According to the company MNT-Halan provides small- and micro-business lending, payments, consumer finance and e-commerce.

Voyager, which serves 47 million people through its consumer platforms that include e-wallet and digital payments, said the fresh capital will fund its digital banking venture and other services like cryptocurrency and micro-investments.

New legislation and regulatory changes in Egypt are set to unleash a surge in new fintech investments and change the way the country’s largely unbanked citizens do business, industry players say. 

Small transfers of bitcoin to El Salvador jumped over four-fold in May from a year ago but still represent a small amount when compared to remittances sent in dollars.

Li told Reuters in an interview that in “traditional finance” investing in SMEs was rarely worthwhile for global institutions as the due diligence was difficult, risks were high and funding amounts small.

Mobile money firms across Africa are ramping up plans to bring banking to millions after the pandemic caused a surge in the use of digital financial services.

Remittances sent to Mexico, a major support for the Mexican economy and in particular for low-income families, continued its historic 2020 run and rose in July to the third highest level on record.

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) has added insurance and even gold to its menu of financial services in India, to expand its customer base and attract more subscribers to its Prime loyalty program in a battleground growth market.

Brazil’s central bank has authorized testing of payments via Facebook Inc’s messaging service WhatsApp in the country easing an outright ban on the service imposed last month.

The UK-based company shuttered its India business on 13 April as 10 out of 14 lending partners withdrew their products within three days of the launch of a nationwide lockdown.