The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | June 30th

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

Visa has agreed to buy Brazilian issuer processor and core banking platform Pismo for $1 billion in cash. The purchase is subject to regulatory approvals and is scheduled to finalise by the end of this year, with Pismo keeping its current management team.

In March, it was reported that several firms, including Visa and Mastercard, were competing to acquire the Brazilian FinTech.

With the acquisition, Visa says it will be able to provide core banking and issuer processing capabilities across debit, prepaid, credit, and commercial cards for customers via cloud-native APIs. Pismo’s platform will also enable Visa to provide support and connectivity for emerging payment rails (such as Pix in Brazil) for financial institutions.

“Through the acquisition of Pismo, Visa can better serve our financial institution and fintech clients with more differentiated core banking and issuer solutions they can offer their customers,” said Jack Forestell, chief product, and strategy officer at Visa.

Founded in 2016 and based in São Paulo, Pismo offers a cloud-native platform for payment and banking services, including digital banking, core banking, cloud computing, card-issuing, and digital wallets. It has operations in Latin America, Southeast Asia an,d Europe.

Deals of the week

• dtcpay raises $16.5m in Pre-Series A Funding Round
• Versori secures $3.5m to enhance Data Infrastructure Platform
• Silicon Valley Bank provides $50mwarehouse facility to Achieve
• Visa acquires FinTech platform Pismo for $1b
• Chimera Abu Dhabi supports Tabby with $50m debt financing
• TreasurySpring raises $29 m to transform cash investment for business
• Fennech raises £2.3m in new investment led by Llyods Banking Group
• US Bank launches ‘Commercial Rewards Card’ for middle-market companies
• Finastra completes certification for FedNow Reserve’s new instant payment service
• Stables launches stablecoin virtual card powered by Mastercard
• Ingenico & Axerve partner for Merchant Onboarding, Instore Payments

Be on the lookout for

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the opening of its first ‘Global FinTech Accelerator’ in collaboration with international technology giant NVIDIA. The programme intends to kickstart early-stage FinTech businesses that use AI to revolutionise financial services in the North America, Europe, and Latin America areas.

Amazon Web Services’ newly launched fintech accelerator offers seed-stage startups a unique opportunity to grow and scale their businesses with the help of experienced industry professionals and potential investors.

Throughout a six-week program, between 18 September and 23 October, 150 selected startups (50 companies from each region) will undergo tailored programming with experts across both the fintech and artificial intelligence/ machine learning (AI/ML) space.

Around 91% of financial institutions are using AI to drive business transformation and change, with 80% of FinTechs leveraging ML in particular. As the market evolves, AI and ML are standing out as critical enablers of innovation, driving success across the customer journey from user onboarding and workflow automation, to risk management and customer experience.

Howard Wright, vice president and global head of startups at Amazon Web Services, said: “We are making big bets on the potential of generative AI to significantly change every customer experience out there, especially as it relates to financial services.

“In the long term, we expect generative AI to usher in the era of self-driving money, when every consumer with a smartphone can have access to an affordable, trusted financial advisor that will help them improve their financial health. These solutions will leverage what the cloud does best: it democratises access for everyone.”