This Week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 13/06

Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Thursday 13 June 2024, bringing you the latest updates from across the world.

Company updates

Fintech Verto has launched the Verto Marketplace for brokers and businesses to trade in illiquid and exotic African currencies, including NGN, ZAR, XAF, XOF and KES. Marketplace is designed to overcome challenges of limited rate control, high costs, lack of transparency and inefficiency. It is available for traders, brokers, and treasurers in the US, UK and EU markets.

Revolut is to move its global headquarters to the YY London building in the centre of Canary Wharf, committing to a 10 year lease. The global fintech is increasing its office footprint by 40 per cent to 113k sq ft, taking four floors, and intends to feature two Revolut logos on the side of the building. The move “strengthens the company’s commitment” to the UK, and comes as Revolut reaches nine million customers in the market.

BVNK, the stablecoin payments provider, has enabled Swift payments on its platform, so businesses can move easily between US dollars, Euros and stablecoins like USDT, USDC and PYUSD. With these new capabilities, BVNK customers can tap into more efficient global settlement and do business with global partners more easily.

Partnerships

Dubai Investment PJSC, a diversified investment group, has appointed fintech xCube as the liquidity provider for its shares listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). xCube will independently trade Dubai Investment shares, entering two-way daily quotes into the market within the defined parameters of the mandate, and in compliance with regulations set by the DFM and SCA.

Moldindconbank, a Moldavian financial institution, has joined forces with Salt Edge, an open banking solutions provider, to comply with Moldova’s law on PSD2 legislation. Salt Edge’s full-stack open banking compliance solution enables Moldindconbank to meet the NBM’s requirements and empower its clients to access a comprehensive overview of their financial transactions through any regulated app.

Muse Finance, a financial technology company, has launched musePay, its buy now, pay later integration with global small business platform, Xero. This integration is also supported by Allianz Trade, the trade credit insurance company. The integration between musePay and Xero works to ensure that businesses can manage their finances easily and smoothly.

1fs Wealth has bolstered the capabilities of its AI-driven global wealth intelligence platform by partnering with Albourne Partners Limited, an independently owned, non-discretionary global investment consultant. Users of the 1fs Wealth platform can now access Albourne’s Hedge Fund Indices: HedgeRS to benchmark their investments.

Acquired.com, the next-generation payments business focused on powering recurring commerce, and Flexys, a UK-based collections management technology provider, have joined forces. Flexys and Acquired.com are working together to provide Flexys’ platform with Google Pay, Apple Pay and open banking powered payments. Acquired.com has also supported Flexys in implementing a multi-acquiring strategy.

Appointments

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) has added two new global banking veterans to its executive committee (ExCo) – appointing Simon Thorn as group chief compliance officer and Neil Barrable as group chief credit officer. Thorn will oversee FAB’s regulatory compliance, AML and financial crime policies and procedures. He joined FAB in 2023 from Barclays Bank. Meanwhile, Barrable will lead FAB’s credit function, joining from HSBC.

KPMG in the UK has appointed Hannah Dobson as its new head of fintech. She was previously co-head of fintech alongside John Hallsworth, who is retiring from the firm in July 2024.  Dobson joined the firm in 2015 and in addition to leading its fintech team she is a partner in KPMG’s indirect tax team.

Broadridge Financial Solutions appoints Roz Smith as chief operating officer of Broadridge International. Smith will focus on scaling and streamlining the Broadridge International business to drive transformational levels of operating efficiency and productivity. Prior to joining Broadridge, Smith spent 18 years in management roles at HSBC.

MerQube, the index-linked index investing, has welcomed Dave Mueller as chief financial officer. Mueller brings 17 years experience operating in corporate and strategic finance at firms servicing the financial services sector. He has spent the last seven years at technology VC firm Intel Capital where he was responsible for assessing potential investments in companies.

S64, the global alternatives fintech and solutions partner to the wealth management industry, has  appointed Marcus Glover as chief technology officer. Glover has previously delivered client-facing digital platforms for  financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and the Bank of Singapore.

Funding news

Dubai-based Qstay, a hospitality and rental investment property management platform, has successfully raised $4.6million in a pre-Series A funding round. This latest round brings the total amount raised by the company to $11.1million. The funding was secured through a combination of conventional and convertible debt.

Sidekick, a wealth management platform, has raised £4.5million in a seed round and £4million via a debt facility. The combined £8.5million will see the startup continue scaling its team and expanding its product lineup while securing a European licence. The seed round was co-led by Pact VC and TheVentureCity, with participation also from 1818, MS&AD, Blackwood, Octopus Ventures, Seedcamp and Semantic Ventures.

Layer3 has announced a $15million Series A funding round co-led by ParaFi and Greenfield Capital. The round saw participation from Electric Capital, King River, Immutable, Lattice, Tioga, LeadBlock Bitpanda Ventures, Amber, Stateless and GD1. The Layer3 Foundation will launch the L3 token, along with a new AI-enabled protocol for optimising distribution strategies, later this year.

AccountsIQ, the cloud-based accounting platform, has secured a €60million Series C investment from Axiom Equity, a specialist B2B SaaS growth equity fund. The investment will be focussed on continuing to develop the AccountsIQ product to shape the finance function of the future, taking advantage of advancement in AI throughout all aspects of the solution.