The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 30 January 2024 brings you the latest updates from the global fintech industry.
Funding updates
Cultivo, a public benefit corporation, has raised $14million in Series A funding to accelerate its mission to unlock investment into regenerating nature at scale through high-quality projects. The funding round co-led by MassMutual Ventures and Octopus Energy Generation, with participation from Salkantay Ventures and Peña Verde, will speed up the business’ growth and brings Cultivo’s total funding to over $20million.
BRLA Digital, operating in the cross-border payments and crypto infrastructure market, received an additional investment from 99 Capital for its pre-seed round. The investment raises the total round to over R$4million. The investment comes at a strategic time as BRLA Digital seeks to strengthen its position in the cross-border payments and crypto infrastructure market.
Appointments
TransUnion, a global insights company and a UK credit reference agency, has named Sudhish Mohan as its new UK and Europe chief information officer. He previously held the roles of CIO and chief operating officer at TransUnion Africa, where he led digital transformation, product delivery and consumer experience. Mohan will now be responsible for leading TransUnion’s technology and analytics transformation.
Allied Payment Network, a provider of real-time, open-network payments solutions to banks and credit unions, hires Nichole Gurevitch as vice president of sales for its North and Midwest region. Her expertise includes item processing, digital banking, customer experience, and core software applications, with contributions at Alogent, Finastra, as well as Agent IQ.
Plinqit, the platform that brings together automated savings, data-driven financial wellness content and virtual account management, has appointed Jason Seale as VP of sales to support the company’s continued growth. Seale will oversee Plinqit’s business development team as the company continues to expand. Most recently, he served as VP of sales at Agent IQ, a personal digital engagement platform for community banks and credit unions.
Iain Hendry has been promoted to national head of sales for invoice finance company Optimum Finance. In the newly created role, Hendy is responsible for the new business strategy, nurturing existing and identifying new introductory channels as well as recruiting, training and developing current and future teams to best serve the needs of customers across multiple sectors and regions.
Liminal Custody Solutions (Liminal), the digital asset custody and wallet infrastructure provider in the APAC and MENA region, has appointed Amir Tabch as its CEO for the Middle East region. Tabch, a financial services executive, brings over two decades of experience in leading and scaling businesses across traditional and digital asset markets.
More appointments
WineFi, the fine wine investment platform, appoints Jonathan Keeling as chief commercial officer. Keeling, who spent eight years at crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, most recently as chief growth officer, will also join WineFi’s board of directors. Winefi offers investors the opportunity to explore investment-grade wine collections and create portfolios that suit their preferences.
TradeCore, a platform-as-a-service provider, has named Igor Jović as its CEO. He was previously a former CEO, co-founder and board member at City Expert. The company is focussed on bringing about an innovative suite of solutions to financial services professionals around the world.
Zally has welcomed David Webb as chairman. He was previously the founder and CEO of 6point6, a digital transformation specialist that was acquired by Accenture in October 2023. He will support Zally’s leadership team with its expansion plans, helping the company to establish the governance and management structures it needs to ensure rapid development and growth.
ADVANCE.AI, a Southeast Asian provider of digital identity verification, compliance and risk management solutions, has appointed Dennis Martin as CEO of its credit reporting business. He was previously the group CEO of CTOS Digital in Malaysia, as well as managing director of Experian Southeast Asia.
Tandem, the UK green digital bank, appoints Maria Khan as director of product and digital, as well as Chris Parker as head of marketing. Parker was most recently head of retail marketing at Santander, while Khan previously worked at J.P Morgan, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Tandem’s on a mission to help the UK transition to a lower carbon lifestyle.
Company updates
Neo, the open-source, community-driven platform, has officially opened its Hong Kong office, expanding its presence in the emerging blockchain hub. Located within Cyberport, a digital tech and Web3 hub, the new office will be at the forefront of Neo’s drive to realise the Smart Economy and will serve as a base to support Hong Kong’s leading Web3 developer talent and promote investment in the region.
Austrian fintech unicorn Bitpanda has launched Bitpanda Wealth, a new service tailored to the needs of HNWIs, family officers, external asset managers and corporate treasuries. Bitpanda Wealth provides the opportunity for these users to diversify their portfolios through a regulated broker in Europe. Nicolas Huber, who recently joined Bitpanda, is the VP of Bitpanda Wealth.
Partnerships
Global cross-border payments company Thunes, has expanded its tree-planting initiative with partner Handprint. Thunes pledges to plant one tree for every 5,000 transactions processed on its platform over the next two years with Handprint. Additionally, this initiative enables Thunes’ customers and partners to make positive environmental changes through payment processing.
Boubyan Bank, the Islamic Bank founded in 2004 in Kuwait, has sealed a partnership with Snowdrop Solutions, a consumer payments and financial transactions data company. This collaboration marks enables users of Boubyan Bank’s app to have a complete and seamless view of their financial transactions.
United Arab Bank (UAB) is embarking on a digital transformation powered by global technology company SAP SE, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) securely hosting the data. The adoption of RISE with SAP and deployment of various SAP solutions enhances the bank’s services to its customers and employees, while also preparing the way to adopt SAP’s ‘carbon accounting’ approach with green data reporting.
Rakkar Digital, an Asian qualified digital asset custodian, announces a partnership with Ondo Finance, becoming the first custodian partner in the Asia-Pacific region within the Ondo Ecosystem. This strategic alliance supports Rakkar Digital’s position as a security-first, compliant, and agile custodian in the rapidly growing digital asset space.
