Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 14 September 2023!
Funding and investments
French fintech Fipto has raised €15million in seed funding. It will use the funding to accelerate its platform that enables companies to manage their corporate treasury and make international payments in fiat and digital currencies using blockchain technology. This funding round, which included Serena and Motier Ventures, follows Fipto’s registration as a digital asset service provider in France.
European fintech Swan has secured a €37million Series B investment round led by Lakestar, alongside reinvestment from Swan’s existing investors. The funding will support the next stage of Swan’s continued internationalisation, including launches in the Netherlands in the coming months and Italy in early 2024. The investment will also see Swan double-down on its strategy of addressing the enterprise market.
Emata, the agricultural finance solution for East African farmers, has completed a $2.4million seed fund raise, comprising $800,000 in equity as well as $1.6million in on-lending capital. African Renaissance Partners, Zephyr Acorn, Marcus Boström and the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation backed the fundraise. Emata plans to expand its agri-loan offering across East Africa.
Deduce, a tech platform designed to prevent AI-generated identity fraud, announces $9million in funding led by Freestyle Capital, with additional investment by Foundry and True Ventures. The funding launches Deduce’s GenAI Identity fraud solution out of stealth.
More funding news
BMLL, a provider of Level 3 data and analytics across global equity and futures markets, has bagged investment from Snowflake Ventures. It has also entered into a partnership with Snowflake to deliver granular data and analytics to market participants globally. The news follows a $26million Series B investment from Nasdaq Ventures, FactSet and IQ Capital in Q4 2022.
IMMIX, a provider of ultra-low latency crypto-trading infrastructure, emerges from stealth mode, having successfully closed a $2.7million seed round led by MassMutual Ventures (MMV). Funds will be used to develop advanced execution and liquidity provision modules, as well as refining IMMIX’s trading platform.
Company updates
Boston-based fintech Lynx unveils Lynx CDH Core, a single platform for consumer-directed health (CDH) account administrators to offer tailored experiences, streamlined interactions and earn expanded revenue streams across banking, investments and e-commerce. It lets organisations create CDH accounts ‘in weeks’.
HSBC has launched a digital solution that enables business and corporate customers to open accounts for multiple business entities in multiple markets, all in one place. The unique account opening portal can be accessed online and brings together application forms, secure document exchange functionality, online tracking and eSignature capabilities.
Fintech company ADDX plans expansion in key MENA markets to serve private enterprises seeking financing. By expanding into the MENA region, ADDX expands access to strategic growth capital for pre-IPO companies not only from local market financial institutions and investment funds but also from funds across Asia and key financial markets worldwide.
Episode Six, a provider of payment processing and ledger infrastructure, launches Business Now, Pay Later. This solution enables commercial banks to capture new revenue streams by meeting the working capital needs of SMEs through tailored installment offerings within their business banking channel.
Partnerships
CleverTap, the all-in-one engagement platform, forges a partnership with premium streaming service OSN+. This strategic alliance will enable OSN+ to deliver hyper-personalised communication across all touchpoints to its customers by leveraging CleverTap’s all-in-one platform.
iProov and Cybernetica partner to deliver digital signing and authentication solutions to governments and financial services organisations. The partnership sees the companies collaborate to create a multi-factor authentication digital identity solution for government and financial services organisations across the EMEA, LATAM, and APAC regions.
Digital ID verification company IDVerse (previously OCR Labs Global) has partnered with online gaming software supplier Playtech to scale player onboarding. The partnership enables customers to utilise IDVerse’s identity verification technology within their platform and scale player onboarding while minimising fraud.
The ai Corporation has teamed up with OTI PetroSmart, a Nayax subsidiary and provider of integrated, end-to-end fuel management and payment solutions, to provide corporate customers in MEA Region with ai’s issuing and fuel payments platform aiEazyFuel.
There’s also a partnership for TS Imagine, a cross-asset provider of trading, portfolio and risk management solutions, and eflow, a provider of regulatory compliance solutions for the industry. The strategic collaboration lets mutual clients of TS Imagine and eflow meet regulatory requirements, while also safeguarding against market abuse and effectively monitor communications.
Afsol, a payment software provider, has plumped for Fime as a strategic partner to drive its digitalsation of payments. During the five-year partnership, Fime will provide consultancy and testing services to support Nexo standards compliance. The pair will also drive alignment with major global payment scheme requirements.
More partnerships
Netbank, the Filipino embedded finance platform, has joined forces with Akulaku, a banking and digital finance platform in Southeast Asia. The partnership integrates Akulaku’s users into Netbank’s ‘loans as a service’ model. This offering of borrowing options to underserved communities underscores the companies’ dedication to empowering more Filipinos with access to essential financial resources.
Tech Mahindra, a provider of digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering services, has forged a partnership with Surance.io, a cyber insurance platform. The strategic partnership provides international multilingual tech support and also enhances cybersecurity solutions to reinforce secure digital transformation in the insurance sector.
Appointments
FV Bank, the US licensed global digital bank, welcomes Jennifer Yaris Rodríguez as its senior trust officer. Rodriguez will hold a leadership position within FV Bank’s custody department and play a key role as part of its expansion strategy. Her previous roles include serving as a risk analyst and custody account officer at Banco Popular, as well as international payments representative at Santander Bank Group.
Digital bank Chetwood has appointed Ian Lonergan as its new group chair. He was previously the founder of Precise Mortgages. Lonergan, who has also held roles at GMAC, AMP and Ernst & Young, has worked with Chetwood on ModaMortgages since 2021, playing a key role in the strategy, design and launch of the new mortgage business.
finova, the UK cloud-based mortgage and savings software provider, names Natalie McNamara as head of relationships for finova Payment and Mortgage Services. She first joined finova Payment and Mortgage Services in May 2022.
Lantern, the private equity data platform and technology provider, appoints its first chief revenue officer, Tony Poulson. He is tasked with shaping the company’s revenue strategy, driving market expansion, as well as ensuring the business’ long-term profitability. Most recently, Poulson ran Broadridge’s private equity blockchain business.
Baird, a financial services firm, has welcomed Sebastian Daumueller as its global investment banking business as MD in its global technology and services group. Luca Noventa has also joined as a
director in the global consumer group. Both Daumueller and Noventa are based in Baird’s London office.
