SumUp Joins Manchester United’s Global Commercial Lineup
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
If you’ve been following me for a while, you already know I have a particular interest in the intersection of fintech and sport. I’m always curious to see how financial brands use major sports partnerships to move beyond traditional advertising and build something people can actually interact with.
Now SumUp is joining that club.
The fintech has signed a multi-year partnership with Manchester United as the club’s Official Shirt Sleeve Partner, with its logo appearing across the men’s, women’s and academy teams. The partnership will also bring a co-branded payment card, giving fans rewards and offers when they spend with Manchester United and participating businesses across the UK.
For SumUp, this is about much more than putting a logo on a sleeve. It’s a way to connect payments, everyday spending and a global fanbase through something people already care about.
And if fintech x sport partnerships are your thing too, I cover plenty more stories at FinTech in the Arena — from sponsorships and partnerships to the financial technology shaping the sports industry.
Meanwhile, Maple is looking at a very different kind of financial infrastructure — what onchain lending is actually trying to fix.
Let’s get into today’s FinTech stories. 👇 See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
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INSIGHTS
💡 Maple: What Onchain Lending Is Really Trying to Fix. Lending has relied on different forms of enforcement for thousands of years, but the core problem remains the same. Onchain lending moves enforcement into code, making collateral and loan performance transparent and verifiable. It does not make bad credit decisions disappear — it changes who can see them, and how early. Read the full article here
FINTECH NEWS
🌎 Mastercard predicts one in 10 people will routinely use AI agents to shop and pay by 2030. The report outlines how agentic commerce will reshape consumer payments over the next four years.
🇵🇰 JazzCash marks its 10th anniversary with the launch of an AI Foundry and usability testing lab. The facility combines AI, eye tracking research, and rapid prototyping to build more inclusive financial products in Pakistan.
🇵🇱 Polish FinTech PayPo mulls a Warsaw IPO, according to sources. The BNPL company is reportedly considering a public listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Read more
🇬🇧 UK regulator weighs easing the financial prediction market ban, according to the Times. The FCA is reviewing its restrictions on prediction markets as part of a broader look at financial innovation.
🇮🇳 Tazapay opens its largest India office in Bengaluru and plans to hire over 150 people in the next 18 months. The expansion strengthens the payments company's engineering and operations capacity in the region.
🇪🇬 Egypt's FRA approves four companies to conduct non-banking financial activities using FinTech. The approvals cover microfinance, consumer finance, mortgage finance, and a digital platform for private equity funds.
🇬🇧 Peratera prepares a major announcement following a UK EMI milestone. The company secured its electronic money institution authorization, signaling its next phase of growth in the British market.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇫🇷 Revolut reaches a milestone in France, introducing AI-triggered payments in the market. The feature positions Revolut to prepare for the next age of online commerce as it deepens its European footprint.
🇺🇸 Bank of America works on a Zelle-UPI bridge for cross-border payments between the US and India. The initiative aims to connect two of the world's largest payment networks for seamless international transfers.
🇬🇧 Acquired unveils a specialist billing engine designed for recurring payments. The new product targets merchants that need flexible subscription and billing management within their payment stack.
🇨🇳 WeChat Pay launches a smart glasses SDK, enabling QR code payments on devices like Rokid AI Glasses. Users initiate a scan by voice, look at a QR code, and confirm by sliding the temple, with a daily limit of RMB 200 during beta.
🇦🇪 ADCB introduces TouchPoints Flex, a market first digital card in the UAE enabled by Jaywan. Customers can spend loyalty points directly at any merchant across the country in real time.
🇸🇬 Finmo opens its Singapore global headquarters as TreasuryOS crosses $1 billion in monthly transaction volume. The expansion follows an $18.5M Series A and deepens investment in AI and treasury innovation.
🇮🇳 India eyes AI for its next finance leap after a decade of digital payments growth. The country is exploring AI-driven financial services to build on the foundation laid by UPI and other payment infrastructure.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇹🇭 Ascend Bank restructures its operations ahead of its planned launch in Thailand. The neobank is reorganizing its structure and readying for launch as it prepares to enter the market.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇦🇺 Australia removes 45 crypto and remittance registrations over the past year. AUSTRAC canceled, suspended, or refused renewals targeting providers that were inactive, insolvent, or posed significant money laundering risks.
🌐 PayBox adds Sunrise as a crypto plugin, bringing staking, swapping, and liquidity access into Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok. The MoonPay product lets AI prepare transactions that users approve with a passkey before funds move.
STABLECOINS NEWS
🇺🇸 Visa brings onchain lending into everyday payments, combining VisaNet settlement data with blockchain lending infrastructure for stablecoin-linked card programs. More than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs run on Visa's network, with payment volume growing nearly 200% YoY.
🌍 Rain expands stablecoin payouts to 80+ countries in 50 currencies from a single stablecoin balance. Partners can send funds that arrive as local currency in the recipient's bank account, with locked quotes and real-time status updates.
🇺🇸 eCurrency unveils its Secure eOffline CBDC solution after a successful demonstration in Africa. The technology enables consumers, merchants, and government agencies to send and receive CBDC without internet connectivity.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan launches a pilot for government-backed HUMO stablecoin payments, pegged 1:1 to the Uzbek Som. Over 20 businesses are preparing to participate in the pilot, which can run for up to three years.
🌏 Zoth launches zVaults to bring tokenized U.S. stocks onchain, targeting Global South users without a U.S. bank account or broker. A single stablecoin deposit converts into diversified ownership of Coinbase tokenized stocks on Base.
🇨🇭 A Swiss stablecoin project enters its testing phase and adds SIX and TWINT as partners. The initiative is expanding its network of payment partners as it moves closer to a full commercial rollout.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇺🇸 Checkout.com will support Best Buy Marketplace, providing card acquiring and pinless debit routing for the retailer's third-party seller platform. The flexible payments infrastructure is designed to adapt as Best Buy scales across new methods and geographies.
🇮🇳 Bandhan Bank launches four credit card variants in partnership with Mastercard. The Sparks, Ignite, Flare, and Lumina cards target diverse spending segments with rewards across grocery, travel, and dining.
🇺🇸 Klarna expands its partnership with StockX to bring flexible payment options to the U.S. and Canada. The integration, powered by Adyen, adds interest-free pay-in-4 and financing to two of StockX's largest markets.
🇬🇧 SumUp becomes Manchester United's Official Sleeve Partner in a multi-year deal spanning all competitions. The FinTech's logo will appear on men's, women's, and academy kits, and the pair will launch a co-branded payment card for fans.
🇦🇪 Juspay expands its partnership with Wego to support seamless payments across the Middle East. The integration enables rapid onboarding of local PSPs, acquirers, and payment methods as Wego enters new markets.
🇰🇼 HSBC Kuwait launches a merchant acquiring proposition through a strategic partnership with Tap Payments. Corporate clients can now accept card payments using Tap's infrastructure with improved receivables visibility and settlement.
🇦🇪 MENA FinTech Association welcomes Wise as a corporate member to advance cross-border payments. Wise processed over $240 billion in cross-border transactions last year, serving around 19 million customers globally.
🇵🇭 MoneyHero's Moneymax partners with EastWest to expand personal loan access in the Philippines. Consumers can now discover and compare EastWest loans on Moneymax, with applications digitally transmitted for processing.
🇹🇷 Standard Chartered to hand Liverpool FC shirt sponsorship to Turkish Airlines from the 2027–28 season in a £300m, five-year deal worth over £60m a season. That tops the current £50m-per-season arrangement with Standard Chartered, which has sponsored the club since 2010 and will transition to global partner status from 2027–28.
🇬🇧 Zopa Bank partners with NotifyNOW to simplify bereavement administration for customers. The collaboration aims to make the process easier with a single notification service.
🇷🇴 IT Smart Systems and Feedzai partner to strengthen AI-driven fraud prevention for financial institutions. The collaboration combines Feedzai's RiskOps platform with ITSS's digital banking expertise to secure modern payment flows.
🇷🇴 KIWI Finance partners with FlowX.AI to launch a closed-environment agentic AI ecosystem for mortgage lending. The collaboration deploys AI agents for KIWI Finance's 400 brokers, cutting documentation search from hours to seconds and halving onboarding time for new brokers.
🇬🇧 DNA Payments links up with iwoca, connecting the payments provider with the small business lender. The partnership aims to give merchants using DNA Payments access to iwoca's financing products.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇪🇪 Creditstar Group completes a €4.6M hybrid investment from Singapore based Kilde at a €130M pre-money valuation. The convertible loan follows a record 2025 with net profit up 86% to €13.5M and 19 consecutive years of profitability.
🇫🇷 French FinTech startup Outline raises $3 million for its financial planning AI. The seed round will support development of AI tools that help users manage and plan their personal finances.
🇧🇷 Brazilian FinTech Bull raises $3.9M in seed funding to scale its credit-as-a-service platform. The round was led by Maya and Caravela, with capital earmarked for AI, data infrastructure, and cybersecurity.
🇨🇦 AXON secures FINTRAC registration and a $5M seed round to expand into North America. The company obtained Canadian regulatory approval alongside the funding to support its cross-border growth.
🇫🇷 Olenbee raises €7M to scale its real-time employee perks technology across France. Backed by GO CAPITAL, Bpifrance, and ERDF, the FinTech targets 80,000 users by early 2027.
🇺🇸 Blee secures $27M to automate AI marketing compliance for banks and financial firms. The company helps institutions govern AI-generated marketing content. Keep reading
M&A
🇺🇸 Circle agrees to acquire Singapore-based Tazapay to expand its global payments infrastructure. The deal will strengthen Circle’s cross-border payment capabilities, adding local payout rails and access to 100+ markets.
🇺🇸 Robinhood strikes a prediction markets deal with Crypto.com, acquiring minority stakes in the exchange and its OG.com unit while adding OG's event contracts to its app. Robinhood's event contracts revenue climbed more than 10x YoY to $156M in Q2.
🇩🇪 UniCredit acquires a stake in a German FinTech as part of its broader push into digital markets. The investment supports the bank’s strategy to expand its digital financial infrastructure and strengthen its position in Germany.
🇺🇸 EverBank will combine with WaFd in a $3.9 billion reverse merger. The deal would create a combined bank with expanded national reach across retail and commercial banking.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇰🇷 Finda recruits FinTech veterans to launch an AI savings bank in South Korea. The loan comparison platform operator has begun securing talent for the new venture as it expands into digital banking.
🇿🇦 Stanchion Payments appoints Carlin Wicomb to lead its African expansion as the company continues its growth trajectory. Read more
🇬🇧 Finova bolsters its board with the appointment of Mark Arnold as non-executive director. Arnold brings experience from his former role at Barclays. Continue reading
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