The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup this Thursday sees funding success for European fintech startup PayFit as well as payments firm Finexio.
Job moves
Fintech Leap Theory has unveiled Richard E. Gottlieb as its chief legal olfficer and executive vice president. He joins from joins Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, where he led the firm’s national consumer finance practice. Gottlieb will direct several planned business initiatives in the consumer lending and other business channels.
KodyPay, the payments fintech, hires Sophie Haagensen as chief operating officer. She is the former head of strategy and planning at Atom Bank. KodyPay’s broader team expansion. KodyPay is on a mission to deliver hardware-free payment acceptance that will save both consumers and businesses time while reducing overall cost.
Meanwhile, Terra Virtua, an immersive collectables platform, has appointed Rory Stewart-Richardson as its new commercial director. He will develop existing relationships with major brands, as well as grow new partnership opportunities. Stewart-Richardson has developed sponsorship marketplace Conexxi Partnerships over the past five years.
FinMkt, an SaaS provider of buy now, pay later (BNPL) and POS financing technology, has named Joshua Wright as its chief product officer. Wright joins from Citi where he spearheaded consumer lending product strategies in addition to leading in the development and launch of new financing products. Before Citi, he was with American Express, where he led teams in global strategy and product development.
CreditWorks, a fintech platform in the US, unveils Chris Wright as its chief growth officer for its omni-channel point-of-sale (POS) financing solution. He is responsible for the commercial growth strategy, as well as identifying high-growth partnership opportunities.
Ana Paula Assis is appointed general manager for IBM EMEA. She succeeds Marta Martínez Alonso, who is retiring from IBM after 19 years of service.
Partnerships
Prove Identity, a digital identity firm, has forged a partnership with The Knoble, a global non-profit network of experts working to stop human trafficking. Through the partnership, Prove will provide digital identity expertise and financial support to The Knoble’s Financial Crimes Working Group with the goal of detecting and fighting human crimes such as human trafficking, scams, child exploitation and elder abuse.
Meanwhile, payment processing company Radar Payments by BPC, has been selected to tackle e-commerce fraud by Singapore fintech Red Dot Payment (RDP).
“With the help of Radar Payments, we’ll continue to support local merchants in this field as well as create a secure environment for international companies with ambitions to serve consumers in Southeast Asia.”
Financial experience firm Q2 and digital wealth management platform Unifimoney team up. Financial institutions will have the option to provide their customers single sign-on access to the Unifimoney platform, featuring stocks and ETFs, over 50 cryptocurrencies and precious metals including gold, silver and platinum.
Zebec, a continuous cash stream settlement protocol on the Solana blockchain, has partnered with Visa to participate in the Visa Fintech Fast Track Program. Zebec is the first Solana project accepted to the Visa scheme, which supports innovative startups revolutionising digital payments. Multiple leading fintech companies have participated in the program, including Stripe, Chime and Crypto.com.
Chintai, a Singapore blockchain fintech startup, has teamed up with the National University of Singapore Business School to develop industry-focused expert panel talks with MBA students in the emerging blockchain space. The series, named ‘Conversations with Chintai’ showcases practitioners in the fintech space, sharing their real-life experiences.
Mergers and acquistions
Fintech Acrisure has acquired Appalachian Underwriters. According to Acrisure, the partnership will expand its technology platforms as it integrates data and systems with its AI strategy. It highlights the ability to access Appalachian’s deep and broad dataset including claims information.
Global-e, the cross-border end-to-end platform for brands, has finalised its acquisition of Flow Commerce Inc, a cross-border e-commerce software solution. The acquisition is expected to allow Global-e to expand the scope of its exclusive relationship with Shopify to offer certain cross-border services to a broader set of merchants. The deal is valued at up to approximately $500million.
Investments and fundings
Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs is celebrating $20million from India’s largest commercial bank, the State Bank of India (SBI). In addition to augmenting its merchant commerce offerings at the offline point-of-sale, Pine Labs is also looking to invest in scaling its brand of online payment products. It is also expanding its BNPL business across India and Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asian open finance technology provider Brankas has closed a $20million Series B funding round. Insignia Ventures Partners led the round, alongside Beenext and Integra Partners. Following the round, Brankas aims to scale its network of more than 40 financial institutions and 100-plus technology firms. It also plans to expand its banking-as-a-service APIs while doubling its 100-person strong team.
PayFit, the payroll and HR management solution for SMEs, has raised €254million in a Series E funding round. General Atlantic led the round, with participation from existing investors Eurazeo, Bpifrance and Accel Ventures. Now a unicorn, PayFit will use the funds to recruit an additional 400 people in 2022, accelerate the development of new products and features, as well as increase its market share across Europe.
More funding news
MoneyGram International has completed a strategic minority investment in Coinme, a cryptocurrency cash exchange in the US. It gives the company an approximate four per cent ownership stake in Coinme. The investment will support Coinme’s international expansion plans as well as other growth initiatives.
Timo, a digital bank in Vietnam, has secured $20million fresh funding led by Square Peg. Other investors also include Jungle Ventures, Granite Oak, FinAccel and Phoenix Holdings. Timo is commited bringing greater financial inclusion and accessibility to the large majority of the population which remains unbanked.
Finally, payments firm Finexio has secured an oversubscribed $10million funding round in partnership with new investor Mendon Venture Partners. Finexio has plans to expand further into the embedded finance space and establish partnerships with technology-leading financial institutions.
