Uber and Block Expand Partnership
Hey Payments Fanatic!
Uber and Block are supercharging their existing partnership, taking Square's seamless POS integration with Uber Eats global, now live in Canada, Australia, the U.K., Ireland, France, and Spain.
Square's hunger for expansion doesn't stop there: U.S. riders and diners can now pay with Cash App Pay, tapping into 59 million users for faster checkouts and exclusive perks.
This builds on prior ties like Afterpay in Australia, streamlining restaurant ops with unified menus, instant payouts, and no extra hardware.
"This global partnership with Uber exemplifies Block’s unique ability to create value across our entire ecosystem by serving both sides of the counter simultaneously," said Nick Molnar, Global Head of Sales and Marketing at Block.
This announcement comes just a couple of months after Uber extended its partnership with Adyen to power Uber Kiosks, debuting at LaGuardia Airport.
Don’t lose the pulse on the payments landscape so find out what else is going on below. See you on Monday!
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
📰 OpenAI’s agentic commerce shift: What it means for merchants by Checkout.com. The article explains how OpenAI is evolving commerce within ChatGPT, moving away from in-chat “Instant Checkout” toward merchant-controlled checkout models. It highlights that AI will increasingly handle product discovery and intent, while merchants retain full control over transactions. Read the full article here
NEWS
🇳🇱 Mastercard and Dappre expand Open Finance collaboration. Under the arrangement, Dappre's app allows consumers to automatically set aside small amounts whenever they make purchases at participating local merchants. By leveraging Mastercard Open Finance, transaction data is shared securely and in real time, removing the need for manual validation.
🇺🇸 Wall Street giants Mastercard, BlackRock & Franklin Templeton take notice of XRP Ledger. The article highlights rising real-world asset activity on the network and positions DeFi as a key layer enabling faster, more transparent global transactions.
🇺🇸 Uber and Block expand global partnership to transform restaurant operations and launch Cash App Pay. This partnership underscores both Uber's and Block's commitment to innovation, supporting sellers and customers with intuitive technology that makes both running a business and paying for services easier, strengthening local communities globally in the process.
🌏 WeChat Pay expands cross-border QR code payment connectivity across 5 countries. This means that in these countries, users no longer need to search for WeChat QR codes; instead, they can use WeChat Pay to scan QR codes issued by local payment platforms, just as local users do.
🇺🇸 Repay attracts a $1B takeover offer. Repay is facing takeover pressure from Forager Capital Management, which criticized the company for adopting defensive measures against its offer and questioned its commitment to shareholder value. Read more
🇺🇸 Payroc launches Bodega AI: an AI-powered POS system for high-SKU retail businesses. Bodega AI combines integrated payment processing, AI-driven inventory management, and automated real-time pricing insights into one platform, helping small retailers simplify operations and improve profitability.
🇩🇪 Paysight partners with Paymend to help merchants recover more failed payments. The partnership is built around a simple idea: recovery should not end with the first unsuccessful attempt. By combining Paysight and Paymend, merchants get another practical way to strengthen post-decline performance and reduce avoidable revenue leakage.
🇴🇲 MoneyHash advances its payment infrastructure in Oman with Thawani Pay. By working with Thawani Pay, MoneyHash continues to expand the depth of its local coverage, enabling merchants to operate more effectively within Oman’s payment ecosystem while maintaining consistency across markets.
🇸🇦 Yuno receives payment technical service provider certification from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). The PTSP certification confirms that Yuno’s platform has completed the required technical testing and compliance procedures to operate within the Kingdom’s payments ecosystem.
🇨🇦 Corpay cross-border named the official FX supplier of Toulouse Football Club. Through this partnership, Corpay Cross-Border will deliver comprehensive FX risk management solutions to support the club’s operations. In addition, its award-winning platform will enable the club to manage global payments seamlessly through a single point of access.
🇺🇸 ACI Worldwide announced ACI Connetic for eight major U.S. networks on a single, cloud-native platform. ACI Connetic supports stablecoin and tokenized-deposit capabilities, providing a unified approach across traditional, instant, and digital-asset payment rails that helps banks reduce the operational burden of running multiple clearing systems.
🇸🇦 Tamara partners with Lean Technologies to expand credit access by 32% for the modern workforce. This allowed Tamara to better evaluate customers with non-traditional income sources, such as freelancers and gig workers, by gaining deeper visibility into cash flow and affordability, ultimately expanding access to credit and reducing unnecessary rejections.
🇩🇪 Nexi and Visa aim to reshape card issuing in Germany with the Managed Model. The partnership aims to help banks modernise card issuing. Under the long-term agreement, Nexi will provide end-to-end managed issuing services for banks offering Visa cards.
🇰🇿 UnionPay expands QR payments to Kazakhstan's Halyk Bank. Through this partnership, Halyk Bank customers can now make convenient QR code payments across the global UnionPay network via their mobile banking app, which also supports scanning WeChat Pay collection codes within China.
🇱🇹 myTU and E100 launch embedded business card solution to modernize logistics payments. The partnership enables E100 to offer digital business accounts and Visa payment cards directly through its own portal, helping fleet operators manage and control expenses across their operations.
🇬🇧 Coinbase has listed the fiat-backed stablecoin tGBP, expanding access to local currency digital assets and supporting the UK’s position as a crypto hub. The move reflects the growing role of stablecoins in global payments, as adoption and transaction volumes continue to rise rapidly.
🇧🇷 CloudWalk raises R$ 5.5 billion in a new funding round, surpassing its previous record and expanding access to credit for Brazilian entrepreneurs. The funds from the new FIDC will be used primarily for the early receipt of receivables related to credit cards, a practice that is becoming increasingly common among FinTech companies to improve the liquidity of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs.
GOLDEN NUGGET
USDC: ~2 seconds. Wire transfers: ~5 days.
Same money. Same destination. ~216,000× slower 🤯
What you see as “instant” isn’t settlement.
When your card says “Payment Approved” in 2 seconds… that’s just authorization.
The actual money? 1–3 days later.
Stablecoins collapse both into one: instant + final settlement.
And they’re going after the core rails: cards, processors, and cross-border wires.
Source: Gaspard L
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