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Shopify announces Google Pay integration, improved mobile checkout (BETAKIT)
Shopify merchants will now be able to integrate Google Pay through Shopify.
American Express quietly acquired UK fintech startup Cake for $13.3M(TECHCRUNCH)
Confirming the acquisition, American Express said “we will be on-boarding Cake and their technologies to collaborate on ways to provide our Card Members with enhanced service and value in the dining space, which is an area many of our Card Members are passionate about.”
Is Amazon’s Alexa ready for person-to-person payments? (AMERICANBANKER)
While predictions abound that Amazon will soon roll out an easy payments system for its ubiquitous voice-activated assistant, are Alexa payments really ready for prime time? The short answer is not yet — unless banks opt to authenticate the transactions outside Alexa, making them harder to execute.
UK digital bank launches a ‘disposable’ virtual card that renews your details each time you pay to prevent fraud(CNBC)
The company’s new feature will work alongside its current security features, which include location-based security, the option to freeze and unfreeze physical cards and to disable functions like contactless and swipe payments.
TMX and Paycase launching cryptocurrency brokerage services(BETAKIT)
BMO Financial Group will provide the Shorcan Digital Currency Network with banking services as part of the payment and settlement infrastructure.
Chargebee raises $18M to help businesses manage subscriptions (TECHCRUNCH)
The funding was led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management.
FinTech app Lydia launches premium tier with added financial services (MM)
Lydia says it is building a meta-banking app that allows users to use and view multiple accounts including their own bank account and Lydia sub-accounts.
eToro raises $100M in Series E funding (FINSMES)
eToro, a Limassol, Cyprus- and London, UK-based social trading and investment platform, raised the funding from China Minsheng Financial, with participation from SBI Group, Korea Investment Partners, World Wide Invest and other investors.
N26 raises $160 million from Tencent and Allianz (TECHCRUNCH)
N26, which is building a retail bank from scratch, plans to double down on everything it’s been doing so far: more expansions, more partnerships with other FinTech products, more features, and more engineers.
CryptoKitties raises $12 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures
(BETAKIT)
Other investors include Coinbase founder Fred Ehrsam, AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus.
FTC cracking down on alleged cryptocurrency scams(THE STAR)
The illicit activity affected 30,000 consumers worldwide, according to Federal Trade Commission estimates.
Pockit Loqbox promises to help the UK’s ‘unbanked’ improve their credit scorey(TECHCRUNCH)
Pockit, a mobile banking app that provides current account functionality for the UK’s “underbanked,” has teamed up with financial inclusion FinTech Nooli to launch ‘Pockit Loqbox,’ a potentially clever way for people with a poor credit rating to improve their score without taking further credit.
With $1.3 million, Finhaven is building a blockchain-powered securities exchange(BETAKIT)
Vancouver-based TIMIA Capital is one of the companies leveraging the platform.