Balance, the financial infrastructure platform for B2B commerce, launched Instant Bank Connection, a new capability powered by Real-Time Payment (RTP) rails that simplifies ACH setup for buyers and speeds up payments to merchants—improving cash flow and reducing processing costs. Balance’s new RTP-powered Instant Bank Connection capability allows buyers to link their accounts using only routing and account numbers. This real-time verification streamlines the buyer experience while giving merchants immediate payment confirmation, faster payouts, improved cash flow, and the ability to release goods sooner with confidence—accelerating fulfillment and strengthening customer relationships. Balance’s RTP-powered bank connection is more than just a faster onboarding method—it’s a strategic lever for B2B merchants looking to scale with efficiency. By making ACH payments as seamless as cards, merchants can unlock significantly lower processing costs. By combining RTP-powered bank verification with AI-powered credit management, billing, collections, and cash application, Balance empowers merchants to reduce overhead, improve cash flow, and scale with confidence. Bar Geron, CEO and Co-founder of Balance said “With RTP-enabled ACH payments, they can reduce costs and accelerate access to funds—all while giving buyers a smooth, payment experience.”
First Internet Bank offers “high-fidelity ACH” wherein the bank sends out test messages with each large payments file to ensure when those transactions are being received by the Federal Reserve
Standard ACH payments can still take up to four days. First Internet Bank is stepping up to fill that breach with its “high-fidelity ACH” system, wherein the bank sends out test messages with each large payments file (like a “canary in a coal mine”) to ensure when those transactions are being received by the Federal Reserve. In turn, this gives business customers a bird’s-eye view to track those transactions via an application dashboard. Hence, the bank’s business customers, such as Check and Ramp — which are piloting the service — can see exactly when payments clear, and reliably guarantee that their end customers (payroll recipients) are getting their money on time. First Internet Bank has been working with Increase for more than two years in developing and rolling out an ACH system that helps business customers continue to reliably deliver their own payments on-time while offering a clear view of how the payments are progressing on an Increase-developed application and when they hit at the receiving depository financial institution, or RDFI. There have been “a series of improvements,” according to Lorch, as the bank and the Bend, a fintech startup have refined their approach and the technology. For his part, CEO and founder of First Internet Bank’s technology partner Increase, Darragh Buckley, sees his company’s facilitation of ACH payments as more of a means of building improvement on the existing system, rather than trying to rip out the entire network and try to start anew. “No one really wants excitement in their payroll,” said Buckley, who previously was employee No. 1 at digital payments giant Stripe. “We want it all to progress boringly [so that] the payroll client knows they have done their job [and] can sleep better at night.”
Neema’s Dynamic Routing uses multiple real-time routes between countries and instantly analyses exchange rates, speed, and reliability for every cross-border transaction to identify the optimal route
Neema launched Dynamic Routing, an innovative technology designed to enhance every transaction by maximizing both success rates and cost efficiency. Neema’s extensive cross-border payments network empowers financial institutions across the globe to effortlessly process transactions in over 120 countries. It accommodates the most widely used payment methods and currencies specific to each destination, ensuring that users experience a localized payment environment. The introduction of Dynamic Routing further extends Neema’s vision of building a globally connected financial ecosystem. Dynamic Routing, along with Neema’s vast network of financial partners, enables a smarter method for global money movement. Rather than depending on a single pathway, Dynamic Routing establishes multiple real-time routes between countries. Each transaction it powers undergoes instant analysis, taking into account factors such as exchange rates, speed, and reliability to identify the optimal route. Every payment is personalized, with transfers between the same countries often utilizing different, optimized routes. Additionally, Neema’s AI-driven security infrastructure and expansive international reach provide enhanced visibility into coverage and technical vulnerabilities, allowing the company to effectively address potential gaps while offering one of the most robust quality assurance systems in the industry.
Stripe buys crypto wallet startup Privy building products on crypto rails; using a single API, clients can spin up wallets rather than use external ones
Payments giant Stripe is acquiring crypto wallet infrastructure startup Privy for an undisclosed fee. The deal is part of Stripe’s aggressive push back into crypto following a six year hiatus, building on its recent $1.1 billion takeover of stablecoin platform Bridge. Privy aims to make it easy for developers to build products on crypto rails. Through a single API, clients can spin up wallets rather than use external ones, sign transactions, and integrate any onchain system. The firm now claims to power over 75 million accounts across more than 1000 developer teams, orchestrating billions in transactions. Among its clients are trading platform Hyperliquid and restaurant app Blackbird. Like Bridge, the startup will operate as an independent product under Stripe.
Payments infrastructure platform Payabli is building advanced risk and fraud detection models trained on proprietary customer data to deliver business and industry-specific risk assessments
Payabli, the payments infrastructure platform for software companies, announced the closing of a $28M Series B funding round. As part of this investment, Payabli is exploring AI applications across two primary fronts: first, to streamline operations and drive efficiency across the organization, and second, to enhance its platform with smarter, more personalized customer experiences that ultimately increase revenue and margin. Payabli recently launched Amigo, its first AI-powered support agent, now available through the company’s technical documentation, web platform, and natively within Slack. Amigo delivers a wide range of functionality, from acting as a solution engineer that helps software companies integrate faster and more efficiently, to serving as a support representative that resolves tickets quickly and accurately, to functioning as a business analyst that assists software partners with reporting and analytics through a user-friendly, chat-based interface and much more. In parallel, Payabli is developing advanced risk and fraud detection models trained on proprietary customer data. Unlike one-size-fits-all solutions, these models are designed to deliver tailored risk assessments specific to each customer’s business and industry. To accelerate and scale this initiative, Payabli is partnering with NVIDIA to leverage their cutting-edge AI infrastructure. Following the successful launch of its On-Demand Payables product, the company is now introducing its first embedded Spend Management solution. Informed by direct feedback from existing customers, Payabli is reimagining embedded spend management by enabling software platforms to offer branded expense programs with both physical and virtual cards.
Marqeta’s processing volumes surge 27% on card issuance; that non-Block TPV grew at 2x faster than Block TPV
Marqeta’s first quarter results surged across several metrics as new and existing card issuance programs grew on a global stage across debit and credit channels, and the company’s platform gains a tailwind as it enables new BNPL and embedded finance offerings. Total processing volume (TPV) of $84 billion was up by 27%. Forward looking guidance looks for net revenue growth in the range of 13% to 15%. Mike Milotich, interim CEO and CFO, said that net revenue growth of 18% to $139 million. Beyond Block (the company’s largest customer at 45% of Marqeta revenues), Milotich said that non-Block TPV grew at 2x faster than Block TPV, “fueled by a wide range of customers across several use cases. Consistent with the last several quarters, financial services, lending including buy now, pay later, and expense management drove the bulk of our TPV growth.” Lending and expense management TPV continued to grow over 30% “and both accelerated a bit from last quarter,” given a boost by the combination of Klarna’s migration to the Marqeta platform in Europe, and “our BNPL customers benefiting from the increased adoption of Pay Anywhere card solution and distribution through wallets, both are supported in part by newly available flexible network credentials and strong user growth among SMB lending solutions.” He also said that despite a challenging macro environment, there has not been a spending shift across the platform, telling analysts, “Breaking down the spend by low, medium and high discretionary TPV based on merchant category reveals no meaningful shift in the mix of spending in Q1 versus the past several quarters.”
Cardlytics solution allows any merchant with digital channels and a loyalty program to become a publisher on its platform and roll out targeted card-linked offers targeted on purchase data from a third-party vendor
Cardlytics announced the general availability of Cardlytics Rewards Platform (CRP), a new solution that provides publishers the opportunity to enhance their customer loyalty programs with card-linked offers. With CRP, a merchant with digital channels and a loyalty program can now become a publisher on the Cardlytics network and offer more value to their customers. This opens up Cardlytics’ supply to new verticals beyond financial services – such as retail and restaurants – and provides advertisers increased exposure, reach and engagement with consumers where they are already transacting. Publishers can also boost engagement with their customers by incentivizing them to earn rewards on their purchases and improving the shopping experience, helping to create a flywheel for CRP partners. CRP is an extension of Cardlytics’ core platform for financial institution partners, with the same advertiser offers flowing seamlessly to new publisher channels. Offers on CRP are delivered within a publisher’s loyalty program and targeted based on purchase data from a third-party vendor. After opting in to receive offers and connecting their bank account information, customers can activate offers and earn rewards in the form of the publisher’s loyalty currency, such as points or loyalty cash, which can be used for future purchases. Amit Gupta, CEO of Cardlytics said “By enabling our advertisers to become publishers, we are unlocking new opportunities for growth and redefining what it means to be a partner in our ecosystem.”
Tether USDT and, Tron dominate fast-growing stablecoin payments arena, survey shows; Tron was the preferred settlement network, hosting around 60 percent of volume
Tether’s USDT token and the Tron blockchain network dominate the rapidly growing stablecoin payment industry, according analytics firm Artemis with help from investment firms Dragonfly and Castle Island Ventures. Their report looked at data from 31 stablecoin payment companies, and found USDT, the largest stablecoin, accounted for 90 percent of payment transaction volume, followed by Circle’s USDC, the second-largest. Tron was the preferred settlement network, hosting around 60 percent of volume, followed by Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon. It’s perhaps surprising that the share of Circle’s USDC isn’t larger, given the firm’s involvement in payments and recent plans to introduce a dedicated cross-border payments network. In addition, Circle, which this week filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange, has been taking market share from Tether in terms of issuance, so the expectation might have been a similar or pro-rata level when it comes to payments volume, said Dragonfly general partner Rob Hadick. “For the 31 providers we got data from at least, it’s clear that’s not the case for the payments use case,” Hadick said. “In fact, a higher portion of the volume, relative to the issuance, is happening with Tether, and it’s happening primarily on Tron and then Ethereum. This was quite surprising to us.”
Xsolla and Defold’s SDK allows developers to easily monetize their titles by implementing end-to-end in-game purchasing functionality directly within their browser games without the complex manual API setup
Xsolla announces a new strategic partnership with Defold, the cross-platform game engine trusted by professionals and indie developers worldwide. This collaboration introduces a seamless integration between Xsolla and Defold-built web games on CrazyGames, enabling developers to easily monetize their titles just in time for the CrazyGames x Defold Game Jam running June 13–15. To address the complexity of in-game monetization, Xsolla and Defold have developed a new SDK that allows Defold developers to implement in-game purchasing functionality without the complex manual API setup required. With Xsolla’s sponsorship and support, this integration removes friction from the monetization journey, allowing developers to focus on building engaging games, not commerce infrastructure. This SDK connects three key players in the expanding browser games space: Xsolla, Defold, and CrazyGames, offering a smooth path from gameplay to purchase. The launch coincides with the Game Jam, allowing participants to integrate in-game purchases easily, extend their reach, and scale monetization beyond traditional app stores. Developers using Defold’s flexible, Lua-based engine can now implement end-to-end monetization flows directly within their browser games, thanks to the powerful toolset provided by Xsolla. This partnership marks a notable advancement for browser-first development and reinforces Xsolla’s role as an innovator in cross-platform game commerce.
Samsung Wallet rolls out NFC P2P payments in the US that lets users transfer funds directly to a contact’s bank account by just tapping their two phones together
Samsung Galaxy owners in the US can now transfer funds directly to a contact’s bank account by just tapping their two phones together — or by simply bringing the recipient’s contactless bank card into close proximity. “Samsung Wallet’s new feature, Tap to Transfer, enables you to send money to your friend’s or family member’s bank account associated with their debit card — even if they use Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. Just tap phones and they’ll be sent the funds within minutes,” Samsung says. “It’s the first ever feature that allows you to send funds to another user’s debit card or smartphone, regardless of their wallet or operating system.” “Through Samsung’s collaboration with Visa and Mastercard, you can use a debit card stored in your Samsung Wallet to send money to friends and family members’ bank accounts without needing to download an additional app. “Instead, Samsung Wallet uses NFC technology to connect to the recipient’s debit card stored in their digital wallet. Plus, you can even transfer money to people without a digital wallet as long as they have a physical debit card with tap-to-pay capabilities.” If you want to send money to a Samsung Wallet but they aren’t nearby, you can easily find their Samsung account by searching their phone number and completing the transfer remotely.”