The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | Dec 26th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements for Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

Montran has launched Montran Africa, establishing a regional headquarters in Nairobi as it deepens its operational presence across the continent and aligns more closely with Africa’s evolving financial infrastructure needs.

The new entity formalises Montran’s long-standing engagement with African central banks, financial institutions and market infrastructures, positioning Kenya as a regional hub for client engagement, implementation support and product development. The move comes as African markets accelerate efforts around payment modernisation, real-time settlement, and cross-border financial integration.

The launch event in Nairobi was attended by representatives from central banks, regulators and financial institutions from across Africa, reflecting the strategic importance of the region to global financial infrastructure providers. Montran’s platforms already underpin several national and regional financial systems in Africa, supporting real-time gross settlement (RTGS), automated clearing house (ACH) systems, central securities depositories (CSDs), instant payment systems (IPS) and cross-border payment infrastructures. These systems play a critical role in enabling interoperability, resilience and transaction security across increasingly digital financial ecosystems.

Deals of the week

• EquiLend invests in Digital Prime to expand into tokenised assets
• iFAST Global Bank enables wallet-based cross-border payments
• PayTabs Egypt powers digital payment solution for Edita Trade
• JMR Infotech joins Caribbean Bank to drive digital transformation
• NPST launches Bank-in-a-Box digital banking platform
• Nodu secures $1.45m to power regulated stablecoin payments
• United Fintech secures funding to scale FinTech infrastructure
• Finastra expands global presence with new U.S. and India offices

Be on the lookout for

Trade Republic, a Berlin-based digital bank founded in 2019, has been valued at €12.5 billion following a €1.2 billion secondary transaction. The deal, led by Founders Fund and supported by investors such as Wellington Management, GIC, Fidelity, Khosla Ventures, Lingotto Innovation, and Aglaé (Arnault family), reflects strong confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.

Existing backers, including Sequoia, Accel, TCV, and Thrive Capital, also expanded their stakes. The transaction provided liquidity for early shareholders without raising new primary capital, while reinforcing Trade Republic’s shareholder base. The platform has doubled its customer base in 18 months to over 10 million users, managing €150 billion in assets, with 70% of users first-time investors. Positioned at the intersection of FinTech and WealthTech, Trade Republic aims to address Europe’s pension gap by democratising access to capital markets. With a full ECB banking license and expansion into multiple European countries, it continues to broaden offerings, including child savings accounts, private markets, fixed income, and a crypto wallet.