Latest news with #Finextra
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
AstroPay launches platform to let companies embed financial services
AstroPay, the financial operating system trusted by millions of users globally, today launched its boldest product yet: AstroPay Platform. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. For the first time, any company—fintech or not—can build and launch their own global financial products using the same infrastructure that powers AstroPay's consumer wallet. AstroPay Platform gives businesses instant access to a full-stack financial backend: multicurrency wallets, local bank accounts, global and local card issuing, checkout, user onboarding, fraud controls, compliance, and FX—delivered through a developer-first interface. This marks AstroPay's evolution from serving consumers directly to enabling other companies to build their own financial services using AstroPay's infrastructure. Businesses can now leverage AstroPay's established connections to multiple local and international payment schemes, along with its multicurrency wallet, card issuing capabilities, and regulatory compliance framework across multiple jurisdictions. 'We've built the financial infrastructure that powers our global wallet. Now, we're opening it to the world,' said Marc Sacal, CEO of AstroPay. 'What used to take years of licensing, contracting, and technical effort can now be done in weeks under your own brand, with our infrastructure doing the heavy lifting.' A New Category of Financial Infrastructure AstroPay Platform is not a white-label wallet. It's a turnkey financial backend: the licensed, compliant, payment-connected infrastructure already proven across dozens of markets and payment systems. With a single integration, businesses gain access to: • Multicurrency Infrastructure: Native support for major currencies with real-time foreign exchange, enabling any business to offer users seamless currency conversion and global balance management. • Local Accounts and Payment Rails: Current support includes local receiving accounts in key markets—including PIX (Brazil), CVU (Argentina), IBANs (Europe), and UK sort codes—allowing users to send and receive funds like a local. This is just the beginning, with many more markets and rails on the horizon. • Card Issuing and Management: Businesses can issue virtual and physical cards—local or global—to their end users. Cards are branded and powered by Visa or Mastercard, with support for mobile wallets, KYC, and fraud management built in. • Accept AstroPay: Businesses can integrate AstroPay's proprietary checkout, accepting the AstroPay wallet directly as a payment method. This enables one-click payments from millions of users and in-app promotion within the AstroPay ecosystem. • Regulatory Compliance Framework: AstroPay's infrastructure includes KYC, AML, sanctions screening, fraud detection, and licensing across multiple jurisdictions, reducing the need for partners to build regulatory operations in-house. • Real-time Processing and APIs: Modern API architecture with real-time processing and developer tools allows seamless deployment, scalability, and customization. AstroPay Platform enables any company to operate like a fintech—whether launching wallets and cards, offering global payouts, or embedding payments into existing products. From creator platforms and travel apps to payroll tools and B2B marketplaces, businesses can now embed global financial services under their own brand, with AstroPay managing the underlying complexity. From Years to Days: Accelerating Financial Innovation Traditional approaches to building cross-border financial services require companies to establish relationships with dozens of payment providers, navigate complex regulatory requirements across multiple countries, and build sophisticated currency and risk management systems. This process takes years and requires significant capital investment before generating revenue - a timeline that has limited fintech innovation. AstroPay Platform compresses this timeline to weeks by offering a turnkey stack built on proven infrastructure, already operating across dozens of markets and integrated with multiple local and international payment schemes. 'Companies no longer need to piece together banking, compliance, and payments from scratch,' said Sacal. 'AstroPay Platform eliminates friction, reduces time-to-market, and makes sophisticated financial infrastructure available to any business.' AstroPay Platform supports a wide spectrum of business models—from fintech disruptors to non-financial enterprises embedding financial features for the first time. By abstracting complexity into modular APIs, the platform enables companies to choose only the features they need and go live in record time. AstroPay Platform is already in use by early partners across Latin America and Europe, powering production workloads for payouts, cards, and local account infrastructure. Key use cases include: • Retailers and Consumer Apps: Retailers, loyalty programs, and consumer-facing apps can embed financial tools like digital wallets and prepaid cards to increase engagement, drive repeat purchases, and own more of the customer lifecycle—all without becoming financial institutions themselves. • Regional Fintechs and Superapps: Local fintech apps that have built strong domestic traction can now expand globally without building new infrastructure or acquiring additional licenses. With AstroPay Platform, they can offer users international bank accounts, global cards, and cross-border payment features—turning regional offerings into global products in a matter of weeks. • E-commerce and Marketplace Platforms: Digital marketplaces can offer sellers the ability to get paid in their local currency, while enabling buyers to pay using their preferred method—including AstroPay Wallet. With real-time FX and embedded account infrastructure, platforms can localize seller and buyer experiences without geographic or currency constraints. • Content and Creator Platforms: Platforms serving creators, streamers, and digital talent can provide their users with immediate access to earnings through embedded wallets, branded cards, and instant cash-out via local rails. This eliminates reliance on traditional banking and improves speed, trust, and retention—particularly in underbanked regions. • Payroll and Workforce Platforms: Companies serving global and remote workforces can embed multicurrency wallets, assign local receiving accounts (like PIX in Brazil or IBANs in Europe), and automate instant payouts in local currency. This allows platforms to offer faster, cheaper, and more transparent salary distribution—whether to freelancers, contractors, or employees worldwide.
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Cash App launches pools for group payments
Cash App today announced the launch of pools, a new peer-to-peer payment feature that enables group payments with just a few taps. From friends planning their next big vacation to coworkers chipping in for a colleague's wedding gift, 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Cash App pools make it easy to manage payments and track shared goals in one place. Pools supports contributions directly through Cash App as well as via Apple Pay and Google Pay. Pools are currently available to a select group of Cash App customers, with broader availability planned in the coming months to reach all Cash App customers and their communities. Organizing experiences and coordinating reimbursements as a group can be overwhelming, especially for the person tasked with planning the event. With pools, members can contribute within seconds so the group can focus on the experience and not on stressful payment logistics: Proactive payment collection: Our market research shows that 60% of U.S. adults participate in some form of group money pooling, with Cash App playing a role in about half of those cases*. Today, one person has typically needed to volunteer to make the payment up front. Pools were designed for groups to easily plan, collect, and track contributions before the event occurs so that nobody has to front the entire cost. Integrations with Apple Pay and Google Pay: If members of the group use different payment solutions, the organizer has historically needed to download multiple apps to collect the money from each person resulting in confusion, time wasted, and risk for all participants. Now, the organizer can create a shareable link for group members to contribute to a pool in seconds using Apple Pay or Google Pay. Easy progress tracking: The organizer can name, set a goal amount, and invite members to join the pool and track the group's contributions, removing unnecessary logistics and guesswork. End-to-end payment flows: Each pool seamlessly connects to the Cash App's suite of banking and peer-to-peer payment tools, so the organizer can instantly use that money toward the group's goal. 'Cash App has always made sending money between friends and family feel effortless, and we know that many of our customers already use the platform as a way to collect payments from groups,' said Cameron Worboys, Head of Product Design at Cash App. 'With pools, our customers now have a dedicated, easy-to-use solution for group payments: they can start a pool to collect the money in seconds, and then instantly transfer the funds to their Cash App balance when it's time to pay.' Starting a pool in Cash App Organizers can start a pool through the Cash App payment tab. From there, organizers can create and name a pool, set a target amount, and invite contributors. Members can be invited in-app via their $cashtag, or the organizer can text or share a link to request a contribution using Apple Pay or Google Pay. The organizer can close the pool at any time and then transfer the money to their Cash balance. Money made simple and social The launch of pools marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Cash App focused on making money management between groups even more social, accessible, and intuitive, in turn deepening engagement and growing Cash App's network of more than 57 million monthly actives. In the coming months, Cash App will introduce more features and services that make it easy for groups to share, save, and spend money through the platform. 'For younger customers in particular, managing money is often an inherently social experience that requires extensive discussion, planning, and collaboration between groups. Combining the scale of Cash App's network with our robust suite of banking and commerce tools, we're excited to introduce new solutions tailored to the next generation and their financial lives,' added Worboys.
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Wingspan raises $24m for embedded contractor management in HR platforms
Wingspan, the first modern payroll platform purpose-built for contractor management, announced that it has raised $24 million in Series B funding led by Touring Capital, bringing its total capital raised to $54 million. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Long Journey Ventures, Distributed Ventures, Company Ventures, and 186 Ventures also participated. Wingspan is on a mission to make contract work effortless for everyone. In less than three years, the company expanded its customer base by 200%, increased average ACV by 5x, supported 12x more contractors, and processed $3B+ in payments. Wingspan's rapid adoption across various industries signals that businesses are urgently seeking infrastructure to manage this workforce transformation. 'From day one, we knew the real problem existed at the intersection of company and contractor. We strategically started by building for freelancers—learning their pain points around income, benefits, and taxes—then leveraged those insights to create the comprehensive platform that businesses desperately need. We've now completed the circle with the only solution that truly works for both sides,' said Anthony Mironov, Co-founder and CEO of Wingspan. 'The workforce composition is changing, and platforms that plan for this shift now will be well-positioned for the long haul.' Roughly 40% of U.S. workers have performed contract work in the last year, and businesses increasingly rely on contingent labor to scale efficiently. More than $1.4 trillion dollars is paid out to contractors annually, or 4% of GDP, across an estimated 74 million contractors, per MBO Partners. In many ways, contractors are the backbone of the U.S. economy. By 2027, half of American workers are projected to earn some income from independent contracting, marking one of the most significant shifts in modern employment composition. Wingspan is utilized by a range of contractors, from Omni's gig workers to CRU Group's insurance adjusters. Teladoc Health, Inc. (NYSE: TDOC) leverages Wingspan to provide its 10,000 healthcare providers with a seamless payment experience, saving the company an average of 28 hours per month on payment processing. "Working with Wingspan has completely transformed the way Teladoc manages 1099 Provider Payroll,' said Tricia McGimpsey, VP, Payroll at Teladoc Health. 'It's an incredibly seamless process now.' In addition to its Series B raise, Wingspan is announcing Wingspan Embed, a new solution that enables HR platforms to transform the way they manage and support contractors. The comprehensive feature set goes beyond contractor onboarding, tax automation, and payments to elevate the contractor experience with value-added financial services including tax withholding, debit cards, instant payouts, and insurance. Wingspan Embed's modular and embeddable API-first architecture plugs directly into any HR platform; partners can choose from a white labeled solution, modular pre-built UI components, or a deeper, native integration. With Wingspan Embed, HR platforms become the central hub for managing a modern, flexible workforce. 'Wingspan Embed fundamentally changes what HR platforms can offer their customers. Instead of forcing businesses to juggle multiple systems, they can now manage their entire contingent workforce where they already work,' continued Mironov. 'This funding accelerates our ability to help HR platforms unlock new revenue streams, reduce customer churn, and handle compliance complexities that have held them back from serving the contractor economy.' The funding will accelerate Wingspan Embed's adoption across HCM and HR platforms while expanding the company's footprint in key verticals—healthcare, insurance, staffing, and professional services—where flexible workforces dominate. Wingspan will continue to invest in its world-class team while launching AI-powered products that apply the latest advances in AI technology to automate contractor compliance, streamline payments, and solve the complex challenges of managing flexible workforces at scale in ways that were never possible before. 'Wingspan is a scalable, intuitive product solving a critical market need, led by a visionary founding team,' said Priya Saiprasad, General Partner at Touring Capital. 'The company's extraordinary growth and rapid adoption by prominent HR platforms gave us the conviction to lead this funding round. We are proud to support Anthony, Greg, and the entire Wingspan team as they continue to modernize the infrastructure for contract work.' 'Wingspan cracked the code on making flexible work work—for platforms and the businesses they serve. Every platform will need a contractor stack—the smart ones will embed Wingspan,' said David Ulevitch, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Mastercard Receivables Manager launches
Mastercard is modernizing supplier reconciliation and streamlining virtual card payments with several new enablers. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Today, it's launching widescale global availability of Mastercard Receivables Manager, its automated solution that makes virtual cards more efficient, secure and cost-effective for businesses to accept. To give payment service providers greater flexibility in how they offer B2B payment innovations, Mastercard is also introducing Commercial Direct Payments, an advanced straight-through processing solution that fully automates virtual card payments and reconciliation. Together, the expanded offerings deliver a fast, innovative B2B payment experience for both buyers and suppliers at an opportune time when embracing the digitization of commercial payments is increasingly moving from optional to essential. According to a recent global Mastercard survey, 93% of B2B suppliers shared that digitizing payment processes is a top priority for their business, while two thirds still acknowledge regularly falling short of buyer payment expectations. 'Businesses today expect simple, secure, and seamless ways to pay and get paid – with many turning to virtual cards to meet those expectations,' said Marc Pettican, global head of corporate solutions, Mastercard, 'To support our clients wherever they are on their modernization journey, we're thrilled to bring to market another simple path to receivables automation, and to fuel the consumerization of B2B payments around the world in the process.' Empowering suppliers with enhanced virtual card acceptance Since its launch just two years ago, Mastercard Receivables Manager has been levelled up with new capabilities such as multi-language and secure card-on-file to support digital commerce around the world. Now available globally, acquiring partners are embracing the innovation to modernize supplier virtual card acceptance experiences across major card networks and help customers strengthen buyer-supplier relationships. Elavon and Run Payments are among the many innovative payment providers in the United States offering Mastercard Receivables Manager to address manual processing and reconciliation challenges – which some 42% of suppliers across the nation note as top barriers to acceptance. EazyPay is also one of the first acquiring partners in the Middle East to offer the solution to transform accounts receivable workflows for their customers in Bahrain. Taking the manual out of Commercial payments The next wave of B2B payment innovation is here – and many payment service providers are already embracing it. Commercial Direct Payments is a new card network-agnostic solution that powers accounts receivable automation for suppliers, and optimizes digital payment opportunities for buyers increasingly looking to pay by card. When the buyer initiates a card payment, Commercial Direct Payments enables it to be processed directly with the supplier's acquirer – eliminating all manual steps for making and receiving payments. The funds are automatically deposited into the supplier's account and the detailed remittance data can be seamlessly integrated into the AR workflow. The entire B2B payment process becomes smooth and hassle-free, bringing key benefits to ecosystem players, including: • Driving supplier efficiency with automated reconciliation: Suppliers can easily reconcile payments using the rich remittance data that can flow directly into their ERP systems, freeing up resources to focus on more strategic tasks. • Unlocking automated B2B payment processing at scale: Issuers and acquirers can quickly unlock the benefits of straight through processing without the need for multiple costly and time-intensive connections with one another. Commercial Direct Payments streamlines this process by providing a single connection to Mastercard and enabling the flow of secure, standardized payment and remittance data between issuers and acquirers. • Strengthening buyer-supplier relationships: Buyers have the flexibility to pay with physical or virtual cards to improve cash flow, while suppliers can get paid securely, efficiently, and on time. Commercial Direct Payments is a global product innovation initially available in the U.S., with Sakon as the first launch customer. Hear what our enabling partners are saying: Pari Sawant, Chief Product Officer, Elavon: 'This partnership reflects our dedication to offering a payment processing experience that's empowering suppliers with innovative B2B solutions to thrive in an increasingly fast-paced digital economy. Our customers are reaping the benefits of automated virtual card acceptance – enabling us to sustain strong engagement across our supplier community.' Rob Nathan, CEO & Co-Founder, Run Payments: 'Mastercard Receivables Manager automates the entire process of accepting virtual cards for our clients — saving them valuable time, dramatically reducing manual work, and unlocking faster, more predictable cash flow while lowering costs. It's another step forward in helping businesses remove friction and focus on what they do best.' Nayef Tawfiq Al Alawi, founder and CEO, EazyPay: 'Collaborating together with Mastercard, we are aligned on bringing consumer led digital payment experiences to the B2B world. This solution will empower more suppliers to accept virtual cards – modernizing their accounts receivable workflows and unlocking faster, more reliable cash flow in the process.' Dan Hughes, President, Sakon, Head of AP Copilot: "AP Copilot is proud to be at the forefront of transforming B2B payment experiences. Collaborating with Mastercard to deliver Commercial Direct Payments through our innovative smart payment assistant is a significant step in accelerating and scaling virtual card enabled straight-through processing technology in the U.S., enabling more buyers and suppliers to automate B2B payments while reducing complexity, risk and costs in the process."
Finextra
2 days ago
- Business
- Finextra
Fime introduces My Number Card suite in Japan
Fime Digital My Number Card suite is part of the broader Fime Digital Identity Japan initiative to advance secure and scalable mobile eID adoption. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. The new test suite promotes interoperability and trust in Japan's digital credential ecosystem by validating vendor solutions against national and international standards and supporting the Japanese language. This will enable vendors to validate their solutions against both international and national requirements for device-to-device data transfer. This reinforces Japan's leadership in secure, user-centric identity verification while advancing interoperability and user adoption. The My Number Card can be used to access administrative services and validate identity using stored credentials including the holder's name, birthdate, and a photograph. To support Japan's transition from physical to digital credentials on smartphones, Fime has developed a tool that enables interoperable and scalable testing of mobile solutions for local use cases including retail, travel, and healthcare. This builds on Fime's global role in digital identity programs, reinforcing its leadership in trusted, inclusive eID ecosystems. 'At Fime, we see digital identity not just as a technology, but as a foundation for inclusive, secure digital societies,' comments James Daniels, SVP Asia Pacific at Fime. 'Our work to support the My Number Card reflects our expertise in helping turn complex global standards into tangible, interoperable solutions that scale. By equipping vendors with cutting-edge test tools and expert guidance, we help accelerate innovation, establish trust and support compliance — essential ingredients for the future adoption of digital identity.' Fime's Digital Identity Reader Test Suite supports conformance validation and has been key to aligning the My Number Card framework with the ISO/IEC 18013-5:2021 standard. Fime's Digital Identity solutions are helping to augment and accelerate the roll-outs of secure digital identity initiatives worldwide in compliance with local and regional requirements. Fime's expert consultants are also supporting vendors in the development, enhancement and successful certification of products.
