The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Tuesday 6 August 2024.
Company milestones
Monzo has surpassed 10 million personal customers in the UK. The milestone follows Monzo’s first full year of profitability, a $600million funding round and multiple product announcements as the company moves further forward with its ambition to build the one app customers turn to to manage their entire financial lives. Monzo also boasts more than 450,000 business customers in the UK.
Penfold, the digital pensions provider, has reached £500million assets under administration, doubling assets from £250million in the last 12 months and achieving growth of 260 per cent from £139million at the start of 2023. Penfold has more than doubled its customer base since the start of 2023, from 33,000 to over 75,000, as the number of employers using Penfold for its workplace pension has increased from 300 to over 2,000.
Emirates NBD, the banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey) region, has opened a new branch in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD). In line with Emirates NBD’s strategic expansion plan, the new branch consolidates the bank’s presence in the Kingdom, extending its diverse range of services to more consumers, communities and entities across the country.
Funding and investments
Mintos, the multi-asset investment platform, has completed its crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, Europe’s largest private market investment platform. The campaign has surpassed Mintos’ expectations, raising a total of €3.1million from over 3300 investors during a 14-day stretch. Mintos also achieved a significant milestone by reaching its minimum raising goal of €1million within the first 40 minutes of launch.
Qardy, the digital lending marketplace in Egypt and the MENA region for financial institutions to fund MSMEs, has secured a $7-figure pre-seed round of investment, with participation from White Field Ventures and Vastly Valuable Ventures as well as other angel investors. It will use the investment to further enhance its services, as well as accelerate plans for expansion in KSA and the region.
Savvy Wealth, a digital-first platform for financial advisors, has bagged an additional $15.5million funding round led by Canvas Ventures. This latest infusion of capital, which closes the company’s $26.5million Series A round, accelerates the development of its AI-powered technology platform. The round also saw Thrive Capital, Brewer Lane Ventures, Index Ventures, The House Fund and Alumni Ventures take part.
New product launches
Fintech startup okoora has launched its new mobile app. Available on both Android and iOS, the app provides business users with transaction capabilities in both local and foreign currencies, multi-currency wallets, and is synced with the desktop version of okoora’s ABCM (automated business currency management) platform.
Credit reference agency Equifax UK has launched a new Family & Friends subscription to help support more consumers in the UK. It enables users to share the benefits of the existing Equifax Credit Report and Score service with up to two additional users. The launch comes as one-third see joint applications as necessary for securing loan size.
Partnerships
BLIK, a payment system from Poland, Aion Bank and Vodeno, a provider of financial technology, have formed a strategic partnership. This cooperation will enable both Vodeno and Aion Bank, which participates in the BLIK system as an issuer, to offer fintechs, banks and other financial institutions access to BLIK services.
Global fintech Unlimit forges a partnership with payment orchestration platform Yuno to simplify and enhance payments for businesses worldwide. The partnership will combine Unlimit’s portfolio of over 1,000 global payment methods with Yuno’s high-performance technological platform, empowering companies to support safer and more efficient digital payments.
Boubyan Bank, the second largest Islamic bank in Kuwait, has selected Temenos to modernise its core banking systems. The bank is migrating to Temenos’ core banking platform for retail, corporate banking and wealth management to enhance business agility and operational efficiency.
UK-based neobank Ampere has partnered with Mastercard to bring card-to-card payment capabilities to its SME customers. Ampere is an SME-specific neobank based in London, providing business banking for SMEs with services including loans and financing, low-rate card payment processing for merchants.
Regtech AMLYZE has unveiled a strategic partnership with Notabene. Notabene’s platform connects users with over 1200 CASPs, enabling them to identify entities and jurisdictions behind crypto addresses and ensure compliant transactions with any wallet, including self-hosted wallets. The platform’s capabilities align with AMLYZE’s suite of anti-financial crime solutions.
Appointments
Lloyds Banking Group has appointed Rohit Dhawan as director of AI and advanced analytics. He will lead the Group’s AI Centre of Excellence, bringing together experts in data science, behavioural science, ML engineering, advanced analytics and AI ethics. Dhawan joins from Amazon Web Services, where he served as the head of data and AI strategy across the Asia-Pacific region.
Nivo, a provider of secure ID and messaging solutions, announces a series of strategic new hires as part of its commitment to driving growth and innovation. Niloy Roy is named head of customer success, while Lushantha Dabare is appointed sales solutions consultant and Mahima Sivakumar as customer success manager.
VIPR, the delegated authority technology company, appoints Chantal Dawson as global head of customer success. Previously, she was at WTW as business lead for e-accounting and Aon in a similar role. At VIPR, Chantal will expand the account management and customer success functions.
Aqilla, the intelligent cloud-based accounting and reporting application company, welcomes Mark Simmance as head of partnerships – a newly created position. He will be responsible for recruiting, managing and supporting new and existing partners. Prior to joining Aqilla, Simmance held the position of senior channel sales manager at Webfleet Solutions, as well as spending six years at Informa.
Lockton, the independent insurance brokerage firm, appoints Amit Agarwal in the dual capacity of chief operating officer and chief financial officer for its India operations. This strategic appointment highlights Lockton India’s commitment to strengthening its leadership team and expanding its presence in the region.
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