The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Thursday 20 February 2025.
Appointments
Chainalysis, the blockchain data platform, has named its first chief financial officer, Valentina Longo. Longo will drive strategic investments to fuel growth and help advance Chainalysis’ mission to build trust in cryptocurrency markets through data and blockchain analysis. Valentina previously served as the CFO of Sword Health and held leadership roles at Cerberus Capital Management, JPMorgan Chase and McKinsey.
Alteryx, an AI platform for enterprise analytics, appoints Jon Pexton as chief financial officer and Steven Birdsall as chief revenue officer to lead the company’s next phase of growth. Pexton has been the CFO of five companies, most recently serving at Tebra, a healthcare practice automation software company. Birdsall most recently served as chief revenue officer at Qlik.
FNZ, the end-to-end global wealth management platform, has appointed Aashish Kamat as group chief financial officer (CFO) and member of the executive committee. He brings over 30 years’ experience in financial services with senior roles across global banking, private equity and accounting. He will help drive the next phase of FNZ’s growth journey as the company continues to scale its platform.
Shares, a fintech company, welcomes Alain Bénichou to the supervisory board of Shares Financial Assets, its PSI regulated entity. This strategic decision marks a turning point in Shares’ transformation, shifting from a neo-broker to a fully-fledged SaaS investment solutions provider, catering to the needs of institutional clients and businesses.
InTick, the listed derivatives blocking network, has appointed ex-JP Morgan EMEA head of future and options sales trading Jamie Philip, CTPO and technology entrepreneur Emanuel Kuce Radis, and director of AI and analytics for banking and financial services at Cognizant, Scott Harrison to its strategic advisory board. All will support the firm’s strategic development and growth ambitions.
More appointments
Quantum Group, the fintech and security incubator, has appointed James Radford as the CEO of Volopa, its foreign exchange, international payments and expense management company. He also joins the board of Quantum as director of fintech and banking, helping with its plan to list on the London Stock Exchange in 2026. Radford previously held the CEO role at Revolut UK from 2020 to 2023.
Regional insurtech Igloo appoints a chief distribution officer to grow its embedded insurance and sales intermediaries business lines. Sasitharan Krishnan brings over 30 years of expertise from the insurance distribution sector working at Asia Affinity, Sompo and Allianz Ayudhya Assurance. He will focus on brokering regional deals and relationships with regional and local insurers.
TrueLayer, a UK Pay by Bank network, appoints Basil Bailey as the CEO of TrueLayer Ireland and General Manager of TrueLayer’s European business. In his dual role, Bailey will oversee the commercial and regulatory functions of TrueLayer Ireland, which holds a European Payments Institution licence and is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. He will also manage TrueLayer’s European operations.
Loan matching fintech Lendela hires Kent Huang as chief financial officer and Steven Wong as chief technology officer as the company continues its expansion across Australia and Asia Pacific. Since the start of 2024, Lendela has grown its headcount by nearly 30 per cent with a series of hires across all levels.
Funding and investments
Twin Path Ventures, a UK pre-seed investor in AI-first startups, has received support from British Business Investments for its strategy to invest in UK-based tech founders building and launching innovative and novel AI powered solutions that solve big real world problems. British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank has committed to invest £10million alongside Twin Path Ventures early-stage AI-focused investment fund and the fund’s existing angel and family office investors.
Capital on Tap, a fintech business credit card provider, has secured two major funding facilities totalling £750million to fuel its expansion and enhance support for small businesses in the UK and US markets. It has established a £550million Master Trust facility with BNP Paribas and Citi. It has also doubled its existing revolving credit facility with funds managed by Blue Owl Capital from £100million to £200million.
MANSA, a global fintech in cross-border payments, has closed a $10million funding round. The company is on a mission to alleviate liquidity challenges for payment companies worldwide. MANSA’s stablecoin-based solution offers payment providers in emerging and mature markets a flexible way to manage liquidity challenges in cross-border payments.
Partnerships
Ledgible and TAINA Technology, two tax compliance solutions, have forged a strategic partnership to deliver an end-to-end tax reporting solution for the crypto and digital asset industry. This collaboration aims to assist US and non-US crypto and digital asset platforms with their onboarding and reporting needs to navigate the complexities of the global regulatory landscape.
Klarna, the AI-powered payments and commerce network, has launched its flexible payment methods into the car subscription market after teaming up with Munich-based car subscription startup FINN. FINN’s German customers can now pay their monthly car subscription fee using Klarna’s innovative ‘monthly invoice’ product and can use Klarna’s payment methods to settle the final invoice when they return the cars.
Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) has signed an agreement with IPC, a company in technology and services related to global financial markets, to launch the Beeks’ technology infrastructure. The deployment includes primary and disaster recovery sites in Mexico City, providing a secure solution to support BMV’s market growth and innovation.
Delta Capita, a capital markets managed service and technology provider, has selected Fragmos Chain, an industry digitisation platform for post-trade processing of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, to enhance its managed services for post-trade processing. This strategic collaboration was facilitated by EuropaGrowth, a business development and M&A boutique.
More partnerships
Freedom Bank, a next-generation community bank headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, has converted its online and mobile banking solutions to the Apiture digital banking platform. Freedom Bank is also taking advantage of Apiture’s digital account opening solution. In addition, Apiture’s data intelligence solution is helping Freedom Bank improve marketing efforts.
BNP Paribas‘ Securities Services business, a global custodian with $13.7trillion under custody, has partnered with global fintech Broadridge Financial Solutions to expand its global custody services, appointing Broadridge as service provider for its global securities class action services. Broadridge says its solution provides global class action coverage, maximises claims and increases investor participation in settlement recoveries.
Al Masraf (The Arab Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade) has signed an agreement with Finneva Information Technologies introduce supply chain finance solutions for SMEs in the UAE. This move is designed to enhance financial access for businesses across key sectors in the UAE by improving cash flow, optimising working capital and fostering sustainable growth.
Investcorp, a global alternative investment firm, has launched its commercial partnership with Awaed, the commission-free Saudi trading platform. Investors on Awaed can gain access to pre-IPO Saudi and GCC companies by investing in Investcorp Saudi Pre-IPO Growth Fund on the Awaed platform.
