Morning Brief 8.12.20: Stripe hires GM's CFO as digital drives growth
Walmart teams with Instacart; Paytm offers mobile point of sale hardware; and other information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web.
The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:
Recruiting
The coronavirus has sparked a rush to digital commerce, leading to a new $600 million funding round and a series of high-profile hires of executives from outside of the traditional payments industry.
The latest is Dhivya Suryadevara, GM's former CFO, who assumes the same position at Stripe, where she will be responsible for "managing aggressive growth while maintaining fiscal responsibility," according to Stripe. During the pandemic, Stripe has tried to address the increase in digital payments by approaching more categories of business — particularly those without traditional e-commerce models.
Stripe has added more than 400 staffers in 2020, boosting its workforce to about 2,800 in 16 offices. Stripe has recently hired Mike Clayville from Amazon Web Services to be its chief revenue officer; and Trish Walsk, a former counsel for Voya Financial, as general counsel.
Delivery battle
Walmart has partnered with Instacart to support same-day delivery, upping the ante in its delivery speed
The partnership is currently in a pilot phase in four markets
Walmart has an existing partnership with Instacart for
Wallet installments
Point of sale credit company Klarna has added Google Pay for in-store purchases in the U.S. with Sephora, Journeys and rue21 as initial merchants.
The Sweden-based Klarna, which already supports Apple pay, is positioning the move as a way to boost
Klarna has also recently attracted investment from
mPOS meets UPI
Paytm has launched a portable point of sale device that's designed to allow Indian small businesses to support contactless transactions away from a static terminal.
The payment firm is selling an Android device that includes a scan to order feature and a connection to India's United Payments Interface, which provides a rail for digital payments, reports
The device is integrated with Paytm's business app, which powers other digital financial services and business management features for merchants.
From the Web
REUTERS | Wednesday Aug 12 2020
Stock investor Zhu Haifeng halved his once-cherished holdings in Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba after the United States announced on Friday sanctions against some Chinese firms in the latest escalation between the world's two top economies.
TECHCRUNCH | Wednesday Aug 12 2020
Habito, the London startup that has spent the last few years moving the mortgage process online, including offering its own mortgages beyond acting as a broker, has completed £35 million in Series C funding.
More from PaymentsSource
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It was an attention-grabbing decision when Facebook hired PayPal's president, David Marcus, in 2014. At the time, Facebook didn't have much of a dedicated payments business to speak of; when people thought of spending money on Facebook, they typically thought of in-app purchases in Farmville.
Thanks to the growing implementation of open banking, the same type of collaboration can be reached between bigtechs and fintechs.
For ‘big tech’ bundling is the new battle — and a driving factor for Facebook, which is corralling several of its commerce divisions to show its substantial network of users how much they can do without leaving the social network.
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John Drechny, the CEO of the Merchant Advisory Group, talks to PaymentsSource Associate Editor David Heun about how merchants are looking beyond the coronavirus crisis — and how every choice merchants make today will have consequences that last well beyond the pandemic.
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As the global economy continues to unlock more opportunities for cross border transactions and payments, the ability for businesses to communicate with global consumers in their language (or currency) of choice is vital, says Fiserv's Brian Frey.
It took years for NFC payments to gather momentum in the U.S., with merchants initially dragging their heels to enable contactless technology at payment terminals and banks waiting until 2018 to begin the slow rollout of NFC-enabled cards.
Facing Wall Street analysts for the first time after the murder of George Floyd, CEOs of major payment companies joined other financial services firms in promising to improve fairness and opportunities for Black people and other underrepresented groups.
