Adyen Powers Up Wero, Bizum Breaks Free of the Bank App

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Yesterday we got two big payment announcements out of Europe. Let's kick off with a FinTech from my hometown: Adyen.

Adyen was already integrated with Wero, but it's now joined EPI (the group behind Wero) as a principal member. Why does that matter?

Because a wallet is only as useful as the places you can actually pay with it. Wero already has the banks and the consumer side locked in.

The missing piece was merchant acceptance at scale, and that's exactly what Adyen brings:

• More merchants at checkout
• Faster, simpler payments
• A real path to scale across Europe

Now let's head to sunny Spain!

Spain's national payment rail, Bizum, just landed a long-awaited upgrade: it launched its own standalone app for paying in stores.

Until now, Bizum only lived inside your bank's app. From now on, its 32M users can simply tap their phone to the terminal (Android or iPhone) - without even opening the app!

See what else is shaping Payments. 👇 See you tomorrow!

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

📊 Mastercard 🆚 American Express

Here's how Q1 2026 looked, side by side👇

NEWS

➡️ Airwallex rolled out new features across payments, embedded finance, and spend management in July, including its Airi consumer wallet, AgentOS for AI-powered finance workflows, expanded local payment methods, and enhanced card, expense, and business account capabilities. Read more

🇦🇷 Nexo arrives in Argentina with a card powered by Pomelo. With this launch, Nexo aims to bring the benefits of the crypto ecosystem closer to its users' daily lives, allowing them to use their digital assets through a modern, simple, and secure payment experience.

🇨🇩 Mastercard and Flash collaborate to broaden access to digital payments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through the collaboration, Flash will issue virtual and physical Mastercard prepaid cards via its super app FlashApp, giving users new ways to pay online and at point-of-sale terminals across the DRC.

🌍 Kraken launches Kraken Card, a Mastercard crypto debit card in the UK and Europe, allowing users to spend more than 600 cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies anywhere Mastercard is accepted. The card offers up to 2% cashback in Bitcoin, euros or pounds, with no Kraken transaction or ATM fees.

📈 Maple reported its strongest first half on record, with assets under management reaching $4.6 billion, loans outstanding climbing to a record $1.9 billion, and annual recurring revenue rising to $17.5 million. The company also launched an on-chain Transparency Dashboard and is preparing to vote on a revenue-linked buyback proposal. Watch the full update here

🌍 Adyen joins the European Payments Initiative as a principal member. The move is intended to give consumers a fast, secure, and straightforward way to pay at checkout, while helping to accelerate merchant adoption of the wallet across the region.

🇪🇸 Bizum launches its app to pay with your mobile phone in physical stores. The new digital wallet Bizum Pay will be available for Android and iPhone and will allow users to pay by simply bringing their phone close to the payment terminal without opening the application.

🇺🇸 Ramp cofounder says he hired people who built businesses on Minecraft at 15 years old. Ramp co-CEO Eric Glyman said the FinTech prioritizes hiring candidates with exceptional "proof of work" over traditional résumés. The company focuses on identifying standout talent through real-world achievements and referrals rather than conventional credentials.

🇺🇸 Naver makes first investment in US crypto payments firm Rain ahead of planned merger. The move supports Naver Pay's plans to expand stablecoin-powered payments globally, leveraging Rain's Visa-based infrastructure to enable stablecoin transactions across merchants in more than 150 countries.

🌍 ECB selects 36 payment service providers to join the digital euro pilot. The pilot aims to support the ongoing preparatory work for the potential issuance of a digital euro and is due to start during the second half of 2027 for a period of 12 months.

🇺🇸 Linux Foundation announces operational launch of x402 Foundation to standardize internet-native payments for AI agents and applications. The x402 protocol embeds secure payment capabilities directly into web interactions so that AI agents, APIs, and applications can send and receive payments as seamlessly as they exchange data.

🌍 Emirates NBD launches real-time blockchain cross-border payments on the Partior Network. The launch marks the first phase of a broader roadmap to expand the capability across additional currencies, settlement corridors, and more participating banks globally as the Partior network scales.

🇺🇸 Brazil’s Pix Instant Payments System is at the center of a US trade dispute. USTR said in a press release that the investigation concluded that “certain of Brazil’s acts, policies and practices” related to digital trade and electronic payments services “are unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce” and therefore actionable.

🇺🇸 Visa introduces an AI financial assistant, helping banks guide customers from insight to action. The feature helps banks bring AI-powered financial insights to cardholders under their own brand, look and feel with no custom development required.

🇷🇼 Rwanda launches full interoperability on the eKash national payment system. The move allows customers to send and receive money across banks and electronic money providers through a single interoperable system. Customers will pay a maximum transaction fee of RWF 20 for transfers processed through eKash, subject to financial institutions’ individual transaction and daily limits.

🇹🇷 Papara founder Ahmet Faruk Karslı has been re-arrested as Turkish authorities intensify their investigation into the digital wallet provider's alleged links to illegal gambling payments. The case marks a significant escalation in Turkey's crackdown on financial crime, with regulators increasing scrutiny of FinTechs and payment providers. 

🇺🇸 REPAY appoints Zach Sadek to its Board of Directors. Mr. Sadek brings more than two decades of experience investing in and advising companies across the payments, financial technology, business services, and software sectors. Continue reading

🇳🇱 Nopan raises €7.2M to further build its performance platform for account and wallet payments. The funding will help Nopan accelerate its mission to turn account and wallet payment methods into revenue drivers for digital businesses and FinTechs.

🇲🇺 Sunfintech partners with Flutterwave for cross-border payments. The collaboration integrates Flutterwave’s payment infrastructure into Sunfintech’s platform, allowing businesses to process cross-border transactions more efficiently while benefiting from faster settlements and multi-currency payment capabilities.

🇬🇧 Payments startup Velocity raises $38 million to help businesses tap stablecoin growth. The Series A funding will be used to further expand the company's global banking network and accelerate the development of products that embed stablecoins directly into consumer payment back-ends.

🇺🇸 Tether leads $7 million Series A in Pact Labs to expand USA₮ across payroll and payments. The investment will support Pact Labs’ development as a core infrastructure provider for USA₮ across payroll, earned wage access, credit, and everyday payments.

🇺🇸 Flex doubles valuation to $1.2B in 6 months as $70M Series B1 backs global private banking push for middle-market owners. Flex plans to use the new funds to double its staff from 110 to over 200 by the end of the year and to expand into business finance, personal finance, payments, private credit, and ERP.

Want your message in front of 100.000+ FinTech fanatics, founders, investors, and operators?

Shoot me a message on LinkedIn or send me an  e-mail.