February 16, 2023
BNPL provider ECOMMPAY launches payment solution for UK travel sector # ECOMMPAY has launched a brand new BNPL solution for UK travel companies amidst appeals for stiffening the rules in the BNPL sector.
ECOMMPAY is an international payment provider which ensures the successful processing of the BNPL transactions between three parties; the consumer, credit provider and merchant. The solution they are implementing targets the UK travelers, enabling them to choose “how much they want to pay and when, directly from booking pages”.
...
February 16, 2023
London FinTech raises £10m in Series B funding # Landytech, the London-based company that stands behind an investment reporting platform Sesame, has raised £10m in Series B funding.
The Landytech’s platform Sesame enables customers to streamline reporting processes and uses a complete suite of investment data, analytics and reporting tools to enhance the decision making regarding investments.
Landytech raised the £5m funding in Series A back in March 2021. The startup has sustained rapid growth, securing £10m in Series B funding with Aquiline Technology Growth (ATG) and Adelie Capital being the leading investors of this round.
...
February 16, 2023
UK fintech Deko hires Joseph Tucker as new CFO # Deko, a UK-based multi-lender BNPL fintech, has hired new chief financial officer (CFO), Joseph Tucker.
NewDay acquired Deco in January of 2020, so Joseph Tucker has been acquainted with Deko as he had played a central role in the acquisition process. This “has given him invaluable insight and knowledge of the business”, according to Deko.
Prior to holding this position, Joseph occupied several roles across investor relations, financial reporting, analytics and corporate strategy.
...
February 16, 2023
UK fintech investment drops by over 50% in 2022 # As a result of higher interest rates, inflation, and downward pressure on valuations the investors’ support for fintech reduced by more than 50% according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech.
In 2021, the UK fintech investment amounted to $39.1 billion and in 2022 the digit dropped to $17.4 billion. The number of fintech deals reduced as well from 724 in 2021 to 593 in 2022.
...
February 16, 2023
UK government lays out plans for BNPL legislation # The UK government seeks feedback on BNPL draft legislation consultation which is now open until early April. The feedback will bring BNPL into Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulation.
The government stated that the legislation of a draft aims to bring BNPL into regulation “in a proportionate way”.
The UK government states that the scope of regulations should be limited by third-party lenders agreements as the stakeholders provide evidence to support the hypothesis that it would be “disproportionate” for regulation to apply to agreements provided by merchants online or on distance.
...
February 16, 2023
UK provides legal clarity on issuance of digital securities via blockchain # A government-backed group LawtechUK has identified the UK legal framework as fitting for issuing digital securities. This industry-led group aimed at promoting the use of English law and UK’s jurisdictions in relation to novel technologies.
This will provide legal clarity for parties that conduct transactions in debt or equity securities issued and/or transferred with distributed ledger technology (DTL) or blockchain-based systems.
...
February 14, 2023
Antler provides £120k funding for seven UK tech startups # Antler, a venture capital firm, has invested £840,000 across seven pre-seed startups with £120,000 to each of the UK-based companies.
The seven startups that Antler supported are the following:
Conveyo: platform for real estate buying and selling; Fractiv: investment platform that allows users to invest and own artwork; Genehub: genome sequencing storage startups that grants users ownership of their medical data; Kickback: gaming system where those who enter can win a gaming session with a content creator; Nippi: food social media platform that promotes local cuisine; Uppr: video call analysing software that provides feedback and shared notes relevant to keywords; xWatts: commercial property software to analyse a building’s performance and recommend on how to make savings.
...
February 14, 2023
Brankas selected by Arab Financial Services to strengthen the open finance infrastructure in MENA # AFS will work with Brankas to create direct bank integrations for easy credit scoring, payroll disbursements, account-to-account payments and new bank accounts opening.
Brankas is a Singapore-based fintech startup with an established network across the Asia-Pacific region, founded in 2016. Startup enables embedded finance and BaaS for the region’s top financial institutions.
On Feb 13, Brankas announced that it has been selected by Arab Financial Services, the leading digital payment solutions provider in the Middle East and Africa, to provide new finance infrastructure in the region.
...
February 14, 2023
Fintech companies cut costs for the first time by staff reduction # Thousands of employees are losing their jobs in the financial-technology industry as companies decide to cut costs.
Affirm Holdings Inc., a “buy now, pay later” lender, and an online platform Upstart Holdings Inc. are firing every fifth employee. The market shakes as a bevy of other fintechs are reducing their staff in order to cut costs.
Charlotte Principato, financial services analyst at Morning Consult believes that it was inevitable as “a lot of fintechs are being forced to mature and streamline more rapidly than they planned to, and job cuts are a quick way to do so”.
...
February 13, 2023
Monzo monitors employees screen time and reproach them for falling below target times # _The Telegraph revealed that Monzo’s internal “BizOps” system tracks customer service staff PC activity every five minutes. _
Staff at Monzo are required to work on their devices 85% of the day with the “activity” metrics being discussed at one-to-one meetings with line managers each week.
Those employees who report failing to hit the target time repeatedly risk being sent on a performance improvement programme.
...