Venture funding

The ICO fundraising model has already yielded more than $230 million for startups.

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.

Innovate Indiana is taking part in a $2.6 million investment in Rippleshot, a company that uses artificial intelligence to detect card fraud.

San Francisco-based Align Commerce, which leverages blockchain and other technologies to enable cross-border payments for small- to midsize businesses, has rebranded itself as Veem and landed $24 million in funding to expand its operations.

Chinese financial-technology investments this year may exceed 2016’s record $10 billion as companies continue to raise funds for expansion and big banks grow their digital services, according to Accenture Plc.

The Spanish bank said it will continue to be Atom’s main strategic investor and keep two seats on its board.

The San Carlos, Calif., firm is following a similar blueprint as other online lenders — launching with a particular loan product, refining its algorithms, and then seeking to expand into other corners of consumer finance.

Everybody thinks business travel payments and bookings are a headache, until consumer-style rewards are thrown in.

The payments industry has been overrun with innovation in mobile, wearable and cloud-based digital payments. But many niches are years — if not decades — behind this trend.

If you've ever walked past a film shoot, it's easy to see how much more there is to the movies and TV than just the star and director. There's often dozens or even hundreds of other people involved in the production — bit players, stunt performers, musicians and more — and they all have to be paid, at times irregularly and under different rules.