Issue #123: X's Payment Push, Nuvei’s Brazilian Buy, and CBA’s AI Foray—It’s Not What You Might Expect

👋 Welcome to another edition of Fintech Radar, your weekly go-to source for deep dives into what’s happening in fintech.

If you’re new, here is a breakdown of what you can expect from each issue.

This weekly missive is written for founders, operators, and investors in fintech. I prioritise quality, depth, and provocation each week over just rehashing press releases and partnership announcements. Rather than simply covering news, I dig in and explore the implications of what’s happening in the industry — without all the fluff.

My goal is to spark discussion, highlight emerging trends in fintech that could become central themes in the coming years, and help you connect the dots.

If you missed our recent editions, you can catch up here. Some previous issues you might want to check out if you’re new include “A Deep Dive Into The Cash App's Growth Machine”, “The Future Of Payment Initiation”, and “Current: Doing It Differently”.

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⤷ X working on 'payments' button

• 🏃‍♂️ The Rundown: X is reportedly adding a "Payments" button as part of Elon Musk's vision to transform the platform into an "everything app" for users' financial needs.

• App researcher Nima Owji discovered this feature alongside references to new payment functionalities. Musk has previously discussed a future where users can manage all financial activities on X, potentially eliminating the need for traditional bank accounts, with plans to implement these changes by the end of next year.

• 🥡 Takeaway: We haven’t heard much from X on the fintech front lately—perhaps the US election has something to do with that. However, some sleuthing by an app researcher has revealed that a “Payments” tab is on the way. The question is, what will sit behind this mysterious tab?

• From previous reports, we know that Musk would love nothing more than to turn the home of hot takes into a super app. With a bunch of money transmitter licenses now acquired in the US, X might finally be in a position to launch more robust payment functionality within the app.

• This isn’t the first time Twitter has dabbled in payments; they’ve tried a few other offerings, including tipping, but none of their attempts to break into fintech have gained significant traction. Here’s hoping they take a big swing this time and go beyond creator payments (yawn) to offer something like a wallet. Go big or go home, Elon.

⤷ Nuvei to acquire licensed Payment Institution in Brazil

• 🏃‍♂️ The Rundown: Nuvei has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pay2All, a licensed payment institution in Brazil, enhancing its presence in the Latin American market.

• This acquisition will enable Nuvei to offer various payment services, including electronic currency issuance and participation in local systems like PIX, which are crucial for the emerging regulated sports betting and online gaming sectors.

• With Brazil's iGaming market projected to grow significantly, Nuvei aims to position itself as a leading payment partner while continuing to expand its local acquiring services across the region.

• 🥡 Takeaway: You might recall that Nuvei was acquired by Advent a few months back for $6.3b in a deal that will take the payments company private. This was a savvy move by Advent — which has been building a portfolio of payment companies serving a range of niche verticals — as Nuvei continues to grow its global footprint.

• Payments are all about reach, and this acquisition significantly expands Nuvei’s operations in the high-growth LATAM market. It adds depth to their offerings and further opens up other markets in the region.

• Notably, the press release announcing the deal highlighted how it enables Nuvei to serve iGaming companies in the market. In a world where most PSPs are steering clear of high-risk customers, Nuvei is leaning in. It’s a clever strategy that not only positions them well in a growing payments segment but also differentiates them from the myriad of other PSPs.

⤷ CommBank to equip all staff with AI training modules

• 🏃‍♂️ The Rundown: The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is launching an AI microlearning series called AI For All for its 43,000 employees, featuring bite-sized videos on topics like generative AI and responsible AI.

• This initiative aims to equip staff with essential AI skills, reflecting the bank's commitment to fostering a skilled workforce and enhancing customer experiences.

• 🥡 Takeaway: The “expectations vs. reality” meme perfectly captures the current state of AI in the financial sector. Many believe generative AI presents a rare opportunity for incumbents to outpace upstarts, given their data and resources.

• They’re determined not to be caught off guard this time—or so the thinking goes.

  However, the reality is that most organisations are still in the very early stages of their AI journey, which is why we’re seeing initiatives like CBA’s AI For All.

• These mass internal education efforts are necessary to build a foundational understanding of AI across their workforce. As Gartner research points out:

  • “At least 30% of generative AI (GenAI) projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of 2025, due to poor data quality, inadequate risk controls, escalating costs, or unclear business value…”

• Frankly, that estimate might even be generous. So, while it appears that financial services incumbents are heavily investing in AI, my guess is that much of this spending will be similar to what CBA is doing—focusing more on internal education and proof of concepts rather than on full-scale deployments.

⤷ Fintech Payoneer is buying 5-year-old global payroll startup Skuad for $61M in cash

• 🏃‍♂️ The Rundown: Payoneer has acquired Singapore-based global payroll startup Skuad for $61m in cash, with potential total payments reaching $81m based on performance goals.

• Founded in 2019, Skuad simplifies international hiring for small-to-medium-sized businesses in over 160 countries. According to the article, the acquisition aligns with Payoneer's strategy to capture a share of the $6t B2B market.

• 🥡 Takeaway:  This acquisition by Payoneer seems to be a strategic move to defend their market share in the cross-border employee payments space, which fast-growing EOR companies are aggressively targeting with their own offerings.

• By entering the EOR segment, Payoneer now finds itself in direct competition with industry leaders like Deel, Remote, and Oyster HR. The integration of Skuad’s offerings into Payoneer’s product lineup will be interesting to watch, especially as the EOR space continues to heat up.

⤷ Australian Payments Plus and the Australian Banking Association to launch Confirmation of Payee service

• 🏃‍♂️ The Rundown: Australian Payments Plus (AP+) and the Australian Banking Association (ABA) have announced the completion of the design for a new Confirmation of Payee service aimed at protecting Australians from scams by allowing payers to verify the account name before making a payment.

• This service will feature a central matching system that checks the account name against provided details and is set to be rolled out gradually, with banks investing $100m in its development. The initiative is part of the sector's Scam-Safe Accord, enhancing customer confidence in financial transactions and reducing the risk of misdirected payments.

• 🥡 Takeaway:  Once finalised, this will be a significant enhancement to payment security in Australia, driven by incumbent banks—which is actually great to see.

• Although I’m not exactly sure what they’re spending $100 million on (I assume half of that will go toward catering at meetings to discuss implementation), this move will likely save incumbents millions of dollars on refunds and time spent dealing with disputes. It will also provide a solid piece of infrastructure that improves overall payment safety in Australia. Great job, Aussie incumbent bank! 👏

⤷ Walnut Insurance Secures $4.6M to Transform Insurance Distribution with Embedded Technology

• 🏃‍♂️ The Rundown: Walnut last week announced it had secured $4.6m to expand its embedded insurance technology platform, which streamlines insurance distribution by integrating products directly into enterprise and financial platforms.

• The round, led by NAventures (National Bank of Canada’s CVC) with participation from TELUS Global Ventures, Diagram Ventures, Portage, and Highline Betaother prominent investors, will enable Walnut to continue to enhance its product, scale operations, and enter new markets.

• 🥡 Takeaway: I’ve written quite a bit about the embedded insurance opportunity and why now is an ideal time for startups attacking this segment. What I’m curious about is what the winning model will look like.

• Walnut, for example, is taking a broad approach by offering a range of different types of coverage through a white-label service. Others, however, are focused on building their brand at the checkout, aiming to be anything but invisible providers of technology.

• It’s an intriguing “inside baseball” question: Will trust in the offering come from the retailer (or other seller of the policy), or will it be built by the underlying embedded insurance provider who is trying to draw you into their ecosystem? The jury is still out.

⤷ Payman raises a $3m seed round

• 🏃‍♂️ The Rundown: PaymanAI has raised a $3M in pre-seed funding to develop AI-to-human payment systems. The round had participation from Visa, BoostVC, Coinbase Ventures, Deepwater Asset Management, Spartan Group, Untapped Capital and Theory Forge VC amongst others. Their platform aims to enable AI to pay humans for completing tasks, bridging the gap between AI capabilities and human assistance.

• 🥡 Takeaway: Where are all the interesting AI-native fintech startups? It’s a common refrain from those seeking something beyond another AI-powered chatbot—or maybe that’s just me. If we’re being honest, most AI offerings in the fintech space have been fairly predictable. The recipe so far is simple: a sprinkle of RAG, a heavy helping of an OpenAI model, all packaged neatly into an existing product. Yum!

• So far, it’s been customer support bots and co-pilots all the way down for AI in fintech. Which is fine, especially for those aiming to cut costs and reduce headcount, with Klarna as the poster child. But the more interesting question right now is: What will a truly AI-native fintech startup look like?

• Although PaymanAI isn’t particularly exciting today from a fintech perspective, it does start to hint at the shape of AI-native payment companies we might see in the future. Who knows—maybe the first breakout native AI fintech startup will be a Zenefits for agentic AI.

⤷ What is Robinhood Doing in Crypto? Co-Founder Vlad Tenev

• Vlad Tenev continues his podcast world tour, this time joining the Bankless podcast to discuss Robinhood’s ambitions in the crypto space. He delves into the reasoning behind Robinhood’s acquisition of Bitstamp, future plans for tokenisation, navigating SEC regulations, and the broader payment landscape, including their new credit card offering.

⤷ Goldman Sachs CIO on How the Bank Is Actually Using AI

• Continuing the theme of how incumbents are implementing AI, Goldman Sachs’ CIO, Marco Argenti, joins the Odd Lots podcast to discuss the bank’s approach to AI.

• As expected, the challenge of balancing rapid innovation with the careful handling of customer PII is a major concern for Argenti. At Goldman, the focus is primarily on enhancing workflows with AI copilots and applying AI to customer service tasks. This podcast serves as a great reminder, and mentioned above, that most financial services incumbents are still in the early stages of their AI journey.

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