04/07 – Weekly Fintech Recap

  • Artificial Intelligence , Blockchain , Insurtech , Open Banking , Payments , Banking , Cloud , Security , M&A Deals , Jobs Listings
  • 04.07.2022 09:00 am

Partnerships

Derivative Path Teams Up with Goldman Sachs to Deliver FX and Global Payments to US Regional and Community Banks

Derivative Path, a leading provider of capital markets technology and derivatives execution services to regional and community banks, announced it is collaborating with Goldman Sachs Transaction Banking (TxB) to offer an automated, digital-first payments platform to help financial institutions with spot foreign exchange and international payments. 

Clearwater Analytics and Liquiditybook to Offer End-To-End Portfolio Investment and Operations

Clearwater Analytics, a leading provider of SaaS-based investment accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, and LiquidityBook, a leading provider of cloud-native trading solutions for the buy and sell sides, announced that they will leverage their proven connectivity to offer clients an end-to-end portfolio investment and operations experience.

Esusu and BH Partnership Puts Over 9,800 Residents on the Path to Financial Success

Esusu, the leading financial technology company advancing rent reporting and data solutions for credit building, and BH, a leading vertically integrated multifamily property owner and operator, announced new data showing that 9,800+ residents that participated in their pilot rent reporting program saw an improvement in their credit scores in the first 6 months (December 2021 through May 2022), with credit score averages improving to 677 points.

Hargreaves Lansdown Moves into Open Banking with Ecospend

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) has selected Ecospend, the UK’s leading Open Banking provider, to provide a “pay by bank” service for its clients. Ecospend’s solution will allow HL’s clients to make payments directly to their HL accounts more easily and securely and without the need for cards. The payment journey removes the need to enter card details when adding money to an account, significantly reducing data entry errors and card fraud risk. 

Ivalua Partners With C2FO to Complete the Strategic Payments Journey and Enhance Access to Capital

Ivalua, a global leader in Cloud Spend Management solutions, announced a strategic partnership with C2FO, the largest global platform for working capital, to empower Ivalua customers with enhanced supplier selection and the ability to streamline costs and drive targeted bottom-line growth. Early payments are a powerful liquidity tool that allows suppliers to be paid before terms. However, executing the classic invoice-driven approach after the contracting event prevents such programs from realizing their full cash potential.

Virgin Money Teams up with Untied to Power Tax for SMEs

Virgin Money has announced that it is linking up with untied, the UK personal tax app, to offer tax capabilities for sole traders who have a Virgin Money business current account. The new partnership means Virgin Money’s self-employed customers will be able to access untied, enabling them to better manage their businesses, get on top of their taxes and file to HMRC directly from untied quickly and easily.

FintechOS Partners with Huddl Team to Deliver Innovative Technology Solutions for UK Building Societies

FintechOS, the global leader in high-productivity fintech infrastructure for the financial services and retail industries, has announced a partnership with Huddl Team. The collaboration with the programme and project management consultancy will help provide innovative technology solutions to building societies within the UK financial services sector.   

Receeve Partners with Paylink Solutions Technology to Support Financially Vulnerable Customers

The collections & recovery platform, receeve, has announced a new partnership with Paylink Solutions to provide a simple, efficient way to carry out affordability assessments for its customers across Europe. Through Paylink’s technology, receeve clients will benefit from a quicker and more accurate service, which will maximise agent output. On average, clients will see a 75% improvement in the time it takes to complete an affordability assessment.

UK Payments Leader Shieldpay Announces Partnership with Open Banking and Risk Specialists DirectID

Shieldpay, the secure digital payments market leader, and global credit and risk specialists DirectID, have announced a partnership to implement DirectID’s open banking-powered bank account verification into the Shieldpay payments engine. Working together, DirectID’s Connect widget and Shieldpay's payment engine allow customers to transfer funds online with digital escrow and trust services. 

ABTOT Chooses Trust Payments to be its Newest Payments Partner

The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust (ABTOT) has selected Trust Payments, the disruptive leader in frictionless payments and value-added services for merchants, as its newest payments platform provider across its broad membership base. As a partner to ABTOT, members will now have access to the full range of Trust Payments’ Converged Commerce™ offerings including online payment solutions from its dedicated payments gateway, acquiring services, multicurrency solutions and fraud screening.

FullCircl Partners with Codat to Create a Frictionless and Personalised Experience for Financial Service Providers Onboarding and Serving SME Customers

FullCircl, the Customer Lifecycle Intelligence (CLI) platform that helps B2B companies in financially regulated industries do better business, faster, announced a partnership with Codat, the universal API for small business data. FullCircl’s mission is to help banks and financial service providers overcome their biggest challenges. Getting the right data on small business customers is one of those challenges.

The Swedish Fintech Juni Joins Forces with Startup to Fight Online Fraud

The Lithuanian identity verification and compliance company iDenfy, joined forces with Juni, the financial management platform made for e-commerce. iDenfy’s mix of built-in identity verification and Business Verification services will protect Juni from fraud. Reduced costs, personalization, greater convenience, or speed are all factors that make e-commerce and fintech players successful in today’s digital sphere. 

Ethical Equity Partners With Streets Consulting To Help Underserved Startup Founders Become ‘Investor-Ready’

Ethical Equity, the UK’s first ethically compliant investment platform, announced a partnership with Streets Consulting, the financial services and technology business development, marketing and communications consultancy, to deliver a one-day Founder Workshop. To be held on 8 July 2022 at Origin Workspace, Bristol, the workshop is designed to fulfil three critical needs for entrepreneurs hoping to list on investment platforms like Ethical Equity.

Superapp Bano Partners with Currencycloud to Simplify Finance for Australia's Gen Z

Currencycloud, the experts in simplifying business in a multi-currency world, has been chosen by Bano, the new Australia-based financial super app aimed at making finances easier for Millennials and GenZ internationals, to launch its FX Converter to make remittance easier and less costly for its users and their families. The newly-launched FX Converter is integral to Bano’s goal of simplifying finances for Millennials and GenZers and their friends and family, wherever they are.

Canadian Banks Partner with CanDeal to Deliver Industry-wide KYC Solution

CanDeal Group (“CanDeal”), a leading operator of Canadian market and infrastructure services, has partneredwith five of Canada’s largest domestic banks to deliver a comprehensive, centralized Know Your Client (“KYC”) solution to the Capital Markets Industry. The landmark collaboration mutualizes many of the costs and efforts of complying with KYC requirements and The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (“PCMLTFA”) and delivers unparalleled operational efficiencies.

SME Bank Partners with kevin. to create One-stop-shop for Online Payments and Revenue-based Growth Financing

SME Bank, the bank making life simpler for small- and medium-sized enterprises, has partnered with next-generation payment infrastructure provider kevin. to create an easy-access one-stop-shop for e-commerce business owners seeking a range of online payment capabilities for customers, with payments into a single business account, combined with collateral-free growth financing.

Fintech Company Paysend uses airfocus to Create and Deliver Better Products for its Customers

UK fintech company Paysend is using airfocus to create and share product roadmaps across the company, providing greater transparency around priorities and enabling it to deliver better products to its seven million customers. Next-generation global payment ecosystem Paysend works with businesses and consumers alike, helping them to send money to more than 150 countries worldwide. 

 

Launches 

Finastra Launches Embedded Consumer Lending Solution

Finastra unveiled its embedded consumer lending solution, enabling access to traditional regulated lending options for consumers at point-of-sale (POS). Financial institutions, distributors and merchants will benefit from a platform that makes it easy for their customers to access lending options. For end consumers, Finastra Embedded Consumer Lending aims to make the buying process as frictionless as possible. 

Aliaswire Announces Advanced B2B Invoicing and Payment Capabilities for Manufacturers and Distributors

Aliaswire, a provider of bill payment and credit solutions for businesses and banks, announced the general availability of new invoicing and payment capabilities for manufacturers and distributors in its DirectBiller® platform. The advanced features address the unique requirements of business-to-business (B2B) customer relationships and transactions in manufacturing and distribution.

NatWest Launches Digital Carbon Planner to Help UK Businesses Manage Future Fuel and Operational Costs

NatWest announced the launch of its Carbon Planner, a free-to-use digital platform designed to help UK businesses manage their future fuel and operational costs, and reduce their carbon footprint to help them go and grow greener. The launch follows the bank’s broader commitment to lend £100bn to businesses in Climate and Sustainable Funding and Financing by 2025.

MCO launches Know Your Risk (KYR) to Provide Financial Services Firms with Comprehensive Compliance Governance and Oversight

Global conduct risk and compliance technology provider MCO (MyComplianceOffice), announced the launch of its new Governance and Oversight suite, Know Your Risk (KYR). KYR is a modular solution that enables firms to set regulatory priorities, identify policy and procedure gaps, and deliver proof of adherence with metrics and documentation.

Fenergo Launches ESG Offering to Support Mandatory Regulatory Requirements

Fenergo, the leading provider of digital solutions for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Client Lifecycle Management (CLM), has launched a new solution to enable financial institutions to reduce regulatory and reputational risk and streamline operations for ESG compliance. This allows firms to automatically calculate climate, reputational and complementary ESG risks and efficiently fulfil regulatory obligations.

Gatehouse Bank Introduces New Savings App

Gatehouse Bank has launched a mobile app, available on iOS and Android, to support customers in managing their personal savings accounts. The app allows users to view their account balance, recent transactions, and personal information held for the account. Users can also view and delete pending, unprocessed transactions and withdraw or transfer funds between Gatehouse Bank savings accounts (if their account(s) allow this).

Airwallex Launches Global Payment Services in New Zealand; Drives Business Growth in the ANZ Region

Leading financial platform Airwallex announced the launch of its global payment services in New Zealand. The launch will enable businesses in New Zealand to tap into Airwallex’s global payments services, offering a faster, more cost-effective and transparent alternative to traditional banks. Businesses in New Zealand now have access to key Airwallex offerings including international collections, multi-currency wallets in over 11 currencies, and local payouts in over 30 currencies.

Hyland Releases Latest Content Services Product Enhancements, Including New Integration with SAP SuccessFactors

Hyland, recognised by Gartner as a content services industry leader for 12 consecutive years, has launched its latest product enhancements and innovative solutions that will help customers in their digital evolution journeys. The new product functionality, which encompasses an array of Hyland’s content services offerings, empowers organisations to advance employee and customer experience initiatives while benefiting from improved platform scalability, administration and user interface enhancements.

Fusion Risk Management Launches Intelligent Incident Manager and Expands Dynamic Response Capability

Fusion Risk Management, Inc. (“Fusion”), a leading provider of operational resilience, risk management, and business continuity software and services, announced the expanded functionality of its Dynamic Response capability as well as the launch of Fusion Intelligent Incident Manager to deliver resilience that is both agile and interactive. The new Intelligent Incident Manager is a purpose-built solution that enables organizations to identify the full scope of an incident and recognize impacted assets or known outages.

Velexa Launches Embedded Investing as a Service Platform

Velexa, a recently launched WealthTech, announced the launch of their Investing Platform as a Service with embedded API and front-to-back B2B2X technology. With this launch, Velexa aims to impact the way in which wealth management products are created and distributed, empowering incumbent banks, neo banks, brokerage companies and disruptive players to offer a unified experience to end consumers.

The Bank of London and SAP Fioneer Join Forces to Disrupt Global Clearing and Transaction Banking

The Bank of London, the world's first purpose-built global clearing, agency and transaction bank, has teamed up with SAP Fioneer, a leading global provider of financial services software solutions and platforms, to transform and simplify global clearing and transaction banking. The Bank of London is the UK's second clearing bank authorised in the last 250 years. Its technology platform is engineered to be a foundational building block of the borderless economic infrastructure of the future.

New PayPal Cashback Business Credit Card Launches for US Small Businesses

PayPal Holdings announced it is expanding its suite of credit offerings to include a new business credit card to better meet the everyday financing needs of small business owners. The PayPal Business Cashback Mastercard, issued by WebBank and powered by the Mastercard network, is the first business credit card offered through PayPal.

Investment Platform Qooore Launches Paper Trading and Reveals New Name

Qooore, the social investment platform for Gen Z, announces the launch of paper trading in its iOS app, enabling users to carry out risk-free trades based on insights from leading finfluencers. To mark this exciting new chapter in the company’s development, Qooore is also rebranding as Qure.Finance, while reaffirming its focus on becoming the leading investment platform for Gen Z, with a total addressable market of $84 bln.

UK Insurtech Superscript Expands into the Netherlands

London-based insurtech Superscript announces its expansion to the Netherlands today, in the latest development towards its goal of becoming a global leader in SME insurance. Supercript’s advisory service, SuperscriptQ, will be helping the next leaders in Europe with emerging technologies secure the right cover. The focus will initially be on medtech, fintech and digital asset businesses, before expanding its scope to other high-growth tech sectors.

Chargebacks911 Celebrates 3x Boost to its Automated Dispute Response Platform With the Addition of Data-Driven AI Enablement

Chargebacks911, the leading dispute technology specialist that powers chargeback remediation for the largest global eCommerce businesses, as well as the world's financial institutions, celebrates a 3x boost to its automated dispute response platform. The addition of AI further propels Chargebacks911’s worldwide market advantage, as the leading dispute technology platform.

 

Merger & Acquisition

GoCardless to Acquire Open Banking Platform Nordigen, Combining Broad Open Banking Connectivity with Bank Payment Expertise

GoCardless, the global leader in direct bank payments, has announced its plans to acquire Nordigen, the freemium open banking data provider, as it builds on its vision to become the world’s bank payment network. GoCardless will incorporate Nordigen’s next-generation open banking connectivity -- offering the widest coverage in Europe, connecting to more than 2,300 banks in 31 countries -- into its account-to-account network.

Lentra Acquires AI Startup TheDataTeam to Accelerate Digital Lending Platform Business

Lentra AI Private Limited, one of the fastest-growing digital lending cloud platforms, has announced the acquisition of Chennai and Singapore-based AI company TheDataTeam (TDT). Lentra will deploy TDT’s flagship behaviour intelligence platform Cadenz to help banks and financial institutions make better data-driven decisions on customer creditworthiness based on their unique financial journey. 

FTX Nears $25million Bargain Deal for BlockFi

CNBC reports that less than a year after raising capital at a valuation of $3 billion, bitcoin player BlockFi is on the verge of being acquired by FTX for as little as $25 million. Friday could see the signing of an agreement before the end of the quarter, according to sources cited by CNBC. Only days earlier, FTX had provided BlockFi with an emergency $250 million line of credit.

 

Job Moves

Payments Specialist Kenswitch Appoints Karimi Ithau as Managing Director

Kenswitch, the leading Payments Service Provider (PSP) in Kenya, has appointed Karimi Ithau as its new managing director, replacing George Wainaina who left a few months ago. Ithau previously served as the head of the sales network at Interswitch for the last five years prior to the new role. Ithau previously worked as the general manager and head of business development at Paynet. 

Medius Builds Senior Team with Appointment of Two Channel Leaders

Medius, a leading provider of AP Automation and wider spend management solutions, announces the appointment of two new Channel Leaders to its senior team. Tanya Wills joins as VP of Channel Sales and Alliances for North America and Mandi Lapointe joins as Director of Global Partner Marketing. The new hires follow a string of senior leadership hires made in 2021 and 2022, including, CEO Jim Lucier, CSO Branden Jenkins, CMO Kim Albrecht, CRO Jeff Swan, and Matt Rhodus, VP of Business Development & Strategic Initiatives – all tasked with growing the business globally.

GPS Announces New Senior Leadership Changes

Global Processing Services (GPS), a leading global payment technology platform, announced the promotion of Joanne Dewar to Vice-Chair. Kevin Schultz has also been appointed as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Joanne will maintain her position on the GPS board, where she will focus on the group’s growth and global profile, and continue to work alongside Chair, Gene Lockhart, in a newly created Office of the Chair.

Resolve Expands Leadership Team to Fuel Growth and Meet Rising Demand of B2B Customers

Resolve, the B2B payments solution offering net-terms-as-a service announced key new hires to accelerate growth and meet the escalating demand for its embedded payments and accounts receivables tools. New additions to the leadership team include Amazon’s former Senior Portfolio Manager Maria Schmeiser as Head of Risk and Podsight’s former Head of People Marnie Robbins as Head of People Operations. 

FinTech West Establishes Further Credibility with the Appointment of Professor of International Management

Jonathan Beaverstock, Professor of International Management at the University of Bristol, joins FinTech West as Knowledge Exchange Fellow, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, bringing social science expertise to the team supporting Bristol, Bath and the Southwest to become a FinTech superpower.The fellowship role has been funded to facilitate knowledge exchange between academia and industry leaders in the FinTech cluster.

Debite Appoints Fintech Specialist Uma Balachandra as Head of Revenue

Debite, the financing platform for early-stage companies, announced the appointment of Uma Balachandra as its first Head of Revenue. Uma most recently served as General Manager, UK & Europe at Jeeves, an all-in-one credit and expense management platform. During his time at Jeeves, Uma led the expansion of the fintech to new markets and established a local cross-functional team, while at the same time driving revenue growth through business development and partnerships.

Monite Appoints Alex Akimov, Formerly Adyen’s Head of API

Embedded finance startup Monite has appointed Alex Akimov as Head of API, formerly also Head of API of Adyen, in the latest move in its platform scaling strategy. Like Adyen, currently capitalized at nearly $40 billion, Monite’s embedded finance strategy is built on API interconnectivity. Monite’s embeddable API enables B2B brands to add new finance automation features, such as invoicing, accounts payable, expense management, and more, directly into their existing interface.

nCino Hires Chief People Officer to Lead Company’s Strategic People Functions Through Next Phase of Global Growth and Maturation

nCino, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCNO), a pioneer in cloud banking and digital transformation solutions for the global financial services industry, announced that Chris Ainsworth has joined the Company as its first Chief People Officer, serving as a member of the nCino Executive Leadership Team. For the past 25 years, Ainsworth has led people functions and teams in a range of industries including insurance, cards and payments, banking and capital markets.

Fintech Griffin Appoints Maria Campbell as its New Chief Operating Officer

Griffin, the UK-based Banking as a Service firm, announces the promotion of Maria Campbell to Chief Operating Officer. Campbell first joined Griffin in 2021 as Vice President of People. Campbell will be responsible for executing the firm's commercial growth strategy in this new role, and embedding operational excellence and resilience into the business as it scales. Her appointment as COO comes after Adam Moulson was announced as interim CEO, while David Jarvis takes parental leave.

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