Today’s The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup sees Fin.do partner with VISA to enable instant cross-border money transfers. While Ruby.Exchange secures $2.8million in funding.
Funding successes
New Zealand’s APLYiD has received NZ$7million in investment to take its customer onboarding software around the world. The funding round was led by Octopus Ventures, a London headquartered VC firm. It coincides with the official opening of APLYiD’s UK office in October; the startup’s first foray outside of Australia and New Zealand.
UK startup Storfund lands £300million in an e-commerce financing deal with specialist fintech investor Fasanara Capital. Storfund previously secured £26.5million in a funding round in February led by Union Bancaire Privée (UBP). It plans to expand its service to Latin America and Asia Pacific based e-ccommerce retailers.
Compliance-as-a-service startup Ondato has closed a €3.6million seed extension round led by OTB Ventures and LitCapital as well as Startup Wise Guys. It brings the total amount raised by Ondato so far to €5.6million. The funds will be used to expand the team with a focus on high-calibre hires to support new market expansion, product development and operations.
Neobank Zolve has scooped $40million in Series A funding. The round was led by partners of DST Global, who have previously led rounds in fintechs including Robinhood, Nubank, Chime, Revolut and Wealthsimple. The round also recorded participation from Tiger Global, Alkeon Capital, as well as existing investors Accel and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The funding amount will be used to rapidly scale the company’s financial services platform.
Meanwhile Nook has raised a $1.1million pre-seed round to simplify payment for customers and help suppliers get paid faster. The pre-seed round was led by Speedinvest and TriplePoint. Nook will use the new funds to expand its product and engineering team, evolve its trade collaboration platform and begin sales and marketing activity with SMEs and accountants.
Further funding news
Admix, the in-play monetisation company, has raised $25million in a Series B round. Investors include Elefund, Force Over Mass, DIP Capital, Notion Capital and Sidedoor Ventures. The company will utilise the funding to expand its footprint across Americas and APAC, as well as create metaverse monetisation tools.
There’s also funding success for deal syndication platform HUBX. It has raised more than $1.5million in a funding extension led by Mandalore Partners and ACF Investors’ Delta Fund. This follows an initial raise of $5.5million announced earlier this year, led by Barclays, Elite and Basinghall Partners. It brings the total to $7million for this round.
Xergy has closed a £4.25million investment round to scale-up Proteus, its software-as-a-service work automation management. It will also help the company reach further across new markets as well as support businesses to embrace both the energy transition and digital transformation.
Ruby.Exchange, the NFT-integrated automated market maker and decentralised exchange, has completed a $2.8million seed and strategic funding round. The round was supported by NGC, Flow Ventures, Wintermute, the SKALE Ecosystem Fund, Yield Ventures, as well as significant angels in the DeFi space.
Finally, Moralis, the blockchain development platform powering decentralised apps, has raised $13.4million in seed funding, led by EQT Ventures. The funding will be used for hiring and continued product development.
Job moves
Tyler Maragh has joined First Internet Bank as vice president, senior business development officer of its small business lending team. Prior to joining the firm, Maragh served as associate vice president and business development officer at Byline Bank. His role involves driving growth as well as helping clients identify their unique financing needs.
IMMO Capital, the platform for single family residential investment management, has unveiled Todd Ruppert as a strategic advisor and investor. He is the founder and CEO of Ruppert International, a firm with diversified interests including financial services and disruptive technologies. Professor Andrew Baum also recently joined as a strategic advisor and investor.
Carbon Underwriting Limited has announced the appointments of Madu Gadzama as data analytics engineer as well as Edward Saunders as data services associate. It follows the recent appointments of Mark Oldroyd, Fergus Cooney and Navdeep Dhuti. The hires are part of Carbon’s aim to develop its data analytics expertise.
Aqua Security, the pure-play cloud native security provider, names Limor Schwartz as chief financial officer. She will spearhead the company’s growth strategy to scale rapidly to address accelerating demand. She joins Aqua Security from Sygnia, a cyber technology and services company, where she served as CFO since incorporation.
JPIN VCATS, the startup investment bank, has added financing expert Chris Low to its advisory board. He will provide counsel for investors looking for symbiotic relationships with ambitious startups, and for new businesses that need a vital injection of capital to grow. He will also help JPIN VCATS to expand its network further into Africa.
Partnerships
Global cross-border payments network Thunes has unveiled a collaboration with Xoom, PayPal’s digital remittance service. It enables Xoom customers in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe to send remittances directly to mobile wallet users around the world. Thunes will also enable payments for Xoom in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ghana and Senegal.
PXP Financial, the acquiring and payment processing services firm, has forged a partnership with Shift4. The partnership will see Shift4 added to PXP’s platform as an acquirer, improving the payment specialist’s connectivity and reach in the US market. PXP Financial has recently expanded into Wyoming and Arizona.
Clear Junction has launched a partnership programme for individuals and businesses to earn commission from successful referrals. Headquartered in London, Clear Junction provides end-to-end regulated electronic money and payments solutions.
Meanwhile ClearBank, the cloud-based clearing bank, has been selected by digital savings account Chip to enhance its savings and investments platform. Chip is ClearBank’s first consumer facing BaaS customer.
Turkish bank Ziraat Bank has signed a cooperation agreement with JCB. JCB Cards are accepted by more than 500,000 merchants in Turkey using Ziraat Bank POS devices and cash registers. In additition, approximately 7,300 Ziraat Bank ATMs in Turkey will also accept JCB Cards.
Risk, compliance and regulation software specialist Albany Group has agreed a new partnership with Creditsafe, which will integrate Creditsafe’s data into Albany’s Conect platform. This new partnership will let insurance companies help build open and transparent supply chains by further enhancing their visibility and oversight of them.
Meanwhile smart procurement firm Ivalua has partnered with TransferMate, the B2B payments infrastructure as a service platform. Ivalua says the partnership will help to simplify and streamline complex, costly payment processes, but also bridge the gap between procurement and finance processes.
Further partnerships
Global money transfer platform Fin.do is now available to VISA cardholders. A partnership with the digital payments firm will open access to instant crossborder money transfers via Visa Direct, VISA’s real-time push payments platform.
First Bank, a family-owned bank, has teamed up with engagement banking technology provider Backbase to rapidly upgrade its end-to-end digital banking experience. The partnership will see First Bank adopt Backbase’s managed solutions for retail and business banking customers.
Paysafe, the payments platform, has announced a collaboration with mobile devops company Bitrise. Leveraging Bitrise’s mobile development platforms, Paysafe has automated and accelerated the core mobile prctices behind its digital wallets Skrill and NETELLER.
Walmart is expanding in-store bill payment options to more than 4,700 US stores through an InComm partnerships. Walmart shoppers can quickly and easily pay bills or fund accounts in the InComm Payments VanillaDirect network which includes more than 15,000 billers and account providers across a variety of sectors.
Launches
Pan-African digital currency token Afrostar has launched aiming to become the most widely adopted digital currency in Africa. Afrostar has raised $1million and developed online tools and DApps for crypto investors, powered by the Afrostar token. Afrostar’s roadmap also includes a cryptocurrency trading exchange, P2P exchange, copy trading platform and community, along with an NFT trading platform.
Valley National Bank has created a digital payment platform designed specifically for cannabis-related businesses. The application will let cannabis-related businesses provide their customers access to a compliant, secure and streamlined mobile wallet payment system.
Microfinance firm Barko is entering the retail banking market in South Africa with a digital bank built on Temenos Transact and powered by The Temenos Banking Cloud. Barko leverages full front-to-back services, giving the new bank total control to create banking products.
Company updates
BlueSnap, the payment technology company, has received licensing and bank approval for local acquiring in Israel. It lets businesses operating in Israel process digital payments locally, saving them up to two per cent in cross-border fees. This move also makes Israel BlueSnap’s 47th local acquiring country.
Quant Insight Welcome (Qi), the financial market analytics and trading insights provider, has announced a major expansion across Europe and the Middle Eastern territories, with new headquarters based in Limassol, Cyprus, in the Cedars Oasis Tower. Qi also chose Cyprus to launch its new retail product: iQ.
