Weekly news roundup Middle East & Europe – May 31st

• Among this week’s notable partnerships in the region, Mastercard joined up with HSBC Middle East to launch the Mastercard Wholesale Program, marking the continuation of a long-standing strategic partnership between the two companies. The deal promises to further automate buyer and supplier payments for HSBC’s travel merchant customers. It also means that HSBC will deploy the Mastercard Wholesale Program (MWP), a virtual card-based B2B payment product, for the first time in the Middle East, as it seeks to streamline B2B travel transactions.
• Staying with HSBC, the bank has also launched its new e-commerce digital payment platform Omni Collect in the UAE in partnership with leading Saudi-based fintech player, geidea. Omni Collect is designed to simplify and streamline the way businesses collect digital payments for goods and services sold across multiple payment channels including credit and debit cards, e-wallets such as Apple Pay and Samsung. With the solution businesses can monitor transactions online, consolidate their reporting across different payment methods, and have a unified view of all their daily business transactions
• In Iraq, financial institutions across the country continue to ramp up the shift from legacy systems. Fintech ZainCash has now adoped Temenos core banking and payments as it seeks to boost financial inclusion and accelerate the country’s digital transformation. The implementation follows the news that last month, National Bank of Iraq (NBI) had adopted the Temenos system bringing its infrastructure in line with other entities under its majority owner, Capital Bank.
• Digital services in Kenya and the wider region have received a major boost with the news that Microsoft and UAE’s G42 have unveiled an initial $1 billion package of digital investments in Kenya, as part of an initiative with the Republic of Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy. It will include a state-of-the-art data centre that will enable Microsoft Azure to be run in a new East Africa Cloud Region. It is expected that this will provide customers access to scalable, secure, high-speed cloud and AI services to accelerate cloud adoption and digital transformation in the region.
• For many small business owners having the tools to confidently manage their finances is an essential ingredient of any growth plan. The digital ecosystem in Saudi Arabia continues to move forward at a rapid pace and this week payment processing company, PayTabs Global teamed up with Numetric to enhance online invoice collection and automation.
• E-commerce platform, Jumia Egypt has announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with Contact CrediTech, the digital consumer finance arm of Contact Financial Holding . The collaboration is aiming to deliver enhanced services to their respective customers including providing various payment methods to facilitate online purchases
• Finally, in funding news, UAE-based foodtech startup Grubtech has raised $15 million as part of its Series B round and extension of Series A. Founded in 2019 by Mohamed Al Fayed, Omar Rifai and Mohamed Hamedi, GrubTech is a SaaS integration and unified commerce platform that provides restaurants and cloud kitchens with a software solution to streamline their operations. The company is planning to use the injection of capital to accelerate expansion and establish offices in Saudi Arabia, Europe and the UK.

In Europe…

• Payment infrastructure provider, Mangopay , has launched its new AI-driven Fraud Prevention solution intended to safeguard against an evolving range of threats, including account takeover by both bots and humans, reseller fraud, payment fraud, chargebacks, and return abuse.The customisable tool offers enhanced protection featuring real-time fraud detection, darknet insights and device fingerprinting. It comes as global losses from online fraud were reported to be worth more than $38 billion in 2023 and are forecast to rise to $91 billion in 2028.
• Revolut has extended its international transfers feature Mobile Wallets with 14 new payment corridors, 9 new countries and 3 digital wallets: Airtel, Orange Money and MTN. Now, Revolut customers in the UK and most European countries (EEA) can use Mobile Wallets to send money to 4 different wallets (M-Pesa, Airtel, Orange Money, MTN) used across 10 countries in Africa. Additionally, the company is planning to add more wallet routes in the coming months, strengthening its presence in Europe and Africa.
• Merge, a B2B fintech company providing payments and banking infrastructure via a single API, has received in-principle approval for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licence in France.
• Yapily has announced its partnership with mmobwhich is expected to simplify and accelerate the deployment of Yapily’s Open Banking solutions by various firms and companies, with an effective, fast, and secure technical implementation process.
• In Italy, for the first time, Banca Sella has enabled Discover, Diners Club International and affiliated network cardholders to make purchases in Italian stores. Electronic payment methods will be more widely accepted in physical stores, thanks to the integration of Banca Sella’s POS terminals with the Discover Global Network.
• On the funding front, this week, it was revealed that Berlin-based Faircado has secured €3 million to accelerate AI-powered second-hand shopping. Founded in 2022, the Berlin-based startup offers an AI-powered browser extension that enables consumers to automatically find second-hand alternatives when shopping online. Faircado has its own in-house image-matching algorithms that collates data on product images, titles and brands so users can access tailored resale recommendations. The company operates on both a revenue-per-click and a commission-based model including a fixed fee for each user redirected to partner sites.

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!