The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup sees Daimler offer native in-car payments following Visa partnership. While TrueLayer appoints Rob Hale as head of banking in Australia.
Funding and investments
GeoWealth, a turnkey asset management program (TAMP) built for advisors, has secured $19million Series B funding. With the funding, GeoWealth plans to expand digital product, engineering, distribution and marketing teams, as well as scour for a planning software to partner with. The round was led by Kayne Partners Fund, with investment also from J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
True Global Ventures 4 Plus Fund has announced its $1.25million funding with Forza Ikonia to finance a vision of taking NFTs to the mass market. The investment coincides with the release of MAUER, an NFT collection memorialising the Berlin Wall. The fund is dedicated to blockchain companies in late-stage Series B and C across entertainment, infrastructure, financial services and data analytics / artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile TotallyMoney, the personal finance app, has raised additional funds of £9million. The latest funding will drive product development as well as support digital and TV advertising. It will also build a team to launch future propositions, including harnessing open banking partnerships.
Drata, a next-gen security and compliance automation company, has secured $100million in Series B funding. Investors include ICONIQ Growth, Alkeon Capital and Salesforce Ventures. Existing investors GGV Capital, Cowboy Ventures and Leaders Fund also participated in this round.
Quartr, an app providing retail investors with company information, has raised a $4.5million seed round. Led by The Öhman Group with other investors including Michael Batnick, Ben Carlson, Josh Brown, Barry Ritholtz and Peter Sterky, Quartr will use the funding to scale its platform and operations globally. It will also bolster its B2B division so that companies can get feedback from investors in 150 global markets.
Job moves
TrueLayer, the global open banking firm, has appointed Rob Hale as head of banking in Australia. He joins from Regional Australia Bank where he was chief digital officer. In September, TrueLayer was approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as an unrestricted accredited data recipient and launched its global open banking platform in Australia.
BitBay has unveiled plans to rebrand as Zonda while appointing a new board of directors including Przemysław Kral as CEO. The cryptocurrency exchange’s new board also includes Kamil Sikorski as chief growth officer and David Sendecki as CCO and money laundering reporting officer. It also has plans to launch Zonda Academy next year to help investors understand and spend cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, Broadridge has hired Trip Chong as director of business development for its securities class actions solutions. She joins from Institutional Protection, where she was head of strategic partnerships. Based in the UK, Chong will sell Broadridge’s class action solutions to markets outside of North America.
Kindred, the next-generation app monetisation network, has appointed Chi Evi-Parker and Julie Doleman as non-executive directors, while Caroline McIntosh is named VP marketing. Kindred says all three have ‘exceptional experience in consumer and B2B marketing and engagement’ which sits at the heart of everything it does.
Partnerships
Wilshire, an investment advisory company, has teamed up with Rayliant, an Asia-focused fund manager, to develop quantitative strategy indexes for institutional investors. The ‘FT Wilshire’ indexes will launch in early 2022. The new indexes will use machine learning and behavioural finance.
Meanwhile, Cashflows has forged a partnership with digital commerce platform BigCommerce. Cashflows’ hosted payment page and gateway API have been integrated into BigCommerce to enable merchants to move online and accept payments more efficiently.
Governance.com, the low-code process management platform for regulated companies, has signed a five-year deal with financial services provider Apex Group. The deal starts with support for Apex’s Luxembourg-based European Depositary Bank. It supports EDB’s depositary duties, including asset registration, ownership verification and regulatory oversight.
There’s also a partnership for payment company BlueSnap and Gaviti, an automated A/R collections firm. BlueSnap says the integration with Gaviti will help customers achieve global expansion, increase revenue and reduce overall costs.
Daimler Mobility and Visa form global technology partnership to offer in-car payments. From spring 2022, Mercedes-Benz customers in Europe can pay for goods and services using their fingerprint in the car. Purchases can then be made directly through the car’s head unit, or MBUX.
Additional partnerships
Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), an onshore financial and business centre, has revealed a partnership with NEBIX LLC, a fintech digital trade finance marketplace powered by Fineon Exchange’s trade finance matchmaking platform. NEBIX joins QFC’s suite of fintech companies, which aims to advance Qatar’s position as a rising regional trade finance hub.
Technisys, a next-generation banking platform, has partnered with Okcoin, a global currency exchange. They will help traditional banks support bitcoin and cryptocurrency services to new and existing customers. Technisys will also help to broaden the next generation of tools Okcoin customers can use to engage with the crypto market.
Meanwhile, Azimo, a digital money transfer service, has partnered with Privatbank, the largest commercial bank in Ukraine. Azimo customers UK, Europe, Canada and Australia can send money to any Privatbank account using only the recipient’s mobile number and the last four digits of their payment card. They can also send money to any bank account in Ukraine.
Company updates
Cabital, a digital assets institution, has applied for formal approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to provide digital payment token services as a major payment institution. Securing regulatory approval lets Cabital support customers to trade in digital payment tokens legally in Singapore.
Meniga’s green banking solution Carbon Insight, which lets banking app users track their carbon footprint, is ‘officially certified’ by accounting firm EY. According to a recent survey by Meniga, 62 per cent of European consumers want their bank to provide them with an overview of their carbon footprint.
Ambienta‘s platform company Namirial has completed the acquisition of Netheos. Netheos is a French provider of remote identity verification and customer onboarding solutions. Following the deal, Namirial has added customer onboarding and KYC solutions to its digital trust services.
Visa has opened the doors to its new flagship Dubai headquarters for the Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Spanning 100,000 square feet, the HQ office houses the company’s 500 regional employees but can also accomodate up to 750. The new space also houses CEMEA’s first Visa University campus offering training and educational programmes.
Product updates and launches
PayEm, the spend and procurement platform, has unveiled a new feature – One Click Reconciliation. It lets finance teams edit and sync multiple transactions in a single click. One Click Reconciliation lets users sync bill payments as well as journal entries. It also skips the sync, letting users select payments as reconciled.
Payoneer Global has introduced Payoneer for Aggregators, a new growth programme for the e-commerce industry. Payoneer for Aggregators extends Payoneer’s services to acquisition firms focused on third-party sellers. The programme is augmented by a suite of services aimed at helping sellers grow and prepare for an exit, including Capital Advance, a working capital offering and Green Channel, a marketplace onboarding service.
Meanwhile, One Inc, the digital payments network for insurers, has introduced a ‘reimagined’ inbound payments platform. It features a low code/no code user interface. One Inc’s SaaS-driven PremiumPay 2.0 solution provides tools for insurers to connect, graphically configure and deploy premium payments and digital engagement messaging using no code configuration tools.
