The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | Jan 27th

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.

High Tech + High Touch

RBL Bank, one of India’s private sector banks, and Piramal Capital and Housing Finance (referred to as Piramal Finance), a wholly owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises Limited (‘PEL’), a Non-Banking Financial Company, have announced a strategic partnership under their co-lending business.

Through this partnership, both lenders will offer loans to middle- and low-income segment borrowers with a focus on rural and semi-urban regions. This is the third co-lending partnership for Piramal Finance, following similar collaborations with Axis Bank and the Central Bank of India.

This collaboration combines RBL Bank’s financial expertise and branch network with Piramal Finance’s innovative ‘High Tech + High Touch’ approach, offering competitive interest rates and customised credit solutions to underserved communities. The partnership is set to bridge the credit gap, especially for those in the unorganised sector, and drive growth in India’s emerging markets.

Pomelo Group, a Singapore-based payment infrastructure platform, has announced the acquisition of Arrow Checkout, a Singaporean FinTech Payments company. The Singaporean-based company brings Payments talent and additional technology capabilities to the Pomelo offering.

Arrow was founded in 2021 by payments experts from Grab and Tencent. It offers eCommerce and checkout payments technology, is backed by Y Combinator, and has raised funding from Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India and Southeast Asia), Alpha JWC, Meta, and angel investors from Checkout.com, Coinbase, Grab, and VISA.

As part of the acquisition, the Arrow founders joined the Pomelo team in Singapore. Neo Liat Beng has been appointed as Pomelo’s Chief Product Officer and will lead the company’s product development efforts. Sebastian Roervig will become VP of Sales & Business Development and will drive the adoption of the Pomelo platform across emerging markets in Asia. Sudhan Raj strengthens Pomelo’s engineering talent and will help deliver further technology improvements over the coming years.

Cross-border card instalment payment

Visa, a global digital payment solution, and DealMe, a FinTech company, have joined forces to address the increasing demand for cross-border shopping and flexible payment options.

This collaboration will introduce cross-border card instalment payment services, offering greater payment flexibility to Vietnamese and other international consumers.

Cardholders with locally issued Visa credit cards in Vietnam will soon have access to real-time instalment offers at top merchants in South Korea, enhancing repayment convenience while travelling. This initiative will benefit Vietnamese shoppers. Visa’s data indicates that 75% of surveyed Vietnamese consumers plan to travel for leisure next year, with South Korea being the top destination (18% planning to travel there). Vietnamese travellers with Visa credit cards issued in Vietnam will be able to shop at duty-free shops, department stores, and medical institutions in South Korea.

Central 1 Credit Union (Central 1) and Intellect Design Arena Ltd. (Intellect) have announced the signing of an agreement through which Intellect will assume responsibility for Central 1’s digital banking operations. This follows Central 1’s decision to wind down its digital banking offerings in October 2024.

Under the agreement, Central 1’s Forge, MemberDirect, public website, mobile applications and products, and digital banking engineering and service teams will be transferred to Intellect. Central 1 will continue to provide the technology infrastructure and related services.

To ensure continuity for clients, selective Central 1’s team members will join the Intellect team to operate Central 1’s digital banking software and support clients as they transition to a new digital banking platform. The transaction remains subject to closing, expected to occur in the coming weeks.

“We are confident that Intellect and the transferring Central 1 team members will provide a strong and stable path for our clients as they transition to new digital banking platforms. Our discussions and work with the Intellect team through this process have demonstrated their deep care for clients and commitment to serving our members and clients long into the future. We look forward to continued collaboration with the Intellect team in the months ahead,” said Sheila Vokey, President & CEO of Central 1.

What is the Buzz

The $7 million seed funding for Axoflow underscores a growing trend in global cybersecurity investments, particularly in sectors like financial services that are increasingly targeted by sophisticated cyber threats. Financial institutions, custodians of sensitive data and transaction flows, are under immense pressure to fortify their defenses amidst rising ransomware, phishing, and data breach incidents.

Globally, the financial sector accounts for a significant share of cybersecurity spending, projected to exceed $200 billion annually by 2026. The shift toward digital banking, open APIs, and cloud-first strategies has amplified the attack surface, necessitating advanced tools to manage security data efficiently. This is where companies like Axoflow come in, automating processes like data classification and enrichment to not only enhance security data quality but also optimise costs—an appealing proposition for banks and FinTechs managing constrained budgets.

Axoflow’s focus on reducing security data volumes by over 50% addresses a critical pain point: the overwhelming volume of threat intelligence financial institutions deal with daily. With a high-profile CEO like Balázs Scheidler, the startup is well-positioned to capitalize on this need and gain traction globally.

The funding also highlights investors’ appetite for cybersecurity startups offering scalable, cost-efficient solutions. EBRD Venture Capital and partners’ involvement signals confidence in Axoflow’s ability to make a meaningful impact. As cyber risks grow, the demand for innovative solutions like Axoflow’s is expected to rise, creating a robust growth environment for cybersecurity ventures targeting the financial space.