Author: Company Announcement

In the rapidly evolving fintech landscape, companies are in a constant quest for strategic advantages to enhance their customer experience and operational efficiency. This pursuit frequently leads them to explore global opportunities for fintech outsourcing, with Colombia distinguishing itself as an outstanding destination. Known for its vibrant technology scene and skilled workforce, this South American nation provides fertile ground for firms aiming to elevate both their front-end customer interactions and back-office operations. The trend towards outsourcing in the industry marks a strategic shift, aiming to harness the country’s robust technological infrastructure and deep talent pool to deliver a seamless, omnichannel…

American asset management firm BlackRock and Snowflake, a cloud-based data-warehousing company, announced a strategic partnership to deliver a next-generation solution for the investment management industry. BlackRock will launch Aladdin Data Cloud, a solution for investment managers to expand the utility of data, powered by Snowflake’s platform. The Aladdin Data Cloud will be a strategic part of Snowflake’s Data Cloud and a part of the Aladdin platform, a portfolio management software by BlackRock. The solution allows companies to bring Aladdin and non-Aladdin data together making it easy for users to build on top of it with Aladdin Studio, BlackRock’s platform for…

Stripe, a US-based payment processing platform, announced that Mark Carney, the former Governor of the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, has joined the company’s board of directors. Regulated in multiple jurisdictions and partnering with several dozen financial institutions around the world, Stripe will benefit from Mark Carney’s extensive experience of global financial systems and governance. As Stripe rolls out its climate efforts globally, enabling millions of businesses to bring more funding to emerging carbon removal technologies, the company will receive guidance from one of the world’s leading experts in sustainable finance. As the UN Special Envoy for…

Payoneer announced that it plans to go public by merging with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. (FTOC), a special purpose acquisition company in a US$ 3.3 billion deal. Payoneer has been backed by investments from TCV, Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE), Viola Ventures, Wellington Management, Nyca Partners, Temasek and more. The company will be renamed as Payoneer Global Inc. and the combined company will operate as Payoneer, a U.S. publicly listed entity. Payoneer’s management team will continue to lead the company. Over the past 15 years, Payoneer’s secure, regulated platform offers a global, multi-currency account to businesses of any size around the world.…

Visa has announced a partnership with First Boulevard, a digitally native neobank focused on building generational wealth for the black community, to pilot Visa’s new suite of crypto APIs that is anticipated to launch later this year. As part of the initial pilot programme, Visa plans to enable First Boulevard to connect to infrastructure provided by Visa’s partner, Anchorage, a federally chartered digital asset bank, to allow their customers to buy and sell Bitcoin. The pilot will serve as a key first step in supporting API capabilities that help additional Visa clients access and integrate crypto features into their product…

Curve, a London-based banking platform which allows customers to consolidate multiple cards into one smart card and app, announced it has secured $95 million as part of a successful Series C funding round. This fresh funding brings the total investment in Curve to almost $175 million. The funding round was led by IDC Ventures, Fuel Venture Capital and Vulcan Capital (the investment arm of the estate of Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen), with participation from OneMain Financial, a US personal finance company, and Novum Capital. Counting IDC Ventures, Curve also attracted many of its investors for a second…

Checkout.com, a London-based payments solutions provider, announced that it closed a $450 million Series C fundraising round giving it a post-money valuation of $15 billion. The Series C was led by Tiger Global Management, LLC, a New York-based technology investor. Greenoaks Capital also joined the round along with participation from existing investors Insight Partners, DST Global, Coatue Management, Blossom Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, and Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund GIC. While Checkout.com’s profits from current operations will continue to be reinvested to power future growth, the new funding will be used to further grow its balance sheet and drive new innovative opportunities.…

Visa and U.S. fintech firm Plaid announced that they have terminated their $5.3 billion merger agreement and agreed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the litigation related to the proposed transaction. The proposed transaction was first announced in January 2020. In Nov 2020, DOJ had filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in order to halt the merger alleging that Visa was attempting to monopolise the payments market with the Plaid acquisition to put an end to the latter’s competitive threat. “We are confident we would have prevailed in court as Plaid’s capabilities are complementary to Visa’s, not competitive. We…

American multinational retail corporation Walmart has created a new fintech startup designed to develop and offer modern, innovative and affordable financial solutions. The new startup is a strategic partnership with fintech investment firm Ribbit Capital. The venture will bring together Walmart’s retail knowledge and scale with Ribbit’s fintech expertise to deliver tech-driven financial experiences tailored to Walmart’s customers and associates. The company will be majority-owned by Walmart. Its board will include John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S.; Brett Biggs, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Walmart; and Meyer Malka, managing partner of Ribbit Capital. The company…

Remitly, a mobile-first provider of remittances and financial services for immigrants announced a $85 million funding round to fuel the company’s growth as the global demand for digital remittances continues to surge during the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding will enable Remitly to expand its suite of digital financial services products at a time its customers need them most. Existing investor Prosus’s PayU led the round at a $1.5 billion valuation. They were joined by returning partners Generation Investment Management, Owl Rock Capital, Stripes, DN Capital, Top Tier, Princeville Global, and Threshold Ventures. “As the current health crisis continues to devastate…

Credit Suisse and the controlling shareholders of modalmais have signed a strategic long-term agreement that allows Credit Suisse to purchase preferred shares equivalent to up to 35% of the total capital of modalmais. Philipp Wehle, CEO International Wealth Management at Credit Suisse, said: “This announcement underlines our strong commitment to our Brazilian clients and our growth ambitions for this priority market. This transaction further enhances our ability to serve our clients digitally while getting access to additional client segments in a fast growing environment.” modalmais will continue to be controlled by its founder, Diniz Ferreira Baptista, and by its principal executives,…

Samsung Electronics America, unveiled Samsung Money by SoFi, a new mobile-first money management experience that brings a cash management account and accompanying Mastercard debit card along with exclusive benefits to Samsung Pay, in partnership with innovative fintech company SoFi. The service will be available to U.S. consumers later this summer, but users can register for the waiting list already. The account is secure, with no account fees and rewards users for saving—earning higher interest relative to the national average of transactional accounts.1 At a time when people are turning to their technology to take care of essential tasks without leaving…

The Libra Association, an independent membership organization, announced the appointment of Stuart Levey as its first CEO. Mr. Levey brings to the Association a wealth of leadership experience in the public and private sectors cutting across banking, regulatory policy and national security issues. He is currently serving as Chief Legal Officer of HSBC, one of the world’s leading financial institutions with a presence in 64 countries and territories. Prior to joining HSBC, Mr. Levey served as the first Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence during the Bush and Obama Administrations. During his tenure, Mr. Levey was…

Fintech applications have given people more control over their personal finances in a myriad of ways, whether it’s paying bills, sending money abroad, or growing their savings. One of the earliest forms of “fintech” is a budgeting spreadsheet. For years, people have relied on Microsoft Excel to budget and track expenses for their personal finances or businesses, typically copying data over from multiple sources. Money in Excel features a Plaid integration and the new capabilities essentially turn the spreadsheet software into a fintech app. It allows users to securely connect their financial accounts, import the data within them, sync balances…

Moven has announced a strategic shift to focus solely on promoting their patented wellness technology to enterprise level partners. Plans to spin-off Moven’s consumer-facing business hit a significant snag with major multi-year funding withdrawn as a result of market conditions, whilst the Enterprise business remains funded and growing. As a result of both the recent successes within Enterprise and increasing uncertainty around coronavirus, Moven has decided to wind down the direct to consumer offering and will close all accounts in Q2 of 2020. The founder and chairman of Moven, Brett King announced, “While our Enterprise business continues to see strong…

Revolut launched its Financial App and debit card in the United States. Since hinting at a launch last year, Revolut claims it already attracted tens of thousands of U.S. customers. Revolut launched in 2015 with a vision to build a Financial Super App – a single app where consumers can manage all aspects of their financial life. In just four years, the company has attracted more than 10 million customers, raised over $800 million in funding – and now employs more than 2,000 people globally, including in New York and San Francisco. Starting today, U.S. consumers can set up a…

WisdomTree Investments, an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) and exchange-traded product (“ETP”) sponsor and asset manager announced its strategic investment in Securrency, a developer of institutional-grade blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology. Through this investment and its collaboration with Securrency, WisdomTree plans to pursue the integration of blockchain technology into the ETF ecosystem to bring the benefits of ETFs to a broader range of investors and improve the investor experience. Securrency raised $17.65 million in a Series A funding round, which was led by WisdomTree as a strategic investor. Other participants in the round include the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), Japanese financial…

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Sveriges Riksbank and the Swiss National Bank, together with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), have created a group to share experience as they assess the potential cases for central bank digital currency (CBDC) in their home jurisdictions. The group will assess CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies. It will closely coordinate with the relevant institutions and forums – in particular, the Financial Stability Board and the Committee on…

Credit Suisse announces the internal launch of AccessFintech’s trading exception management solution. Following a successful pilot, Credit Suisse has gone live with AccessFintech’s Global Exception Network, taking an important step towards streamlining exception management resolution across the Prime Brokerage industry. The new technology will reduce the time needed to resolve exceptions and help clear bottlenecks that could prevent trade settlements. It will promote better client servicing, minimize sanctions and reduce costs for all parties. This exception management solution is now broadly accessible to financial market industry participants. It leverages a next generation technology platform that standardizes and simplifies trading workflows…

Uber introducing Uber Money, a team within Uber working on financial products and technologies that deliver additional value for the Uber community, all at Uber speed. Several new features and improvements coming this year: Real-Time Earnings: Instead of waiting for weekly payments or cashing out through Instant Pay, drivers and couriers will have real-time access to their earnings after every trip through the Uber Debit account. Uber Debit Account & Uber Debit Card: For drivers in the US, and expanding to more countries soon after, we are updating the no-monthly-fee Uber Debit Account, powered by Green Dot, to integrate seamlessly into the…