The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | May 12th

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

WhatsApp has partnered with Stripe to allow Singapore businesses to accept payments directly from their WhatsApp chats.

The option to enable payments on the social networking platform in Singapore is available to local businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform, which will include a Stripe account. The feature is currently available to a small number of Singapore-based businesses and will be available to many more in the coming months.

“Starting today, people in Singapore can pay their local merchants on WhatsApp in just a few taps. This seamless and secure experience will transform the way people and businesses in Singapore connect on WhatsApp,” said Stephane Kasriel, head of FinTech at Meta.

The new feature is built on Stripe Connect and Stripe Checkout and enables Singapore customers and businesses to buy and sell directly on the social networking platform without having to go to a website, open another app, or pay in person. Supported payment methods include credit and debit cards, and PayNow, a real-time payment system popular in Singapore.

“Most people I know in Singapore use WhatsApp to chat with each other. Now, they can pay local businesses using the app as well. The speed and convenience of payments through WhatsApp will help businesses expand their revenue streams with new channels and access a wider customer base,” said Sarita Singh, regional head and managing director for Southeast Asia at Stripe.

Deals of the week

• VentureWave snaps up Funderbeam in a $40m investment deal
• Setscale raises a total of $80m in equity-debt to expand tech offerings
• Qistbazaar secures PKR 500m equity partnership with Bank Alfalah
• Deutsche Börse acquires Denmark’s SimCorp in €3.9b deal
• Temenos arrives on IBM Cloud for core banking modernisation
• MoonPay to provide Web3 technology services for Aloha Browser
• Numeral and BNP Paribas chosen by Alma to automate payments
• Finastra & Luxoft to offer turnkey managed services to banks in EMEA
• BR-DGE and American Express unite to boost Open Banking payments
• Rapid Finance unite with Mambu to offer Lending-as-a-Service
• Airwallex expands global footprint with Israel launch
• Visa & TerraPay partner to streamline digital cross-border commerce
• Standard Chartered expands its partnership with Tazapay

Be on the lookout for

The second edition of FinTech Festival India (FFI) is set to take place from 16 to 18 May 2023 at the Jio World Centre in Mumbai with a focus on FinTech advancements and predictions. Micro experiences, gathering key stakeholders in the Fintech sector were held throughout the year in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai leading up to the mega event in Mumbai.

Themed “Democratising Digital Economy”, FinTech Festival India 2023 aims to help shape the future of finance in the world’s second-fastest-growing FinTech ecosystem and the larger global business environment. The three-day event will feature a robust conference agenda across three stages, as well as a comprehensive mix of exhibition showcases, live demos, product launches and innovations.

Featuring over 150 speakers and expecting more than 10,000 attendees, FFI will delve into some of the most trending topics shaping the FinTech industry, including Web 3.0, Digital Identity, future of BFSI in the Metaverse, Neobanks, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Cloud Security, AI revolutionizing BFSI, Insurtech and more.

On the Centre Stage, the first day will focus on examining “The Here and Now of FinTech”, while day two will explore “Building a Financially Inclusive Future – Vision 2025,” and the final day will dive into “Vision 2030 – Shaping FinTech Future Together!”

The Impact Stage and Open Stage will also run their parallel conference agenda with fruitful and impactful deliberations on diverse areas of finance. These include curated specialised masterclasses by India Blockchain Forum and the Indian School of Business that are uniquely designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the FinTech sector, enabling industry professionals to delve deeper into its complexities and opportunities.