This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 09/08
Dive into Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup Thursday, August 11 for a
The job is moving
Jelly Smack has strengthened its management team with the addition of Dumb Marble as chief business officer and head of JellyFi, the company’s newly established finance department. Marmor was most recently operations manager in Railsbank North America. With JellyFi, Jellysmack aims to solve creative growth problems, including building teams, diversifying investments, scaling operations and funding passion projects.
Clash appoints Ayman Jawhar as product manager. Jawhar will be based in the UK and joins Klasha after roles at PayPal, Miro, Prodigy Finance and Next47. The company also has Nile Younis as commercial director, and completed a $4.5 million seed funding round.
AstroPay name Sofia Lanza as chief banking officer, while the company moves forward with its expansion plans. Lanza previously served as head of corporate development at AstroPay. She will help develop and manage AstroPay’s relationships with global banking and payment service providers.
navigator, an integrated investment platform under Singlife with Aviva, has appointed a number of senior managers from the regional banking and technology industry. Additions to the management team include Wei Lin Chinwho steps in as head of strategy and business management and Farooq Lone, who takes over as head of product and business development. Ee Ghim Chua also with as head of brand marketing.
More deals
Transaction Payments have named Sergio Gandolfo as the new CEO. The appointment sees outgoing CEO, Aaron Carpenterand became MD of Transact Payments Services Group Limited, a provider of UK and European BIN sponsorship and modular payment, debit, credit and prepaid services.
Meanwhile, Flutter wave increases staffing by 38 per cent and unveils a new head of people and culture, Mansi Babyloni. She was previously Flutterwave’s global head of people strategy and special projects. Flutterwave, which today supports over 1,000,000 businesses, has also hired 200 trainees.
The Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC) has announced the creation of a strategic working group (SWG) that appoints Bryan Zhang as its independent chair. Zhang is co-founder and CEO of the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
Partnership
Fintech platform Pomelo Pay has entered into a partnership with a provider of payment services for cryptocurrency TripleA. They will help companies with financial institutions, retailers, payment service providers and other fintechs to offer cryptocurrency payments and withdrawals.
Wise and Plaid has announced an open finance agreement to give customers a seamless way to move money across different financial institutions. Wise customers can now connect their accounts to more than 6,000 apps powered by Plaid via Core Exchange, the data network’s newest open economy solution.
USC Athletics and iTrustCapital has formed a partnership, making iTrustCapital the official crypto platform of USC Trojans. iTrustCapital will have a strong presence through banners, on-site activations and supplemental advertising for the football and basketball seasons.
BlueSnapa payment orchestration platform, is now a supplier for KeyBankits US gateway functionality. With BlueSnap, KeyBank says it can offer its customers more robust payment options with additional features.
Leeds-based technology company The data city has announced the latest in a series of partnerships. Having reinvented the way companies are classified into industry sectors with its Real Time Industry Classifications (RTICs), it now adds data from Dealroom.cothe global data platform for intelligence on startups and high-growth companies.
Invesco, a global asset management firm, has entered into a strategic partnership with SECURA INTERNATIONAL. It will allow the independent wealth solutions firm to offer model portfolio solutions as part of Secura’s investment offering to clients.
Financing and investments
Murasaki, a gamefi company, has raised €1.5 million in a funding round led by Incubation fund. This investment will enable Murasaki to accelerate the development of its blockchain-based games, with the studio set to launch NFT-focused title Cyberstella in early 2023.
Atom Financial has entered into a debt facility of USD 100 million with HSBC Singapore to grow Atome Financial’s flexible deferred payment business across Asia. Atome Financial is a subsidiary of Singapore-based tech unicorn Advance Intelligence Group.
The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund [MBRIF], an initiative launched by UAE Ministry of Finance to support nationwide innovation, has provided funding support to Bayzat, The UAE’s leading employee benefits platform, as part of the guarantee scheme.
Verdant Capital has raised $10 million in debt financing for Zeepay. The medium-term debt raise, which is part of the A.5 series, comes to support Zeepay in a bid to boost its fast-growing remittance to wallet business. The debt financing is intended to support the rapid growth of the business.
Mergers and acquisitions
Astra Tech buying fintech leader Pay with in the final step towards the launch of its revolutionary “ultra platform”. It follows the recent acquisition of Rizek, a platform for on-demand personal and home services. Astra plans to acquire, reuse and aggregate already established and sector-leading leading platforms to create an ultra platform.
Company updates
Augeo has launched Heaps – a crypto-loyalty platform that fuels new consumer and employee experiences by enabling the exchange of loyalty currencies for leading crypto-assets. The Heaps experience is centered around exploration and education versus crypto advocacy.
