Episode: 003

Investment & Funding

European digital investment platform Bitpanda has closed a $52 million series A funding round led by Valar Ventures. The large-scale investment will drive Bitpanda’s expansion, as well as ‘position the company as a leader in transforming Europe’s financial industry’. In addition, it will be used to recruit ‘some of the world’s leading talent’. Following the investment, Valar Ventures founding partner, Andrew McCormack will join the Bitpanda board.

Regtech data company Acin says it will ‘rapidly accelerate its proposition’ after securing $12 million in series A funding with Fitch and Notion Capital. Acin was advised by independent investment bank Zelig, with further support from international law firm Withers.

PayCargo, the payments network for the global supply chain industry, is excited to announce a $35million investment led by private equity firm Insight Partners. It says it will use the capital to expand global adoption of its electronic payments network, as well as accelerate investments in its technology.

Commercial lines insurtech platform Insurwave has raised £5 million to drive continued growth. Led by existing shareholders, the funds will be invested in expanding the features of the platform.

Finally, fintech SME lending platform Capify has closed an £8 million equity round. In addition, Capify is actively seeking partnerships with companies with large SME customer bases to provide financing.

Launches

PPRO, the local payments platform-as-a-service, expands global offering with top Indonesian payment methods DOKU and OVO. According to PPRO, the development marks a significant milestone in its expansion across the Asia Pacific region. PPRO’s integrations feature a total of four payment types: e-wallet, internet banking, bank transfers, and cash.

Lender Distribution Finance Capital Holdings – the niche lender focusing on manufacturers – has secured a licence by Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). As well as proposing a new name – DF Capital Bank Ltd, the company will offer ‘competitive online savings accounts’.

German fintech Deposit Solutions will launch a savings marketplace in the US. The SaveBetter portal offers US banks national reach for distribution of their retail deposit products. While, consumers can deposit money in all products listed on SaveBetter.com without having to open a new account with every bank.

Marqeta says it is the first modern card issuing platform to open its technology to any legacy card issuer looking to instantly provision existing cards into mobile wallets. The card issuing platform has unveiled its new tokenisation-as-a-service product, which it says opens up huge new possibilities for companies who are looking to innovate quickly, but don’t have access to modern technology.

iQSTEL, the US cloud-based telco solution provider, has unveiled a new fintech division. It says the expansion will help it widen its product and digital financial services offerings for global markets.

For the first time, European customers of cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer can access the Japanese Bitcoin market. bitFlyer says it is the first cryptocurrency exchange that is licensed to operate in Japan, the EU, and the US combined. In addition, it is the first to facilitate cross-border access to ‘prized Japanese Yen liquidity’.

Partnerships

Huawei offers contactless digital payment with the launch of Mondia Pay on its Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) ecosystem. The partnership will increase Huawei’s reach in countries across Africa and the Middle East. In addition, Mondia Pay will also market Huawei’s games content in Egypt.

Spanish neobank Bnext enlists global fintech as a service company Rapyd for Latin American expansion. As well as allowing Bnext customers to make cash deposits to their accounts in 30,000 locations in Mexico, the partnership will expand to interbank deposits later via Rapyd’s global payments network.

Business lender White Oak has chosen Provenir Cloud technology to support its digitisation and innovation strategy. It said the partnership will enable it to make real-time risk decisions with a fully automated lending experience.

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Bank Indonesia has forged a partnership with Sociolla, Indonesia’s leading beauty e-commerce platform through its banking-as-a-service solution nexus. The bank intends to further roll out nexus to markets in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Kuwait Islamic bank Boubyan Bank signs a cooperation agreement with FinFirst to offer its digital products and services. The bank says the partnership will help it cope with the latest fintech developments to enhance business environments, as well as support startups seeking digital banking services.

And, Ghanaian fintech ZEEPAY has hooked up with Visa to simplify cross border remittances. Through the partnership, ZEEPAY will integrate Visa’s real-time push payments solution with its money transfer platform

Appointments

James Wilson has joined insolvency fintech firm Red Flag Alert as its new chief technology officer. In his new role, James will be responsible for building out sales enablement and digital risk functions, as well as incorporating identity proofing and corroboration technology into Red Flag Alert products.

Six graduates and an intern have signed up to a development programme with Oxbury, the UK food and farming bank. In addition to its graduate intake, Oxbury has recruited 10 new team members across its various core business functions.

Cavendish Corporate Finance says the appointment of Karri Vuori as partner will further strengthens the firm’s mid-market M&A advisory expertise. Cavendish advised on the sale in August of legal software-as-a-service firm CaseLines to Thomson Reuters.

Finally, FintechOS, a global technology provider for financial institutions, has hired Dan Brătășanu as business analysis & solution architecture director for Central and Eastern Europe. He will be tasked with creating customised and integrated turnkey solutions for the end-to-end transformation of financial organisations.