The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup.
Funding and investment
Insurance startup YuLife has raised $120million in a Series C funding round. It takes YuLife’s total funding to $206million. YuLife will use the capital to broaden its reach into new global markets as well as scale its product range and deliver financial products.
Konsileo, the commercial insurance broker, has completed a £4.7million Series A funding round. The round was led by Growth Tech VC Committed Capital. New investors also include a £900,000 investment from ACF Investors, a UK venture capital fund and angel investors. It plans to use the investment to accelerate its recruitment of UK insurance brokers and also further develop its technology platform.
Lucinity has closed a $17million Series B investment round, led by Keen Venture Partners. Its mission is to ‘Make Money Good through Human AI’. The funding round will help fuel growth as it expands its customer base, partner network, global team of experts and product offering.
Appointments
Kueski, a buy now, pay later provider in Latin America, hires Sung Hae Kim as the company’s chief people officer. Kim will promote Mexico as a technology and innovation hub, scale Kueski’s people practices around company culture and values, as well as help the company hire and develop talent.
Fintech Broadridge has appointed Tyler Derr as chief technology officer. He is responsible for overseeing Broadridge’s global technology teams including enterprise-wide software engineering, product delivery, architecture, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and technology operations.
Former head of Estonia’s financial regulator appointed to establish new office for crypto fintech SG Veteris. In this newly created role, Raul Malmstein will also secure a cryptocurrency licence. He will also act as director and money laundering reporting officer for the group.
American Express appoints Hannah Lewis as UK country manager and senior vice president, head of UK for international card services. She succeeds Charlotte Duerden who is promoted to the newly-created role of executive vice president, chief international customer officer.
Greenfield One, the early-stage crypto fund based in Berlin, has expanded its leadership team. Markus Hujara is named vice president (VP) marketing & communications, while Marie Hanowski is taking on the role of VP people. Greenfield One said it is pushing ahead with the expansion of its expertise despite turbulent markets.
Digital brokerage GCEX is expanding into the MENA region with Mehtap Önder named MD, GCEX MENA. GCEX’s launch in Dubai follows the firm bagging regulatory approval to operate as a crypto exchange. GCEX enables brokers, funds and professional traders to access deep liquidity in digital assets.
Finally, Anchor – the B2B billing & collections platform – has onboarded Tal Ben Bassat to VP of finance & operations. He previously spent three years at Mastercard’s New Payment Platform division. Anchor aims to ‘flipping accounts payable and receivable on its head’.
Partnerships
Worldline and fintech manager.one have partnered to manage expense policies on corporate cards. The partnership will combine Worldline’s pan-European card issuing processing platform and manager.one expertise into business expense management.
SurePay, the confirmation of payee provider, and CBI, an Italian company that develops open finance services, have signed a partnership. This enables payment service providers to use the Check IBAN service to check gradually on Italian, Dutch and European account holders, including the UK.
The Lithuanian fraud prevention and digital identity verification startup iDenfy has partnered with Backed, a platform that allows users to speculate on the future of private companies. iDenfy will provide Backed with remote identity verification services to ensure a smooth and frictionless onboarding process.
Singapore-headquartered fintech UNOAsia has built the UNO Digital Bank in the Philippines in less than one year using Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is a ‘full-spectrum credit-led’ digital bank licensed under the digital banking licence framework established up by the Philippines central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
RSwitch, the national e-payment switch of Rwanda, has announced a new partnership with African fintech giant EFT Corporation to enable Rwandans to access their money across all technological platforms. RSwitch will benefit from EFT’s extensive suite of end-to-end payment solutions.
Visa is partnering with fintech Flocash to promote digital capabilities for African SMEs through digital payments, supplier solutions and access to financial services. The first step in this partnership is the launch of Flostore, powered by a Visa digital wallet and the Flocash pan -African payment platform.
Launches
London fintech Plum has launched a debit card to help its customers take control of their finances. The card is Plum’s first move into spending, consolidating its position as a comprehensive money app. The plum-coloured debit card is made up of 57 per cent sea salt and 43 per cent crude oil.
