The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Thursday 12 September 2024.
Appointments
Jeeves, the all-in-one expense management platform, appoints Gustavo Gorenstein, ‘Guga’, as its new general manager for Brazil. With Guga at the helm, Jeeves aims to leverage the significant opportunities in Brazil, focusing on building trustworthy relationships with customers and tailoring its services to meet local needs.
Global wholesale bank ING has appointed Siobhan Walker as head of ING’s Energy team in the UK. In this newly-created role, Walker will be responsible for overseeing the growth of ING’s commitment to the energy sector in the UK, one of the main European markets which is pivotal to further driving ING’s energy transition efforts.
Alex John has relocated from Australia to the UK to join business bank Redwood as its new ESG manager. He has previously worked at a specialist climate risk and energy management consulting firm. Last year, Redwood launched a Green Reward proposition, supporting landlords who have attained the highest energy standards by offering them cashback of up to 0.50 per cent of their loan value.
Orion, a provider of wealthtech solutions for fiduciary advisors, has appointed Mark Mayo as its chief financial officer. Mayo has responsibility for strengthening Orion’s financial infrastructure, overseeing financial strategy, and advancing the company’s strategic roadmap as it continues to grow. He most recently served as CFO for DISA Global Solutions, a consortium drug testing provider.
Savvy Advisors, a registered investment advisor affiliated with Savvy Wealth, hires financial advisors Drew Martino and Daniel Moore. Savvy Wealth’s all-in-one, integrated technology and internal support team empowers its advisors to offload middle and back-office tasks, enabling them to spend more time serving clients and building their businesses.
More appointments
ComplyAdvantage has named Paul Kizakevich as chief revenue officer (CRO). Kizakevich joins AI-augmented software testing automation platform Katalon, where he served as president and CRO. At ComplyAdvantage, Kizakevich will oversee the global commercial organisation to increase global market penetration, invest in its thriving partner ecosystem, and ensure material success for its 1,600 customers.
Westpac, an Australian multinational banking and financial services company, appoints Anthony Miller as Group CEO and MD. Miller, currently chief executive of Westpac’s business and wealth division, will succeed Peter King, who will retire after a 30-year career at Westpac including five years as CEO.
Davies, the specialist professional services and technology company, appoints Paul O’Brien as the firm’s first group chief AI officer. The newly created role is one of a series of significant investments made by Davies to leverage innovation and capitalise on the value of AI, including the use of generative AI, across the business.
Funding and investments
Cashmere, an AI-powered client acquisition platform for wealth management firms, has completed a $3.6million seed funding round. The investment will drive product development and strategic hiring – including a new head of machine learning, Sean Cheng. The seed round was led by Canapi Ventures, with participation also from Benchstrength, Plug and Play, The House Fund and Courtyard Ventures.
Paymob, a financial services enabler in MENA, announces a $22million Series B extension round – taking the company’s total Series B funding to $72million. The funding was led by EBRD Venture Capital with participation from Endeavor Catalyst. Existing investors PayPal Ventures, BII, FMO, A15, Nclude and Helios Digital Ventures also participated in the round. The resources will help Paymob pursue its growth strategy across MENA.
London-based investment firm Outward VC has announced the first closing at £51million of its Fund II. The fund has received a cornerstone investment of £30million from the British Business Bank, which is deploying capital through its Enterprise Capital Funds programme. With this new fund, Outward will continue its mission to help founders breakthrough during the early stages of their businesses.
Partnerships
Melio, a B2B payments platform for small businesses, has unveiled an integration with the Amazon Business Reconciliation API to synchronise Amazon Business invoices in a single payment processing system. The integration enables Amazon Business Pay By Invoice customers in the US to pay all their Amazon Business invoices and any other bills with a few clicks through Melio.
Silverflow, the cloud-native payment processing company, has struck a new partnership with Chesapeake Bank, a community bank. By leveraging Silverflow’s processing platform, Chesapeake Bank, through its division, Chesapeake Payment Systems, will significantly enhance its service offerings, adding the capabilities of a more advanced and agile infrastructure.
Nayax, a global commerce enablement payments and loyalty platform, and A2Z Cust2Mate Solutions Corp, a technology solutions company, forge a strategic partnership to pair Nayax’s automated self-service retail mobile payment system with A2Z Cust2Mate’s smart cart platform for smart retail stores. They will enable customers to complete their entire shopping journey from a smart cart, with no long checkout lines.
Zodia Custody, a digital asset custodian, has launched an integration with the Solana stake automation platform, Marinade. This integration enables Zodia’s institutional clients to access Solana staking via Zodia Gateway, an ecosystem of third-party services. Investors can connect with Marinade and stake directly from their Zodia Custody cold wallets.
AutoRek, an automated financial controls platform, has partnered with Calastone, a global funds network, to improve and simplify the consolidation and reconciliation of fund manager data, through the use of Calastone Reporting, helping investment firms to save time and costs. The partnership aims to help firms reduce risk and operational inefficiency in their business.
More partnerships
Ebury, the global financial technology firm, forges a new partnership with French football team, AS Monaco FC, for the 2024-2025 Ligue 1 season. Ebury’s branding will feature on the training kit of AS Monaco’s professional squad throughout the season.
Tradu, the multi-asset trading platform, announces a strategic partnership with TradingView, a platform for traders and investors. Through this partnership, Tradu’s clients will have access to TradingView’s charting library, empowering them to analyse markets, create custom charting templates and execute trades using TradingView’s front-end within the Tradu CFD ecosystem.
Company updates
Galileo Financial Technologies, a financial technology company and a subsidiary of SoFi Technologies, has launched Galileo Instant Verification Engine (GIVE) and Transaction Risk GScore. The new tools ‘deliver real-time fraud detection for fintechs, banks and businesses and maintain frictionless account experiences for customers’.
DailyPay, a worktech company and a provider of earned wage access, is rebranding its ‘Friday by DailyPay Visa® Prepaid Card’, launching the ‘DailyPay Visa® Prepaid Card.’ The newly rebranded DailyPay Card adds additional capabilities to DailyPay’s existing suite of money movement services to help meet the needs of employees on their financial wellness journey.
FE fundinfo, a financial data company connecting the asset management industry to wealth management networks in the UK, Europe and Asia, has expanded its suite of products for UK advisers with the acquisition of due diligence and product selection tool provider, AdviserAsset. It is FE fundinfo’s eighth acquisition in three years.
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