This week’s version of Finovate International appears at current fintech headlines from the Jap European nations of Bulgaria, Albania, and Hungary.
Bulgarian Fintech Paypercut Raises €5M
Paypercut, a fintech primarily based in Sofia, Bulgaria, has secured €5 million in seed funding. The spherical was co-led by Concentric, Ardour Capital, and Araya Ventures, and featured participation from further buyers together with SMOK Ventures, Portfolio Ventures, BrightCap Ventures, BlackWood, SABAH.fund, MFG Make investments, Essential Set, and Matt Doka, a cost entrepreneur. Paypercut’s complete funding now stands at €7 million.
Based in response to the fragmentation of funds in Central and Jap Europe, Paypercut has grown from a Purchase Now, Pay Later aggregator right into a extra complete funds platform. The corporate gives retailers entry to card funds, native cost choices, Purchase Now Pay Later merchandise, cost hyperlinks, QR code funds, multi-currency settlement, and billing instruments through a single integration. Paypercut raised €2 million in pre-seed funding in July 2025 and has onboarded greater than 200 retailers in eight CEE markets since that point.
This week’s funding will assist gas Paypercut’s continued growth throughout Central and Jap Europe. The funding will even allow the agency to fulfill the capital necessities for an EMI license with the Central Financial institution of Eire.
“CEE has at all times been handled as an afterthought by the funds business, seen as too fragmented, too many native specifics, too sophisticated,” Paypercut Co-Founder and CEO Stoil Vasilev stated. “We constructed Paypercut to repair that. This spherical provides us the sources to go additional and sooner: extra markets, extra cost choices for retailers, and the infrastructure to maneuver cash in the best way it ought to have at all times labored, immediately and at a fraction of the price.”
Along with its service provider funds operation, Paypercut can be growing stablecoin-based infrastructure for cross-border transfers within the area. The corporate will initially goal high-volume corridors resembling these between the Euro and the Polish Zloty (EUR-to-PLN) and the Euro and the Romanian Leu (EUR-to-RON).
Albania’s Tirana Financial institution Goes Stay with Backbase
Tirana Financial institution, named “Greatest Financial institution in Albania” in 2025 by Euromoney, has gone dwell with a “full omnichannel retail banking expertise” constructed on the Backbase AI-native Banking OS. The launch covers accounts, deposits, on-line mortgage and bank card purposes, inside and outgoing transfers, card administration, billpay, and monetary insights. Tirana Financial institution will even allow Digital Help within the worker app.
“This launch marks a big step in our digital transformation journey, as we proceed to put money into options that deliver actual, on a regular basis worth to our prospects. TiBank+ is designed to ship a seamless and intuitive banking expertise, combining comfort with the belief and human connection that outline our mannequin,” Tirana Financial institution Chief Retail Enterprise Officer Lila Canaj stated. “Via our partnership with Backbase, now we have accelerated this transformation, bringing to market a contemporary and scalable platform constructed to evolve with our prospects’ wants.”
One characteristic that Tirana Financial institution anticipates its prospects will admire is real-time spending insights, courtesy of Backbase’s private finance administration capabilities. Providing prospects these insights is just not a standard prevalence within the area and can assist Tirana Financial institution differentiate itself from its opponents. The establishment can be going dwell with Apple Pay, changing into one of many few Albanian banks to supply the service through a cell app.
“Albania is on its path to EU membership, its authorities has made digitalization a nationwide precedence,” Backbase Regional Vice President for South East Europe Robert Mihaljek stated. “Tirana Financial institution checked out that second and determined to steer it. They got here to us with a transparent ambition. Twelve months later, they’re dwell with not solely an MVP however a full retail APP. It is a first for Albania, and a reference for the Balkans.”
A four-time Finovate Better of Present winner, Backbase has been a Finovate alum since 2009. The Amsterdam-based fintech gives an AI-native banking working system that converts fragmented banking operations right into a unified frontline for the advantage of prospects and staff alike. Based in 2003, Backbase counts greater than 150 main banks and monetary establishments world wide as customers of its options for retail, small enterprise, industrial, and personal banking, in addition to wealth administration. Riddhi Dutta is CEO.
Can Crypto Make a Comeback in Hungary?
For a lot of observers, liberal democracy was one of many large winners within the current Hungarian election that noticed the tip of the Orbán regime. However may the victory of Péter Magyar and his pro-EU Tisza Celebration even be signal for crypto and digital property within the nation?
In 2025, Hungary introduced an amended Crypto Act that criminalized unauthorized trade companies and established a validation regime on all crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto transactions. This incentivized some corporations, resembling Revolut, to withdraw from the Hungarian market fully, whereas others suspended companies attributable to regulatory uncertainty.
This additionally set off a confrontation with the EU, with the European Fee initiating infringement proceedings in opposition to Hungary’s validation regime, saying that it was in battle with the EU’s MiCA framework. Curiously, Orbán had beforehand been comparatively pro-crypto, along with his regime providing among the lowest tax charges on crypto in Central Europe. This made Hungary—no less than earlier than 2025—a horny jurisdiction for retail crypto buyers within the area.
There are a lot of causes supplied to elucidate the shift towards a extra restrictive perspective in recent times—from the affect of MiCA and its mandates to the regime’s well-known desire for state management and supervision of key monetary and industrial actions. However the query now’s whether or not or not new politics will lead to new coverage? The right reply, at this level, is that nobody is aware of. What some observers have famous, nonetheless, is Magyar’s comparatively extra pro-EU stance on different points and his normal curiosity in re-aligning with European establishments extra broadly. To this finish, even one thing as easy as revising the nation’s crypto coverage to match MiCA’s mandates—and take away or revise present prison penalties for coverage violations— could be an preliminary optimistic signal towards restoring crypto’s standing in Hungary.
Right here is our have a look at fintech innovation world wide.
Central and Southern Asia
Latin America and the Caribbean
By way of its Alipay+ gateway, Singapore’s Ant Worldwide introduced the launch of cross-border cell cost companies in Latin America.
ACI Worldwide regarded on the affect of real-time funds on progress in Peru, Chile, and Argentina.
Tearsheet profiled Brazilian digital monetary establishment Agibank.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based Crypto funds community Moonpay and controlling shareholder Seoryong Electronics introduced a joint funding in Korean fintech Finger.
Vietnam Financial institution OCB chosen Backbase AI lead Chris Shayan as its Appearing CEO.
Visa launched Germin Pay within the Philippines.
Sub-Saharan Africa
African monetary infrastructure firm Anchor launched its Anchor MCP Server, changing into the primary Nigerian fintech to make. its API documentation natively out there to AI techniques.
The Africa Report reported on the rise of cell cash in Ghana and the way it’s difficult the nation’s incumbent banks.
Enterprise Insider Africa appears on the destiny of small enterprise banking platform Brass which introduced that will probably be migrating its prospects to Paystack Microfinance Financial institution.
Central and Jap Europe
PayPal launched a pair of Purchase Now, Pay Later merchandise for its prospects in Austria.
Ripple launched its RLUSD stablecoin in Turkey courtesy of partnerships with native platforms BiLira, Bitexen, and Bitlo.
Equifax UK solid a partnership with Polish credit score bureau BIK to spice up entry to identification verification and fraud prevention expertise.
Center East and Northern Africa
Saudi Arabia-based fintech Sew introduced a pivot to concentrate on infrastructure and providing a monetary working system for banks.
UAE-based fintech Comfi AI secured pre-Collection A funding from Yango Group’s Yango Ventures.
Mastercard renews its partnership with CIB, Egypt’s largest private-sector financial institution.
Photograph by Viktor Kiryanov on Unsplash
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