EBANX, a global fintech specializing in payments for rising markets, and Nubank, one of the world's largest digital financial services platforms, today announced a partnership to offer a new alternative payment method for international purchases, NuPay, a payment method developed by Nubank. The partnership will allow more than 1,600 of EBANX's global merchants to make NuPay available as a new payment method for their customers. 

Available to more than 75 million Nubank customers in Brazil, NuPay offers a faster,  more convenient payment experience. By choosing NuPay at checkout, the customer is redirected to the bank's app to complete the purchase, without having to provide credit card data every time a new purchase is made on the online store's website or app. The payment method also allows purchases to be paid in up to 12 installments.

"EBANX's partnership with Nubank provides and expands access for millions of Brazilians to the global digital economy by enabling international companies to offer their customers in Brazil a seamless and secure international shopping payment experience directly through the bank application that these consumers already know and trust," said Erika Daguani, VP of Product at EBANX. 

"Through this integration, large global brands will be able to offer this payment method to their consumers in Brazil, expanding the opportunity to take NuPay as a recurring and automatic payment method to other online services, such as those that require a subscription," said Lívia Chanes, leader of Nubank's operations in Brazil.

With NuPay, Nubank offers, depending on the user's profile and credit score, extra limits for different purchases. With this, the user can buy products or services at merchants that offer this payment option without using up their credit limit on the Nubank card.

Localized payments to address Latin America's digital commerce 

Latin America is a hyper-growth online market, with digital verticals such as SaaS/cloud, digital ads, and online retail growing well ahead of the global average, at CAGRs of 28%, 25%, and 19%, respectively, through 2026, according to EBANX’s data analysis. 

The boom in digital commerce has brought new payment challenges and the urgency for localized payment strategies since the region’s population are heavy users of alternative payment methods to credit and debit cards. Alternative payments already account for 39% of the total digital commerce volume in the region. 

"Latin America is one of the fastest-growing digital markets in the world, a melting pot of opportunities for all digital verticals, from retail to the SaaS/cloud market. And the most efficient way to address these opportunities is through a localized and diversified payments strategy, tailored to the region's needs and consumer preferences," added Daguani.

Today, the leading web3 software technology company, Consensys, announces the mainnet alpha release of its highly anticipated Linea zkEVM rollup network. The launch follows a successful testnet phase that saw 5.5 million unique wallets commit over 47 million transactions in three months, making Linea one of the largest and fastest-growing projects on Goerli. This week Linea will be onboarding its testnet partners, before opening the network broadly during EthCC. 

Linea Mainnet Alpha Ushers in the Age of the Builder and New Era of Scalability

This milestone accelerates the onset of the age of the builder, where everyone is a participant and builder in a global network generating value for themselves and their communities. The mainnet alpha release brings us a step closer to a new era of scalability with a range of innovative features and integrations aimed at reducing friction for developers and enhancing onboarding. DeFi applications are choosing Linea for its fast finality, capital-efficient bridge and inherited Ethereum security. NFTs, gaming and social apps benefit from the zkEVMs EVM Equivalence, low gas fees, high throughput and low latency.

With an ecosystem of over 100 protocols, developer tools and dapps from all around the globe, Linea empowers users, builders and developers to start building on day one. Built on five years of extensive research, it delivers faster throughput and transaction fees up to 15 times lower than Ethereum Layer 1, thanks to its recursion-friendly, lattice-based prover. The mainnet alpha release introduces several upgrades that include a new outer-proof system and batch conflation, as well as a dynamic fee mechanism to manage changes in L1 gas fees. 

Joe Lubin, Founder and CEO of Consensys, expresses excitement about Linea’s mainnet alpha launch stating that: “The convergence of various blockchain networks around Ethereum as a data and security layer accelerates the establishment of web3 and decentralized protocols as a new decentralized trust foundation for the world’s systems. With the Merge to Proof of Stake and the broad traction of the rollup-centric roadmap, Ethereum L2s are set to play a crucial role in making great advances in scalability and usability. Linea’s zkEVM is the catalyst we've been waiting for to empower developers to shape the future of decentralized applications and encourage the builder in everyone. The next chapter of web3 will be written on Ethereum L2s, and Linea is poised to become a major trusted L2 execution environment for scalable dapps.” 

Linea used its testnet to not only harden its zkEVM but also attract and learn from a thriving ecosystem of partners who are forming the early pillars of the network’s ecosystem. As partners begin migrating to the alpha release, they will unlock a constellation of new scalable dapps from gaming and identity to decentralized social networks and NFTs.

“The launch of Linea's mainnet alpha is a major milestone on the path to delivering scalable and user-friendly blockchain solutions. Developers are building new apps leveraging Linea’s fast finality, seamless withdrawals and Ethereum-level security, while full EVM equivalence has enabled seamless adoption by many of web3’s most popular apps,” said Nicolas Liochon, Global Product Lead for Linea.   

Linea Gains Out-of-the-Box Integrations with Leading Web3 Players, Amplifying Network Adoption and Growth

Linea’s zkEVM is fully EVM bytecode compatible and offers out-of-the-box integrations with MetaMask, the world’s leading self-custody web3 wallet, and popular Consensys developer tools, including Infura, Diligence and Hyperledger Besu.

MetaMask today announced plans to deepen Linea integrations with MetaMask Portfolio. MetaMask Portfolio is a decentralized web app to which users can connect their MetaMask wallet to access a range of curated web3 features including Portfolio View, Buy, Swap, Bridge and Stake. Over the next few weeks, MetaMask will offer Linea to users of its popular Bridge, Swap and Buy features, which aggregate providers vetted for offering safe and reliable web3 experiences.

Consensys Announces Linea Ecosystem Investment Alliance, Rewards Early Testers and Supports Future Use Cases

To accelerate the growth of the Linea ecosystem, Consensys is launching the Linea Ecosystem Investment Alliance (EIA), an investment syndicate of over 30+ leading venture capital firms to support builders through validated interest, dedicated capital and a clear pipeline to the network. Interested builders are encouraged to apply HERE.

Speaking on the launch of the Linea EIA, Michael Camarda, Director of Corporate Development at Consensys, said: “Raising capital as an entrepreneur can be difficult even in the best of times. Through the EIA, Consensys and our partners are excited to support projects looking to redefine DeFi, gaming, NFTs, social and more. Our message to builders is, we want to hear from you and we’re here to support.”

Plus during EthCC in Paris next week, Consensys will recognize the efforts of hundreds of thousands of testers who participated in its Linea Voyage program and prepared the network for mainnet alpha. On July 18th, the Linea team will unveil the first major NFT collection on the network, with an open mint for all Voyage participants and a limited edition drop recognizing top Voyage testers. Together with rich bug bounties and hackathon prizes of up to $50,000 for teams, Consensys is excited to celebrate and recognize the early community building and testing on Linea. Come build with us. 

Furness Building Society (FBS), the member-owned building society, announced that it has partnered with Backbase, the leading global Engagement Banking Platform provider, to develop its new digital savings platform.

As a member-owned building society, FBS prioritises its members’ needs above all else. In the next three to five years, the society intends to upgrade both its physical and digital offerings. An important objective of the transformation plan is to provide both branch and digital channels for its saving services. FBS, therefore, needed a partner to help with the transformation of its digital savings offering.

“Everything we do is motivated by improving the service we provide our members. But to serve them to the highest standard, we need an exceptional digital experience. That’s why we’ve partnered with Backbase,” said Chris Harrison, CEO of Furness Building Society. “It was clear the team knew exactly what we wanted and have the technology that can deliver. Their adaptable out-of-the-box journeys will accelerate projects and speed up the time to market, while the cloud-based nature of the platform allows for constant improvement that provides long-term value to our members. It’s an exciting time.”

The new digital platform will provide FBS’ members with a seamless, new digital platform to manage their savings across both web and mobile applications. The customer-centric nature of FBS means it is being built with a true understanding of its members’ needs and will help them to tackle the challenges they may face, both in the branch and online.

Not only will the platform dramatically improve the user experience for existing customers, it will also support FBS’ growth strategy. The platform is designed to be highly accessible, replacing manual applications with smooth digital onboarding that allows both new and existing members to start using the platform with minimal friction.

“This is a milestone for Backbase,” said Jouk Pleiter, Founder and CEO of Backbase. “We’ve worked with lots of credit unions in the US, which have a similar member-centric approach, but this is our first UK building society. It’s always a positive collaboration when we work with businesses that put their customers at the heart of what they do, so we are looking forward to creating something that FBS’ members really love. Although the focus is on the new digital savings platform at this stage, we fully intend to be a long-term partner and support FBS with their ongoing digital transformation.”

Allied Payment Network, Inc. (Allied), the industry leader in real-time, open-network payments solutions to banks and credit unions, announced today the addition of James Dixon as its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

The industry’s “most connected” payments partner, Allied is the expert in real-time money movement and continues to build onto a more flexible and open payments solution of tomorrow. This appointment signals Allied’s latest step towards enhancing risk mitigation, fortifying its commitment to its vision for universal payments.

Dixon joins Allied with more than 25 years of technology and industry experience. Most recently, he was the CISO for Versapay, an accounts receivable technology provider. Prior to that, he held several other executive and senior leadership positions with well-known payment technology companies, including 2Checkout (now Verifone), Vesta Corporation, Official Payments (now ACI Payments, Inc.) and InComm Payments. Dixon attended Kennesaw State University and is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®).

"Allied has earned an outstanding reputation for delivering leading real-time open payments solutions for financial institutions of all sizes," said Dixon. "I'm excited to join their team and look forward to helping to ensure fast and secure payments. With their innovation and commitment to excellence, we will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible for today’s payments solutions."

In the last year, Allied has added over 50 new financial institution clients, demonstrating strong demand for superior digital money movement solutions. Currently, the company works with nearly 500 financial institutions across 49 states with a combined total of over $310 billion in assets. Allied also recently launched its new brand to better align with its core mission of empowering banks and credit unions with world-class payment tools and continues to expand its team to support that mission.

"We are pleased to welcome James to our team as our new Chief Information Security Officer," said Allied CEO Geoff Knapp. "As an accomplished leader with extensive expertise in cyber- and information security, James brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be instrumental in strengthening our company's security posture and safeguarding our solutions. With him at the helm, we are confident in our ability to navigate the evolving threat landscape and uphold the highest standards of data protection."

Collective, the first all-in-one online back-office platform for solopreneurs, announced it has raised $50M from a syndicate of investors including Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI fund, Innovius Capital, The General Partnership, General Catalyst, QED, Expa, and Better Tomorrow Ventures, among others. Collective will use the investment to accelerate AI deployment across its operations and quickly onboard the nearly 100K businesses on its waitlist.

Collective provides business formation, S-election, payroll, tax, and bookkeeping services for Businesses-of-One, as well as a personal dashboard to manage their finances—saving its members an average of $10,000 per year. The need for Collective’s services has grown dramatically as freelancing has boomed: 39% of the US workforce now participates in freelance work, a proportion projected to increase to over 50% by 2027.

To meet the demand, Collective has harnessed technologies like Large Language Models (LLMs) to build AI copilots for its team of tax experts, accountants, bookkeepers, and relationship managers. These copilots dramatically reduce the time needed to complete processes such as bank reconciliation (by 70%) and expense categorization (by 90%). With its new funding, Collective will be able to develop additional AI tools, smoothly scale its operations, and grow twice as fast as originally projected.

“We’re building the financial operating system for one of the fastest-growing segments of the US economy, the freelance workforce,” said Hooman Radfar, CEO and co-founder of Collective. “Businesses-of-One generate $1.4 trillion in revenue yet have been underserved by traditional back-office software and service providers. Their options are to use a patchwork of pricey tools, hire a team of advisors — made harder by a growing accountant shortage — or do all the finance and payroll work themselves. Countless entrepreneurial success stories are being held back by paperwork. AI is allowing us to solve that problem faster and help more solopreneurs launch and grow their businesses.”

“What’s more, AI will also accelerate the growth of the freelance economy. A single person can now scale a business to levels never before imagined,” added Radfar. “The first billion-dollar Business-of-One may have already been born.”

“Large language models will enable operationally-intensive processes to scale more quickly and with lower cost. Collective is harnessing this capability by applying AI to the process of bookkeeping, accounting, and reconciliation, allowing them to accumulate a significant advantage over incumbents,” said Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures. “Collective’s complex workflows and proprietary data uniquely position them to leverage AI to disrupt the tax and accounting market.”

Collective has expanded nationwide and increased revenue by nearly 10x since its Series A round in 2021. In total, since its launch in 2020, the company has raised $82 million.

Extraco Banks and Teslar Software today announced their partnership to streamline the bank’s commercial lending process and more effectively balance their portfolio.

Extraco Banks is the largest and most comprehensive independent financial institution headquartered in central Texas with more than $2 billion in assets. They’ve recently set a goal to modernize commercial lending, leaving behind paper-intensive processes in favor of greater automation and digital tools. To help achieve this goal, the bank will leverage Teslar’s pipeline, workflow and exceptions modules as well as annual loan review and construction management to bring more efficiency, transparency and accuracy into the commercial lending process.

“At Extraco, we’re committed to supporting our community’s economic success and stability. Enhancing our commercial lending processes will allow us to better serve local businesses,” said Brian Reinhardt, president, Central Texas South Region, of Extraco Banks. “With Teslar’s automated workflows and robust toolkit, we’ll be able to fulfill loans with speed and convenience while empowering lenders with deeper insights into portfolio activity and health.”

The bank has been the backbone of their community for more than 120 years and continues to provide support to local businesses, including their annual Extrapreneur Award Program which provides local entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch their business ideas with the potential to win up to $26,000 in cash prizes and gain access to business consulting resources. The bank’s goal to modernize commercial lending will further support local business customers, with Teslar’s tools providing a faster, more convenient customer experience.

“Extraco Banks is a leader in their local community and the community banking space, having funded over $2 billion in loans to 25,000 customers since the Great Recession,” said Joe Ehrhardt, CEO and founder of Teslar Software. “We’re proud to support the bank as they work to enhance their commercial lending process.”

CompoSecure, Inc., a leader in metal payment cards, security, and authentication solutions, announced today that Chief Revenue Officer, Amanda Gourbault, was named the winner of the “Woman in PayTech – Spearheading Growth” category by FinTech Futures’ PayTech Awards 2023. Winners were announced on Friday, June 30^th at the gala dinner ceremony at the Merchant Taylors' Hall in London.

"I am immensely proud that Amanda has been honoured with this award recognizing her unwavering dedication to our organization's growth and success,” said Jon Wilk, President and CEO of CompoSecure. “This accolade celebrates her outstanding leadership, relentless pursuit of excellence, and ability to inspire our entire team."

With 25 years of experience in the payment industry, Amanda Gourbault is a pioneer within the sector, as she continues to champion the proliferation of security solutions that promote a bank’s brand, simplify the consumer experience and improve payment authentication services. She has been lauded as a strategic visionary in the market with innovative approaches to solving complex problems. As CRO, she leads the company’s sales, pricing, marketing, revenue management, and international expansion activities while also enhancing CompoSecure’s highly inclusive culture by ensuring team members thrive and organizational outcomes and goals are met.

The PayTech Awards celebrate the most talented companies and individuals by recognizing excellence and innovation in the finance and payment industry worldwide. In selecting Amanda Gourbault for this award, the “Woman in PayTech” category recognizes an outstanding woman for her distinguished leadership and inspiring work in a paytech company and for positively impacting the paytech industry. This year’s ceremony celebrated remarkable achievements and breakthroughs in the payment technology sector, showcasing the industry’s brightest talents. There were a total of 37 winners and 27 highly commended entries across various categories.

Pyrpose, a platform which enables consumers to invest in climate solutions which reduce future carbon emissions, has announced that Glisten Cieslak and Rishi Bhattacharya, experts in marketing, partnerships and communications will join the company’s advisory board.

They join ahead of Pyrpose’s MVP launch targeted for the third quarter this year. 

This follows a recent fundraise of US$1.1m (CHF1m) in its angel round in May, including institutional investment from CV VC. The company will open a seed round in the coming weeks. 

Glisten Cieslak brings 20+ years of experience in marketing and brand strategy, growth, and partnerships. She currently runs Assembly 7, a growth and marketing consultancy, and is a former executive at Omnicom, Siegel+Gale, and United Talent Agency. Glisten has advised many leading global brands including American Express, Disney, Marriott, TBWA, Google, Warner Bros., and Delta. She created “Women I Want to Work With,” a bi-annual event aimed at connecting women in Southern California.

Rishi Bhattacharya is the CEO and Founder of Impact & Influence, an independent communications consultancy. He has 25 years of communications experience, as both an advisor and a journalist, having advised some of the world’s largest companies as well as guiding CEOs through phases of growth and fundraising rounds. Before moving into communications, Rishi was a broadcast political journalist in the UK during the Blair years. 

Glisten and Rishi join CEO and co-founder Kevin Kyer, CTO and co-founder Oleg Kudrenko, Chair Fleur Heyns, and Directors Florian Kemmerich, Vivek Chandaria, Anthony Stephan, and Ed Stevens (see Notes to Editor). 

Kevin Kyer, the CEO and Co-Founder of Pyrpose said: “This is an exciting time for Pyrpose’s growth story, following the recent completion of our successful angel funding round, and, as we gear up for our MVP launch in a few months. Glisten and Rishi, along with the rest of our team, bring a breadth of experience which will be critical as we continue to build out our platform and engage with consumers who want to play their role in tackling climate change and get rewarded for doing so.”

Glisten Cieslak, said:  “Pyrpose is a win-win-win - a business that’s good for the planet, people, and profit. Not only am I able to work with the incredibly talented Pyrpose team, but I also get to do my part to help the planet. I look forward to helping grow the company and giving consumers around the world the same opportunity to drive change.”

Rishi Bhattacharya, said: “Having advised many climate-focused organisations, I was drawn to Pyrpose’s clarity of mission to cut carbon emissions by connecting consumers to companies innovating in this space. In a world where the damaging effects of climate change are stark and consumers are more climate conscious than ever, Pyrpose enables all of us to act. I’m delighted to join the team.”

Financial wellbeing platform, Claro Wellbeing, and expert in global pay solutions, CloudPay, have announced a new partnership to provide financial wellbeing and education via the CloudPay NOW app.

Claro Wellbeing, the financial education and wellbeing provider, which offers financial coaching, e-learning courses and webinars, is providing engaging financial content to CloudPay to give users of the app additional wellbeing support and money-related advice.

The additional wellbeing support for individuals will feed into the CloudPay NOW app, providing users with everything from pay transparency, flexible payment options and wellbeing support all in one place. This includes snappy, short-form videos and comprehensive articles on key financial topics, such as investing, saving and budgeting, that will be delivered regularly to every customer.

Josep Elias, Chief Strategy Officer at CloudPay says: “This new partnership with Claro Wellbeing will provide CloudPay NOW users with additional financial guidance and support at a time when budgets are increasingly being stretched. Our Pay On-demand solution – which is available on the CloudPay NOW app – is the only one of its kind to provide a truly global reach, ensuring that users for any business have a consistent experience no matter where in the world they work.

“With the rising costs-of-living continuing to impact household budgets, we remain focused on providing additional support to workers worldwide. While our Pay on-Demand solution gives our customers the ability to better control the flow of their pay, the additional input from Claro Wellbeing will allow users to access regular, new financial wellbeing content that is relevant to the latest developments in the global economy. I’m excited to see this partnership develop and grow.”

Galina Barengo, head of partnerships and chief of staff at Claro Wellbeing, says: “We’re really excited to partner with CloudPay and provide its customers with our expert-created content. Our goal is to work with companies, like CloudPay, that prioritise their customers’ financial literacy and improve their overall experience by providing carefully curated financial educational content.

‘By licensing our content, firms can boost customer engagement and improve end users’ understanding of financial products. Research shows an undeniable link between financial literacy and uptake of financial products, such as savings, investments and pensions.

Ms Barengo adds: ‘At Claro Wellbeing, we are committed to making a positive impact on the financial wellbeing of individuals, and we strongly encourage other financial firms to join us in this mission by prioritising financial education and literacy of their customers. Together, we can empower consumers to take control of their finances and achieve better financial outcomes.”

Employees using the CloudPay NOW app simply have to click on the ‘wellbeing’ icon and then ‘Financial’ to view and engage with Claro’s financial wellbeing content.

Global branded payments provider Blackhawk Network (BHN) is expanding its relationship with European branded payments company Recharge.com to distribute gift cards digitally through BHN’s vast network in the US and Canada. The announcement builds on Recharge.com and BHN’s existing collaboration in Europe, boosting digital gift card options for consumers in North America.

In the US and Canada, BHN will now offer leading egift and virtual prepaid card brands in Recharge.com’s digital marketplace. These will include merchant-specific gift cards, open loop (gift cards that can be used anywhere the network is accepted), and BHN’s versatile multi-store egifts.

“Gift and prepaid cards have become staples in the lives of consumers around the world, connecting shoppers with their favorite brands and allowing them to celebrate meaningful occasions with those they care about,” said Steve Dekker, BHN managing director, Americas. “In an increasingly globalized world, enabling cross-border gifting and money movement is more important than ever. Additionally, preference for egifts and purchasing online is on the rise. Based on consumer research and our own sales data, there was double-digit growth in egift and ecommerce sales of gift cards in the most recent holiday season. We’re proud to grow our relationship with Recharge.com, which is innovating global delivery of digital gift and prepaid cards around the world.”

Recharge.com is a leading provider of branded prepaid cards, enabling consumers to purchase digital gift and prepaid cards in more than 180 countries and 14 languages. Recharge.com’s innovative global marketplace, a one stop shop for branded prepaid payments, enables consumers to easily give gifts across the globe. Recently referenced by Research and Markets as a leader of the European digital gift card market, Recharge.com is expanding its relationship with BHN to grow market share in North America.

“We are excited to expand our footprint in the US and Canada with BHN, furthering our goal of global coverage and supporting even more customers and merchants,” said Günther Vogelpoel, CEO of Recharge.com. “BHN’s open and closed loop card brand network further enable us to meet increasing demands of customers throughout North America.”