This Tuesday’s The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup sees crypto exchange Gemini plump for ComplyAdvantage to boost its anti-money laundering risk management. While moneycorp announces a new vice chairman.
Funding and investments
Belgian blockchain technology provider Arkane Network has closed a €1.55million seed round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). DM-BB David Majert, Palentine Ventures (Blockrocket) and imec.istart Fund joined the round. Arkane will grow its team, as well as setting up an independent branch in Berlin.
Level E Research closes seed funding round, raising £1.2million from a group of private investors. The Edinburgh-based specialist in AI investment solutions for institutional investors says it will scale up business development efforts as well as continue to invest in cutting edge research and attract the most talented people.
Israel’s TipRanks closes $77million Series B round after subscription sales to its B2C platform grew by 300 per cent. In addition, its B2B clients have reported massive increases in stock trading volumes. The stock research platform’s latest round was led by Prytek and More Investment House.
Meanwhile, fintech Bleu has secured $2million in funding from private investors. It will help Bleu expand its frictionless payment solutions to buyers and issuers in the US and the Asian Pacific Region, specifically Australia and New Zealand. Bleu offers merchants a payment solution, eliminating the need to carry cash or payment cards.
Paymob, an Egypt-based digital payments provider, has announced a $15million Series A round, led by Global Ventures, with participation from A15 and FMO. It follows $3.5million raised in July 2020, bringing the Series A round to a close at $18.5million.
Finally, Pan-African fintech software provider Appzone has closed a $10million Series A round led by CardinalStone Capital Advisers with participation from V8 Capital, Lateral Investment Partners, Constant Capital and Itanna Capital Ventures. It will bolster Appzone’s core technologies and start a wave of new country expansions.
Job moves
Barclays has appointed Helen Kelly as head of corporate banking for Barclays Europe. It says Kelly will play a key role in continuing to expand its presence in Europe over the years ahead. As well as increasing its physical presence on the continent to nine different countries, Barclays has developed a digital banking platform in Europe.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, parent company of the Ecobank Group, has unveiled Tomisin Fashina as its group executive for operations and technology. He will hold the position in addition to his existing role of managing director at eProcess International.
Industry veteran John Hammond has joined the senior team at Railsbank as chief commercial officer. In a ‘fantastic four’ reunion, he joins his former Currencycloud colleagues Nigel Verdon, Nick Bourner, as well as Dov Marmor. Railsbank, which recently launched in Australia in partnership with local challenger bank Volt, plans to deepen its footprint across Europe, Asia Pacific and the US.
Meanwhile, Thomas Kräuter is now group chief technology officer at German digital firm intive. He joined the company in 2017. He will help intive build on its cross-industry potential, as well as supporting customers in ‘realising their bold digital strategies’.
More appointments
David Yates says he is excited to join international fintech moneycorp as its new vice chairman. His aim is to cement moneycorp’s position as a digital-first global payments platform. His appointment also follows the recent hire of Velizar Tarashev as CFO.
Maktoum bin Mohammed has unveiled Fadel Al Ali as the new chairman of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA). The appointment will follow the retirement of Saeb Eigner on 1 June 2021. DFSA is the independent regulator of financial services conducted in or from the Dubai International Financial Centre.
Mohamed Alabbar, founder of Emaar and e-commerce platform Noon.com will chair Zand. The digital bank – due to launch soon in the UAE – wants to become a digital economic accelerator offering both retail and corporate banking services.
Finally, Elif Haykir Hobikoglu is elected a monetary policy committee member of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey. He will attend the next policy-setting meeting on 15 April.
Industry updates
The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Abu Dhabi Global Market Arbitration Centre (ADGMAC) to promote international arbitration as a preferred method of dispute resolution for resolving international disputes. They will jointly organise conferences, seminars and workshops on international arbitration in Abu Dhabi and Singapore.
Egyptian cabinet approves draft bill to regulate fintech industry. The new law will regulate the use of fintech to deliver non-banking financial services in order to promote financial inclusion and expand the number of beneficiaries. The bill authorises the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) to licence and regulate businesses and fintech startups.
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has unveiled a new liquidity management facility. The facility will provide eligible counterparties — participants in the UAE Funds Transfer System — access to dirham funding from the CBUAE on an intraday basis.
Launches
Sokin, the payments-focused fintech, has launched global payments platform Sokin Enterprise. The service, which goes live on 16 April, allows organisations to make unlimited instant payments and FX transfers for a transparent fixed fee. Sokin is also developing products for sole traders and SMEs.
Irish startup DX Compliance has formally launched operations in the Middle East from a new base in the UAE. Razi Ardakani is appointed as the company’s new head of growth and will drive expansion across the Middle East. It has joined Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem Hub 71.
IBM has announced the general availability of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services. Designed in collaboration with Bank of America, in addition to Luminor Bank, MUFG, Tata Consultancy Services, Ernst & Young (EY) and SAP. The cloud development environment is designed to help reduce the risk for financial institutions, their partners and fintechs. Plus help them innovate quickly with built-in controls adhered to by the entire ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Metro Bank has launched new invoicing technology for business customers using its mobile app. The features offer a range of benefits for the bank’s business customers, including the ability to create, track and manage branded invoices directly from their Metro Bank accounts.
SatchelPay, the Lithuanian-based electronic money institution, has unveiled a next-gen financial product line branded as Satchel. The latest product offers a range of banking-as-a-service and software-as-a-service options, including EU IBAN provision, card issuance and SEPA & SWIFT payments procession, as well as a white label card programme.
Partnerships
Mastercard and fintech Geidea have unveiled a strategic partnership agreement to accept Mastercard payments on a tap-on-phone solution in Saudi Arabia. Geidea is the first fintech company to roll out a contactless payment acceptance technology across the Kingdom.
Regtech and blockchain analytics provider Coinfirm has announced a partnership with Crypto.org Chain, a public, open-source and permissionless blockchain. The Crypto.org Chain mainnet was launched in late March after more than two years of research and development.
EBANX has joined forces with Chilean digital bank MACH in order to offer MACH’s digital wallet as a payment method for international purchases in Chile. It is the sixth digital wallet that EBANX offers as a payment method in Latin America.
TAAP, the no code low code platform digitisation specialist, has extended its platform to include data visualisation and business intelligence after hooking up with Panintelligence. With Panintelligence’s pi platform, TAAP’s clients can visualise information, data mine and extract actionable insights in real-time.
Meanwhile, Jumio is partnering with iProov to roll out its proven liveness detection solutions worldwide. It says iProov equips it with the upgraded flexibility needed to realise the opportunities of digital transformation with a powerful fraud deterrent.
Finally, crypto exchange Gemini has chosen ComplyAdvantage to boost its anti-money laundering risk management. ComplyAdvantage helps to detect sanctions and adverse events while uncovering hidden risks during customer onboarding and throughout the client lifecycle.
“We selected ComplyAdvantage because of the company’s agile approach to financial crime risk management. ComplyAdvantage’s hyper-scalable model, customizable screening solution, and collaborative approach to Gemini’s model were critical to meeting our compliance needs.”
