The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Friday 22 March 2024 serves up the latest industry movers and partnerships.
Appointments
3S Money has welcomed Angela Knight, its current head of risk and compliance, to its board of directors. Before joining 3S Money, Knight held key positions at Standard Chartered Bank, where her influence extended across Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. In her new role she will help guide 3S Money’s strategic direction to drive innovation and excellence within the organisation.
EBANX, a global technology company specialising in payment services for rising markets, appoints Juliana Borges de Campos as vice president of operations, and Eduardo de Abreu as vice president of product and business architecture. The new VPs will oversee all EBANX’s payment service offerings across Latin America, Africa and India.
Ajman Bank, an Islamic financial institution in the UAE, has named Ediz Ozsoy as group chief financial officer. Ozsoy joins Ajman Bank after a successful tenure as the country CFO for all Citi UAE legal entities, where he played a pivotal role in overseeing the finance activities across onshore, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) branches.
Stenn, a digital fintech enabling growth for businesses engaged in international trade, e-commerce and digital services, has welcomed Marcio Arnecke to its senior leadership team as its new chief marketing officer. He spearheads a global marketing team from the UK, US, China and India, and is responsible for elevating Stenn’s brand recognition as well as establishing scalable marketing infrastructure.
Fintech firm Navro names Colin Moss-Davies as chief revenue officer. He was formerly director and head of sales for e-commerce payment gateway Braintree Payments, after its acquisition by PayPal for £800million in 2013. Elsewhere, Moss-Davies was VP of sales for the digital commerce financial platform Juni.
More appointments
CLARA Analytics, a provider of artificial intelligence technology for insurance claims optimisation, has appointed Jeremy Johnson, former CEO of Protective Insurance, to its board of directors. Johnson will further bolster the company’s deep bench of industry veterans. Prior to Protective Insurance, he served as president of US commercial for AIG.
Encompass Corporation, a provider of real-time digital know your customer profiles, has appointed Neil Acworth as its new chief information security officer. Acworth joins with decades of experience in the technology space, including holding senior positions, such as CTO and CIO within regtech organisations.
Yurtle, the fintech B2B solution helping employers to prevent caregiver burnout amongst their employees, has hired its first head of sales. Hollie Nairn, who has experience in the employee benefits sector at Aviva, Unum, Legal & General and Buck, will be responsible for delivering Yurtle’s ambitious growth strategy. Nairn’s appointment follows Yurtle’s successful seed funding round where its secured almost £1.4million.
Paynetics, a European provider of embedded finance, has appointed Hana Rolles as UK CEO. After serving as chief revenue officer since September 2023, Rolles, who has played a crucial role in driving revenue and cultivating strategic partnerships, will now spearhead the business as it enters its next growth phase.
Funding and investments
SmartSearch, a UK provider of digital compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) software, has signed an agreement to receive a significant equity investment from Triple Private Equity. With its investment, Triple will now take a majority share in the business and will work alongside the existing management to deliver on the company’s next stage of growth, with SmartSearch founders and existing shareholders also retaining a minority in the company.
Swiss fintech nsave has raised $4million seed funding. The round was co-led by Sequoia Capital and TQ Ventures with participation from Y Combinator, ACE Ventures, SV Angel and FONGIT: the State of Geneva organisation that supports tech startups. nsave targets people in struggling economies.
AccessPay, a bank integration provider, has closed its strategic funding round at $24million with a combination of equity and debt. The round was led by True Ventures, the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, with participation from Manchester-based investment firm Praetura Ventures, NatWest, Mastercard, Route 66 Ventures and Beringea.
Partnerships and collaborations
Snoop, the money-saving app, has launched a free credit score service in partnership with Equifax, making it the first to combine money management and credit score in one app. Snoop is part of the 2025 Fintech Pledge which brings together the fintech industry and strategic partners to help UK consumers build up their financial resilience and better protect against the rising cost of living.
Thunes, a cross-border payments company, has deepened its strategic collaboration with Visa, aimed at enabling new endpoints in key markets across Asia and Africa. This new collaboration includes Visa tapping into Thunes’ network to send payments to over 108 digital wallet types and bank accounts throughout countries in Africa and Asia, including Kenya, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan. In addition, Thunes is implementing Visa Direct’s push-to-card capability.
Kuba has partnered with La Banque Postale to supply the ticketing system for Orléans Métropole, which will create a simple payment experience for passengers on buses and trams. The solution supports the transition from magstripe tickets to a range of contactless fare payment options.
CASHIN, based in Riyadh, is partnering with London/Dubai based Fils for enterprise-grade sustainability infrastructure. The alliance will empower CASHIN, a POS and digital payments provider, to accurately track and mitigate the environmental impact of all transactions. The partnership will assist the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its Vision 2030 plan.
