Qonto Partners with Upvest
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Not every FinTech partnership makes sense on the surface.
French FinTech Qonto's focus is on SME finance, invoicing, and bookkeeping. On the other hand, Upvest focuses on investment infrastructure, the kind that powers order execution and regulatory reporting quietly in the background.
At first glance, they don't obviously belong in the same sentence. But that's exactly what makes this worth paying attention to.
Starting in Germany, Qonto users can now invest surplus cash in money market funds from inside their existing dashboard, from as little as €1, with yield displayed transparently net of fees.
The product is simple. What's underneath it isn't, and that's the point.
By giving its business users a simple and accessible way to earn returns on surplus funds, Qonto takes another step towards becoming the all-in-one financial home for European businesses.
Scroll down to find the rest of today’s FinTech headlines 👇See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
#FINTECHREPORT
📊 Mastercard Signals: The next era of commerce will be powered by trusted intelligence. Mastercard’s latest Signals report highlights how AI and agentic technologies are making commerce more autonomous, while increasing the importance of trust, governance, and accountability across the digital economy.
INSIGHTS
📰 Embedded Finance Companies by DashDevs: Top platforms, market trends, and how FinTech products integrate financial services. Igor Tomych explores the embedded finance landscape, explaining how platforms and APIs enable businesses to integrate financial services directly into their products. Read the full guide here
FINTECH NEWS
🇨🇱 Pomelo obtained authorisation from Chile’s Financial Market Commission to operate as a non-bank issuer of prepaid cards. The license strengthens Pomelo’s infrastructure offering in the country, allowing FinTechs, digital wallets, and enterprises to launch prepaid card programs through a single platform while Pomelo manages regulatory compliance and operational requirements.
🇪🇬 MNT-Halan reaches a $1.4 billion valuation after an investment round led by Al Ahly Capital. The company plans to allocate most of the proceeds toward expanding its operations in Egypt while accelerating regional growth. A second closing is expected as part of the ongoing round.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇨🇳 Tencent is testing AI-powered payment capabilities through WeChat Pay, enabling AI agents to complete shopping transactions within conversational workflows. Initially piloted with WorkBuddy and QClaw, the solution allows users to authorize AI-driven purchases using dedicated payment cards with spending limits and user confirmation controls.
🇵🇪 Peru’s central bank extends digital currency pilot to 2027 after surpassing 3.5 million users. The initiative, delivered through the BiPay wallet in partnership with Bitel, has attracted more than 3.5 million users and is aimed at expanding financial inclusion by providing digital payments and transfers to populations with limited access to traditional banking services.
🇰🇭 Cambodia becomes the 9th country to accept UPI payments. Under this, Indian travellers can use their present UPI-enabled apps to make QR-code payments across the country. Continue reading
🇪🇸 Bankinter customers in Spain can now split their payments when making purchases with Apple Pay. This option offers a convenient and secure way to pay for a purchase. Customers can choose from monthly payment plans of between three and twelve months directly at the time of purchase.
REGTECH NEWS
🌍 iDenfy adds smart-ID to its identity verification platform for the Baltic countries market. The integration leverages bank-backed digital identities and eIDAS-compliant authentication to streamline onboarding, enhance security, and support regulatory compliance.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇹🇭 Kakao Bank is preparing to launch Bank X in Thailand. Developed alongside SCBX and WeBank Technology Services, the venture marks Kakao Bank’s transition from investor to operator, with responsibility for the digital bank’s mobile platform, user experience, and core services.
🇬🇧 Monzo launches a new credit card for customers who struggle to access lending. The new pilot scheme is a deposit-backed credit card facility, allowing those with low credit scores to access borrowing capacity in limited amounts before potentially building those limits over time.
🇳🇱 Revolut launches Dutch MVNO on KPN 5G network. The offering will give customers in the country access to 5G-connected plans running on the KPN network, delivered through a partnership with telecoms provider 1GLOBAL. Read more
🇲🇽 Revolut has surpassed 500,000 customers in Mexico less than six months after its official launch. The milestone follows the company’s decision to operate under its own local banking licence and comes alongside a recent $64 million capital injection, bringing its total investment in Mexico to $167 million.
🌍 Revolut is leveraging its Formula 1 partnership with Audi to strengthen its brand positioning and accelerate growth in payments and business banking. The FinTech is using the platform to promote services such as Revolut Business and Revolut Pay, while pursuing its ambition to become a leading European payments provider and compete more directly with players like PayPal, Stripe, and Adyen.
PARTNERSHIPS
🌍 Backbase collaborates with Mastercard to simplify cross-border payments for banks. The collaboration is designed to accelerate near real-time cross-border payment adoption among financial institutions worldwide, enabling them to deploy international payment solutions while reducing implementation complexity and time-to-market.
🇪🇬 Telda and Mastercard launch integrated payments and investment wallet in Egypt. This collaboration democratizes access to the capital market, empowering new customer segments without requiring advanced financial expertise and advancing Egypt’s vision for digital financial transformation.
🌍 Qonto partners with Upvest to enable businesses to put their idle cash to work with money market funds. Through Upvest's API-first infrastructure, Qonto’s business users will be able to earn yield with money market funds directly within the platform.
🇺🇸 MoonPay powers instant Apple Pay onboarding in Bread. The integration embeds payments, identity verification, and onboarding into a seamless native experience, supporting Bread’s vision of combining AI-driven banking with Bitcoin-based financial services.
🇺🇸 MNEE Pay announces Stripe integration to bring stablecoin payments to mainstream commerce. The integration supports USDC and USDT across multiple blockchains, allowing businesses to add stablecoin acceptance without changing their existing payment workflows.
🇺🇸 Nuvion joins Circle Payments Network. This integration expands Nuvion's ability to offer instant, secure, multi-currency settlement across markets, deepening its mission to make global finance accessible to everyone, from creators earning across borders, businesses expanding internationally, to large marketplaces and global platforms running high-volume payment flows.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
💰Over the last week, there were eight FinTech deals in Europe, totalling €1.05bn in disclosed funding, including two transactions in the UK, two in Spain, and one each in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Bulgaria.
🇸🇬 WasabiCard completed its Series Pre-A funding round. The funding will be used to strengthen WasabiCard's global payment infrastructure, expand stablecoin-powered card and payout capabilities, accelerate international growth, and support continued investment in product development and compliance.
🇬🇧 Revolut said to plan a $750M share sale, potentially valuing the company at $109 billion. Strong investor demand could push the transaction well above its initial target, providing liquidity for employees and early shareholders while underscoring investor confidence in Revolut’s continued growth and global expansion.
🇪🇬 Egyptian POS financing FinTech Blnk raises $37 million. With the new funding, the company will extend its tech capabilities, expand into new products, explore geographic expansion, and launch its credit card programme, enabling customers to utilise the credit limit beyond its network.
🇺🇸 Reset raises a $6 million seed round, anchored by Credit Union customers to expand its embedded earned wage access platform. Reset plans to invest in expanded sales and implementation capacity, deepen product development, and accelerate deployments currently underway.
🇺🇸 EDGE Markets raises a $29.2 million Series A funding round. With this funding, EDGE Markets is expanding its offerings to introduce EDGE Pro, the first high-throughput deposit account for market makers that enables seamless, real-time deposits into all CFTC-regulated exchanges.
🌍 CreditChek raises $600,000 to expand credit infrastructure across East Africa. With the new funding, CreditChek plans to deepen its integrations across key East African markets by working closely with banks, microfinance institutions, and FinTech lenders to improve access to credit intelligence and streamline lending processes.
M&A
🇵🇰 Telenor is said to be exploring the sale of its 55% stake in Easypaisa Bank in Pakistan. The digital bank has delivered strong recent growth, with profitability rising sharply as it continues to expand its digital financial services business.
🇨🇭 Temenos acquires additiv. The acquisition is aligned with Temenos’ strategic focus on strengthening its Wealth franchise and expanding AI-enabled experience and orchestration capabilities that amplify the value of its trusted core banking platform and is consistent with Temenos’ disciplined capital allocation framework.
🇮🇩 Grab becomes the majority owner of Indonesia’s Superbank. The move follows additional share purchases by Grab-related entities and comes as Superbank continues to grow rapidly, with loan balances rising 55% year over year and profitability supported by deeper integration with the Grab and OVO ecosystems.
🇯🇵 PayPay to buy a majority stake in T&D Financial Life. Through the addition of life insurance, PayPay intends to extend its financial services across different stages of customers’ lives, including daily payments, insurance and asset management.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🌏 Visa promotes Adeline Kim to a wider role across Southeast Asia. Kim will now oversee Visa’s business across the three Southeast Asian markets, while continuing to work with clients and partners across the region. Read more
🇬🇧 Tuum sharpens its growth strategy, naming James Bushby as Chief Revenue Officer. Bushby brings over 20 years of sales leadership experience in the FinTech, banking, and payments sectors, with a proven track record of helping clients deliver innovative, value-based solutions.
🇧🇷 Nubank appoints John Walton as Chief Information Security Officer. Walton will lead Nubank’s information security strategy, helping the company continue to protect its platform, customers and operations while supporting its long-term growth agenda.
🇺🇸 Marex appoints Georges Assi to the Group Board. Assi is the founder and CEO of Sigma Lending and co-founder of Naviter Capital, bringing extensive experience in FinTech, private credit, and global fixed-income markets to the board. Read on
Want your message in front of 275.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?
Comments ()