John Adams

Ride-sharing apps always seem to be racing to be something else — or at least something more — especially given the coronavirus pandemic's impact on travel. With a banking license in Singapore, Grab can add fuel to the strategy.

E-commerce and digital finance are expanding quickly due to the pandemic, economic downturn and plans for recovery — providing opportunities for VCs that back technology that powers faster, more digital payments.

Cryptocurrency is cooking with a fall rally and lots of attention from recognizable companies like Square and PayPal. For Daniel Polotsky, any good news for bitcoin is welcome.

Investors are flocking to point of sale credit firms, which have emerged as a popular option during a time of economic stress. And market dynamics suggest more upside even as traditional payment competitors enter the fray.

Libra is distancing itself from Facebook not only through a name change, but also by attempting to draw attention toward its digital payment rail instead of the creation of alternative money.

Digital workforce collaboration apps like Slack are hot acquisition targets, particularly for a company like Salesforce, which needs to compete with enterprise technology companies while making it easy for its clients to execute an "invisible payment" that's embedded in cross-selling and marketing.

High profile companies like Facebook, Square and PayPal have brought attention to using cryptocurrency for payments — but speed is more important than buzz in getting stores to view crypto as tender, according to a group of developers who are building connections to merchants.

Companies like Affirm and Klarna have been a beacon for investors, leading to at least one multibillion-dollar planned IPO in support of a point-of-purchase lending model that could set the stage for use cases well beyond credit.

Within the payments industry, Wirecard as a brand has become almost like Enron — but an exec at Railsbank says the German processor's fall from grace masks talent and innovation that can thrive elsewhere and help forge new paths to financial services.

Italian technology firm Nexi has dedicated about $15 billion over the past two months to shore up its position in the European payment processing market, a local burst of consolidation that exists inside a larger wave of similar mergers globally.