The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | July 22nd

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.

Apple’s Vision Pro

Mashreq has onboarded India’s Profinch as a strategic technology partner for its global expansion, with the FinTech company anchoring its key technology transformations.

The partnership will involve Mashreq and Profinch collaborating on technology transformation programs to strengthen the former’s position in the markets and aid global expansion. As part of the strategic alliance, Profinch will implement Oracle’s corporate and digital banking products in the Payments, Trade, and Digital Experience domains across Oman, Pakistan, the US, the UK, and Hong Kong.

Mashreq has been partnering with Profinch for the last few years, driving successful project go-lives of Oracle’s corporate and digital banking products in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and Egypt. Additionally, Profinch’s Host2Host application, which supports 150 ERPs and was developed using Profinch’s Atumverse framework, is live across all five countries.

NatWest has launched its banking app on Apple’s Vision Pro, the tech giant’s smart goggles. These goggles blend digital content with the physical world to unlock spatial experiences. The product has now launched in the UK.

NatWest will be one of the first banks globally to have its app feature on the Apple operating system VisionOS.

VisionOS features a three-dimensional user interface and input system controlled entirely by a user’s eyes, hands and voice. Intuitive gestures allow users to interact with apps by looking at them, tapping their fingers to select, flicking their wrist to scroll, or using a virtual keyboard or dictation to type.

A new path in the Indian credit

New York-based Coast, which offers a simple and smart way for US companies to manage fuel and fleet spending, has raised $40 million in new Series B financing. The round, led by ICONIQ Growth, included participation from existing investors Accel, Insight Partners, Vesey Ventures, and Avid Ventures, as well as new investors Thomvest.

Coast also announced a strategic investment from consumer financial services firm Synchrony. The investment aligns with Synchrony’s presence in the aftermarket auto segment, where it partners with many top national tires, petrol, auto parts and maintenance retailers like Discount Tire and Pep Boys.

The Series B brings Coast’s total equity financing to nearly $100 million and comes months after it announced its previous round of $92 million in debt and equity.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with ICONIQ Growth, a legendary investor in FinTech, and fleet & field services,” said Coast founder and CEO Daniel Simon. “ICONIQ brings to bear not just their deep capital base but also their rich experience in Coast’s domains and expansive community, which can drive partnerships and accelerate expansion for Coast’s fleet product.”

OneCard, a FinTech company, has partnered with Razorpay to create a new path in the Indian credit card market and tap into the fast-growing segment of tech-savvy individuals who value both design and financial control.

They manage over 6 co-branded credit cards, each meticulously crafted from metal and controlled entirely through a user-friendly mobile app. Their focus on user experience (UX) and convenience sets them apart from the competition. With a captivating rewards program and transparency in fees and charges, OneCard is poised to disrupt the traditional market.

OneCard’s rapid growth presented a critical obstacle: securing a payments partner equipped to handle not only their rapid scaling but also maintaining exceptional credit card bill repayment success rates. Ensuring a smooth and secure repayment experience is crucial, as it leads to customer retention, which directly impacts OneCard’s profitability.

Razorpay proved to be the ideal partner, providing a robust solution that effectively addressed OneCard’s scalability concerns and prioritized success rates.

What is the Buzz

Jifiti, a global embedded lending technology company, has announced the release of its Tap Now, Pay Later technology. This technology enables consumers and business customers to easily add their approved loan or credit funds to any digital wallet, including Apple Pay, via a virtual card.

The customer can then tap their mobile device to pay, as with a regular card transactio, at any point of sale.

Tap Now, Pay Late allows banks and lenders to tap into the opportunity to seamlessly ‘push’ their loan programs into any of the digital wallets. Jifiti has already rolled out this technology to banks and merchants in the U.S. and Europe. It enables lenders and merchants to convert more customers from ‘lend’ to ‘spend’ through a single platform. For lenders, this means higher credit utilization rates, higher loan application rates and increased wallet presence. For merchants, it translates to higher sales and conversion rates and ‘business-as-usual’ reconciliation as it works with their existing system.