Mastercard Turns AI Into A Virtual C-Suite For Small Businesses
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Mastercard is pushing deeper into agentic AI. This time, with a new solution aimed directly at small businesses.
The company has introduced Virtual C-Suite, a set of AI agents designed to give SMEs executive-level insight and decision support.
Each agent acts like a digital executive. Finance. Security. Marketing. The goal is to give business owners a clearer view of their operations and help guide the next best actions.
Mastercard shared a short overview of how the new Virtual C-Suite works 👇:
Mastercard shared a short overview of how the new Virtual C-Suite works
The system runs on top of Mastercard’s massive data infrastructure, which processed 175 billion transactions in 2025 alone.
This sits within Mastercard’s broader push into agentic commerce and follows the recent rollout of its Agent Suite capabilities.
Industry observers see agentic AI as the bridge. “Agents that offer big picture insights combined with unique and local analysis are becoming a critical human augmentation tool,” said Christopher Miller, lead analyst of Emerging Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research.
Mastercard plans to roll out the first module this year. Virtual CFO will arrive first through banks, accounting platforms, and software providers. Additional digital executive roles are expected to follow.
AI in FinTech is moving quickly from insights to execution. Keep scrolling 👇 I’ll connect a few more signals tomorrow.
Cheers,
FINTECH NEWS
🌍 Want to stay on top of all our FRC runs and updates? 🏃➡️ Get our FinTech Running Club weekly insight here!
🇺🇸 Elon Musk confirms early public access launch of X Money next month. Musk’s vision of transforming social media into an “everything app” has been gradually taking shape with the development of X Money. The latter is supposed to be a new payment feature designed to bring financial services directly to the platform.
🇲🇽 Mercado Pago believes it is getting closer to obtaining a banking license in Mexico. According to Mexico's head, Pedro Rivas, the FinTech expects progress in 2026, though final approval will still require a regulatory audit before operations can begin.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇺🇸 Mastercard launches Agent Suite. Mastercard is introducing Mastercard Agent Suite, a new set of services designed to help customers take actionable steps to integrate agentic AI into their daily operations and accelerate toward this next frontier. Customers will be able to build, test, and deploy fit-for-purpose agents through it.
🇸🇬 Airwallex delivers triple-digit revenue growth in Singapore. FY2025 revenue in the country grew 107% year-on-year (YoY), with transaction volume rising 93% over the same period. Along with its strong commercial momentum, Airwallex’s Singapore headcount grew by 62% in 2025, with hires across its Corporate, Commercial, and Product, Engineering and Design (PED) functions.
🇩🇰 Vipps takes over Greenland. Users of Vipps and MobilePay can now send money directly to Greenlandic phone numbers. At the same time, Greenlandic is being launched as a new app language. Continue reading
🇧🇷 47 million Pix keys have already been exposed in security incidents. 46 million corresponds to a leak at the National Council of Justice in 2025, which exposed registration data linked to 11 million people. According to the Central Bank of Brazil, the same Pix key may be involved in more than one incident.
🌍 Payments Firm SumUp said to seek bankers for a European IPO. The company is considering listing on a European exchange like London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt, and is working with STJ Advisors on the listing preparations. Read more
🇰🇷 KakaoBank stablecoin denial sparks confusion. KakaoBank has firmly denied claims of joint stablecoin development with the Kaia DLT Foundation, creating significant confusion in South Korea’s rapidly evolving digital currency landscape. This denial follows Kaia’s now-deleted announcement on its official Japanese X account.
OPEN BANKING NEWS
🇬🇧 DashDevs shortlisted for MPE Awards 2026 for Open Banking & A2A Payments Infrastructure. The nomination recognizes DashDevs’ work on Tarabut Gateway, a regulated open banking platform that enables account-to-account (A2A) payments and financial data connectivity across the Middle East and North Africa.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇩🇪 N26 reduced its annual loss to €42 million in 2024, down from €102.4 million the previous year, as revenue from interest and commissions grew. The improvement was driven by new products, stronger payment services, and premium accounts, along with a nearly 5% reduction in administrative expenses.
🇩🇪 Vivid surpasses 100,000 SME customers and redefines cash management with multi-currency interest. With Vivid’s multi-currency Interest Accounts, companies can hold USD and GBP balances directly within their Interest Account, earning up to 5% p.a. during the promotional period, and use these funds for payments via SWIFT without currency conversion or separate account setups.
🇿🇦 South Africa launches new bank-based smart ID system. By integrating banking infrastructure with government systems via a secure API-based gateway, the department has eliminated the necessity for paper application forms, prior online bookings, or separate visits for biometric capture.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🌍 Bitcoin has surpassed 20 million mined coins, meaning over 95% of its total 21 million supply is now in circulation. Miners earn new bitcoins as rewards for validating transactions and adding them to the blockchain. The remaining coins will be released gradually, with the final fractions expected to be mined around 2140.
🇺🇸 BitGo expands B2B digital asset and stablecoin payment solutions for stable Sea’s on-chain treasury services. Through the partnership, Stable Sea will leverage BitGo’s Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) infrastructure to provide customers access to institutional-grade digital asset solutions, such as the ability to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin and stablecoins securely.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇹🇷 Garanti BBVA and Mastercard set the stage for the era of agentic commerce with “first end-to-end agentic commerce transaction” in Türkiye. This next-generation solution will soon be available through Garanti BBVA Mobil and Bonus Flaş, enabling consumers to search, compare, and securely purchase products, all within a single platform.
🇬🇧 Mirakl and J.P. Morgan Payments to power agentic commerce at enterprise scale. By combining Mirakl’s commerce capabilities with J.P. Morgan Payments’ global payment expertise, merchants of all sizes can participate in agentic commerce without building and managing complex integrations and protocols themselves.
🇬🇧 G2A.COM adds Klarna to unlock instant access to games and digital entertainment. With Klarna, eligible users can split payments into instalments or delay them by up to 30 days when purchasing games, DLCs, subscriptions, gift cards, and software from thousands of verified sellers worldwide.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
💰 Over the last week, there were ten FinTech deals in Europe, totaling €151.8m in disclosed funding, including five transactions in the UK, two in Germany, one in Italy, one in the Netherlands, and one in Spain.
🇳🇬 Nigerian FinTech Kippa raises $8.4 million to scale SME tools. The new funding round is to expand its digital business and financial management tools for small and medium enterprises. Read more
🇮🇳 FinTech platform True Balance secures $10 million in debt funding. The newly secured capital will support the growth of True Credit´s lending activities and enable the company to introduce additional loan products in the Indian market. The funding is expected to help the platform broaden its reach among borrowers who are often underserved by traditional financial institutions.
🇬🇪 Uzbekistan’s Uzum valuation leaps over 50% in seven months to $2.3B. Uzum plans to use the new funding to expand its FinTech infrastructure and deepen its product offerings across both commerce and financial services. The startup plans to invest in additional ATMs, payment acceptance infrastructure, and point-of-sale systems.
🇬🇧 DataWollet closes £1.3m pre-seed investment to expand its Open Finance platform and advance its neurosymbolic AI technology. The funding included backing from the Angel Academe/Syndicate Room EIS Fund, 1818 Ventures, and a syndicate of industry angels, supporting the company’s product development and commercial growth.
🇮🇳 FinTech startup Coreworks.AI has raised $5 million in a seed funding round. The startup has opened an early waitlist for AI SuperAnalyst, a suite of autonomous agents designed to convert business data into complete presentations and reports with fully traceable numbers within minutes.
🇸🇦 Saudi FinTech Muhlah secures $7.5 million seed funding led by BIM Ventures and SBI Holdings. The investment will support Muhlah’s expansion and strengthen its ability to deliver Shariah-compliant consumer microfinance solutions, enabling individuals to access financing tailored to their financial needs while keeping pace with the rapidly growing FinTech ecosystem in the Kingdom.
🇺🇸 PactFi raises $25m series A to modernize private credit market with first secure, end-to-end operational platform. With the new capital, PactFi will capitalize on its first-mover advantage and accelerate its role as core infrastructure for the private credit ecosystem by investing.
🇺🇸 Sigma360 raises $17 million to fund financial crime prevention. The company says its Series B round will help it strengthen its risk intelligence datasets, deepen its artificial intelligence (AI) automation capabilities, and expand Sigma360’s presence among financial institutions.
M&A
🇹🇷 Kazakhstan’s Freedom Holding moves into Türkiye’s banking market. The bank’s key shareholders, Ozyol Holding and National Bank of Kuwait, have agreed to transfer 99.31% of TurkishBank’s capital to Freedom Finansal Hizmetler AŞ, the Turkish subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp.
🇺🇸 ACA Group acquires FX Transparency to expand transaction cost analysis capabilities in foreign exchange. The addition of FXT represents a strategic capability addition that deepens ACA’s foreign exchange capabilities. Read more
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇬🇧 Tandem Bank appoints Stephen Jones as new Chair. An industry veteran, Stephen is currently Executive Chair of Investment Banking at Panmure Liberum and brings decades of senior leadership experience from across the UK banking sector, including senior executive roles at Santander and Barclays.
🇬🇧 UK paytech Sokin names Tom Steer as CFO. In his new position, Steer will focus on developing the company's capital strategy, overseeing any future acquisitions, and driving the finance function to support the rapid pace of growth in the business.
Want your message in front of 275.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?
Comments ()