This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 21/07

Dive into the latest fintech partnerships, job moves and funding successes in Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday.

Job news

IDnow, a European provider of identity control and digital identities, has appointed Mike Kiely as sales director for financial services. Kiely most recently led identity and biometrics sales at GBG. He will drive the firm’s significant growth ambitions in the financial sector in the UK.

Judith Hartley has been appointed as managing director of British Business Investments, one of British Business Bank’s commercial subsidiaries. Catherine Lewis LaTorre has been appointed as managing director of British patient capital and is also appointed chairman of the board of British Business Investmentstakes over from Francis Small who recently finished his term of office.

Abhish Saha is revealed as the new CEO of Sandstone. He replaces Michael Phillipou who leaves the business. Saha says he is delighted to have the opportunity to lead one of Australia’s leading fintechs through its next period of growth. He has previously held the role of managing director of the firm’s digital bank and raising business unit globally.

Meanwhile, William Blairboutique with expertise in investment banking, has unveiled three senior hires in its investment banking practice with technology-enabled services. Blake Jones joins as MD in Chicago while Josh Funt and Louis Oliver join as directors based in Atlanta. All three will focus on the financial sector.

Finally, European payment company Recharge.com appoints Martine Tiemersma as chief of staff. She has worked at Recharge for five years in various positions. Tiemersma will help open regional outposts, including Recharge’s office in Lisbon, Portugal – home to the company’s new technology development center.

Funding Updates

Sudan-based fintech Bloom has raised $6.5 million in a seed round. supported by Visa. Other investors also included Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital (GFC) and Goodwater capital. Bloom offers fee-free accounts for users to save in dollars and buy and spend in Sudanese pounds.

Insurtech Gateway has completed the first close of its Seed Fund II. It can now support 20 startups over the next four years from pre-seed to Series A. The firm already supports 24 portfolio companies, resides in 37 countries, and works with 26 insurance companies.

Partnership

GoCardless has entered into cooperation with xero, the global small business platform, to offer its Instant Bank Pay feature to Xero’s UK customers. With Instant Bank Pay, Xero users can receive one-off bank-to-bank payments from new and existing customers, while still reaping the benefits of direct debit for their recurring payments.

Payments and FX fintech Free market is appointed by Alternative airlines, the flight search and booking site, to offer payment and foreign exchange services in multiple currencies. The appointment enables Alternative Airlines to expand its footprint and trade in the currencies of countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait.

MambuThe SaaS cloud banking platform, has teamed up with the Portuguese financial services brand Universo. Mambu will help Universo iterate products faster and further expand its digital offering. Following their partnership, Universo can offer a ‘hyper-personalized end-to-end financial experience, helping customers better manage their money’.

Moneyhub working together with pennyworth, a financial planning and banking app, to redesign digital banking for the aspiring affluent consumer. Pennyworth, which has applied for a UK banking licence, has developed a planning tool powered by Moneyhub’s APIs. The tool uses a combination of open banking, open finance and machine learning to turn goals into a customized financial plan and track progress towards those goals.

Saw has announced an extended collaboration with Microsoft. The news includes plans to integrate Microsoft Business Products, including Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, as embedded services into Sage products and the Sage Digital Network. The goal is to simplify the workflow for small and medium-sized companies.

More collaborations

Fraud prevention company SEASON reveals it has helped B2B buy now, pay later Bills reduce fraudulent transactions by 87 percent across the platform. It has also helped to reduce the company’s manual review time by 93 percent. In addition, SEON’s anti-fraud solution has helped Biller cut lending decisions from four days to 10 seconds.

Network Internationalan enabler of digital commerce in the MEA region, has entered into a strategic partnership with foodics, the cloud-based restaurant payment platform. Through this partnership, SMEs in the UAE’s F&B sector will gain access to Foodic’s electronic cash register and software platform.

Property and casualty carrier Harford Mutual has approached One Inc, the payment network for the insurance industry, to process claim payments and synchronize workflow. Harford Mutual will integrate One Inc’s ClaimsPay technology with its claims management software provider, Origami Risk.

Meanwhile, Virgin moneyhigh-street bank, collaborates with Heading, the insurtech scale-up, to provide its commercial banking clients with customizable, flexible, subscription-based business insurance. Superscript will be the business insurance provider on Virgin Money’s new online marketplace.

Company updates

Cheeky Rangas NFT Collection, a collection of 9,700 unique utility-enabled non-fungible tokens (NFTs) themed around the plight of orangutans and the destruction of rainforest habitat, will donate proceeds to The Orangutan Project with the aim of protecting over 100,000 acres of rainforest.

Financial app KoinWorks has opened an operational office in Singapore. It will act as the main hub in Asia. KoinWorks also revealed its plans to develop closer relationships with international institutions that share the goals of success.

FNZ, the global wealth management platform, has acquired New access, a specialized private banking technology operating in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. The strategic acquisition of New Access represents a further investment from FNZ in the growing private banking and wealth sector across national borders.

Provider of payment technology Dojo has moved into a fancy new home in @TheDock, a major regeneration scheme in Hull’s Fruit Market, next to the city’s central dry dock. Designed by interior design firm Chameleon Business Interiors, the design includes workspaces and desks for individual teams, as well as training facilities and meeting rooms.

Launches and product updates

Sydney-based payments fintech disruptor Until payments has launched its NextGen Pay By Link offering, offering a secure, PCI-compliant way for businesses to take external payments, as well as the ability to accept Apple Pay and other alternative payment methods. The solution has been implemented in a pilot program.

Meanwhile, ESG book launches fund scoring solution that enables investors to assess sustainability, emission intensity ratios and corporate risk associated with the world’s largest fund. ESG Book analyzed more than 35,000 funds. The analysis shows that across funds worth $40 trillion, an average of 20 percent of assets fail to disclose emissions. It also reveals that none of the world’s major market indices will stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.