Singapore's Sleek Secures $5M in Debt Financing Led by FinTech Nation Fund
Weekly news up to Wednesday, 2sd of October 2024.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
National Bank of Oman (NBO) has signed a strategic partnership with PayByte, an Oman-based digital payment solutions provider, to enhance the digital payment landscape across the Sultanate.
The partnership marks a significant step towards providing more convenient, secure, and innovative payment solutions for businesses and consumers in Oman.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
🧋 REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Trulioo And Airwallex Expand Global Partnership.
⭐️ Singapore's Sleek secures $5M in debt financing led by FinTech Nation Fund.
⭐️ 20 business leaders creating step-change in their industries.
⭐️ Adyen continues to pioneer the in-person payment space with host of new industry-defining products.
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AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
Aussie debt collection FinTech InDebted bags $41m Series C. The cash injection, which values InDebted at around $240 million (A$350 million), has been earmarked to drive the company’s expansion into new markets, fuel further product development, and help deliver on its M&A strategy.
eToro acquires investment app Spaceship in $80 million Australian expansion move. This acquisition will strengthen eToro’s footprint in a key market for the business, while also broadening its product offering, bringing superannuation into its portfolio as the company expands its long-term savings proposition globally.
CHINA 🇨🇳
PayPal introduces PayPal Complete Payments in China. The all-in-one platform offers customized products and solutions to help Chinese merchants sell globally. It streamlines payment and receivables processes, empowering businesses of all sizes to succeed in cross-border trade and the digital economy.
THAILAND 🇹🇭
dlocal partners with ShopeePay. dLocal merchants can now accept ShopeePay payments in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, expanding their reach in these emerging markets. Additionally, dLocal and ShopeePay Thailand are introducing merchant payout services.
INDIA 🇮🇳
FinTech Jupiter in talks to buy a stake in SBM Bank India. The company, backed by Tiger Global and NuBank, is in discussions to buy a 5% to 9.9% stake in SBM India, the local arm of SBM Bank, sources said.
India’s M2P FinTech reportedly on track to secure $80m funding round. Helios Investment Partners is leading the round, according to a report by The Economic Times, citing sources familiar with the deal. The FinTech operates an API infrastructure that enables businesses to embed FinTech services into their own offerings.
Cashfree Payments appoints Nitin Pulyani as Head of Product and Senior Vice President. In this strategic role, Pulyani will spearhead product innovation and drive initiatives aimed at accelerating the company’s growth. Read more
PayU embraces native device biometrics to meet India’s authentication mandate. The digital financial services provider in India, has introduced Flash Pay, a biometric authentication solution for mobile digital payments, and partnered with Mastercard to introduce passkeys for payments to the Indian market.
INDONESIA 🇮🇩
GoPay introduces AI Voice Assistant ‘Dira’ powered by Google Cloud. Dira understands and responds to commands in Bahasa Indonesia, leveraging Google Cloud’s generative AI technologies, including Vertex AI, speech-to-text AI, and the Gemini 1.5 Flash large language model.
ARAB EMIRATES 🇦🇪
Dubai adopts stricter rules around marketing crypto investments. As of Oct. 1, companies looking to market virtual assets in the UAE will have to include a “prominent” disclaimer stating that “virtual assets may lose their value in full or in part, and are subject to extreme volatility,” the crypto regulator said Thursday.
PHILIPPINES 🇵🇭
Fime and BancNet enhance financial inclusion with InstaPay testing in the Philippines. The collaboration between Fime and BancNet is primarily geared towards bolstering the InstaPay service. The partnership enables these institutions to efficiently test and launch their instant payment solutions in compliance with the ISO 20022 standard for financial messaging.
JAPAN 🇯🇵
NETSTARS partners with ACI Worldwide to power the world’s payment ecosystem. Both companies will collaborate to provide an all-in-one payment solution for service providers and merchant acquirers, ensuring a smooth and secure ecosystem for processing both domestic and cross-border payments.
SoftBank makes first salary payments via its digital platform PayPay. SoftBank Group and nine affiliated firms paid digital salaries to their employees on Wednesday, in the first such initiative in Japan. SoftBank Group aims to enable other companies to offer digital salaries to their employees.
Citi appoints Tokiya Kishie as Japan head of markets. Tokyo-based Kishie has been tasked with driving business growth and leading the markets franchise in Japan, building on Citi’s global footprint and product offering, according to a September 26 media release.
PAKISTAN 🇵🇰
Pakistan’s BNPL firm Qist Bazaar raises $3.2M Series A from Indus Valley Capital, Gobi Partners. With the recent Series A round, Qist Bazaar is poised to accelerate its growth by expanding its product portfolio, enhancing its technology infrastructure, and scaling operations across Pakistan.