Remittances

Payment giant Visa has announced that it has bought Plaid, a scaleup helping customers securely connect their financial information to apps.

Africa-focused FinTech company Flutterwave has raised $170m in a Series C round pushing the company’s valuation at more than $1bn.

The World Bank estimates remittances to be a $600bn industry. Somaliland-born founder of WorldRemit, Ismail Ahmed, believes it could be worth a lot more.

International money transfer platform EMQ has reportedly netted $6.5m in its Series A funding round.

Alibaba's Ant Financial has co-led an RMB1bn ($144m) Series C financing round for Chinese logistics and FinTech business Keking.

Deluxe Financial Services has acquired the remittance processing company First Data in a deal worth $93m.

LemFi, a UK-headquartered international payments company, and Visa Cross-Border Solutions, a division of Visa specialising in cross-border money movement, have recently inked a deal aimed at expanding LemFi's global footprint.

Instalment payments platform Sezzle has released its virtual card for shoppers, enabling customers to pay using interest-free instalments both in-store and online.

Vietnamese mobile payments app MoMo has raised $100m in a Series D funding round.

Gift card provider Smartbox Group has received €167m in senior debt financing led by AIB.