The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday reveals a slew of senior hires for Mambu and funding success for Prime Trust.
Investment and funding
Prime Trust, a provider of financial infrastructure for fintech firms, has raised over $100million in its Series B funding round. It has now raised more than $170million in funding. The investment will provide ‘critical operational expertise’ to further scale Prime Trust into new offerings including wealth products, as well as Web 3 and DeFi products.
Autonomous banking platform Fido has completed a $30million funding round led by Fortissimo Capital with additional backing by Yard Ventures. With this funding Fido will launch new financial products in Ghana, expand its operations to new territories in Africa and also establish a tech hub in Accra to train and introduce engineers to advanced software development.
Openly, a provider of premium homeowners insurance, has bagged a $75million Series C investment. The round involves a mix of current and new investors, including Advance Venture Partners, Clocktower Ventures, Obvious Ventures, Gradient Ventures, PJC Ventures, Techstars and Mtech. It will use the proceeds to expand its home insurance product as well as enhance its technology and insurance products.
Playter, a growth platform that helps SMEs scale quicker with buy now, pay later (BNPL), has closed a $55million funding round. The investment follows seed funding of $1.7million in March, continuing Playter’s accelerating growth in recent months. This series of funding will contribute to even further expansion within the UK market, with the company having international ambitions in the future.
Job moves
Stanhope Financial Group, an Ireland-based fintech company, has bolstered its senior management team following a $10million Series A funding round. Rob Groombridge is named chief product officer during ‘incredibly exciting times’ for the company. Groombridge previously served as chief commercial officer for fintech Cardoro.
Mastercard has appointed J.K. Khalil to lead its operations across the MENA east cluster in his new role as cluster general manager. He is now responsible for the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Pakistan and Oman. Khalil joined Mastercard as Middle East region lead for Mastercard Advisors, before most recently leading the business as country manager of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Levant.
Zumo, the Edinburgh-based crypto wallet and payments platform, has appointed Clark Povey as its new operations director. He will oversee operations and customer service strategy and implement digital-first solutions to help the company scale and expand.
Mambu, the SaaS cloud banking platform, has welcomed four new senior hires. The fintech has appointed Werner Knoblich as chief revenue officer, Fernando Zandona as chief technology officer, Tripp Faix as chief financial officer as well as Sabrina Dar as chief of staff to the CEO. The new hires come following its $235million Series E funding round in December.
Mergers and acquisitions
Frankfurt-based Raisin Bank is acquiring the payment division of Bankhaus August Lenz with immediate effect. With the acquisition, Raisin Bank will expand its product range by payment services and also cover cash solutions. The new business division of Raisin Bank AG will be headed by Mirko Siepmann.
Partnerships
Codebase Technologies, an open API fintech, has joined Visa Fintech Partner Connect – a programme created by Visa to connect the world’s best fintech providers with Visa clients. Joining the Visa Fintech Partner Connect programme has already resulted in a partnership with Credit Libanais to launch Lebanon’s first digital onboarding offering and eKYC for prepaid cards.
Mastercard signs agreement with Saudi Esports Federation to promote the Kingdom’s billion-dollar gaming industry. Partnership will see new products, services and solutions delivered to gamers and consumers in Saudi Arabia and wider region. Gaming and esports consumption in Saudi Arabia is expected to reach $6.8billion by 2030.
London-based Prograd has unveiled a partnership with Indeed Flex to help young adults find and understand the alternatives to borrowing at their disposal. Prograd leverages alternative data points and open banking to find the best borrowing, earning or saving solutions.
Meanwhile, Phos has partnered with infrastructure provider Paynt to launch a white label SoftPoS app for payment service resellers. The new app enables merchants to turn any NFC-enabled Android device, such as a smartphone or tablet, into a contactless payments terminal.
APEXX Global, the global payments platform, has teamed up with Scott Dunn, the luxury tour operator, to increase transaction efficiency and boost conversion rates across the US and Singapore. This follows APEXX’s successful integration with Scott Dunn in the UK in January.
Launches and company updates
Konfir, a B2B SaaS platform, launches its instant employment verification platform for the UK. Konfir, which recently raised £1.6million, launches the new platform at a time when one in five UK workers are likely to change jobs in the next 12 months.
AFEX, a Nigerian commodities exchange and commodities market player, has expanded into Kenya. It follows a successful pilot phase. As part of the expansion, AFEX Fair Trade Limited (AFTL), has launched a $1million loan programme that will allow farmers to gain access to seed and fertiliser for their crops, to mitigate ever rising commodities prices.
Finally, Mission Lane, a purpose-driven fintech, has launched a series of product enhancements for its Earn by Mission Lane app. The updates are designed to help people grow and optimise their income through a gig work discovery engine and an automated income tracker.
