This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 29/11

Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup Tuesday brings news of a new hire at FinTech Australia as well as record growth for Zuto.

Position appointments

FinTech Australia has appointed Rachel Hopping as its first head of strategic partnerships. She joins the team from share trading and superannuation fintech Superhero. The new role will primarily engage with FinTech Australia’s 400 corporate partners, including Visa, Mastercard and AWS.

Boost.ai hires Jerry Haywood as managing director. He joins the conversational artificial intelligence company LivePerson. Haywood succeeds founder and current CEO Lars Ropeid Selsåswho want to devote more time to product development and innovation.

Pleo name Mary Williams as its new chief technology officer. Williams’ appointment follows it Abigail Slater who came from American Express to become operations manager in UK&I. Williams joins Pleo’s senior leadership team, having worked at AI-powered rare disease discovery company Healx.

Fintech Paytrix appoints David Sola as CFO. David previously served as a CEO in multinational financial services UBS, Softbank Europe and Houlihan Lokey. The appointment comes shortly after Paytrix raised £5m in pre-funding.

Heath Davies has joined the technology provider TrustQuay as non-executive chairman. In his new role, Heath will manage the board and work with the CEO Keith Hale to drive forward the company’s growth plan. He has previously been CEO of Exclaimer, Clearswift, Alterian and Sword Group.

Budapest-based fintech solution provider Sprint form adds to its management team with the appointment of Francis Hardy as head of business development. Hardy joins after almost seven years at Wizz Air where he was responsible for digitally driven operations. The company has also recently hired Szabina Szekeres as head of talent growth.

Partnership

Travel technology company Saber Corporation and fintech Confirm Pay has entered into a partnership with MasterCard to accelerate the use of virtual cards for business-to-business travel payments. It builds on Sabre’s acquisition of Conferma Pay in August 2022. The new partnership with Mastercard will help Conferma Pay build enhanced digital capabilities into virtual cards. As part of the agreement, Mastercard has agreed to make a minority investment in Conferma Pay.

Global travel technology leader Amadeus has teamed up with global insurtech MGA pattern insurance to offer seamless insurance options. The latest collaboration helps travel agencies introduce insurance propositions from Pattern through the Amadeus Selling Platform.

Fundipedia and Kore Labs (Kore) has entered into a strategic partnership to integrate Fundipedia’s enterprise fund data management solution with Kore’s product management and end-to-end digital lifecycle management platform. Connecting the two platforms enables investment managers to manage product design, creation, reviews and changes effectively and efficiently.

red badger, the consulting company for digital product transformation for blue-chips, has entered into a partnership with Adyen, the global fintech platform. The partnership enables Red Badger to weave end-to-end payment capabilities into its digital product offering. It will also facilitate a joint mission to transform blue-chips into true digital product organizations.

There is also a partnership for Fuck offa data management and regulatory reporting company at fund level, and Next Gate Tech, a fintech that specializes in data management and analytics at the portfolio level. The commercial partnership brings together both companies’ expertise in fund data management.

Additional partnerships

FINE, a mobile-first financial management platform for SMEs and freelancers, has continued its European expansion with a launch in the Netherlands. The company also recently launched in the UK. FINOM has activated an e-money license in the Netherlands to focus on delivering best-in-class onboarding and customer service.

The Freedom Bank of Virginia has launched a new digital invoicing solution for business customers powered by Car books. The partnership enables Freedom’s small business customers to utilize invoicing and payment options seamlessly integrated and available within the bank’s online and mobile banking platform.

Seed stars officially launched Seed stars Capitalits investment platform for new venture capital fund managers with support from xMultiplieda Swiss-based investment holding company. Seedstars expects to drive over $500 million in new funding to emerging and diverse leaders, which will create more than 10,000 new jobs and generate over $20 billion in additional GDP across emerging markets over the next 10 years.

Napier, financial crime compliance company, has announced that its end-to-end financial crime risk management platform, Napier Continuum, is available to the Japanese market through a new partnership with the Japanese firm GRCS.

Financing and investment

FrankieOne, a global API platform for identity verification and fraud detection, has raised an additional $15.55 million in a Series A+ round. That brings its total Series A funding to $30.3 million. FrankieOne connects banking, fintech, crypto and gaming companies to hundreds of data sources across 48 markets. New strategic investors include Binance Labs and Kraken Ventures.

Furnace, the stake technology provider, has closed a €17 million funding round to expand its stake infrastructure product range. Investors included Illuminate Financial, Consensys, GSR, Kraken Ventures, Leadblock Partners, Sparkle Ventures and XBTO participated.

Regional insurtech Igloo has secured an additional $27 million in funding, raising the company’s Series B to over $46 million. Igloo’s Series B+ was led by global impact investor BlueOrchard’s InsuResilence Investment Fund IIwhich supports companies that drive affordability and accessibility to climate insurance.

Company updates

African Data Analytics Company Periculum launches Utambuzi in Kenya. Utambuzi, which means “insight” or “diagnosis” in Swahili, is a personal financial management product that leverages machine learning to track income and expenses. Insights into financial behavior also help users better align their spending with their financial goals.

Marketplace for car financing Zuto celebrating record growth and financial results. In October 2022, the Manchester-based fintech celebrated 40 percent year-on-year revenue growth. It also saw a seven percent increase in market share in the 12 months to September 2022, with a 14 percent increase in customers driving cars financed through Zuto.

Thriving has launched its next-generation multi-asset investment platform, serving investors across Europe. The initial line-up of products includes commission-free US stocks and ETF investment opportunities. Investors can use features such as quick trade menus, advanced charting, price alerts and an integrated financial calendar.

Regtech Clause match has joined Britain’s The Investment Association. Returning in front of IA partners allows Clausematch to spotlight its SaaS technology to help these organizations operate securely and bring compliant products to market. Clausematch became IA’s first fintech member in 2018.