Technology

A month after announcing its $55 million Series C, Japanese fintech startup Paidy has snagged a strategic investment from payment giant Visa.

Paidydidn&t disclose how much Visa put into its business, which has raised over $80 million to date, but it did say that it will work with the credit card giant to develop &new digital payment experiences& in Japan.

For those in need of a refresher, thePaidy service is aimed at making it easier to shop online in Japan, where credit card penetration is high but many consumers still opt for cash on delivery.

The startup asserts that cash accounts for some 40 percent of the country16.5 trillion yen ($150 billion) annual e-commerce spend because credit card payments are cumbersome and cash is just more simple. Itcertainly true that whipping out your card and keying in digits is a pain, while Japanese systems layer on other security checks that make the process more tedious.

Paidy&sanswer isan account tied to a customerphone number or email address that sits as a payment option at e-commerce checkouts. Payment itself requires entry of a confirmation code, and thatit. Added to the simplicity, Paidy also offers various payback options to effectively give users the features of a credit card.

The company claims there are 1.5 million active Paidy accounts and it is aiming to grow that figure to 11 million by 2020. The main rocket for reaching that ambitious target is onboarding large retailers who integrate the service into their online sales process. Thata tactic that has worked well for Paidy so far, but italsoclearly an area where Visanetwork can be massively beneficial, especially if they are joint products on offer.

With Paidy operating like a virtual credit card system that rivals plastic cards, Visa has seen enough to warrant coming on board the project, according toChris Clark, VisaAsia Pacific regional president.

&We have been following Paidyprogress and the enhanced shopping experience they provide at the time of purchase. In Japan there is enormous opportunity to bring consumers more options to pay, whether all at once or in instalments, especially when shopping across multiple channels,& Clark said in a statement.

Paidy countsItochu Corporation, Goldman Sachs,Eight Roads — the investment arm of Fidelity — SBI Holdings, SBIFinTech Business Innovation LPS, Arbor Ventures and SIG Asia as existing investors.

AlibabaLazada is introducing new credit options for SMEs as it aims to boost the number of retailers in Southeast Asia, the region with 650 million consumers.

The firm announced a partnership with Finaxar that will see the fintech offers its services to Lazada sellers in Singapore. There are plans to expand the arrangement to cover other parts of Southeast Asia in the future.

Two-year-oldFinaxar offers a range of financial products in Southeast Asia but now it has teamed up with the e-commerce company to provide a credit line option for Lazada sellers, as opposed to more structured financing such as loans. The credit line can last for up to six months, with up to SG$5,000-SG$1 million ($3,650-$730,000) on offer, the companies said.

The service is priced at0.7-1.5 percent every 30 days and at a rate that is pro-rated. Finaxar said all fees are shown transparently in the service to avoid the unwanted surprise ofhidden add-ons.

Finaxar foundersVihang Patel andSian Tan told TechCrunch that a credit line gives companies the flexibility to dip into additional cash when needed, for example during peak season to buy more product, and also pay parts back when significant payment volumes come in, without the commitment of more formalized lending.

The financial assessment, they explained, comes via a one-click integration with Lazada seller dashboard. When clicked, thatsends the merchant to theFinaxar where they are asked to provide information; a credit assessment is delivered in under five minutes.

Patel saidFinaxaris currently assessing expansion to two undisclosed markets, which he said would include launches in collaboration with Lazada and potentially as soon as before the end of this year. Thatpretty crucial for the partnership to make an impact for Lazada, since most of its 300,000 retailers are located outside of Singapore.

Alibaba has pumped billions into Lazada since it took a majority investment in 2016. Most recently it injected$2 billion in Marchin a move which also saw Alibaba install Lucy Peng, one of its original 12 founders and the former Chairwoman of Lazada and ex-executive chairman of Ant Financial, as Lazada CEO.

Lazada is in a dogfight with Shopee, the e-commerce firm of U.S.-listed Sea, to become the dominant e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. Sea recently pumped $500 million of newly-raised capital into Shopee, while this week its latest earnings revealed that the servicequarterly revenue has grown to $58.8 million. Alibaba doesn&t reveal comparable figures for Lazada.

Lazadacollaboration withFinaxarcomes after Aspire Capital, an SME financing startup founded by an ex-Lazada executive, announced it had raised $9 million.

The Russian weapons manufacturer Kalahsnikov, best known for making the AK-47 machine gun, has unveiled a fleet of electric and hybrid cars, buggies and motorcycles this week — including an electric vehicle that the company says will rival Tesla.

While ita noble goal to take competitive aim at the worldmost famous electric vehicle brand, the retro-styled concept car, dubbed the CV-1, bears a closer resemblance to another, more infamous car from the Soviet era… the Trabant.

Thata vehicle, by the way, whose Fahrvergnügenis best illustrated by the Conan O&Briendemonstration below.

The CV-1 is based on the retro-IZH-21252 model known as the &Combi& and is a test bed for Kalashnikovelectric drive train, which the company said was developed in-house. The Combi has a cruising range of 350 kilometers and can go from 0 to 100 kilometers in roughly 6 seconds, so says the company.

Batteries for the new electric vehicle from Kalashnikov have a capacity of 90 kilowatts per hour.

At the same gun show where the new EV was unveiled, Kalashnikov also showed off a hybrid buggy and an electric motorcycle to complete its hattrick.

The four-seat buggy can purportedly achieve speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour and has separate electric engines for its front and rear wheels, along with hydraulic shock absorbers. According to Russian news agency RT, the vehicles are a relatively recent addition to the Russian militarymobility arsenal.

Kalashnikov may have Tesla in its sights, but the car company likely has more to fear from U.S. regulators than it does from a Russian competitor. At this point, the weapons manufacturer might find more of a market for another machine it debuted at the Russian military trade show — its golden, metal-plated killer robot(!!).

Herea selection of images below, courtesy of Kalashnikov, of the new electric vehicle.

[gallery ids="1698553,1698555,1698556,1698557,1698558,1698559,1698554"]

With assistance from Jon Russell