Welcome to The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup on Tuesday 17 October 2023.
Company updates
Kani Payments, the global data reconciliation and reporting company, has announced it has been granted ISO 27001 certification, to affirm its ability to protect client data in the face of fast-evolving cybersecurity risks. After passing all audits, Kani Payments was granted the certification covering customers’ reconciliation and data reporting, development, maintenance and support of the Kani software applications, business intelligence reporting, and fintech data consultancy.
There’s celebrations at digital mortgage broker Habito after it recorded its first ever monthly profit in September. In 2022 average monthly losses were £897,000, and for the first five months of 2023 it was £385,000. Habito is on track to reach full-year profitability by the end of 2024.
Appointments
Specialist lending firm Somo Bridging has appointed Andrew Marsland as its new relationship director – Wales. Marsland will use his expertise to advise on and sell its bridge lending portfolio, including its market leading valuation only and second charge products.
Propel Finance, the UK asset finance lender, names Mike Quinn as director of technology finance. He will oversee Propel’s relationships with its technology equipment distributors and vendors to support their channel growth and finance propositions. Quinn will also lead Propel’s technology innovation into the wider B2B finance ecosystem.
Payments solutions provider Monavate launches a new Supply Chain Payments division, while appointing Anant Patel as its president. Patel joins joins Monavate after almost two years as president of international markets at ConnexPay, a US headquartered payments fintech.
The MENA Fintech Association, the premier not-for-profit organisation dedicated to serving fintech startups and established players across the Middle East and Africa, has established a Digital Assets Working Group. Miriam Kiwan and Mo Ali Yusuf have been appointed as the co-chairs of of the group, which aims to champion for a transparent regulatory framework while also propelling the adoption and extensive use of digital assets across MENA.
Regtech Novatus Global has welcomed Nick Baker as the firm’s new chairman. He is taking over the position from Marcus Sephton, who has been in the role since 2020. This appointment follows the 2022 investment from Maven Capital Partners, to help Novatus Global achieve its growth ambitions in both its technology and advisory solutions.
Partnerships
DIGISEQ, the wearable payments tech company, has forged a partnership with ASTARI, the Dutch wearable tech fashion brand, to bring large scale wearable payment technology and more to ASTARI’s customers. ASTARI’s DIGISEQ-powered wearables are used as a payment device or as a digital business card.
BigPay selects Thredd to power its payments processing across South-East Asia. BigPay, a Southeast Asian financial services app, has selected Thredd, a ‘next-gen’ payments platform to power its payment capabilities, starting with BigPay’s upcoming expansion into Thailand, with Indonesia and the Philippines following in early 2024.
The Global Corporate and Specialty (GCS) team at multinational insurance company Aviva has used hyperexponential pricing decision intelligence for insurers’s Pricing Decision Intelligence (PDI) platform, hx Renew, to build 20 new insurance pricing models in just nine months, now used by underwriters to create new policies in under 10 mins.
Global verification and anti-fraud platform Sumsub partners with NayaOne, a banking data provider, to help improve compliance in the banking sector. NayaOne’s marketplace will integrate all of Sumsub’s compliance products, enabling financial institutions access to customer onboarding and fraud-prevention solutions.
TSB, the high-street bank, has chosen Superscript, the insurtech scale-up, to provide insurance to its small business banking customers. TSB customers can access free commercial legal protection as part of the partnership. This also includes easy access to a 24/7 legal and tax advice helpline where customers can manage legal affairs as efficiently as a company with an in-house team.
Funding and investments
iwoca, one of Europe’s largest SME lenders, unveils a new funding line with initial commitments of £200million from Barclays and Värde Partners. In January this year, iwoca secured an increase and extension to its existing funding line, with long-standing partner Pollen Street Capital from £125million to £170million.
Statement, the cash-intelligence platform for global liquidity management, announces the general availability of its platform alongside $12million in seed funding. The round was led by Glilot Capital Partners, with participation also from Citi, Mensch Capital Partners, Titan Capital and Operator Partners.
Cloover, the climate fintech, has closed a €7million pre-seed investment round. The investment consists of both equity and debt. Backers included 9900 Capital, QED Investors, Centrotec, together with climate and fintech angel investors and a specialised fintech lender. The funding enhances Cloover’s software platform, expand its service offerings, to launch in Germany, as well as expand across Europe.
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