Today, in the connected economy, Google is making a five-year, $1.2 billion commitment to Latin America that includes building the world’s longest undersea cable.
Also, Mastercard is teaming up with a group of NFT marketplaces to make shopping easier and safer, and Amazon’s CEO is opening up about his company’s “big bets.”
Google invests $1.2 billion in Latin America’s digital economy
Google plans to invest $1.2 billion in Latin America to boost the region’s digital transformation and economic development.
The tech giant says the funding will advance three major projects in the region: hiring digital wallet engineers and building the world’s largest undersea cable.
Additionally, $300 million of the investment goes to Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, which supports sustainability NGOs and economic opportunities for women
Mastercard partners with NFT marketplaces for “easier and safer” purchases
To make buying non-fungible tokens (NFTs) “easier and more secure,” Mastercard has partnered with several NFT marketplaces to enable payments for NFT purchases on its network.
The companies include Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway and Web3 infrastructure provider MoonPay, according to Mastercard. The partnership will see customers buying NFTs with their Mastercard cards, either on the companies’ marketplaces or through their crypto services.
NFT marketplaces represent a large portion of the NFT sector, according to Mastercard, and generated more than $25 billion in revenue last year across categories including arts, sports, video games and collectibles.
Amazon is investing in video, autonomous vehicles and satellites, says CEO Jassy
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the supply chain crisis has caused his company to order things “significantly earlier” than before to ensure on-time deliveries.
Speaking at the Bloomberg Technology Summit, Jassy said Amazon will continue to invest in big bets despite slowing growth and sales in the current economic conditions.
Among the big bets: building a grocery chain, launching a cluster of internet beam satellites, Alexa software, and Zoox, the company’s autonomous taxi business. The CEO added emboldened by the future of Amazon’s streaming service, citing programs like the new TV show set in the Lord of the Rings universe.
UAE’s ADQ raises $100m tech fund in Jordan
The UAE ADQ had set up a $100 million technology-focused venture capital fund in partnership with Jordan’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship.
The venture capital firm said the fund aims to support high-growth tech companies and the growth of Jordan’s digital economy, which is home to 27% of all tech entrepreneurs in the region.
“We established the $100 million fund with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship in recognition of the strong potential of Jordan’s tech ecosystem,” said SE Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Managing Director and CEO of ADQ. “Jordan’s vibrant marketplace offers tremendous investment potential in sectors where we have significant expertise.”
Razer Fintech Adds PT E2Pay Global Utama for Indonesia Expansion
Razer Fintech, the financial technology arm of gamer-focused brand Razer, has acquired Indonesian B2B2C digital payments provider PT E2Pay Global Utama to expand its offline-to-online (O2O) digital payments network to Indonesia.
E2Pay provides payment gateway, e-money and remittance service licenses to merchants and financial institutions in Indonesia and regionally complements Razer Merchant Services, Razer Fintech’s business-to-business (B2B) arm.
“E2Pay is one of the very few digital payment providers in Indonesia that has comprehensive licenses for various payment gateway services, eMoney and remittances,” said LiMeng Lee, CEO of Razer Fintech.
“The acquisition of E2Pay allows us to accelerate our entry into Indonesia, one of the fastest growing digital economies in Southeast Asia, and to better serve the digital payment needs of our regional and global merchants as a partner of choice.”
Western Union partners with Mambu for European digital banking
Western Union is partnering with cloud banking platform Mambu to offer European customers digital banking products.
The companies say Mambu will let Western Union introduce new banking products that can be configured with external applications. With Western Union’s WU+ offering, customers can quickly set up a spend and save account with one app.
“Our goal is to offer our customers market-leading financial solutions,” said Thomas Mazzaferro, WU’s Chief Data and Innovation Officer. “By partnering with Mambu, we have built our digital banking products and services, starting in Europe with Germany and Romania.”
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NEW PYMNTS DATA: THE CUSTOMIZED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE STUDY – MAY 2022
Around: PYMNTS’ survey of 2,094 consumers for The Tailored Shopping Experience report, a collaboration with Elastic Path, shows where merchants are right and where they need to up their game to deliver a tailored shopping experience.
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