Welcome to this week’s weekly news roundup, where we bring you a quick overview of the latest developments in finance, payments, retail, e-commerce and more across the Middle East and Europe regions.
In the Middle East…
- The Central Bank of The UAE (CBUAE) ramped up efforts to increase innovation in the financial services sector this week by issuing the Sandbox Conditions Regulation. The Regulation is part of plans to create a more structured platform for experimentation, and includes criteria that allows businesses to carry out testing within a specified duration without having a licence.
- Ajman Bankbecame one of the first banks in the UAE to successfully integrate Jaywan Cards when it started accepting the card across its ATM network. The implementation of the Jaywan Card, which was launched by Al Etihad Payments, means Jaywan cardholders now have access to seamless cash withdrawals.
- Retail technology company, Pathfinder Global FZCO, has launched a new digital shopping platform that uses GenAI to integrate retailer rewards and offers with tailored product suggestions for enhanced personalisation. The new app, RetailGPT, allows retailers to harness data to enhance customer experiences with features like real-time personalised interaction and streamlined operations, facilitated by conversational AI.
- In partnerships, Emirates NBD announced an exclusive deal with CARS24 , for the first time enabling car buyers in the UAE to initiate their auto loan process with the bank at the click of a button. Now, once the preferred vehicle is selected from the CARS24 website or app, buyers can apply for a loan from the bank and existing Emirates NBD customers can get pre-approval on their car purchase within 10 minutes of application, with no physical visits required. According to reports by Mordor Intelligence, the UAE’s used car market is projected to reach USD 32 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of around 11% from 2022 until 2027.t
- In Saudi Arabia, a new agreement will see Mastercard and URPay work together to provide consumers access to cross-border and remittances services through urpay digital wallet. The services will include cash pick up, bank deposit and digital wallet transfers.
- Pyypl – For 800 million Digital Natives in Emerging Markets, a financial technology company operating in the Middle East and Africa, has revealed its collaboration with Visa and its attainment of Principal Licence Membership. With this new development, Pyypl will be able to directly and securely issue prepaid Visa cards from its base in the UAE. Additionally, a strategic framework agreement has been established to expedite the company’s international growth throughout the GCC and Africa.
- We are focusing on the wider MENA region in funding news, this week, where Egypt-based fintech Connect Money closed its Seed funding round of $8 million led by Disruptech Ventures and Algebra Ventures. Founded in 2024 by Ayman Essawy, Marwan Kenawy and Momtaz Moussa, Connect Money offers a white-label card issuing platform that enables businesses to provide customers with debit and credit cards without having to develop infrastructure or obtain regulatory licensing. The firm said it will use the funding to launch five new business verticals that will be announced separately in North African markets.
In Europe…
- MuchBetter, a provider of wearable payment technology, introduced a ‘free’ contactless payment ring in Italy, this week. According to reports, users can obtain the ring for free by loading it with €100 via the associated app. Customers can order the ceramic, battery-free, and water-resistant ring from the MuchBetter website. Upon receiving the ring, users it must be paired with the MuchBetter wallet app by holding it near an NFC-enabled smartphone. Once the funds are loaded, the ring is ready to make contactless payments. After its Italian debut, there are plans for the ring to be made available in Germany, Austria, the UK, Ireland, and Poland.
- Meta is expanding its AI Startup Program throughout Europe in collaboration with AI platform Hugging Face and cloud provider Scaleway. The program will choose five startups to receive mentoring, tools, and computing resources and will run from September 2024 to February 2025. The initiative will be based at Paris’ STATION F campus and open to applicants from across the European Union. In recognition of the growing potential for innovation, selected startups will collaborate with Meta’s Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) lab and have access to highly-influential open-source AI models such as Llama.
- Nexi Group, the European Paytech, has extended Tap to Pay on iPhone to Merchant customers in Germany. This follows the launch of the same functionality from Apple for merchants in Italy at the end of May.
- Adyen has teamed up with UK-based fintech SumUp to accelerate settlements for small businesses. The deal means SumUp can scale its existing near-instant settlements offering to small and micro merchants in Europe and the UK, giving them faster access to their money and greater full control over their finances. It follows research from Adyen which found that 79% of SME platform usersplace a high value on faster access to funds and have expressed their demand for same-day payouts.
- The European payment solution Wero announced its partnership with Computop – the payment people enabling it do deliver cross-border payment methods to its customers and merchants. It means that Wero, a European payment solution that was developed by the EPI, will be available to Computop clients once it launches e-commerce payment in mid-2025. Computop is preparing to integrate payment method based on real-time credit transfers (the SEPA Instant Payments) in 2024 with online retailers will able to to offer Wero transactions next year.
- Research commissioned by UserTesting has revealed Facebook is far outpacing its rivals when it comes to social media shopping usage in the Uk. It found that 80% of British adults use Facebook (80%) for social media shopping followed by Instagram (57%), TikTok (37%), X (34%), and Pinterest (24%). Additionally, in the UK, social media drives shopping for 68% of users, with 20% shopping weekly and 47% monthly. The most popular items purchased via social media platforms include clothing (53%), gifts (34%), beauty products (34%), shoes (27%), and home decor (23%). Average spending reaches up to £192 per item, with 44% experiencing discrepancies between product ads and the actual item/.
- Major funding news came from Hive in Berlin, this week, when the operations platform for independent brands announced it had raised a €28.2 million Series A extension at an increased valuation. Founded in 2020, Hive’s platform covers the entire operations value chain, including fulfillment, delivery, and post-purchase experience. Key features include multi-channel inventory and order management, intelligent carrier selection, personalisation tools, and its consumer-facing tracking and returns solution. Over the last two years, it has expanded its presence to now cover Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
There you have it! It’s been another eventful seven days of new launches, partnerships and innovations in the world of Seamless Xtra
Till next week!
