This week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 28/07

Fintech Times The Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday, July 28 brings you the latest industry moves as well as investment updates.

The job is moving

VoxSmart, the communications monitoring firm, has appointed Robert Forrest as finance manager as well Morgan Martins as marketing manager. VoxSmart designs, develops and deploys cloud-based communications monitoring technology for global financial institutions.Xsolla X

Xsolla, the payment company for the video game industry, has hired Sebastien Totte to conduct its business in the United Kingdom. Totté joins Meta after more than seven years on both the mobile and publishing side of the business. The new senior country manager for UK, France and Benelux will build relationships with game studios in the region.

Susana Estebana blockchain and digital asset advisor, has joined FTI Consulting’s London office. The firm says it has seen a “significant increase in interest” from clients looking to explore opportunities in blockchain and digital assets, as well as how to build resilience around the risks, impending regulations and volatility.

Personal finance app HyperJar has announced two new senior hires to help drive the firm’s growth plans. Nicola Longfield has been appointed commercial manager while Amabel Polglase is now marketing manager. Hyperjar also plans to develop both its product and business this year.

Fintech challenger bank Allica Bank has appointed Ian Flaxman to the newly created role of head of growth finance. He will help launch a new working capital finance solution in the last quarter of 2022. Flaxman has previously held leadership roles in the working capital, credit, commercial and invoice finance sectors.

PayU, the provider of online payment services, has named Atilla Kulcsar as CFO of Global Payments. PayU is also planning further heavyweight hires, new product launches and investments across emerging markets, including Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.

More job news

EQOSa digital asset financial services company, is investing in its asset management business with new senior hires in key regions earmarked for growth. Nick Cogswell is now head of sales, asset management, while Franklin Heng is head of asset management Asia.

Policy Expert, the British insurtech, name Kevin Chidwick as finance manager. He was previously CFO of Aspen Insurance Group. His appointment follows the retirement of Paul Gildersleeves after a 40-year career in financial services, including 10 years establishing Policy Expert as a profitable insurtech.

Chris Lewis, manager of solutions at a specialist in data insight Synectics solutionsis appointed to the executive board of Open Identity Exchange (OIX). OIX is a non-profit industry organization dedicated to creating a world where anyone can prove their identity and eligibility anywhere through a universally trusted ID.

Renata Caine, former SVP at listed Market, have joined Exactly as the fintech startup’s first ever chief commercial officer. Lissa Andrews also steps in as VP for global marketing. The two female fintech veterans will spearhead the company’s rapid expansion into new markets including the US.

Finally fintech Trovata has appointed Vladimir Pintea as VP for open banking technology. While Lisa Gutu has been appointed VP for business development. Trovata plans to expand its reach from the US to the UK and EU marketplace.

Financing and investments

Genesis Global, the low-code application development platform, has unveiled $20 million in new investment from Bank of America, BNY Mellon and Citi. These strategic investments follow the firm’s $200 million Series C funding announced in February

Goparity has raised 1.2 million euros in one hour through equity crowdfunding in a funding round led by Mustard Seed Maze. The Portuguese impact finance platform’s goal was to reach €1.2 million in equity, but is now accepting “over-funding”. The funds will be used to further develop the platform and expand to Europe and Canada.

Fintech Dbank has raised $17.6 million in a seed round to expand its financial services reach in Pakistan. The financing round was led by Sequoia Southeast Asia and Kleiner Perkins. Nubank, RTP Global, Rayn and Askari Bank also joined the round. Dbank has applied for a digital banking license in Pakistan.

Reltime AS has secured a $50 million investment partnership with digital investment firm GEM Digital Limited. Reltime has developed ‘the world’s first global Layer 1, Proof of Authority (PoA) blockchain and Web3 financial ecosystem’. GEM Digital’s commitment gives Reltime the opportunity to scale up, while at the same time strengthening its activities in 150 countries.

Meanwhile, Quasar Finance has raised $6 million from investment companies, incl Polychain Capital, Blockchain Capital, Figment Capital, Lightshift Capital and Galileo. Quasar Finance’s vision is to create a range of accessible, structured investment products within the DeFi ecosystem that both investors and liquidity providers can benefit from.

Partnership

One Incthe digital payment network for the insurance industry, helps Georgia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (GFBMIC) improve the claim payment experience. GFBMIC has selected One Inc’s digital payment platform ClaimsPay to work alongside an existing partnership with Sapiens Insurance.

purple, a remittance and payout aggregator combined with a digital wallet for Lebanon, has chosen Mambu to scale the business in the region. Mambu’s cloud platform will underpin fintech’s offering as it develops products and services based on customer needs.

Investment platform Further has entered into a new partnership with a digital identity provider Yoti Digital identity. It will streamline the customer registration process, making it quicker and easier for people to invest in the funds of their choice. Further’s platform offers investors a selection of investment opportunities for venture capital funds.

Global payment orchestration platform BlueSnap working together with Dalenys, part of Groupe BPCE, to help companies achieve higher authorization rates in the EU and France. The partnership enables businesses with a customer base in France to treat digital payments as a local transaction.

Company updates

Mashreq, a financial institution in the United Arab Emirates, is expanding the latest installment of its Advanced Certificate of Excellence (ACE) program across the GCC and into North Africa. Mashreq ACE 3 is for graduates specializing in finance, accounting or business to pursue a career in corporate and investment banking.

TrueLayer, the open banking platform, has announced the availability of the TrueLayer Payments for WooCommerce plugin, which enables e-commerce SMBs to seamlessly add instant, secure account-to-account payments to their website. Luxury watch retailer BQ Watches is one of the first businesses to implement payments powered by TrueLayer using the plugin.