Gig workers need health & benefits — Catch is their safety net
One of the hottest Y Combinator startups just raised a big seed round to clean up the mess created by Uber, Postmates and the gig economy. Catch sells health insurance,… Read more »
Category: Payments
Ysplit wants to make it so you never owe your friends money again
When you live with roommates or go out often with friends, it’s common for someone to front the payment — be that for utilities, the cable bill, rent or the… Read more »
UK military veteran launches crowd-funding for Pixie app to revive local stores
What if, instead of sitting on your phone on the sofa ordering stuff from Amazon, you could buy the same things locally from local stores that ultimately enliven and enrich… Read more »
Instagram’s fundraiser stickers could lure credit card numbers
Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed that commerce is a huge part of the 2019 road map for Facebook’s family of apps. But before people can easily buy things from Instagram etc., Facebook… Read more »
The plot to revive Mt. Gox and repay victims’ Bitcoin
It was the Lehman Brothers of blockchain. 850,000 Bitcoin disappeared when cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox imploded in 2014 after a series of hacks. The incident cemented the industry’s reputation as frighteningly… Read more »
Zwipe tops up with $14M to bring biometric payment cards to market this year
Biometric payment card startup Zwipe has swiped $14M to add to an earlier Series B round as it continues to work towards commercializing technology that embeds a fingerprint reader in payment… Read more »
New policy puts revenue squeeze on China’s payments giants
The era that saw China’s mobile payments providers making handsome interest returns on client money has officially ended. Starting this week, non-bank payments companies must place 100 percent of their… Read more »
Square finds its Sarah Friar replacement with new CFO Amrita Ahuja
Founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey says Square has poached Amrita Ahuja from Blizzard Entertainment, a division of the gaming company Activision Blizzard, to lead finance at the merchant services… Read more »
FB QVC? Facebook tries Live video shopping
Want to run your own home shopping network? Facebook is now testing a Live video feature for merchants that lets them demo and describe their items for viewers. Customers can… Read more »
PayPal: Black Friday & Cyber Monday broke records with $1B+ in mobile payment volume
Black Friday broke records in terms of sales made from mobile devices, according to reports last week from Adobe. This week, PayPal said it saw a similar trend during the Thanksgiving… Read more »
WeChat e-wallet teams up with Line to target Japan’s 7M Chinese tourists
China’s biggest chat app WeChat is set to make its payments service more ubiquitous in Japan, a popular outbound desitnation for Chinese tourists. On Tuesday, the Tencent-run messenger unveils a… Read more »
Standard Cognition raises $40M to replace retailers’ cashiers with cameras
The Amazon Go store requires hundreds of cameras to detect who’s picking up what items. Standard Cognition needs just 27 to go after the $27 trillion market of equipping regular… Read more »
11/11 shows biometrics are the norm for payments in China
Chinese consumers were quick to adopt digital payments, and a recent shopping binge showed they are ready for another leap: biometric payments. On November 11, Alibaba wrapped up Singles’ Day… Read more »
Despite a strong Q3 earnings report, Square’s Q4 forecast disappoints investors
Despite a strong third-quarter earnings report, Square’s forecast for the final quarter of this year gave investors pause, sending its share price down 6 percent in after hours trading before… Read more »
7-Eleven is bringing cashier-less payments to its stores
Since Amazon opened its first cashier-less Amazon Go store in late 2016, other retailers have been forced to grapple with how they’ll compete with the convenience store of the future…. Read more »
Social commerce startup Goxip lands $1.4M investment to add flexible payments
Social e-commerce startup Goxip raised $5 million in January, and now the Hong Kong-based business has brought in more cash with a strategic $1.4 million investment from financial services company… Read more »