Published

14.06.2022 -- 12:07 pm

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02:00 am

MFS Africa, Africa’s largest digital payments network, today announces that it has secured an additional US$100 million in equity and debt funding led by Admaius Capital Partners, taking the total amount raised in the series to US$200 million. New investors, Vitruvian Partners and AXA IM Alts joined the extension, alongside existing investors, AfricInvest FIVE and CommerzVentures, who re-invested in the extension. Previous other investors include LUN Partners Group, Goodwell Investments, Allan Gray Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest, Equator Capital Partners, Ulme B.V., and Vlemeij B.V.

The new funding will further accelerate MFS Africa’s expansion plans across Africa, its integration into the global digital payment ecosystem, its expansion into Asia through its joint venture with LUN Partners to enable cross-border digital payments between Africa and China, and its ambitious growth plans for the BAXI network of merchants and agents in Nigeria and beyond.

Providers of debt financing included Stanbic IBTC Bank and Symbiotic. Stanbic IBTC Bank will be partnering with MFS Africa to support the growth of the recently acquired BAXI network of merchants and agents in Nigeria.

Since the first close of its Series C fundraising back in November 2021, MFS Africa has completed its acquisition of BAXI in Nigeria. BAXI has since received additional licenses from the Central Bank of Nigeria, including PSSP and PTSP licenses. It has also continued to build out its leadership team with the addition of Meghan Taylor - previously Partner at Boston Consulting Group - as Chief of Staff, responsible for business integration across the Group; and most recently, Julian Adkins - previously Africa CFO at Millicom (Tigo) - who has been appointed as Group Chief Financial Officer. Last week, MFS Africa announced its acquisition of Global Technology Partners (GTP) which will accelerate its offering of card connectivity to mobile money users.

Dare Okoudjou, founder and CEO of MFS Africa, commented, "With this US$100 million extension of our Series C fundraise we are thrilled to have the support of world-class investors Admaius, Vitruvian and AXA IM Alts, and for the continued support of existing investors, on our journey to making borders matter less when it comes to payments. The strength of our business model is grounded on building a lasting digital infrastructure that unleashes and simplifies economic activities across the continent through any-to-any interoperability. Our multiple initiatives and solutions are providing access to Africans, at home and in the diaspora. We are building MFS Africa into a safe, sound, scalable and high impact pan-African payment infrastructure that will facilitate Africa’s rapidly growing commerce, both now and in the future.”

Marlon Chigwende, Managing Partner of Admaius Capital Partners, said: "What drew us to this deal is the quality of the team that Dare has assembled; it is outstanding. As an Africa focused private equity house investing in high impact sectors that drive social and economic transformation, our investment in MFS Africa is exactly what our existing investors are looking for, namely well managed, fast-growing, market leaders empowering financial connectivity and inclusion across the African continent."

Joe O’Mara, Partner of Vitruvian Partners, said: “At Vitruvian Partners, our mission is to support the most ambitious and talented entrepreneurs and high growth companies to achieve their goals. We are delighted to be making our first investment in the continent with MFS Africa, and we believe that Dare and his team have built the foundations for a transformational business with strong long-term growth prospects."

Jonathan Dean, Head of Impact Investing at AXA IM Alts, commented: “We are thrilled to invest in MFS Africa’s mission of accelerating digital financial inclusion, as this directly contributes to our broader impact goals of improving financial connectivity and reducing inequalities globally. Our investment will support the expansion of MFS Africa’s product offering and the creation of economic and societal value.”

FT Partners served as the exclusive financial and strategic advisor to MFS Africa in the Series C raise. This transaction underscores FT Partners' deep domain expertise and unrivalled track record in the payments space across emerging markets, including Africa.

Informational Advantage & Alternative Data

Gediminas Rickevičius
VP of Global Partnerships at Oxylabs.io

Alternative data has been making waves in the financial sector at least since 2017. see more

#data

07:00 am

In the first months of 2022 tourism in Italy is beginning to show some tangible signs of recovery, as evidenced by data from Federalberghi, Nexi and Zucchetti relating to the presence and spending by tourists in hotels, and the preferred Italian destinations this summer.

Indeed, while it is true that tourists’ presence in Italian hotels in the January-May 2022 period was not back to pre-pandemic levels (down 3.1% for Italians and 6.8% for foreigners compared to 2019), the result for the month of May offers hope for the future, with Federalberghi recording a robust +33.4% in the leisure tourism segment - the result of a 13.5% increase in the presence of Italians and a 45.8% increase in that of foreigners. This is a significant growth compared to April when the number of tourists in Italian hotels rose by 10.5% compared to 2019 but foreigners’ presence recorded a 26.3% decrease.

"We are confident that the good performances registered during the Easter holiday and the April 25 and June 2 holiday weekends are a prelude to a positive summer," stated Alessandro Massimo Nucara, General Director of Federalberghi, “and that the second half of the year will provide at least partial relief from the damage inflicted on businesses by two tragic years, which we want to put behind us as soon as possible.”

Not only is presence on the rise, but also spending by tourists, according to data from Nexi, which looked at purchases in hotels by Italians and foreigners. The analysis by PayTech shows that in May 2022 they were up 13.7 % compared to May 2019, more specifically +25.6% for Italians and +9% for foreigners.

These figures are of particular relevance considering above all the significance of tourism in Italy - according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the contribution made by the travel and tourism industry to Italy's GDP is equal to 13.1%.

"With tourism being one of the key assets for our country's economy, the recovery of spending in hotels is an encouraging signal and a confirmation that digital payment tools are now chosen by an increasing number of merchants and consumers who favor them for the convenience, security and speed they guarantee", said Enrico Trovati, Merchant Services & Solutions Director at Nexi.

According to an analysis by Zucchetti and Lybra.tech (a Group company) based on the figures of Travel Data Lake, an innovative project of the Italian software house, tourism relating to seaside destinations in summer 2022 will virtually cover the whole of Italy. Among the most popular destinations are the Veneto region beaches (index number = 100), the Romagna Riviera (98), the Tuscan Costa degli Etruschi (78), Costa Smeralda in Sardinia (65), and the Salento area in the Apulia region (56), as well as the island of Elba (28), the Amalfi Coast (28), the northern coast of Sicily (25) and Maremma in the south of Tuscany (24). Lastly, the number of searches carried out shows that this year U.S. nationals are the most interested in going to Italy for their vacation.

"Our analysis method is extremely innovative," commented Angelo Guaragni, CEO of Zucchetti Hospitality, "because it allows us to make accurate forecasts using artificial intelligence techniques to cross-reference data from more than 15,000 hospitality facilities and the preferences expressed online by consumers. This is a concrete example of how effective technology can be in supporting hoteliers' strategic choices."

03:00 am

British Business Investments, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, today announces a new £30m Tier 2 capital facility for a challenger bank, Allica Bank. Allica Bank has been lending to smaller businesses since March 2020, committing over £560m in loan offers in 2021 and is set to offer £1 billion to smaller businesses in 2022.

This Tier 2 facility from British Business Investments will enable Allica Bank to draw on capital as required, to support additional lending to UK smaller businesses of up to £250m.

British Business Investments aims to increase the supply and diversity of finance for smaller businesses across the UK by boosting the lending capacity of challenger banks and non-bank lenders. Since it was established in 2014, British Business Investments has committed over £3bn to providers of finance to UK smaller businesses

Judith Hartley, CEO, British Business Investments, said: “This £30m Tier 2 commitment to Allica Bank supports British Business Investments’ mission to increase the diversity and supply of finance for smaller businesses in the UK. Challenger banks like Allica help diversify the UK’s smaller business finance market and this, in turn, helps smaller businesses across the UK to access the finance they need to grow.’’

James Heath, Chief Financial Officer, Allica Bank, said: “The investment from British Business Investments will allow Allica Bank to support even more UK SMEs with funding to realise their growth potential. Our approach of relationship banking backed by modern technology, combined with this support from British Business Investments, goes a long way to serving the needs of often forgotten established SMEs.”

08:00 am

Imperva, Inc., the comprehensive digital security leader on a mission to help organizations protect their data and all paths to it, warns that Account Takeover (ATO) attacks are surging in the wake of the growing popularity of ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL). Last year, ATO attacks grew by 148% across all sectors and, in the last month alone, the Imperva Threat Research Team found attacks against financial services and fintech firms have soared by 58%, demonstrating the extent to which bot operators are increasingly turning to ATO as a reliable source of profit and disruption.

The BNPL sector is experiencing astonishing growth and is expected to be worth nearly $4 trillion by 2030. It is also a highly attractive target for bot operators because many of the businesses offering BNPL loans are relatively new, meaning they don’t have large amounts of historical fraud data to help them identify potentially fraudulent purchases. On top of this, a lack of regulation surrounding BNPL loans in comparison to other credit agreements makes it easier for bot operators to commit Account Creation Fraud (ACF). ACF involves using stolen personal information from data breaches to create fake accounts and illegally purchase items.

“Successful ATO attacks or ACF harms everyone involved in the transaction,” says Lynn Marks, Senior Product Manager, Imperva. “For consumers, they can end up hundreds or thousands of pounds out of pocket, and potentially find their credit scores trashed as part of the bargain. Even if the money is recovered, the psychological toll can still be profound. And for businesses, they not only risk losing the entire value of the loan, but also incurring significant additional costs to support victims and investigate fraud claims, increased customer churn, and reputational damage for allowing accounts to be compromised.”

According to the 2022 Imperva Bad Bot Report, three of the top four industries most affected by ATO attacks (Financial Services, Travel, and Retail) are most likely to be involved in BNPL transactions. Indeed, more than a third of all ATO attacks (34.6%) were directed toward the financial services industry, which is at the centre of BNPL. Moving forward, as the move toward digital payments continues unabated - fueled in part by the boom in BNPL offerings - the rate of ATO attacks on Financial Services firms is likely going to carry on rising sharply.

“It’s essential that we don’t pigeonhole this as a problem that purely affects the payments industry,” continues Marks. “BNPL is immensely popular across all sectors, from entertainment and retail to travel and gaming and so every single one is at risk of being defrauded if they don’t have proper protections in place.”

Managing the risk of BNPL fraud requires a holistic approach that is grounded in an advanced bot protection solution that can detect and mitigate automated fraud, as well as help fraud teams prevent fraudulent activity on user accounts.

01:00 am

Clausematch, a global RegTech company automating policy management and compliance for regulated industries, today announced the close of a US$10.8M strategic funding round led by Lytical Ventures and joined by Flashpoint and Sony Innovation Fund. The new financing will be used to increase the company’s commercial activities in the US and invest in its product, technology and data science teams. The new funds bring the total investment to date to over US$20M.

Clausematch is a financial technology company that provides a software-as-a-service platform (SaaS) for smart management of compliance documents and processes, enabling regulated companies to meet compliance obligations. Since its last funding, the team has made numerous advancements to its product offering and launched a new core module, Policy Portal, which has been adopted by all of Clausematch’s biggest clients. Policy Portal is designed to be a single real-time up-to-date repository of all policies and procedures across an organisation.

The company’s presence in North America has grown significantly since the company’s participation in the NY-based FinTech Innovation Lab. Clausematch’s unique and easy-to-use policy management and compliance solution has seen rapid adoption as clients grapple to ensure ongoing regulatory changes are reflected across all documentation. With over 180,000 users, the company has more than doubled its customer base in 2021. Clausematch counts several Tier 1 banks in North America and Europe, including Barclays, as clients.

Evgeny Likhoded, Founder and CEO, Clausematch, says: “We got pulled to the US market and saw significant demand for our solution in the financial services sector. With this funding round, we are increasing our sales and marketing efforts in the US and European markets. And we are also continuing to invest in our technology and product capabilities to automate compliance workflows and apply our data science models to the compliance content as one of the biggest challenges that heavily regulated firms are facing is keeping up with the volume of regulatory change.”

Steve Berg, Partner, Lytical Ventures: “Compliance is the cornerstone of any well-reasoned implementation of enterprise policy management, security posture, or corporate strategy. If there is anything that today's geopolitical climate demonstrates, it is that companies are required to be proactive and dynamic in their approach to compliance. Clausematch is among the most forward-thinking companies offering a solution today, and its adoption by some of the most trusted institutions in the US and Europe is proof. Our expectation is that the company will develop into the market-dominant player in this space.”

Donatella Callegaris, Managing Partner of Flashpoint Venture Debt added: “We are proud to welcome Clausematch to the Flashpoint family! We see the successes that Evgeny and Team are demonstrating in the US market and are happy to support them on their exciting growth path.”

“The global RegTech market is expected to reach more than $55B US by 2025 as a growing number of compliance departments across many industries turn to technology and automation to cope with new and ever-changing regulations,” said Antonio Avitabile, Managing Director-EU, Sony Ventures Corporation. “With its unique solution and a leadership team with deep expertise in compliance and financial services, Clausematch is well-positioned to lead this growing market globally.”