Partnerships 

Colt Technology Services Partners with VMware to Deliver Global Managed SD-WAN

Enterprise customers can now benefit from access to a new simple, scalable, and more secure WAN solution to help drive digital transformation and cloud optimization as a result of a partnership between agile, high bandwidth connectivity solutions provider Colt Technology Services and VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), a leading innovator in enterprise software. VMware is joining Colt’s Partner Hub ecosystem and the two will bring a new managed SD-WAN solution to the global market by combining VMware’s industry-leading SD-WAN solution with high-performance connectivity and best-in-class customer service from Colt.

Aura Blockchain Consortium Teams Up with Sarine

Singapore Exchange Mainboard and Tel Aviv Exchange listed Sarine Technologies Ltd, a worldwide leader in the development, manufacturing, marketing and sale of precision technology products for the evaluation, planning, processing, measurement, grading and trading of diamonds and gems, announced that the Aura Blockchain Consortium, founded by LVMH, Prada Group, Cartier, part of Richemont, and OTB Group, has chosen to partner with Sarine in relation to Sarine’s Diamond JourneyTM traceability solution and data for the Aura Blockchain Consortium platform.

Financial Innovator Tac Partners with Nordigen

Tac has selected Nordigen as their open banking choice to establish an easier process for receipt handoff between businesses and accountants. Tac is a German fintech aimed at small businesses in the foodservice, catering, retail and cultural sectors. The nature of these enterprises makes them susceptible to enormous amounts of receipts that appear in various formats. This includes both incoming and outgoing invoices, receipts in the paper, email and document forms, and cash receipts from suppliers and wholesalers. The processing and organization of all these documents take great effort and are time-consuming on the business side, as well as for the accountant.

Panoply Partners with Square

SQream announced that Panoply, their no-code cloud data platform that makes it easy to sync, store, and access business data, has partnered with globally trusted commerce solutions company Square to deliver deeper analytics insights to Square sellers. Panoply’s new pre-built dashboards feature uses data recipes to provide Square sellers with robust reporting and analytics, in just a few clicks. These new ready-made dashboards are designed both for business users unfamiliar with SQL, and for technical users tasked with providing business reports. Both groups will now have a quick path to actionable data insights.

Zvilo Partners with Mastercard

Zvilo, the digital platform unlocking working capital in the Balkans, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mastercard, signifying a strong collaboration and ongoing partnership. Admir Imani, Chairman of Zvilo, stated: “We are excited to have partnered with Mastercard in the Balkans, an often-overlooked market. We will be working with Mastercard to help transform how businesses in the region can access working capital and provide liquidity, reducing complexity and risk.”

Payhawk Collaborates With Cafico International to Launch ‘scaling Up’

Payhawk, the growing platform that combines expense, payment and invoice management in one solution, and Cafico International, an experienced, independent Trust and Corporate Services Provider for those seeking to do business in Dublin, London or Luxembourg, announced the launch of Scaling Up, a guide to opening an entity in Ireland. This follows Payhawk’s successful launch of Scaling into the UK, a corresponding guide for launching in the UK, written in partnership with law firm Mishcon de Reya; and Scaling Up, A Guide to Opening an Entity in Germany, with NHS group, a global tax and accounting firm headquartered in Dusseldorf.

Nordiska Extends Partnership with Mambu

Mambu, the cloud banking platform enabling modern financial experiences, announced that it has extended its partnership with Nordiska for an additional seven years to continue supporting the institution’s growing financial services offering and expansion plans. A licensed and regulated Swedish financial institution, Nordiska began operations in 2014 by offering specialized business loans. Nordiska and Mambu partnered in 2016 to replace their custom-built legacy systems with fully cloud-based infrastructure. Within months of full go-live, Nordiska expanded from Sweden to Finland and Germany.

Finastra Extends Collaboration With Orange Bank for Integrated Treasury Management in the Cloud

Finastra announced that Orange Bank in France has selected Finastra’s corporate treasury management solution, Fusion KTP in the cloud. The move will enable the bank to harness a fully integrated treasury management platform and gain faster access to innovation and time to market. Launched in France in November 2017, then in Spain in November 2019, Orange Bank provides banking services that are designed natively around customers’ mobile uses, which are both highly innovative and synergetic with Orange Group’s telecommunications business.

Launches 

Ozone API Launches ‘Beyond Compliance’ Open Banking Solutions

Ozone API, developer of the leading standards-based software for open banking and open finance, has launched a suite of solutions that enable banks to move beyond compliance and convert their APIs into more strategic and commercial channels. The enhancements to Ozone’s open API platform give banks and financial institutions the ability to comply with PSD2, create new open banking and open finance revenue streams and deliver services including Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) and Confirmation of Payee (CoP).

Fin+Tech Launches its Second Call for Application of the Accelerator Dedicated to Fintech and Insurtech Startups

May 31st will mark the launch of the new call for applications of Fin+Tech, the Italian acceleration program aimed at startups that develop fintech and insurtech solutions, part of the CDP National Accelerator Network, born from an initiative of CDP Venture Capital together with Digital Magics, Startupbootcamp, Fintech District, Nexi and Credem as promoters. The "Demo Day" held on April 12th marked the conclusion of the first round of the acceleration program, which saw more than 300 applications, of which approximately 50% came from outside of Italy, demonstrating the relevance of the Italian market for the segments involved.

CoinW Officially Launched in the Vietnam Market and Announced the Rewards of 10 Million USDT

CoinW, the world-class comprehensive digital assets exchange, announced its official entry into the Vietnamese market. They will be fully sincerely bringing rewards of more than 10 million USDT to Vietnamese users, which can be obtained from the activities of doing registrations, friend invitations, and transactions.Founded in 2017, CoinW has provided secure, compliant, efficient, and convenient cryptocurrency and derivatives trading services for more than 7 million users around the world. 

Sumsub Has Launched Proof of Address Document Subtypes Recognition for Fintech Companies

Sumsub, a tech company that helps businesses stay compliant and fight digital fraud, has recently addeddocument subtype recognition to its Proof of Address verification solution. Now user verification flows can be adjusted to specific regulatory requirements since companies can set different rules based on the type of document submitted. Proof of address, or PoA, is a document that verifies a person’s permanent residence. Checking such documents is one of the basic requirements for KYC/AML compliance. However, the legitimacy of one’s PoA is not always certain.

Fintech Lender Sonovate Launches New Platform to Enhance Embedded Finance Offering

Sonovate, the fintech lender that provides finance and technology services to businesses that engage contractors and freelancers, has launched brand-new cloud-native, API-first features to support its expanding number of enterprise customers and enhance its embedded finance offering. This enterprise-grade invoice platform will provide instant funding decisions and credit limits, variable advance and facility management increased automation, and enhanced reporting, allowing it to serve even more businesses.  

21shares Launches BOLD, the World’s First Bitcoin and Gold ETP

21Shares AG (“21Shares”), a Swiss-based issuer of crypto Exchange Traded Products (ETPs), announces the listing of the 21Shares ByteTree BOLD ETP on the SIX Swiss Exchange, the world’s first ETP that combines Bitcoin and Gold. The ByteTree BOLD index product has been developed in partnership with ByteTree Asset Management, a UK specialist provider and manager of alternative investment strategies. BOLD’s core investment objective is to deliver protection against inflation via optimized risk-adjusted exposure to Bitcoin and Gold with assets weighted in inverse proportion to their risk. It is designed to be a new diversifier within a balanced portfolio, offering a low correlation to traditional asset classes.

Top Crypto Platform Bybit Launches Options Trading

Bybit, one of the world's fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges, has announced its expansion into crypto options trading, adding to its existing product line of perpetual futures contracts and expiration futures contracts. Bybit's new options trading offering is based on user feedback, representing an important step in developing another powerful tool for Bybit users. Upon launch, Bybit users will be able to trade USDC options and perpetual through portfolio margin, which adopts a risk-based model for experienced traders, including market makers and institutional clients, to increase fund utilization based on the underlying price and volatility.

Mastercard Launches Next-generation Identity Technology with Microsoft

Mastercard on Monday announced the launch of an enhanced identity solution designed to improve the online shopping experience and tackle digital fraud in a new collaboration with Microsoft Corp. Now more than ever, delivering a frictionless shopping experience is critical as retailers look to shift window shopping and price comparison visits to confirmed sales. And, while consumers enjoy the convenience of shopping online, fraudsters also seek to develop new methods to use these same channels for ill-gotten gains. 

Merger & Acquisition

Elon Musk Takes Twitter with plans to make it a private company 

Musk is now Twitter's largest individual shareholder, after he recently acquired a 9.2% stake in the company, amounting to roughly 73 million shares. In a letter to Twitter, Musk states Twitter is “the platform for free speech around the world” but cannot achieve this “societal imperative” in its current form and “needs to be transformed as a private company”. After he has previously questioned Twitter's advertising business model, this has raised multiple questions about what his approach will be.

Banking Circle Group Acquires SEPAexpress, a Specialist Account-to-Account Payment Provider

SEPAexpress, which provides trusted and seamless, white-labeled account-to-account (A2A) payments for Payments Service Providers (PSPs), merchants, and corporates in Europe has been acquired by Banking Circle Group, the next generation financial technology platform for global commerce. Less than five years after bringing its first solution to market, SEPAexpress now processes millions of transactions on a monthly basis. By becoming part of the Banking Circle Group ecosystem SEPAexpress gains immediate access to technology infrastructure and financial resources to accelerate its growth.

Nium Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Socash

Nium, the global platform for the modern money movement, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Socash, a Singapore-based alternative payments network platform. Socash brings together financial institutions and digital commerce merchants into a thriving network that allows consumers to deposit, withdraw, and make payments with cash from more than 30,000 local shops, cafes, and grocery stores. The acquisition provides Nium with the team and technology to enable multiple forms of local payment acceptance for digital commerce, especially in emerging markets. 

Job Moves

Jonathan Bumba Joins Ensono as Chief Marketing Officer

Ensono, an expert technology adviser and managed service provider, announced that it has welcomed Jonathan Bumba as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Bumba brings over 27 years of experience in sales and marketing within the technology industry, developing go-to-market (GTM) strategies for both small and large enterprises. Bumba will lead Ensono’s marketing team to develop and implement a personalized GTM strategy and build unique, provocative stories that showcase the allyship and expertise of the company. 

TrueLayer’s Spanish Expansion Continues Appointing Pablo Ruano as Country Manager

TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, announces further expansion of its Spanish operations with the appointment of Pablo Ruano as its Country Manager. Madrid-based Pablo will oversee commercial strategy in the country, alongside TrueLayer’s recently appointed VP of EU Sales, David Exposito. The announcement comes as TrueLayer continues its Spanish expansion, where it offers 99% coverage of the banked population, processing more than half of all open banking traffic in the country through its collaborations with firms including Revolut, HeyTrade, and Ninety Nine.

Wahed Appoints Former SEC Director Lori Richards to Board of Directors

Wahed, a global fintech company that encourages social responsibility and financial inclusion through accessible, affordable, and values-based investing, announced the appointment of Lori A. Richards to its board of directors. With more than 30 years of industry experience, Richards is a well-respected securities industry compliance professional. A former Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Richards led the SEC’s national examination program, and led numerous examination initiatives, resulting in improvements in investor protection and industry compliance.

Alex Preece, CEO of digital gift card provider Tillo, has joined Network B's advisory board

The AI-based personalized offers platform Network B has recently enhanced its advisory board with the new appointment of Alex Preece, CEO of digital gift card platform Tillo. Alex Preece brings with him a wealth of experience in the fintech retail payments space. He co-founded Tillo in 2016 and in 2010 he also co-founded the first UK daily deals platform which was acquired by MoneySupermarket.com PLC the following year. This appointment follows recent investment in Network B from Velocity Capital. Since its inception in 2020, Network B has seen impressive growth. The AI-based personalized offers platform has access to over 40 million customers. 

ICON Corporate Finance Hires Mobility Specialist Sumeet Pillai

Tech-focussed investment bank ICON Corporate Finance has hired Mobility sector expert, Sumeet Pillai. With a background in VC, investment banking and corporate development, Sumeet has partnered with companies and investors throughout the growth lifecycle: from Series A, and mid-to-late-stage growth, to publicly listed companies. Sumeet brings a range of complementary skills to the ICON team through his experience across the buy-side and sell-side – including in Equity Capital Markets at Lloyds Banking Group, corporate development at Tata Capital Europe; and VC at Earlsfield Capital and New End Associates.

Lisa Gold Schier Joins Asa as Chief Strategy Officer

Asa connects financial institutions with vetted fintech for end-users in a secure, compliant, and easy to implement marketplace. The company announced that former American Bankers Association (ABA) executive Lisa Gold Schier has joined the company as chief strategy officer. Prior to joining Asa, Gold Schier spent years at ABA as a respected and impactful leader. She served as a trusted advisor to bankers, technology providers and consultants across areas such as technology trends, digital transformation and the customer experience. She also helped establish and lead the only industry committee focused on improving core platform-bank relationships.

GreenBox POS Changes Auditor to Simon & Edward, LLP

GreenBox POS, a rapidly growing FinTech firm announced that it has appointed Simon & Edward, LLP (“Simon & Edward“), an independent member of the BDO Alliance USA, as the Company’s new registered public accounting firm, effective April 19, 2022. The change from BF Borgers CPA, PC (“BF Borgers”) was made after a careful evaluation process carried out by the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company and not related to any disagreement between the Company and BF Borgers. Additional information can be found in the Company’s recent 8-K filing.

Bink Appoints Senior Leaders From HSBC and Visa to Its Executive Team as It Expands Into New Markets

Bink has further strengthened its senior leadership team with the appointments of Jose Jimenez Mancha as Chief Commercial Officer and Marty Kerr as Regional Head Asia Pacific. Jose has extensive experience in the banking and payments sector, having worked for HSBC and American Express in a variety of leadership roles. His most recent project – leading a global business development transformation team to accelerate the digitalization of the bank sets him in good stead to support Bink as they scale their banking partners.

DTCC Board of Directors Appoints Frank La Salla President & Chief Executive Officer

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Francis (Frank) La Salla, currently Chief Executive Officer of BNY Mellon’s Issuer Services business and a member of the BNY Mellon Executive Committee, as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, effective August 12. La Salla’s appointment as CEO reflects the Board’s long-term succession planning and rigorous search process with the scheduled retirement of Michael C. Bodson, who has served as DTCC’s CEO since July 2012.