The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 4 August brings you the latest industry movers as well as investment updates.
Job moves
Dragos, Inc., a provider in cybersecurity for industrial control systems (ICS) and operational technology (OT) environments, announced the appointment of Omar Al Barghouthi as Regional Director, Middle East. In his new role, Al Barghouthi will be responsible for spearheading Dragos’ regional growth, strengthening its partner network, and consolidating the company’s leadership role in providing security solutions
Digital payments company, Shieldpay, appointed Sophie Condie as Chief Operating Officer. The addition of Sophie to the Shieldpay C-Suite further develops the company’s focus on delivering the best outcomes for customers as part of its overarching customer-first strategy.
BharatPe, one of India’s largest fintech companies, announced the appointment of Nalin Negi as its Chief Financial Officer. In his new role, Nalin will be spearheading the finance function for BharatPe and will be working towards making the company EBITDA positive by March 2023.
Open Data and payments platform, Moneyhub, has announced the hire of Product Director, David Firth. David comes to Moneyhub from Mastercard and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to benefit both the Moneyhub team and the clients they work with.
BankiFi, a provider of embedded banking solutions, has appointed Tom Shen as chairman of the company’s global Board of Directors. As chairman, Shen will oversee top-level decision-making and developments to grow BankiFi’s global presence and fulfill the company’s mission to provide a cutting-edge embedded banking platform for small and medium businesses (SMB).
Novel Capital has hired their first Chief Credit Officer, Mike Luebbers. With over 20 years of industry experience, Luebbers will play a critical role in building out Novel’s growth financing products which allow entrepreneurs to leverage predictable revenue in exchange for on-demand access to non-dilutive capital.
Funding and investments
Pakistan’s fintech OneLoad, which targets micro-retailers, raises $11million to fund a growth phase as it focuses on tapping the unbanked population of the country. This Series A round was led by Sarmayacar and Shorooq Partners, with participation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and existing investor Systems Limited.
UK provider of client onboarding and relationship management software for the accounting industry, FibreCRM, has secured a second round of investment to accelerate its growth. The new investment will expand the product delivery team through four new roles, including Customer Success Manager, Head of Operations, Data Transformation Specialist and Product Manager.
Tabby, MENA’s payments and shopping app, has secured $150million in debt financing from Atalaya Capital Management and existing investor Partners for Growth (PFG). Following Tabby’s Series B extension earlier this year, Tabby’s total capital raised to date amounts to $275million.
Flow Security announced $10million in seed funding and launched the first data security platform that discovers and protects both data at rest and in motion. The funding was led by Amiti, with participation from GFC, Amdocs Ventures, and industry leaders such as CyberArk CEO Udi Mokady and Demisto CEO and co-founder Slavik Markovich.
Partnerships
Bitso, a cryptocurrency platform in Latin America with more than 5 million users, and Everest, the first licensed crypto custodian offering stablecoins, announced their partnership to provide Everest users with the ability to receive cross-border transactions from the US, Europe, and Singapore into Mexico.
FDM Group, a professional services provider with a focus on IT and Operations, has partnered with nCino, a pioneer in cloud banking and digital transformation solutions for the global financial services industry, to provide specially trained individuals to help fill an increasing labour demand brought on by nCino’s prolific adoption in the banking industry.
Corserv announced their partnership with BayCoast Bank to launch a comprehensive credit card program to better serve their local customers’ needs. They will be supporting their community by providing them with innovative credit card solutions including virtual card support for businesses’ ePayables, automated credit-decisioning, sales and servicing portals, transparent and robust reporting, as well as hosting and secure PCI-compliant software.
Mergers and Acquisitions
TymeBank, South Africa’s fastest-growing digital bank, is set to bolster its business banking offering with a series of new initiatives, key of which is the proposed acquisition of Retail Capital, an award-winning fintech company that provides funding to small and medium-sized businesses in South Africa. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, would see Retail Capital become a division of TymeBank and the foundation of the bank’s expanded business banking offering.
Built Technologies announced the acquisition of Nativ, an asset management platform for commercial real estate lenders. A recent unicorn that has brought in over $300million in funding according to Crunchbase, and the fastest growing construction and real estate finance platform in the US, Built’s acquisition of Nativ expands their technology solutions for the commercial real estate market and will empower lenders to make better decisions through a consolidated view of their entire real estate portfolio.
Company updates
Alloy, the Identity Decisioning Platform for banks and fintech companies, announced its global expansion. Alloy’s platform for fraud and risk decisions is available in 40 countries across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. Alloy already has an established presence in EMEA, led by Edwina Johnson, and will continue to grow its global presence over the coming months.
Crypsense Digital Group, a Kenyan-based Digital Assets Capacity Building & Management Platform is among the first African-based Web 3 start-ups to qualify for the Draper VeChain Web 3 Accelerator Program. A 12 Week Accelerator Program delivered globally to high-growth blockchain companies. The collaborative program offers necessary support for start-ups in blockchain and web 3 to get all the industry mentorship and support necessary to scale their impactful solutions globally.
