The Tech Finance Daily Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Tuesday 21 January 2025.
Partnerships and collaborations
Barclays has partnered with FinTech Wales, the independent membership association dedicated to supporting the fintech and financial services industry in Wales. Barclays joins a group of 11 partners that provide substantial support to FinTech Wales’ mission to empower Wales as a globally recognised hub of fintech excellence.
Offa, the UK Islamic property finance fintech, is joining Connect IFA, a specialist mortgage brokerage network. It plans to leverage its Islamic finance industry experience via engagement with Connect IFA through events and webinars to raise awareness of its ethical finance products, designed in accordance with Islamic finance principles.
EAZY Financial Services ‘EazyPay’, a Bahraini financial institution specialising in point-of-sale (POS) and online payment gateway acquiring services, has teamed up with Tarabut, the MENA region’s regulated open banking platform. This collaboration will develop and deliver ‘innovative financing options’ for SMEs in Bahrain using EazyPay POS terminals.
Netbank has partnered with Discovery Credit Solutions Corp (DCSC) to introduce a financial service solution designed to streamline loan management and improve financial access for underserved communities.The solution enables Discovery Credit Solutions to efficiently manage loan disbursements, collections as well as account reconciliation.
Appointments
Global payments platform Ecommpay has appointed Chris Wilson as its new chief financial officer. He previously worked at Shieldpay, Universal Music Group, BBC Studios, as well as Warner Music Group. Wilson joins the Ecommpay leadership team to support the company’s growth ambitions in 2025 and beyond.
Australia-founded global payments platform Airwallex has appointed Andrew Balint as VP, marketing, APAC (ex-China). Balint has held senior roles at Afterpay, amaysim, Ola and Optus. Most recently he was the VP, marketing ANZ and APAC at Afterpay for four years, leading the buy-now-pay-later platform’s marketing efforts across brand, growth marketing, product marketing as well as customer experience.
Acquired.com, the next generation payments business, appoints Lee Clifton as chief operating officer. In his role, Clifton will be responsible for strengthening Acquired.com’s strategic relationships with its key customers, as well as driving ‘operational excellence’, which will underpin Acquired.com’s growth. He joins from Stripe, where he served as the global head of payments performance and strategy for 2.5 years.
Mashreq, a financial institution in the MENA region, has welcomed Vivek Batra as its new global head of transaction banking. In his role, Batra will have a focus on commercialising the capabilities delivered via the new Mashreq NEO CORP platform covering cash management, collections, documentary trade and supply chain finance, as well as further developing the business in all international markets.
AAZZUR, a provider of embedded finance orchestration and fintech platform-as-a-service, appoints Richo Strydom, chief technology officer at Crown Agents Bank, to its advisory board. Most recently, he served as chief operating officer at Bankable.
Launches and milestones
Bitget, the cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 company, has introduced a ‘hold-to-earn service’, Bitget HodlerYield, with USDE and weETH as the first supported tokens. This new service provides users with a way to earn passive income by holding mainstream tokens, offering base annual percentage returns as well as the opportunity to receive additional rewards.
PEXA, the fintech behind the world’s first digital property exchange process, has processed £100million worth of UK remortgage transactions through its platform. It says the milestone demonstrates the increasing appetite among stakeholders to overhaul the technology and back-end infrastructure that supports the sector.
Conister Bank Limited has launched an online deposit system for its UK retail customers. The launch follows the success of its digital distribution channel on the Isle of Man, which now accounts for over 70 per cent of the bank’s lending. The new system delivers a range of deposit products, offering self-service options, swift account opening, and mobile access.
Waza, a B2B payment provider for emerging market businesses, has launched Lync, a multi-currency banking platform with global payment rails for emerging market businesses incorporated in the US, UK or EU. The platform offers multi-currency accounts, starting with USD, EUR, GBP, NGN and Stablecoins, with payments to more than 100 countries.
Paysend, the UK-based global payments platform, has reached 10 million global consumer customers. Founder Abdul Abdulkerimov said the milestone reflects the significant impact its payment technology platform has on millions of consumers and enterprises worldwide. “As the largest global digital network with over 25 billion endpoints, our mission is to simplify international payments for everyone,” he said
WiseAlpha has unveiled a dedicated high-yield corporate bond Innovative Finance ISA (IF ISA). Investors can now build diversified corporate bond portfolios within the tax-efficient framework of an ISA, marking a significant milestone in the UK’s investment landscape.
Company updates
Following its acquisition by Allica last year, bridging lender Tuscan Capital has been fully integrated into the Allica Bank brand. Tuscan’s name, logo and website have all switched to Allica Bank branding – including Allica’s orange bowler hat – and its team have all officially become part of Allica. Alongside the rebrand, Allica has also introduced a new range of pricing and service offerings for its bridging proposition.
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the UAE’s largest Islamic bank, has increased its shareholding in T.O.M. Group from 20 per cent to 25 per cent. It follows the initial acquisition in September 2023. The move aligns with DIB’s vision to drive financial inclusion and bring innovative Sharia-compliant financial services to underbanked and non-banked segments.
Payments service provider myPOS has revealed its acquisition of Toporder, a French cash register company. The acquisition supports myPOS in expanding its footprint in the French retail, food and beverage sectors by providing integrated payment and cash register solutions tailored to streamline operations, improve efficiency and drive growth.
Funding and investments
Australian fintech Eden Exchange has acquired SC Venture’s incubated Dealcierge to create a new A$50million Singapore-based platform edenX. The edenX platform brings together the networks, technology, IP and teams of Eden Exchange and Dealcierge to create an expanded digital and collaborative ecosystem aiming to drive market growth across Asia, Australia, New Zealand, as well as beyond.
Fundment, a tech platform for financial advisers, has raised £45million in Series C led by Highland Europe. The new funding, including participation from ETFS Capital, will be used to invest in product development, scaling the team as well as future expansion. The platform enables firms to utilise tax wrappers and build their own APIs to customise integrations and extensibility.
OakNorth provides £50million of new funding to entrepreneurial private equity real estate investor Paloma Capital. Paloma has raised over £520million of capital in three funds since launch. The new funding, split across two separate transactions, will be deployed within the Paloma Real Estate III, which focuses on multi-let urban industrial and logistics schemes, as well as trade counter, open storage and self-storage.
South African insurtech Naked has secured $38million in its latest funding round. The Series B2 funding round was joined by BlueOrchard, as well as Hollard, Yellowwoods and International Finance Corporation. The new funding will fuel Naked’s growth, enhance advertising to attract and grow its customer base and will also be used to meet regulatory capital requirements.
