The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Thursday 2 January 2025.
Industry updates
Gatehouse Bank colleagues have raised over £21,000 for Bone Cancer Research Trust, the Bank’s charity of the year for 2024. Throughout the year, colleagues organised a range of fundraising activities, including charity walks and runs, a sponsored hike up Mount Snowdown and a 560 metres daily swim challenge. The Bank also launched a new initiative, Gatehouse Giving Week, which aimed to boost donations.
Louise Smith, chair of Innovate Finance, has been awarded an OBE for her contributions to fintech and LGBTQIA+ empowerment in the 2025 New Year Honours. Meanwhile, British Business Bank CEO Louis Taylor and former CEO Catherine Lewis La Torre receive CBEs. Judith Hartley, ex-CEO at British Business Investments, earns an MBE for services to Business.
Fintech Zilch has released a video highlighting its 2024 milestones: achieving a £130million revenue rate, reaching 4.5 million users, and recording £3.6billion in sales. The company saved customers £600million in fees, saw a 135 per cent increase in Black Friday sales, reached profitability in July, and raised a £150million debt deal led by Deutsche Bank. Zilch also co-founded the Unicorn Council for UK FinTech with Innovate Finance.
Bitget, the crypto exchange and Web3 company, has completed the initial burn of its native Bitget Token (BGB), reducing the total supply by 40 per cent. This strategic move involved burning 800 million BGB tokens, effectively decreasing the total supply from two billion to 1.2 billion tokens. The burn process was executed by transferring the tokens to a designated burn address, ensuring their permanent removal from circulation.
MoonPay, the global crypto payments company, has been granted approval under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and received its licence on 30 December 2024. As one of the first companies to achieve this milestone, MoonPay received its licence from the Dutch AFM. MoonPay’s MiCA approval will enable the company to continue offering its fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat services across Europe.
Funding and investments
Ver.iD, a SaaS platform for digital identity verification, has raised €2million in angel funding. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Amsterdam, the platform is preparing for a new €4million funding round to accelerate its growth across Europe. Its goal is to become an “international market leader and set the standard for digital identity in Europe”.
Binance Labs has invested in THENA, a decentralised exchange (DEX) and liquidity protocol built on BNB Chain. The funds raised will be utilised to accelerate the development and expansion of THENA’s platform, enhance security measures, scale user acquisition efforts, strengthen partnerships and collaborations within the BNB Chain ecosystem, and drive innovation in DeFi.
Partnerships
Qi Card, a fintech in Iraq, has unveiled its third-generation app, SuperQi, in collaboration with Ant International. Powered by Alipay+ Wallet Tech solutions, SuperQi integrates a digital lifestyle super app with a fully functional digital bank. With more than 11 million cardholders and five million mobile app users, Qi plans to reach over 15 million app users within the next three years.
Siraj Finance PJSC, an Islamic finance company in the UAE, has signed an agreement with Azentio, a core banking technology service provider. The agreement represents the collaboration for implementation of the core and digital banking solution to further enhance the operational capabilities and digitisation of Siraj Finance’s product and service offerings.
Appointments
The American Fintech Council (AFC), the industry association representing responsible fintech companies and innovative banks, has unveiled the election of its 2025 Board leadership, including Martha O’Malley, assistant general counsel at Prosper Marketplace, who will be returning as chair of the board. Ezra Garrett, SVP of public affairs at Oportun, will chair the budget committee, while Ulrico Izaguirre, SVP at Affirm, will lead the policy and advocacy committee.
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