The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup brings you the latest fintech news from around the world on Tuesday 12 April.
Job appointments
Aliaswire a provider of bill payment and credit solutions for businesses and banks, has appointed financial veteran Brian Bartlett as CFO. Bartlett will be responsible for financial operations, planning and reporting, human resource management, and helping to shape overall strategy and direction.
Michael Smith, a previous private cybersecurity consultant with 30 years of experience, has been hired by cloud services provider, Neustar Security Services as field chief technology officer.
Allica Bank recently announced Jitse-Jan van Waterschoot as VP of data to optimise its pioneering digital banking proposition. The appointment comes following Allica’s acquisition of AIB’s SME lending portfolio and as the bank prepares to launch its innovative Business Rewards Account.
Monese, the leading pan-European fintech, appoints iGroup founder and YPO’s Global Chairman Anastasios Economou as a non-executive director to the Monese Board. On his appointment, Economou said: “I am excited by the opportunity to support the company as it moves to its next stage of growth. There is a huge transformation taking place across financial services and personal finance. Monese has an excellent strategy to empower hard workers and heavy lifters in society, a powerful product, strong leadership and a great team. I am looking forward to being part of Monese’s success as it continues to lead.”
Funding rounds and investments
Kayenta Ltd, developers of hedge fund treasury software, announced that they have closed an oversubscribed funding round to expand R&D resources and accelerate product development tailored to the needs of their hedge fund clients.
Vancouver-based fintech MeetAmi has secured $29million in seed round financing. The funding will be used to accelerate the development of the technology platform and features needed by advisors to transact and manage digital asset portfolios.
RITMO has successfully closed a $200million debt funding round led by i80 Group and Avellinia Capital, making it one of the largest funding rounds of any e-commerce finance business in Europe and Latin America. On the raise, Raimundo Burguera, CEO and co-founder of RITMO, said: “With this new funding we aim to help thousands of e-commerce entrepreneurs scale up rapidly and overcome the current supply chain challenges by providing them with the capital and tools to effectively manage their cash flow cycles. Doing so will reaffirm RITMO’s position as one of the largest and fastest-growing financing and payments platforms at a global scale.”
Cross-border payments platform Leatherback announced a pre-seed funding round deal with $10million, attracting funding from Zedcrest Capital, a pan-african principal investment firm. The funding will allow the growing Fintech company to focus on critical activities, including hiring strategic roles, elevation in its marketing and branding strategy, and traction and visibility in the market.
MissionOG, a US-based growth equity firm, announced the successful close of $167million for MissionOG Fund III, its fourth investment fund. With its latest fund, MissionOG seeks to invest $8million to $12million into high-growth companies that have successfully commercialised their solutions within a small portion of a large addressable market.
Partnerships
Specialised payments platform Paysafe has expanded its partnership with betPARX, a gaming company. Building on Paysafe’s payments support for the Play Gun Lake brand in Michigan that is powered by betPARX, Paysafe will now also provide payments for the betPARX mobile apps for Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
BitPay, the world’s largest provider of cryptocurrency payment services, announced immediate support for Bitcoin Lightning Network payments through its Payment Processing Platform. BitPay merchants can now receive payments from Lightning-enabled wallets like CashApp and Strike, in addition to cryptocurrency payments from over one hundred of the most popular crypto wallets
Battle Financial, Inc. has selected Temenos Banking Cloud to underpin the global markets technology stack for Battle Bank expected to launch this year.
“We’ve created Battle Bank to fill a widening gap in the traditional banking landscape — to offer high-yield interest accounts coupled with access to the world markets. To make that vision a reality, we need technology that is fast, open, and scalable as we continue to grow our offerings. This partnership with Temenos will provide exactly that, making our clients’ experience as seamless and efficient as possible,” said Frank Trotter, president and board member of Battle Financial, Inc.
Open Banking Expo, the global community of Open Banking and Open Finance executives behind the Open Banking Expo Canada, has announced the renewal of a partnership with consulting and accounting giant Ernst & Young LLP (EY Canada) to deliver in-person Meetups for the Open Banking, Open Finance and Open Payments industry in Canada.
Moneycorp announced a partnership with Dublin-based payments fintech Cambrist. The partnership allows banks and fintechs to access everything needed to drive cross-border payment experiences for their customers across new and existing card programmes.
CoinMENA, a digital assets exchange based in Bahrain, announced it has partnered with Beyon Money, a financial service super app powered by Batelco Financial Services, to give users across the Kingdom the chance to earn up to 5 per cent cashback when depositing money into their CoinMENA crypto assets wallets, a first of its kind service in the region.
Following a successful event in 2021, Fintech Week London has re-appointed SkyParlour as its official PR and media relations partner. The week-long event, which will run from 11th to 15th July 2022, with a two-day conference at its start, will welcome delegates from a host of traditional financial institutions, fintechs and financial services companies.
Acquisitions
PayRetailers, a LATAM fintech payment specialist, announced the acquisition of two online payments platforms, Chile’s Paygol and Colombia’s Pago Digital. The two acquisitions strengthen PayRetailers’ breadth and depth as the company moves to realise the potential of e-commerce payments across Latin America.
Announcements
Stockholm-based Brite Payments has launched ‘Single Sign’, the innovative one-step solution for instant bank payments. Based on the Open Banking framework, the Brite Payments solution facilitates account-to-account payments, without the need to input card or personal data.
FintechOS announced its entry into the pet insurance space with its newest Accelerator, empowering insurers to offer hyper-personalised pet cover to a market worth over $7billion.
“95 per cent of pet owners consider their pet a family member, according to the Harris Poll.,” said Jonathan Philips, UK insurance sales director. “Protecting your pet is a personal matter and customers are demanding a personalised experience from their insurers. We’ve worked hard to create a product that empowers insurers to enter this lucrative and growing digital space.
BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform committed to helping B2B and B2C businesses accept and optimise payments around the world, has launched its Embedded Payments and Payfac-as-a-Service offering for software platforms looking to scale their customer base globally.
Standard Chartered Bank has officially launched its $40million new head office building. President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema officiated at the event and unveiled the plaque of the energy-efficient building located in the new business district of Lusaka, Zambia.
