The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday brings you the latest fintech news from around the world.
Job moves
Bitstamp, the crypto exchange, has named JB Graftieaux as its new global CEO. Graftieaux joined Bitstamp in May 2021 as the company’s Europe CEO and in his new role takes over from Julian Sawyer. In a previous role he was MD of eBay Europe.
Pannovate has appointed Neil Harris to the role of group chief executive officer. Harris has led the global business growth for Global Processing Services (GPS) since 2017. His new role at Pannovate combines his wealth of experience in payments with his passion for societal change – he will use his skills to help launch fintechs who are changing the face of payments, globally.
“Neil’s is experience is only surpassed by his expertise, bringing to Pannovate a depth of payment industry knowledge, particularly around digital banking, and next generation payments.”
Michael Aagaard, former head of foreign exchange at Saxo Bank has been appointed as MD of GCEX in Denmark. He will be responsible for all GCEX’s activities out of Denmark and GCEX’s growing team in Copenhagen. He will also work closely with founder and CEO Lars Holst on strategic growth plans for the organisation.
Meanwhile, Teemu Salmi takes on the role of CEO at Nixu Corporation from 1 August. The company previously announced Salmi’s appointment would begin on 1 September. Valtteri Peltomäki has been acting as Nixu’s interim CEO since 1 March 2022.
Finally, Adecco Group has named Denis Machuel as its new CEO to succeed Alain Dehaze. The transition will take place following a month-long handover period during June. Machuel was most recently group CEO of Sodexo.
More job appointments
interactive investor, the UK investment platform for private investors, has hired Saj Arshad as chief commercial officer. He joins from UK retail bank Santander, where he was chief customer and innovation officer. interactive investor is on a mission to innovate, disrupt, and harness digitalisation and technology to help customers make informed investment decisions and take control of their financial future.
Insights provider TransUnion has appointed Amanda Rendle to its UK board as a non-executive director. Rendle previously led an award-winning client engagement programme at leading multinational bank HSBC. Additionally, Amanda supported Masthaven in its transition from specialist lender to bank.
Fintech Visma has appointed Adriaan Kom as managing director. Kom has been working at Visma as chief commercial officer for the past 1.5 years. In his new role, Kom will focus on the further growth of the company as part of Visma, including accelerating further innovation in the product portfolio and to make the customer even more central.
Apex Group Ltd, a financial services provider, has unveiled Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta as head of strategic development – MEA. Based in Apex’s offices in the Abu Dhabi Global Market will be responsible for supporting the group’s continued business and client development efforts in the ADGM.
Mergers and acquisitions
HCL Technologies UK has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Confinale AG, a Switzerland-based digital banking and wealth management consulting firm. Following the acquisition, HCL will increase its footprint in the global wealth management market with emphasis on Avaloq consulting, implementation and management capabilities.
Yapily has signed an agreement with SCHUFA to acquire finAPI, a provider of open banking solutions in Germany. The deal is set to make Yapily the largest open banking payments platform in Europe. The acquisition will double Yapily’s customer base. In addition to its existing coverage of 16 European countries, Yapily will enter new territories including Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Launches
Payment platform dLocal has unveiled dLocal Go, an online platform for entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs to process payments and access other financial services in emerging markets around the world. The new service is designed to provide fast and simple ways to process payments in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Funding and investments
Stanhope Financial Group, an Ireland-based global fintech, has raised in excess of $10million for its Series A funding round. The funding was led by venture capital firm Gate Ventures. It will be used to develop the group’s product offerings, strengthen the management team as well as increase its market share. It is also currently preparing for the launch of its affiliate digital assets division, SH Digital.
Egyptian fintech Paymob has raised $50million in a Series B round of funding led by PayPal Ventures, Kora Capital and Clay Point. The round also saw participation from Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment and Nclude, along with existing investors A15, FMO and Global Ventures.
Meanwhile, SaaScada, the cloud native core banking platform, has announced its £2.5million seed funding raise. SaaScada will use this new round of funding to build on the momentum it has already created, accelerate growth and expand the company’s footprint in the banking sector.
Maydan Capital Ltd has closed a seed round for Netherlands-based home-financing platform Fairnance. It is the first completed deal for the UK equity investment platform. Fairnance is trying to build an alternative home-financing solution that serves people in the Netherlands excluded from home ownership.
Partnerships
emerchantpay, a payment service provider and acquirer, has formed a strategic partnership with APEXX Global. The partnership will expand APEXX’s current ecosystem by providing access to emerchantpay’s in-house and global merchant acquiring services. Additionally, through the new alliance, APEXX will leverage over 300 ways to pay domestically and cross-border.
FOMO Lab, the intellectual property specialist, metaverse architects and leaders in the Web3 revolution; have announced the genesis Mr Bean collection, in collaboration with Banijay, the largest independent content producer and distributor. 3,333 unique Mr Bean NFT collectibles are available to purchase via FOMO Lab’s marketplace.
