The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup sees core banking platform Tuum teams up with Salt Edge while investing app Hedgehog opens crowdfunding round to the public.
Funding and investment
UK-based insurtech Stubben Edge Group has secured a further £5.6million in investment following an over-subscribed £10million round last year. Since the last round, the company has acquired Lloyd’s broker Genesis Special Risks, established Guernsey entity 1Edge and snapped up SME focused media titles from Bonhill PLC. Further announcements are planned, including additional M&A activity.
Splitit, which offers a merchant-branded installments-as-a-service platform, has completed a A$10.5million private placement with institutional investors. The company will leverage this capital to unlock the next phase of growth and expansion with large, global enterprise merchants and strategic partners.
Hedgehog, the fractional investing web app, has opened a £1million crowdfunding round on Seedrs to the wider public. The round has already raised more than £950,000 (95 per cent of the target). Hedgehog has already secured a portfolio of more than $1.5billion of ‘high quality assets’.
Launches and company updates
MENA insurance provider GIG Gulf has launched motor claims platform EasyClaims across the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. EasyClaims lets customers register their motor insurance claims by entering only minimal mandatory information without the need for paperwork, and with absolutely no waiting time.
Emirates Islamic has launched a new ‘Businesswomen Account’ curated specifically to cater and support the requirements of women entrepreneurs and business owners in the UAE. The new business banking proposition aligns itself with the UAE’s vision to fully realise Sustainable Development Goals aimed at reducing inequalities and promoting diversification within the SME ecosystem.
Fintech platform Prepay Nation expands its services to the GCC market. It has also signed key partnerships to help provide prepaid products and services to the GCC consumers. New partners include Mango, Resal, Unipay, Solutions Gulf, Talaco, Encryptus as well as Lulu Money.
WisdomTree, the exchange-traded fund, has launched WisdomTree Blockchain UCITS ETF (WBLK). Listed today on Börse Xetra and Borsa Italiana, WBLK seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree Blockchain UCITS Index and has a total expense ratio of 0.45 per cent.
Job moves
Elliptic, the cryptoasset risk management firm, has named Jackson Hull as chief technology officer. He was most recently at fintech OakNorth, where he led multiple teams in building the company’s credit risk analytics platform. He joins just as Elliptic launches its next-generation blockchain analytics engine.
John Kim joins PayPal as executive vice president, chief product officer (CPO) later this month. Kim succeeds Mark Britto, who will remain with PayPal for a transition period, before retiring at the end of this year. Kim joins PayPal following a decade-long tenure with Expedia Group.
Meanwhile, insurance broker Aon Romania appoints Eugen Anicescu as its new general director. Anicescu has been active within Coface Romania in various roles. Previously he also led the reinsurance division of Generali Romania.
Nigel Green, the CEO and founder of deVere Group, has been appointed to the National Innovation Agency (NIA) of Thailand. NIA says Green’s “experience and wisdom” in finance and fintech will be invaluable to its organisation and to the country.
More appointments
Objectway, a banking, wealth and asset management software provider, appoints Hassan Suffyan as MD of Objectway in the UK. He will help drive the firm’s expansion in the UK and Ireland. Suffyan will also work with the executive team to execute strategic development initiatives across the company.
Genesis Global, the low-code application development platform for financial firms, unveils Marina Kilcline as chief human resources officer. Kilcline reports to CEO, Stephen Murphy. Kilcline joins from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors where she designed and implemented programmes to foster a positive global culture.
Cryptocurrency brokerage Caleb & Brown has expanded its services to offer fund management with new executive appointments of Tommy Rogulj, Daniel Caruso and Gary Head. All three will collaborate with CEO Jackson Zeng to enhance its service and offerings.
Finally, digital banking provider Bankjoy adds Michael Carroll as chief technology officer. Carroll will oversee the development of technology as well as drive the company’s strategic vision to deliver a seamless end-to-end digital service ecosystem.
Partnerships
Tax credit specialist Adsum has secured a partnership with screen agency Film London to help provide the industry tax credit funding in support of production projects. The fintech company that offers tax as a service has joined the screen industry agency’s Premiere Service, which connects producers and production crew within the film industry with a wide range of services and suppliers.
Tuum, an Estonian-born core banking platform, partners with Salt Edge. The partnership enables Tuum’s clients to quickly become compliant with PSD2 and open banking directives, enhance the security of end-users with Salt Edge’s Mobile SCA solution and unlock open data by getting access to 5,000+ banks for account information and payment initiation services.
There’s also a partnership for PXP Financial with DisputeHelp to provide an end-to-end dispute management platform across all payment schemes for its merchant portfolio. The announcement comes as the Mastercard ‘Acquirer Collaboration’ mandate is set to take effect.
Axway, a software integration vendor, has teamed up with Pro2col, a managed file transfer (MFT) specialist. Under the new partnership, Axway can leverage Pro2col’s expertise to both expand its reach in the UK and Ireland and increase visibility of its solution-offering to enterprise-level organisations.
Mergers and acquisitions
J.P. Morgan has signed an agreement to acquire cloud-native payments technology company Renovite. The strategic acquisition will help J.P. Morgan Payments build its next-generation merchant acquiring platform, bolster the firm’s payments modernisation strategy and support its journey to the cloud. Renovite will become part of J.P. Morgan Payments.
Zynga Inc, the interactive entertainment firm, has completed the acquisition of Storemaven, a mobile growth and app store optimisation company. Expanding Zynga’s existing operations in Israel, the Storemaven team will combine its mobile technologies with Zynga’s global portfolio as well as Chartboost’s advertising platform.
