The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup brings news of a new chief revenue officer at ClearBank and funding success for SteelEye.
Job moves
ClearBank has unveiled Andrew Barker as its new chief revenue officer. He will play a key role in developing the bank’s international growth ambitions, following its £175million investment from Apax Digital. Barker will report directly to ClearBank CEO Charles McManus.
Global identity verification provider ID-Pal has appointed data protection officer Sinead McDonald to its board of directors. The addition follows ID-Pal’s recent Series A funding round, led by Inspire Investments, which saw it secure €7million to scale operations globally.
The International Chamber of Commerce UK has announced Santander UK head of international and transactional banking John Carroll will lead the Centre for Digital Trade & Innovation as chair. Carroll has worked with the ICC since 2016 as chair of its Trade and Investment Policy Committee.
Ark36, the Cyprus-based leading alternative investment cryptocurrency fund, has promoted Anto Paroian to executive director and CEO. The firm has also promoted Despina Saphiris to executive director and risk manager, Tetyana Martynenko to MLCO officer and Christos Krokides to portfolio manager.
SCRYPT, the Swiss-regulated access company offering a single point of access into digital assets for institutions, unveils two new hires. Stefan Becker and Nicolas Steiner will be joining SCRYPT’s strategic development team.
LCM Partners, the European alternatives investment manager, names Roger Kibble-White as group CFO. He joins from Fidelity International. Kibble-White will help to build the business as the company’s scale and geographic reach grows.
More job moves
Meanwhile, Network International appoints Dr. Reda Helal as group MD, processing business for Africa.
Helal will lead a client-focused business unit serving FIs, fintechs and payment partners across all African geographies. He joined Network International in 2007 and most recently served as group chief sales officer for processing.
Allvue Systems, an alternative investment technology solutions provider, names Dan Streetman as CEO. Streetman will lead Allvue’s culture, strategy, operations, and aggressive expansion plans. He will also work alongside the executive leadership team to align and execute on strategic priorities.
Marion King, formerly director of payments at NatWest, has joined the board of fintech payments firm Cashflows. In 2021 she was appointed chair of the Payments Association and holds several non-executive director roles.
Skilling, the international multi-asset fintech company, appoints Jon Squires, as executive chairman. Squires will actively advise the company as it continues to scale up its expanding operations. Squires previously held the role of Group CEO at Capital.com and Currency.com.
Company updates
Kosovar fintech Paysera has implemented the first Project in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and financed by the European Union’s Enterprise Development and Innovation Fund (EDIF). The funding has helped Paysera establish new premises in Kosovo’s capital city, Priština.
Checkout.com, the cloud-based payments service provider, has launched Integrated Platforms, a fully flexible, bespoke solution to support marketplaces and sellers. It is designed to build strong relationships between sellers and marketplaces.
Binance, the blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, is eliminating fees on South African Rand (ZAR) deposits for a time period as it continues to establish itself as the global leader in pricing. Binance recently launched its fiat gateway, enabling users to be able to deposit ZAR into their wallet instantly and buy crypto.
AvePoint, the SaaS and data management platform provider, has opened a new office in Stockholm, Sweden. The office is to expand its global presence and meet growing demand for digital collaboration security, compliance, and productivity solutions in the Nordic region. It replaces AvePoint’s previous space in the Östermalm district of Stockholm.
Partnerships
Zai, the global fintech firm delivering embedded finance orchestration solutions, has teamed up TerraPay, a global payments infrastructure company. This partnership enhances both companies’ ability to scale their offerings and deliver real-time, transparent cross-border payments globally.
Fintech unicorn Pleo has formed a strategic partnership with open banking platform Yapily. Via Yapily Payments, Pleo users can now top up their Pleo account directly from their bank account. Last month, Pleo saw 54 per cent of its customers first wallet load done via the open banking platform.
Accounting firm Sage joins forces with Square, the payments technology provider, to help small businesses. The partnership integrates Sage Accounting and Square’s point of sale (POS) software. It is now live in the UK, Ireland and Canada. It means customers using both products can do business and take payments anywhere.
Funding and investments
Edda, the collaborative software for professional investors, has closed a $5.8million funding round, from investors including Mucker Capital, Plug&Play, FJ Labs and Future Shape. Edda is used by more than 100 investment firms across 26 countries.
Endure Capital has completed the first close of its new $50million fund to invest in early-stage startups in pan-Africa. The fund, Endure 21, is Endure Capital’s second early-stage venture capital fund, and will focus its investments primarily on impact-driven early stage startups in Africa.
Bits Technology has closed a €1million pre-seed funding round to reshape how global fintechs build financial services. The boost in capital will primarily go towards business development and to accelerate recruitment across engineering teams with an outlook to its forthcoming launch.
British Business Investments has committed €30million to Atempo Growth’s inaugural venture debt fund, which will target VC backed businesses in the UK and Europe. Since it was established in 2014, British Business Investments has committed more than £3.0bn to providers of finance to UK smaller businesses.
More funding news
SteelEye, the compliance technology and data analytics firm, has completed a $21million Series B fundraise to accelerate its global expansion – with an emphasis on North America. The funding round – led by Ten Coves Capital – takes SteelEye’s total capital raised to $43million.
Digital payments start-up wi-Q has secured £3million investment from Manchester-based venture capital investor, Praetura Ventures, to enhance its product offering and expand its international footprint. Founded in 2014, wi-Q provides mobile ordering and payment solutions to the hospitality and leisure industry.
VerifyVASP has concluded its Series A investment led by FTX Ventures at $100million valuation. FTX Ventures, together with Peak Capital and Bcharu, have invested $5million into the company to cement its position as the Travel Rule solution trusted by reputable digital asset businesses.
Mesh Payments, the finance automation platform, secures $60million in new financing, bringing the total amount raised to $123million. Alpha Wave leads the equity round with participation from existing investors, including Tiger Global.The funding will enable Mesh to expand its GTM efforts as well as further accelerate product innovation.
