This week’s edition of Finovate Global showcases recent fintech headlines from Hong Kong.
PhotonPay raises $40 million for its stablecoin-based financial operating system
Hong Kong-based fintech PhotonPay has secured $40 million in Series C funding this week. The round was led by Blockchain Capital. New investor SBI Group also participated, and existing investors IDG Capital, GL Ventures, and Lightspeed Faction provided follow-on investments. Blacksheep Technology served as the exclusive financial advisor to PhotonPay on the transaction.
The investment will support the expansion of PhotonPay’s stablecoin-centric Financial Operating System (Financial OS). The capital will enable the company to focus on enhancing its multi-asset wallet capabilities, expanding global card issuing, bolstering local clearing infrastructure in key markets, and creating an agent-ready financial execution layer.
“Moving money across borders in seconds means little if it still takes days to put that capital to work,” PhotonPay CEO and Founder Lewison Chen said. “Stablecoins are accelerating global money movement, while local clearing and global card issuing connect that liquidity to local settlement and everyday business spending. Our Financial OS brings these capabilities together, making the underlying infrastructure far less visible to businesses, even as it becomes more essential than ever.”
PhotonPay’s Financial OS combines multi-asset wallets, global money movement, foreign exchange, local clearing, and global card issuing through an integrated API-first architecture. This enables businesses to access the financial capabilities required to manage and deploy funds across markets. Stablecoins are also central to this architecture. Its multi-asset wallet connects stablecoin liquidity with fiat balances and integrates asset conversion, foreign exchange, and local clearing into a single workflow. In support of this dual-rail infrastructure, PhotonPay manages a global financial network that enables businesses to open local collection accounts in 17 markets and receive funds in more than 60 currencies.
“Connecting financial networks is only the beginning,” Chen added. “The real breakthrough is abstracting that complexity behind a unified, programmable financial layer, so businesses and AI agents can move from intent to execution within clearly defined boundaries.”
With 34 payment and financial licenses and regulatory authorizations across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, PhotonPay serves more than 200,000 businesses across 200+ countries and territories. As of August 2026, the company reported annualized transaction volume of $65 billion.
TCM Solutions partners with Tribe Payments
TCM Solutions (TCMS), a Hong Kong-based merchant acquirer, has announced a partnership with issuer and acquirer processor Tribe Payments. Through the partnership, TCMS will use Tribe’s cloud-native, API-led processing platform to launch more bespoke solutions for clients, serve a broader range of merchants, and expand into Singapore and other markets in the region.
“Our decision to partner with Tribe Payments reflects our ambition to build a scalable, future-ready acquiring business across Asia,” TCMS CEO John Lee said. “Our specialist focus on duty-free, cross-border payments and POS solutions requires a processing partner that combines robust technology with the flexibility to support our growth.”
TCMS serves merchants in several core verticals, including food and beverage groups, medical chain stores, airlines and airport duty-free retailers. Its payment systems are designed to accommodate individual outlet operations and their specific accounting requirements. TCMS’ expertise includes POS technology and Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), which enables eligible international customers to view and pay for transactions in their preferred currency at the point of sale.
“We are delighted to partner with TCMS as it continues to develop its acquiring business across Asia,” Tribe Payments GM Asia-Pacific Matt Weir said. “TCMS brings valuable expertise in duty-free and cross-border payments, supported by specialist POS and DCC capabilities. Our cloud-native platform is designed to provide the processing foundation, flexibility, and scalability needed to support TCMS’ ambitions, and to help deliver innovative payment solutions to merchants and their customers.”
London-based Tribe Payments offers banks, fintechs, and payment businesses a single, unified, cloud-native platform for issuer and acquirer processing, along with digital banking and account-based payment services. The company provides issuer and acquirer processing connected to Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, JCB, and Discover. Tribe Payments also links its clients with banking partners through its Bank Connect solution, providing access to local payment rails in multiple markets and enabling businesses to generate customer IBANs or account numbers through a single API integration. Founded in 2018, Tribe Payments’ modular platform also supports digital banking, 3-D Secure, tokenization, and risk and fraud monitoring.
Hong Kong Fintech week focuses on transformation, fuel, and expansion
Hong Kong Fintech Week begins on Monday. This year, the theme of the event is “Fintech Nexus: Bridging the World, Building the Future”. That theme will be explored via three “core growth engines”: AI+, Finance+, and global expansion. The event will begin with opening remarks from John KC Lee, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and will feature forums on a range of topics, including AI and DeepTech, InsurTech and HealthTech, Digital Assets and Web3, among others.
The conference, which will run along with the StartmeupHK Festival 2026, anticipates hosting more than 45,000 participants from 120+ economies. More than 1,000 speakers, 800 exhibitors and startups, and more than 30 delegations are expected to attend.
Of particular interest are the three core growth engines that conference organizers have identified as central to Hong Kong’s fintech and financial services goals.
- AI+ The conference agenda will examine how companies are moving beyond chatsbots to experiment with agentic aI, autonomous banking, robotics, and the economics of running large language models in regulated industries such as finance.
- Finance+: The agenda will also explore how deep capital markets can be leveraged to commercialize cutting-edge innovations in areas like tokenization of real-world assets and stablecoins.
- Global Expansion: The conference agenda will examine how technology firms based in mainland China to navigate international expansion and issues related to AI sovereignty. It will also help them bridge regional gaps via frameworks such as the Greater Bay Area (GBA) integration.
“As HKFW x SMUHK enters its second decade, Hong Kong begins a new chapter with its First Five-Year Plan, unveiled alongside the 2026 Policy Address,” InvestHK Director-General of Investment Promotion Alpha Lau said. “This year’s three engines—Finance+, AI+, and global expansion—reflect the city’s strategic priorities: driving innovation and economic development, transforming industries, and enabling multi-market growth. Hong Kong connects these forces, and this year’s event will bring together global innovators, investors, and enterprises to scale internationally and seize new opportunities through our city.”
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
- India’s Tech Mahindra acquired Finastra’s Cash Management product suite.
- Apple Pay and Google Pay have arrived in Uzbekistan.
- Pine Labs and Webxpay teamed up to bring India’s UPI to Sri Lanka.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- ACI Worldwide and Circle Internet Group forged a partnership to support the integration of stablecoin settlement into existing bank infrastructure in Latin America.
- Cloud-native banking infrastructure and embedded finance firm Mbanq secured an infrastructure deal with 40+ Haitian credit unions.
- Mexican fintech Kapital secured approval to begin banking operations in Colombia.
Asia-Pacific
- Visa and Tencent signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on agentic commerce and cross-border payments.
- The central banks of Thailand and Malaysia announced their support for Singapore’s cross-border digital money initiative BLOOM, which stands for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency).
- Hong Kong-based PhotonPay secured $40 million in Series C funding in a round led by Blockchain Capital.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Global issuer-processor Paymentology announced an expansion of its partnership with South African fintech Mukuru.
- Ebanx has gone live with OPay Direct Debit, a recurring payments solution offered through the digital wallet of OPay, Nigeria’s leading digital bank.
- Via its parent company, Stitch Group, Circle Ventures announced an investment in African cross-border payments company CrissCross.
Central and Eastern Europe
- PaysafeWallet announced its expansion into Croatia, Bulgaria, and Estonia.
- Germany’s Quirin Privatbank partnered with Estonian core banking software provider Tuum to modernize its core banking platform.
- Latvian fintech Eleing Group surpassed the one million active customer mark for its vehicle, smartphone, and consumer financing services.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- MENA-based payment solutions provider PayTabs agreed to buy SeaPay from Saudi Arabia’s Arab Sea Information Systems Company.
- Israel Business News reported that Visa is in talks to buy Israel-based fintech Fireblocks.
- UAE fintech Qashio launched its Global Pay solution for international business payments.
Photo by Manson on Unsplash
