The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | February 12th

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.

New standard for credit financing

Pagaya Technologies, a global technology company delivering AI-driven product solutions, has secured a $280 million credit facility with participation from funds managed by BlackRock, UBS, JPMorgan Chase, Valley Bank and Israel Discount Bank.

The facility, which consists of a $255 million term loan and a $25 million revolver, provides the capital and liquidity needed to support the Company’s future growth, extends its corporate debt maturity to 2029 and validates investors’ confidence in Pagaya’s business model and financial strength.

“This credit facility, led by BlackRock, showcases the confidence and support from some of the largest and most sophisticated financial institutions in the world, as we transform the consumer finance ecosystem in the next phase of our growth journey,” said Gal Krubiner, Co-Founder and CEO of Pagaya.

PayU, India’s payment solutions provider, has announced that it has successfully migrated its credit service, LazyPay, to Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking platform, Vault Core, and is now live.

This partnership has enabled LazyPay to build lending and credit products, deliver a superior, secure, and efficient user experience, and set a new standard for credit financing in India. 

LazyPay migrated its existing customers to Vault Core within just one year. In addition, Vault Core has streamlined PayU’s real-time financial statement generation and simplified multi-account management, providing a unified view of products. Furthermore, Vault Core’s real-time Ledger has improved PayU’s reporting and regulatory requirements.

Innovation in B2B BNPL ecosystem

Juspay, India’s payments infrastructure company, has announced the acquisition of LotusPay in an all-cash deal. This acquisition strengthens Juspay’s offerings to the BFSI segment and merchants, with a particular focus on enhancing its recurring payment capabilities.

Juspay provides robust payment solutions for companies in various sectors, such as BFSI, eCommerce, travel, FinTech, airlines, etc.

Founded in 2016 by Atma Krishna and backed by Y Combinator, LotusPay is a pioneer in NACH (National Automated Clearing House) debit and provides cloud-based software for merchants and banks. NACH Debit, powered by the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), enables banks, financial institutions, and merchants to collect recurring payments for loans, investments, insurance premiums, subscriptions, and more.

B2B payments company Mondu has raised an additional €30 million in debt financing from German bank Vereinigte Volksbank Raiffeisenbank (VVRB).

Mondu secured €20 million from VVRB in October 2022, and the increased credit facility provides the firm with €50 million in addition to earlier equity investments. The company has raised more than €115 million since launching in October 2021. The financing will bolster its expansion across Europe this year.

Philipp Povel, Co-Founder and co-CEO of Mondu said, “This financing will enable us to ramp up expansion across the European market and develop additional payment solutions to benefit business customers. This step further strengthens our commitment to driving innovation and value in the B2B BNPL ecosystem. We are grateful for the continued trust and support from VVRB and look forward to our ongoing partnership.”

What is the buzz

In a release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs on Sunday, it was announced that Unified Payment Interface (UPI) services are scheduled to be launched in Sri Lanka and Mauritius at on Monday. Additionally, RuPay card services are set to be inaugurated in Mauritius.

The ministry stated that the launch aims to make UPI settlement services available for Indian nationals traveling to Sri Lanka and Mauritius, as well as for Mauritian nationals traveling to India. Furthermore, the extension of RuPay card services in Mauritius will allow Mauritian banks to issue cards based on the RuPay mechanism, facilitating the use of RuPay cards for settlements in both India and Mauritius. Emphasizing India’s leadership in Fintech innovation and Digital Public Infrastructure, the ministry highlighted Prime Minister’s strong emphasis on sharing developmental experiences and innovations with partner countries.