Payhawk Surpasses $100M ARR

Hey Payment Fanatic!

Reaching $100 million in ARR is a milestone only a small number of private software companies ever achieve. This week, Payhawk joined that group after reporting strong growth across its business.

The company says much of that momentum has come from rebuilding both its products and internal operations around AI. Over the past year, it reported 159% growth in new business, 95% growth in payment volume, and a significant increase in revenue generated per employee.

Whether every company can replicate that model remains to be seen. But Payhawk's results add to the growing evidence that AI is starting to reshape not only customer-facing products but also how FinTechs build, sell, and operate their businesses.

There's much more waiting below.

You'll also find why Pix is attracting attention far beyond Brazil and what its rise means for the future of global payments, plus a look at how Limited's Batch Payments helps businesses simplify high-volume payouts from a single platform.

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

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

📰 Simplify business payouts with Batch Payments by Limited. The feature supports bank transfers, instant Limited-to-Limited payments and crypto transfers, while also allowing businesses to schedule recurring payouts such as payroll, supplier invoices and contractor payments.

NEWS

🇲🇩 Mastercard completes Moldova’s first payments executed by an AI agent with maib and Moldindconbank. The pilot demonstrates the banks' readiness to support secure, authenticated AI-driven commerce and lays the foundation for broader adoption of agentic payments.

🇮🇹 Satispay moves into banking: debit cards arrive in partnership with Mastercard. This new collaboration represents the convergence of the innovative energy of a FinTech unicorn and the global expertise of a payments leader: an alliance that aims to strengthen the digital evolution of payment services in Italy.

🇬🇧 Payhawk surpasses $100M ARR and grows faster and leaner in Europe, driven by an AI-native rebuild. The company said AI has significantly improved operational efficiency, driving higher productivity across sales, product and customer support while processing growing payment volumes across Europe.

🇮🇳 PhonePe appoints Srijon Biswas as CTO. In his new role, Biswas will lead PhonePe’s engineering organisation. He has been with the company for several years, leading engineering across multiple teams and contributing to the development of its engineering organisation.

🌎 Tether to invest $20 million in strategic financing round for Mercado Bitcoin to accelerate onchain financial infrastructure in Latin America. The investment reflects Tether’s continued commitment to supporting open, efficient, and accessible financial infrastructure in high-growth markets and reinforces Brazil’s role.

🚨 Pix has quietly turned into a geopolitical flashpoint 🇧🇷

Free. Instant. And now caught in a trade fight with Washington.

The numbers👇

🇳🇱 Regulator grants online retailer Bol a license to operate as a payment provider. The new division is mainly aimed at customers who want to pay later. The company will also offer payment services to online businesses, allowing them to process customer payments through Bol’s technology.

🇨🇦 Theparkpay secures a Canadian licence for real-time global payments. The newly acquired licence complements the company’s existing Money Services Business (MSB) licence in Canada, expanding its regulatory capabilities to deliver faster, secure, and fully compliant payment solutions worldwide.

🇰🇷 Toss partners with Optimism to explore a won-pegged stablecoin for South Korea. The collaboration aims to build a blockchain-based payment and settlement infrastructure that meets institutional-grade security and regulatory standards. Keep reading

🇦🇷 Nexo Argentina launches Nexo Card and appoints Andres Ondarra as GM. The Nexo Card allows users to spend digital assets in debit mode or borrow against them as collateral in credit mode without selling their holdings. Ondarra brings more than 25 years of experience across traditional finance, FinTech, and the cryptocurrency industry in Latin America.

🇿🇦 Launch Africa Ventures sells Peach Payments stake to South African investment manager 27four, giving its Nebula Fund exposure to the fast-growing African payments company. The transaction highlights the growing role of secondary deals in Africa's venture capital ecosystem.

🇺🇸 Depa Finance selects Modern Treasury to power its stablecoin-native cross-border payments infrastructure. Through Modern Treasury, Depa is able to automate flows between fiat and stablecoin accounts, manage the full lifecycle of payment orders at scale, and extend Global USD Accounts to clients.

🇧🇷 Kolek is acquired by RecebeAqui, with the companies forming a new holding company while continuing to operate their brands independently. The deal reflects ongoing consolidation in the FinTech sector, as rising regulatory and compliance requirements increase pressure on smaller payment providers.

🇸🇬 Eromnet obtains Singapore MPI license, expanding global FinTech business. With the MPI License, Eromnet is now authorized to provide three regulated payment services in the country: Domestic Money Transfer Service, Cross-border Money Transfer Service, and Merchant Acquisition Service.

GOLDEN NUGGET

𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 — 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐬 — 𝐛𝐲 Dune & Visa 👇 Created by Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️

For years, "stablecoin" meant "digital dollar."

Not anymore.

Euros, reais, Singapore dollars, and yen are now being issued onchain — fully reserved, fully regulated. The world is quietly building a multi-currency digital payments stack.

→ $1.2B total supply — up 3x since 2023

→ $10B monthly transfer volume — 16x growth

→ 30x growth in unique holders — from 40K to 1.2M users

→ $320T cross-border payments market by 2032

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝

→ EUR — 80% of supply (Circle's EURC, MiCA-compliant)

→ BRL — 10% (Avenia's BRLA, integrated with PIX)

→ SGD — 1.5% (StraitsX's XSGD, MAS-regulated)

→ JPY — 1.5% (JPYC.Inc., first FSA-regulated yen stablecoin)

Growth is strongest in mature financial systems. Europe and Japan are leading, not emerging markets. Regulatory clarity is the tailwind.

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬

Two forces make this real.

First, regulation. MiCA in Europe, MAS in Singapore, PIX rules in Brazil, the Payment Services Act in Japan — clear licensing and reserve standards make local currency stablecoins easier to adopt than USD ones in those jurisdictions.

Second, cards. Visa supports stablecoin-linked cards in 40+ countries — with 175M+ acceptance points and 14,500 financial institutions wired in. Tokenized euros, reais, and yen settle invisibly in the background, while consumers keep using familiar rails.

The dollar is not going away. But the assumption that every digital payment must route through it is.

Source: Dune × Visa

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