Morning Brief 10.31.19: ShopRunner adds Apple Pay to combat Amazon

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the web:

E-commerce battle

ShopRunner is adding Apple Pay to its subscription service in an effort to make it easier to log in and shop for brands across ShopRunner's subscription network.

The deployment will be gradual, reports Fortune, adding consumers usually log into ShopRunner at the point of sale on the individual retailers' sites. Adding Apple Pay will enable a single login.
ShopRunner's retail network has more than 140 stores, including Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, and offers free two-day shipping for online orders.

Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Currency bundle

Currencycloud plans to deploy technology designed to collect, store, convert and pay in about three dozen currencies.
The company is making a move against a backdrop of growing cross-border payments for consumers and supply chains. Geopolitical pressure is also pushing less complicated and inexpensive ways to manage currency and international transactions, which could benefit multicurrency accounts.
Currencycloud contends financial providers often have to rely on a "patchwork" of providers to support international payments, leaving an opening for an alternative method. Called Spark, the new product will be rolled out in the first half of 2020.

Dorsey's coin

Jack Dorsey participated in a $10 million round in CoinList, a token sales management platform. Dorsey's investment comes shortly after sharply criticizing Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency project
Dorsey is CEO of Twitter and Square, which has supported bitcoin trading but does not have plans to issue its own cryptocurrency.
Square is also developing technology to support different use cases for cryptocurrency, which is popular among Square's merchants.

Smarter invoices

Stampli, a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup focused on cloud-based accounts payable technology, won $25 million in a funding round led by Signal Fire. Other funding participants included Hillsven Capital and NextWorld Capital.

The AI-powered platform Stampli developed provides a centralized invoice landing page accessible to all departments, which speeds up approvals and accounting when several members of an organization need to see the same invoice. Launched in 2015, Stampli got its first funding last year in a $7 million round that was also led by Signal Fire.

Stampli leverages machine learning to adapt to organizations’ payment flows and authorized users may add or subtract payment providers at any time.

Transit's migration

Visa has added about 100 partners to the card brand's Visa Ready for Transit program, an innovation hub for transportation payments and other technology.
Transit has become a major venue to automate transactions, given the habitual use and ability to link to other merchants.
There are also challenges given the relatively slow development cycles for transit agencies, creating an opportunity for open development and an innovation hub.

From the web

Brazilian payments company Cielo eyes consolidation deals
_{REUTERS | Wed October 30, 2019}
Brazil’s Cielo SA is considering potential mergers and acquisitions to consolidate its card-processing business, Chief Executive Paulo Caffarelli told reporters on Wednesday, ruling out reports that the company was in talks over a sale to rival StoneCo Ltd. Shares in Cielo fell nearly 6% in morning trading after it posted a 50% drop in third-quarter net income on Tuesday, missing analyst estimates.

Payment firm Tyro to brave Australia's tough IPO market before Christmas: sources
_{REUTERS | Thu October 31, 2019}
Australia’s Tyro Payments is preparing to list in December and is seeking a valuation of more than A$1.5 billion ($1 billion), two people said, braving negative market sentiment following six initial public offering (IPO) cancellations this month. The firm, which sells EFTPOS machines and payment services via a digital apps to businesses, plans to file a prospectus in mid-November and sell shares worth about A$250 million as part of the listing process in mid-December, one of the people said.

WeChat launches digital tax refund service for overseas tourists
_{CHINA DAILY | Wed October 30, 2019}
WeChat has launched a new service that enables overseas tourists to get a digital refund tax as the latest application of financial technology in various sectors. Since Oct 1, overseas tourists can receive a tax refund through the We TaxFree Pass mini-application in WeChat, the social networking platform of the internet giant Tencent, and receive money immediately in their digital wallets, significantly simplifying the process.

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