The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest international fintech stories. As well as the latest funding news, this Thursday the spotlight is on industry collaborations and industry movers.
Fintech appointments
Former Tradeweb heavyweight Andrew Bernard has joined the BTON Financial advisory board. In addition, the outsourced dealing desk has promoted regulatory expert Caroline Holmes to chief operating officer.
Solidatus, the metadata management platform, bolsters senior team with round of multiple appointments. It has hired John Tobin as data architect and Elizabeth Squire as the new director of business development for government. Meanwhile, David Pinto and Mark Garbett are now both directors of business development for financial services.
Martin Krebs will be responsible for the finance department at Scalable Capital – the digital wealth manager – after joining as as chief financial officer. Krebs was most recently the global head of retail investment product solutions of the ING Group.
Martin Krebs knows the financial world like the back of his hand, and he has been involved in fintech since before the term was coined.
Former Government Minister Lord David Blunkett is tasked with helping ELEMENTARYb with its growth and expansion strategy. He will also support the creation of a regulatory framework for the financial services firm.
Finally, UK blockchain startup Electroneum has added crypto expert Mati Greenspan to its board of advisors. Electroneum CEO Richard Ells says the arrival of the former eToro senior market analyst will boost its credibility and visibility globally.
Collaborations and partnerships
Mojaloop, the charitable nonprofit organisation advancing the #financialinclusion mission, has added new sponsor and promoter members to ensure its ‘long-term health’. Digital payments platform PhonePe and enterprise blockchain solution provider Ripple are new sponsors, while currency firm Giori Digital SA and payments provider Sybrin join as promoters.
Open banking firm Yapily is linking up with API standards platform Ozone API. As well as creating an ‘ecosystem that enables banks to monetise open banking’, the pair say the partnership aims to ‘expose a better API world’.
Virtuzone, the UAE company set-ups specialist, partners with Zbooni to provide SMEs with transaction solutions powered by WhatsApp. The collaboration allows Virtuzone clients to send payment links via WhatsApp, email, SMS or other messaging platforms for any business transaction.
Payment initiation service provider Nuapay will enable open banking payments for payment security solutions provider Gala Technology. Nuapay, powered by Sentenial, has a single connection to all major UK banks.
Italian paytech Nexi and fintech Meniga will develop a portfolio of digital financial management services aimed at strengthening bank-customer relationships. In addition, Meniga joins Nexi’s ecosystem dedicated to open banking.
Lloyds Bank has teamed up with fintech ConnectedFi to integrate its asset finance API into ConnectedFi’s customer relationship management platform.
Financial software firm Alogent and data mining provider DeepTarget say their new partnership will provide user-specific digital engagements to banks and credit unions. DeepTarget can also use Alogent’s rich data analytics and visualisation platform for relevancy-at-scale engagements based on trends and user behaviour.
Finally, Danish fintech Blocser has partnered with UK card manufacturer allpay.cards. The partnership offers the UK gig market digital payments via the Butterfly pre-paid card.
Announcements and launches
Data provider CB Insights has acquired Netherlands-based intelligence platform Blockdata to build out its blockchain data offering. CB Insights will open an office in Amsterdam, while Blockdata will remain a stand-alone product with its own team.
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is introducing regulations surrounding electronic transactions. As well as aligning with international practices, the proposed regulations aim to provide a strong framework for e-commerce and electronic dealings.
Subscription management service Subaio says it is now live with Dutch bank ABN AMRO – its seventh partnership with a bank. Subaio’s first bank partnership was launched with the biggest bank in the Nordics, Nordea, in 2018.
Meanwhile, fintech Dwolla releases a push-to-debit payment functionality to allow for fast payouts to a debit card. Businesses can access a programmable payments infrastructure for bank-to-bank transfers, as well as offer a disbursement option for payments to be sent to a user’s debit card within 30 minutes.
It’s love all round as Paymentology congratulates MOX Bank on its official launch. Standard Chartered’s digital bank uses the payment platform’s global processing capability.
As MOX now roles out its new service to early stage clients we look forward to supporting both them, and the bank, in providing a truly digital and personised banking experience.
Funding news
Global payments and shopping firm Klarna has raised $650million in an equity funding round, which ranks it as the highest-valued private fintech in Europe. The round was led by equity firm Silver Lake Partners, alongside GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, as well as BlackRock and HMI Capital.
Finally, payments network Veem Secures $31million in strategic funding round led by Truist Ventures. As the company focuses on its scaling efforts, Veem says it is also committed to expanding its product suite.
