...
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Deals•Jan 7, 2026
Anthropic Targets $10B Funding Round at $350B Valuation
Anthropic announced plans to raise $10 billion in a new funding round that would value the AI startup at $350 billion, nearly double its September 2025 valuation. The round is separate from its partnership with Microsoft and Nvidia, who have pledged a combined...
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Deals•Jan 7, 2026
Zilch to Acquire Fjord Bank to Accelerate European Expansion
Consumer payments platform Zilch announced plans to acquire Lithuanian challenger bank Fjord Bank, securing a European banking licence and establishing a new headquarters in Lithuania. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory...
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Deals•Jan 6, 2026
GTreasury Acquires Solvexia to Expand Financial Automation Capabilities
Ripple’s GTreasury announced the acquisition of Solvexia, a no‑code financial automation platform, to broaden its treasury management suite with end‑to‑end reconciliation and regulatory reporting. The deal, disclosed on Jan. 6 2026, adds analytics and compliance tools for both fiat and digital‑asset transactions....
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