In today’s briefing:
- Coda Payments: Continued Regulatory Wins Cements Global Expansion (Update)
- Volopay: Continued Progress Amidst Limited Updates (Update)
- Arbuthnot Banking Group PLC – Hardman & Co Monthly: September 2026
- $52M/year Plaid For Crypto Payments
Coda Payments: Continued Regulatory Wins Cements Global Expansion (Update)
- On Track or Ahead of Expectations: The prior initiation report’s core investment theses are tracking in line with or ahead of expectations, driven by the July 2026 rollout of out-of-app payment infrastructure and the ongoing integration of the Recharge acquisition. While the company’s cost optimisation efforts and recent regulatory approvals validate its stabilising fundamentals, these initiatives must continue to offset the inherent margin constraints of global payment processing.
- Regulatory Breakthrough Unlocks Scale: Coda secured a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in May 2026, authorising scalable cross-border money transfers and merchant acquisition. Concurrently, the firm accelerated the commercialisation of its web store infrastructure to capitalise on regulatory shifts in Europe and Japan, though it continues to navigate intense competition from established horizontal payment processors and gaming-specific rivals.
- SmartScores© Trend Positive, with Exit Readiness Stable: Coda’s Fundamental and Alt-Data SmartScores© improved, while the Exit Indicator SmartScore© remained stable. The Fundamental SmartScore© strengthened on improved unit economics and the new Major Payment Institution licence; the Alt-Data SmartScore© ticked up on stronger employee sentiment despite softer customer and social engagement; and the Exit Indicator SmartScore© held steady, with better financial investor quality offset by the introduction of new assessment categories. Overall, the trend points to a business that is structurally de-risking and scaling more efficiently, even without any new capital raised in the period.
Volopay: Continued Progress Amidst Limited Updates (Update)
- Sustained Growth and Expansion Thesis: Volopay continues to execute on its core operational objectives, with a geographic broadening of its expense management suite across the Asia-Pacific region and steady progress on its profitability pivot, even as recent top-line momentum has moderated from its FY2023 peak. This is offset by a 20% improvement in sales conversions and an ongoing transition towards a proprietary payment infrastructure, both of which structurally support margin expansion and reduce reliance on third-party banking rails.
- Capital Efficiency and Elevated Sector Rivalry: The firm has maintained its capital-efficient trajectory by holding total funding at US$31.4m without requiring dilutive primary equity raises since March 2022. However, competitive intensity remains elevated as well-funded regional rivals target similar break-even timelines, and industry feedback indicates that a lack of transparent online pricing introduces friction during the customer evaluation phase.
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Scorecard Trends show Resilience Amid Rising Competitive Pressure: Volopay’s Fundamental SmartScore© eased slightly as competitive pressure and a stale capital raise offset real gains in unit economics and moat strength. The Alt-Data SmartScore© improved on stronger employee and customer sentiment. The Exit Indicator SmartScore© eased slightly, as investor quality improved but the lengthening funding gap builds pressure toward a near-term liquidity event.
Arbuthnot Banking Group PLC – Hardman & Co Monthly: September 2026
- Feature article: Tech sector outlook – focus on recovery plays UK technology stocks are showing signs of recovery after a prolonged five-year bear market, with large-cap software and services stocks rebounding strongly in recent months.
- In this month’s feature article, Hardman & Co analyst Richard Jeans examines the latest trading trends across the UK technology sector, the evolving impact of AI and large language models, and the prospects for further recovery.
- He also highlights the importance of focusing on attractively valued recovery opportunities while avoiding over-hyped stocks.
$52M/year Plaid For Crypto Payments
- Where Plaid unified bank connectivity, Mesh is building the same abstraction layer for crypto payments, connecting merchants to 300+ wallets & exchanges while settling into a single stablecoin or fiat currency.
- Rather than compete with Stripe or PayPal for merchant relationships, Mesh distributes B2B2C through payment processors, wallets, exchanges & platforms, powering features like PayPal and Shift4’s Pay with Crypto used by 10M+ global merchants while monetizing the transaction volume flowing through its APIs via percentage or flat usage fees.
- From ~$1M in revenue in January 2024, Sacra estimates that Mesh hit $52M in annualized revenue in June 2026, up from $31M at the end of 2025, valued at $2B as of its July 2026 fundraising round (Binance) for a ~39x forward revenue multiple.
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