This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 08/09

Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup brings news of a new chief revenue officer at ClearBank and funding success for SteelEye.

The job is moving

ClearBank has unveiled Andrew Barker as its new chief revenue officer. He will play a key role in developing the bank’s international growth ambitions, following the £175m investment from Apax Digital. Barker will report directly to ClearBank CEO Charles McManus.

Global identity verification provider ID Card has appointed a data protection officer Sinead McDonald to his board. The addition follows ID-Pal’s recent Series A funding round, led by Inspire investments, which saw it secure €7 million to scale operations globally.

The International Chamber of Commerce UK has announced Santander UK Head of International and Transaction Banking John Carroll will lead Center for digital trade and innovation as a chair. Carroll has worked with the ICC since 2016 as head of its Trade and Investment Policy Committee.

Sheet36, the Cyprus-based leading alternative investment cryptocurrency fund, has promoted Anto Paroian to the managing director and managing director. The company has also promoted Despina Saphiris to the managing director and risk manager, Tetyana Martynenko to MLCO Officer and Christos Krokides to portfolio manager.

SCRIPT, the Swiss-regulated access company that offers a single point of access to digital assets for institutions is unveiling two new hires. Stefan Becker and Nicholas Steiner will join SCRYPT’s strategic development team.

LCM partnersthe European investment manager for alternatives, name Roger Kibble-White as Group Finance Director. He comes from Fidelity International. Kibble-White will help build the business as the company’s scale and geographic reach grow.

More job moves

Meanwhile, Network International appoints Dr. Reda Helal as Executive Vice President, Processing Operations for Africa.
Helal will lead a customer-focused business unit serving FIs, fintechs and payment partners across all African geographies. He joined Network International in 2007 and most recently served as Group CEO for Processing.

Allvue Systems, a provider of alternative investment technology solutions, name Dan Streetman as managing director. Streetman will lead Allvue’s culture, strategy, operations and aggressive expansion plans. He will also work together with the executive management team to align and implement strategic priorities.

Marion Kingformer payment director at NatWesthas joined the board of the fintech payment company Cash flows. In 2021, she was appointed chairman of the board of The Payments Association and holds several non-executive director roles.

Dillingthe international multi-asset fintech company, appoints Jon Squires, as executive chairman. Squires will actively advise the company as it continues to scale up its expanding business. Squires previously held the role of CEO at Capital.com and Currency.com.

Company updates

Kosovo fintech Paysera has implemented the first project in collaboration with The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and funded by The European Union’s Business Development and Innovation Fund (EDIF). The financing has helped Paysera establish new premises in Kosovo’s capital, Priština.

checkout.com, the cloud-based payment services provider, has launched Integrated Platforms, a fully flexible, tailor-made solution to support marketplaces and merchants. It is designed to build strong relationships between sellers and marketplaces.

Binance, blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, is eliminating South African Rand (ZAR) deposit fees for a period as it continues to establish itself as the global leader in pricing. Binance recently launched its fiat gateway, which enables users to instantly deposit ZAR into their wallets and buy crypto.

AvePoint, the provider of SaaS and data management platforms, has opened a new office in Stockholm, Sweden. The office will expand its global presence and meet growing demand for digital collaborative security, compliance and productivity solutions in the Nordic region. It replaces AvePoint’s former location in Stockholm’s Östermalm district.

Partnership

Zai, the global fintech firm providing embedded financial orchestration solutions, has joined forces with TerraPay, a global payments infrastructure company. This partnership enhances both companies’ ability to scale their offerings and deliver real-time, transparent cross-border payments globally.

Fintech unicorn Pleo has formed a strategic partnership with the open banking platform Yapily. Via Yapily Payments, Pleo users can now top up their Pleo account directly from their bank account. Last month, Pleo saw 54 percent of customers’ first wallets loaded via the open banking platform.

Accounting firm Saw merges with the square, the payment technology provider, to help small businesses. The partnership integrates Sage Accounting and Square’s point-of-sale (POS) software. It’s now live in the UK, Ireland and Canada. That means customers using both products can do business and take payments anywhere.

Financing and investments

Eddathe collaboration software for professional investors, has closed a $5.8 million funding round, from investors including Mucker Capital, Plug&Play, FJ Labs and Future form. Edda Iused by more than 100 investment firms in 26 countries.

Enduring capital has completed the first close of its new $50 million fund to invest in early-stage startups in pan-Africa. The fund, Endure 21, is Endure Capital’s second early-stage venture capital fund, and will focus its investments primarily on impact-driven early-stage start-ups in Africa.

Bits technology has closed a €1 million pre-seed funding round to reshape how global fintechs build financial services. The increase in capital will primarily go towards business development and to accelerate recruitment across engineering teams with a view to the imminent launch.

British Business Investments has committed €30 million more Atempo growthits initial venture debt fund, which will target VC-backed businesses in the UK and Europe. Since it was established in 2014, British Business Investments has committed more than £3.0 billion to finance providers to UK smaller businesses.

More funding news

SteelEye, the compliance technology and data analytics firm, has completed a $21 million Series B round of funding to accelerate its global expansion – with a focus on North America. The funding round – led by Ten Coves Capital – takes SteelEye’s total raised capital to $43 million.

Digital payment startup wi-Q has secured a £3m investment from a Manchester-based venture capital investor, Praetura Ventures, to improve its product offering and expand its international footprint. Wi-Q was founded in 2014 and supplies mobile ordering and payment solutions to the hospitality and leisure industry.

Confirm VASP has closed its series A investment led by FTX Ventures to a value of 100 million dollars. FTX Ventures, together with Top capital and Bcharuhas invested $5 million in the company to solidify its position as the Travel Rule solution trusted by recognized digital asset companies.

Mesh payments, financial automation platform, secures $60 million in new funding, bringing the total amount raised to $123 million. Alpha Wave is leading the equity round with participation from existing investors, including Tiger Global. The funding will enable Mesh to expand its GTM efforts as well as further accelerate product innovation.