Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 30 April 2024, bringing you the latest updates from across the world.

Job movers

Bitsight, a cyber risk management company, appoints Lou Serlenga as its new chief revenue officer and Rob Dinning as chief legal officer. In addition to senior leadership roles at Tenable and Nile, Serlenga’s experience includes more than a decade at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. While Dinning has previously worked at Freshfields, Shearman & Sterling, Ernst & Young, Barclays Bank, RiskMetrics Group and ISS.

MarketAxess Holdings, an operator of an electronic trading platform for fixed-income securities, has named Dan Burke as global head of emerging markets. He will lead business and product management expansion of the company’s EM trading business across geographies and products. Burke most recently served as MD at Standard Chartered in Singapore and London.

iPipeline, a provider of digital solutions for the life insurance and wealth management industries, has welcomed Adam Boone as chief financial officer. He is tasked with leading and driving iPipeline’s investment strategies and business development opportunities. Boone previously worked at data solutions provider Sight Machine as well as software platform LeafLink.

Local payments platform PPRO hires Bronwyn Boyle as chief information security officer. She will spearhead PPRO’s security strategy and oversee information, cyber and technology security across all product offerings and processes. Most recently, Bronwyn served as CISO at fintech Mambu and led security transformation and AI enablement initiatives for TSB Bank.

Sidekick, a wealth management platform for modern investors, appoints Alessandra Farnum as its alternatives product lead. Farnum will play a key role in launching new products and services within Sidekick’s alternative asset class offering. She previously worked at London-based fintech VC fund Mouro Capital as well as Samsung Ventures.

Additional appointments

Xceptor, the intelligent automation platform for financial markets, has appointed Keith Man as general manager for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. The appointment underscores Xceptor’s continued investment and penetration into the APAC region. He will expand Xceptor’s sales, business development and operations, while also advancing growth into new markets and segments. He was most recently head of APAC at Duco.

Vatic AI has named Dilip Krishnan as its new president and CEO. Dilip is responsible for Vatic AI’s global growth expansion into new geographies, M&A as well as the development of new AI products predicting credit worthiness of anonymous audiences online. Vatic AI’s Qscore product leverages AI to predict the credit qualifications of anonymous audiences.

Digital risk company Cytora adds James Platt as the newest member of its advisory board. Formerly group COO and chief digital officer of Aon, Platt has also recently co-founded Trimstone Partners, a boutique consultancy focused on enabling strategic change across financial services.

The British Business Bank has unveiled Kristen McLeod CBE as its new chief strategy officer, effective from September 2024. McLeod joins from HM Treasury, where she has served as advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on growth, investment and business since October 2022. Prior to this, she also served as the director of the Office for Life Sciences.

Banking Circle Group has welcomed Johan Bergqvist as the new group CFO. He work closely with the co-founders, Anders la Cour and Laust Bertelsen, and the rest of the management team, to drive the next phase of sustained, rapid and profitable growth. Bergqvist has previously worked at Spotify and Bolt.

Company updates

Axle Asia, an insurance broker in Indonesia, rebrands as bolttech following the completion of bolttech’s acquisition of the majority shareholding in Axle Asia in late 2022. The rebrand and rename have no impact on bolttech Indonesia’s service or offerings to its partners and customers. All existing services and agreements will remain in place.

Embedded insurer Wakam receives approval as a licensed and regulated insurer by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to support the launch of its new, UK subsidiary Wakam UK Limited. This initiative is part of a wider strategy aimed at enhancing technical fundamentals and scaling processes, positioning Wakam for future growth and success.

Paystand, a blockchain-enabled B2B payments company, has acquired Teampay, a spend management software. The transaction creates a ;B2B payments powerhouse’ whose continued goal is to shakeup payments by expanding the ‘largest, fastest, and most cost-efficient B2B payments network’.

Funding and investments

Danish-founded Ageras has raised €82million for new acquisitions in an oversubscribed private placement round. The round saw participation from i.a., Folketrygdfondet, Lazard as well as Investcorp. Ageras, which provides accounting software to over 300,000 active European small businesses, has completed its sixth and largest investment round to date.

Gideon Valkin has launched Andrena Ventures: a $12million solo GP fund backed by tech founders and VC leaders. The fund has reached its first close with a final close planned for later in the year. He has also revealed the fund’s first investment into Nustom, a new AI-powered software-building startup from Monzo co-founding CTO Jonas Templestein.  

Partnerships

dLocal, a cross-border payment platform, has forged a partnership with Open English, an online English-learning platform. The partnership adds alternative payment methods such as bank transfer and Visa Debit, cash, installments, Boleto and Pix. These expanded methods are offered to English learners in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador as well as Vietnam.

FastSpring, a merchant of record for global SaaS and software companies, and EBANX, a payments company, have teamed up to enhance users’ payment experience within FastSpring’s product suite in Latin America through local payment method Pix.

WealthKernel, a digital investment infrastructure provider, has unveiled a partnership with GetGround, an all-in-one property platform for buy-to-let investors. GetGround can now offer its property investors the option to open an Investment Pot and earn a return on their limited company cash thanks to WealthKernel’s API-led technology.

Meanwhile, Neonomics, an open banking company and Qvik, a developer of digital consumer products, have signed a strategic partnership to jointly promote and deploy open banking services to customers across the Nordics and UK. The pair say the “appetite for more efficient payments and data services has never been stronger”.

Brite Payments has partnered with e-commerce platform Shopware to bring the benefits of its open banking-based instant payments to businesses across Europe. Shopware merchants can now activate Pay by Bank (aka account-to-account or A2A payments), which enables their customers to pay instantly, directly from their bank account.

More collaborations

Tokeny, a a tokenisation technology company for capital markets assets, and Globacap, an automation of private markets operational workflow company, have partnered. By partnering with Tokeny, Globacap joins the DINO Network initiative, an interoperable distribution network for digital securities leveraging the ERC-3643 token standard, which will in turn expand the reach of its marketplace. 

There’s also a partnership for Phos, the software point-of-sale orchestration for businesses company, and Silverflow, a cloud platform for global card processing, to help businesses leverage a solution for accepting contactless payments directly to mobile devices. The partnership combines Phos’ SoftPoS technology with Silverflow’s modern payment processing platform, to offer a ready-to-deploy solution for banks, acquirers, payment service providers and independent sales organisations.

Viva.com, a European acquirer powering merchant payments acceptance on any device in 24 markets, enters a strategic partnership with Satispay, a mobile payment circuit in Italy independent from credit and debit cards, to eliminate the barriers between the physical and online shopping experience for merchants and consumers.

Manchester City announces a multi-year partnership with Quidd, a digital collectible platform. Quidd will provide new experiences for fans to be able to swap and collect digital cards, as well as opportunity to unlock real-world rewards including official Manchester City merchandise, hospitality tickets and exclusive experiences.

On this week’s episode of News & Views, The Fintech Times Podcast team speak about Klarna as it opens a US waitlist for a new Klarna card and partners with Expedia Group to expand its services to travellers, whether the government has gone far enough with support for SMEs, and the push back against the growing crypto carbon footprint.

The conversation this week started by analysing Klarna’s latest announcements. Highlighting the importance of flexible payment options, Polly, Tom and Francis discuss why Klarna’s new offering would be so impactful for the US market, all the while spotlighting the necessity of responsible use.

The trio then moved to talk about crypto’s sustainability as Zumo and the Crypto Carbon Ratings Insitute revealed how impactful a crypto carbon footprint could be. The Podcast Team note the fine line that must be walked to enable crypto to flourish while protecting the environment.

Lastly, Polly, Tom and Francis speak about how the government needs to do more to help SMEs. However, Francis notes that not all firms can be saved by the government: while it does have a duty to help firms, ultimately, some simply will not have the right offerings or business models to be saved, even with government intervention.

Listen to News & Views Podcast on your favourite platform:

    

Read the articles discussed in this episode:

Klarna Improves US Offering With New Klarna Card and Expedia Group Partnership

Support for SMEs: Has the Government Gone Far Enough?

Zumo and CCRI Partner to Push Back Against Growing Crypto Carbon Footprint

It’s The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 25 April 2024.

Appointments

myPOS, a provider of payments, accounts and card solutions for small merchants and sole traders, has appointed Mario Shiliashki as CEO. Shiliashki will also join the myPOS board of directors. He has previously worked at PayPal and Mastercard, and more recently at PayU.

Encompass Corporation, which offers a corporate digital identity (CDI) platform,has named Stuart Barnard as its first chief financial officer. After joining Encompass in 2016 as part of its Sydney-founded team, Barnard was first appointed as head of finance, and has remained a key senior figure since.

Davies, the professional services and technology business serving financial services, insurance and highly regulated markets, has appointed Pino Vallejo as CEO of its multi-sector global consulting division, formerly known as Sionic. Davies is part of Davies’ Global Solutions division which also incorporates the firm’s SaaS technology suite and insurance services and forensic accounting businesses.

Stavtar Solutions, a software company focused on solutions for the alternative asset management industry, appoints Jared Libby as director of business development. Libby is responsible for driving continued growth and momentum for Stavtar’s expanding product portfolio.

There’s a leadership reshuffle at Zafin, a provider of SaaS core modernisation solutions for banks. After more than two decades of leadership, Al Karim Somji will step down as CEO, while continuing to serve as a board member. Charbel Safadi, who has served as group president of Zafin, becomes the new CEO.

More job news

Revolut, the global fintech, has announced it expects to boost its global headcount by 40 per cent in 2024. The announcement comes as the company reaches 10,000 employees globally, and continues to grow its workforce, all whilst many other financial institutions are making job cuts or hiring freezes. The company has over 70 roles currently advertised in the UK.

Duco, an enterprise platform for data automation, has welcomed Josh Monroe as chief revenue officer. Monroe most recently served as CRO at Xceptor and has also held leadership positions at Itiviti, FIS, and SunGard. At Duco, he will oversee global sales, account management, marketing, customer success, solution engineering, as well as partnerships.

Partnerships

Travelex, the foreign exchange brand, has launched an FX affiliate referral programme with over 60 local banks across Japan. More than 30,000 of these banks’ customers have subsequently benefited from access to travel money since the programme’s launch late last year. The referral programme enables customers to receive a discount on their travel money purchases both in Travelex’s 66 stores across Japan or online.

Nium, the real-time cross-border payments company, has expanded its partnership with Thredd, the payments processor, to issue virtual cards in the APAC region. By integrating Thredd APIs into its single platform for instant global payments, Nium has been able speed up transactions to 200 milliseconds when issuing and loading virtual cards in nearly 30 countries worldwide.

Klarna, the AI powered global payments network and shopping assistant, has teamed up with Uber, to offer consumers Klarna’s alternative payment methods across Uber’s ride-sharing and delivery platforms, Uber and Uber Eats. Live in the US, Germany, and Sweden, Klarna’s Pay Now option allows users to pay for their next ride or delivery immediately and in full with one click.

Payhawk, a global spend management solution, has unveiled a new integration with American Express to offer US Business and Corporate Card members the ability to issue virtual cards with built-in spend controls and manage business spend globally – all while earning the rewards of their eligible American Express Card when making virtual Card payments.

More partnerships

Elavon, a global payments provider, has expanded its collaboration in Europe with FreedomPay. The partnership aims to deliver top-notch integrated commerce solutions and omni-channel payments technology to large enterprise merchants across retail and hospitality. The agreement pairs Elavon acquiring with FreedomPay commerce technologies.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial centre of the UAE’s capital, and Hacken, a blockchain security auditing firm, have agreed to collaboratively set new benchmarks for blockchain security and compliance. This strategic partnership between a regulatory body and a security auditor is aimed at establishing a world-leading security assessment standard in the blockchain industry.

Funding and investments

Allica Bank,  the business bank dedicated to serving established businesses, has completed £500millon of asset finance lending. Following the launch of its asset finance arm in January 2021, Allica says over the past 12 months it has lent almost double the amount it lent in the previous two years combined.

Dripos, a software platform built specifically for coffee shops,has bagged a $11million Series A funding round, led by Base10. This investment will fuel Dripos’ continued mission to transform the way coffee shops operate.The all-in-one platform dedicated to coffee raises from Base10 Partners to expand footprint.

Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 23 April 2024

Appointments

Global technology company SAP appoints Sundus Bushahri as managing director for its Kuwait operations. With more than 15 years of experience gained at large multinationals and Fortune 500 companies, Bushahri will lead her team in supporting Kuwait’s ambitious digitalization and workforce training agenda, helping companies to leverage the enormous potential of cloud computing and business AI.

Insurtech Send Technology Solutions Ltd (Send) has appointed William Harnett as its head of business strategy and customer success. Harnett has spent the past 20 years at AXIS Capital. In this new role, created to support Send’s continued international growth, he help Send’s customers address their biggest pain points and barriers to innovation, their digital targets and existing processes.

Bank of Singapore has named Rickie Chan as chief executive of its Hong Kong branch. Chan will retain his duties as head of private banking, Greater China in Hong Kong in addition to his duties as chief executive. He succeeds former Hong Kong chief executive Cindy Wong.

Meanwhile, SCRYPT, the Swiss financial services provider with a focus on institutional-grade crypto asset services, has welcomed Keith Noyes as chief compliance and risk officer, as well as Helen Harvey as director of sales.

Virtual payments provider Conferma has appointed Kriya Patel as its new non-executive director to support its drive to make it simple for any company, anywhere in the world, to connect and do business. Patel, currently CEO of Tap Global, will play a pivotal role in supporting Conferma through the next stage of its growth.

More appointments

10x Banking, the cloud-native SaaS core banking platform, appoints Will Dale as its regional vice president in APAC. The appointment, which sees Dale join from Mambu where he held the role of regional VP for nearly five years, sees 10x cement its presence in APAC as part of its mission to bring core banking transformation to financial institutions across the region.

Unity Trust Bank has promoted Scott Hutchinson to deputy regional director, alongside the appointment of two new relationship managers to its Scotland team. Hutchinson will support John Copping, regional director for the North, while Michelle Wilson and Jordan Hady will support the growth of Unity’s North & Scotland portfolio.

Partnerships

KogoPAY, a payment platform, has solidified its partnership with The Estate (Thailand) by MQDC (Magnolia Quality Development Corporation Limited) to ensure secure financial transactions for UK and European citizens opting to retire in Thailand. To facilitate their retirement in Thailand, UK and European citizens planning to move to the Aspen Tree for five years and over will be granted visas and healthcare insurance.

Nium, the real-time cross-border payments company, is teaming up with Artajasa, an Indonesian payment infrastructure companies. The partnership will ensure seamless, real-time, cross-border transfers between Indonesia and the world.

Google Cloud has joined forces with Allfunds, a B2B platforms for the funds industry, to accelerate its capabilities through cloud computing, data analytics and AI. Using Google Cloud’s tools and infrastructure, Allfunds will be able to enhance its existing data analytics offering, inspire smarter decision-making across the board and drive new growth opportunities.

Finastra, a provider of financial software applications and marketplaces, announces that British Caribbean Bank Limited (BCB), a Turks and Caicos-based financial institution offering international bank accounts and customized loan options, has selected Finastra Essence, deployed on Microsoft Azure cloud, to modernise its core and transform its back-office operations.

Airwallex, a global payments and financial platform for modern businesses, partners with Bird (formerly MessageBird), a global communication platform, to power Bird’s international payments operations. Using Airwallex’s global payments and financial infrastructure, Bird has been able to consolidate its financial operations across multiple entities and currencies into a single platform

More partnerships

Sopra Banking Software (SBS), a provider of banking software solutions, and Paymentology, a global issuer processor, have forged a strategic partnership aimed at delivering comprehensive card issuing services within SBS’s next-generation SBP Digital Core platform. The integration process is streamlined and accelerated with the development of a dedicated connector by SBS.

Accelerated Payments, a provider of business funding solutions, has unveiled a strategic partnership with inflverse, a global financial management platform for creator agencies. This collaboration aims to build a more financially sustainable creator economy. Leveraging Accelerated Payments funding solutions, inflverse has developed a proprietary platform that is revolutionising payments within the creator economy.

Trading and investment platform eToro and 21Shares, an issuer of crypto exchange traded products, have partnered to launch a new portfolio named 21Shares-Flows, designed to offer retail investors a dynamic and data-driven approach to crypto investing.

M&As

Thunes, a global cross-border payments company, is acquiring Tilia LLC, an all-in-one payments platform based in San Francisco. Tilia is licensed in 48 US states and territories and offers payment solutions (acceptance and pay-outs) for online games, virtual worlds, creator economies and in-app purchases. This latest company milestone aims to accelerate Thunes’ growth in the US as well as its presence in the online gaming market.

Company updates

Network International LLC (Network), an enabler of digital commerce across the Middle East and Africa region, has obtained a stored value facility (SVF) licence from the Central Bank of the UAE that will enable it to further support the UAE’s growing digital payment ecosystem. The procurement of the licence marks a major milestone in Network’s efforts to better support fintech and financial institutions and help enhance the UAE’s digital economy.

Monzo has launched three expanded subscription plans: Extra, Perks, and Max, designed with feedback from over 45,000 customers. Perks and Max both include new benefits including a weekly hot drink or snack from Greggs, an annual railcard, as well as car breakdown cover. Customers using the current subscriptions – Plus and Premium – can switch to any of the new plans.

Funding and investments

Payflows, the AI-powered SaaS finance platform built by veterans of Airbnb and Luko, has raised €25million in Series A funding from Balderton Capital. Existing investors Headline and Ribbit Capital also doubled down on their previous investments.

Midas, the fintech startup, has raised $45million in equity funding. The new capital will enable Midas to expand and roll out three new products: cryptocurrency trading, mutual funds, and savings accounts. The $45million fundraise was led by Portage and is also one of Turkey’s largest ever Series A rounds.

Matera, a Web3 foundation spun off from Landvault, secured $3.6million in a strategic Token round from  investors including Sidedoor Ventures (backers of Polygon and Mysten Labs), metaverse project The Sandbox, APAC launchpad Enjinstarter, and long-term backers Gemini and Kingsway Capital. This strategic token round fuels Matera’s mission: unlocking creator monetisation through DeFi on existing social networks.

Pomelo announces $35million Series A in venture capital and a $75million expansion of its warehouse facility from Vy Capital, Founders Fund and A* Capital. This brings total funds raised to date to $55million in equity capital and $125million for its warehouse facility.

AI-driven business finance comparison site FundOnion has unveiled plans to facilitate over £1billion in funding to help up to 25,000 SMEs grow over the next four years. The plans come as the small business finance platform continues to work to consolidate what is a historically fragmented market for small business loans.

Fundpath, the critical data and business intelligence service for the wealth and asset management industry, has completed a further £2million funding round with its venture capital partner, Fuel Ventures. This second round of funding follows Fuel’s initial £4million investment, made in March 2023.

On this week’s episode of News & Views, The Fintech Times Podcast team speak about how Project Nemo aims to tackle the underrepresentation of disabled individuals in fintech, both in the workforce and among customers, why 75 per cent of firms are struggling with new payments tech as a result of their outdated core systems & N26 launching joint accounts, enabling customers to manage finances shared with a partner within the N26 app.

The Podcast Team trio began by discussing how challenger banks are catching up with incumbents. Where previously they may have only focused on a specific subsector or niche, they are now moving towards offering traditional services too – in N26’s case: joint accounts.

Having attended Innovate Finance Global Summit 2024 earlier in the week, all the team were present to hear about the official launch of Project Nemo. They highlight the importance of a project like this at showcasing the issues people with disabilities face and how greater diversity is needed in the workplace.

Lastly, the Podcast Team explores the reasons firms have given for failing to adopt new technologies and update their infrastructures and discuss which reasons they think are justified and which reflect poorly on the company.

Listen to News & Views Podcast on your favourite platform:

    

Read the articles discussed in this episode:

From Conversation to Action: Project Nemo Leads Fintech’s Disability Inclusion Drive

Legacy Tech is Stopping Adopting of Latest Cybersecurity and Payments Systems Reveals Endava

N26 Launches Joint Accounts to Help Customers Build ‘Healthy Financial Habits’ Together

 

Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 18 April 2024

Funding and investments

Wagestream, a financial benefits platform used by employers at Asda, Burger King, Bupa and Hilton, has raised a further £17.5million in funding from new and existing investors. Wagestream will use the latest funding to expand its range of services as well as to become a ‘complete financial platform’ for low and middle-income workers.

Manchester-based fintech Lemon has successfully raised its pre-seed funding round, securing £500,000 to support the business through the next stage of development. As well as SFC Capital and Pitchdrive, Lemon has also received angel investment from ex partner of debt advisory at KPMG, Nick Dodd, and co-founder of fintech communications agency SkyParlour Started, who both join the Lemon advisory board.

Bridgewise, the AI-based analysis platform for global securities, has completed a $21million funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $35million. The round was led by SIX Group with participation also from Group11 and L4 Venture Builder.  It will use the new funding to accelerate market penetration and growth.

Pliant, a business-to-business (B2B) credit card platform has closed more than €18million in Series A extension financing, led by PayPal Ventures. Existing investors SBI Investment, Motive Ventures and Alstin Capital also participated in the round. This brings Pliant’s total Series A financing to more than €50 million. Pliant will now pursue expansion outside the EU, starting with the UK.

Ramp is completing a $150million Series D-2 funding round, raising the company’s valuation to $7.65billion. This round was co-led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund, with additional new investors Sequoia Capital, Greylock, as well as 8VC. This new funding will allow Ramp “to triple down on the next wave of innovation to deliver much more value for our customers”.

Additional funding

Fortis, a retail tech and fintech solutions provider tailored for SMEs, has completed a Series A funding round, raising $20million in investment led by Opportunity Venture (Asia). This funding marks a significant milestone in Fortis’ journey as it embarks on a mission to shakeup the retail tech and fintech landscape in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Flatpay, a Danish payments solutions provider for SMEs, has secured €45million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Dawn Capital, with also participation from Seed Capital and other investors. Funding will be used to further develop the product, expand into new markets as well as rapidly scale its team.

M&As

Huma Finance, a tokenisation platform, and Arf, a global transactions services platform, have merged to expand global blockchain powered financial services. The merger combines two of the most prominent blockchain use cases — cross-border payments and tokenisation of real world assets — into a single full-stack platform. The new company expects to surpass $3billion on-chain liquidity volume by the end of 2024.

Cloud tokenisation provider TokenEx, and IXOPAY, the independent payments orchestration platform,  have agreed to merge. The combined company will be called IXOPAY, a TokenEx Company, and Marc Olesen will lead the combined organisation as CEO. Customers will benefit from a comprehensive platform that enables increased authorisation rates and decreased interchange fees for merchants, along with PCI-certified secure payment data.

Partnerships

Cryptocurrency company Knaken has unveiled a strategic partnership with OARO, a specialist in digital identification and access control. This collaboration aims to leverage advanced crypto and identification technologies to transform the stadium visitor experience.

Mysten Labs, a web3 infrastructure company, has forged a partnership with BytePlus, ByteDance’s enterprise technology arm, to explore collaboration on data warehousing, AI recommendation algorithms, and AI visual algorithms in web3 game platforms and socialFi projects on the Sui blockchain.

Alter Domus, a provider of tech-enabled fund administration, private debt, and corporate services for the alternative investment industry, has gone live on Temenos’ automated fund management platform, implementing the solution in under six months.

Aryza Group, a leading provider of financial software solutions, announces its strategic partnership with Dotdigital, an all-in-one customer experience and data platform. This partnership enhances customer experience when they access credit and debt solutions.

Bankjoy, a digital banking provider for banks and credit unions across the US, has partnered with Pinwheel, a fintech that helps financial institutions win primacy with frictionless account activation. Through the partnership, Bankjoy will help its customers integrate the Pinwheel Prime digital deposit switching solution into the digital banking experiences for over 70 banks and credit unions nationwide.

Cashflows, a platform that makes it easy for merchants to accept payments, is chosen as a ‘Gold Partner’ for the National Association of Funeral Directors, a representative body for the UK funeral profession. The Gold Partner status makes Cashflows the NAFD’s preferred payment partner for its 4,100 funeral home members.

Appointments

Camden-based 365 finance has appointed Warren Abbey as its new CEO. Abbey joined 365 finance in 2023 as chief commercial officer. Current CEO and founder Andrew Raphaely transitions to the role of executive vice chairman. Raphaely will also remain actively engaged with the business, supporting Abbey as the board’s principal point of contact with the executive committee, and the business at large.

Paymentology, the global issuer processor, appoints Anna Porra as chief revenue officer. She had previously held key positions at organisations including Soldo, Marqeta and Barclaycard. In her new role, Porra will accelerate Paymentology’s global growth with responsibility for sales, marketing partnerships as well as client success.

Gigs, the telecom-as-a-service platform, has welcomed Rishi Sachdeva as head of fintech. Sachdeva joins Gigs after six years at Stripe. Based in San Francisco, Sachdeva will lead Gigs’ strategy and growth in the fintech sector, overseeing key partnerships. It follows the promotion of Rafa Plantier, who previously led Fintech and will now serve as head of go-to-market for the organisation.

Cross Switch,  provider of global payment processing platform CS+, adds two new executives to its leadership team. Mark Chirnside joins Cross Switch to spearhead the expansion of the business in all markets, while Charles Elliman will focus on driving exponential growth in Africa.

More hires

Mark Jennis has joined the US team of Pirum, the global post trade services fintech, to lead business development for CollateralConnect in North America. He previously held roles at Transcend, PeerNova, DTCC-Euroclear GlobalCollateral, Morgan Stanley as well as Banker Trust. The appointment follows Pirum’s success in growing its ColletaralConnect client-base on both sides of the Atlantic.

Creditinfo, a global service provider for credit information and risk management solutions, has named John Cannon as its global chief commercial officer. He will play a key part in promoting financial inclusion globally while bolstering Creditinfo’s international growth. In his new role, John will also be responsible for delivering the right products and services to Creditinfo’s customers to maximise value, as well as identifying new business opportunities.

On this week’s episode of News & Views, The Fintech Times Podcast team speak about digital banks continuing to capture users, how false declines are harming retailers’ reputation on social media and why 40 per cent of businesses are struggling to balance security and customer experience.

A momentous occasion for The Fintech Times Podcast team as they hit their 150th episode, the conversation starts on the topic of false declines and consumers’ responses to failed payments on social media. While stats suggest extreme customer dissatisfaction, the Podcast team unanimously agree that taking to social media to voice anger is a bit of an overreaction and that in fact that level of security is not only necessary but appreciated too.

The discussion then moves to how popular banks’ digital apps are, with research revealing that neobanks saw a greater amount of downloads in the past year. The team note how incumbents are keeping pace with digitally native banks who previously were one step ahead when it came to digital offerings.

The last topic raised on the podcast surrounds businesses’ priorities and what is more important: security or customer experience. The team highlights how there is a disconnect between firms and consumers and how data is used.

Listen to News & Views Podcast on your favourite platform:

    

Read the articles discussed in this episode:

False Declines Are Harming Retailers’ Reputation on Social Media as All Ages Voice Complaints Online

Twilio: 40% of Businesses Struggle to Balance Security and Customer Experience

Digital Banks Continue to Capture Users, As Android Banking App Downloads Increase by 13% in 2023

The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 15 April 2024 serves up the latest industry movers and partnerships.

Appointments

Stearns Bank, a financial institution committed to innovation and inclusivity, appoints Marlice Johnson as chief brand officer,  while Maggie Rivera assumes the role of vice president of corporate social responsibility and inclusion. Steans says it welcomes their expertise, leadership and commitment to excellence as it looks to meet the evolving needs of its customers and communities.

Brite Payments has welcomed Luke Trayfoot as chief commercial officer, leading the Stockholm-headquartered fintech’s commercial efforts, driving revenue growth and market expansion plans. The appointment of the former PayPal and Mangopay executive signifies a new phase in Brite’s journey as it accelerates its growth in markets across Europe.

Consulting at Davies (formerly known as Sionic), a specialist financial services consultancy, has made three senior hires as part of its international growth. Peter Keaveney joins as a partner and head of the North American asset and wealth management practice, Roshni Patel appointed as principal consultant, while Matt Lonsdale has taken up a position as a director.

Indian fintech BharatPe has promoted Nalin Negi to CEO after held the positions of interim CEO and CFO. Under his leadership, BharatPe recorded 182 per cent increase in revenue from operations in FY23 and clocked October 2023 as the first EBITDA positive month. BharatPe will look to recruit a new CFO.

Additional appointments

FE fundinfo, an investment product information and technology company, has named Joerg Grossmann as its new chief product officer. Grossmann brings more than two decades of experience across a broad range of senior leadership roles at major global financial institutions, tier one strategy consultancies
and financial technology firms.  Most recently, he was chief product officer at Allfunds, a B2B wealthtech platform.

Cloudera, the data company for enterprise AI, appoints Charbel Khalil as Qatar’s new country manager. The move supports Cloudera’s expansion in Qatar and its digital transformation initiatives. Kalil holds a BA in computer science, an MSc in econometrics, and also recently completed a MSc in artificial intelligence.

Funding and investments

Bridgewise, the AI-based analysis platform for global securities, has completed a $21million funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $35million. The round was led by SIX Group with participation also from Group11, L4 Venture Builder, and other global financial institutions. It will use the new funding to accelerate market penetration and growth.

The Code Registry, an AI-powered code intelligence and analysis platform, has closed its seed funding round, incubated at the Mission Capitalist Club in the US and led by private technology investors including Michael M. Carter (founder and CEO, BizEquity), Michael Sanchez (CEO, Savanna Inc and co-founder of Finxact), and former Internet Capital Group MD John Loftus and with participation from other leading private investors within the software and fintech industries..

Partnerships

Ozone API, the global open banking company, has teamed up with Thistle Initiatives, the compliance consultancy. Their strategic partnership aims to help financial institutions get ahead of the upcoming third payment services directive (PSD3) and achieve open banking compliance. They intend to maximise their partnership by also announcing a webinar series in the second quarter.

Adaptive Financial Consulting, the electronic trading technology solution company, has partnered with KCx, Kepler Cheuvreux’s execution division, to create an event-driven trading system based on Aeron® and its own Hydra technology. The long-term collaboration provides KCx with a new equities platform that enables clients to observe and manage KCx’s execution flow through a single interface.

Innovate UK and the British Business Bank have further strengthened their collaboration by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU). As partners dedicated to fostering innovation and growth of UK businesses across the country, this new collaboration will see the two organisations working even more closely together to co-create new opportunities to promote investment and to support UK businesses through better tailored offerings.

Finastra has integrated AI-powered ESG (environmental, social and governance) scoring capabilities into its working capital solution, Trade Innovation. The integration, with CoriolisESG by TradeSun, enables users to book and manage trade and supply chain finance with the added benefit of automated insights into ESG scoring. This results in greater understanding of the sustainability of trade and helps organisations to better monitor and manage their impact.

Snowdrop Solutions, a provider of advanced transaction enrichment solutions, has joined forces with PwC Middle East to bring its Transaction Enrichment API to banks and payment providers in the Middle East. This collaboration offers banks and payment providers an opportunity to leverage Snowdrop’s technology together with PwC’s expertise, to deliver top-notch customer experiences and drive operational efficiencies.

More partnerships

Celeris, a provider of payment orchestration solutions, has unveiled a strategic technical integration with PXP Financial, a payment service provider. This integration empowers merchants leveraging Celeris’ services with access to PXP Financial’s payment methods, which span traditional card payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay, alternative payment methods, and emerging digital wallets. Moreover, the integration introduces advanced security features.

Company updates

Digital bank Zopa has reported its full year of profitability. Zopa Bank swung to a pre-tax profit of £15.8million for the financial year ending 31 December 2023 from a pre-tax loss of £26million for the year ending 31 December 2022. While total operating income for the same period to 31 December 2023 was £222million, up 47.8 per cent year-on-year. Zopa’s customer base also grew to over one million.

Tuum, a next-generation core banking provider, is expanding into the Middle East market and will also create a regional headquarters at ADGM in Abu Dhabi. The move to expand into the Middle East follows Tuum’s recent Series B funding round led by CommerzVentures, with follow-on investment also from Citi Ventures.

 

On this week’s episode of News & Views, The Fintech Times Podcast team speak about what we should expect to see from embedded finance this year, Curve launching a new referral programme to enable consumers to double-dip on cashback and Finotta uncovering the secrets to securing Gen-Z loyalty.

The monthly focus of April at The Fintech Times revolves around embedded finance, and in light of this, Tom Polly and Francis broke down what areas can be impacted the most by the technology. The trio discuss how data can be better used to advance financial inclusion and create a more seamless experience for consumers and merchants.

The conversation then moved towards Curve and its referral programme, and how it is enabling cashback for its consumers. Polly highlights the effectiveness of Curve in ensuring long-term loyalty as the perks of the service can only be achieved over time, while Tom explains how Curve has created a win-win scenario for itself and its consumers.

Lastly, the trio look to the future at how organisations must align their offerings with the demands of the youngest generations as ensuring their loyalty will guarantee long-term success for the business.

Listen to News & Views Podcast on your favourite platform:

    

Read the articles discussed in this episode:

What Should We Expect to See From Embedded Finance in 2024?

Finotta Uncovers Secrets To Securing Gen Z Loyalty in Latest Whitepaper

Curve Launches Referral Programme to Enable Consumers to Double-Dip on Cashback