Fintech
This Week in Fintech: TFT’s bi-weekly news roundup 6/18
Welcome to The times of fintech Bi-weekly news roundup Tuesday 18 June 2024 with the latest updates from around the world.
Company updates
Atomic bank, the UK’s app-based bank, has unveiled its strongest financial results ever, driven by a significant increase in lending while keeping costs low. Operating profit grew to £27m, a 600% increase on last year, with costs rising 4%. Atom raised £100m from existing investors last year and the additional capital has been used to accelerate balance sheet growth and further scale the business.
Stax LLC, a global strategy consultancy specializing in commercial due diligence, value creation and exit planning for private equity firms, PE-backed companies, hedge funds and investment banks, has opened a new office in central London. This expansion follows the January hiring Phil Dunne as managing director to lead the company’s UK and EMEA operations and strategic growth efforts.
Digital care, a device protection and services company based in Poland, has been rebranded Bolttech Polonia sp. z oo and renamed Bolttech. This follows the completion of Bolttech’s acquisition of Digital Care in October 2023, when Digital Care became part of the international insurtech group. All existing services and agreements will remain in effect.
Meaning, a provider of digital identity and identity fraud prevention solutions, has launched a new feature in its MobileID product: facial authentication. MobileID is Signicat’s flagship product for secure user authentication via mobile apps. This new addition is designed to improve security and prevent fraud in the regulated financial and services industries.
Insights
UK Finance has released card spending data for March 2024, covering the monthly value and volume of debit and credit card transactions. Data shows that the number of contactless cards in circulation in the UK exceeded 150 million (150,172,000) for the first time in March 2024. This means contactless cards now make up 93% of cards in circulation in the UK .
The 10 largest sectors of the FTSE350 they hold £295 billion worth of data within their organisations. According to research by , this equates to almost 20% of their market capitalization Anmut, a strategic data asset management company. The widespread failure to value data means that British companies have mismanaged their data assets to the detriment of the British economy.
IDora, a provider of identity verification services in Europe, has seen a significant increase in the number of gambling customers requesting identity verification. Between June 14 and 16, IDnow reported a 750% increase in the number of verified players at a European gambling operator. This increase coincided with the opening match of UEFA EURO 2024 on 14 June.
The UK economy grew more in May than at any time in the last 15 months, according to the latest data. Lloyds Bank UK industry tracker. While the overall rate of output growth across the economy slowed marginally in May, 11 of the 14 UK sectors tracked by the Tracker reported output growth, up from eight in April and the highest since February 2023.
Further details
One study found that up to 87.5% of financial advice on TikTok could be “potentially misleading.” The search for a pension consultant Financial Almond found that content creators producing advice-driven content on TikTok rarely encourage viewers to do their own financial research, and some give advice under the guise of selling online courses, e-books, or subscriptions to “exclusive” investment advice.
With rental prices rising by 9% in the last 12 months, three in ten (28%) renters across the UK have been forced to turn to subsidies due to rising costs, research from a lender reveals responsible Creditspring. ONS data shows average rents have risen by 8.9% in the last 12 months, with tenants paying on average over £100 more per month than last year.
BUT
Abaco Groupacquired , a provider of managed IT services to financial services companies globally Tribeca Technology Group (Tribeca), a UK-based IT MSP that also serves the financial services sector, to further strengthen its presence and existing capabilities in the UK market. The acquisition will see the two companies collaborate to pool their expertise, diversify their portfolios and broaden their offerings.
Partnerships
Digital identity verification company IDVerse (formerly known as Global OCR Labs) has joined AWS Marketplace to offer a fully automated identity verification solution to AWS customers. IDVerse’s technology enables AWS Marketplace buyers to leverage AWS Lambda for scalable, cost-effective, event-driven execution, integrating seamlessly with other AWS services to provide robust security and reliability.
SteelEye, the integrated surveillance provider used by more than 150 financial firms worldwide, has entered into a strategic partnership with Intelligent voice, a specialist in voice transcription and financial services analytics technology. This strategic partnership aims to address financial companies that need to archive and monitor all communications for compliance purposes, but often ignore voice transcription because regulations are unclear.
BlueFlame AIthe generative artificial intelligence platform for alternative investment managers, has integrated with Encore compliance, a compliance software solutions company. The integration incorporates that of Encore
generative AI call surveillance technology in BlueFlame’s AI platform, enabling alternative investment managers to transform operations management workflows and critical investment research compliance.
BNP Paribas Personal Finance in the UK has reaffirmed its commitment to boosting innovation in the financial services sector by welcoming the latest cohort to its Fintech Incubator program in the UK to address the insights and data-driven challenges impacting the sector. Following a competitive application process for this year’s program, several technology organizations were placed in the program.
Two Scandinavian companies, Lunar and SAS, have entered into a new partnership to launch Scandinavia’s first debit card. It allows customers to earn EuroBonus points on everyday purchases such as trips to the supermarket, morning coffee and summer experiences – in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and abroad – without using credit.
More partnerships
GBST, a global provider of wealth management and advisory technology solutions to the financial services industry, and Wipro Limited, a technology services and consultancy firm, have entered into a strategic partnership to provide end-to-end administrative services for wealth and pensions firms transitioning from legacy IT environments.
Appointments
TrueLayer, the European open banking payments network, has strengthened its management team by appointing Lisa Scott as chief strategy officer. In this new role, Scott will oversee the company’s expansion into new markets, drive consumer engagement and accelerate the adoption of its innovative open banking solutions. Scott joins TrueLayer from fintech Bankedwhere she was CEO for Europe.
CAB paymentsthe holding company of Crown Agents Bank (CAB), a UK regulated FX and payments services provider, specializing in global FX and cross-border payments for hard-to-reach markets, has announced Neeraj Kapur as the new CEO of the group who will take on the role Bhairav Trivedi. The pair worked closely during the transition period that began in February.
Fintech Moment appointment Chris Bracken as CEO. This follows recent significant capital investments by Saluda Grade Ventures, Rockefeller Asset Management AND TruStage Ventures. In addition to Bracken appointed CEO, current CEO and co-founder Barclay Keith is appointed special advisor to the council, where he will continue to provide information and guidance.
Worked, the AI-powered business orchestration platform, announces two new appointments to its leadership team. Chandar Pattabhiram joins as the company’s first chief go-to-market officer, while Bhagat Nainani joins as head of product and engineering. Workato enables companies to transform their business operations by orchestrating end-to-end business processes and operationalizing AI across the organization.
Financing and investments
CuspAI, a transformative artificial intelligence company building a next-generation materials platform to address global sustainability and clean energy challenges has secured $30 million in seed funding from European and US venture funds. The round was led by Hoxton Ventureswith significant participation from Grassroots initiatives AND Lightspeed venture partner.
Global digital payments platform Smart cards announces an €8 million funding round, bringing the total capital raised to date to €28 million. Ireland-based CleverCards will use the capital to accelerate expansion efforts, building on the rapid adoption of its configurable global payments platform. The round was led by an investment of Pluxeea global player in employee benefits and engagement.
FINBOURNE technology has raised £55 million in Series B funding. This latest round was led by Plateau Europe AND AVP and follows a £15m Series A funding round in 2021. The investment will fund the next phase of FINBOURNE’s business development, including the expansion of its sales, product and marketing capabilities into the US, UK , in Ireland, Singapore and Australia.