The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 12 July serves up a dose of the latest job appointments, funding rounds and partnerships.
Job moves
Tradefeedr, the FX data analytics platform, has named Tim Cartledge as chief data officer. Most recently he was head of EBS at CME Group. Additionally, Alphaview Limited will be making a $1million investment in Tradefeedr and Cartledge joins the board.
ION, a provider of trading, analytics and risk management solutions, has appointed Carlo Purassanta as executive vice president for strategy and corporate development. Purassanta is also currently a member of the strategy advisory board for the Graduate School of Management of Politecnico di Milano, a member of the advisory board for Only The Brave (OTB), and a member of the investment board of the French Touch Fund.
Fintech Neon has unveiled André Madeira as its new chief technology officer. Madeira will spearhead the effort of transforming Neon into a ‘technology-driven financial product powerhouse’. It will begin with a remote-worker recruiting effort. Madeira sold his AI-powered fintech startup Meemo last year to Coinbase.
Meanwhile, Liberis, the global embedded business finance platform, appoints Nima Montazeri as its chief product officer. Prior to joining Babylon, Nima was head of technology for ThoughtWorks Ventures, working with scaleups and startups on its product and innovation strategy.
More job moves
Scandinavian multi-asset fintech firm Skilling has appointed former MD of FXview Daniela Egli as group COO. They will oversee the entirety of Skilling’s operations across new and existing markets, as the firm pushes ahead with its expansion strategy.
Isabella Frey has joined the most senior leadership ranks at George Labs. She assumed the new role of co-managing director of Erste Group’s inhouse fintech unit. Frey is now be part of the two-person management team at George Labs, together with fellow managing director Stefan Häbich.
Mergers and acquisitions
GoHenry, the prepaid debit card and financial education app for kids aged 6-18, has acquired French fintech Pixpay in a deal that will see the financial education pioneer expand into Europe for the first time. GoHenry and Pixpay will continue to operate under their own brands with no change in leadership, headquarters or headcount.
Funding and investments
ID-Pal, the identity verification provider, has secured a €7million Series A funding round to fuel expansion into international markets. The round was led by Inspire Investments as well as Act Venture Capital. This new funding will let the Dublin-based identity verification company to further scale its global sales and marketing efforts.
wefox, the Berlin-based insurtech, has closed a Series D funding round of $400million, increasing its post-money valuation to $4.5billion. Mubadala Investment Company led the equity raise with participation also from Eurazeo, LGT and Horizons Ventures. wefox intends to use the funding for product development and expand across Europe and thereafter Asia and the US.
Fintech platform Quiltt has raised $4million in venture capital to expand access to financial services technology for consumers by lowering technical barriers for innovators. The seed round was co-led by Greycroft and Newark Venture Partners, with participation also from Motivate Ventures.
Fintech Asset Class has completed a $11.6million Series A funding round, led by fintech-focused venture capital firm Canapi Ventures with participation from new and existing investors, including Live Oak Ventures, Plexus Capital and Total Technology Ventures.
Fuell, the Spanish startup that has developed a corporate card and expenses management SaaS, has closed a €1.5million round led by Y Combinator and Fin Capital. US business angels Michael Levinthal and Andy Cohen also participated in the round. The capital raised will be put toward consolidating Fuell’s Spanish and Portuguese markets and launching in Italy.
Partnerships
TWBS Limited, a European prepaid payments software startup, has forged a partnership with Razer to make Razer Gold widely available for purchase online and in-store throughout Europe soon. Under the terms of the agreement, TWBS will develop, launch and manage the entire Razer Gold e-voucher service in the European Economic Area and UK.
Fintech Recognise Bank has partnered with TruNarrative to completely transform the onboarding process for its SME business lending customers. The LexisNexis RiskNarrative platform will further speed up the onboarding of new business borrowers by digitising a wide range of anti-money laundering and know your customer processes.
Global multi-asset broker Vantage has launched its ESG programme in partnership with YouTuber Supercar Blondie. Vantage has also appointed an ESG ambassador to help create a global scale ESG programme, building a company-wide goal to ‘make the world a better place’.
Launches
Tradeteq, the technology provider for illiquid credit distribution, has launched Tradeteq Access Lite, a marketplace for buy-side investors to participate in the secondary trading of trade finance assets. More than 40 members of the Trade Finance Distribution Initiative (TFDi), the industry-led group that sets the standards for global trade finance distribution, have signed up to the platform. Participation is now also open to credit funds.
GTreasury, a treasury and risk management platform provider, has launched ClearConnect. Featuring more than 80 API calls in a dozen key categories, ClearConnect is a connectivity suite for treasury teams and the office of the CFO.
