Venture funding

PayPal Holdings Inc. is teaming up with Indonesian venture-capital firm Alpha JWC Ventures to back emerging financial technologies that can be developed for Southeast Asia.

Fair Square Financial has received a $100 million equity investment from the Orogen Group to fund a credit card designed for underserved U.S. consumer segments.

Ant Financial, the Chinese payments giant controlled by Jack Ma, is expected to close a fundraising of at least $10 billion in the next few days, attracting Carlyle Group and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as first-time investors, according to people familiar with the matter.

Square has come a long way since it debuted in 2009 with a simple plastic card reader for micro-merchants. But it didn't make its journey alone.

In one of the biggest fundraising rounds for a European fintech this year, Revolut Ltd., a U.K. startup that provides digital banking, received $250 million.

Ant Financial Services Group has formed a strategic partnership with bKash Limited, the mobile payments platform Bangladesh’s central bank established to expand financial inclusion.

Sapphire Ventures and Cervin Ventures were involved in the Series B funding round, bringing their total of support to $31 million for Mountain View, Calif.-based Punchh.

The U.K. government has committed to a 5G Urban Connected Communities Project for a city-wide trial of 5G wireless technology as part of the fourth phase of the government’s 5G strategy. This trial should spark substantial investment in new payments technology.

Companies that aspire to be the Uber of their industry should take a second look at the ride-sharing market, where Grab has become a lightning rod of payments investment and innovation.

Alibaba is investing billions into mobile ordering technology in China — but what is more fundamentally American than spending large amounts of money on food?