The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 18 May brings news of a new CEO for Tuum, while insurtech bolttech celebrates its third anniversary with a successful Series B.
Partnerships
Global fintech Airwallex and travel technology company Expedia have announced a joint promotion. It aims to help customers save when booking hotel stays. Airwallex customers can enjoy a 10 per cent discount off hotel stays when booking on the platform. They also gain access to exclusive perks.
DCI (Data Center Inc), a developer of core processing, digital banking and fintech solutions, has partnered with fraud platform DataVisor. As a result, DCI customers can now better detect and mitigate application and identity theft, transaction fraud, account takeovers, money laundering, and other types of banking fraud before it results in financial and reputational damage.
Arteria AI has forged a strategic partnership with Compliance Systems, a provider of dynamic compliance documentation. An integrated joint solution will leverage aspects from both the Compliance Systems and Arteria technology platforms to provide customers with streamlined, compliant digital documentation in a single solution.
Westpac New Zealand has deployed a solution from Finastra to accelerate its compliance with the new ISO 20022 financial messaging standard. The solution has enabled the bank to leverage benefits of ISO 20022’s data-rich MX messaging format while providing backward-compatibility with legacy messaging formats, without needing to upgrade its entire payments ecosystem.
Fractory has partnered with Kriya Payments to provide flexible credit options to customers. Kriya (formerly known as MarketFinance) is a UK fintech which provides an embedded finance platform at checkout. Fractory is a manufacturing startup business, established in Estonia in 2017.
India’s Cashfree Payments has teamed up with Tazapay, Singapore-based cross-border payments company to power their cross-border payments for Indian exporters. The partnership lets Tazapay settle all cross-border payments directly to Indian exporters’ local bank accounts in Rupees (INR) in one business day.
More partnerships
The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) have launched ICMA’s new database dedicated to sustainable bond data. The database provides ICMA members and the wider financial community with important insights into the sustainable bond market.
MDOTM Ltd, a provider of AI-driven investment solutions, announces new ChatGPT-powered features in Sphere, its investment platform for institutional investors. The custom integration with ChatGPT APIs leverages Sphere’s proprietary insights and explainability data to generate bespoke portfolio commentaries.
Keyless and Synpulse have partnered to help accelerate the adoption of phishing-resistant authentication solutions in the UK to help banks fight back against account takeover (ATO) fraud. Synpulse says the biometric technology of Keyless aligns with its commitment to delivering digitalisation solutions that transform financial services.
LMAX Digital partners with Zodia Custody to provide institutional-grade trading infrastructure and custody solution for CoinShares. CoinShares will benefit from a fully segregated custodian solution by leveraging Interchange, the off-exchange settlement product from Zodia Custody and connectivity to LMAX Digital, a regulated exchange venue.
GoCardless has partnered with Bluefort, an independent software vendor, to offer a simple way for businesses to manage their billing, payments and accounting directly within Microsoft Dynamics 365. The newly launched GoCardless integration is available for free through Bluefort’s payment automation platform.
London-based corporate credit provider NUMARQE has partnered with plug-and-play finance provider Weavr in order to streamline the power of AI and embedded finance for a digitised corporate-card experience. With a Weavr-powered card, NUMARQE also simplifies expense management.
Funding and investments
wefox, the Berlin-based insurtech, has announced a second close in its Series D of $110million. It includes $55million in revolving credit from J.P. Morgan and Barclays and an additional $55million in equity raised from new and existing investors. The new funding is earmarked to further strengthen wefox’s insurance and distribution business.
Private credit market platform Percent has closed a $29.7million Series B funding round, more than doubling the company’s total funding, which now sits at $48.2million. The round was led by White Star Capital, with participation also from B Capital Group and Susquehan. Funding raised will help fuel continued growth.
bolttech has raised $196million in connection with its Series B with an up-round valuation of $1.6billion. The round was led by Tokio Marine. Other key investors also include MetLife Next Gen Ventures and Khazanah Nasional. bolttech will use the proceeds to further fuel its organic growth, as well as talent across bolttech’s 30-plus markets.
Finnish early-stage investor Lifeline Ventures has unveiled a new €150million fund. The new fund lists as one of the biggest funds ever raised in Finland. Lifeline Ventures is looking to fund early-stage companies with the potential of becoming category leaders, with first-time investments ranging from €150,000 to €2million.
There’s also funding success for Amini. The company, which focuses on solving Africa’s environmental data gap through AI and satellite technology, has raised $2million. The pre-seed funding round was led by Pale Blue Dot, as well as Superorganism, RaliCap, W3i and Emurgo Kepple Ventures.
More funding news
Regtech AMLYZE has concluded a $1million pre-seed investment round. The round was led by Practica Capital, with participation also from the Firstpick accelerator and venture capital fund. The funding will be used to scale AMLYZE’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) business, facilitate international expansion, as well as introduce advanced functionalities to its core product offering.
Fintech Smart has closed its $95million Series E funding in a round led by Aquiline Capital Partners LLC. Other investors also participating in the round included Chrysalis Investments, Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, DWS, Barclays and Natixis Investment Managers.
M-KOPA has bagged over $250million in new debt and equity funding to expand its financial services offering to underbanked consumers across Sub-Saharan Africa. Over $200milliom in sustainability-linked debt financing was led and arranged by Standard Bank Group.
GTreasury, a treasury, payments and risk management software provider, has secured a majority investment from Hg. The GTreasury management team and former majority owner, Mainsail Partners, will continue as investors. Hg’s backing enables GTreasury to continue its rapid growth.
Appointments
Fintech provider Quavo Fraud & Disputes has promoted Jon Lindsey to VP of technology. He oversees Quavo’s technology stack, infrastructure, integration with client data and quality assurance. In 2023, his team is streamlining Quavo’s client onboarding and data integration processes. It will also upgrade infrastructure architecture to support client growth.
Bank of Sharjah, a commercial bank in the UAE, appoints Mohamed Khadiri as CEO. This appointment comes as part of the Bank’s efforts to strengthen its leadership team, accelerate overall growth strategy and maximiSe value to shareholders. Most recently, Khadiri worked in Kuwait International Bank (KIB) for over six and a half years as general manager.
Tuum, the next-generation core banking platform, names Myles Bertrand as CEO. Bertrand joins from micropayments platform, DT One, where he was chief revenue officer. Prior to that Bertrand was also the MD at Mambu APAC. Bertrand’s focus will be on expanding Tuum’s client base and product offering as well as growing the team and international footprint.
Cloud accounting business iplicit has enlisted Damon Anderson to help shape the growth of its partnership channels. Anderson has become a strategic advisor to the company in a consulting role. This also includes the creation of an advisory board. Previously, Anderson served as regional chief operating officer at Xero leading operations in the UK and EMEA.
Synechron, a global digital transformation consulting firm, has appointed Roelof Derickx as director commerce of Synechron Netherlands. Together with Jaap Hofstee, he is responsible for commercial activities of the Dutch branch of Synechron.
Mergers and acquisitions
Fabrick has snapped up Judopay, a UK-based mobile payments company. The deal helps Fabrick’s Payment Orchestra to benefit from Judopay’s innovation expertise in digital commerce. Together, they will define new models and standards to provide smoother payment solutions, frictionless processes, and seamless check-out experiences for both merchants and customers.
Pepper Advantage, a global credit intelligence company, has acquired Rieom.ai, a specialist AI-driven credit management software platform. Rieom.ai’s flagship product is an AI/ML-driven predictive pre-payout credit approval tool that uses socio-demographic as well as profile-based analysis to assess loan application documents to identify fraud risks.
Employee engagement company Reward Gateway has been acquired by Edenred for £1.15 billion from funds managed by Abry Partners and Castik Capital. As part of the deal, Reward Gateway will join the Employee Benefits Division within Edenred.
Vienna-based IXOLIT Group and its subsidiary IXOPAY have been merged to form a single company, IXOPAY. Daily operations and the ownership structure of IXOPAY will remain unaffected, and there will be no changes to the teams working on IXOPAY. The goal is to simplify operations and eliminate administrative overheads while maximising the potential of the IXOPAY platform.
Company updates
LHV Bank, a provider of banking services and SME lending solutions, has extended its maximum loan size to £5million. LHV Bank’s Manchester-based SME lending team offers commercial mortgages for investment properties and trading businesses, with loan amounts starting from £0.5million.
