February 6, 2023
Cheadle-based fintech Conferma Pay announce new CEO # Sabre Corporation and Conferma Pay have announced that Jason Lalor will take over as CEO. Sabre bought Conferma Pay in August 2022, and in November 2022, it announced a new partnership with Mastercard and a minority investment from the company. The partnership and investment were finalised on January 31, 2023, which led to the appointment.
Lalor has more than 20 years of experience leading commercial operations, developing strategies, and engaging partners at some of the world’s most successful and cutting-edge fintech companies.
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February 6, 2023
Salad Money gets £40m debt facility to offer loans to key workers # Salad Money, a fintech company that offers credit services to employees of the National Health Service and the public sector, has signed a £40 million loan agreement with an American investor.
The modest lending programme is available through the London-based firm to essential workers. Salad Money claims that applicants with poor credit histories are not at a disadvantage because the application process, which uses open banking technology to determine an applicant’s repayment potential, does not put them at a disadvantage.
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February 6, 2023
UK Regulator Clamps Down on 1,400% More Rogue Financial Ads in 2022 # In 2022, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requested 8,582 financial promotions to be amended or withdrawn. Compared to the 573 financial proposals that the agency turned down in 2021, this is about 1,400% more.
The Financial Services Authority also expressed heightened concern about so-called financial institutions, saying it had to take action against many of them in the previous year.
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February 6, 2023
Zilch joins StepChange to combat the cost-of-living challenge # Zilch, a payment technology company based in the UK, has announced a new partnership with StepChange, the largest charity in the UK that helps people get out of debt.
With this support, Zilch will become the first credit provider to fully integrate StepChange Direct into its platform. Also, the company that makes payment technology won’t stop there. It will keep adding new features that make the customer experience better.
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February 6, 2023
Zopa, the UK neobank, raises $93M more at a $1B+ valuation # UK neobank Zopa has raised additional funds following a $300 million fundraising round led by SoftBank in 2021. The company that gives out loans, credit cards, and savings accounts has about 850,000 customers. It just got £75 million in equity investment, which it plans to use for product development, getting new customers, and merging with other companies.
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January 24, 2023
Financial regulators in the UK have given the green light for Nova Credit # Nova Credit UK, a branch of Nova Credit, has been given permission by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to give credit references in the UK. The fintech company aims to expand immigrants' access to financial products and services in the UK with its Nova Passport solution.
Nova Credit has its main office in the United States.
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January 24, 2023
Newcastle Building Society launches multi-bank kiosks # The Newcastle Building Society in the UK has come up with a new way to keep cash moving for small businesses and individual customers that is based on the community.Together with OneBanx it has worked to make a new programme that will help local businesses and consumers keep using cash.
The bank is installing multi-bank kiosks in two of its branches in the North East and North Yorkshire as part of the innovative trial program.
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January 23, 2023
Aldeo entered into agreement to receive major investment from Symphony Technology Group # A formal agreement has been reached between Alveo, a provider of cloud-based data management, analytics and Data-as-a-Service solutions for the financial services sector, and Symphony Technology Group (STG).
Alveo has signed a definitive agreement with Symphony Technology Group to take a majority stake in the company (STG).
“We are excited to partner with Mark Hepsworth and the entire Alveo team to continue enabling the management of complex data at scale for its customers.
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January 23, 2023
Danish fintech startup Scaleup Finance raise record seed round to expand to the UK # Scaleup Finance, a fintech company based in Denmark, has raised £6.4 million in the UK’s largest ever first fundraising round to bring its “digital CFO” platform there.
This funding round will help Scaleup Finance enter the UK market. Here, the company will sell its subscription-based platform for managing a business’s finances automatically.
Scaleup Finance, which was launched in 2021 and bills itself as a CFO-as-a-Service platform, claims to have over 150 clients.
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January 23, 2023
Fintech payments unicorn in the UK pulls down as the first Covid-19 high wears off # As the momentum from COVID-19-driven revenue growth wanes, payment infrastructure company Paddle has laid off staff.
After the COVID-19 outbreak caused sales to go up, the UK-based payment infrastructure and financial technology startup Paddle is laying off 8% of its more than 350 employees.
The firm has seen growth as more people and companies have moved to remote and digital work during the pandemic, for which the company supplies payment infrastructure to SaaS providers.
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