This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 04/04

welcome to Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup Tuesday, April 4.

Financing and investment

Fourth line, a regtech offering AI-powered and compliant KYC and AML solutions, has raised €50 million from new and existing institutional investors. It provides financial institutions with a single, bank-grade solution for continuous “lifetime” financial compliance. Radboud Vlaar, managing partner of Finch Capital, has also increased his efforts after leading Fourthline’s previous round.

Quantex has completed a $129 million Series E funding round. The latest round of investment secures the British technology company’s unicorn status with a valuation of $1.8 billion. It will also accelerate the implementation of its growth strategy. Quantexa also plans to use the funding to increase its technology innovation efforts and strengthen its Decision Intelligence Platform capabilities.

Coinweb has closed a $2 million fundraising round from SAVA Investment Management. The dual-chain computing platform has been under development since 2017. Some of the founders, early contributors, and former team members who are no longer actively involved in the project have agreed to sell their stakes. SAVA Investment Management has partnered with Coinweb to buy back six percent of CWEB tokens.

Acre software, a UK start-up using blockchain technology to shake up the mortgage and insurance application process for advisers, has raised £6.5m. The London-based team also revealed plans to scale and secure new partnerships. The McPike Global Family Office (MGFO)joined returning investors Aviva and Founders Factory in the financing round.

The cachet, the Swiss-UK-based premium digital financial services firm, has raised CHF6.2million in funding to support its expansion and readiness for further growth. Kashet is focused on delivering a member-based financial solution app for customers and private banking customers.

Appointments

Risky appoints Jeff Otto as marketing manager. He is responsible for a global integrated marketing strategy that will reinforce Riskified’s brand, strengthen category leadership and accelerate demand for the company’s expanding product suite. Otto was most recently marketing manager in Market.

Fintech DailyPay have welcomed Kevin Doerr as its first product manager. Doerr was most recently CPO at Marqeta, where he oversaw a global product organization. He joins DailyPay as the company prioritizes growth and product innovation.

PremFina name Allan Oliver as its first network ambassador. He joins after 18 years at Close Brothers as network manager. The premium finance provider is looking to build its footprint with its broker network and its independent broker membership.

Meanwhile Tim Johnson join Tulle by NatWest and Payit as the new head of strategy. He comes from Raidiam, a company specializing in creating secure data sharing ecosystems, where he was strategy director for over three years. His aim is to drive strategic growth for both Tyl by NatWest and Payit.

Paysafe has appointed Nicole Carroll as its first ever head of strategy and innovation. Her primary tasks at Paysafe will be to further develop the company’s group vision and long-term growth strategy. She will also lead its product innovation and investment programs. Carroll joins Paysafe from Experian.

More employment

The Lending Standards Board (LSB) has welcomed his new chair Ken Scott. He replaces Chris Pond, who has reached the end of his six-year tenure – the maximum period allowed under LSB’s governance rules. During his management career, Scott played a role in driving the regional growth of HSBC’s commercial bank.

Motie Bring have joined PPRO as sales manager. Bring is responsible for advancing the company’s commercial strategy, guiding the global business development teams and overseeing PPRO’s sales and marketing department.

Aspen Digital, digital asset wealth tech platform, has named Elliot Andrews as managing director. He joined Aspen Digital in 2021 as head of business development and oversaw the firm’s overall strategy across sales and marketing, product and operations. In his new role, he will continue to push the growth strategy of the platform in the region and into new markets across Europe and the Middle East.

Cross-border payment company CurrencyFair and Zai, its fintech arm providing embedded payment orchestration solutions in Australia, has named Shamus Hodgson as CEO. Zai’s merger with CurrencyFair and subsequent rebrand was recently awarded “Deal of the Year” by Australia’s fintech recognition event, Finnie Awards.

Ninethe payment infrastructure for on-demand money movement, name Volker Steinle as senior vice president and general manager, Americas. Steinle will be responsible for accelerating sales and revenue growth in the region, as well as engaging customers and prospects. He will be based in San Francisco, California.

Company updates

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has licensed Rasid payment company for financial technology to offer payment solutions through point of sale (POS). This addition brings the total number of payment companies licensed by SAMA to 24. In addition, six companies have granted in-principle approvals.

Open data platform Moneyhub has announced that its APIs are now available via the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace. Moneyhub offers its Open Banking APIs, Open Banking Affordability and Categorization services through the marketplace, along with a number of other features. Businesses wishing to use Moneyhub’s services can also purchase using the AWS points system.

GCEX, a digital asset and currency brokerage, has released XplorDigital trading solutions, including two new trading platforms. XplorSpot and XplorTrader will help brokers, fund managers, hedge funds and professional traders to operate more efficiently. XplorSpot and XplorTrader form key components of GCEX’s XplorDigital trading solutions – ‘Crypto In A Box’ and ‘Broker In A Box’ plug and play solutions.

British finance app for kids GoHenry has been intercepted by American investment app Acornpp. In the US, GoHenry will operate as GoHenry by Acorns. In the UK and Europe, GoHenry & PixPay will continue to operate under their own brands. This acquisition marks an acceleration of Acorns’ roadmap by putting responsible money management and education tools in the hands of children, teenagers and adults, globally.

European neobank bunq has applied for a US banking license with FDIC in the state of New York. bunq has already expanded to more than 30 European countries, and after the acquisition of Belgian fintech TriCount, it became the second largest neobank in the EU.

Partnership

The OSB group has entered into a multi-period agreement cooperation with fintech Paylink solutions. The new cooperation demonstrates best practice in the mortgage sector around understanding customer affordability and making it easier for customers to engage with OSB. By using Paylink’s Embark application and open banking services, customers will be able to pre-populate their budget using the Embark application.

PayPal Holdings and Live Nation Entertainment announce a multi-year strategic partnership naming PayPal as the preferred payment partner of Ticketmaster. As part of the partnership, fans can pay with PayPal and PayPal Pay Later products across Ticketmaster’s platform.

Meanwhile, global identity verification provider ID Card has merged with Bluestone Motor Finance. The partnership delivers a seamless journey for customers to verify their identity in real-time and enables faster funding decisions. By using ID-Pal, dealers benefit from faster results delivered in minutes by borrowers who complete the identity verification process via the ID-Pal app.

Melio, a B2B payment platform for small businesses, collaborates with small business experts Rhonda Abrams. She will provide insight to small businesses on how small businesses can optimize their financial health by reducing costs, increasing profits, as well as better managing cash flow.

More partnerships

Origin has entered into cooperation with iPipeline to help vendors build and integrate connected technology platforms. The partnership will enable both current and future vendor partners on iPipeline’s SSG Digital platform to streamline the process required to access various services in the Origo ecosystem via ‘plug and play’ integration

Orange Bank will migrate to Mambu’s cloud banking platform at the head office in France based on the successful launch of Orange Bank on Mambu in Spain in 2019. By using Mambu’s core banking systems, Orange Bank can scale operations as well as improve the banking experience for its customers.

Volante Technologies and HCLTech also join forces to accelerate the modernization of cloud payments for financial institutions. HCLTech will combine its digital services and engineering services with Volante’s cloud-based payment solutions and low-code financial platform.

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has launched its CBDC implementation strategy in collaboration with R3. R3 and G42 Cloud have been selected as technology and infrastructure providers for the initiative, while Clifford Chance will provide legal oversight of the strategy. The strategy also sets out a roadmap for using CBDC across a range of domestic and cross-border use cases in the region.