Mobile payments

Paytm, the Indian mobile payments startup backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has begun its global expansion by launching a mobile bill and tax payment service in Canada.

As cars add web connectivity, the opportunity to embed payments are almost endless. It's an opportunity that's too big to ignore.

PayPal's February acquisition of TIO Networks is the latest example of a growing trend of financial services providers targeting the underserved, developing products that bring the cash-heavy group into the digital payments fold.

Seoul-based Viva Republica, which is seeing brisk growth with Toss, its person-to-person payments app, recently drew $48 million in venture capital funding. The series C funding round was led by Silicon Valley’s Goodwater Capital, along with PayPal, Bessemer Venture Partners, Altos Ventures and Partech Ventures.

Many banks and money transmitters have built successful billion-dollar businesses around P-to-P payments without social sharing and letting users send emojis.

Mobile money apps have proven to be a major force in building financial services in emerging economies, but under the hood they can be starkly different.

The technology from MCX's CurrentC wallet, which never formally launched, will get new life with Chase Pay, which debuted in 2016 with Starbucks, Best Buy and commitments from MCX members such as Walmart.

The move may prove particularly helpful in reaching rural parts of India, where the latest smartphone technology has not arrived.

Ever since Apple opened its Siri voice assistant to outside developers late last year, payment companies have been experimenting with the potential of voice-controlled payments. Here's a look at what some of the early adopters have already accomplished.

TriMet, the regional transportation system based in Portland, Ore., recently began a test of a reloadable fare system and later this year it will add Near Field Communication-based payments via bank cards and smartphones to its pilot.