This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 02/08

Fintech Times This week’s Bi-Weekly News Roundup sees new hires for Mollie and Atom while TrueLayer has entered into cooperation with WealthOS.

The job is moving

Chris Lewis, Manager of solutions with a specialist in data insight Synectics solutions, has been appointed to the executive board of Open Identity Exchange (OIX)a non-profit industry organization dedicated to creating a world where anyone can prove their identity and eligibility anywhere through a universally trusted ID.

The board of Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has accepted the resignation of F. Christopher Calabiawith effect from 31 August 2022. He will be succeeded by Ian Johnstonwho served as DFSA’s chief executive from 2012 to 2018, and will reprise his role from 1 September 2022.

Molly has announced the appointment of ex-Worldpay executive Michaela LeBlanc Weber as its new vice president of partnerships. She will work to develop and maintain our strong relationships with local and global partners, as well as continue to promote gender inclusion and the empowerment of women in fintech.

James Jamieson have joined Hargreaves Lansdowne from RBC Global Asset Managementwhich strengthens the HL Select team, manages the HL Select UK Growth Shares fund and the HL Select UK Income Shares fund.

Xsolla, a payment company for the video game industry, has previously employed Meta talent Sebastien Totte to conduct Xsolla business in the UK. As Xsolla’s Senior Country Manager for the UK, France and Benelux, Sebastian will build relationships with game studios in the region.

More job moves

MXa provider of Open Finance, announced it Jim Magats has been appointed CEO with effect from 17 August 2022. He takes over after 18 years as senior manager of PayPal Inc., and brings a wealth of experience to the company.

Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has appointed Marion King as Non-Executive Director as it continues to work towards its ambitious growth strategy. Marion has had top management roles with NatWest Group, Mastercard, Vocalink and Reuters.

thrive, the multi-asset investment platform has appointed Travis Robson as the new CEO for South Africa. This new appointment will be instrumental in the rollout and running of the operation in South Africa.

Atom has appointed Rebecca Cartwright which the bank’s new Chief Risk Officer replaces Chris Sparks, who is retiring after almost 7 years in the app-based bank. Cartwright will work to safeguard Atom’s position as a progressive, innovative and customer-centric business as it continues to create a new model for banking in the UK.

Financing and investments

B9 Inc, a fast-growing payroll solutions platform, has announced a $2.6 million funding round led by Sky Light Invest. The company plans to use the funds to invest in product development, particularly to unleash anti-inflation and revenue-generating features that help customers underserved by the traditional banks

Provider of client onboarding and relationship management software for the accounting industry, FibreCRM, has secured a second round of investment, taking its total recent investment to £1m. The funding to support its ambitious plans, including further investment in marketing and exciting new work opportunities.

Peech announced today that it has raised $8.3 million in seed funding. The round was chaired by Ibex Investors with participation from Cardumen Capital, Fresh Fund aas well as angel investors Nas Daily, Ariel Maislos, and others. Peech will use the funding to expand its AI capabilities and to diversify its media creation solutions.

Quasar Finance has raised $6 million from a number of leading investment firms, including Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, Figment Capital, Lightshift Capital and Galileo. The firms have supported Quasar Finance’s vision to create a range of accessible, structured investment products within the DeFi ecosystem that both investors and liquidity providers can benefit from.

Grasshopper, a digital bank serving small businesses and the innovation economy, today announced a $30.4 million equity raise to support future strategic growth initiatives via small business lending, deposits and payment solutions.

Partnership

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., announced a global collaboration with Blue Ocean Technologies (BOT), a unique capital market Fintech focused on global after-hours trading. Blue Ocean ATS (BOATS) will integrate with Broadridge’s NYFIX order routing network to offer clients untapped aftermarket access to US equities.

Molo Finance, The UK’s first fully digital mortgage platform announces its strategic partnership with ColCap Financialan Australian mortgage lender partnering with Molo to expand into the UK.

Open banking platform TrueLayer has entered into cooperation with WealthOS, The SaaS platform that accelerates digital adoption and innovation for wealth managers. Together, the companies bring the benefits of instant bank payments – improved speed, customer experience and security, at a lower operating cost – to the account funding process.

arms, the unified asset intelligence platform, has joined the UK financial services industry body, UK Finance, to help members address cybersecurity challenges arising from managed or unmanaged connected assets in their environments.

ID Card, the provider of identity verification, is appointed by Lerex technology, the payment solutions provider, to help with its growing identity verification, e-verification, anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements.

Company announcements

Odoo has chosen Kenya to establish its first African office, starting operations on 1 July 2022. “It was very important for us to open this new office and 2022 was the year to do it. We wanted to be closer to our customers and address them locally, with local talent, something we cannot achieve from a long distance.” says Fabien Pinckaers, CEO and founder of Odoo SA

Mashrek, has launched a non-banking business services platform called Mashreq Business Banking Value Added Services, which forms part of the bank’s commitment to enable business success and help SMEs do business better. The new platform gives businesses privileged access to a select group of innovative fintechs, start-ups and other service providers with a range of unique offerings.

Bit of sun the company that builds financial technology for everyday spending announced that it has expanded beyond point-of-sale lending with the introduction of a new, next-generation credit card. The Sunbit card is revolutionary in simplifying the way consumers manage their finances, eliminating the need for budgeting between credit cards and payment methods.

Pidgina secure real-time payment platform built for the future of payments, announced that United Bankers’ Bank, the nation’s first banker’s bank, is expanding the platform to its more than 1,000 community banks across the West Coast to the Great Lakes and South Atlantic, giving them a fast, easy and secure way to send and receive payments on.

Open banking platform Yapily has today launched Yapily Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) to accelerate innovation across the open banking ecosystem.