This Week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 03/05
Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Friday 3 May 2024, bringing you the latest updates from across the world.
Appointments
BitGo, a custody and wallet solutions provider for digital assets, hires Brett Reeves for expansion in Europe. Most recently, Reeves served as head of business development at Bequant, a regulated digital asset Prime Broker. BitGo recently added support for 14 more assets including ARB, BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), $BONK, and dogwifhat (WIF).
Globacap, the private capital markets technology firm, has appointed Brian Schwieger as chairman, assisting Globacap to accelerate its scaling journey. Schwieger currently holds a variety of non-executive director and advisory roles, including as chair of the board of wealthtech platform, Wealthkernel.
Intellect Design Arena Ltd, a cloud-native fintech, has added Rajesh Mehta to its growth advisory board. The company welcomes his insights, saying he will be instrumental in driving innovation at Intellect and shaping the future of eMACH.ai powered transaction banking technology.
Uplinq, a global credit decisioning support platform for small business lenders, unveils the addition of Matt Baker, former North America head of small business, Visa Commercial Solutions, as strategic advisor. Baker’s appointment signifies Uplinq’s continued growth and its commitment toward expanding access to working capital for small businesses globally.
Feedzai has appointed David Larson as its new chief financial officer as it eyes its next phase of growth. He joins from Thomson Reuters, where he spent nearly 15 years and was most recently its chief strategy officer. The appointment comes as Feedzai recently announced a record breaking fiscal year led by 88 per cent growth in their behavioral biometrics solution.
Kroll, an independent global risk and financial advisory solutions firm, hires Jennifer Huntington as chief operating officer. In this role, Huntington will oversee Kroll’s global business operations and technology function to drive greater consistency, discipline and operational excellence across the firm’s professional and corporate shared service capabilities in support of Kroll’s growth strategy.
Partnerships
Yuno, the global payments orchestration platform, has forged a strategic partnership with Kushki, a payments technology company that connects Latin America through payments, to optimise the digital payments ecosystem, improve the purchasing experience and reduce transaction costs in the region.
NatWest Group has unveiled a new partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). This official payments partnership, builds on previous support the NatWest Group has given to FSB. In 2020, NatWest Group established the SME Taskforce with FSB to help SMEs to respond to and navigate the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. FSB members will see cost savings and other benefits by signing up with Tyl.
Company updates
Welsh fintech company Finalrentals has secured its biggest export deal to date, worth a projected £5million over five years, thanks to support from the Welsh Government. The deal sees Finalrentals, a digital car rental platform based in Cardiff, add 10 key locations across Turkey including major cities Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa, with access to a network of over 500 vehicles.
Investments and funding rounds
Securitize, a tokenizing real-world assets company, has completed a $47million funding round led by BlackRock. The strategic investment also includes funding from Hamilton Lane, ParaFi Capital and Tradeweb Markets. The contributed capital will fuel Securitize’s continued innovation and expansion as it further solidifies its position in the digital asset securities ecosystem.
Baselayer, a B2B platform utilising proprietary Graph AI technology to fight fraud and optimise business onboarding, announces its official emergence from stealth with a $6.5million seed round and an experienced team of compliance and machine learning experts. The seed round, which was five times oversubscribed, included Torch Capital, Afore Capital, Founder Collective, Picus Capital and Gilgamesh Ventures.
SumUp has raised €1.5billion from private credit lenders in a round led by Goldman Sachs – one of the largest European private credit deals of its kind in recent years. The money will be used to refinance existing debt and seize global growth opportunities. New investors include AllianceBernstein, Apollo Global Management, Arini, Deutsche Bank AG, Fortress Investment Group, SilverRock Financial Services, as well as Vista Credit Partners.
