The all-cash proposal values PayPal at USD 60.50 per share, representing a premium of about 28% to its closing price before news of the bid emerged. The offer, submitted earlier this month, is backed by approximately USD 50 billion in committed bank financing, as per the latest reports.

According to Reuters, Stripe and Advent have not yet received a response from PayPal, whose board is expected to consider the proposal in the coming days. Under the proposed structure, Stripe and Advent would jointly own the company with equal stakes rather than splitting up the business.

If completed, the transaction would unite two of the world’s largest online payments platforms, creating a company processing an estimated USD 3.7 trillion in annual payment volume. The combination would bring together Stripe’s dominance in merchant payment processing with PayPal’s more than 430 million active consumer accounts, including its fast-growing Venmo platform.

Analysts said the acquisition would significantly strengthen Stripe’s ambitions beyond merchant services by giving it direct access to consumer wallets, peer-to-peer payments and broader financial services distribution. It would also allow more payment transactions to flow through its own network, reducing dependence on card networks such as Visa and Mastercard while potentially lowering processing costs.

The deal could further accelerate Stripe’s push into digital assets and stablecoin payments through its crypto business, Bridge, by leveraging PayPal’s vast consumer base.

For PayPal, the offer comes after years of slowing growth and mounting competitive pressure from rivals including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Block. Once valued at around USD 360 billion during the pandemic-era technology boom, PayPal’s market capitalisation had fallen sharply before the bid amid investor concerns over slowing transaction growth and repeated turnaround efforts.

Chief executive Enrique Lores, who took over earlier 2026, has begun restructuring the company by reorganising its operations, investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and targeting USD 1.5 billion in cost savings over the next few years. PayPal nevertheless reported stronger-than-expected first-quarter revenue of USD 8.35 billion, while total payment volume rose 8% to USD 464 billion.

The proposed acquisition also reflects a broader wave of consolidation sweeping the payments industry as companies seek greater scale and exposure to faster-growing areas such as cross-border transactions, digital wallets and business-to-business payments. Recent deals include Global Payments’ acquisition of Worldpay and Nuvei’s purchase of Payoneer, underscoring growing appetite for strategic mergers as fintech competition intensifies.

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In an exclusive interview with International Finance, Panagiotis Kriaris, fintech and payments expert and Director – Head of Business & Corporate Development at Unzer, shares his insights on X’s move into financial services, the future of digital wallets, and whether the Western market is ready for the super-app model.

From a payments and wallet perspective, what stands out to you about a platform like X moving into financial services?

X is moving into financial services because payments deepen platform economics. Advertising is cyclical, and creator tools alone have limitations. Payments, wallets, and financial services create additional revenue streams while making the platform more commercially relevant.

The strategy also aligns with the broader ambition of turning X into a multi-function platform rather than just a media app. For a platform built around conversations, discovery, and creator activity, payments are the missing piece that allows it to capture the entire transaction layer.

If X succeeds in controlling transaction flows, it can directly monetise activities such as payments, tipping, subscriptions, and commerce while also keeping both the revenue and the data within its own ecosystem.

Digital wallets have evolved significantly over the past few years. What does it take for a wallet to move from being a simple payments tool to becoming a broader financial ecosystem?

A wallet becomes a true ecosystem when it moves into everyday money flows such as salaries, bills, subscriptions, credit, and savings. At that point, it is no longer just a checkout tool but becomes part of a user’s daily financial life.

For this to happen, the platform needs control over balances and accounts. That control allows providers to build additional products such as lending, savings, and foreign exchange services while capturing economics that extend far beyond transaction fees.

The real milestone is when a wallet becomes the primary place where users keep and manage their money.

Platforms like X already have distribution, but payments rely heavily on underlying rails and partnerships. How critical is infrastructure versus user reach in determining success?

Distribution is an important starting point, but payments require a strong operational backbone. Acceptance, settlement, dispute handling, compliance, and security are all critical to making the system work reliably.

Infrastructure directly impacts economics and monetisation. The more a platform controls the transaction flow, the more influence it has over margins, customer experience, and the overall product proposition.

The most successful platforms combine large-scale distribution with tight control over key parts of the payments stack. Long-term reliance on outsourcing is rarely a strategic advantage.

Interoperability has been a key challenge in payments. How important is it for a platform like X to integrate with existing financial systems rather than trying to build a closed ecosystem?

X cannot realistically pursue a closed ecosystem strategy in the early stages. Users still need to move money in and out through bank accounts and cards, otherwise adoption will remain limited.

Integration with existing financial systems is therefore essential for driving early usage and trust.

Over time, however, the strategy may gradually shift toward pulling more activity inside the platform itself. The long-term play is likely to start with full interoperability before progressively increasing the amount of financial activity that stays within the ecosystem.

Compared to established players like PayPal and Venmo, where do you see the biggest gaps or opportunities for a new entrant like X in the wallet space?

The key difference is positioning within the value chain. PayPal and Venmo primarily sit on the payments side, while X can influence activity much earlier in the process — during discovery, discussion, and decision-making.

That positioning gives X the ability to trigger transactions directly within the platform.

However, for that to work, X needs a clear value proposition tied to its own ecosystem, particularly around creators, subscriptions, or in-app commerce. Otherwise, it risks becoming just another wallet without a compelling reason for users to switch.

Ultimately, success will depend on changing user behaviour by offering something meaningfully more convenient or valuable than existing payment platforms.

Trust and security are central to wallet adoption. Do social platforms face an inherent disadvantage when asking users to store and move money within their ecosystem?

Yes. People are accustomed to using social platforms for communication and content sharing, not for storing money.

As a result, users will compare platforms like X not with other social networks, but with banks and fintech companies — especially when financial problems arise.

The only way to overcome that hesitation is through visible safeguards, strong compliance frameworks, and consistent handling of issues over time. Trust in financial services is built gradually and largely depends on how platforms respond when problems occur.

The idea of ‘super apps’ often depends on strong payments integration. Do you think the current payments landscape in Western markets supports that model, or limits it?

Building a super app in Western markets is significantly harder because the payments landscape is already fragmented across cards, banks, and multiple digital wallets.

There are also strong incumbents and heavy regulation, which make it difficult for a single player to consolidate the ecosystem.

The definition of a super app in the West is also very different from Asia. Asian markets often benefited from dominant payment rails or integrated ecosystems that provided a strong starting point for rapid adoption.

In Western markets, a more realistic strategy is to build around specific verticals or user communities first, and then expand gradually.

Looking ahead, do you see digital wallets becoming the primary interface for financial services, and what role could platforms like X realistically play in that evolution?

Digital wallets already dominate the financial services interface for many consumers. Payments increasingly happen through Apple Pay, Google Pay, or local wallet providers rather than directly through banks.

Artificial intelligence is now adding another layer by helping users decide when and how to pay, manage subscriptions, and automate financial actions. That evolution shifts wallets from being simple execution tools into decision-making platforms.

Platforms like X can still play an important role by embedding payments directly into social and creator-driven experiences. However, replacing established wallets as the primary financial interface will remain a much more difficult challenge.

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As per the European Commission’s 2023 data, 99% of European businesses are small and medium-sized ones. Apart from providing jobs to more than 85 million citizens in the continent, SMEs are also driving innovation and entrepreneurship in the region, while promoting a sustainable and digital economy. The start-up wants to revolutionise the sector further by redefining the payment experience for merchants, eliminating things like hidden fees, outdated hardware, and poor customer service.

Hand-holding European SMEs To Growth Highway

Flatpay’s operational value is simple: European merchants deserve a payment solution that is easy to understand, affordable, and free from hidden fees. To execute this, the start-up is offering a straightforward pricing model with no setup fees for terminals, no subscription fees, and a flat rate for all card types.

Flatpay’s journey began in 2022 when three digital entrepreneurship and payment solution experts came together in Copenhagen to disrupt the market with a simple, transparent, and affordable payment solution for small and medium-sized merchants. Since then, it has expanded its presence to Finland, Germany, Italy, and France, while continuing to grow rapidly.

Apart from witnessing a quick growth on the customer front, Flatpay’s own valuation has grown at a similarly fast pace as well. Now valued at 1.5 billion euro (USD 1.75 billion), the Danish start-up reached unicorn status in only three years. CEO and co-founder Sander Janca-Jensen, while interacting with TechCrunch, said that his company recently crossed the 100-million-euro mark, when it comes to annual recurring revenue (ARR).

He added that the amount (approximately USD 116 million) is increasing by nearly 1 million euro a day (USD 1.16 million) currently. The plan for 2026, as per Jensen, is to grow another 300% and close the year with between 400-500 million euro of ARR.

The Products

Flatpay’s payment options help SMEs thrive by streamlining their order and payment processes, giving the business owners more time and freedom to focus on operational growth. Apart from keeping the customer support active on a 24/7 basis to keep the payments running smoothly, day and night. Businesses, in return, only need to pay Flatpay at simple rates, with no hidden fees.

Take the payment terminal, for example, that automates the task of creating annual payment reports by uploading transactions and Z-reports directly to the businesses’ bookkeeping systems, saving time and reducing human errors. The payment terminal provides everything an entrepreneur needs to accept major cards like Visa and Mastercard, including contactless options, in one device.

Also, the device’s intuitive interface ensures less waiting time for customers, due to lightning-fast payments. All the business owners need to do is choose the payment terminal they need for their ventures, following which Flatpay takes over, in terms of completing full on-site installation of hardware, software, and setup.

Next is Flatpay’s POS (Point of Sale) solution, which streamlines payments, product management, and sales analytics for all businesses. Designed to make accepting payments faster, easier, and stress-free, the solution tracks sales, manages inventory, and generates reports directly from the client’s business’ POS, thereby donning the role of an “all-in-one business hub.” And it also integrates seamlessly with a wide range of accounting tools.

The POS has been customised for businesses of all sizes. For small ones seeking simple payment and management tools, the solution comes with a simple, clean setup with a tablet and portable terminal. For businesses that are ready to shell out more, the premium all-in-one POS comes equipped with a 15.6″ touch screen, built-in printer, and customer-facing display.

On the online payment front, Flatpay is enabling SMEs to receive online payments quickly and securely, at a competitive price. Not only do the start-up’s technologies and encryption methods ensure protection of payments and personal information of the business owners and customers, but it is also compatible with popular payment methods like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Expanding At A Steady Pace

As Flatpay entered the league of European fintech unicorns, the start-up will use the newly raised capital to support its continued growth in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, as well as eyeing further expansion into one or two new markets in 2026.

Flatpay currently has 1,500 staffers, or “flatpayers,” and plans to double that by the end of 2026. Increasing headcount is another crucial goal the company has locked in on the same level as revenue, as the start-up aims to grow both by 10x by 2029.

Flatpay believes that SMB owners actively look for new solutions, even if their current systems are overpriced or insufficient. As per Janca-Jensen, “That’s where we come in the door.” The start-up’s staffers show up with pen and paper to explain its pricing, and with card terminals for instant demos.

Flatpay is betting big on this particular hands-on approach to increase its market share against legacy providers like PayPal, Stripe, and SumUp, as well as new entrants focusing on specific sectors, such as hospitality. As SMBs want operational simplicity, Flatpay is ready to provide that.

The start-up is not completely averse to AI, as it uses the technology for real-time features and is currently experimenting with voice AI agents. The venture is also planning to expand further into fintech with a banking suite that would include cards and accounts.

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Dan Schulman had run PayPal for almost a decade until he left in 2023 to guide the payments firm through its separation from eBay and a rise in online purchases during the COVID pandemic. Schulman, who has been on the Verizon board for seven years, is working to enhance the customer experience. In an email to employees, he said that the lessons from PayPal that were “most important at the time were not about technology or scale, they were about culture, listening to customers and enabling teams to make real change. We must deliver financial results better than market expectations.”

In 2021, Vestberg led the USD 52 billion purchase and clearing of key wireless C-Band spectrum in an auction and negotiated with regulators and airlines over its deployment, and a USD 20 billion deal to acquire Frontier Communications and a USD 6 billion acquisition of prepaid mobile phones provider TracFone Wireless. Verizon has also discussed potential spectrum deals with EchoStar.

“We have transformed our business with transformational investments in C-Band spectrum, which will position us to win in the next era of connectivity, and we are on the cusp of closing the acquisition of Frontier, which will expand our broadband footprint and create even more opportunity for growth,” Vestberg said in a note to employees.

“For the past few years, our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases. Every year it gets harder to grow as we lap past price increases and experience higher churn,” the new CEO stated, giving a sneak peek of Verizon’s intention to shift to a customer-centric approach for growth, with an efficient cost structure.

Vestberg also guided the company through heavy 5G investments and diversification of revenue through media and enterprise services, although it later exited most of its media holdings. He assumed the role in 2018 and will stay with the company as a special adviser until October 2026. Shares of rival telecom operators have outperformed Verizon in the past few years. The move follows T-Mobile naming a new CEO in recent weeks as the US telecom sector changes, with its biggest players vying for consumer dollars.

Verizon maintains the highest price points compared to its peers, a strategy analysts have flagged, stating that it is difficult to sustain amid rising competitive intensity. Carriers rolled out competitive deals, trade-in discounts, and switching benefits to attract customers as they looked to protect their customer base in an active switcher environment following the September 2025 iPhone launches.

Meet Dan Schulman
Dan Schulman was born in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in Princeton in a family deeply rooted in social activism. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College and MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. His education helped shape his values of leadership, equality, and innovation.

He started his professional career at AT&T, where he spent 18 years and rose to become the President. He handled the Consumer Markets Division. Later, he became President and CEO of Priceline Group. In the middle of his career, he founded and led Virgin Mobile USA, taking it public and eventually selling it to Sprint. He later served as a Group President at American Express. He continued to rise as a leader and managed global online and mobile payment services.

His next major role came in 2014, when he joined PayPal as President and became its CEO in 2015. He oversees a massive transformation that tripled the company’s revenue and expanded its user base worldwide. At work, Schulman focused on financial inclusion and employee equity.

Meanwhile, Verizon managed to beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit and wireless subscriber additions, as promotions around the recent iPhone launches helped the United States wireless service provider attract more customers.

According to data from FactSet, the company added 44,000 total monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in the third quarter of the 2025-26 financial year, compared with expectations for 19,000 additions.

Dan Schulman’s appointment, along with the latest market results, will certainly ease investor concerns that Verizon is losing ground to rivals T-Mobile, AT&T and low-cost cable providers. The company’s customisable myPlan, which offers a three-year price guarantee, has remained popular among customers. Over 18% of the company’s wireless postpaid users have also opted for its broadband offerings.

The company has also reaffirmed its profit and free cash flow forecast for the full year and said it expects capital expenditures to be within or below the previously guided range of USD 17.5 billion to USD 18.5 billion. Total revenue for the quarter was USD 33.8 billion, compared with analysts’ average estimate of USD 34.28 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. On an adjusted basis, Verizon earned USD 1.21 per share, topping analysts’ estimates of USD 1.19.

Photo Credits: Lazard

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He was a little quirky, but America was used to eccentric, ingenious inventor-CEOs like Steve Jobs. Musk was seen as a hero of capitalism, welcomed with applause and given a prominent seat at the table of public discourse. Perhaps his charged opinions, fantastical futurism, and idiosyncrasies won the hearts of millions initially. But those same polarising opinions, unfulfilled promises, and outlandish behaviours are getting him (or more accurately, the company he built) into terrible trouble.

Without Elon Musk, there would be no Tesla. He poured his PayPal fortune into the struggling startup, a gamble that paid off splendidly. For the longest time, his cars were symbols of environmentalism, prestige, and tech-savviness. If he had just remained the focused CEO of Tesla, it could have been one of the greatest companies of all time.

However, Musk is no longer the man sleeping on the factory floor of his high-tech automobile corporation. He is distracted by politics, petty feuds, and a dozen other ventures like Neuralink, Starlink, SpaceX, and The Boring Company.

He became deeply embroiled in politics through his purchase of the micro-blogging platform Twitter (now X) and his platforming of Donald Trump. As time went by, Musk shifted from a liberal to a libertarian, eventually patronising right-wing hardliners, including those who deny the very climate change Tesla claims to solve. There are even accusations that he did a Nazi salute.

International Finance will examine how Elon Musk’s behaviour is quantifying into a “Musk Discount,” eroding brand trust, accelerating the partisan divide in sales, and leaving the company vulnerable to stagnation while its CEO fights political battles elsewhere.

The rise of a visionary

To understand the sheer magnitude of the reputational collapse and the financial “discount” currently weighing on Tesla’s valuation, one must first painstakingly reconstruct the extraordinary “Musk Premium” that characterised the company’s ascent.

For nearly fifteen years, Elon Musk was more than a CEO; he was the singular asset upon which the entire valuation of the enterprise rested. In the early 2010s, the automotive industry was defined by insurmountable barriers to entry. It was a graveyard of failed startups, a capital-intensive sector where margins were razor-thin, and brand loyalty was entrenched over decades. Into this rigid ecosystem stepped Musk, fresh from his PayPal exit, with a proposition that seemed economically suicidal. He suggested developing a luxury electric sports car to finance the production of a mass-market sedan.

The early narrative was one of existential heroism. Musk’s willingness to pour his personal fortune into Tesla (and SpaceX) when both teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in 2008 forged the initial layer of the “Iron Man” mythos. This was a technocratic saviour utilising capitalism to solve the climate crisis. By positioning himself as the protagonist in a battle for the planet’s future, Musk imbued Tesla products with a profound moral imperative. You did not merely purchase a Model S in 2013; it was also a symbolic vote for a sustainable future and a rejection of the “big oil” status quo.

This narrative construction created a formidable, intangible economic moat. While traditional automakers like General Motors and Toyota spent billions annually on advertising to maintain market share, Tesla spent absolute zero.

The CEO’s X account served as a global broadcasting tower, where updates on software, manufacturing targets, and rocket launches captivated an audience that far transcended the typical car-buying demographic. This “halo effect” allowed Tesla to command premium pricing and maintain high stock valuations despite fundamentally weaker financials than its legacy competitors.

The strength of this bond is visible in historical consumer data. For a sustained period between 2013 and 2020, Tesla topped Consumer Reports owner satisfaction surveys with consistency that defied statistical norms. In 2020, even as the company struggled with initial quality control issues on the Model Y, it secured the top spot for the fourth consecutive year. The satisfaction scores frequently hit 99%, a figure that indicated owners were judging the vehicle not by the panel gaps or paint quality, but by the ideological affinity they felt for the mission and the man leading it.

The financial apotheosis of this visionary status was reached during the bull run of 2020–2021. As Tesla finally conquered the “production hell” of the Model 3 ramp-up (a period where Musk famously slept on the factory floor at Giga Nevada), the market stopped pricing Tesla as a car company and began pricing it as a high-growth technology platform, akin to a software monopoly.

The inclusion of Tesla in the S&P 500 in December 2020 served as the ultimate institutional validation. It was the largest company ever added to the index by market capitalisation, entering with a weight that forced index funds to buy billions of dollars’ worth of shares, driving the price even higher. At the time of this inclusion, Tesla was trading at over 120 times earnings.

By comparison, traditional automakers like Ford or Volkswagen traded at single-digit price-to-earnings ratios. This delta, the difference between 8x earnings and 120x earnings, was the “Musk Premium.” It was the price investors were willing to pay for the optionality of Musk’s brain and the belief that he would solve full autonomy, robotics, and energy storage, creating trillions in value where others saw only steel and rubber.

Between 2010 and 2021, Tesla’s stock performance generated generational wealth for retail investors. The company’s market capitalisation eventually surpassed the combined value of the next nine largest automakers. This phenomenon cemented a base of retail shareholders (often referred to as “Tesla Stans”), who viewed Musk not just as a competent manager but as an infallible oracle.

However, the foundation of this valuation was implicitly and explicitly tied to the CEO’s singular focus. Tesla’s own 10-K filings contained “Key Man” risk disclosures that were far from boilerplate. They were a literal admission of corporate fragility with statements like “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, Techno King of Tesla and our Chief Executive Officer… Without his relentless drive and uncompromising standards, there would be no Tesla.”

As long as that “relentless drive” was directed at expanding the Supercharger network, improving battery energy density, and refining manufacturing processes, the market was willing to overlook missed deadlines, aggressive tweets, and eccentric behaviour. The eccentricities were seen as features of his genius, not bugs in his leadership.

The cost of madness

The transition from “visionary” to “liability” was not a singular event but a cascading series of reputational fractures that accelerated dramatically between late 2022 and early 2025. The purchase of Twitter (rebranded as X) marked a distinct inflexion point.

It was the moment Musk’s public output shifted from engineering optimism, the vision of sending rockets to Mars and creating electric tunnels and neural interfaces, to a relentless stream of partisan combat, cultural grievances, and conspiracy theories.

The most critical strategic error in Musk’s recent pivot has been the systematic alienation of Tesla’s primary demographic. Historically, the early adopters of electric vehicles (EVs) have skewed heavily Democratic, liberal, and environmentally conscious. These were the consumers willing to pay a premium for a “green” product.

By aligning himself with right-wing hardliners, amplifying climate change sceptics, and engaging in “anti-woke” crusades, Musk placed Tesla in an untenable commercial position. It is now a company selling a solution to climate change run by a man actively supporting politicians who mock its existence.

A landmark study by economists from Yale University and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), released in early 2025, provided devastating empirical evidence of this phenomenon. Analysing vehicle registration data matched with voter registration records across the United States from October 2022 through early 2025, the researchers identified a massive, statistically significant “Musk Partisan Effect.”

The study found an estimated 1.0 to 1.26 million lost vehicle sales (tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue) between October 2022 and early 2025. This decline was most severe in strongly Democratic counties, where sales plummeted by an astonishing 67% to 83% compared to expected trends, simultaneously providing a 17% to 22% sales increase to competitors like Rivian, Ford, and Hyundai. The study posits that without this alienation of his core customer base, Tesla’s sales in the first quarter of 2025 could have been approximately 125% higher than actual figures.

Republican interest in EVs remains structurally low due to ideological opposition to the technology itself, while Democratic interest in Tesla specifically has collapsed. The buyers haven’t stopped wanting electric cars; instead, they have stopped wanting Musk’s electric cars. They are migrating to “anti-Musk” alternatives. The study notes that this effect “showed no indication of slowing down” and had actually increased in intensity by the first quarter of 2025.
The damage to the brand’s intangible value mirrors the devastating sales data. In the early 2020s, Tesla enjoyed a reputation as the gold standard in corporate innovation, akin to the iPhone in 2010. By 2024 and early 2025, brand sentiment trackers painted a bleak picture of a brand in freefall.

Data from YouGov and other reputation indices highlight this precipitous drop. Tesla’s “Buzz score” (a metric that tracks whether consumers are hearing positive or negative news about a brand) remained consistently negative throughout 2023 and 2024, averaging -7.1. This indicates that the dominant conversation around the brand was negative for two straight years.

More alarmingly, in broader reputation polls, Tesla’s ranking plummeted from a top-tier status (sixth) to near the bottom of the list (95th). This erosion is inextricably linked to the CEO’s personal approval ratings. Pew Research Centre data from early 2025 indicates that 54% of American adults now hold an unfavourable view of Musk.

If the partisan alienation was a slow bleed, the events of January 20, 2025, served as a traumatic arterial wound for the brand. Following the inauguration of Donald Trump, Musk, who had been tapped to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency,” addressed a crowd of supporters at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.

During this speech, celebrating what he called “no ordinary victory,” Musk performed a gesture that was widely interpreted as a Nazi salute. The reaction was immediate, visceral, and global.

The optical damage to Tesla was catastrophic. For a brand that relies on coastal urban professionals, a demographic sensitive to social justice and historical sensitivity, the image of their CEO performing a gesture associated with the Third Reich was a breaking point. It cemented the “Musk Discount” as a moral penalty. Driving a Tesla was becoming a social stigma.

The “Musk Discount” is visible in the sharp divergence between Tesla’s stock performance and the broader market. While the S&P 500 and other tech giants surged on the back of the AI boom in 2024, Tesla’s stock languished, decoupling from the “Magnificent Seven” tech cohort.

Over the 12 months leading into early 2025, Tesla significantly underperformed the S&P 500. While the index grew by approximately 12%, Tesla delivered negative returns, dropping 1% over the same period and down nearly 40% from its late 2024 peak by March 2025.

By January 2025, the “political noise” was no longer treated as a sideshow by Wall Street but as a fundamental risk factor. Morgan Stanley, historically one of the most bullish firms on Tesla, downgraded the stock to “equal-weight” and cut price targets, explicitly citing “volatile behaviour” and the distraction of the CEO as primary risks to earnings. Analysts noted that the “political noise” had begun to overshadow the fundamentals.

In 2024, for the first time in its history as a mass-market manufacturer, Tesla saw a decline in annual sales in the United States and failed to meet its global growth targets. The company sold approximately 1.79 million vehicles, while the broader electric vehicle market continued to grow.

The contingency

As the liability of Musk’s leadership grows, the question of corporate governance and succession has moved to the forefront of institutional investor concerns. The lack of a clear contingency plan represents a critical failure of the board of directors, which has been accused of being “captive” to the CEO and derelict in its duty to protect shareholder value from his personal whims.

The extent of the board’s subservience to Musk was laid bare in a landmark legal ruling that reverberated through 2024 and early 2025. In the case of Tornetta vs Musk, Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick struck down Musk’s massive 2018 compensation package (valued at over $55 billion), ruling that the process to approve it was deeply flawed and legally invalid.

Tesla functions as a monarchy. The board’s subsequent attempts to reinstate the pay package through new shareholder votes in 2024 and 2025, rather than negotiating a new, reasonable deal, only deepened the conflict between institutional investors concerned with governance and retail investors loyal to Musk.
Despite “Key Man” risk being the most significant threat to Tesla’s valuation, the company has stubbornly refused to publish a formal succession plan.

Shareholder proposals demanding a “Key Person Risk” report have been repeatedly voted down by the board, which argues that such disclosures would put the company at a competitive disadvantage. However, the urgency of this issue, amplified by Musk’s distraction with X, SpaceX, xAI, and politics, has forced internal movements that hint at a shadow succession strategy.

The most prominent figure to emerge as a potential stabilising force is Tom Zhu (Zhu Xiaotong). Zhu gained fame within the company for orchestrating the “production miracle” at Giga Shanghai, where he implemented the “China Speed” ethos, characterised by extremely efficient, 24/7 operational intensity.

Under his leadership, Giga Shanghai became Tesla’s most efficient export hub, accounting for half of global deliveries in 2022. Another key player is Omead Afshar, a long-time Musk confidant often referred to as the “fixer” in the office of the CEO. Reports in late 2024 and early 2025 placed him in critical roles overseeing operations in North America and Europe, stepping in to manage sales as inventory piled up. Afshar is viewed as an executor of Musk’s will, a bridge between the chaotic vision of the CEO and the operational reality of the company.

Elon the indispensable

While the “liability” argument is supported by robust sales and brand data, any honest analysis must contend with the formidable counter-argument, i.e. Elon Musk is not merely a manager. To fire him, or to marginalise him, risks turning Tesla into “just another car company,” stripping it of the innovation premium that justifies its stock price. His “madness” is inextricably linked to the method that produced the company’s greatest breakthroughs.

Musk’s value to Tesla is most tangible in the engineering trenches. His management style, characterised by “first principles” thinking (boiling things down to the fundamental truths of physics and economics), has led to breakthroughs that traditional OEMs deemed impossible or unwise. He refuses to accept “reasoning by analogy,” instead demanding to know the atomic cost of materials and the theoretical limits of physics.

The development of the Cybertruck provides a case study in both the madness and the genius of Musk’s method. In the design phase, Musk rejected traditional aluminium body-on-frame designs, which have been the standard for pickup trucks for nearly a century. Instead, he insisted on using an ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless-steel exoskeleton.

At the same time, Musk had decided to pivot the Starship rocket design from carbon fibre to stainless steel to reduce costs and improve thermal durability. He forced this same material science onto the Cybertruck team, demanding they use an alloy so hard it would break traditional stamping presses. This decision caused immense manufacturing headaches, requiring the invention of entirely new manufacturing techniques and contributing to years of delays.

The steel was so hard it could not be painted or stamped into curves, dictating the truck’s polarising “origami” aesthetic. While some might say the design is ugly, the result is a vehicle that is bullet-resistant and dent-proof. The mobile fortress is the safest thing on the road and stands as a physical totem of his refusal to compromise vision for convenience.

The dilemma for investors is that the same psychological traits that led to the “Nazi salute” controversy (impulsiveness, lack of filter, extreme risk tolerance) are the same traits that led to the reusable rocket and the electric car revolution. You cannot have the stainless-steel truck without the chaotic personality that drives it.

Furthermore, Tesla’s recruitment strategy relies heavily on the allure of working for Musk. Top engineers in AI and robotics join Tesla not just for the stock options, but to work with the man who is trying to colonise Mars. The 10-K disclosure admits that the company competes for talent based on this “visionary” allure. Removing him could trigger a brain drain of the most critical technical talent, leaving the company as a hollow shell of its former innovative self.

The future of Tesla

The automaker is no longer a pioneer and has been sidelined by BYD in sales and technology. With Musk’s public relationship with climate change deniers, even the liberals are distancing themselves from him and his products.

The board needs to act fast and figure out if they should wait for an implosion or professionalise Tesla into a mature corporation with clear succession plans, potentially elevating leaders like Tom Zhu.

While Musk’s “first principles” thinking remains essential for breakthroughs in AI and robotics (Optimus, FSD), investors must weigh whether this engineering value still outweighs the “Musk Discount.” The company’s valuation depends on whether Wall Street continues to treat it as a tech monopoly or re-rates it as a distressed auto manufacturer.

Tesla’s future is no longer guaranteed. If the “political noise” continues to drown out product fundamentals, the company risks stagnation, surviving as a niche, volatile tech holding rather than becoming the mass-market, global titan it was promised to be.

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Now an excerpt, accessed by Wall Street Journal, from the upcoming biography on Elon Musk, states that the Tesla and X chief saw Parag Agrawal as a ‘nice person’ but lacking ‘leadership quality’.

Elon Musk thought that Twitter needed a ‘fire-breathing dragon’ and Parag Agrawal was not that, the excerpt claims further.

Back in March 2022, Musk reportedly met Parag Agrawal over dinner. This was even before Musk made an offer to buy Twitter. After this meeting, he concluded that Agrawal did not have ‘leadership quality’.

Biographer Walter Isaacson’s book about Elon Musk will be released on September 12. Isaacson, who has also written a biography for Steve Jobs, tracked Musk for three years for his book. He interviewed Musk, his family, friends, co-workers and adversaries as well, for the project.

“He’s a really nice guy. What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon and Parag is not that,” Elon Musk reportedly said after meeting with Parag Agrawal.

Walter Isaacson, who has covered different aspects of Musk’s life in the upcoming biography, has talked about Musk’s ‘dark streak’, as the maverick tech billionaire tends to get into ‘demon mode’ at times.

Isaacson stated that the reason behind Musk’s dark side was due to his ‘difficult childhood’, as the biographer remarked, “He has a dark streak coming out of a very brutal and violent childhood, during which he saw strong psychological difficulties with his father. This streak is sometimes called ‘demon mode’ by his friend Claire Boucher.”

He added further, “Musk can sometimes become someone who does not care about anything except for the mission that he is on; a mission to get something done.”

The book also talks about Elon Musk, as a kid, being bullied and beaten in South Africa, and his sour relationship with his father playing a major role behind the tech billionaire’s current personality.

Walter Isaacson has also written in detail about Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout, while revealing how much the tech was in love with the micro-blogging platform.

About two decades ago, Elon Musk started a company called X.com which he wanted to gradually make into an “everything app”. Later, X.com merged with the PayPal payment service.

As per Issacson, Elon Musk wanted to keep X.com as the name of the combined company. However, his new colleagues resisted the idea.

“PayPal had become a trusted brand name, with a friendly chirpiness similar to that of Twitter, whereas the name X.com conjured up visions of a seedy site you would not talk about in polite company. Musk was ousted and he remains unwavering to this day,” Walter Isaacson wrote in Elon Musk’s latest biography.

“If you want to just be a niche player, PayPal is a better name. But if you want to take over the world’s financial system, then X is the better name,” Isaacson quoted Elon Musk as saying.

Walter Isaacson also wrote that when Musk saw a period of “unnerving success” immediately after COVID pandemic, he exercised some expiring stock options that left him with about USD 10 billion in cash.

“I didn’t want to just leave it in the bank. So I asked myself what product I liked, and that was an easy question. It was Twitter,” Isaacson quoted Musk as saying.

Walter Isaacson added that the way Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X, was “a harbinger of the way he now runs in: impulsively and irreverently”.

“It is an addictive playground for him. It has many of the attributes of a schoolyard, including taunting and bullying. But in the case of Twitter, the clever kids win followers; they don’t get pushed down the steps and beaten, like Musk was as a kid. Owning it would allow him to become king of the schoolyard,” Isaacson wrote further.

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What We Know So Far?

PayPal is claiming its PYUSD as a digital asset fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US Treasuries, and similar cash equivalents. The token is redeemable and can be bought or sold through the FinTech platform at a rate of USD 1.

Those purchasing PYUSD will be able to transfer the stablecoin between PayPal and compatible digital wallets, apart from sending the virtual asset to their near ones and making online product purchases. PYUSD users can convert any of the cryptocurrencies supported on PayPal to PYUSD.

PayPal USD, an ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain, is currently available for consumers, merchants, and developers as a link between fiat and digital currencies. PayPal, which expects the stablecoin to be supported on wallets and Web 3, has tasked its project partner Paxos to publish a monthly report with details of the financial instruments backing PYUSD, which will take care of the stablecoin’s transparency aspect. This move will be similar to leading crypto exchange Binance’s ‘Proof of Reserves’ mechanism for its customers.

PYUSD will also be available on PayPal’s payments app Venmo.

As of August 2023, the crypto stablecoin market value is USD 125 billion, dominated by Tether and Circle-issued USD Coin USDC. We have Binance-supported stablecoins in the market too. What makes PYUSD special is that with this, a major fintech platform will be making its debut in the stablecoin space.

A Good Beginning

PayPal is joining the stablecoin space with the reputation of holding over 429 million customer accounts (till March 2022), facilitating transactions across American and global online stores through a convenient and reliable payment platform. The success of PYUSD is likely to fast-track the adoption of cryptocurrency into the mainstream financial ecosystem.

Stablecoins are known for enabling crypto investors to smoothly transition their digital assets into real-world currencies. PYUSD users will be able to perform international transactions with a simple click on their smartphones, while avoiding roadblocks like fees associated with currency conversions and fluctuating exchange rates.

Also, PYUSD’s compatibility with Web3 will lead its users to the domain of Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Crypto exchange Kraken has already introduced trading for PYUSD. Since its launch in August 2023, some 40.68 million PYUSD tokens have been freshly minted and as per the Etherscan data, the stablecoin has managed to gather 105 distinct holders.

PYUSD & Crypto Adoption In Traditional Finance

Michael Quintanilla, director of Web3 and blockchain software firm SoftServe, told the Cointelegraph that PayPal’s ability to modify PYUSD balances will help the fintech platform to prevent ‘illicit activities’, ‘unexpected large transfers’ and ‘incorrect stablecoin distributions’ on its websites and apps. PYUSD provides a sneak peek at how mainstream fintech platforms will participate in the crypto ecosystem.

On June 2023, EDX Markets, a noncustodial digital asset marketplace for institutional investors, made its market debut, with backing from Wall Street-based ventures Citadel Securities, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

EDX Markets resembles more of a traditional stock market than a centralized crypto exchange, as it avoids asset custody and trading being performed by ‘intermediaries’. Also, by 2023 end, the exchange will start settling trades matched on the exchange through ‘EDX Clearing’. So here EDX is giving a glimpse of what the existing crypto exchanges should do to avoid the regulatory glare.

We have WisdomTree, Franklin Templeton and BlackRock all venturing into the crypto space, thus bringing the domain of traditional finance under the Decentralised Finance fold, while paying attention to the regulatory details. You have EDX Markets “onboarding only institutions and financial firms” and WisdomTree’s personal finance app excluding the digital tokens implicated by the US SEC on its platform.

Lama, a European cryptocurrency exchange, has become a specialised player in integrating traditional banking services with cryptocurrency transactions, while complying with PCI DSS and ISO 27001 security standards. It has also partnered with Ledger, a leading provider of institutional-grade custody service technology.

Japanese financial services firm Nomura launched its digital asset division, Laser Digital, in 2022. In 2023, the venture stepped into the DeFi world.

And now you have PayPal entering the same domain through its PYUSD. So, it’s evident. The ‘Impossible Marriage’ between Traditional Finance and Decentralized Finance is happening in a steady manner, while bringing the ‘regulatory standards’ into play in the DeFi space.

Industry Stakeholders Put Their Faith In PYUSD

After Kraken, another major crypto exchange Coinbase is going to embrace PYUSD on its platform.

While the industry has been hailing PYUSD’s launch, Crypto Twitter red-flagged the centralized structure of the virtual currency. Under this feature, the PYUSD owner can pause fund transfers, freeze addresses and allow the increase in the stablecoin’s total supply.

However, this feature can be found in Tether and USD Coin, allowing the stablecoin users to freeze the funds of threat actors. Even Kene Ezeji-Okoye, co-founder of digital infrastructure firm Millicent Labs, backs centralization to ensure the stablecoin’s protection against threat actors.

Michael Quintanilla, director of Web3 and blockchain software firm SoftServe, dubbed PayPal’s ability to modify PYUSD balances as a critical aspect, when it comes to the virtual currency meeting regulatory and operational standards.

PayPal has stated its intention to work closely with regulators, at a time when the crypto industry has become a hot topic of policy discussions in the United States.

American lawmakers are working on a stablecoin bill that proposes to make the US Federal Reserve the key regulator tasked with formulating requirements for issuing stablecoins, apart from granting other regulators powers to oversee the crypto industry players. The bill called the ‘Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act’ was passed by the Financial House Committee in July 2023.

PayPal has the opportunity, through its PYUSD, to present a business model, where confirming the rulebook will be the most important guiding principle.

The post IF Insights: PYUSD and the hope of crypto industry ‘following rules’ appeared first on International Finance.

With ‘Tap to Pay,’ companies can take payments using compatible smartphones rather than acquiring dedicated terminals. ‘Tap to Pay’ functions similarly to traditional contactless payments and is compatible with cards and digital wallets like Apple Pay.

With the support for Android devices, small businesses in the US will now be able to take advantage of their smartphones’ capacity to accept Venmo payments.

‘Tap to Pay’ For Venmo Comes To Android

“Tap to Pay is the last milestone in the democratization of in-person card payments, where users can start taking card payments with no setup cost in a matter of minutes,” Head of Product for Microbusiness at PayPal, Ed Hallett, said, Techradar reported.

In the coming months, all Venmo business profile users will be able to use ‘Tap to Pay’ on their Android devices. Alternatively, they can also apply for early access on the Venmo website.

At the same time, the company announced that US PayPal Zettle users can now also use ‘Tap to Pay’ on Android.

This news comes just two months after Square, a credit card processing company, announced it was bringing ‘Tap to Pay’ to Android devices, which in turn was two months after Stripe, an Irish-American financial service company announced support for ‘Tap to Pay.’

For Venmo users, it means they will have to part with 2.29% of each sale plus 9 cents, which contrasts with the 1.75% fee charged on card transactions when using physical Zettle terminals. Square also charges 1.75%, making it cheaper to use ‘Tap to Pay.’ Venmo hopes the near-instant access to funds will help justify some of the extra cost.

Image Credits: PayPal

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The factor responsible for this is the increasing competition among FinTech firms, who are committed to the cause of promoting financial and digital inclusion among their customers, and ultimately contributing to innovation in the country.

One such company is Tenpo, a Fintech venture, which was born a few years ago with the purpose of transforming the finance industry. As it completes its third anniversary, Tenpo has managed to serve 1.8 million customers, through its wide range of products and financial services.

The Market Commission Financiero (CMF) recently published its first report on “Issuance of credit cards bank and non-bank payment with the provision of funds”.

The study evaluated aspects such as card holders in force, cards with monthly operations, number and amount of transactions, among others, within Chile. Tenpo did tremendously well in this study.

Knowing Tenpo app in detail

Tenpo was born with the vision of democratizing the world of finance through technology. The venture is regulated by the Commission for the Financial Market (CMF), the same entity that supervises large traditional banks in Chile. Tenpo seeks to transform the financial system in a more inclusive and fair method.

“The application allows you to manage your money from your cell phone easy, fast and safe way. Through the platform you can make purchases abroad, make phone recharges and pay bills for all kinds of basic services,” the venture commented.

The app offers a digital account with digital and physical prepaid cards, through its alliance with Paypal, a personal finance management service, payment of utility bills, free ATM withdrawals, and a salary deposit facility. The app users can also send money to their near ones abroad. Tenpo recently launched its first insurance product in partnership with the largest insurance company in the Chubb World.

Apart from increasing its customer base, Tenpo’s aim is also to surprise the FinTech sector by continuously launching innovative financial products and services, which will set new trends in the market.

‘Your financial app, your digital account’ is the tagline of the Tenpo app, which comes with features like no maintenance costs, no balance limits, easy transfers between banks and ATM withdrawals.

Products and services offered by Tenpo app

With the Tenpo prepaid Mastercard card, the customer can buy products not only in Chile, but abroad as well. The individual needs to enter his/her Tenpo Mastercard card as a means of payment for international and national purchases. AliExpress, Amazon, Netflix, Uber, Rappi, Spotify, Paris.cl, Salcobrand, Weplay, Adidas, Casa Ideas, Easy, Telepizza, name any online shopping portal, the card works with ease. And the user doesn’t need to pay maintenance expenses for using the card.

Talking about transferring money through the Tenpo app, the FinTech venture’s ‘Zero Cash’ facility enables its users to share the contacts of their friends, colleagues and family members on the app and split the bills.

“Does your friend, colleague or family member still not pay you for his share of lunch? Send a reminder with ZEROCASH,” the venture commented on its website, while explaining the product.

And yes, the app also comes with a contactless payment mechanism.

“To pay you just have to enter the “transfer” section and select the “transfer to tennis player” option. You will see that you can choose between sending a payment or making a payment. Select the option “make a payment”, then select the contact you want to pay, enter the amount and confirm with your Tenpo password,” Tenpo commented, while discussing the FAQ ‘How can I pay someone else?’ on its website.

The ‘Zero Cash’ user can collect and pay from USD 1 to USD 5,000,000 via the facility. Also, money transfers between Tenpistas (Tenpo app users) are free. In case the user receives a charge (payment request) from an unknown number, he/she can reject the charge by selecting “reject” on the ‘Zero Cash’ section, to protect his/her account and money.

The Tenpo-PayPal dollar wallet helps users to add, save and withdraw PayPal dollars directly from the latters’ Tenpo App in a simple, safe and immediate way.

The whole withdrawal process takes USD 2.5 per transaction, with no commission being required.

Users will get facilities such as adding dollars to their wallets and saving in an international currency, withdrawing dollars to Chilean pesos directly via Tenpo accounts and checking their wallet balance online. The user can also buy in international stores, apart from sending money to other PayPal accounts and receive payments in USD.

The app also helps its users to manage their finances, by categorizing the money movements into essential and leisure segments,

“Each purchase, bill payment, recharge or other, will be registered in one of the categories created for you. We notify you of each transaction and which are the categories in which you spend the most and your savings. Manage your money knowing how you distribute it: investment, savings, expenses. We show you your movements grouped by categories and tags that allow you to know in detail what you spent on,” Tenpo commented.

Tenpo’s money transfer facility allows its users to make money transfers to Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Haiti, with convenient commissions.

“Simplify your shipment by sharing the recipient link. Forget to fill in the recipient’s details. From now on just share the link and let the person you want to send money to do it for you! much simpler,” the FinTech venture commented.

The user can track his/her money transfer in Tenpo’s movement history at any time, as the app will show the person the crucial details like the recipient, date, status, shipping amount, and destination, from time to time, till the money reaches to the desired person.

Tenpo also provides investment services. One of them is a mutual fund. Tenpo’s mutual fund is 100% digital. The investor can put his/her money starting from USD 1,000, apart from getting seven mutual funds that fit the investor’s financial profile.

Once you invest in this mutual fund, you need to pay a yearly commission of 1.17%. The withdrawal of the money from the fund won’t hurt the investor financially as well.

Tenpo getting globally recognised

Tenpo was recently awarded two ‘IF Design Awards’ for the excellent design of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design by the FinTech venture’s mobile app.

With over 60 years of experience, the ‘IF Design Awards’ are recognized for highlighting and promoting excellence in the design of products and services. Each year, a panel of independent experts selects the most innovative and well-designed designs, which makes the award highly coveted.

UX and UI designs are integral parts of any application/website, and are essential to provide users with a satisfying experience. In Tenpo’s case, the awards were given as the app’s design was not only found visually attractive, but also it met high-security standards.

‘IF Design’ also noted that Tenpo uses an interface design of a single user, which guides the person in each of the available actions.

By providing a user-friendly and secure experience, Tenpo has been able to improve the lives of its customers by providing them with access to financial services in a simple manner and with a wide portfolio of benefits.

The ‘IF Design award’ given to Tenpo proves that the platform is leading the way, when it comes to a FinTech app’s innovation and design. The company is making its presence felt, both in Chile and around the world.

The post Tenpo: Latin America’s FinTech gamechanger appeared first on International Finance.

DNA Payments has also tied up embedded finance provider Liberis, a deal which can be the game-changer in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector, as Liberis will be analysing data from DNA Payments to offer pre-approved funding to over 65,000 of their merchant customers across Europe.

DNA Payments, established in 2018, took its first external funding in 2021 from private equity firm Alchemy Partners. While the company’s losses reportedly grew from 2.6 million pounds in 2020 to 8.9 million pounds in 2021, the start-up expanded its headcount by 313% (198 employees currently) in 2023.

Knowing DNA Payments In Detail

As of June 2023, the start-up is helping over 65,000 merchants across the United Kingdom and Europe with its cutting-edge industry solutions for online, in-store and on-the-go businesses.

American Express, Visa, Mastercard, UnionPay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, name any biggie of the online payments industry, it has a tie-up with the UK-headquartered venture.

“Our Group includes Optomany, a company that services large corporates and medium-sized businesses; and 123Send, Active Payments, First Payment Merchant Services, Kwalitas, and Card Cutters, who all provide services to SME customers. Our combined Group is one of the largest PaaS and SaaS services providers to multinational acquirers and banks,” the company stated.

“We’re FCA (The UK Financial Conduct Authority) regulated for consumer hire with headquarters in London and operational hubs in Kent, Hull and Oxford, and now serve over 65,000 merchants. That’s around £900,000,000 processed monthly across 100,000 POS terminals worldwide,” it remarked further.

DNA Payments was launched in August 2018 with just three people. In September of that year, the start-up launched its first e-commerce payment solution. In July 2019, it got its first ‘Valued Ecommerce Customer’, followed by the launch of its merchant portal v1. In September 2019, the company acquired CR7 Services and a month later, reached the landmark of having 30,000 customers in the United Kingdom.

In 2020-21, DNA Payments acquired Zash AB, launched its maiden payment link solution, reached the 40,000 customer landmark in the UK, launched ‘Pay by Bank App Payments’, acquired ‘Active Merchant Services’, enabled ‘PayPal E-commerce payments’, introduced Partners’ Dashboard, started its open banking payments mechanism, apart from enabling payment set-ups with two tech biggies, Apple and Google.

The year 2021 also saw DNA Payments launching Verifone and PAX terminals software, apart from launching its integration with ‘BigCommerce’. DNA Payments’ growth journey continued in 2022 as well. It started the year by acquiring UK-based payment solutions provider Kwalitas, followed by the launch of its ‘First Verifone Trinity series POS Terminal’. Also, the start-up acquired ‘Card Cutters’ and ‘First Payment Merchant Services’, apart from reaching 100,000 card terminals and online points of sale.

Apart from partnering up with Mastercard to deliver ‘Click to Pay’, DNA Payments, in 2023, has continued to upgrade its Merchant Portal.

Services Offered By DNA Payments

The start-up, established by Arif Babayev and Nurlan Zhagiparov, provides businesses with online payment solutions through Mobile Card Machines, Portable Card Machines, Countertop Card Machines, Unattended Terminals and Zash Android Epos.

For online transactions between businesses and customers, DNA Payments have solutions like ‘Website Payments’, ‘Virtual Terminal’, ‘No-Code Payment Links’, ‘Recurring Payments’ and ‘Charity Donations’.

How Do These Solutions Work?

The ‘Mobile Card Machines’ accept chip, PIN, contactless and mobile payments with major card providers and popular payment methods, with 24/7 operational availability.

Reliable internet connectivity, long battery life, quick processing speed and printer friendly are the key features of these ‘Mobile Card Machines’, which are suitable for contractors, taxi drivers and delivery service providers.

These ‘Mobile Card Solutions’ can be branded as well by DNA Payments, in order to ensure that the client company’s brand awareness runs throughout its payment system.

Also, the start-up’s portable card machines allow businesses to accept payments anywhere in-store.

These devices are facilitated with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G and 4G connections, so that they can be connected to the printing machines, in order to ensure quick generation of receipts in a fast-paced working atmosphere like the ones in supermarkets, pubs, eateries and beauty salons. Also, these portable card machines come with the feature of emailing the receipts directly to the customers, in case the latter doesn’t want paper printouts.

The above two solutions are just prime examples of how DNA Payments’ solutions cover the specific transaction-related needs of businesses across sizes. The ‘Unattended Terminal’ is perfect for entities like petrol pumps and ticket vending centres, which encounter long customer queues and lack payment features which are quick, easy and secure.

Through DNA’s merchant portal, businesses can track transactions, authorise refunds and pull sales reports using data analytics, along with accepting payments online without using a website (for this, the businesses can send Payment Links to their customers through email/other online communication methods).

The start-up’s ‘Payment Gateway’ mechanism aids its client businesses to enjoy the benefits of technologies like ‘Automated Routing’ and ‘Secure Tokenisation’, thus making it easy for these entities to accept and process credit and debit card payments online.

“Our Payment Gateway allows for frictionless transactions across multiple sales channels and was developed to work with all major payment providers so it can be implemented easily into your business’s payment process,” DNA Payments stated.

“Only one token is needed for transactions, so you can monitor and get insight without affecting security. Our Payment Gateway facilitates a seamless journey between your sales channels, unifying your platforms and opportunities,” it stated further.

DNA’s ‘Payment Gateway’ has direct integrations with the world’s leading payment systems and processes payments from all merchant sale points.

“Businesses are becoming global, so we’ve developed our Payment Solutions to accept all payment methods worldwide. You’ve got complete control over payment types you choose to receive, all managed using our Merchant Portal,” it stated further.

Also, the company has all-around data security and fraud analytics protocols set in place, while meeting the global cyber security standards.

The Road Ahead

Having an online payment mechanism, based on tools like card terminals and ‘Points of Sale’, is quickly becoming a must for 21st century businesses.

DNA Payments, through strategic partnerships with Mastercard and Liberis, is already on its way to becoming an industry giant in the digital payment sector. From petrol pumps, departmental stores to pubs and eateries, the start-up has established customised online transaction-related solutions for businesses of all sizes.

However, the real challenge for DNA Payments will be to stay future-proof, as online payment mechanisms are evolving at a much faster pace than anyone’s imagination.

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