The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Thursday 27 February 2025.
Partnerships
PXP, an omnichannel global payment platform, has unveiled an integration with Snowflake, which will combine PXP’s technology platform with Snowflake’s platform capabilities to enable merchants and partners to better analyse business data and enable faster decision-making. PXP will strengthen the data-driven insights it provides to customers by integrating Snowflake’s SaaS architecture.
Visa has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) to collaborate on an enhanced threat intelligence solution and integrate its advanced cybersecurity capabilities with digital payments. This strategic partnership aims to bolster ADIB’s cybersecurity architecture, enhancing security for ADIB cardholders’ payments and transactions in the UAE.
PensionBee has teamed up with ClearScore, a financial marketplace dedicated to improving users’ financial wellbeing. The partnership aims to provide consumers with greater visibility and control over their financial futures. As part of this partnership, PensionBee’s services will be integrated into ClearScore’s ‘Credit Health’ section, which presents credit and affordability.
eDreams, the travel subscription platform, has collaborated with payment platform PayPal to expand the reach of Prime travel subscriptions perks across Europe. As part of this collaboration, PayPal customers in the UK, France, Germany and Spain will gain complimentary access to Prime Discovery.
Jarvis, a pension fintech, has partnered with Sonovate, a funding platform for recruitment agencies, consultancies, freelancers and contractors. This collaboration will permit Sonovate’s customers to utilise Jarvis’ innovative pension management solution, providing a tailored alternative to Nest pensions.
Additional partnerships
MiFinity, a global payment services provider, has integrated Apple Pay into its mobile app. By leveraging Apple Pay’s authentication methods (including Face ID, fingerprint, and passcode), MiFinity ensures payment card details remain private, enhancing security and privacy for users.
Global ecommerce platform Temu is teaming up with Atome, a Southeast Asian digital financial services platform, to enable its customers to select Atome as its preferred flexible payment method during checkout on Temu. This enables Malaysian customers to enjoy interest-free installment payment options when shopping for a wide range of products on Temu’s platform.
Funding and investments
omnispay, a UAE-based fintech for SME payments, has raised $1.5million in a seed funding round led by Mercatus Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, with participation from regional and international investors. The funds will accelerate omnispay’s mission to empower SMEs with an all-in-one platform for collecting, paying and managing cashflow, while advancing the GCC’s digital transformation agenda.
European wealthtech Flanks has raised €14millon in an equity round led by Motive Ventures, joined by Battery Ventures and existing investors Earlybird, JME Ventures and 4Founders Capital. The funding will be used to further accelerate the company’s growth into Europe and drive continued development of Flanks’ technology platform.
Lockchain.ai, the AI-powered blockchain risk management platform, has closed its Series A funding. The nearly $5million round will be used to fuel additional development, adding features that improve speed and efficiency for clients managing cryptocurrency positions. White Star Capital led the round, with additional investment from Lerer Hippeau, Arrington Capital and Sonic Boom Ventures, among others.
Job hires
Embedded finance company Weavr has appointed Jon Burrell as its new deputy CEO. He previously worked at Natwest Bank as its VP of product management and held roles at CurrencyCloud and Codat. Burrell joins to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth.
Savvy Wealth, a digital-first platform for financial advisors centered around modernising human financial advice, welcomes Eric Hurkman as its first chief technology officer. Hurkman is responsible for driving product innovation within the Savvy Wealth platform, supporting its growth and scalability and improving the user experience for Savvy’s advisors and their clients.
Monument, the UK cloud-native bank dedicated to serving the mass affluent, appoints Michael Morley as board member. He has been serving as an independent non-executive director with Hargreaves Lansdown since 2022 and with Deutsche Bank in Spain and in Switzerland. He was previously CEO of Coutts and Co and of Deutsche Bank’s UK wealth management business.
Spectrum.Life, a global partner in digital whole-of-health solutions, appoints Ian Ranger as head of insurance for the UK and Ireland. He will drive the company’s growth and development of the insurance channel across the UK and Ireland, while building and enhancing strategic partnerships with insurers, intermediaries and wellbeing providers to deliver impactful and innovative solutions.
Thread Bank, has appointed Bob Diegel as chief operations officer. Diegel will play a pivotal role in driving the bank’s next phase of strategic growth through continuing to optimise its operational efficiency and overall business processes. Diegel will help to identify growth opportunities and work to achieve both immediate and long-term business goals.
Company updates
Global digital payments company Checkout.com has unveiled expansion plans in North America, with the opening of a new office in San Francisco to expand its local operations. This strategic move underpins Checkout.com’s continued commitment to the region, which grew the fastest of all its global regions in 2024.
Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, is to acquire TransactPay, a BIN sponsorship provider that is licensed as an e-money institution to issue e-money and undertake payment services in the UK and European Economic Area. This transaction will strengthen Marqeta’s card program management capabilities in the UK and Europe.
Zopa, the British digital bank with more than 1.4 million customers, will almost double its office footprint as it makes plans to relocate to brand-new headquarters at 20 Water Street in Canary Wharf. Zopa’s office footprint in London will almost double to 44,000 sq. ft in the waterside, state-of-the-art building.
Mashreq has launched Mashreq Biz, a next-generation online and mobile business banking platform designed to simplify and enhance the banking experience for businesses. Mashreq Biz empowers SMEs and business owners to manage their finances, payment and transactions from in the office or home.