The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | July 18th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements for Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

BNP Paribas and Ant International have formed a strategic partnership to enhance cross-border payment solutions for merchants and consumers in Europe.

BNP Paribas will enable merchants that use its acquiring service to accept payments from more than 25 international mobile partners via Alipay+.

The two sides also agreed to work together to strengthen WorldFirst’s participation in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) scheme. WorldFirst, Ant International’s one-stop digital payment and financial services platform, will reinforce its participation in SEPA to enable businesses to make online cross-border payments and fund transfers more seamlessly within the SEPA Zone.

BNP Paribas will sponsor WorldFirst’s participation in the SEPA scheme, allowing it to leverage the bank’s expertise and products to expedite its integration and onboarding onto SEPA. WorldFirst’s clients will be able to access payment schemes under SEPA in real time and automate treasury payments to optimise their operations.

Deals of the week

• Aven raises $142m in Series D to bring home equity-backed credit card
• Mexican FinTech OCN raises $86m in Series A
• Slope raises $65m in equity and debt funding from J.P. Morgan & others
• Auxilo Finserve raises $30m in equity round from LeapFrog Investments
• Seeds Fincap secures over $8.5m from Matrix Partners India (aka Z47) & Lok Capital
• Bandhan Bank brings Bharat QR code to simplify payment experience
• Visa & Temenos to offer money transfer solutions to European banks
• Alawneh Exchange taps TerraPay to enhance cross border payments
• Jordan Kuwait Bank launches eliWallet with Mastercard and FOO
• Thinslices partners with SaaScada

Be on the lookout for

Boston FinTech Week brings you speakers you wouldn’t see anywhere else and the opportunity to make meaningful connections with the innovators, regulators, and investors building the future of financial services. It is an inclusive conversation amongst thousands of industry leaders and emerging FinTechs from around the world.

Boston Fintech Week, presented by FinTech Sandbox, is a collaboration between FinTech Sandbox and the broader FinTech ecosystem and startup community. What started as a grassroots gathering has grown into a full week each year when the global fintech community gathers in Boston.

This year’s Boston Fintech Week is taking place October 14 – 18, including our 2-day ticketed conference – the Fintech Sandbox Innovation Forum – on October 16 – 17. The rest of the week will feature a variety of community-hosted and sponsored events, such as fireside chats, masterclasses, and receptions. Please note that these additional events require individual registration.