This Tuesday’s The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup delivers up a healthy dose of fintech updates from around the world.
Job moves
LucaNet AG, a provider of software and consulting for financial performance management, has Elias Apel as its new CFO. He succeeds founder Oliver Schmitz who is retiring after more than two decades. Elena Aubell and Alexander Domene also form part of a new board. Rolf-Jürgen Moll retired in January 2021, replaced by CEO Dominik Duchon. Schmitz will continue to be available in an advisory role.
Fintech Paylink Solutions has expanded its senior team. Joe Clarke is now head of operations, while Becky McClory is head of information security. Paylink Solutions builds digital affordability solutions for the collections and lending markets.
NMI, the payments enablement platform, has appointed Peter Galvin as CMO. He will drive corporate, product and demand marketing to accelerate growth, as well as expand partnerships. Most recently, Galvin served as CMO at Entrust (Digital Security) and Proofpoint.
Funding and investments
Fintech Cheq announces $2million raise. Connect Ventures leads pre-seed round with participation from Semantic Ventures, firstminute Capital, and 30 angels including Monzo and Revolut execs. Cheq says the funding will help it establish itself as the primary option for taking payment with stablecoins that are pegged to the US dollar.
Fintech startup Nossa Data closes a £1.2million seed round. The round was led by Symvan Capital and BGF. The round also attracted angel investors as well as follow-on funding from SFC Capital and Techstars. With the funding the team will develop its ESG reporting software as well as improve customer experience and efficiencies.
Meanwhile, DRUID, the end-to-end platform for building AI-driven conversational business applications, has raised a $15million round. It will use the funding for international expansion, new talent hires, as well as to support its accelerated growth across Europe and North America. Furthermore, DRUID will extend its technological leadership by adding new capabilities to its conversational AI offering.
Laboremus Uganda, the B2B fintech that enables onboarding at scale, has received a funding boost from DOB Equity and FCA Investments to grow the company’s fintech platform in Uganda and neighbouring markets. Current clients include Standard Chartered, a.o. Equity Bank, dfcu Bank and the pan-African fintech Wave.
Further funding news
ModusBox, the infrastructure and integration technology company for financial services, has closed a $7.5million Series A investment. The round was led by Patamar Capital, a social impact fintech venture fund, and co-led by Choice Bank, a leading sponsor bank. BankTech Ventures and American Capital Partners also participated in the round.
Meanwhile, Qumata has welcomed Tencent as an investor in its $23million series A funding, among other global investors. This addition reinforces the company’s strategic focus on consolidating its digital footprint in Asia that currently spans the underwriting industry across the life and health insurance sector in Southeast and North Asia.
2TM, the parent company of Mercado Bitcoin, has joined a $3.5million funding round in RibonDAO. The round was led by Valor Capital Group, as well as Bitkraft, Kenetic, Flori Ventures and 2TM Ventures. RibonDAO encourages individual donations for all social causes while increasing institutional donations.
Estateguru, the property financing and investing platform in Europe, bags a funding round on Seedrs up to the value of up to €3million in order to support intensive growth and expansion plans. Estateguru’s ultimate goal is to develop a digital, borderless ecosystem for real estate financing and investing.
Partnerships
Amadis, a payment software and consulting provider, has partnered with Softpay.io to provide its technology for integration into Softpay’s new Tap-to-Pay service. Softpay’s revolutionary Tap-to-Pay service can be downloaded into any Android device and turn into a full payment card acceptance terminal. Amadis offers payment card acceptance software technology solutions.
BlackSwan Technologies, the cloud enterprise software provider, has formed a strategic agreement with financial crime data firm Refinitiv. The agreement ‘enables next-generation customer risk assessment through an advanced compliance solution’.
Meanwhile, payments firm Worldline has teamed up with MYRA, a provider of self-check-in solutions, to develop a customer payment solution for the hospitality sector. The solution will be showcased through a pilot project with international hotel chain, Leonardo Hotels, encompassing over 200 hotels in 90 countries.
OKX, the cryptocurrency platform, has forged a major multi-year partnership with McLaren Racing, becoming the official primary partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team and McLaren Shadow esports Team from 2022. OKX branding will be carried on the rear wing, front wing, mirrors, cockpit side, nose, and inner halo of the McLaren MCL36 F1 cars. Plus on the helmets of McLaren F1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo.
More partnerships
Two Scottish tech companies, Know-it and Gigged.AI have joined forces to help minimise the number of late payments suffered by freelancers working for commercial clients. Know-it will help ensure that freelancers who use Gigged.AI ‘get paid quicker for the work they do and boost their cashflow’.
Pan-African payments firm Cellulant has partnered with Tanzania based fintech NALA to power low-cost cross-border payments from the UK and USA into Africa. NALA provides an app for Africans living in the UK and the US to send money to the continent seamlessly.
Meanwhile, Camper & Nicholsons – a luxury yachting firm – is now accepting cryptocurrency for payment for goods and services from BitPay. The 240-year-old company accepts cryptocurrency payments for all of its yacht fleet for sale, charter and all services provided.
Finally, global information and insights provider TransUnion has expanded its relationship with LexisNexis Risk Solutions in the UK to give insurance providers access to its TrueVision solution, helping to support premium payment decisions at the point of quote.
Company updates and launches
Bitfinex, a digital token trading platform, is listing new markets for The Sandbox (SAND), a blockchain-based virtual world. Built on the Ethereum network, SAND enables users to explore and purchase virtual land, carving out a presence in the 3D metaverse. SAND deposits and trading will open in May and will also include US Dollars and Tether Tokens.
Vesto, a multi-token protocol for decentralised financial services (DeFi), has gone live on mainnet. The protocol is facilitating transactions with customers, such as Oldham Global, demonstrating successful integrations after an extensive testing period and security audit review with ChainSecurity.
Meanwhile, Clearco, an e-commerce investor, has launched the Clearco Founders Fund for the UK. Created to empower Clearco’s community of industry leaders to fund the next generation of online businesses across the UK.
Nano, the feeless eco-friendly cryptocurrency, was used for the first-ever crypto transactions to take place at an official event inside the Houses of Parliament. This took place at the launch of The Centre of FinTech at the University of East London, an educational institution with which the Nano Foundation has deep ties.
Finally, Visa has announced a donation of AED1million to support the humanitarian efforts of the UAE, the region’s largest campaign of its kind to provide food support to the underprivileged and undernourished in less fortunate communities across 50 countries. The 1 Billion Meals initiative aims to alleviate global hunger and battle malnutrition.
