The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 7 September 2023 brings you the latest announcements from around the world.
Company milestones
Tofu, a fintech startup, has launched in the US, offering self-employed individuals a business management platform to simplify their invoicing, expense management and tax calculation processes. The platform streamlines billing processes, allowing users to send invoices and receive payments. During its first year of operations in test mode, Tofu surpassed over one million app installations.
International fintech holding Robocash Group is rebranding to UnaFinancial, shifting its focus from alternative lending to building a broader financial ecosystem. It will also introduce new credit solutions, such as BNPL, credit lines and credit cards, transaction opportunities and digital investment services. Additionally, the Group will expand its operations into new markets in Central Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Perenna, a new bank, has secured its unrestricted banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The approval marks a key milestone for Perenna, allowing it to introduce its long-term fixed rate mortgage products to the UK. Initially, Perenna will offer its mortgages to people on its waitlist, and then the wider public later this year.
Themis has launched a redesigned website, aimed at providing an immersive and user-centric online experience to showcase its technology and expert research to help clients in the fight against financial crime. It also has a library of insight, toolkits and guides to help any individual or organisation identify and manage their risk exposure.
Zodia Markets, the Standard Chartered-backed digital asset platform, has been granted in-principle approval fulfilling the pre-requisites to receive a financial services permission that will allow the commencement of regulated activities as an OTC broker-dealer in virtual assets by Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial centre of the UAE’s Capital.
Appointments
FinTech Scotland appoints Trish Quinn as a new senior leader in charge of the development of the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL) which is due to launch later this year. The Lab will be a collaborative centre of excellence for cutting-edge fintech developments in financial regulation. Quinn has previously served in a number of senior digital roles in both the UK and Scottish government.
Will Holt is appointed chief R&D officer at FairXchange, accelerating the firm’s drive for innovation and expansion. Holt has previously held roles at Goldman Sachs and Tudor Investment Corporation. FairXchange describes Holt as the ideal person to take its research programme forward and help drive momentum with “exciting new products in the pipeline”.
Mexico consumer lender Kueski has named Javier Irigoyen as head of product management for Kueski Pay, the company’s buy now, pay later product. It has also appointed Patrick Strange as the company’s head of design. Irigoyen joins Kueski after serving as a product leader for brands including Amazon, TikTok and JP Morgan Chase. Strange previously led product design for a segment of Meta.
Enterprise digital documentation infrastructure company Arteria AI has welcomed Larry Lawrence to focus on driving its ongoing corporate growth strategy. He will also help assist US financial institutions with identifying opportunities for transformation efforts around their documentation processes. He previously served as MD and head of credit sales for Societe Generale.
CLOWD9, a cloud native, B Corp Certified, decentralised payments processing platform, has appointed Richard Wray as its new chief product officer. Wray, formerly the chief operating officer of Carta Worldwide, will continue to drive and enhance the company’s innovative payment technology service offerings.
More appointments
Panasas, the data engine for innovation, has unveiled Ken Claffey as its new CEO. With Claffey’s robust background and expertise in high-performance computing (HPC), cloud, and enterprise data storage technologies, the company is poised to seize new market opportunities under his leadership. Claffey replaces Tom Shea, who will remain on the Panasas executive leadership team as chief operating officer.
Augment, a reinsurance solutions broker, welcomes former Aon UK COO David Ledger as a senior advisor and board member. Augment focuses on broking the entire client rather than a specific book of business. The firm has generated over $1billion of premium in just its first year of business.
Digital payments platform PPRO has promoted its chief commercial officer Motie Bring to the role of CEO. Bring will replace current CEO Simon Black, who announced his departure earlier this year. Prior to joining PPRO, Bring spent seven years in senior management roles at Worldpay and most recently served as chief commercial officer at payments technology company Nuvei.
Broadridge Financial Solutions names Michael Tae and Doug DeSchutter as co-presidents of its investor communication solutions (ICS) business. As part of the long-planned leadership transition, current president Bob Schifellite will move into a new advisory role engaging with clients and advising Tae and DeSchutter as chairman of Broadridge’s ICS.
CapitalBox, a fintech lender for small- and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, has appointed Sicco Goede as its new country manager for the Netherlands. Goede will play an essential role in driving regional growth and establishing CapitalBox as the most dynamic financing partner for Dutch SMEs.
Fintech Axyon AI appoints Gary Chropuvka as the newest member of its advisory committee. His previous roles include co-head of quantitative investment strategies at Goldman Sachs Asset Management and president of WorldQuant. Chropuvka is also a co-founder of the charity BaseABLE.
Even more industry movers
Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account platform, has strengthened its executive management team by appointing Matt Tuck as its new chief commercial officer. Tuck’s focus will be to support new and existing customers’ payment technology needs to enable their market growth. He joins Form3 from NatWest, where he was head of product, service and operations.
Adaptive Financial Consulting names Dave Clack as chief product officer. The hire is a newly created strategic role and will drive further innovation of Aeron, Adaptive’s high-performance cloud-native messaging infrastructure for capital markets, as well as its technology accelerators. Clack joined Adaptive in 2015 as a non-executive board advisor.
Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE), the representative body for Scotland’s financial services industry, has appointed Cheri Burns to help with its Young Professionals network to bolster communications. Burns, currently PR and corporate communications director for regtech provider Encompass Corporation, joins its committee structure as a communication strategy lead.
Cybersecurity operations platform Logpoint appoints Michael Haldbo as chief financial officer. He previously served as CFO at digital identity company Signicat and has also held financial executive roles at other companies in the IT and payment-related sector, including Nets and Unwire.
Partnerships
eToro, the trading and investing platform, has partnered with Bridgewise, a generative AI company for stock analysis to launch Fundamental-AI, a new addition to eToro’s existing offering of AI-themed portfolios. Bridgewise analyses the 1,000 biggest companies on eToro by market cap and also ranks them based on future performance predictors including quarterly filings, earnings calls and analyst research.
TurinTech, an AI-powered code optimisation company, has forged a new partnership with fintech Deaglo. As part of Deaglo’s commitment to embrace AI, it will leverage TurinTech’s wealth of AI expertise and the evoML platform to further develop its products and offerings.
Embedded finance platform FutureBank has partnered with digital ID verification company IDVerse to further its digital transformation and accelerate customer onboarding. New FutureBank customers can access the IDVerse software as part of its offering. IDVerse customers looking for a middleware platform can connect their API credentials to benefit from FutureBank’s platform.
APEXX Global, the global payments orchestration platform, has teamed up with AI-powered payments network and shopping assistant Klarna to offer its payment options to merchants around the world. APEXX Connect, which helps merchants host BNPL services via a single API, has integrated Klarna globally across all its markets.
There’s also a partnership for platform-specific payment infrastructure provider Mangopay and fintech platform Kriya. This partnership enables Mangopay’s B2B marketplace customers to build a dynamic, frictionless payment experience. With Kriya, business buyers can purchase goods and pay later for up to 90 days.
Employee benefits provider Zest forges a new partnership with PoloWorks, a provider of support services to the insurance market in the UK, and Wave, a national water retailer. The partnership gives PoloWorks and Wave employees access to benefits all in one place through Zest’s platform.
More partnerships
Dubai-based fintech Qashio, which offers a corporate card and expense management solution, has forged a strategic partnership with Carasti, a car subscription service in Dubai. This collaboration aims to redefine the leasing landscape and enhance the corporate expense experience for organisations across the UAE.
The Red Cross in Denmark has entered into a new partnership with fintech company Inpay, which offers solutions for international money transfers. The agreement means that the Red Cross saves several million Danish kroner annually, which can be used directly for humanitarian work. Initially, the solution includes Myanmar, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, with the goal of expanding the new payment solution to other countries.
Wrapped.com partners with DeFi platform Swarm to expand it’s custodial cross-chain bridge. The custodian-based cross-chain bridge will migrate assets to its regulated custody environment for the purpose of cross-chain wrapping and unwrapping of cryptocurrencies to use in DeFi.
LHV Bank is introducing a new loan system for its SME Lending division, transitioning to its SaaS partner Tuum‘s cloud-based banking system. This move consolidates the bank’s architecture, enhances resource allocation, and establishes a robust futureproof framework, free of legacy system challenges. LHV Bank also introduced a new core banking system for its banking services business line in August.
YuLife has expanded its group insurance offering to now include business health insurance provided by Bupa. YuLife is applying the core elements of its offering, including access to the game-like YuLife app, to the health insurance market, by adding a product that supports employees’ health and wellbeing and also encourages healthy lifestyle habits.
Spend solution Pleo partners with Banking Circle for greater payment volume capacity and faster settlement times. Through its partnership with Banking Circle, Pleo enhance its service with real-time direct clearing and settlement for GBP.
Funding and investments
Tradeteq, a tech provider for securitisation-as-a-service, has completed a $12.5million A Plus funding round. The round was led by US-based MS&AD Ventures, with significant investment also from Interlock Partners. Both will aid Tradeteq in establishing its US operations. Additionally, Jon Soberg at MS&AD Ventures, and Harry Hawks at Interlock, have joined Tradeteq’s board as observers.
Josys, a software-as-a-service and device management platform that helps companies reduce IT operation
costs and enhance security systems, has raised $93million in Series B funding. Global Brain and Globis Capital Partners led the latest infusion of capital, bringing its total funding to $125 million. Josys plans to expand its product and engineering team as well as grow its operations in the US and APAC.
Wayflyer, the revenue-based financing and growth platform for e-commerce businesses, has agreed to an off-balance sheet programme that will purchase up to $1billion of assets from funds managed by investment management firm Neuberger Berman. Wayflyer will use the arrangement to deploy capital to its 3,000-plus e-commerce merchants globally.
Strise, the anti-money laundering intelligence software company, bags a $10.8million Series A funding round. Atomico led the round with participation from existing investors. This new investment will drive Strise’s international expansion across key European markets, starting with the UK. It will also deploy the funding to further enhance its end-to-end AML product offering.
Fipto, a global B2B payments and treasury management solution, has raised €15million in seed funding. It will use the funding to accelerate its payment and cash management service. This funding round, which includes Serena and Motier Ventures, follows Fipto’s registration as a digital asset service provider with the French Financial Markets Authority.
Streamforge, an AI firm providing influencer marketing, has closed its oversubscribed $1.2million seed funding round. The round was led by Triptyq Capital, with participation also from Leansquare. Streamforge will scale its technology infrastructure, with expansion across North America, Asia, and Europe. The capital raised will also enable further diversification into additional verticals, such as mobile.
Claire Woffenden
