Tearsheet publishes its bi-weekly newsletter Payments, underlining the important moves and stories in payments, crypto, and transaction technologies and platforms. Subscribe here.
Embedded finance is heating up. Rapyd’s fintech-as-a-service platform has raised another $300 million, and payments firms are now faced with stronger competition from non-financial players including Google, WooCommerce, and even Starbucks. -- Ismail Umar
OUR TOP STORIES
“You don’t say, ‘Oh, I love Amazon, because I’m logged in and they have my payment information'”: Fast’s Allison Barr Allen
‘We spend more energy digging gold out of the ground than mining crypto’: Paxos’ Charles Cascarilla (sponsored)
New CBDC report highlights potential opportunities and challenges of introducing a Central Bank Digital Currency in the U.S.
‘You can’t stand on the sidelines and watch that happen forever’: Volante Technologies’ John Farrell (sponsored)
‘It’s a great example of the power of the ecosystem’: Intuit’s new QuickBooks card reader is about more than taking payments (Outlier member exclusive)
- QuickBooks introduces new payments hardware for small businesses as everyone guns for Square
Starbucks has the second most used mobile payment app for POS transactions
Reinventing the wheel: the future of public transit (sponsored)
Cheat Sheet: Google to launch virtual Google Pay card
Inside WooCommerce’s journey to launch its payments solution, WooCommerce Payments
Worldpay from FIS reduces barriers to entry into the crypto market with MoonPay partnership
‘Cool Hats’: A look inside Visa’s new campaign to refresh its brand
Visa has massive scale – it powers 3.6 billion credentials, works with more than 70 million merchants, has tens of thousands of partners, and powers over $11 trillion in total volume annually.
So, there's a reason why people equate the brand with credit cards. But over time, the firm has become much more.
With acquisitions, products, and partnerships in a variety of payment rails, Visa wants to be seen differently.
The payments company is embarking on a brand refresh that wants users, partners, customers, and the community to Meet Visa.
WHAT WE'RE READING
Quiznos launches bitcoin payment pilot program (CoinDesk)
Embedded finance player Rapyd raises $300 million on $8.75 billion valuation (TechCrunch)
SEC needs more power from Congress to fully regulate crypto, Chair Gensler says (CNBC)
Why Square acquired Afterpay: Merchant and CashApp user acquisition (Forbes)
- Square to buy BNPL giant Afterpay in $29 billion deal (TechCrunch)
PayPal reports record year with $311 billion in total payments volume, 400 million active accounts (Crowdfund Insider)
- A pre-launch look at PayPal’s new ‘super app' (TechCrunch)
Zelle transaction volumes soar (Finextra)
Visa rolls out BNPL APIs for clients (Finextra)
Card issuer Lithic valued at $800 million after latest fundraising (Bloomberg)
M1 Finance launches new credit card earning consumers cash back with companies they own stock in (CNBC)
Shopify allows merchants to sell NFTs directly through their storefronts (TechCrunch)
SWIFT intros Go, its new fast cross-border payment service (PYMNTS)
Mastercard teams with Lloyds to launch PayFrom Bank, enabling people to pay from their bank accounts. (PYMNTS)
Solarisbank raises $224 million, acquires Contis to boost embedded banking tech in Europe (TechCrunch)
Big tech, Amazon job postings point to crypto's future in retail (PYMNTS)