Payments

Swedish fintech company Klarna has entered Poland this week with the launch of its 'buy now, pay later' service in collaboration with H&M. This is the latest expansion of Klarna, which has been gruadually building its presence in Europe in the last years.

Paysafe has announced that it has singed a definitive agreement to acquire SafetyPay. The London-based online payments company will pay about 375 million euros for SafetyPay in an all-cash transaction.

Amazon is said to accept Bitcoin payments by the end of the year. Ethereum, Cardano and Bitcoin Cash will be next in line. And then Amazon will release its own native token, an insider says.

Payment by installment has become increasingly popular in France. It seems that 30 percent of French consumers have already resorted to installment payments.

Juni, a fintech company from Sweden that is aimed at ecommerce and marketing entrepreneurs, has raised 21.5 million dollars (18.2 million euros) in a Series A round of funding. The money will be used to focus on Juni's product development and to hire more people.

Shopify has revealed its new Payments Platform. It's a way to integrate third-party payment gateways into Shopify Checkout, so merchants can add them as payment options for their customers. The payment gateways can be created as Shopify apps.

Liberis has been selected by Klarna to provide revenue-based finance to ecommerce companies across 17 countries in Europe and beyond. Liberis has already financed over 17,000 small and medium-sized enterprises with over 575 million euros.

Smart Fintech, an open banking third party provider from Romania, has officially launched SmartPay. This is said to be the first alternative payment solution that is authorized by the National Bank of Romania.

Dutch payments startup Mollie has raised 665 million euros in a Series C funding round. The payment service provider has raised a total of over 780 million euros to date. With the money, Mollie wants to expand further and scale its team.

Three in four European consumers (74 percent) say they will stick to their pandemic online shopping levels, meaning they won't reduce their ecommerce activities now they can shop offline again. So it looks like the shift to ecommerce is here to stay.

Payment and banking service provider FinXP has launched Real Time Payments by FinXP (RTPF). This is an account-to-account payment method that is targeted at online merchants. The Malta-based electronic money institution says its transaction fees are lower than many other popular alternative payment methods.

Hokodo, a B2B buy-now-pay-later provider, has raised 12.5 million dollars (10.28 million euros) in a Series A round. The London-based fintech startup will use this money to extend its services across Europe.

UTP Group, a UK payment solution company, now offers its ecommerce customers the ability to receive fund settlement within hours instead of days. It claims to be the first to offer same-day funding online and in stores.

The use of mobile payments has further increased in France. The share was 18 percent in 2018, but has now grown significantly to 38 percent. Currently, half of French consumers intend to use their smartphones for in-store payments in the future.

Lightspeed has announced the launch of Lightspeed Payments in Europe. At first, this payment solution will only available for hospitality merchants in the United Kingdom. Soon it will be available for retailers. Other European markets will also follow soon.