FinTech Is Becoming Part of the Game

Hey FinTech Fanatic!

If you've been following me for a while, you already know I'm fascinated by where FinTech meets sports.

It's no longer just about putting a logo on a jersey.

Ebury has become the Official Transfer Partner of Real Betis, helping the club manage international payments, foreign exchange risk, and cross-border player transfers. That's a very different kind of partnership. Instead of buying visibility, Ebury is becoming part of the club's financial operations.

As football becomes more global, managing transfer fees, commercial rights, and payments across multiple currencies is turning into a FinTech challenge as much as a sporting one. It's a niche that's growing fast, and Ebury is quietly building a strong position, adding Real Betis to a portfolio that already includes Aston Villa and PSV Eindhoven.

If this is your kind of story, don't forget you can now follow the latest FinTech × Sports news on my new project, FinTech in the Arena.

You'll also find my latest comparison of Revolut, Monzo, and Starling, looking at three very different growth strategies, plus a great conversation with Orbital CEO Chris Mason on why stablecoins are solving a real problem in global payments—not just creating another crypto use case.

Now, let's dive into today's biggest FinTech stories. 👇 See you on Monday!

Cheers,

Marcel

PODCAST RECOMMENDATION

🎤 Stablecoins are popular because they solve a real problem by DashDevs. In episode 141 of  FinTech Garden, Igor Tomych speaks with Orbital co-founder and CEO Chris Mason about the evolution of enterprise payments and the growing role of stablecoins in connecting traditional banking infrastructure with digital assets. Watch the full podcast here

FINTECH NEWS

🇺🇸 Samsung to Introduce Stablecoin Support in Samsung Wallet, expanding the platform into a unified hub for payments, rewards, and digital assets. The company also unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Card in partnership with Barclays and Visa, marking the first financial service built on Samsung Wallet.

PAYMENTS NEWS

🌍 Mastercard expands virtual card platform with new security controls, embedded payments network and single API access. Innovations include advanced virtual card controls that help reduce risk across the full payment lifecycle, and one scalable connection to Mastercard’s growing embedded partner network.

🇺🇸 Stripe harnesses AI billing deals to diversify its payments empire, combining billing, stablecoins and developer tools to support the growing AI economy. The company's recent acquisitions and investments position it to enable AI-driven and machine-to-machine payments while deepening its role in the emerging agentic commerce ecosystem. Additionally, Stripe minted $3.2 billion in Cash in 2025, driven by strong growth in AI-related payment volumes, strengthening its position to pursue acquisitions.

🇺🇸 Robinhood has begun rolling out its Platinum Card, a premium credit card offering enhanced travel, dining, and wellness rewards to eligible customers. The launch follows the milestone of more than one million Robinhood Gold Card users and expands the company's consumer financial services ecosystem.

🇸🇬 SUNMI expands SoftPOS platform to bring secure contactless payments to more smart business devices. By embedding SoftPOS into commercial devices, businesses can support secure contactless payments without compromising operational efficiency.

#FINTECHREPORT

📊Revolut 🆚 Monzo 🆚 Starling

Here's how the numbers stack up👇

DIGITAL BANKING NEWS

🇧🇪 bunq launches Belgian IBANs. Users can now skip the financial admin that comes with an international move by keeping their Belgian account alongside up to 25 separate bunq accounts, each with its own IBAN, giving them the flexibility to spend, save, and pay without paperwork or branch visits.

🇬🇧 Airtel mobile-money unit chooses London for listing location. The listing is intended to unlock the value of one of Africa's largest mobile money platforms, which was previously estimated at more than $10 billion. Continue reading

🇳🇬 Nigerian Tech Trio launches ChatPay waitlist to integrate banking directly into WhatsApp. The innovation aims to eliminate the persistent friction associated with traditional banking applications, offering users the ability to send money, settle utility bills, and purchase mobile airtime without ever leaving their active chat windows.

🇵🇭 MariBank becomes Philippines’ 7th digital bank. The move allows the Sea-owned lender to expand its digital banking services and compete alongside established digital banks in the Philippine market. Read more

BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS

🇺🇸 MoneyLion has launched MoneyLion One, a premium financial membership that combines cashback, fee-free investing, identity protection and high-yield savings to help consumers improve their financial health. The subscription expands the company's digital banking offering with rewards, fraud protection and wealth-building tools in a single membership. 

🇸🇨 BitMEX to shut down exchange after 11 years of operations. The exchange said trading will continue until the shutdown process advances, but new restrictions will begin on Aug. 26. From that date, traders will only be permitted to reduce existing positions, with no new positions allowed.

🇸🇬 Coinbase to expand Singapore operations, grow headcount to 200 despite global restructuring. In an interview, Hassan Ahmed, its country director for Singapore, said that the functions expected to grow the most are engineering, customer service, relationship management and institutional sales.

🇳🇿 Bitget secures license for New Zealand expansion. The registration enables the platform to offer services including foreign currency exchange, domestic and cross-border money transfers, client asset custody, portfolio and money management in the country, Bitget said in a statement.

🇺🇸 US crypto firm Galaxy Digital plans a $3.5b bond sale through its first high-yield bond sale to finance the expansion of its Helios data center campus in Texas. The project is backed by long-term agreements with CoreWeave and marks Galaxy’s growing push into AI infrastructure.

PARTNERSHIPS

🇬🇧 Visa and Airwallex join forces to build the next generation of financial infrastructure for freight platforms. The collaboration will develop embedded-finance solutions tailored to the needs of freight and shipping platforms, helping modernise how businesses manage payments, working capital and cross-border commerce across one of the world's most complex industries.

🇬🇧 Checkout.com moves Airflow to Google Cloud, reducing monthly infrastructure costs by about 30% while improving deployment speed, scalability, and reliability. The move also automates infrastructure management, allowing engineering teams to focus on product development instead of platform maintenance.

🇺🇸 Intuit launched the Intuit Business Credit Card, a World Elite Business Mastercard that integrates directly with QuickBooks to combine business spending, credit, and cash flow management. The card offers unlimited cashback, automated expense reconciliation, and customizable spending controls to help small businesses manage finances and access capital more efficiently.

🇰🇪 I&M Bank introduces Mastercard World Elite Credit Card to Kenya’s premium banking segment. Joining the Bank's existing premium suite, the card is designed for clients seeking convenience, security, global acceptance, and access to exclusive lifestyle and travel benefits.

🇰🇷 Circle signs MOU with Kakao Group to explore blockchain payment infrastructure, cross-border payments, and a potential Korean won-backed stablecoin. The partnership expands Circle's push into South Korea as the country develops its digital asset regulatory framework.

🌍 OpenPayd joins Fireblocks payments network in Europe. The integration connects more than 2,400 Fireblocks Network participants directly to OpenPayd’s fiat payment infrastructure, allowing businesses to access payment services without building a separate integration.

🇪🇸 Ebury scores strategic partnership with Real Betis as official transfer partner. This strategic alliance provides the LaLiga club with specialist sports finance tools to manage multi-currency payments, mitigate foreign exchange risks, and streamline international player transfers and commercial rights operations.

🇬🇧 Monzo and Inclusive Money collaborate on sole trader pensions. The organisations will work together to explore the ways that banks can support self-employed people to save for later life, bringing together seven years of Inclusive Money research and Monzo’s experience supporting hundreds of thousands of sole traders through Monzo Business.

DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS

🇬🇧 Moneybox has successfully completed its £45 million secondary share sale. The sale allowed long-serving Moneybox employees to realise some of the value they have helped create for the business over the past decade. Read on

🇰🇪 Oxano Capital invests in Kenyan FinTech Sevi to support the expansion of its embedded inventory financing platform for micro and small businesses. Sevi's Order Now, Pay Later model enables retailers to access collateral-free working capital while helping suppliers receive immediate payment and improving financial inclusion.

🇺🇸 Notabene announces strategic investment from Ripple. The partnership is set to accelerate adoption of compliant stablecoin payments while creating a pathway for RLUSD to be integrated across one of the world's largest institutional payment networks for digital assets.

🇧🇷 Zeom raises $2.7 million in pre-seed funding to launch a Brazilian app combining global investments, cross-border payments, hard-currency savings, and a debit card. The FinTech targets more than 50,000 customers by the end of 2026, with investments starting from $10.

M&A

🇬🇧 ANNA Money acquires BDG and UKBF to create AI-powered 'operating system' for SMEs. This strategic move allows ANNA to support SMEs from initial company formation through to daily tax and financial management, serving over 160,000 community members and 30% of the UK formation market.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

🇺🇸 i2c appoints Chief Financial Officer and Chief Client Officer. i2c has appointed Joseph Schmidt as Chief Financial Officer and Jason Goldberg as Chief Client Officer to strengthen its executive leadership team. The appointments support the company's global expansion and reinforce its focus on scaling banking and payments infrastructure for financial institutions and FinTechs.

🇸🇬 Keenai taps FinTech veteran Varun Mittal to lead Southeast Asia wealthtech push. In the role, Mittal will lead Keenai’s introduction to Singapore and across the region, overseeing distribution, partnerships and client acquisition as the platform opens to a broader base of accredited investors.

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