This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 21/02

Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup serves up the latest job moves, partnerships and funding updates.

Partnership

EasyTip, an online service for collecting tips in the hospitality industry, has entered into a partnership with Panda Epic. Restaurants and hotels using the Panda Epos software can now add an EasyTip QR code to a customer receipt to give customers cashless tips.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial center of Abu Dhabi, and Zand Bank PJSC, The UAE’s all-digital bank, has agreed to support UAE SMEs and offer preferential banking services. The agreement will focus on providing preferential banking services, including efficient bank account opening for ADGM licensed entities, including SMEs, virtual asset companies, funds and corporations.

There is also a new partnership for a provider of digital identity verification Block pass and Avalanche, a smart contract platform. As part of this partnership, Blockpass will be integrated with Avalanche for KYC and AML verification. Avalanche will also enjoy Blockpass’ new feature that allows users to certify their ownership of their digital wallets.

phos has entered into cooperation with Thrive Payments to distribute their ‘Tap-to-Phone’ solution in the US market. The deal will enable merchants to accept card payments directly on any NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet, in-store or on the go.

OCR Labs, a global technology company for identity verification, has become a Gold Partner in FinTech Australia’s corporate partnership program. OCR joins over 37 members as part of the program, including: Google, Oracle, Mastercard, American Express and Moody’s. FinTech Australia is hosting the Finnie Awards on 31 May.

Acquisition

Zopa has bought the BNPL platform DivideBuy marks its first acquisition. The acquisition will increase Zopa’s income by at least 20 percent. The BNPL 2.0 offering will combine technology and fintech innovation to enable instant decisions and fully integrated consumer journeys with consumer protection, credit check and security measures from a regulated bank.

Financing

HedgeFlows, a fintech platform for small and medium-sized businesses, is launching today after a £2 million funding round. The HedgeFlows platform enables SMEs to manage foreign payments, cash flows and invoices seamlessly. The company was founded by former bankers Alex Axentiev and Nah Thaker.

Appointments

Durlston Partners, the talent consultancy firm, has appointed Shannon Palmer as head of business strategy and operations. Palmer will develop and implement a business strategy aimed at accelerating the company’s international expansion. Prior to joining the team at Durlston, Palmer was events manager for the specialist capital and solutions company 23 Capital.

BharatPe Group appoints Aparna Kuppuswamy as risk manager. Before joining BharatPe, she was CRO at SBI Card. Amit Jainthe current CRO of BharatPe, will invest more of his time on collections and underwriting, from a trading standpoint.

Damon Williams joins fintech Level as sales director. Williams has over ten years of experience working in the technology sector with companies including Tesla, LivePerson and most recently as sales manager for Safety culture.

Business trading company Active International has promoted Kieron Murphy to their newly created Chief Revenue Officer role. His promotion is part of a restructuring focused on establishing a digital-first trading ecosystem within the UK media industry. The move supports Active International’s initiative to promote growth, both internally and with its partners.

VizyPay, a payment processing fintech for small businesses in the US, has expanded its management team. It adds up Ricky Onofre as Director of ISO Partnerships, Tod Kellen as regional directors as well Erik Martinez as regional director.

Patternan embedded insurance company, has named Grant Baker as US Head of Sales and Partnerships. Grant joins Pattern to lead its US embedded insurance growth. In his new role, Grant will expand Pattern’s partnership program and increase collaboration with leading brands in the industry.