US insurance giant MetLife is joining the R3 blockchain consortium to explore what role the technology could play a role in its field.

Atom Bank, a UK-based challenger bank backed by Spanish finance giant BBVA, plans to raise ?100m ($131m) in the first quarter of 2017.

Indian investment platform Finvasia has raised an undisclosed round of funding in its pre-launch phase. The investment comes from Indian VC Intrinsic and values the company at Rs150 crore ($22m).

Mobile international payments network TerraPay is acquiring Pay2Global in a deal that will allow it to expand around European markets. The size of the deal is undisclosed.

H2 Ventures, an Australian FinTech accelerator, has filed a prospectus for its new venture H2Ocean to IPO on the Australian stock exchange.

UK remittance service Small World FS has reached a new milestone having processed more than 50 million cross-border payments to date.

One97 Communications, which operates Indian m-commerce platform Paytm, has raised $60m as a first step towards reaching a targeted $300m for its new round of funding.

New York-based Behalf has raised $27m in a Series C round of funding to continue offering purchasing power to small business.

Identity verification startup Jumio has raised $15m in a new round of funding after its assets where acquired by Centana Growth Partners in May.

Kufu, a Japanese company developing HR automation platform SmartHR, has raised ?500m ($4.9m) in a new round of funding led by WiL (World Innovation Lab).