This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 13/09

Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup looks at the core banking platform Thum merges with Salt edge while investing app Hedgehog opens crowdfunding round to the public.

Financing and investment

UK-based insurtech Stubben Edge Group has secured a further £5.6m in investment following an oversubscribed £10m round last year. Since the previous round, the company has made acquisitions Lloyd’s broker Genesis special risks, established Guernsey entity 1 Edge and snapped up SMB-focused media titles from Bonhill PLC. Additional announcements are planned, including additional M&A activity.

Share it, which offers a merchant-branded installments-as-a-service platform, has completed a private placement of A$10.5 million with institutional investors. The company will leverage this capital to unlock the next phase of growth and expansion with large, global enterprise resellers and strategic partners.

Hedgehog, online fractional investment app has opened a £1m crowdfunding round on Seedr to the wider audience. The round has already raised more than £950,000 (95 per cent of its target). Hedgehog has already secured a portfolio of more than $1.5 billion in ‘high-quality assets’.

Launches and company updates

MENA insurance provider GIG Gulf has launched a platform for engine requirements EasyClaims across the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain. EasyClaims allows customers to register their traffic insurance claims by entering a minimum of mandatory information with no need for paperwork, and no waiting time at all.

Emirates Islamic has launched a new ‘Businesswomen Account’ curated specifically to cater and support the requirements of women entrepreneurs and business owners in the UAE. The new commercial banking proposal aligns with the UAE’s vision to fully realize the Sustainable Development Goals aimed at reducing inequalities and promoting diversification within the SME ecosystem.

Fintech platform Prepay Nation expanding its services to the GCC market. It has also signed key partnerships to help provide prepaid products and services to GCC consumers. New collaboration partners include Mango, Resal, Unipay, Solutions Gulf, Talaco, Encryptus plus Lulu money.

WisdomTree, the exchange-traded fund, has launched the WisdomTree Blockchain UCITS ETF (WBLK). Listed today on Börse Xetra and Borsa Italiana, WBLK seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the WisdomTree Blockchain UCITS Index and has a total expense ratio of 0.45 percent.

The job is moving

elliptical, the risk management firm for cryptoassets, has named Jackson Hull as Chief Technology Officer. He was last at fintech Oak North, where he led several teams in building the company’s credit risk analysis platform. He joins just as Elliptic launches its next-generation blockchain analytics engine.

John Kim join PayPal as executive vice president, chief product officer (CPO) later this month. Kim succeeds Mark Britto, who will remain with PayPal for a transition period before retiring at the end of this year. Kim joins PayPal after a decade-long stint with Expedia Group.

Meanwhile, insurance broker Aon Romania appoints Eugen Anicescu as the new general manager. Anicescu has been active within Coface Romania in various roles. Previously, he also managed the reinsurance department of General Romania.

Nigel GreenCEO and founder of deVere Group, is appointed to National Innovation Agency (NIA) of Thailand. The NIA says Green’s “experience and wisdom” in finance and fintech will be invaluable to the organization and the country.

More deals

objectway, a provider of banking, wealth and asset management software, appoints Hassan Suffian as MD for Objectway in the UK. He will help drive the firm’s expansion in the UK and Ireland. Suffyan will also work with the management team to implement strategic development initiatives across the company.

Genesis Global, the low-code application development platform for financial firms, unveils Marina Kilcline as personnel manager. Kilcline reports to CEO, Stephen Murphy. Kilcline comes from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors where she designed and implemented programs to promote a positive global culture.

Cryptocurrency brokerage Caleb & Brown has expanded its services to offer fund management with new management appointments by Tommy Rogulj, Daniel Caruso and Gary Head. All three will work with the CEO Jackson Zeng to improve its services and offers.

Finally, digital banking provider Bankjoy add Michael Carroll as Chief Technology Officer. Carroll will oversee the development of technology as well as drive the company’s strategic vision to deliver a seamless end-to-end digital services ecosystem.

Partnership

Tax credit specialist Adsum has secured a collaboration with screen agency Movie London to help provide industry with tax credit funding to support manufacturing projects. The tax-as-a-service fintech company has joined screen industry agency Premiere Service, which connects producers and production teams within the film industry with a wide range of services and suppliers.

Tum, an Estonian-born core banking platform, collaborates with Salt edge. The partnership enables Tuum’s customers to quickly become compliant with PSD2 and open banking directives, increase end-user security with Salt Edge’s Mobile SCA solution and unlock open data by accessing 5,000+ banks for account information and payment initiation services.

There is also a partnership for PXP Financial with Dispute Help to offer an end-to-end dispute management platform across all payment schemes for its merchant portfolio. The announcement comes as MasterCard The ‘Acquirer Collaboration’ mandate is set to take effect.

Axwaya software integration provider, has teamed up with Pro2col, a managed file transfer (MFT) specialist. Under the new partnership, Axway can leverage Pro2col’s expertise to both expand its reach in the UK and Ireland and increase the visibility of its solution offering to enterprise level organisations.

Mergers and acquisitions

JP Morgan has signed an agreement to buy cloud-based payment technology company Renovate. The strategic acquisition will help JP Morgan Payments build its next-generation merchant procurement platform, strengthen the firm’s payments modernization strategy and support its journey to the cloud. Renovite will become part of JP Morgan Payments.

Zynga Inc, the interactive entertainment company, has completed the acquisition of Big Belly, a mobile growth and app store optimization company. Expanding Zynga’s existing operations in Israel, the Storemaven team will combine its mobile technologies with Zynga’s global portfolio as well as Chartboost’s advertising platform.