Salary Finance Notches $20M In Series B; Tyro Teams Up With Alipay In Australia

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes U.K.-based Glint teaming up with partners for a U.S. rollout. In addition, U.K.-based Salary Finance has notched $20 million in Series B funding, and Australian business-only bank Tyro has announced an agreement with Alipay to offer an Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale (EFTPOS) solution.

U.K.-based Glint is set to roll out a global currency account in the U.S. that allows users to utilize gold as money, the company said in announcement. To that end, Glint is teaming up with Sutton Bank for Mastercard issuing, as well as Galileo Processing for automated clearing house (ACH) and card processing.

“It’s been an invigorating experience working with leaders in the U.S. innovative payment sector,” Glint co-founder Ben Davies said in the announcement.“With their expertise we aim to provide everyone in the U.S. the chance to use a safe and independent money, that of gold, just as we are doing in the U.K. and Europe.”

In other news,  Salary Finance, also based in the U.K. has notched $20 million in Series B funding led by Blenheim Chalcot and financial services giant Legal & General. With the funds, the company plans to launch and scale its service in the U.S. and support its growth in the U.K.  Salary Finance works with companies to offer employees savings, competitive loans and financial education, as, according to the comapny, approximately 40 percent of the British workforce has less than £100 (US$128.74) in savings.

“We are delighted to build on our success in the U.K. with our U.S. launch,” Salary Finance CEO Asesh Sarkar said. “We see the same societal challenges in the U.S., with 40 percent of American employees lacking any real savings and carrying personal debt, particularly high-interest debt like credit cards and payday loans. This becomes a never-ending way of life for many, impacting their engagement and productivity at work.”

Australian business-only bank Tyro has announced an agreement with Alipay to become the first bank in the country to offer an EFTPOS solution, the company said in an announcement. Tyro said it is in the process of working with merchants to find appropriate pilot sites, and the company plans to launch the offering by the end of the year. In all, the bank plans to offer Alipay to more than 20,000 businesses from the second quarter of next year.