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Celo, the open-source blockchain payments outfit taking on the Facebook-led Diem, has received $20 million in backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Greenfield One, and Electric Capital. 
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UAE-based National Bank of Fujairah is to provide customers with real-time cross-border funds transfers via the RippleNet network.
Vineet Anand's insight:
RippleNet enables NBF RT cross-border funds transfer to India corridor!
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Israeli fintech Rewire, which has developed a cross-border international banking service for migrant workers, has secured $12 million in a funding round led by Viola Fintech and including contributions from BNP Paribas and strategic banking partner Standard Bank.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Rewire raises $12 million funding round to expand EU footprint for migrants to deposit money into a digital bank account, a debit and a remittance service.
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Barclays, the Mastercard Foundation and Ripple have joined in a $1.7 million funding round for overseas remittance startup SendFriend.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Remittance market now has another start-up SendFriend vying for the $650 billion market that will use XRP as the vessel to move funds. A highly competitive space, with SendFriend looking at US to Philippines corridor as their initial pipe.
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Samsung Pay users can now wire money intentionally through their mobile phones and save in fees compared to sending money overseas via conventional remittance route. Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday that it has begu
Vineet Anand's insight:
Samsung Pay to venture into remittance business including US! I question the strategy as this is a very price sensitive, with speed and transparency playing an important aspect. Western Union, Zoom, MG and other entrenched apps are meeting the needs of current smartphone users for account to account; and agent payouts. Unless proven wrong, believe this strategy will not help build a greater user base for Samsung Pay as other remittance brands are well entrenched, established and competitive.
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Pakistan's Telenor Microfinance Bank has introduced a cross-border remittance service powered by blockchain technology from China's Ant Financial.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Alipay DLT remittance offering between Malaysia and Pakistan a corridor that sends $1 billion in remittances.
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Alibaba's financial service brand Ant Financial is in advanced talks to buy UK currency transfer service WorldFirst, according to reports by Sky News.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Ant Financial to acquire Worldfirst; past two years attempts at acquiring MG have been futile for AF.
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London-based money transfer outfit Azimo has closed a $20m Series C investment round led by Japan's Rakuten Capital.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Azimo's latest funding round of $20 million to drive profitability in 12 months.. reduction in customer acquisition costs seems to be driving improvement in margins. Compare acquisition costs with likes of Xoom and WU to evaluate trajectory!
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UK money transfer service WorldRemit has raised $45m in financing from TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. and Silicon Valley Bank, taking its total funding to nearly $200m.
Vineet Anand's insight:
WorldRemit total funding now reaches $200 million after recent round of $45 million. It has generated $39 million and undertakes 4.8 million transactions a year!
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The article talks about 19 Bitcoin Remittance Startups That Won't Let the Cryptocurrency Die
Vineet Anand's insight:
The Blockchain investments and initiatives are soaring in 2016 with bitcoin news a tad muted.than previous year. A good list of start-ups that continue to use crypto-currency for remittances and growing!
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Finextra: TransferWise may have built its reputation by bashing traditional banks for overcharging customers on currency transfers, but that's not stopping the London-based startup from sleeping with the enemy by embedding its services into their online platforms.
Vineet Anand's insight:
TransferWise launches API for banks to embed its services with banks and has its 1st deal with Estonia LHV. A great strategy for TransferWise to bring volume home for banking customers which includes NEO banks, lenders and high street players. SWIFT will feel the pinch at sometime in the future as such API's will eat into the revenue.
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The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has called in local vendor RS Software to build a digital payments platform designed to facilitate the country's push to electronic money.
Vineet Anand's insight:
RS Software has been called in by NPCI to create a unified payments interface that financial institutions can tap into via APIs and use for new mobile payment products. Consumers to send and receive money without requiring bank account information and use two factor authentication.
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Finextra: BlackBerry has set out plans to grab a slice of the African mobile money market, beginning with the launch of a feature in Nigeria that lets users send money to each other through the BBM messaging service.
Vineet Anand's insight:
BlackBerry Pay in Nigeria - that is correct BBM to launch P2P services with airtime or Fastmonei or money transfer using Interswitch processor. BBM has 22 million registered users in Nigeria, an asset that might have been undervalued or even overlooked while the Canadian phone maker continues to brace challenges from Apple, Android and Samsung!
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Finextra: The top 20 non-bank money transfer providers based in the UK now account for over £40 billion of foreign exchange per year, saving customers over £900 million annually, according to data compiled by FXcompared.
Vineet Anand's insight:
It has been apparent for a while the rise of digital remittance non-bank firms are bringing lower fees, transparency, and faster delivery of funds as compared to traditional banks. TransferWise is slated driving $500,000 per month in remittance volumes. Banks need to be worried about its B2B remittance space, which is a bigger market, large transaction size, and part of existing relationship. This research indicates UK customers save about 36% on a PS10,000 transaction to Australia!
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Finextra: London-based business finance outfit Ebury has snagged a massive $83 million funding round led by Vitruvian partners.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Ebury doubled its mid-size customer base to 10,000 (April 2015) and growing with focus on cross-border payment, money and FX management.
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The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, and WeChat, a leading social communication platform owned by Tenc
Vineet Anand's insight:
WUConnect platform now offers money transfer service via WeChat, messaging service owned by Tencent, with ~650 million MAU's. Recipients can receive funds at retail location, mobile wallet or bank account!
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Finextra: Bank of America has filed a US patent application for a system and method that uses cryptocurrency technology for wire transfers.
Vineet Anand's insight:
A couple of start-ups are already moving money around the world using crypto-exchanges thus avoiding the traditional FX markets and correspondent bank system. The scalability is key here as there are limited currencies being traded on XBT exchanges and liquidity is dependent on volumes that have remained fairly flat for more than a year!
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Finextra: Azimo and MasterCard-controlled outfit HomeSend have teamed up to enable users throughout Europe to send money to loved ones in Africa and Asia through their mobile phones.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Mobile-money accounts to receive funds in real time! Interesting to see the transaction size as mobile-money will likely have limitations to withdrawal say for GBP 1000 in PHP and if there is an associated charge to remove funds from wallet for cash.
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Finextra: Kenya's Equity Bank has officially launched its mobile money service Equitel in a bid to take on the hugely popular Safaricom-owned M-Pesa.
Vineet Anand's insight:
M-Pesa faces competition on its own turn from Equity Bank that will be offering MT, loans and insurance services in addition to voice/SMS/data!
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Finextra: PayPal is forcing its way into the booming market for international remittances with a proposed $890 million acquisition of money transfer startup Xoom.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Post Paydient acquisition, Xoom appears to be less strategic in nature - it definitely has more value to Xoom than to PayPal. Limited assets Xoom brings to PayPal and with small 1.3 million user base the acquisition per user is ~$684; seems a bit expensive asset to acquire. PP has the cash right now on its books to acquire.
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Finextra: CurrencyCloud, the London-based firm that runs the back-end processing for some of the world's most promising money transfer startups, has roped in Sapphire and Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten as heavyweight investors in a new $18 funding round.
Vineet Anand's insight:
CurrencyCloud now processing $12 Billion / year and has been growing significantly supporting FX rates for Transferwise, Azimo, Fidor, and Payoneer. Interesting to see Rakuten making investments with CurrencyCloud.
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London-based online and mobile money transfer startup Azimo has raised $20 million in funding to support expansion in Europe and to new markets in North America and Asia.
Vineet Anand's insight:
$600 billion remittance market is getting more attention from investors - Azimo $20 million, Transferwise $58 million and WorldRemit $100 million since start of 2015! Digital frontier is becoming competitive for the established players Western Union and MoneyGram.
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Finextra: London-based money transfer startup TransferWise says it is now processing £500 million a month on its platform, saving customers some £22 million in fees compared to equivalent bank rates.
Vineet Anand's insight:
Transferwise now captures 2% of UK outbound remittance market!
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Finextra: The UK government has set out its approach to digital currencies, vowing to start applying anti-money laundering regulation to exchanges but also promising to put cash behind research into the potential of blockchain technology.
Vineet Anand's insight:
AML requirements for digital currency operators in the UK will be introduced likely later this year. Blockchain technology is being appreciated for its distributed ledger management for other use cases by treasury!
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Finextra: UK-based currency exchange outfit World First has launched an international payments app for the Android-powered smartwatch market.
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Curated by Vineet Anand
Payment Industry leader passionate about Fintech, Innovation in Banking, Product Management & Strategy, driving revenue growth through client management, business development and P&L focus.
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The Payments ecosystem is evolving at an unprecedented pace driven by mobile, cloud computing, start-up's challenging the behemoths, and new technologies. My personal collection of curated stories and blogs.
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New app Valora to drive P2P remittances!