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The collaboration combines Paymentology’s cloud-first processing platform with Change Financial’s local BIN sponsorship, regulatory expertise and in-market presence – enabling fintechs, digital banks and programme managers to launch and scale debit, credit and prepaid programmes more efficiently in the Australian market.

Change Financial is a Mastercard Principal Issuer in Australia, providing local scheme connectivity and compliance support. Together with Paymentology’s real-time, multi-cloud processing infrastructure, the partnership creates a streamlined pathway for fintechs looking to enter or expand in the country.

Australia represents one of the world’s most advanced digital payments markets. The national payments market was valued at USD 849.1 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 1.35 trillion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 5.09% between 2026 and 2034. Cards and mobile wallets now sit at the centre of everyday transactions, as digital adoption continues to accelerate. Australians made approximately AUD 160 billion in mobile wallet payments in the past year alone, with billions of transactions recorded annually, highlighting strong demand for digital-first, contactless and mobile-enabled payment experiences.

Minh Ha Truong, Head of Growth Asia Pacific at Paymentology commented: “Australia is one of the most sophisticated payments ecosystems globally, with strong consumer adoption of digital, contactless and mobile-first experiences. By partnering with Change Financial, we’re combining next-generation issuing infrastructure with trusted local BIN sponsorship and expertise, unlocking faster payment method adoption for fintechs and helping them scale confidently in the Australian market.”

Change Financial brings deep experience supporting fintechs and financial institutions through local sponsorship, scheme relationships and programme enablement.

Jennifer Mateer, Chief Commercial Officer at Change Financial added: “We collaborate closely with fintechs and programme managers every day to launch innovative payment solutions with speed and confidence. Our partnership with Paymentology combines our local market expertise with global-scale issuing infrastructure, enabling innovators to accelerate time to market and deliver compelling card payment experiences to Australian consumers and businesses.”

Hashtag: #Paymentology #Fintech

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Paymentology

Paymentology is the leading next-generation issuer processor, empowering fintechs, digital banks and retail banks to effortlessly launch and manage innovative payment solutions on a global scale. The company drives greater customer choice and value through easy-to-use, integrated platforms and services that help clients to disrupt the status quo, accelerate time to market, and achieve growth.

With a superior multi-cloud platform offering a vast global footprint, and enhanced real-time data, Paymentology distinguishes itself as a leader in the payments industry. Its team of payments experts, with deep local market knowledge, operates across 50 countries and 14 time zones, providing 24/7 support. Paymentology is deeply committed to expanding financial inclusion globally, changing lives and positively impacting the communities in which it operates.

For more information, visit https://www.Paymentology.com.

China Unicom Delivered a Masterclass in Connected Marathon Events

Marathon events typically feature high-density crowds with an extensive demand for uploads. China Unicom and Huawei turned to 5G-A 3CC on 3.5 GHz and 2.1 GHz for the event, ensuring an uplink fulfillment at 20 Mbps surpassing 99.6%, along with a peak speed of field-tested 677 Mbps. This impressive uplink performance provided consistent and reliable support for 4K/8K broadcasting and real-time collection and editing while also enabling fans to share and stream smoothly.

Such unrivalled experience is underpinned not only by high-quality networks but also flexible operations. China Unicom and Huawei used intelligent base stations to build 5G-A intelligent, elastic channels for the event. This facilitated differentiated scheduling for livestreaming, voice and video calling, and short videos to ensure smooth experiences for fans even at heavy-traffic moments.

5G-A GigaUplink Takes Embodied AI to New Heights

In a global first, the E-Town half-marathon features a pioneering format that sees human and robot runners compete simultaneously. The humanoid robots were divided into an autonomous navigation group and a remote-control group, running on the same course and evaluated using mixed timing methods. Each humanoid robot requires approximately 10 Mbps uplink for video uploads, environment sensing, gait control, and autonomous navigation. Dedicated uplink slices were reserved to ensure a positioning accuracy of up to sub-decimeter level and an average end-to-end latency of less than 30 ms throughout the racing course, which provided strong support for the video uploads, obstacle avoidance, cornering, and sprinting of humanoid robots. While offering technical upgrades to sports events, this promoted the adoption of humanoid robots on a large scale.

Qin Yang, Deputy General Manager of China Unicom in Beijing spoke proudly of the excellent connections his company provided for the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games as a global strategic partner and the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half-Marathon event as the exclusive official communications sponsor. “5G-A and AI are essential digital infrastructure, enabling us to bring embodied AI to sports. Given the new dynamics of AI development, we will double down on our priorities over connectivity, computing power, services, and security to sharpen our competitive edges as a preferred telecom partner for intelligent sports and a core enabler for intelligent industry transformation. Moving forward, we will accelerate our innovation-driven push to strengthen our digital infrastructure and drive the high-quality growth of embodied AI in China and beyond.”

Samuel Chen, Vice President of Huawei’s Wireless Network Business Marketing, said this humanoid robot half-marathon offers a good example of deepening integration between mobile technology and embodied intelligence. “Beyond redefining connectivity for sports, it has shown us what intelligent production and life will look like in future. We are always dedicated to building excellent 5G-A networks together with operators based on user-centered innovation to ensure GigaUplink, low latency, and high reliability for differentiated mobile AI services. This will enable us to continuously drive the high-quality growth of the digital economy.”
Hashtag: #Huawei #ChinaUnicom

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

According to statistics from the China General Administration of Customs, emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America have become a key driver of export growth. However, underdeveloped local financial infrastructure, incomplete cross-border payment systems, and shortages of foreign exchange mean buyers often struggle to access U.S. dollars. As a result, exporters in these markets frequently face low settlement efficiency, slow cash recovery, and risks such as account freezes.

To address these collection challenges, XTransfer has developed a comprehensive set of cross-border collection solutions. In 2025, payment collections from emerging markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America rose 106% year-on-year. By region, collections increased 273% in Africa, 82% in Southeast Asia, and 94% in Latin America.

Over the same period, customs statistics show that in 2025, China’s total goods exports to Asia, Africa, and Latin America increased 14.6% year-on-year, with exports to Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America up 26.6%, 14%, and 8%, respectively. XTransfer’s significantly faster growth in collections compared with export growth suggests exporters are accelerating the shift from informal channels to secure, compliant collection methods, and that market recognition of high-quality cross-border payment services continues to rise.

Bill Deng, Founder and CEO of XTransfer, said emerging markets offer long-term opportunities for Chinese exporters, but many are held back by the “last mile” of collections. He added that XTransfer is committed to helping SMEs collect funds safely and quickly through secure, compliant, and efficient cross-border financial services comparable to those used by multinational companies.

Release of XTransfer PMI
At the Canton Fair, XTransfer partnered with the Yicai Research Institute to publish the “China Small and Medium Enterprises (B2B) Merchandise Export Purchasing Manager Index” (XTransfer Export PMI), offering operational guidance and decision-making reference for small and micro export-oriented businesses.

This edition draws on a sample survey of XTransfer’s 800,000 SME users, selecting over 3,000 companies nationwide. It covers the full export process across export orders, pricing, procurement, logistics, staffing, and cash flow. The report shows that the March 2026 XTransfer PMI was 51.56%, indicating export conditions for SMEs are generally improving. Despite a complex external environment, SMEs have remained resilient and steadily strengthened their pricing power in international markets. Meanwhile, demand structures in emerging markets are reshaping, with export focus shifting toward intermediate goods and higher value-added products.

Resilience Amid Geopolitical Disruptions
Customs data show that in the first quarter, China’s goods exports reached RMB 6.85 trillion, up 11.9% year-on-year, marking a strong start to the year and benefiting SMEs. The XTransfer PMI also shows expansion in the export order index (53.85) and the export price index (56.15). While seasonal factors like the Spring Festival affected the short term, the underlying “volume and price rising together” trend suggests SMEs are accelerating their shift from “low-price internal competition,” strengthening pricing power through technology upgrades and improved quality.

Geopolitical disruptions have also extended delivery times, pushing the logistics time PMI down to 37.50. In contrast, the sales collection (receivables) index rose to 68.59, showing a pattern of “goods moving slower, money returning faster”. This suggests overseas buyers remain strongly tied to China’s high-quality supply chain and are willing to raise prepayment ratios or shorten payment terms to secure capacity. One exhibitor, Mr Wang, said, “A Southeast Asian customer increased its deposit from 30% to 70% to lock in production, worried our capacity would be booked by others.“

Emerging Markets Demand Trends Toward “High-End” Upgrading
The report highlights a shift toward higher-end demand in emerging markets. Africa’s export orders index (57.55) points to rising infrastructure-related demand; Latin America’s export orders index (56.47) and price index (57.81) signal opportunities in electromechanical and optical medical equipment; and Southeast Asia is absorbing components and semi-finished goods, calling for SMEs to move from finished-goods suppliers to supply-chain partners.

As industrialisation accelerates in emerging markets, demand for high-quality intermediate goods, complete electromechanical equipment, and technical services is rising. SMEs are moving from “low-end capacity exports” to “exports of technology and supply chain support”.

The composite PMI for the “New Three” (new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, and lithium batteries) was 54.59. The “New Three” sectors continue to hold growth potential, and enterprises need to enhance profit margins by delivering differentiated value.
Hashtag: #XTransfer #PMI #Crossborder #Payment #SMEs

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

The deal did not arrive in isolation. It came only weeks after KKR invested $95 million, taking the wider financing linked to that phase of fundraising to about $315 million. Lenskart said the fresh capital would support expansion of its online business and physical store network, reinforcing its strategy of building an omni-channel model rather than relying solely on digital sales. That approach helped distinguish it from many internet-first companies that were still testing how to translate app traffic into durable consumer brands.

Founded in 2010, Lenskart entered physical retail in 2013 and built its business around prescription eyeglasses, contact lenses and sunglasses, using technology tools such as virtual try-on features and a tightly managed supply chain to bring down delivery times and widen consumer choice. The 2021 fundraising gave investors another signal that eye care and vision products could support a scaled consumer business in a market where organised retail had long remained fragmented. It also underlined growing confidence that health-linked discretionary categories could attract repeat spending even outside the big metropolitan centres.

At the time, the broader market backdrop was unusually supportive. India’s start-up sector went through a record funding cycle in 2021, with Reuters later reporting that start-ups in the country raised about $35 billion that year before the market turned more difficult in 2022. Lenskart’s round therefore became part of a larger story: global investors were competing for exposure to domestic consumption, digital adoption and a new generation of companies that blended software, logistics and offline distribution. That enthusiasm also produced a wave of unicorns, richer private valuations and a heavier pipeline for later public listings.

What makes the Lenskart story more durable than a single boom-year headline is what followed. The company continued to attract capital after the 2021 round, raising another $200 million in 2024 from Temasek and Fidelity in a deal that valued it at about $5 billion, according to reports. That step-up suggested investors still saw room for growth despite the post-2021 funding reset that hit many privately held technology firms. It also showed that consumer-facing businesses with large store networks, repeat demand and clearer revenue visibility were being treated differently from cash-burning platforms built around discount-led expansion.

By 2025, Lenskart had moved into the next phase of that journey, filing for an initial public offering and seeking a valuation of nearly $8 billion at the top end of its price band. Reuters reported that the company had 2,067 stores across the country and another 656 overseas, reflecting a business that had grown well beyond its original online-only identity. That proposed public market debut placed Lenskart among a wider group of venture-backed companies testing whether private-market optimism could translate into sustained investor demand on the stock exchange.

Operationally, the business has also shown signs of maturing. Reuters reported in November 2025 that Lenskart had turned profitable in financial year 2025 and posted a 23% rise in revenue to 66.53 billion rupees. Another Reuters report in February 2026 said about 80% of its revenue came from prescription eyeglasses, while international revenue from Southeast Asia, Japan and the Middle East was rising strongly. Those figures matter because they suggest the company’s scale is now being supported not only by funding rounds and valuation jumps, but by a more established earnings and expansion profile.

At the centre of the Manila discussions was Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, President and Chief Executive of Dubai Chambers, who met Ferdinand A. Ferrer, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Donald Lim, president of the Management Association of the Philippines. According to Dubai Chambers, the conversations focused on trade facilitation, investment promotion and business partnerships, with particular attention to artificial intelligence, digital transformation and smart cities. Separate talks were also held with leading Filipino companies, where Dubai’s advantages were presented in areas including the digital economy, real estate investment and retail.

The Manila visit was not an isolated diplomatic stop. It followed the formal launch of Dubai International Chamber’s office in Manila on April 14, part of Dubai’s wider effort to build a larger global commercial footprint. Dubai Chambers says the office will serve both sides of the relationship: helping Filipino companies study opportunities in Dubai and use the emirate as a platform for expansion, while also supporting Dubai-based companies looking to enter the Philippine market through local intelligence, commercial introductions and help with market entry.

The commercial backdrop helps explain the urgency. Non-oil trade between Dubai and the Philippines reached AED3.58 billion in 2025, a 17 per cent increase from 2024, according to Dubai Chambers. By the end of December 2025, 2,592 Filipino companies were registered as active members of Dubai Chamber of Commerce, up 23.3 per cent year on year, while 856 new Filipino companies joined during 2025. Those figures point to a relationship that is moving beyond labour and remittance links into a more formalised business corridor involving services, trade intermediation, investment and corporate expansion.

That momentum has been building for some time. In May 2025, Dubai Chamber of Commerce organised a trade mission to the Philippines involving representatives from 17 Dubai-based private-sector companies. The mission produced 180 bilateral business meetings and included a Manila forum, “Doing Business with the Philippines”, attended by 314 participants. During that forum, Dubai Chambers signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry to strengthen cooperation and explore new avenues for trade and investment. January 2026 brought another symbolic marker when First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos visited Dubai Chambers headquarters, adding political visibility to what has become a more structured economic relationship.

For Dubai, the Manila initiative fits a larger policy design. The chamber says the office forms part of the “Dubai Global” initiative, which aims to establish 50 representative offices worldwide by 2030 and support expansion into 30 priority markets. That strategy is designed to attract foreign direct investment into Dubai while helping companies based there expand overseas. The Philippines, with its large consumer market, growing digital economy and active private-sector institutions, offers Dubai an opening not only into Southeast Asia but also into sectors where urban development, technology adoption and service-led growth are accelerating.

For the Philippines, the significance lies in access. Dubai positions itself as a gateway market linking Asia, the Gulf, Africa and Europe, and Filipino businesses looking for a wider regional or global footprint may see value in that proposition. The chamber has framed Manila’s new office as a bridge that can lower information barriers, connect firms with partners and convert general goodwill into bankable deals. Sectors identified during the talks suggest where both sides believe there is room to move fastest: AI and digital transformation for future-oriented growth, smart cities for infrastructure and urban services, and real estate and retail for more immediate commercial activity.

China has launched a new satellite designed to track greenhouse gases with greater precision, adding a fresh layer of space-based monitoring to the country’s climate and environmental data network.

The satellite lifted off aboard a Long March-4C rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north-west China at 12:10 pm Beijing time on April 17. State media said the spacecraft entered its planned orbit successfully, marking the 638th mission of the Long March rocket family. Chinese reports described it as a high-precision greenhouse-gas detection satellite intended to strengthen observation of atmospheric conditions from orbit.

Chinese broadcaster CGTN reported that the satellite carries five instruments, including an atmospheric detection lidar, a broad-spectrum hyperspectral greenhouse-gas monitor, ultraviolet and infrared hyperspectral sensors for atmospheric composition, and a cloud-and-aerosol imager. Together, those tools are intended to improve detection of carbon dioxide, methane and related atmospheric variables, while helping scientists separate emissions signals from interference caused by clouds, aerosols and other background conditions. The spacecraft and launcher were developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology, according to CGTN and other Chinese reports.

The launch gives Beijing a more advanced platform for a task that has become politically and economically important: measuring what is actually entering the atmosphere. Satellite-based observation has become a key part of climate governance because it can provide independent, repeated coverage across large industrial zones, energy corridors and remote terrain where ground-based monitoring is patchier or harder to verify. Methane, in particular, has come under sharper scrutiny because it traps far more heat than carbon dioxide over the short term, while carbon dioxide remains the dominant driver of long-term warming.

For China, the mission also carries strategic weight. The country has pledged to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality before 2060, goals that require more dependable measurement of emissions trends and sector-by-sector performance. Yet that transition remains uneven. Reuters reported in February 2025 that China cut carbon intensity by 3.4 per cent in 2024, but still lagged behind its five-year target, underscoring the tension between climate pledges, industrial growth and energy security. More precise atmospheric data can help narrow that gap between policy targets and real-world measurement.

The new mission also builds on a longer Chinese effort to monitor greenhouse gases from space. In 2016, China launched TanSat, a carbon-tracking satellite aimed at taking global carbon dioxide readings roughly every 16 days, with accuracy of at least four parts per million, according to Reuters and the China National Space Administration. That earlier satellite was presented as a step towards giving policymakers more independent climate data. The new spacecraft appears to signal a move from pioneering measurement capability towards a more operational and higher-resolution system.

That matters beyond China. Space-based emissions tracking has gained prominence as governments, investors and campaigners press for more transparent climate accounting. The loss last year of MethaneSAT, a privately backed satellite funded in part by Jeff Bezos and operated by the Environmental Defense Fund, highlighted both the promise and fragility of this new monitoring architecture. At the same time, political pressure on some United States climate-observation programmes has raised concerns among scientists about the continuity of global emissions data. Against that backdrop, China’s launch adds capacity to a field in which international coverage remains valuable but uneven.

The timing is notable because climate data has become more than a scientific matter. It now feeds into carbon markets, industrial regulation, trade pressure and diplomatic claims over who is cutting emissions and who is not. Better satellite detection could strengthen verification of methane leaks from coal mines, oil and gas facilities, and large industrial sites, while also improving broader atmospheric modelling. Chinese researchers are already working on ever finer emissions datasets for the country, and the addition of a new orbital platform could help tighten links between satellite observation, ground measurements and policy enforcement.