Marcel van Oost

Hey Payments Fanatic! India’s UPI is preparing to debut in Japan, marking another step in the global rollout of the country’s flagship payment network. A partnership between NTT Data and the National Payments Corporation of India will kick off a trial in fiscal 2026. The first use case

Hey Payments Fanatic!  Juspay just raised $50M from WestBridge in a Series D follow-on round. That pushes the company’s valuation to $1.2B, officially putting Juspay into unicorn territory. A big step for one of India’s most infrastructure-heavy payments players. What I find notable is the

Hey Payments Fanatic! Gr4vy just partnered with Ecommpay to give merchants instant access to 100+ local and international payment methods. Through one integration, merchants get access to cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and key local APMs like iDEAL, BLIK, Bancontact, Trustly, and P24, with each transaction routed to the best

Hey Payments Fanatic! Mastercard is moving fast to define how agentic commerce should actually work. The company just joined Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol and is pushing to bring Agent Pay into Microsoft Copilot Checkout. Same message everywhere: speed without trust doesn’t scale. This is about rules: clear intent,

Hey Payments Fanatic! Pomelo just raised $55M in a Series C to scale across Latin America and beyond. Kaszek and Insight Partners co-led the round. A strong signal of long-term belief in the region. Mexico and Brazil are the priority. Scale matters there. Regulation too. Pomelo is also

Hey Payments Fanatic! Cardtonic just closed a $2.1M seed round to build Pil, a new business spending and expense management platform. Cardtonic is moving from consumer products into enterprise financial infrastructure, targeting how African businesses manage spend, controls, and day-to-day operations. From virtual dollar cards to bill