Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 2 May.
Appointments
Berlin-based fintech Raisin has appointed Cetin Duransoy as the new CEO of Raisin US. Before joining, he was president and chief operating officer of fintech Fundbox. Raisin also recently announced a Series E funding round, which has seen the Berlin fintech raise $66million from existing and new investors.
Mashreq appoints Mohamed Abdel Razek as the group head of technology, transformation and information. In this role, he will lead Mashreq’s technology organisation and drive the delivery of all digital services. He will also be responsible for adopting new and emerging technologies, ensuring service excellence to customers, and collaborating seamlessly with external partners.
Fincrime prevention technology company SEON hires a new chief revenue officer, Matt DeLauro. He will help the company as it works to prevent more online financial crime globally. He was previously CRO and general manager of Extend. The hire forms part of the company’s plans to continue investing in its operations across North America, as well as its sustained expansion globally.
More appointments
London-based fintech Lanistar has appointed Ed Blankson as its chief financial officer, and Merton Smith as its chief customer officer, following the announcement of its collaborations with Google Pay. Lanistar is also expected to announce a partnership with Apple Pay soon.
Plinqit, a platform that brings together automated savings, data-driven financial wellness content and virtual account management, has promoted Julio Sarmiento to chief technology officer. Sarmiento will define and oversee Plinqit’s product, engineering and technology strategy as the company scales to serve a rapidly expanding client base of banks and credit unions.
Shieldpay, a B2B payments firm, has named Andrew Hawkins as CEO for UK and Europe. Hawkins, formerly chief technology and product officer at Shieldpay, will be taking over the role from founder Peter Janes who moves to Group CEO as part of Shieldpay’s strategic plan to prepare for its next stage of growth and expansion.
The Skipton Group has appointed Justin Mercer as CEO of its tech business, Jade Software. Jade has around 280 staff, based across the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Mercer has been interim CEO of Jade Software since the departure of previous CEO Charlotte Walshe in February.
Company updates
The University of East Anglia‘s climate research initiative, ClimateUEA, has nominated GoCodeGreen, the carbon calculation platform, for the Earthshot Prize 2023. The nomination recognises GoCodeGreen’s innovative solution to decarbonise the ICT sector.
WTW, a global advisory, announces the launch of Neuron, a digital insurance platform. Neuron helps underwriters and brokers connect and trade more easily, improving the speed and cost of doing business through digitisation, automation as well as better use of data.
BharatPe Group has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Trillion Loans, a non-banking
financial company based in Mumbai. The deal is part of BharatPe’s vision to be at the forefront of addressing the credit gap for millions of businesses and consumers in the country. Ravindra Pandey,
Nalin Negi and Sabyasachi Senapati also join the board of Trillion Loans, which will operate as an independent entity with its own team.
Funding and investments
Nomba, a payment service provider for African businesses, has raised a $30million Pre-Series B funding round to support the delivery of bespoke payment solutions for African businesses. The oversubscribed equity funding round was led by Base10 Partners (investors in Nubank, Plaid and Brex), with participation also from Helios Digital Ventures, Shopify, Partech and Khosla Ventures.
Partnerships
Kani Payments, the data reconciliation and reporting company, has forged a partnership with UK climate-conscious neobank Frost to provide settlement reconciliations and payment scheme reporting. Frost chose Kani Payments to speed up and simplify its transaction reconciliation capabilities.
LogRhythm partners with eFinance to strengthen Egypt’s digital payment security ecosystem. The partnership aims to enable fintech innovation by safely delivering integrated, customisable and scalable digital payment platforms throughout Egypt.
TrueLayer, Europe’s open banking platform, has partnered with retailer Topps Tiles for offering instant bank transfers to its retail and trade customers. Topps Tiles customers can pay for their purchase using an account-to-account payment, ensuring a smooth user experience that also removes the need to input lengthy card details.
