The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | Dec 16th

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Scaling Borders, Smarter Payments

Mynt, a provider of corporate credit cards and spend management solutions, has announced a $23 million (€22 million) funding round led by Vor Capital, with participation from existing investors CNI, Incore, and others. The Series B round brings Mynt’s total funding to over $52.3 million (€50 million).

The fresh investment will help fuel Mynt’s next phase of growth, with plans to expand into the UK and other European markets, broaden its product offering, and capitalise on the growing demand for spend management among SMEs. Founded in 2018, Mynt is a spend management solution focusing on Nordic SMEs, offering corporate cards seamlessly integrated with accounting systems.

Standard Chartered and PayerMax announced a collaboration at the recent Singapore FinTech Festival to assist global brands in addressing the challenges of cross-border payments.

This collaboration, spanning multiple countries and regions, has significantly advanced the landscape of cross-border payments in emerging markets through robust compliance frameworks, technological innovations, and ecosystem cooperation.

Merchants with a global footprint need to support their operations with a trusted payment solution that can effectively serve multiple markets and regions. PayerMax, therefore, partnered with Standard Chartered to ensure its solution can deliver that capability by tapping into the bank’s strong global network and deep local knowledge of emerging markets.

PayerMax integrated its solution with Standard Chartered’s FX Scale product to link accounts in other countries through its hubs in Hong Kong and Singapore. They have also achieved technical integration across several countries using host-to-host (H2H) connections and APIs. This integration supports multi-currency virtual accounts and batch payment solutions, helping merchants efficiently manage multiple currency accounts and distinguish fund flows by currency and channel.

Banking on Seamless Payments

Loop, the global financial platform preferred by Canadian businesses, has announced the launch of the Loop Global Visa Card, Canada’s first card specifically for SMEs that need to manage cross-border purchasing.

This will be one of the first-ever corporate credit card solutions for Canadian businesses, enabling them to spend and settle credit balances in multiple currencies.

As cross-border trade continues to grow in Canada, reaching an impressive CAD 965.1 billion in international exports and imports in 2023, the Loop Global Visa Card enables businesses to effectively manage payments across multiple currencies while benefiting from the ability to conduct local settlement. This card helps Canadian companies streamline the management of cross-border transactions and global operations.

“Canadian businesses should have a mechanism to have more control and flexibility in the way they pay, and this product provides that,” said Chris Ferron, Vice President of FinTech Partnerships at Visa. “We are excited to collaborate with Loop and EQ Bank to empower Canadians with payment options to help them grow their business and access the global economy through digital payments.”

GoCardless has partnered with Endava, a provider of next-generation technology services, to help enterprise merchants more quickly access the benefits of bank payments.

The collaboration will see Endava offer and manage the integration of GoCardless payment solutions within their enterprise clients as part of large-scale digital transformation projects. This will accelerate delivery, helping organisations realise the benefits of bank payments more quickly.

Joint customers can access GoCardless’ Direct Debit capabilities for recurring payments, automatically pulling funds from a payer’s bank account on the day they’re due. Not only will this help to generate more predictable revenue and improve cash flow, but it will also decrease the time and effort required to chase late payments.

The offering will also include GoCardless’ open banking-powered payment feature, Instant Bank Pay, an effective alternative for instant, one-off payments that can be up to 54% cheaper than cards. By combining direct debit and open banking payments on one platform, enterprise businesses can provide a seamless payment experience for their customers, whether they’re collecting one-off or recurring payments.

What is the Buzz

Texas-based financial services group Upbound has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire New York-based financial health FinTech Brigit in a deal worth up to $460 million.

The transaction includes an initial payment of $325 million at closing—structured as 75% cash and 25% shares—expected to be completed in Q1 2025. An additional $75 million will be paid over two years, with a further $60 million contingent on Brigit meeting financial performance targets in 2026.

Founded in 2017, Brigit provides a financial wellness app that offers features such as instant cash advances, credit-building tools, and personalised financial insights. With over two million users, the platform aims to help Americans better manage their budgets and discover opportunities to earn and save.

Following the acquisition, Brigit’s co-founders, Zuben Mathews and Hamel Kothari, will continue to lead the company as a distinct business unit under Upbound while retaining its current branding.