Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 19 October 2023.
Appointments
Fintech Plaid has welcomed Eric Hart as its first CFO. Hart spent 13 years at travel booking website Expedia, including three as CFO, before leaving a year ago. According to reports, his appointment supports Plaid’s preparation for an initial public offering, which co-founder and chief executive Zach Perret has previously said is his aim for the company.
Bud Financial (Bud), an AI-powered data intelligence platform for the financial services and banking industry, has appointed two new senior leaders to continue ramping up commercial growth and product innovation. Rachel Fairhurst joins the company as VP of credit risk and client success, while Jakub Piotrowski joins as VP of product.
Alp Financial Ltd (AlpFin), the global service provider for institutional clients, appoints Ben Cross as senior operations analyst. At AlpFin he will handle the day-to-day processes across both data centres, supporting the liquidity management team and be the first point of contact for clients and third-party vendors.
Funding and investments
Prove Identity has secured a $40million funding round led by MassMutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures. The new funding will be used to launch new commerce enablement and fraud-fighting use cases, continue Prove’s global expansion, and address the evolving threats faced by all public and private institutions operating in the digital economy.
Capital markets fintech Globacap has completed a $21million Series B round of funding as the firm ramps up its drive to digitise and automate the world’s private capital markets. Investors include Moore Strategic Ventures, LLC, Cboe Global Markets, Inc., and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), as well as GABI Ventures and QBN Capital.
Procurify, the all-in-one spend management solution, has raised $50million in a Series C funding round led by Ten Coves Capital, with co-investment also from Export Development Canada (EDC) and participation from existing investors including Information Venture Partners and HarbourVest. The latest investment enables Procurify to expand globally, launch new payment capabilities, as well as provide customers with an AI-enhanced procure-to-pay experience.
Partnerships
APEXX Global, the global payments orchestration platform, has partnered with travel company Internova Travel Group, to become its worldwide payments platform. The partnership will also provide Internova with APEXX’s alternative payments methods, including the integration of APEXX Connect, which lets Internova to host cards, mobile wallets, BNPL services, and bank transfer products via a single API.
Gala Technology, the payment solutions provider has partnered with open banking solutions provider Nuapay and Apple Pay to launch a new payments gateway. Firms can initiate payments directly from their clients’ bank accounts using open banking.
Mobile game players will be able to purchase in-game currency, battle passes, and other in-game items for Supercell’s most popular games on the Carry1st, the mobile games publisher, Shop. Customers can purchase content for Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, Hay Day, and Brawl Stars on the Carry1st Shop using their local currencies and any number of local payment options.
Endava, the digital transformation provider, has joined forces with Google Cloud Security as one of the few Premier specialists in Chronicle, a cloud-native SecOps platform. This platform, layered on Google’s core infrastructure analyses security data in a single analyst and customer workbench, allowing security teams to stay ahead of evolving threats.
Designating embedded finance provider, Andaria as a Discover Global Network Global Card Issuer, Andaria’s position as a key player in the rapidly evolving embedded finance landscape is solidified.
eToro, the trading and investing platform, has partnered with Index Coop, a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO), to launch a new crypto Smart Portfolio that will offer exposure to Web3.
Travelex, a foreign exchange brand, has partnered with the National Bank of Cambodia. In doing so, it will start trading Cambodia’s national currency, the Khmer Riel (KHR), at Singapore’s Changi Airport. Travelex’s trading means the Riel is now available to be traded with other currencies in Singapore for the very first time.
Braithwate, a specialist regulatory consultancy working with regulated financial services has partnered with Clausematch, a Corlytics solution, to manage compliance with the MiCA framework and crypto regulations. Additionally, this partnership agreement will deliver timely support to crypto native and TradFi firms needing to comply with the new crypto regulation.
Announcements and launches
Howden, the global insurance group, has launched Howden Ventures, subject to Lloyd’s approval, with £500million of delegated underwriting capacity. As a result, it will create an investment and risk incubator that will fast-track insurance product development.
Acme is building an intent-based network to simplify on-chain transactions to #OneTap. It makes on-chain transactions accessible to non-crypto natives. Furthermore, it empowers developers to simplify and secure digital asset transactions for their users with One API call.
Personal finance app, TotallyMoney has launched a new open banking-powered feature to help customers track regular outgoings and avoid missed payments, so they can protect and build their credit scores.
FOODICS, the cloud-based restaurant management technology and payments platform in the MENA region, has launched a new fintech offering in the B2B BNPL (“Buy Now Pay Later”) market. It enables its F&B clients in KSA to pay for their subscriptions and hardware purchases in micro instalments.
Other news
The DFC and Africa Data Centres have signed a statement reaffirming their shared commitment to strengthen ICT infrastructure in Africa and Africa Data Centres’ intent to mobilise part of its existing DFC-financing commitment of $300million to construct a first-of-its-kind data centre in Ghana.
