Zip Co, an Australia-based ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) company, is in a race against rivals Klarna and Afterpay to capture as much global market share as quickly as possible.

Card issuing and processing startup Marqeta has filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public, after more than doubling its 2020 year-over-year revenue.

Facebook, which has been spearheading a global digital currency initiative called Diem – formerly known as Libra – is moving its operations from Switzerland to the U.S. in an effort to focus efforts on a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin.

The Big Issue, a 30-year-old U.K.-based publication that employs homeless street vendors, is incorporating QR code payments to increase sales.

Bill.com, which reports earnings this week, is reportedly on the cusp of acquiring expense-management startup Divvy, which was recently valued at $1.6B.

Card issuing and processing startup Marqeta is reportedly on pace to move forward with a June IPO, making the paperwork public in May.

Banking technology company Fiserv, which owns point-of-sale payment system Clover, entered into a partnership with PayPal to allow QR code payments using PayPal and Venmo apps at business checkouts.

Southwest Airlines has struck a partnership with ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) provider Uplift, a company that focuses on point-of-sale financing for travel.

As consumers get more comfortable with cashless payment methods as the pandemic enters its second year, Amazon is launching a new biometric payment method called Amazon One at Seattle Whole Foods stores.

San Francisco-based Affirm, which offers ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) financing for consumer purchases, announced that it will acquire Returnly, a returns platform that allows customers to get instant store credit even before a return is processed.

Payments giant Mastercard plans to acquire Ekata, a 2-year-old Seattle based company that focuses on APIs and SaaS digital-identity solutions that help more than 2,000 businesses and partners combat cyberfraud.

As digital business payments surge during the pandemic, Citibank is helping its clients gain more visibility into payment paths, reminiscent of the process to track shipments of physical goods.

Bank of America has acquired Santa Barbara, California-based Axia Technologies, which is also known as AxiaMed. The 6-year-old payments technology company focuses on healthcare.

Point-of-sale lender Affirm is moving past retail shopping and into vacation property rentals. The company, which went public earlier this year, announced a limited-time partnership with vacation rental marketplace Vrbo.

Google’s head of payments says he’s leaving the company for a yet-to-be-announced “new mission.” His last day at the company is April 30.