Corpay, TPG to Acquire AvidXchange in $2.2 Billion Deal

Corpay, a global powerhouse in corporate payments, has announced a landmark agreement to acquire a 33% stake in AvidXchange Holdings, partnering with TPG to take the company private. As TPG and Corpay Acquire AvidXchange, with the transaction valued at $2.2 billion, positions Corpay as a pivotal player in AvidXchange’s future, with an investment of roughly $500 million at $10 per share. The deal is expected to close in Q4 2025, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.

AvidXchange, a leading provider of accounts payable automation for the lower middle market – serving industries from real estate and homeowners’ associations to financial services and media – will benefit from the combined expertise and resources of Corpay and TPG to supercharge its growth beyond the public markets.

For Corpay, the investment is a strategic extension of its core offerings in commercial card issuance and payments automation. The agreement also includes an option for Corpay to acquire full ownership of AvidXchange by 2028, further strengthening the company’s position in payments and automation.

Key Takeaways

Corpay and TPG have partnered to acquire AvidXchange in an all-cash deal at $10 per share. The valuation is roughly a 22% premium over the stock’s close before the deal was announced.
Under the terms, TPG will be the majority stakeholder in the company, while Corpay will invest around $500 million for a 33% equity share, with an option to acquire more in 2028.
This is a strategic move that will favor both Corpay and TPG as both companies try to boost their presence in the corporate payments sector. This partnership is expected to strengthen operations as well, as AvidXchange offers automated accounts payable tools and supplier connectivity.
As the fintech unicorn from Charlotte that went public in 2021, AvidXchange will return to private status after the acquisition goes through.
AvidXchange currently employs over 1,600 workers, who will receive the same base pay and benefits for at least 12 months after the deal closes, and will continue to operate under the AvidXchange brand as part of normal business operations.

TPG and Corpay Acquire AvidXchange in $2.2 Billion Deal

In early May, TPG and Corpay agreed to buy AvidXchange in an all-cash deal worth $2.2 billion. The offer was announced on May 6, 2025, at $10 a share, which is 22% above its $8.20 closing price on May 6, 2025. That price was about 22% above AvidXchange’s closing price that day. It also stands 16% higher than the 90-day volume-weighted average through that date, and 45% above the $6.89 closing price on March 12, 2025, just before media reports of a possible sale surfaced. After the announcement, its stock jumped nearly 20% in after-hours trading.

Under the deal, TPG will hold the majority stake, and Corpay will invest about $500 million for a 33% share. Corpay can buy the rest in 2028 if it chooses. The transaction must clear regulators and win shareholder approval. If all goes as planned, it should close in the fourth quarter of 2025.

After closing, AvidXchange will become a private company. That status will give it more freedom to invest in growth and to roll out integrated payment tools that drive efficiency, visibility, and control for its customers.

Michael Praeger, AvidXchange’s CEO, said the agreement offers strong value to shareholders and positions the company for long-term success. He noted that over the past 25 years, AvidXchange has built a leading platform in AP automation and payment software. With support from TPG and Corpay, the company will have the resources and focus to expand its platform and deliver new solutions that help clients across the country streamline their accounts payable processes.

TPG sees a big chance in accounts payable automation. It already backs payment companies like Freedom Pay and Toast. Adding AvidXchange gives it software for invoice processing and a network to handle payments in real time. TPG believes businesses need tools to cut manual work, boost security, and get faster payment data.

John Flynn, a partner at TPG, said there’s a big opportunity for companies to automate their accounts payable and make it more efficient, secure, and accurate. AvidXchange is filling that gap with a unique payment network and end-to-end tools that slot directly into existing workflows, giving businesses and their suppliers better connectivity. He added that they’re excited to team up with Michael Praeger and the AvidXchange team, along with Ron Clarke and the Corpay team, to help the platform keep growing.

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TPG partner Tim Millikin said their tech team has spent years working on accounts payable automation and has always seen AvidXchange as a leader in the field. He added that today’s businesses need up-to-date payment technology, and as a private company, AvidXchange will be able to keep improving its tools to boost visibility and efficiency throughout the payment process.

Corpay, which used to be called FleetCor, focuses on spend management and payment solutions. It already processes card payments for AvidXchange customers. By taking an ownership stake, Corpay can blend its transaction services with AvidXchange’s software. This could mean one platform for managing invoices and payments, with revenues from subscriptions and transaction fees.

Corpay’s chairman and CEO, Ron Clarke, said they “couldn’t pass up the chance” to join the deal and invest in a big corporate payments business. He said AvidXchange’s AP automation tools support over 8,500 mid-market businesses and fit well with their corporate payments services. He added that they’re excited about the company’s future.

TPG partner John Flynn pointed to a large opportunity. He said many companies still handle payables by hand and need more efficient, accurate systems. His colleague, Tim Millikin, added that modern firms demand modern payment tech. He said AvidXchange can keep improving its tools to give users better visibility and smoother workflows.

The global market for accounts payable automation is growing fast. It was about $4.48 billion in 2024 and is set to reach $6.17 billion in 2025. Analysts expect a compound annual growth rate of 12.6% through 2030. Growth drivers include cloud finance systems, e-invoicing rules, and faster payment networks. Companies aim to cut costs, meet tax rules, and see cash flows in real time.

AvidXchange competes with firms like Tipalti, Bill.com, Stampli, MineralTree, and FreshBooks. Big ERP vendors such as SAP Concur, Oracle, and Sage also offer AP modules. The sector moves quickly, with AI, robotic process automation, and APIs changing how invoices get processed. Providers try to stand out with advanced analytics and touchless workflows.

After the deal news, some analysts noted a competing bid earlier in the week. A British firm, Alpha Group International, had made a cash proposal that AvidXchange turned down. That hinted at a strong interest in the company’s mid-market AP platform. Now, with the public market behind it, AvidXchange can spend more on product development and maybe buy smaller tech companies without quarterly earnings pressure.

The planned structure is a tender offer at $10 per share. If enough shareholders agree and regulators sign off, AvidXchange will leave the NASDAQ and go private. Its board will include people from both TPG and Corpay. And if Corpay exercises its 2028 option, it could own the whole business, depending on performance goals and market conditions.

As a private company, AvidXchange may expand into related areas like accounts receivable automation and financial supply chain tools. TPG’s capital and Corpay’s payment network could help bring in new clients and products. Being free from quarterly reports gives the firm room to invest in AI-driven forecasting and fraud detection. Corpay’s treasury and expense systems might merge with AvidXchange’s invoice-to-pay software, creating a unified solution that handles everything from invoice receipt to supplier reconciliation. That could open new revenue streams and keep customers tied to the platform.

AvidXchange engaged Financial Technology Partners and Barclays for financial advice and turned to Latham & Watkins LLP for legal counsel. TPG enlisted J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Moelis & Company, and RBC Capital Markets as its financial advisors, while Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP provided its legal guidance. Corpay’s financial work was advised by Goldman Sachs, with Eversheds Sutherland handling its legal matters.

About Corpay

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Corpay, Inc. (NYSE: CPAY) is a publicly traded corporate payments and expense management company and a member of the S&P 500. Headquartered in the Terminus 100 building in Atlanta, Georgia, the company served over 800,000 business clients in 2024, generating $4.0 billion in revenue and $1.4 billion in adjusted net income.

Founded in 2000, the company was originally known as FleetCor Technologies, and under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Ronald F. Clarke, it grew through a series of strategic acquisitions and partnerships that expanded its reach across more than 100 countries. In January 2023, FleetCor completed the acquisition of UK-based Global Reach Group to enhance its cross-border payment offerings, and on March 25, 2024, the company officially rebranded to Corpay, Inc., trading under the ticker CPAY to better reflect its breadth of corporate payment solutions.

About TPG

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TPG Inc. (NASDAQ: TPG) is a leading global alternative asset management firm founded in San Francisco in 1992 by Jim Coulter and David Bonderman. Headquartered in both San Francisco, California, and Fort Worth, Texas, the firm manages approximately $251 billion in assets across a diversified set of strategies, including private equity, growth capital, real estate, credit, and impact investing. As of March 31, 2025, TPG’s total assets under management reached $251 billion – a 12% increase year-over-year – with fee-earning AUM growing to $143 billion, underscoring its robust fundraising and deployment capabilities.

Under the leadership of sole CEO Jon Winkelried since 2021, TPG operates through five core platforms – Private Equity, Growth, Real Estate, Credit, and Impact Investing – and maintains a presence in over a dozen countries with roughly 400 investment professionals collaborating across disciplines. Bolstering its global reach, TPG completed the $2.7 billion acquisition of Angelo Gordon in 2023 to strengthen its credit and real estate capabilities, and in March 2024 launched a mega Asian buyout fund valued at W6.7 trillion, reflecting its commitment to strategic expansion in high-growth markets.

About AvidXchange

Secure payment processing with Host Merchant Services and AvidXchange platforms.

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AvidXchange, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVDX) is a leading fintech company that specializes in automating accounts payable (AP) and payment processes for middle-market businesses and their suppliers, helping organizations cut costs, improve visibility, and drive efficiency. Founded in a Charlotte coffee shop in 2000 by CEO Michael Praeger and David Miller, the company’s AvidPay Network now serves over 8,000 North American companies, has paid more than 1.3 million suppliers across 79.1 million transactions, and managed $242 billion in spend in 2024 alone.

Under the leadership of Co-Founder and CEO Michael Praeger, AvidXchange has grown to more than 1,600 employees and achieved recognition on the Forbes Cloud 100 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 lists for its rapid expansion and innovation in AP automation. The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2021 under the ticker AVDX. With this acquisition by Corpay and TPG in a $2.2 billion all-cash transaction, AvidXchange will be private again, positioning it to make further strategic investments in its integrated payment solutions.

Conclusion

The $2.2 billion acquisition of AvidXchange by TPG and Corpay marks a major shift in the accounts payable automation space. By going private, AvidXchange gains the flexibility to invest in innovation without public market pressures, while Corpay and TPG strengthen their foothold in financial technology.

With combined resources, industry expertise, and a clear growth strategy, the partnership sets the stage for expanding integrated payment solutions that help businesses modernize their financial operations. As regulatory approvals move forward, all eyes will be on how this alliance reshapes the mid-market payments landscape in the coming years.

Highlights from Stripe Sessions 2025

Stripe Sessions 2025 brought together thousands of Stripe users, developers, and business leaders eager to learn how to get the most out of the platform’s ever-expanding suite of products. Across multiple deep-dive sessions, Stripe’s engineering and product teams shared best practices, launched new tools, and demonstrated real-world integrations built to be simple, resilient, and scalable.

Here are the highlights you don’t want to miss.

Key Takeaways from Stripe Sessions 2025

The Stripe Sessions event in 2025 felt like a reality check for online commerce. It brought together developers, businesses, and tech leaders to discuss how payments and business processes are changing. The focus was simple – make it easier for businesses to move money, no matter where they operate.

Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison opened the event by highlighting the company’s growth. Stripe now handles roughly $1.4 trillion in payments every year – about 1.3% of global economic activity. Businesses using Stripe are growing faster than average companies in the S&P 500. It was clear from the start that Stripe has grown beyond just handling payments. With over 500 API endpoints covering payments, billing, taxes, and more, Stripe now acts as a complete financial operating system.

A conversation with Mark Zuckerberg followed. The focus was on AI and how it can help businesses work more efficiently. Zuckerberg spoke about AI being a tool that can reduce repetitive work and make it possible for smaller teams to do more.

Another highlight was a talk with Jony Ive. The former Apple designer spoke about making products that work well for people. He spoke about focusing on values and simplicity. In an event largely about payments and platforms, this was a reminder that design still needs to revolve around the person using the product.

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Stripe used the event to launch new tools and to highlight how it’s responding to changes in commerce. Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s chief product officer, spoke openly about what businesses need now. The focus was on making payments more flexible and making it easier to operate in more places. Stripe announced a feature called Orchestration that lets businesses manage payments across providers.

Instead of polling the API, developers can subscribe to precisely the events they need, be it payment_intent.succeeded for a successful charge or payout. paid when funds hit a recipient’s bank account – and receive those notifications through webhooks or the newer cloud destinations (such as Amazon EventBridge, Azure Event Grid, or Google Pub/Sub).

Within the Stripe Dashboard’s Workbench environment, developers registered webhook endpoints, subscribed only to the specific events their applications require, and secured deliveries with a unique signing secret. The demonstration also covered enhancements to the Stripe CLI, which now supports local forwarding and live-mode tail operations for both standard and cloud-destination events, along with fixture generation to prototype against representative data without touching production. In addition, new commands simplify replaying and inspecting webhook payloads during development.

Security guidance stressed preserving the raw request body through framework middleware so signature verification always matches the original payload, and separating test-mode from live-mode secrets to prevent mistakes. Developers learned not to trust event ordering, since asynchronous workflows can emit multiple events that may arrive out of sequence; rather, one should always fetch the latest object state directly via the API before performing any side effects.

A preview of the thin-event format showed how future API versions will deliver only the minimal fields needed for triggering workflows, with full object snapshots available on demand through SDK calls. Thin events will soon expand to cover every event type, halving average payload sizes and reducing delivery latency while encouraging SDK-driven object hydration.

Following the events session, the focus shifted to synchronizing Stripe data with internal systems. Speakers outlined the trade-off between treating Stripe as the primary source of truth, which simplifies design but increases API usage and leads to eventual consistency, and maintaining one’s own database as the system of record, which reduces call volume but requires bespoke synchronization logic.

To optimize API efficiency, developers were encouraged to use the expansion parameter or the v2 include syntax to retrieve related objects in a single request. Metadata was presented as a lightweight mechanism for tagging Stripe resources with custom key-value pairs that link them to internal records; teams must validate metadata content and use explicit API parameters to propagate custom fields across related objects.

Upcoming support for Google Pub/Sub and Microsoft Event Grid as additional cloud destinations will give teams more choices for routing event streams into their existing infrastructures, while enhanced filtering and delivery guarantees will further reduce the need for custom retry logic.

A new data pipeline toolkit rounds out Stripe’s approach to data synchronization by providing a low-code way to export charges, customers, and balances into data warehouses or cloud stores on a schedule. By configuring a few steps in the dashboard, organizations can maintain reliable and consistent data without building and operating custom ETL pipelines. Tax teams also received news of improvements; automatic indirect tax capabilities for destination-based VAT are now generally available across more than thirty jurisdictions, and a tax simulation API allows platforms to preview invoice tax calculations without generating live records.

Attention then turned to API versioning and the revised release cadence that delivers two major releases each year containing breaking changes, followed by monthly additions of new features. Each release now carries a human-friendly name drawn from botanical themes. Workbench surfaces the API versions in use across integration components, and request logs can be filtered by version to identify legacy clients.

Developers learned how to consult the changelog, filter for breaking changes by product area, and follow step-by-step upgrade guides that include sandbox testing, SDK update,s and webhook migration, before finally adjusting the account default version to catch any stray calls.

Later in the day, a unified accounts API was introduced to simplify customer and connected account management. The Accounts v2 model consolidates identity details such as business name and address, configurations representing roles like customer or merchant, and requirements that drive capability activation. In a demo of a fictional pet salon platform, presenters created a v2 account instance with multiple configurations, collected the required information to enable subscription billing and payment acceptance, and added a bank account for payouts via the new external accounts endpoint.

They showed how the same account identifier can be used across existing v1 APIs for charges, balance reads, and refunds. As an advanced example, they demonstrated paying subscription fees directly from the Stripe balance with a balance-type setup intent to illustrate on-network money movement flows.

To accelerate adoption, a Blueprint feature became available within Workbench. This provides interactive guides that run real API calls in a user sandbox while generating code snippets in multiple languages for each task. Initially supporting JavaScript, Ruby, and Python, Blueprint will soon add Go, Java, and PHP so polyglot teams can follow a single tutorial. Organizations can follow templates for common patterns such as subscription setup, embedded payments, and identity onboarding.

Stablecoin support was announced as part of Stripe’s effort to modernize programmable money rails. Platforms can now issue, manage, and settle in USD-pegged tokens such as USDC with both on-chain and off-chain minting and redemption. Native API endpoints allow the creation of customer balances in stablecoin, conversion between fiat and digital assets on demand and peer-to-peer transfers or external payouts. Stripe’s compliance and identity tools extend into the stablecoin flows, giving platforms a unified way to meet regulatory requirements while offering faster settlement and reduced counterparty risk.

Developers also gained access to an AI assistant embedded directly in the documentation site and Workbench. This assistant answers natural-language questions about endpoints, parameters, and error codes, generates or adapts code snippets on the fly, offers code-completion suggestions as developers type in the API explorer, and highlights common best practices. By reducing context switching, the feature accelerates learning and troubleshooting for teams as they adopt new Stripe capabilities.

In the final session, Stripe Workflows was presented as a fully managed orchestration engine that enables low-code automation of business logic without infrastructure to provision or maintain. Attendees compared a thirty-five-line Node.js script that required secret management, HTTP server code, webhook signature verification, idempotency handling, and error logging to a three-step visual workflow that sends an email on successful payment in minutes. Built-in features include detailed run histories with input and output inspection, one-click retry of failed executions, automatic idempotency key assignment for every action, and guard rails against recursive event loops.

Workflows support filtering on event payload fields, dynamic fields to pass data between steps, conditional branching, and over six hundred preconfigured Stripe actions. Use cases range from tagging high-value customers to automating compliance reviews, early fraud warnings, and end-to-end quotation to subscription pipelines. A preview of third-party actions showed how upcoming integrations with Slack, PagerDuty, and Twilio will enable fully cross-service automations without writing glue code. Throughout Sessions 2025, Stripe reinforced its commitment to secure, reliable, and developer-friendly tools that simplify the task of building sophisticated financial applications.

Final Thoughts

Stripe Sessions 2025 made it clear that Stripe is no longer just a payment processor – it’s positioning itself as a complete financial and operational infrastructure for modern businesses. From flexible payment orchestration to managed workflows and detailed sync strategies, the sessions focused on solving real implementation challenges for developers and scaling needs for companies.

Whether you’re building for scale, streamlining operations, or looking for more control over how payments fit into your broader systems, Stripe’s updates aim to reduce complexity without limiting functionality. The emphasis on practical tooling, clear APIs, and security-first architecture shows that Stripe continues to prioritize reliability and developer usability as it grows.

Xero Launches U.S. Online Bill Payments, Powered by BILL

Global small business platform Xero has launched a bold new bill payment feature for its U.S. customers, marking a major step forward in its strategic partnership with BILL – the leading financial operations platform for SMBs. With Xero Online Bill Payment integration, U.S. small businesses can now seamlessly manage and pay bills directly within Xero, eliminating the need to switch between platforms.

This powerful update allows users to pay multiple bills in one go, track every payment in real-time, and access BILL’s vast proprietary network of 7.1 million members to easily discover and pay vendors. Xero customers also benefit from enhanced security, with two-step verification safeguarding every transaction. It’s a smarter, faster, and more secure way to take control of cash flow – all without leaving the Xero platform.

Key Takeaways

U.S. small businesses can now pay bills directly through Xero using BILL.com’s infrastructure – no need for separate platforms or check-writing.
With 7.1 million vendors in BILL’s network, users can easily find and pay suppliers without re-entering information, reducing errors and setup time.
The system shows live payment statuses and automatically matches paid bills with bank feeds, helping keep books current and minimizing manual work.
There’s no added subscription fee – just per-transaction costs after a 30-day fee waiver. Two-step verification and fraud monitoring add a layer of security for small businesses.

Xero Online Bill Payment for U.S. Users Through BILL.com Integration

Xero, the global small business accounting platform, has rolled out a new embedded online bill payments feature for its U.S. customers, powered by BILL.com. Announced on April 29, 2025, this addition allows small businesses to pay vendor invoices directly within the Xero environment – no more juggling multiple portals or manually writing and mailing checks. By integrating BILL’s technology, Xero is aiming to simplify what has historically been one of the most time-consuming and error-prone tasks in small business finance: managing accounts payable.

The new service was unveiled simultaneously from Xero’s Denver and Bill.com’s San Jose offices, underscoring a strategic alliance between ASX-listed Xero (XRO) and the U.S.-based Bill.com platform. According to Xero’s media release, the integration is now generally available to all U.S. customers on the Early, Growing, and Established subscription tiers without any additional rollout phases.

At its core, the embedded bill payments feature delivers four principal benefits in one cohesive experience: the ability to pay multiple bills in just a few clicks; vendor discovery and onboarding via BILL’s 7.1 million-member network; real-time status tracking so users always know which invoices have been settled and when; and two-step verification to safeguard financial data against fraud. Each of these functions removes a key friction point – batch processing replaces repetitive check-writing, network access eliminates vendor data entry, status updates supplant manual follow-ups, and enhanced security mitigates risk.

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Beyond simple payment execution, the system automatically reconciles paid bills against connected bank feeds, marking invoices as settled and matching them to the corresponding transactions in Xero’s ledger. This auto-reconciliation reduces manual data entry errors and keeps accounting records continuously up to date, freeing business owners and advisors from hours of bookkeeping drudgery.

From a cost perspective, setting up online bill payments is free – there are no extra subscription fees or charges for additional users beyond what customers already pay for Xero. Instead, users incur only per-transaction fees when they select BILL as their payment method, and Xero is offering a promotional 30-day waiver on all transaction fees for customers who complete the BILL verification process during their initial onboarding. This model encourages small businesses to trial the service without upfront cost concerns, while still providing Xero and BILL with a predictable revenue stream based on usage.

Ariege Misherghi, Senior Vice President and General Manager of AP, AR, and the accountant channel at Bill.com, emphasized the significance of the partnership, expressing enthusiasm about bringing Bill.com’s integrated bill pay features to Xero customers in the U.S. Through this integration, businesses can now manage bill payments more efficiently, access multiple payment methods, and tap into a vast vendor network for fast, secure transactions. The collaboration aims to deliver greater value to small businesses and accountants by simplifying workflows and enhancing cash flow visibility and control.

Diya Jolly, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Xero, underscored the critical role that outgoing payments play in managing overall cash flow. She noted that for small businesses, cash flow challenges can be the deciding factor between success and failure. Staying on top of daily financial activity isn’t just smart – it’s vital for survival. By giving business owners a clear view of both upcoming bills and incoming payments, Xero helps them stay organized and confident. This level of visibility turns financial management into a strategic asset, empowering entrepreneurs to proactively shape their business’s future instead of constantly responding to unexpected challenges.

Early adopters like Dan Quigley – an accountant who also manages a touring music band – are already seeing meaningful efficiency improvements. Quigley shared that once a bill is entered into Xero, it automatically appears in the reports without the need for extra syncing or manual adjustments. This seamless integration saves time and minimizes errors. He also noted that vendors, such as merchandise suppliers, are getting paid faster. The embedded bill pay solution has significantly reduced his manual reconciliation workload and sped up his overall payment processes.

This launch comes at a critical juncture for U.S. small businesses, nearly half of which reported cash flow pressures over the past year, and 58% stated they spend more than four hours each month managing accounts payable tasks. By consolidating bill creation, approval, payment, and reconciliation into a single workflow, Xero and BILL.com directly address these pain points and help prevent late fees, vendor disputes, and strained supplier relationships.

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In the broader accounting software ecosystem, Intuit’s QuickBooks Online introduced its own Bill Pay service in 2023, offering users the ability to schedule ACH and check payments directly from QBO, invite vendors via the QuickBooks Business Network, and even select expedited next-day ACH transfers – features mirrored in Xero’s approach but underpinned by BILL.com’s extensive vendor network and security protocols. The competition between embedded payables solutions highlights the increasing demand for unified, digital-first financial operations.

Industry data underscores this shift: According to NACHA, the organization that oversees the U.S. ACH Network, the first quarter of 2025 saw 8.5 billion ACH payments valued at $22.1 trillion – a 4.2% increase in transaction volume and a 6.6% rise in value compared to the same period in 2024. As electronic payments become the norm, small businesses that move away from paper checks and disjointed banking portals are likely to gain a competitive edge through faster processing times and improved cash flow visibility.

By embedding bill payments directly within Xero’s platform, the partnership eliminates key friction points – logging into multiple portals, manual check-writing, delayed reconciliations, and siloed data – that have traditionally hindered small business operations and forecasting. Advisors and accounting firms servicing Xero clients can also leverage the tool to delegate payment preparations to team members while maintaining oversight through centralized approval workflows.

To maximize the benefits of the new feature, small businesses should map their existing vendor relationships against BILL.com’s network, inviting suppliers who aren’t yet members to join for streamlined payment processing. Setting up clear approval hierarchies within Xero ensures that the right managers vet payments prepared by staff, while routine reviews of payment status dashboards help preempt missed deadlines and identify potential cash flow bottlenecks – best practices that can turn a reactive AP function into a proactive cash management strategy.

For U.S. small businesses looking to streamline their payables, reduce manual overhead, and gain deeper insight into outgoing cash flows, the new online bill payments feature in Xero, powered by BILL.com, offers a consolidated, secure, and flexible solution that stands to redefine how invoices are settled and books are kept. Eligible customers can log in to their Xero accounts today to complete the BILL verification process and begin experiencing the efficiency gains of embedded bill pay immediately.

About Xero

Xero Limited is a publicly listed technology company in New Zealand that provides cloud-based accounting software for small businesses. Founded in 2006 by Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards in Wellington, where its headquarters remain, the company has since expanded with offices across Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, South Africa, and Singapore. Delivered via a software-as-a-service subscription model, Xero’s platform connects small businesses with their financial data, bank feeds, and advisors in real time, automating tasks such as bank reconciliation, invoicing, and expense management.

Xero went public on the New Zealand Exchange on 5 June 2007 and subsequently listed on the Australian Securities Exchange on 8 November 2012, trading under the ticker XRO and as a component of the S&P/ASX 200. Its software is now used by small businesses in more than 180 countries. In the fiscal year 2024, Xero reported revenue of NZ$2.103 billion and net income of NZ$227.8 million, supported by a global workforce of 4,610 employees

About BILL

BILL Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BILL) is a leading American fintech company that provides an integrated cloud-based financial operations platform for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Founded in April 2006 by René Lacerte as Cashboard, Inc., the company completed its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2019 and is headquartered in San Jose, California. Through its SaaS model, Bill.com automates accounts payable, accounts receivable, and spend & expense management, connecting hundreds of thousands of businesses with a proprietary network of over 5.8 million members to accelerate payments and streamline workflows.

In fiscal year 2024, Bill.com reported revenue of US$ $1.29 billion, underscoring strong demand for automated financial operations among its 460,000 business users and strategic partners, including leading U.S. financial institutions and accounting firms. The company has bolstered its platform through notable acquisitions – Divvy for $2.5 billion in June 2021 and Invoice2go for $625 million in September 2021 – expanding its spend management and receivables automation capabilities. Leveraging AI-driven analytics and predictive cash flow forecasting, Bill.com continues to innovate, empowering SMBs to gain real-time visibility, optimize cash flow, and thrive in an evolving financial landscape.

Conclusion

Xero’s new online bill payment feature, powered by BILL.com, gives U.S. small businesses a more efficient way to manage accounts payable—directly from within the Xero platform. By combining bill entry, payment, and reconciliation into a single system, the integration reduces manual work, improves accuracy, and helps business owners keep better track of their cash flow.

With access to BILL’s vendor network, real-time status updates, and added security measures, the feature is designed to save time and support more informed financial decisions. For businesses already using Xero, it’s a practical upgrade that adds value without complicating workflows.

Square Expands Banking Services to Give Sellers Better Control of Cash Flows

Square Supercharges Banking for Sellers: Instant Access, Smarter Saving, Faster Funding – All in One Place

Sellers spent $3.6 billion using debit cards linked to Square Checking in 2024, which is a 29% increase over the previous year, a strong signal of growing adoption and trust in Square’s banking ecosystem.

Square expands banking services on its platform with a suite of enhanced checking and savings tools designed to give sellers greater financial control. Sellers can now gain instant access to earnings, manage budgets more effectively, and secure financing faster, all within a unified experience.

Through a single, streamlined application on Square’s website or point-of-sale app, business owners can open both a Square Payments account and a free Square Checking account, simplifying account setup and integration.

Additionally, Square has upgraded its Savings feature with personalized recommendations powered by real-time cash flow data and industry insights. Now, sellers can easily organize funds into dedicated folders for key expenses like taxes, inventory, and supplies. It will significantly help them plan proactively and operate with confidence.

Key Takeaways

Sellers can now open a Square Payments account and a free Square Checking account through a single all-in-one application on Square’s website or POS app. They will gain instant, 24/7 access to their sales proceeds without traditional bank transfer delays.
Square Checking comes with zero monthly, service, or maintenance fees and no minimum balance. Without any extra charges, users can deposit cash at over 70,000 retail locations, accept ACH invoice payments fee-free, print/email checks, and use a Mastercard debit card and ATM withdrawals.
Square Savings now offers personalized savings suggestions based on sellers’ cash flow and industry trends. The tool helps allocate funds into expense-specific folders, such as taxes, payroll, or rent, with a competitive 1.00% APY, no fees, and FDIC insurance up to $2.5 million.
All this will completely (or significantly) eliminate waiting periods for transfers, and sellers reportedly save around 44 hours per month. With average customer satisfaction scores at 86%, which is over 20% higher than leading U.S. banks. Users also note a significant drop in bookkeeping time, freeing them up to focus on their business.

Square Expands Banking Services With New Features to Help Sellers Save Time and Manage Cash Flow

On April 29, 2025, Square expanded its banking tools for sellers. Now you can sign up for a Square Payments account and a free Square Checking account in one five-minute application, either online or right in the point-of-sale app. You get access to your sales revenue around the clock, with none of the delays or fees you often see at traditional banks. At the same time, Square Savings now gives you simple, personalized tips on how much to set aside for taxes, rent, payroll, and other costs, all based on your sales and what similar businesses are doing.

Square Banking first launched in 2021. Since then, hundreds of thousands of sellers have started using Square Checking and Savings every month. By building banking right into the same platform where you take payments, Square cuts out the need to switch between apps or wait days for your money to clear.

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Square Checking removes many common banking headaches. There are no monthly maintenance fees or minimum balances. You can deposit cash at over 70,000 retail locations – like Kroger, Walgreens, and Dollar General – without any extra charges. You can accept invoice payments and send money via electronic transfers using standard routing and account numbers, all at no cost. You can print or email checks to pay vendors and staff, or deposit checks remotely just by snapping a photo in the Square app. Your debit card is a Mastercard that works wherever Mastercard is accepted, and you get instant, fee-free payouts from select partner apps.

In 2024, sellers spent $3.6 billion using their Square Checking debit cards, a 29 percent jump from 2023. By year’s end, more than $300 million sat in Square Savings accounts. By cutting out the usual one- to two-day hold times on transfers, merchants saved an average of 44 hours each month. That’s time they could spend serving customers instead of getting themselves entangled with spreadsheets. Sellers rate Square Banking at 86 percent satisfaction, over 20 points higher than most main banks in the U.S.

Square Savings now makes it easy to plan for future costs. Based on your past sales and insights from Square’s network, the system suggests exact percentages of your sales to put into folders for rent, payroll, taxes, and other expenses. These folders earn 1.00 percent interest per year – more than twice the national average. There are no fees or minimum deposit requirements. You can move money back into checking instantly when you need it, and balances are FDIC-insured up to $2.5 million.

Adam Turnbull, who leads banking at Square, said sellers need banking that focuses on what matters to them – quick access to their money, easy ways to save, and a partner that supports their growth. He said Square Banking is built right into where small businesses get paid, so managing money becomes faster, simpler, and more automatic.

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Square Loans continues to offer simple credit. Instead of filling out long applications, eligible sellers receive loan offers based on their sales patterns. You repay by giving a small percentage of daily revenue, with no hidden fees or confusing terms. Funds land in your Square Checking account right away or by the next business day.

Not everyone will find the switch seamless. If you’re used to paper statements or face-to-face service, there can be a learning curve. Businesses that handle mostly cash or have specialized financial workflows may want to test the new tools before fully committing.

Sellers need simple banking built around how they work. They need fast access to money, clear ways to save, and a partner that supports their growth. Square Banking makes that possible by embedding banking in the same spot where you take payments.

By combining payments, banking, invoicing, inventory tools, and payroll features, Square gives merchants a single dashboard with real-time views of their performance and financial health. As more sellers see the time saved, the fee-free deposits, and the easy budgeting, Square Banking could become the financial backbone of small businesses.

The updated banking tools are available now on Square’s website and in the Square Point of Sale app. You can open a new account or link an existing one. These features are there to help you keep your money working for you every day.

About Square

Square, Inc. was founded on February 14, 2009, by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey to provide an accessible platform for merchant services and mobile payments. Initially conceived around a compact smartphone-connected card reader, Square quickly broadened its offerings into a full-stack commerce ecosystem, and in December 2021, the company rebranded as Block, Inc., with Square now operating as one of Block’s core business segments.

Today, the Square segment offers merchants an integrated platform featuring point-of-sale hardware (e.g., Square Stand, Square Reader), software for inventory management, e-commerce, customer engagement, payroll processing, and business financing, alongside banking services. As of 2024, the Square ecosystem supports over 4 million sellers and 57 million end-users across eight countries, processing more than $241 billion in payments annually, making it one of the world’s largest business technology platforms.

Conclusion

Square’s expanded banking tools are built for the day-to-day needs of small businesses. By combining payments, checking, savings, and lending in one platform, Square helps sellers reduce delays, cut down on fees, and better manage their cash flow.

With fast account setup, automated savings guidance, and access to working capital based on real-time sales, sellers can spend less time managing finances and more time running their business. For those looking for a simpler, more connected way to handle money, Square Banking offers a practical alternative to traditional banks.

Paysafe and Fiserv Strengthen Partnership to Drive SMB Growth

Paysafe and Fiserv Expand Strategic Partnership to Power SMB Growth and Innovation

Paysafe and Fiserv are doubling down on their long partnership to deliver smarter, faster, and more secure payment solutions, specifically targeting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

This Paysafe-Fiserv Partnership embeds Fiserv’s Clover Capital right into the platform, so small businesses can secure funding faster and with less paperwork, clearing away common financing hurdles.

Paysafe will also tap into Fiserv’s Data-as-a-Service technology to strengthen its fraud prevention and risk management capabilities to boost trust and security for both merchants and their customers.

U.S. Clover merchants will soon get a co-developed digital wallet that delivers near-instant settlements and bundles a full range of banking services into a single, seamless interface, streamlining back-office workflows and giving customers a faster, smoother checkout.

Key Takeaways

Paysafe will integrate Fiserv’s Clover Capital solution, giving small-to-medium businesses access to the capital needed for growth.
The Paysafe-Fiserv Partnership extends to security. Paysafe will use Fiserv’s Data‑as‑a‑Service tools to revamp fraud detection and risk management for both merchants and consumers.
In the U.S., they’re launching a digital wallet embedded in Fiserv’s Clover merchant platform. This wallet aims to provide faster settlements and broader banking services, boosting efficiency for businesses.
The Paysafe-Fiserv Partnership aims for a shared goal, which is to deliver growth tools – financing, fraud protection, and digital wallets for SMBs. For merchants, this means smoother operations; for customers, a better payment experience.

Paysafe-Fiserv Partnership to Deliver Faster Funding, Smarter Fraud Tools, and Streamlined Payments for SMBs

Paysafe and Fiserv have taken their long-standing deal a step further. On May 9, 2025, in London, they announced new tools to help small and medium-sized businesses grow. The focus is on three things: faster access to cash, better fraud protection, and simpler payments.

Small businesses often struggle when cash runs low. Traditional loans can take weeks to approve, and credit checks don’t always tell the whole story. That’s where Clover Capital comes in. It looks at actual sales data from Clover point-of-sale systems to offer financing. By plugging Clover Capital directly into Paysafe’s merchant portal, business owners can see financing offers the moment they check their payment reports. No more switching screens or filling out long forms. It cuts approval times from weeks to days and helps owners stock up for busy seasons or take on new projects without delay.

Flexible payment processing solutions for Host Merchant Services.

Fraud is another headache, especially for smaller merchants. One bad chargeback can eat into tight profit margins. Paysafe will now tap into Fiserv’s Data-as-a-Service feed to beef up its risk engine. This feed gives real-time info on transaction patterns, device IDs, and location signals. The result is smarter fraud checks that block true threats and let genuine customers through. That means fewer false declines, happier buyers, and less time spent on disputes.

They’re also rolling out a new digital wallet inside the Clover ecosystem. Merchants can get paid almost as soon as a sale happens, rather than waiting days for batch settlements. The wallet works like an all-in-one account. You can view incoming payments, pay bills, track expenses, and even tap into financing options. For shoppers, it means a smoother checkout whether they buy online or in person. For merchants, it cuts down on juggling multiple bank portals and manual reconciliations.

Bruce Lowthers, Paysafe’s CEO, noted that the new initiatives showcase the growing strength of their alliance with Fiserv, allowing them to build forward-looking solutions that open fresh opportunities for SMBs and speed up their product rollout.

Jennifer LaClair, Head of Merchant Solutions at Fiserv, added that the deeper collaboration with Paysafe underlines their shared commitment to giving small and medium-sized businesses the tools they need to succeed in today’s digital economy.

Early pilots back up the promise. Merchants using the new wallet saw settlement times drop by up to 60%. And those using Clover Capital got their funds in days instead of weeks. That extra speed and certainty can make a big difference when you’re buying inventory or planning a promotion.

By teaming up with Paysafe, Fiserv adds wallet and advanced fraud tools to its mix, making Clover more than just payment hardware.

Unauthorized transaction fraud alert from Host Merchant Services.

Together, they’re gunning for a slice of a payments market that’s set to top $10 trillion by 2027. Within that, small and mid-size businesses matter a lot. They spend across many channels and often move quickly to try new tech. Competitors like Square, Stripe, and PayPal already offer aspects of what Paysafe and Fiserv are bundling here – merchant lending, wallets, analytics – but none can match the combined reach of Paysafe’s payments network and Fiserv’s 4 million-plus Clover merchants.

The Paysafe-Fiserv Partnership isn’t stopping in the U.S. They plan to bring these services to select markets abroad by early 2026. Next up on the roadmap are invoice financing and dynamic discounts inside the wallet. They also want to roll out predictive dashboards to help merchants forecast sales and manage inventory. And they’ll open up more APIs so third-party developers can build new tools on top of their joint platform.

At its core, this is more than just adding newer features. It’s about making life easier for business owners who juggle payments, accounting, and financing every day. Faster cash means fewer missed opportunities. Smarter fraud checks mean less lost revenue. A unified wallet means less admin work. For an SMB owner, those gains can add up to real growth.

And that’s the point. Paysafe-Fiserv Partnership isn’t just adding more services. They’re knitting them together so merchants don’t have to. Whether you’re a café owner gearing up for the morning rush or an online retailer launching a sale, these tools aim to give you time back and cash flow you can count on. That’s how this partnership plans to help small businesses move forward.

About Paysafe

Paysafe Limited (NYSE: PSFE) is a leading multinational online payments company that provides payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions to businesses and consumers worldwide, with a particular focus on the entertainment sector. Founded in 1996 as Optimal Payments PLC, Paysafe is legally domiciled in Bermuda with corporate headquarters in London, England, and offers services under both the Paysafe brand and a suite of subsidiary brands, including Skrill, Neteller, paysafecard, and Paysafecash. The platform processed $152 billion in annualized transactional volume last year and supports more than 260 payment types across 48 currencies, fueled by about 3,300 employees in five main hubs on three continents.

Led by Chairman Dan Henson and CEO Bruce Lowthers, Paysafe reported revenues of $1.71 billion and net income of $22 million in 2024, reflecting steady growth under its strategic leadership team. The company holds licences from major regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and the Central Bank of Ireland, enabling it to navigate complex regulatory environments across its markets. Paysafe went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021 (ticker PSFE) following a merger with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp II, and continues to expand through partnerships such as its April 2022 collaboration with Exeter Finance to offer eCash payment solutions for U.S. auto loans.

About Fiserv

Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE: FI) is an American multinational financial technology company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a component of the S&P 500. Founded in 1984 through the merger of First Data Processing and Sunshine State Systems, Fiserv has grown into a global leader in payments and fintech, serving thousands of financial institutions and millions of businesses in more than 100 countries.

In fiscal year 2024, Fiserv reported revenues of $20.5 billion, operating income of $5.88 billion, and net income of $3.13 billion, reflecting its diversified services and scale. Led by President and CEO Mike Lyons, alongside CFO Robert W. Hau and COO Guy Chiarello, the company employs approximately 38,000 associates worldwide and continues to innovate through products such as Carat, Clover, and CardHub, as well as strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

Conclusion

The expanded Paysafe-Fiserv Partnership reflects a practical response to what small and mid-sized businesses need most: quicker funding, stronger fraud protection, and simpler payment tools. By integrating financing directly into the payment flow, improving fraud checks with real-time data, and introducing a business-focused digital wallet, the two companies are working to reduce the friction SMBs face in daily operations.

With early results already showing faster settlements and easier access to capital, this collaboration is positioned to help business owners manage cash flow more efficiently and stay competitive in a fast-changing payments landscape. As they scale these services beyond the U.S., the focus remains clear: help SMBs grow by giving them more control over their time, money, and data.

Affirm Opens AI-Powered Promotion Platform to Merchants

Affirm Launches AI-Powered Platform ‘AdaptAI’ for Retail Partners

Affirm is extending the capabilities of its proprietary artificial intelligence platform, AdaptAI, to its network of merchant partners, upgrading the checkout experience with real-time personalization.

Previously integrated into Affirm’s consumer-facing products, including the Affirm App and Affirm Card, AdaptAI is now available at the point of sale through participating retailers.

AdaptAI uses real-time data analysis to customize promotional financing options based on individual customer profiles, factoring in purchase amount, spending behavior, and shopping preferences.

These custom offers may include reduced annual percentage rates (APRs), extended repayment terms, or immediate discounts so that merchants can drive conversion while delivering a more relevant, customer-centric experience.

With AdaptAI, Affirm brings precision, personalization, and performance to every transaction.

Key Takeaways

AdaptAI will offer real-time, personalized deals at checkout as it analyzes each shopper’s financial profile, preferences, and purchase data to deliver customized benefits like special APR rates, extended repayment options, or instant cash savings – all this right at the point of sale.
As a better alternative to traditional credit card reward systems, which are often designed to be complex and delay reward redemption, AdaptAI provides clear, immediate financial value. For example, a 0% APR over 12 months on a $500 purchase can potentially save around $120 in interest.
Affirm reports that using AdaptAI within its own app and card offerings resulted in about a 10% increase in conversion rates, and now merchants can deploy it to improve their own sales metrics.
By offering AI-driven, tailored promotions to merchants, Affirm is now directly competing with traditional credit systems (e.g., American Express), all while giving consumers more control, transparency, and flexibility, and by also helping merchants boost loyalty and engagement in the process.

Affirm’s AdaptAI Uses Real-Time Data to Deliver Smarter Checkout Offers

Affirm has started letting merchants use its new AI-powered promotions tool, AdaptAI, at checkout. The idea is simple. Shoppers see tailored offers right when they’re about to pay. No more generic discounts or delayed rewards. Instead, each offer is based on a shopper’s history, cart size, and how they usually pay back loans.

Affirm began in 2012, founded by Max Levchin after his time at PayPal. Over the years, it became one of the biggest buy-now, pay-later services in the U.S. Today, it works with hundreds of thousands of merchants and serves over twenty million users. Most shoppers know Affirm for breaking big purchases into smaller payments at fixed rates. But now the company wants to give merchants a way to boost sales without blanket sales or coupon codes.

AdaptAI sits on top of Affirm’s existing setup. When a shopper chooses Affirm at checkout, the platform runs a quick analysis. It looks at things like how much they’re buying, how often they come back, and how well they’ve stuck to past payment plans. Then it uses a machine-learning model to pick the best offer. That could mean 0% interest for a limited time, longer repayment stretches, or an instant cash rebate. The goal is to match each customer with the right deal in seconds.

Technically, AdaptAI uses Affirm’s real-time underwriting engine and a decision API. The underwriting part checks credit and risk instantly, just like it does now. The AI layer tests different promotional scenarios and balances shopper appeal against merchant costs. Over time, it learns which offers drive the most sales and which ones hurt margins. Merchants don’t need to change much. They add a few lines of code at checkout, and AdaptAI starts serving dynamic deals.

In practice, this means a new shopper buying a $500 item might get a 12-month, 0% APR plan, translating to about $0 interest. A loyal customer might see a 24-month plan at around 10% APR, which is still lower than typical credit-card rates but gives more breathing room. Both offers feel personalized and fair. Shoppers know exactly what they owe and when. And merchants only pay for the incentives that push a sale.

Affirm tested AdaptAI inside its app and with a limited set of merchants earlier this year. The results were clear: stores saw about a 10% uplift in conversion when tailored offers appeared at checkout. That means more buyers complete their purchase instead of abandoning their carts. On the financial side, Affirm’s revenue for the first quarter of 2025 jumped over 40% year-over-year, reaching nearly $700 million. Gross merchandise volume climbed by over a third to $7.6 billion, thanks in part to new merchants and more use of 0% APR deals.

For merchants, this approach can cut costs on customer acquisition. Many brands spend up to 30% of gross sales on finding and keeping customers. With AdaptAI, they target incentives to the shoppers most likely to buy. That can raise average order values and drive repeat visits without raising overall promo budgets. And because offers show up in the payment flow, shoppers don’t need to hunt for coupon codes or remember loyalty points.

Affirm’s product team sees this as a step toward more transparent, flexible financing. Vishal Kapoor, Affirm’s product lead, says old credit card rewards are confusing, never change, and end up costing those who can least afford it. AdaptAI picks the right offer for each shopper the moment they pay. You don’t have to spend extra, track points, or wait months to see a benefit. You get a clear, personalized reward right away. That’s all possible because of Affirm’s AI technology and instant credit checks. It builds on what Affirm already does best: giving you payment options that stretch your money further.

Max Levchin adds that flexible payment plans aren’t just about borrowing. They’re about control. AdaptAI aims to give shoppers control over the deals they get and merchants control over how they spend their marketing dollars.

AdaptAI plugs into the wider Affirm ecosystem. Shoppers can access offers through the Affirm App or on the Affirm Card. Merchants using platforms like Shopify already offer Affirm’s installment options, and now they can layer on smart promotions without switching partners. Affirm also works with banks via FIS, so traditional lenders can offer installment plans in their apps. With AdaptAI, those partners can join in too.

The buy-now, pay-later market is crowded. Afterpay, now under Block, has over 24 million users. Klarna serves 93 million globally. Both have rolled out their own perks and loyalty features. But few combine flexible financing with AI-driven promotion at checkout. That’s where Affirm hopes to stand out. And it fits a wider trend. Visa is testing AI shopping assistants, and PayPal has started showing personalized offers at payment time. Financial services are becoming more context-aware and customer-focused.

Looking ahead, Affirm aims to grow its international business. It recently expanded its partnership with Shopify into Canada and will roll out in Europe and Australia later this year. It expects international revenue to hit $250–300 million in 2025. And the company remains on track to reach GAAP profitability by the end of the year, fueled by higher-margin tools like AdaptAI.

About Affirm

Affirm Holdings, Inc. is an American financial technology company headquartered in San Francisco, California, publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker AFRM, and a component of the Russell 1000 index. Founded in 2012 by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, along with Jeffrey Kaditz, Nathan Gettings, and Alex Rampell, the company was a trailblazer in introducing the buy now, pay later model in the United States. As of 2025, Affirm serves over 22 million users and 358,000 merchants, processing approximately $28 billion in payments annually through a suite of point-of-sale installment loan products that charge no late fees or hidden charges.

Driven by its mission to deliver honest financial products that improve lives, Affirm offers consumers flexible installment plans, ranging from three to 36 months, with transparent terms, no compounding interest, and absolutely no late or hidden fees. The company’s underwriting engine leverages machine learning and real-time transaction evaluation to assess borrower creditworthiness, generating revenue primarily through service fees charged to merchants and interest on loans rather than punitive penalties.

Beyond installment loans, Affirm integrates seamlessly with leading merchant platforms, such as Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify, and digital wallets including Apple Pay, while also issuing its own debit card and savings account products to deepen customer engagement. Since its IPO in January 2021, Affirm has expanded its geographical footprint into Canada and the United Kingdom and continues to pursue phased profitability targets for fiscal 2025

Conclusion

With AdaptAI, Affirm is pushing its platform beyond basic installment payments and into personalized, performance-driven promotions. By analyzing real-time shopper data and automating incentive delivery at checkout, Affirm gives merchants a way to improve conversion without relying on broad discounts or manual segmentation.

For consumers, the result is greater clarity, more relevant offers, and easier access to fair financing. As competition in the buy-now, pay-later space intensifies, tools like AdaptAI may help Affirm differentiate itself, not just as a lender, but as a data-focused partner for retailers looking to drive smarter growth.

Checkout.com Launches Face Authentication

Checkout.com, a leading global payment solutions provider, has launched advanced facial authentication technology. With this move, the company aims to expand its identity verification (IDV) suite. This new feature enables businesses to verify returning users through real-time video analysis and facial matching within seconds, which significantly reduces friction in important areas of user journeys such as password recovery, employee onboarding, and secure access verification.

With this leap forward, Checkout.com is redefining digital trust. With the integration of this advanced face authentication technology, the company supports its clients in delivering seamless, secure user experiences while effectively mitigating fraud and unauthorized access.

Key Takeaways

The new face authentication technology by Chekcout.com enables businesses to verify returning users in seconds using live video and facial matching. It renders traditional methods like passwords, one-time codes, or manual reviews obsolete.
The system integrates AI-powered facial recognition and liveness detection to counter spoofing methods like masks, deepfakes, video injection, etc., to ensure high security.
Companies like Uber Eats, DocuSign, and European fintech Swan are already using this technology. Swan reported reducing passcode reset times from days to minutes and doubling conversion rates for that flow.
This service is in line with the Identity Verification (IDV) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements across the industries. It has also been built to meet FIDO Alliance certification standards for trust and regulatory compliance.

Checkout.com Adds Face Authentication to Speed Up Logins and Fight Online Fraud

On April 29, 2025, Checkout.com added face authentication to its identity-verification tools. It uses a short-lived video and facial matching to confirm a returning user in seconds. That means you can skip passwords, one-time codes, and manual document checks. You just look at the camera, and the system does the rest.

Checkout.com started in 2009 in London. Its founder, Guillaume Pousaz, built a global payments network that handles transactions for big names like Netflix, Pizza Hut, and Coinbase. By 2022, it was valued at $40 billion. Today, it offers a unified API that covers payments, fraud management, and compliance.

Online fraud keeps getting more clever. In 2024, identity fraud cases in Europe jumped by 150% compared with the year before. Banks, insurers, and digital platforms all face phishing, deepfakes, and spoofing attacks. At the same time, users want smooth, fast access to their accounts. They don’t want to dig out a password or wait for a code.

KYC verification on mobile device for secure payment processing.

Face authentication aims to solve both problems at once. Once you’ve signed up and your face is on file, you open your app or browser and let it record a quick video. The system checks the new video against the one it stored during onboarding. It also looks for signs of spoofing – like replayed videos, masks, or static photos – to make sure you’re there.

Under the hood, it’s a mix of computer-vision algorithms and liveness detection. The software analyzes tiny head movements and facial micro-expressions that are almost impossible to fake. All of this happens in the background, without you needing extra hardware. Developers just call the same ID-verification API they already use for document checks. In return, they get a clear pass or fail decision, plus a response code.

This tool works for all kinds of flows. If you forgot your password, it can speed up recovery. When a new team member joins, it can verify their ID in minutes instead of days. It can also protect high-value actions, like changing payment details or approving large transfers. And it comes into play whenever a business wants to be sure the person on the other end is the right person.

Companies across sectors can benefit. Financial services firms can add it to online banking sign-ins. Healthcare portals can protect patient records. E-signature platforms can confirm signers’ identities. Even food-delivery apps or loyalty programs can use it to guard high-value rewards. Airlines could tie it to passenger check-in or lounge access.

On the compliance side, it meets FIDO Alliance standards and supports KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) rules. That means firms can show regulators audit logs and proof of identity checks without juggling paper documents. And because the face templates are stored securely, they never touch a server in plain sight.

Early adopters have seen real benefits. Swan, a European fintech, cut passcode reset times from three days to a few minutes and doubled its conversion rate for that flow. DocuSign and Uber Eats also rolled out the feature to keep their platforms safe and smooth. In these tests, Checkout.com customers saw returning-user conversion rates rise by as much as eight percentage points.

Benjamin Grall, Senior Product Manager at Swan, shared that integrating face authentication from Checkout.com has revolutionized their passcode reset process, reducing it from three days to just minutes while enhancing security. The update has also doubled user conversion rates for this flow, significantly improving both user experience and operational efficiency.

Milan Jani, VP of Product at Checkout.com, emphasized that their biometric solution sets a new standard in identity verification. It delivers faster, more secure authentication while adhering to strict ethical guidelines. Designed to meet FIDO Alliance certification standards, the solution consistently performs at a high level, providing businesses and users with a secure and inclusive experience.

Experts say adding biometrics to existing verification can lift security and user satisfaction at the same time. A recent survey found 49% of people believe digital ID checks make the internet safer, and more than half in places like France see them as the future of payments. Younger users, especially Gen Z and millennials, are already comfortable using face recognition in other parts of life, like unlocking phones.

Digital payment processing for businesses | Host Merchant Services.

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In a crowded market, Checkout.com sets itself apart by folding face checks into the same API it uses for payments and risk. Other vendors focus on onboarding or only on biometric scans. Checkout.com extends that to re-authentication, so businesses don’t need separate systems for first-time and returning-user checks. That saves development work and reduces costs over time.

No technology is perfect, and biometrics can struggle with fairness. Some systems have higher error rates for certain age groups or skin tones. Checkout.com says it tested its models across diverse users to cut bias. It claims consistent accuracy whether you’re young or old, male or female, light- or dark-skinned.

Because it plugs into Checkout.com’s dashboard, businesses get a single view of payments, fraud, and identity checks. They can tweak thresholds or review logs in one place. And with the company’s global reach, the service runs in more than 150 currencies and dozens of countries.

Looking ahead, Checkout.com plans to refine its face models and add new use cases. Age checks could help with alcohol sales or age-restricted content. Continuous authentication – where the system verifies you in the background while you use a service – could stop session hijacks. These updates will roll out over the next year as AI and biometric tech keep improving.

This launch shows how biometric tools can live alongside familiar security measures. Instead of digging for a password or waiting for an email, you just look at the camera. And businesses get a way to fight fraud without creating more steps for their users. As online fraud grows, tools like face authentication will play a bigger role in keeping accounts secure and customer experiences smooth.

About Checkout.com

Checkout.com is a British multinational financial technology company that provides a unified platform for processing payments, sending payouts, and managing card programs. Originally founded in 2009 as Opus Payments by Swiss entrepreneur Guillaume Pousaz, the company rebranded to Checkout.com in 2012 and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In early 2022, it reached a valuation of $40 billion, making it one of Europe’s most valuable fintech startups.

Its cloud-native payments infrastructure offers local acquiring in over 50 countries across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, and supports transactions in more than 150 currencies – helping merchants minimize cross-border fees and FX costs. With 19 offices worldwide – including hubs in New York, Paris, Dubai, and Hong Kong – Checkout.com serves marquee clients such as Netflix, Pizza Hut, and Coinbase. Backed by investors including Tiger Global Management, Franklin Templeton, Insight Partners, and the Qatar Investment Authority, it has raised over $1 billion across successive funding rounds to fuel its rapid global expansion and ongoing payment innovation.

Conclusion

Checkout.com’s launch of face authentication marks a significant milestone in the evolution of digital identity verification. By combining speed, security, and user convenience into a single solution, the company is helping businesses stay ahead of rising fraud threats without compromising user experience. Early results from adopters like Swan demonstrate clear, measurable benefits – faster workflows, higher conversion rates, and greater trust.

As digital interactions become more central to everyday life, biometric authentication is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity. With its seamless integration, global reach, and commitment to ethical standards, Checkout.com is not just following the trend but shaping the future of secure, frictionless digital access.

Mastercard Unveils Agent Pay

Mastercard has introduced Agent Pay, a purpose-built payment infrastructure designed to support agentic commerce, where autonomous AI assistants perform transactions on behalf of users. This is a strategic step toward enabling secure, seamless payments in AI-driven environments.

Central to the system is the introduction of Mastercard Agentic Tokens, a new form of tokenization. This is a new class of secure, dynamic tokens derived from the same trusted technology that powers contactless payments, digital wallets, and Payment Passkeys. But now, these tokens are reimagined for machine-to-machine commerce.

Agent Pay is engineered to integrate directly with leading AI platforms. The first implementation will be with Microsoft, connecting Mastercard’s payment network to the Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot Studio. This integration will allow AI systems to securely complete purchases within conversational interfaces, without user intervention at the point of sale.

Key Takeaways

Mastercard’s new system allows AI agents to securely complete payments on behalf of users using verified digital tokens.
Each AI assistant receives a unique, traceable token tied to your account, separating real card data from agent activity.
Initial rollout includes Microsoft’s Azure and Copilot Studio, with additional support from IBM, Braintree, and Checkout.com.
Mastercard uses tokenization, real-time fraud detection, and identity verification to manage risk and build user trust.

Mastercard Launches Agent Pay for AI-Driven Transactions

Mastercard has introduced something new called Agent Pay. It’s not a futuristic idea – it’s already here, and it changes how people and businesses can let AI handle their purchases. Think of it this way: instead of you shopping online, your digital assistant could do it for you. Not just picking items, but paying for them too.

This system works by giving AI agents a kind of digital payment card that’s tied to your account but doesn’t reveal your real card number. These are called agentic tokens. Each AI assistant gets its token, which makes it easier to track and control what they’re doing. So if your assistant orders a pair of shoes or a business supply, it uses this token to pay, not your real card.

There’s a lot of concern when it comes to letting AI make payments. Mastercard seems to know that and is building checks into the system. Before any payment happens, the AI has to be registered and verified to prove its trustworthiness. This trusted identity is recognized by merchants to differentiate real, authorized agent-initiated transactions from risks.

Let’s say you’re chatting with a shopping assistant online about what to wear to a birthday party. The AI might show you a few dresses and then ask, “Should I go ahead and buy this one for you?” If you say yes, it can finish the purchase using that secure token. You don’t have to open a new tab or manually enter payment info. It’s all done through that conversation.

For businesses, this could be even more useful. Imagine a textile company that needs to order fabric from different suppliers. An AI agent could find the best deals, handle back-and-forth questions, make sure delivery timelines are met, and then pay for it, all through a secure setup without needing someone to check every step.

Mastercard is working with big tech partners to roll this out. Microsoft is one of the main ones. Their tools, like Azure and Copilot Studio, are being built to support these types of AI agents, especially for companies. IBM is also involved, helping larger businesses use AI to automate their internal tasks, including payments.

Payment platforms like Braintree and Checkout.com are joining too. They’ll help merchants accept these agent-driven transactions just like regular payments.

The most important part of Agent Pay is safety. Mastercard is relying on its token system to keep transactions secure. It’s the same system used when you tap your phone to pay or store your card online. On top of that, they’ve added new steps to make sure only verified AI agents are allowed to make payments. There are also extra layers like real-time fraud detection and biometric checks on the user’s device to stop anything suspicious before it happens.

This idea of letting AI handle payments isn’t completely new, but until now, it hasn’t been very organized or secure. Mastercard is trying to change that by creating a system that’s built for how people actually use AI today. The company has already been using AI in other areas, like spotting fraud, and says this new step fits into that bigger plan.

One reason they feel confident in pushing this forward is the strong network of partners they’ve lined up. Microsoft and IBM bring the tools that many companies already rely on. Braintree and Checkout.com help with payments on the business side. Together, these companies make it easier for Agent Pay to be used in real-world situations.

For users, control is a big deal. You can decide what your AI is allowed to do. Maybe you permit it to spend up to $100 without asking you every time, but anything over that needs your approval. Merchants will also be able to see that a transaction came from an agent, not a human, which helps with tracking and reporting.

At the same time, Mastercard is keeping regulators in mind. They know there are questions about how AI should interact with financial systems, especially if it’s making decisions and spending money. So the company is adding clear rules and safety features to prevent fraud, misuse, or errors.

For now, the focus is mostly on business use. It’s easier to roll out complex tools in environments where companies already use AI for tasks like procurement. But Mastercard says consumer features will follow, and we could start seeing Agent Pay in personal digital assistants and apps soon.

There’s also competition on the horizon. Visa is working on something similar. They’ve teamed up with companies like OpenAI and Samsung, looking at how AI agents could be used in consumer electronics and digital assistants. The difference is that Mastercard’s version is built on an already-proven token system, which could make adoption faster and safer.

When you look at the bigger picture, this isn’t just about speeding up shopping. It’s about shifting how transactions happen altogether. Instead of going to a website, entering your card details, and waiting for confirmation, you might just tell an AI agent what you need and let it handle the rest. If it can do it safely and within the limits you set, that saves time and effort.

There are still a few hurdles ahead. Businesses will need to upgrade their systems to recognize and process these agent-led payments. Customers will need to feel confident that their AI assistant won’t buy the wrong thing or overspend. And regulators will need to make sure the systems are fair, transparent, and accountable.

But Mastercard says it’s ready for all of that. Their system can track agent behavior, resolve disputes, and stop fraud before it happens. The fact that they’re using existing infrastructure, like the same token technology behind mobile payments, gives them a head start.

Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, said the company is moving toward a new way of handling payments by focusing on what consumers will need shortly. With the introduction of Agent Pay, Mastercard is starting to reshape how people and businesses interact with AI in everyday transactions. A key part of this includes giving merchants tools to identify which AI agents are trustworthy and which may pose risks.

He also pointed out that as this shift gains momentum, the industry needs to come together to set clear standards for how these AI-driven payments should work. One example is using protocols like the Model Context Protocol within Secure Remote Commerce, which helps create a reliable system for scaling agent-led transactions and making them more secure for everyone involved.

Mastercard recently also agreed to invest $300 million in Corpay’s cross-border business, securing roughly a 3% equity stake in a unit valued at about $10.7 billion.

As part of this deal, Corpay becomes the exclusive provider of high-value, account-to-account cross-border payments and currency-management tools for Mastercard’s banking clients. In return, Mastercard will offer its virtual card programs exclusively through Corpay to corporate customers.

About Mastercard

Mastercard Inc. is an American multinational technology company in the global payments industry, headquartered in Purchase, New York. Founded in 1966 as Interbank/Master Charge and rebranded as MasterCard in 1979 (now stylized “Mastercard”), the firm operates a real-time transaction processing network that connects issuers, merchants, and consumers across more than 210 countries and territories. Its suite of products—including credit, debit, and prepaid cards, as well as value-added services like fraud prevention, tokenization, and data analytics—facilitates the movement of funds and information, enabling more than 2.5 billion cards in circulation and trillions of dollars in annual purchase volume.

A publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “MA,” Mastercard delivered net revenues of $28.2 billion in fiscal year 2024, up 12% year over year, with net income rising 15% to $12.9 billion. Building on this financial momentum, the company continues to broaden its technological edge through strategic acquisitions, such as the cybersecurity specialist Recorded Future, to bolster its fraud prevention and intelligence offerings, while investing heavily in AI and tokenization to drive the next generation of digital payment solutions. Beyond its core business, Mastercard advances social impact via the Mastercard Foundation, which holds assets of approximately $47 billion and supports education and economic development initiatives in nearly 50 countries.

Conclusion

Agent Pay marks a clear step toward practical, secure AI-driven payments. By combining trusted token technology with new controls for machine-led transactions, Mastercard is building a system that fits how people and businesses are starting to use AI in real life.

With strong partners and a focus on safety, the company is laying the groundwork for AI agents to take on more responsibility in everyday commerce, while keeping users in control.

Perplexity Selects PayPal to Power Agentic Commerce

Perplexity Doubles Down on AI Shopping with PayPal Partnership

Perplexity is turning up the heat in the AI race, taking on Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google with a major new move: a new strategic partnership with PayPal to supercharge agentic commerce on its Perplexity Pro platform.

This Perplexity-PayPal Partnership puts Perplexity at the forefront of chat-powered shopping, where AI doesn’t just recommend – it completes the entire transaction. Starting this summer in the U.S., users will be able to buy products, book travel, and purchase tickets instantly using PayPal or Venmo – directly within the chat.

PayPal will power the transaction layer, handling payment processing, shipping, tracking, and invoicing, all within the chat flow. With passkey-enabled one-click checkout, the process is designed to be fast, frictionless, and secure.

One query. One click. Full checkout.

Key Takeaways

Users can now book travel, buy products, and get tickets directly within a chat using PayPal or Venmo – no redirects, no extra steps.
The partnership enables end-to-end commerce, with PayPal handling checkout, shipping, tracking, and invoicing – all inside the Perplexity Pro interface.
This move marks a shift from AI that suggests to AI that acts, turning natural-language queries into completed transactions.
Backed by PayPal’s global security tools and user base, the feature launches in the U.S. this summer, with broader expansion to follow.

Perplexity-PayPal Partnership to Turn AI Chats into Commerce-Ready Conversations

On May 14, 2025, Perplexity announced that it had selected PayPal to power transactions within its AI assistant platform. This move signals a major shift in how users will interact with artificial intelligence, moving beyond simply getting answers to actually completing purchases, bookings, and other tasks directly within a chat. The partnership is launching in the U.S. during the summer of 2025 and will allow users of Perplexity Pro to buy products, book travel, or get tickets with a single query and a click, using PayPal or Venmo.

This Perplexity-PayPal partnership matters because it blends the immediacy and intelligence of AI with the trusted infrastructure of PayPal’s payment ecosystem. When users ask Perplexity questions like “Find me a hotel in Chicago under $200 next weekend,” the system will not only offer a list of options – it can also handle the actual booking, with no need to visit another site. That’s a powerful shift. What used to be a multi-step process involving search, clicks, redirects, and entering payment details is being condensed into a seamless experience driven by natural language.

AI-powered customer service headset for merchant support.

According to PayPal CEO Alex Chriss, the goal is to “make it easy and secure to shop right in the chat when inspiration strikes.” This isn’t just a convenience upgrade – it marks the emergence of what Perplexity calls “agentic commerce,” a term that essentially means giving AI the ability to not just provide information, but to act on it. Imagine saying, “Get me two tickets for tonight’s show,” and that being the end of the process. Perplexity’s AI can now respond with availability, prices, and a simple PayPal checkout link – all inside the same conversation.

At the heart of this Perplexity-PayPal partnership is trust. Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, has repeatedly emphasized the company’s focus on accuracy and reliability. Choosing PayPal, with its global reputation for secure transactions and fraud protection, supports that mission. “We share a vision for how important trust is in the age of AI,” Srinivas said. PayPal brings robust features like tokenized payments, passkey authentication, and global wallet support into the Perplexity experience, ensuring users don’t have to sacrifice security for convenience.

This move comes at a time when both companies are rapidly evolving. Perplexity, which handles over 780 million queries per month, recently raised $500 million in funding and is now valued at around $14 billion. It’s positioning itself as more than a search tool – it’s aiming to be a full-featured digital assistant that doesn’t just suggest but acts. That makes PayPal an ideal partner. With over 430 million active accounts in nearly 200 markets, PayPal brings scale, infrastructure, and user familiarity.

For users, this change means fewer steps between intention and action. Ask a question, get an answer, make a decision, and complete the task – all within the same interface. No more copying links, switching apps, or re-entering payment info. And it’s not just about shopping. Travel bookings, ticket purchases, and potentially even services like food delivery or ride-hailing could eventually be handled through the same interface. PayPal’s integration enables Perplexity to plug into a broad range of commerce experiences, with shipping, invoicing, and tracking all included automatically.

For Perplexity, this opens up new business opportunities. It can now generate revenue from transactions – via booking fees, affiliate commissions, or partnerships with service providers – on top of any subscription income from its Pro users. And it gives the company a competitive edge over more traditional AI offerings that still rely on directing users elsewhere for transactions. In a crowded AI market, offering an end-to-end solution could be a key differentiator.

PayPal also stands to benefit. Embedding its payment tools into conversational interfaces allows it to stay relevant as digital interactions shift away from websites and apps toward chat-based environments. This kind of embedded commerce gives PayPal a front-row seat in the next generation of user interfaces. Instead of being an option on a checkout page, it becomes the checkout itself, built into the flow of conversation and powered by AI.

This development is part of a broader trend where AI isn’t just used to retrieve information but to take real-world actions. These systems are beginning to understand intent and context well enough to carry out tasks that previously required human follow-up. That might sound futuristic, but it’s already here in the form of services like this. It’s a step forward from the static search results or product listings that users are accustomed to.

AI-powered chatbot for Host Merchant Services payment solutions.

There are still challenges to overcome. For now, the launch is limited to U.S. users. Expanding globally will take time, and integrating with regional payment systems, local regulations, and service providers won’t be simple. Convincing users to trust an AI with purchases will also be an ongoing effort, especially for high-stakes transactions like travel. While PayPal’s security tools help, users still need time to adjust to the idea of conversational commerce.

That said, the opportunity is clear. Once users see how much easier it is to act on a decision within the same conversation where it was made, habits will shift. And as more apps, services, and platforms open up to similar integrations, the idea of toggling between apps and websites for everyday tasks may soon feel outdated.

Looking ahead, Perplexity plans to expand the scope of its agents. The company envisions AI systems that can handle full-day planning: from finding a restaurant to booking a table, ordering a ride, and adding it all to your calendar. With the PayPal integration in place, those agents can now complete the transaction part of that journey, turning a chat into a complete digital assistant experience.

For now, though, the focus is on making the initial experience smooth and secure. When the feature launches this summer, users in the U.S. will be able to access a new kind of commerce – one that’s built into the way they already ask questions and make decisions. The simplicity and immediacy of buying directly from an AI chat may well set a new standard for what people expect from digital tools.

As Perplexity and PayPal continue to develop this integration, the line between asking and acting will blur. Conversations won’t just lead to answers – they’ll lead to outcomes. And with PayPal powering the back end, those outcomes will come with the speed and security users have come to expect. This isn’t just a new feature. It’s a preview of how digital commerce, AI, and trust-based infrastructure are coming together to redefine how we get things done.

About Perplexity

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Perplexity AI, founded in December 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski, is a San Francisco–based generative AI–powered web search engine that synthesizes conversational answers with inline citations to web sources. The platform leverages leading large language models – including GPT-4.1, Claude, Gemini, and Grok – alongside its proprietary Sonar and R1 1776 engines to deliver real-time, accurate responses across its freemium web interface, mobile apps, and Chrome extension.

Since launch, Perplexity has raised over $665 million in funding, comprising $165 million by April 2024 and a $500 million round in June 2025 that valued the company at $14 billion, and counts investors like Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA, Databricks, Tobias Lütke, and Nat Friedman among its backers. Rapidly growing its user base, the company processed 780 million queries in May 2025, averaging 30 million daily, and continues to expand its AI capabilities with products like its upcoming Comet agentic browser.

About PayPal

Secure PayPal payment solutions for seamless online transactions.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments platform that enables digital money transfers and payment-processing services for consumers and merchants, with its headquarters in San Jose, California. Founded in December 1998 as Confinity by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek, the company launched its first electronic payments service in 1999, went public in 2002, and was acquired by eBay later that year. As of 2023, PayPal serves over 426 million active accounts across more than 200 markets, processing $1.53 trillion in total payment volume, and features a portfolio of brands including Venmo, Honey, Zettle, and Xoom.

Employing around 27,200 people worldwide as of December 2023, PayPal reported net income of $4.25 billion on revenue of $29.8 billion for the fiscal year, reflecting its strong market position and ongoing growth. Following its 2015 spin-off from eBay, PayPal has continued to innovate under President and CEO Alex Chriss, integrating AI-driven fraud detection and rolling out new capabilities such as “Tap to Pay” on iPhones to enhance user accessibility and security.

Conclusion

Perplexity’s partnership with PayPal marks a turning point in how people interact with AI. Instead of just offering suggestions, Perplexity Pro can now follow through, completing purchases, bookings, and other transactions within the same conversation where the request begins. By bringing PayPal’s trusted infrastructure into the chat interface, the companies are streamlining commerce in a way that reduces friction and saves time.

This integration positions Perplexity to compete not just with other AI tools, but with entire categories of search, booking, and shopping platforms. It also opens new revenue streams and strengthens user engagement by keeping the entire experience in one place. For PayPal, it’s a way to stay central as digital interactions shift from websites and apps to AI-driven chats.

The feature launches in the U.S. this summer and could help set the tone for how digital assistants function going forward. As both companies refine this offering and expand its reach, users will likely come to expect more from the AI tools they rely on – not just answers, but results.

Revolut and Lightspark Join Forces to Speed Bitcoin Payments

Revolut Supercharges Bitcoin Payments with Lightspark Integration Across the UK and Europe

Revolut, a global leader in financial technology, has taken a decisive leap forward in digital payments by integrating Lightspark’s advanced Bitcoin infrastructure. With this Revolut-Lightspark partnership, Revolut brings the power of the Bitcoin Lightning Network directly to its customers in the UK and select European Economic Area (EEA) – countries.

With this move, Revolut is trying to get rid of the delays and high fees that have long plagued Bitcoin transactions. Using Lightspark’s next-generation tools, including the Universal Money Address (UMA), a platform that now enables fast, low-cost, and scalable BTC payments.

Key Takeaways

Revolut is integrating the Bitcoin Lightning Network to enable faster, lower-cost Bitcoin payments for users in the UK and select EEA countries.
Lightspark’s technology, including the Universal Money Address (UMA) and MoneyGrid, simplifies Bitcoin transfers and improves transaction reliability.
This move strengthens Revolut’s crypto strategy by shifting from crypto trading toward enabling practical, everyday use of digital assets.
The partnership positions Revolut competitively as more financial platforms look to support scalable Bitcoin payments through the Lightning Network.

Revolut-Lightspark Partnership to Launch Bitcoin Lightning Network Payments in the UK and EEA

Revolut, one of the world’s leading fintech platforms with over 52 million users, has announced a strategic partnership with Lightspark to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network into its services. This collaboration represents a major leap forward for real-world Bitcoin payments, shifting the cryptocurrency from a store of value to a truly usable medium of exchange.

The goal of this partnership is clear: enable Revolut users in the UK and select EEA countries to send and receive Bitcoin faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. Lightspark brings to the table its advanced Bitcoin infrastructure tools, including a robust Lightning Network implementation and the Universal Money Address (UMA) protocol, which drastically improves the user experience of sending Bitcoin by removing the complexity associated with traditional wallet addresses.

For Revolut, this move is the natural progression of its crypto strategy. Since rolling out crypto trading and custody services across 30 EEA countries and the UK, the company has steadily positioned itself not just as a place to buy and sell crypto, but as a platform that enables real-world use. Its crypto division is growing rapidly, and the decision to integrate the Lightning Network signals Revolut’s intent to lead, not follow, in the next wave of digital finance innovation.

Bitcoin’s biggest limitations as a payment method have long been its speed and cost. Traditional Bitcoin transactions can take several minutes to confirm, and during periods of high network congestion, fees can spike significantly. These inefficiencies make on-chain Bitcoin impractical for everyday use, like splitting a restaurant bill or sending small amounts of money to friends. That’s where the Lightning Network comes in. It’s a layer-2 scaling solution built on top of Bitcoin that allows for nearly instant payments with very low fees. Instead of every transaction being recorded directly on the blockchain, Lightning opens payment channels between users, allowing them to transact rapidly off-chain and only settle the final balance on the main network when necessary.

Crypto currency payment processing by Host Merchant Services for businesses.

Lightspark has made Lightning viable for mainstream financial institutions by offering a complete suite of developer and enterprise tools. Its MoneyGrid technology intelligently routes transactions through the network to minimize liquidity issues and ensure reliability. Additionally, the Universal Money Address system allows users to send Bitcoin using simple email-like identifiers – for example, “jane@revolut” – instead of long alphanumeric wallet addresses. This reduces errors, enhances user confidence, and simplifies the experience to a level consumers expect from modern financial services.

David Marcus, co-founder and CEO of Lightspark and former president of PayPal, emphasized the transformative nature of this partnership. He described the Lightning Network as the 5G of money, a vast improvement over the “dial-up” speed of traditional banking systems. His vision is of a financial future that is instant, low-cost, and borderless – one that aligns closely with the fintech ethos Revolut embodies.

Emil Urmanshin, General Manager of Crypto at Revolut, echoed this sentiment, noting that integrating with Lightspark allows the company to provide its users with faster and more affordable financial solutions. By doing so, Revolut isn’t just enhancing its platform; it’s helping to redefine how digital assets can be used in the global economy.

The implications of this integration go far beyond a single app feature. It could serve as a model for other financial platforms to follow, especially as demand increases for crypto to move beyond speculative investment and into practical utility. It’s worth noting that Revolut is joining a growing list of major companies embracing the Lightning Network. Coinbase recently began routing some Bitcoin payments via Lightning through Lightspark’s infrastructure, and Strike, another prominent player in Bitcoin payments, processed over $6 billion in Lightning transactions last year. The momentum is building.

By incorporating Lightspark’s technology, Revolut addresses several core challenges that have limited Bitcoin’s utility. First, transaction speed improves dramatically. Payments on the Lightning Network are typically completed in seconds, compared to 10 minutes or more for on-chain confirmations. Second, the cost is significantly lower. Fees are often just fractions of a cent, which makes Bitcoin practical for small transactions and micro-payments. Third, user experience improves through features like UMA, which eliminates the need to handle confusing and risky wallet addresses.

This partnership also positions Revolut well in a competitive landscape where fintech companies are racing to integrate advanced crypto capabilities. Cash App, for instance, has supported Lightning payments for some time. For Revolut, the move helps it stand out not just as a crypto-friendly platform but as a serious contender in the race to define the future of digital payments.

From a business perspective, Revolut benefits by offering differentiated features that strengthen customer retention and acquisition. For users, the main value lies in the convenience and speed of transactions, especially when sending funds across borders or paying for services in real time. The integration also opens the door to additional use cases such as peer-to-peer tipping, micropayments for content, and seamless global remittances.

Of course, there are challenges. The Lightning Network requires liquidity to function smoothly, and while Lightspark’s infrastructure is designed to mitigate this issue through intelligent routing, scaling up to millions of users could stress even a robust system. Additionally, regulation remains a concern. Although off-chain Lightning payments may navigate some of the transaction-related regulatory scrutiny, Revolut still needs to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.

Still, the potential upside is significant. For Revolut, this could be the beginning of a much larger crypto payments strategy. If the rollout is successful in initial markets, expansion to other regions, deeper integrations into Revolut’s business banking services, or even partnerships with retailers for point-of-sale Bitcoin payments could follow. It may also prompt traditional financial institutions to re-evaluate their stance on Bitcoin and Lightning Network capabilities, especially if consumers begin demanding faster and cheaper alternatives to existing payment rails.

The timing is strategic. With institutional Bitcoin adoption on the rise, from public companies holding BTC on their balance sheets to increased flows into Bitcoin ETFs, public trust in crypto as an asset class is growing. But trust alone doesn’t drive usage – infrastructure does. What Lightspark and Revolut are building is infrastructure with a purpose: making Bitcoin practical.

In the end, this partnership could be one of the most consequential in the evolution of Bitcoin’s role in the financial ecosystem. It’s not about headlines or hype – it’s about solving real problems with real technology. Revolut is using its reach and reputation to bring Bitcoin payments to the mainstream, while Lightspark provides the technical foundation that makes such a move feasible and sustainable.

If successful, this collaboration will not just be another fintech feature release – it will be a signal that the world’s financial systems are ready to evolve, and that Bitcoin, powered by the Lightning Network, has a real shot at becoming money for the internet age.

About Revolut

Secure payment processing solutions for small businesses at Host Merchant Services.

Revolut Group Holdings Ltd, doing business as Revolut, is a British multinational neobank and financial technology company headquartered in London, England; it was founded on 1 July 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. Since its launch, Revolut has expanded its mobile banking platform to serve more than 52.5 million retail customers across over 48 countries and employs over 10,000 people globally. The app offers both free and subscription-based digital banking services, including domestic and international bank transfers, multi-currency current accounts, debit and credit cards, peer-to-peer payments, stock and cryptocurrency trading, savings accounts, personal loans, insurance, and buy-now-pay-later products.

As of August 2024, Revolut’s valuation reached $45 billion, making it the most valuable private tech company in Europe, and its latest annual report recorded $4 billion in revenue and $1.4 billion in profit before tax. By mid-2024, Revolut was preparing for a potential initial public offering, with filings underway for a Nasdaq listing and discussions for a London float, even as it holds full banking licenses in the UK and through its Revolut Bank UAB subsidiary under the European Central Bank, offering deposit protection in 30 EEA markets. In May 2025, the company announced a $1.1 billion investment plan over three years to expand its presence in France and establish Paris as its Western European headquarters.

About Lightspark

Founded in May 2022 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Lightspark Group, Inc. delivers enterprise-grade infrastructure for real-time Bitcoin and Lightning Network payments via its flagship “Money Grid,” which bridges traditional banking rails with decentralized blockchain networks to enable instant, low-cost, borderless transactions. The platform supports connectivity across 140+ countries, processes transactions in over 120 currencies, and serves more than 300 million end users, powering solutions such as Lightspark Connect, Universal Money Addresses (UMA), and the Spark smart-routing engine.

Co-founded by fintech veteran David Marcus (formerly President of PayPal and head of Facebook’s Diem project), Christian Catalini, and Tomer Barel, Lightspark launched with a seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz’s a16z Crypto and Paradigm, joined by Felix Capital, Coatue Management, Matrix Partners, and Ribbit Capital in May 2022. Since then, the company has forged key integrations – including powering Lightning transactions for Coinbase’s millions of users – and continues to expand its ecosystem through developer SDKs, compliance-grade services, and global partnerships aimed at driving mainstream adoption of Bitcoin payments.

Conclusion

The partnership between Revolut and Lightspark marks a turning point in how Bitcoin can be used for everyday transactions. By combining Revolut’s global user base and regulatory footprint with Lightspark’s infrastructure and Lightning Network expertise, the two companies are removing key barriers that have held back Bitcoin’s practical use – speed, cost, and complexity.

If adoption scales as intended, this could reshape expectations for digital payments, not just in crypto, but across the broader financial industry. For Revolut users, it means faster and cheaper transfers. For the fintech sector, it signals that Bitcoin is no longer limited to investment – it’s being built for utility.