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Omise to raise $19M in first cryptocurrency sale from a major VC-backed startup
Kik has raised over $120 million from investors to date and it claims 300 million registered users, making it the most established company to throw its hat in the ICO ring thus far, but it is about to be beaten to the punch by Omise, a Thailand-based company that provides Stripe-like payment features in Japan and Southeast Asia.
- Categories
- Technology
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For India’s mobile wallet players, it’s survival of the fittest, not the fastest
"We have doubled in last seven months," says Upasana Taku, cofounder of the Gurgaon-based firm, which claims to have 55 million users and over 1.5 million merchants. We have a field force of thousand people, each acquiring 10 merchants every day, claims Taku.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- digital payments, fintech
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Indians are using mobile wallets more but for smaller purchases
As the Indian economy recovers, mobile wallet payments are continuing to accelerate. Their transaction value of over $3.6 billion in the first quarter of 2017 marked a 60% increase from the previous quarter, according to a new report from RedSeer Management Consulting.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Safaricom sees lingering break-up threat
Safaricom is still facing the threat of being broken up as the Kenyan regulator weighs up a report on dominance in the country’s telecommunications industry, CEO Bob Collymore said. East Africa’s biggest company by market value may resort to court action to prevent it from being split, Collymore, 59, said in an interview Wednesday in the capital, Nairobi
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Paytm to start India payments bank operations from May 23
The company will transfer its wallet business, which has over 218 million mobile wallet users, to the newly incorporated entity -- PPBL -- under the payments bank licence awarded to a resident Indian, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of One97 Communications that owns Paytm.
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- Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Kenya operators drop cross-network money surcharges
Cross-network transactions are currently possible in the country, but are complex to execute and carry additional charges.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Safaricom is planning to expand M-Pesa mobile money across Africa
Vodacom says the proposed deal gives it access to a market with “high growth, high margin, high cash generation business.” Shameel Joosub, the Vodacom Group’s chief executive, said the stake will drive M-Pesa adoption across its business.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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From Biometrics to Chatbots: Two Technology Challenges Aim to Help Governments Digitize their Economies
There is a growing consensus that emerging-market governments should digitize their economies, starting with the vast streams of payments they themselves make and receive. The DFS Lab is launching two technology challenges to fund new technologies that enable this transition: a Biometrics Challenge and a Chatbots Challenge. The deadline to enter is May 30.
- Categories
- Technology
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