In The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday brings news of funding success for Railsr and a new chair for the Lending Standard Board (LSB).
Job moves
TechPassport has onboarded Tim Richards, CEO at Hoptroff, to its supplier advisory board. TechPassport is working with a number of industry veterans and global banks to create a new industry standard when it comes to onboarding fintechs, banks and financial institutions.
Nium appoints two new board members, Huey Lin and David Yates. The new independent directors add deep experience in the global payments industry, having guided several organisations through stages of rapid growth. Huey Lin is a venture partner with GGV Capital, while David Yates is an executive partner at Siris Capital Group.
Uplinq, a global credit assessment platform for SMB lenders, has added Daniel Moore to its advisory board. Moore previously served as chief risk officer at Scotiabank. Moore is also an investor in Uplinq through his managed venture capital partnership, River Run Ventures.
Cohesity, a next-gen data management firm, has unveiled Karen Egan as chief customer experience officer. Based in Ireland, Egan has global responsibility for the company’s customer experience, including professional services, success and support teams.
Meanwhile, Niki Cooke joins Protection Guru as chief revenue officer. In this newly created role, Cooke brings experience in supporting adoption and deployment of market changing technology to advice firms. She will help increase adoption of the comparison platform and innovate its functionalities based upon customer requirements.
The Lending Standards Board (LSB) has chosen its next chair to help drive fair outcomes for financial services customers. Ken Scott will replace current chair Chris Pond, when he reaches the end of his six-year term on 1 April 2023. Scott’s career to-date includes experience working on the banking frontline, alongside strategic and charitable roles.
More appointments
Global intelligence and cybersecurity firm S-RM has named professional services financial expert Kelly Rogers-Davison as its new chief financial officer. In her new role as CFO, Kelly will ensure that the company’s financial strategy continues to support S-RM’s growing partnerships and clients. Kelly will also lend her expertise to expand S-RM’s operations internationally and develop new innovative financial strategies.
Global technical body EMVCo has appointed Arman Aygen to the role of director of technology. He will play a key role in EMVCo’s efforts to advance technical initiatives that address industry needs and support the evolution of payments. Aygen will also represent EMVCo as part of the organisation’s engagement with other industry bodies and groups.
Meanwhile, KPMG International has named Lisa Heneghan as global chief digital officer. In her new global role Heneghan joins KPMG’s global management team. She will oversee the continued execution of KPMG’s $5billion investment on digital leadership, accelerating the global organisation’s own digital transformation and driving innovation.
Company updates
Regtech Clausematch has recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. From signing dozens of new clients to expanding to the North America market, the company has experienced a number of big developments over the last decade. The company is looking to launch its new tech office in Europe in the coming months.
Societe Generale has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in the fintech PayXpert. The proposed acquisition would allow the Bank to broaden its offering for retail and online merchants and to pursue its ambition to be a leader in payment acceptance in Europe.
Partnerships
BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform, is powering payments for Letus‘ cloud-based platform for the property rental market. With BlueSnap’s embedded payments solutions, Letus can seamlessly facilitate global payments and provide greater flexibility for rental transactions.
The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences has teamed up with QINTESS to collaboratively spur digital transformation for global clients. They will facilitate and support the development of innovative solutions in Africa and beyond leveraging Web3. AIMS and QINTESS will establish an AIMS-QINTESS Exchange Programme. Both institutions will also work together to promote employability and transatlantic networking opportunities for young Africans.
Puro.earth and carbon insurer Kita unveil a partnership to make carbon insurance available for biochar projects via the Puro.earth marketplace. Kita’s Carbon Purchase protection insurance will be available for biochar carbon credit purchases via the Puro.earth marketplace from next year.
Ecospend, the UK’s leading open banking payment provider, has partnered with QR-code based payment services app PENG. The partnership will enable PENG’s small business customers to benefit from open banking services in the form of free transactions and enhanced security.
Turkish fintech Colendi has paired up with Fibabanka to open a $150million strategic credit line to Colendi users. With this agreement, Colendi will keep providing opportunities to more than 10 million people. The funding will pave the way for the company to offer new products including payment, loan and investment services.
ADVANCE.AI, the Singapore-based AI firm, is partnering with Visa to strengthen better credit decisioning to help unbanked and underbanked segments get access to credit across Southeast Asia. ADVANCE.AI will integrate Visa’s Cardholder Transaction Score (CTS) into its core suite of services. This includes digital identity verification, risk management as well as credit decisioning services.
Funding and investments
Open banking-powered fintech Currensea has secured £2.4million from Blackfinch Ventures as well as 1818 Venture Capital. The funding will accelerate the fintech’s growth plans. Currensea, the money-saving travel card, has seen cardholder numbers have more than doubled to 45,000, while a crowdfunding campaign in June successfully raised £2million via the Seedrs platform.
NoFrixion, the Dublin-headquartered fintech, has bagged a €3.6million funding round led by Delta Partners and Middlegame Ventures and joined by Furthr VC. The capital will be used to grow NoFrixion’s engineering and sales teams, transforming how businesses pay and get paid in the digital economy.
Embedded finance platform Railsr has closed its Series C round, raising $46million. The Series C fundraise constituted $26million of equity and $20million of debt. The equity portion was led by Anthos Capital, which led the Railsr Series B in July 2021. It also includes investors spanning Europe, North America and Asia. Railsr CEO and co-founder Nigel Verdon describes the funding as ‘a significant step’ on its route to profitability.
Launches
Andy James, previously UK CEO at First Central and chief commercial officer at Kingfisher, has launched Zixty, a new app-based motor insurance provider. The first product launches this month offering the UK’s first short-term car insurance with free carbon offsetting. The launch is aimed at occasional and short-term drivers.
Blockchain technology company TradeStrike BVI has launched a new mobile crypto wallet, which will enable retail investors, as well as the 10,000+ holders of its $STRX utility token, to track their portfolio’s performance via a mobile app. The launch has been accompanied by a number of large-scale building projections across a variety of London locations, including Harrods and the Shard.
Cybersecurity firm Help AG has launched a cybersecurity operations centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It will provides 24/7 security monitoring and events management. It will also offer a complete suite of locally delivered managed security services, fully compliant with the local data regulations.
