Mastercard expands environmental plan; SumUp upgrades store branding

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:

Green house

Mastercard plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050, part of a greenhouse gas reduction program that includes decarbonizing operations and supply chains.

Mastercard contends it achieved 100% renewable energy in 2020 as an early stage of that goal.

Credit card manufacturing and disposal create environmental stresses, prompting changes in production and issuance over the past several years. Amex has added recyclable plastic to cards, and Visa's corporate responsibility reports include data on sustainable energy progress.

Bloomberg

Clip art

Hoping to reach newly online small businesses, payments technology company SumUp and visual content firm Shutterstock are enabling redesigns for merchant storefronts.

Merchants in SumUp's network will be able to access Shutterstock's image library as part of their branding. Media companies and businesses often use Shutterstock as a source of representative imagery, and the SumUp integration is aimed at smaller merchants.

SumUp has expanded its reach over the past few months, adding a partnership with Mastercard and Ford to embed payment technology in vehicles tied to small businesses.

Partner now, pay later

Hoping to add options to keep pace in the point of sale credit arms race, PayU is integrating with Czech buy now/pay later (BNPL) firm Twisto to power added features such as a 45-day payment postponement with no extra fees.

Investors have been pouring funds into BNPL companies, hoping to cash in on a trend as consumers select an alternative to revolving credit card debt. Many of these companies reported triple-digital volume growth in 2020, often in a few months.

But there are also challenges to BNPL, particularly from regulators in a growing list of countries including the U.S., Sweden and the U.K. The regulators are pressuring BNPL out of concern it encourages consumers to build debt while making purchases that are beyond their budgets.

Branching out

Payroll company Branch is trying to dump paper from small-business salaries by upgrading an API to link salary disbursements to partners that support other corporate functions.

Branch will tie tips, wages and digital paycard alternatives to broader HR portals such as Rippling. Branch and Rippling are positioning the technology pandemic play, saying it allows businesses to onboard, manage and pay staff with less paper and physical contact.

The coronavirus and related economic crisis have drawn more attention to digital payroll and other products that automate salary processing while adding more flexibility to how staff gets paid.

From the web

Walmart plans to fill online orders with help from robots at some U.S. stores
_{REUTERS | Wednesday, January 27, 2021}
Walmart Inc will add small robot-staffed warehouses to dozens of its stores to help fill orders for pickup and delivery, the company said on Wednesday, as Americans shift their spending online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corporate card startup Mooncard challenges American Express in France with miles
_{TECHCRUNCH | Wednesday, January 27, 2021}
French startup Mooncard is partnering with Flying Blue to offer Air France miles to its customers. This is the first time you can earn miles with a payment card in France that isn’t an American Express card.

Club Feast raises $3.5M to help restaurants deliver meals that only cost $5.99
_{TECHCRUNCH | Tuesday, January 26, 2021}
Club Feast, a startup with a more affordable approach to meal delivery, is announcing that it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst.

More from PaymentsSource

For self-serve innovation, data is power
A payment company focused on customer experience can work behind the scenes to facilitate that success, says PayNearMe's John Minor.

How Flywire survived when cross-border tuition payments crashed
Flywire braced for disaster last year when the pandemic struck, with millions of foreign students canceling their academic plans indefinitely.

Amex upbeat on consumer travel, less so on business
American Express is banking on consumers' desire to travel to address an important revenue category that has spent much of the past year grounded.

One-click checkout startup Fast draws $102 million in VC funding
Fast has received a new round of funding from backers including Stripe.

Where payments meet politics
Kate Fitzgerald, senior editor at PaymentsSource, talks to Eric Grover, principal at Intrepid Ventures, about the political activities that hinder the expansion of payment systems.

Synchrony buying health care-focused installment lender
Synchrony Financial is ramping up its point-of-sale financing business with a deal to buy a health care-focused consumer lender.

Small businesses will sputter without B2B automation
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many businesses to reconsider how they buy and sell goods and services.

Diebold and NCR pursue a future beyond payment hardware
The ATM and payment terminal makers are facing more competition from software providers. Both have taken steps to head off this threat.

Gen Z will lead the shift to open banking
Younger consumers have an appetite for fintech services and digital relationships, says Cloudentity CEO Jasen Meece.

How open banking can transform the U.S. payments market
U.S. banks and payment companies are looking to Europe's example to see how open banking can push the market beyond its reliance on credit and debit cards.