The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday sees Zumo unveil its first chief people and culture officer, while Flutterwave launches in Tanzania.
Job appointments
European fintech Monese has appointed Alistair Bennett to chief product officer. He was previously a transformation director at Premium Credit Limited. Bennett will focus on taking Monese’s product capability to the next level as well as delivering outstanding customer experiences. He also joins Monese’s leadership team, subject to FCA approval.
Identity platform IDnow hires Johannes Leser, former MD of Namirial Germany, as vice president trust services. He will oversee the expansion of the trust services unit as well as the management of a new German trust service. The company has also unveiled plans to build a Qualified Trust Service Provider (QTSP) following the appointment.
Ebury has named Victor Radu Roşu as country manager of Romania and Bulgaria. He will accelerate the expansion of its operations in the region, supporting businesses with their trading and operational activities. Widening its presence in Central and Eastern European markets is a key pillar of Ebury’s global growth strategy.
Meanwhile, investment firm Capital Group, has appointed Kat Ferris to the new role of head of product development for Europe and Asia. Ferris will build a team responsible for product development, governance and management of its investment range. She will also oversee new fund launches across equity, fixed income and multi-asset.
More job moves
Zumo, the Edinburgh-based crypto wallet and payments platform, names Dagmara Aldridge as its first chief people and culture officer. Aldridge, previously Zumo’s chief operating oficer, leads the development of the company’s progressive ‘People’ function to maintain Zumo’s culture while empowering its talent to have a positive impact on the wider industry, financial inclusion and the environment.
Haitham Al-Sayed, former manager at Saturna Capital, has joned fintech Wahed as its new global head of institutional sales and advisory services. He is tasked with solidifying Wahed’s footprint in the institutional and retail space, in addition to building the firm’s global advisory services team.
MoonPay, the global crypto payments infrastructure provider, names James Freis as special advisor for global financial and regulatory affairs. He will provide guidance and support to MoonPay’s executives and global compliance team. Freis joins MoonPay shortly after its $555million Series A round.
Kathrine von Grumbkow joins the Danish fintech firm Astro.io as chief operating officer. She has previously worked as compliance manager with Danske Bank and Nets. Astro.io is an investment app offering personalised inspiration and feedback based on knowledge and interests.
Finally, global fintech Till Payments has promoted Tanya Green and Alison Long into newly created roles within its executive leadership team. Green will step into the role of chief customer officer, while Long is named chief people officer. It follows Dave Hemmingway‘s appointment as chief product officer in January.
Company updates
Flutterwave, Africa’s payments technology company, has gained approval from the Bank of Tanzania to launch its payment service in the Republic of Tanzania. Flutterwave will open its offices in Dar Es Salaam. Flutterwave’s products and services will look to support Tanzanian SMEs overcome challenges presented by the highly fragmented and complex payment and banking infrastructure.
Paysera introduces a new logo and changes visual identity. Its new tagline ‘One app – endless possibilities’ reflects the shift of services to a super app and the geographical expansion into global markets. Over the course of the year, Paysera will update the design of the payment window for e-shops and launch a new, more user-friendly website.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has launched the Instant Payment Network and InstaPay mobile application. The new network lets bank customers carry out electronic transfers instantly at any time. Governor of the CBE Tarek Amer held a launching ceremony this week.
Currencycloud has launched Weekend FX to provide clients with the ability to offer competitive FX rates 24/7. In partnership with Visa, Currencycloud clients can now offer customers a competitive fixed FX rate after the markets close on a Friday evening.
Meanwhile, NICE Actimize has launched its advanced X-Sight Entity Risk SaaS solution to provide a single risk entity score and enable financial institutions with more transparent risk management. The Entity Risk solution provides data intelligence from a variety of sources to help inform detection and prevention systems and power their analytic precision, a key step in fighting fraud and financial crime.
Funding and investments
Reach, the e-commerce payments enabler, has secured a $30million investment. The round, led by Vistara Growth, includes investment from Bluesky Equities, Tribune Capital and Rising Tide. The capital will be used to dramatically scale up Reach’s development teams, with a focus on merchant success and onboarding. Plus an expansion into new shopper geographies to help grow local acquiring networks for both merchants and partners.
Capitolis has raised a $110million Series D at a $1.6billion valuation. Led by fintech investors Canapi Ventures, 9Yards Capital and SVB Capital. Canapi’s Jeffrey Goldstein and Dan Beldy, as well as George Osborne at 9Yards join the Capitolis board.
Hub71, Abu Dhabi’s global tech ecosystem, has announced that its startup community has attracted AED1.5billion of investments since inception. The aggregate valuation of Hub71 startups soared to AED5.87billion, with close to 1,000 jobs created since its inception in 2019. The tech ecosystem has also expanded its strategic partnerships and value-creation programmes to enable disruptive startups to grow and accelerate their journeys.
authID.ai, a provider of mobile biometric identity authentication has closed on total financing of $22.5million.
“I want to thank our new and existing investors for this financing, which represents a vote of confidence for our future, and provides us the resources to continue offering innovative technology that helps build a safer digital landscape for all.”
Climate X enjoys an oversubscribed seed funding round of £4.1million from investors including CommerzVentures, A/O Proptech and Deloitte LLP. On-demand climate risk data analytics SaaS platform covers a range of climate-related hazard types to help enable climate-resilient businesses and safeguard communities.
Partnerships
Global payments firm 2C2P has unveiled a regional partnership with hoolah, Asia’s buy now, buy later provider. The partnership lets 2C2P offer hoolah’s service to merchants in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, as well as extend to new markets through 2022. hoolah was also recently added as a BNPL payment option by Malaysia Airlines.
Cryptocurrency trading platform MEXC Global has unveiled an ecosystem fund of $150million in partnership with Huobi Global and Bybit. The fund supports the ecosystem growth of Fetch.ai, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence lab building an open-access decentralised machine learning network for smart infrastructure.
Raisin, a fintech in the savings and investments space, is launching its first private market proposition in cooperation with Moonfare, the DTC digital private equity investment platform. Private customers can invest via Raisin’s German platform, WeltSparen, in a portfolio of top-tier private equity funds.
iDenfy, the global fraud prevention and identity verification business, teams up with Confirmo, the blockchain payment solution provider. iDenfy’s verification service assesses the risks by welcoming valid customers to Confirmo’s network.
Mexican microlender CAME has migrated its operations to cloud banking platform Mambu to support expansion plans. The partnership empowers the lender to develop financial products and services across the sector. CAME looks to triple its customer base by 2025.
Meanwhile, Paylink Solutions has partnered with online banking provider Ecospend to help customers make instant payments to get back on track with their arrangements. Customers receive a link to make previously failed payments, either over the phone with an agent or online. ‘Pay by bank’ provides an alternative option to card payments and move money from people’s bank accounts in real time.
Finally, payments platform Paysafe has teamed up with Resorts WorldBET, the new mobile sports-betting app for Resorts World New York. Paysafe now enables players to make deposits with Resorts WorldBET by debit card and ACH, plus receive payouts.
