The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | January 5th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements. For Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

American Express has signed a strategic agreement with Alrajhi Bank to expand ATM access for cardmembers in Saudi Arabia.

With the formalization of the agreement, American Express has added more than 4,500 ATM terminals to its growing network, enabling its customers to enjoy seamless ATM services across the Kingdom.

Waleed Al Mogbel, MD & CEO at Alrajhi Bank, said, “The agreement directly aligns with Alrajhi Bank’s strategic objective of achieving sustainable growth in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. It exemplifies our unwavering dedication to consistently provide value to our customers, while harnessing financial expertise and innovation to meet the market’s ever-evolving needs.”

Deals of the week

• Solva secures $20m investment from the Sawiris family & ZCP
• Bumper raises $48m to expand payments offering in Europe
• Fimple, a cloud based FinTech, completes $5.5m bridge investment
• MessagePay integrates with Fiserv for Credit Union SMS Payments
• Magnati enters payment partnership with Oxinus Holdings
• Qatar Islamic Bank launches QIB Lite app to boost financial inclusion
• Financial Advisory Platform Cashvisory raises $144k in Pre-Seed Round
• AU Small Finance Bank & Mastercard unveil Debit Card for its salaried customers
• NPCI brings UPI for Secondary Market to diversify its offerings
• Surfboard Payments & Worldline partner to streamline payments for SMBs
• OneDegree secures funding from Dubai Insurance to offer digital asset insurance
• Intergiro partners with Silverflow for global card processing technology
• Solva secures $20m investment from the Sawiris family & ZCP

Be on the lookout for

The Dubai FinTech Summit will take place in Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, on May 6-7, 2024. The Dubai FinTech Summit, organized by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), brings together the best fintech minds worldwide and returns in 2024 for a ground-breaking second edition.

This global milestone in financial innovation goes beyond an event, marking a new era in the FinTech industry. Global FinTech and Finance Summit brings together the world’s brightest minds, policymakers, and influencers for collaboratively crafting tools, regulations, and frameworks.

Featuring Innovation, Inclusion, and Impact as its central focus, the summit will reflect the impact of technology on the financial sector, the importance of financial inclusion, and the growing emphasis on sustainability. As a rising FinTech hub, Dubai is at the forefront of this revolution, inspiring startup innovation and visionary investments under its esteemed leadership.