Yuno Raises $45M — and Qatar Becomes Its GCC Hub
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
I like starting the day and my newsletter with news like this! Yuno just raised another $45 million, and I'm genuinely happy for them.
I've been following Juan Pablo, Julián, and the team for years, and had the chance to spend some time with them at their office in Bogotá a while back. They're great people building a great company, so seeing them hit another big milestone is pretty cool.
Kudos to the entire Yuno team. 👏
The Series B includes Qatar-based Rasmal Ventures, with Yuno also making Qatar its hub for further expansion across the GCC.
Plenty more happened today, of course.
I've also got a special dLocal Insights episode for you on what global merchants often get wrong about Asia-Pacific. And Visa had another monster quarter: $11.6 billion in revenue, transactions up 10%, and cross-border volume up 13%.
Anyway, enough from me. Let's get into today's FinTech news. 👇
See you tomorrow!
Cheers,
Marcel
INSIGHTS
📝 74% of finance leaders prioritise AI, yet ambition is outpacing adoption. New research from Airwallex, based on a Forrester Consulting survey of 1,279 senior finance leaders across 11 markets, finds 90% plan to increase AI investment over the next year, yet 35% don't intend to extend it into more workflows. Read the full report here
🎥 dLocal unpacks what global merchants get wrong about Asia-Pacific in a special edition of its Investor Relations podcast, dLocal Insights. New APAC CEO Yang Yang Zhang joined VP of Corporate Affairs Ed Aitken to discuss how customers actually pay across the region's fragmented ecosystem. Watch the full session here
FINTECH NEWS
🇬🇧 Airtel and SumUp are set to test London's appetite for FinTech IPOs, with both companies eyeing listings on the London Stock Exchange. Airtel is targeting a valuation of around £2.5 billion while SumUp is exploring a listing that could value it at several billion dollars.
🇺🇸 Intuit expands AI capabilities across mid-market products, enhancing its platform for growing businesses. The company is embedding AI tools deeper into its suite to streamline workflows for mid-market customers.
🇺🇸 Kalshi seeks fresh funding at a $40 billion valuation, nearly doubling from its $22 billion Series F in May. Annualized revenue exceeded $4 billion last month as sports-related contract demand surged ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇨🇳 PayPal World enables US travelers to pay at Weixin Pay merchants, removing the need for a local wallet or Chinese bank account. China welcomed 68 million visitors in 2025, and US users can now scan QR codes using their existing PayPal app at merchants nationwide.
🇨🇴 Bre-B shifts focus to enterprise payments in Colombia, as banks compete to onboard businesses and large billers. The platform now exceeds 35.5 million users, 111 million keys, and 1.32 billion transactions worth roughly $201 trillion pesos.
🇺🇸 Square Credit Card adds rewards built for small businesses and a new way to pay vendors directly. The upgraded card targets everyday business spending with category-specific cashback and vendor payment tools.
🇺🇸 Mercury launches Mercury Spend, a unified expense management layer for startups combining cards, approvals, and reimbursements. The product consolidates spending controls into one platform alongside Mercury's existing banking tools.
🇳🇱 Mews secures the first e-money license held by a hospitality OS, granted by De Nederlandsche Bank. The EMI license enables Mews to unify payments and financial workflows within its hotel operating system across the EEA.
🇺🇸 Coinbase Business lets merchants get paid in crypto with expanded invoicing and payment acceptance tools. The platform targets businesses looking to accept, manage, and settle digital asset payments natively.
#FINTECHREPORT
🚨 Visa kept its growth momentum going in Q3 FY26.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇧🇷 Brazil's largest lender Itaú steps deeper into tokenization, partnering with OpenAssets on a pilot run by industry body ANBIMA. The project tests how fixed-income securities and funds can be issued and settled using distributed-ledger technology.
🇰🇷 KakaoBank union begins a work-to-rule protest, refusing overtime and holiday work starting August 12. Union members will strictly adhere to 40-hour weekly limits and disconnect from all work communications outside designated hours.
🇬🇧 Countingup launches business bank accounts, doubling down on all-in-one finance for SMEs. The app now offers FSCS protection up to £120,000 and Open Banking compatibility through a new partnership with Griffin.
🇺🇸 Flywire expands open banking payments support in the U.S. and Canada with Trustly. Payers can now authorize large domestic and cross-border payments directly from bank accounts, improving accuracy and reducing payment failures.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🌍 Crypto.com launches tokenized stocks for EEA users, offering exposure to 1,500 US equities and ETFs from as little as $1. The product provides 24/7 trading, fractional access, and fast settlement through the Crypto.com App.
🇺🇸 Robinhood Chain hits 11.6 million daily transactions as USDe fuels TVL growth on the network. The Layer 2 blockchain continues gaining traction among financial services and real-world asset applications.
🇺🇸 Coinbase launches a new matching engine, upgrading its derivatives platform with ultra-low latency. Built on dedicated infrastructure, the engine processes over 100,000 orders per second with sub-millisecond matching latency on Deribit by Coinbase.
STABLECOIN
🇺🇸 zerohash adds support for Robinhood Chain and USDG, connecting its enterprise network to assets on the Layer 2. Partners including Morgan Stanley and Interactive Brokers can now access Robinhood Chain without building infrastructure.
🇰🇾 Morph launches Morph Payments for the stablecoin economy, a non-custodial platform for businesses and freelancers to accept and manage payments. Funds settle directly into users' wallets with no third-party custody of customer assets.
🇬🇧 Bank of England to test stablecoin and digital currency use in cross-border finance, joining a BIS-led pilot alongside other central banks. The initiative will explore how digital currencies can settle international transactions more efficiently.
PARTNERSHIPS
🌍 Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase join Swift's new cross-border framework, alongside about 60 banks in 25 countries. The framework targets smaller transactions like remittances with near-real-time settlement and fixed fees.
🇵🇱 PPRO partners with BLIK to enable agentic commerce for local payments in Poland. The collaboration builds infrastructure for agent-initiated transactions using local payment methods, with AI agents projected to drive up to 15% of European e-commerce spending by 2030.
🌎 MoneyGram brings cash-to-crypto payments to Solana with Rift as its first wallet integration on the network. Ramps supports cash deposits in 25+ countries and withdrawals in more than 170 countries and territories.
🇬🇧 Zopa partners with Hive to finance greener home upgrades for up to 20 million UK homes. Eligible Hive customers can apply for a Zopa personal loan to spread the cost of solar panel installations over one to seven years.
🌍 Verto selects Flagright for real-time transaction monitoring across its cross-border payments and FX infrastructure. Verto processes 25B+ global payments annually and will use Flagright for risk-based controls and auditable workflows.
🌍 Modupay and Yabx forge a strategic alliance to build digital lending infrastructure across the Middle East and Africa. The partnership integrates Yabx's AI-powered credit decisioning platform with Modupay's issuing and processing capabilities to help banks and fintechs launch embedded credit products at scale.
🇺🇸 Sionic launches Instant Bank Pay in the U.S. through Microsoft Marketplace. The solution enables businesses to accept real-time bank payments directly within Microsoft's cloud ecosystem.
🇸🇦 Spare partners Tabadulat to enable Pay-by-Bank funding for investment accounts. The collaboration lets investors fund accounts via direct bank transfers, reducing friction in the onboarding process.
🇺🇸 Xero introduces integrated payroll powered by Gusto, expanding its U.S. financial management platform. The launch unites payroll with accounting and payments in one system, completing Xero's 3x3 strategy for small businesses.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇨🇴 Qatar's Rasmal Ventures backs Yuno's $45 million Series B, as the payments infrastructure firm establishes Qatar as its GCC hub. The round was led by Global PayTech Ventures with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global.
🇺🇸 Fazeshift secures an investment from Amex Ventures, the corporate venture arm of American Express, to expand its AI-native accounts receivable platform. The raise builds on a $22 million Series A led by F-Prime and will fund product development and team growth toward a broader CFO suite.
🇺🇸 River Markets raises $8.5 million in seed funding led by Haun Ventures to build prediction market trading tools for institutions. Y Combinator and Coinbase Ventures also participated in the round that closed in July.
M&A
🇺🇸 Rain acquires Ansa to add a stored value layer to its card issuing and embedded wallet platform. Ansa's founder Sophia Goldberg joins Rain as Head of Payments to help partners offer branded wallets with spending power and rewards.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇺🇸 Jennifer Bailey to retire after leading Apple Pay since its 2014 launch. Bailey oversaw Apple Pay, Apple Wallet, and Apple Card development throughout her tenure at Apple. Continue reading
🇺🇸 KAST names Stripe veteran Connor Fitzgerald to lead its US business. Fitzgerald joins the crypto card company from Stripe, where he spent years in payments, to drive its American market expansion.
🇺🇸 Polymarket revamps marketing and expands US hiring ahead of a busy fall season for prediction markets. The platform hired Bird founder Travis VanderZanden as chief growth officer to guide its next growth stage.
🇺🇸 Coinme hires Laurent Reichert to lead compliance as the crypto ATM operator scales its regulated network. Reichert brings experience from prior compliance roles to strengthen Coinme's regulatory and risk framework.
🇬🇧 Equals appoints Edward Chandler as COO, strengthening its executive team. Chandler joins the international payments company to oversee operations and support the next phase of growth.
🇬🇧 Epassi appoints Antonio Barradas as Regional Managing Director to integrate UK and Netherlands operations. He will lead the rollout of the Zest benefits platform to new markets across Europe.
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