Flex raises $70m at $1.2bn to bank business owners globally
Flex raises $70m seven months after its Series B, doubling to $1.2bn, as the owner-first private banking platform launches stablecoin-railed Flex Global.
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Fintech
Payments, KYC, trading technology and the vendors that sell it to brokers.
328 stories since 2021 · page 12 of 17
July 2026
Deutsche Bank, MIGA launch €1bn trade finance guarantee
MIGA's first programmatic trade finance guarantee platform with a commercial bank gives Deutsche Bank €1bn of cover on frontier-market state-bank risk.
Lloyds and Stripe launch ‘Lloyds Accept’ for 1m UK SMEs
Lloyds has launched Lloyds Accept, powered by Stripe, giving 1 million-plus business customers tap-to-pay, payment links and terminals to fight neobank rivals.
Klarna files for US bank charter to end WebBank reliance
Klarna has applied to the FDIC and Utah regulators for an industrial bank charter, Klarna Bank USA, to run payments and credit in-house and drop sponsor WebBank.
Indian fintech funding jumps 2.3x to $2bn on debt-heavy deals
Indian fintech raised $2bn across 48 deals in Q2 2026. But the flagship round was 84% debt - and that reframes the whole funding surge.
Mastercard explores Vocalink majority sale at £400m valuation
Mastercard is in early talks to sell 51% of Vocalink at a GBP400m valuation - half what it paid in 2016. Why it may be a willing seller of the UK's rails.
US fintech funding hits $16bn as small rounds shrink 17%
US fintech raised $16bn in Q2 2026 — the best quarter in five. But sub-$100m funding fell 17% year on year. The rebound is megadeals, not a recovery.
Nubank’s Visa-veteran CFO starts amid US bank charter push
Rob Livingston takes over as Nubank CFO on July 13, 2026. Hiring a Visa finance chief — not a banker — signals how the US charter push will be monetised.
Airwallex hits $11bn valuation as fintech funding rebounds
Airwallex raised $320m at an $11bn valuation. Payments is now just 30% of its revenue - which is exactly why the round priced at a software multiple.
Riverty opens Luxembourg bank to serve 1,800 merchants
Bertelsmann's Riverty starts as a licensed EU bank in July, turning a BNPL book of 25m customers into a deposit-funded merchant lender. Why charters win.
Kord raises £6.4m to fight AI fraud in regulated sectors
UK RegTech Kord has raised £6.4m led by Guinness Ventures to unify onboarding, compliance and payments for regulated firms — a bet that AI fraud forces re-bundling.
REPAY closes $372m KUBRA deal to scale US bill payments
REPAY has closed its $372m cash acquisition of KUBRA, betting on recurring, non-discretionary consumer bill payments over the crowded checkout arms race.
Equifax buys Círculo de Crédito for $750m to expand Mexico
Equifax pays a $750m enterprise value — about 12x EBITDA — for Mexico's Círculo de Crédito, answering TransUnion's Buró de Crédito move in the LatAm data race.
JPMorgan taps SambaNova as AI chip maker raises $1bn
JPMorgan Chase picks SambaNova for on-prem AI inference as the chip maker closes a $1bn Series F at $11bn — and bank AI strategy visibly bifurcates.
Nuvei installs COO, CFO and CPTO ahead of Payoneer close
Nuvei names its first-ever COO plus a new CFO and CPTO three weeks after the $2.75bn Payoneer deal — the integration org chart arriving before closing.
Klarna files for US bank charter to end partner-bank reliance
Klarna applies to the FDIC and Utah for an industrial-bank charter — deposit-funded BNPL, a Southwest Airlines tie-up, and what it means for BaaS banks.
UK big four go live on Swift consumer payments scheme
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and NatWest are first worldwide on Swift's consumer payments scheme — full-value, minutes-fast transfers aimed at Wise's moat.
Visa takes agentic payments live with 30 European issuers
Visa's AI agents now buy from real European merchants, backed by 30+ issuers, Payment Passkeys and a trust protocol wired into Cloudflare and Akamai.
Intesa Sanpaolo moves core banking to Google Cloud in Italy
Intesa Sanpaolo completed its core banking migration to Google Cloud's Turin and Milan regions — 800+ apps moved, and a sovereignty template for EU banks.
