FinTech Futures: Top five news stories of the week – 10 May 2024
Here’s our pick of five of the top news stories from the world of finance and tech this week, featuring GoTyme Bank, National Australia Bank, Mitigram, Monzo and more.
Monzo secures additional $190m funding from new and existing investors
Monzo secures additional $190m
Monzo has secured an additional $190 million in its latest round of funding, with the digital challenger’s post-money valuation now surpassing $5.2 billion.
UK-based VC firm Hedosophia supported the raise as a new investor, alongside existing investors including CapitalG, the independent growth fund of Google’s parent company Alphabet.
The new funding adds to Monzo’s initial $430 million raise in March, which was led by CapitalG.
Now serving more than 9 million business and retail customers, the digital challenger plans to leverage its latest funds to satisfy its ongoing growth initiatives, which include its renewed push into the US spearheaded by former Cash App head of global product Conor Walsh, who was hired as US CEO in October last year.
GoTyme Bank acquires salary lender fintech SAVii
Filipino digital challenger GoTyme Bank has announced that it has acquired Manila-based lendtech SAVii to help boost the bank’s expansion into payroll-enabled financial products.
The agreement, contributed to by GoTyme Bank’s shareholders along with JG Summit and Tyme Group, will enable the bank to integrate SAVii’s credit offering into its lending and payroll services.
Founded in 2017, SAVii claims to be the largest salary lender in the Philippines, with a loan book of over PHP 3 billion ($52 million), serving over 500,000 employees across 150 corporations.
National Australia Bank partners UK fintech Banked to boost merchant adoption of A2A payment solutions
NAB seeks A2A uptake through Banked partnership
National Australia Bank (NAB) has partnered with UK-based fintech firm Banked to increase the uptake of account-to-account (A2A) payment solutions among Australian merchants.
The partnership is to leverage Pay by Bank technology – a form of direct debit which enables consumers to transact online directly from their bank account – through the PayTo services of Sydney-based tech provider Australian Payments Plus.
For merchants, Pay by Bank will enable PayTo agreements to be sent to customers to initiate payments and refunds, addressing what the pair state as “a range of scenarios” incurred by checkouts, such as online payments, scheduled recurring payments and split payment amounts.
The first group of NAB business clients to adopt the functionality are to go live with A2A payments “in the first half of 2024”.
Sweden’s Mitigram names Pedram Tadayon as new CEO
Swedish digital trade financing platform Mitigram has appointed Pedram Tadayon as its new CEO.
The digital trade financing platform has tasked Tadayon with “expanding Mitigram’s network of partners to accelerate digital transformation within the trade finance industry”, as well as overseeing product delivery.
Bringing over 25 years of financial services experience to the position, Tadayon has previously served in various leadership positions at the likes of Liberis, Nets, Tieto and American Express, and also co-founded Swedish paytech Visualizy.
Mitigram has been busy with C-suite appointments this year. Joshua Kroeker has joined as chief product officer from Contour, and former Swift head Ted Scheiman now serves as the platform’s new chief strategy officer.
Equals Money to power Chorus TM’s new financial management platform for the music industry
Chorus TM co-founders Freddy Greenish and Simon Liddell (Image: LinkedIn)
Equals Money, a subsidiary of UK-based paytech Equals Group, has been selected to power Chorus TM, a new financial management platform for the music industry.
Crafted by entertainment industry veterans Freddy Greenish and Simon Liddell, the new platform will provide entertainment managers with real-time spending reporting, optimised reconciliation processes, foreign exchange management strategies, and domestic and international payment capabilities.
In addition to a new app and online platform, Chorus TM will also introduce named multi-currency IBAN accounts, a multi-currency Chorus TM Mastercard – which will enable holders to spend in 20 different currencies – as well as integrations with accounting software Xero.
Looking ahead, following its UK introduction this month, Chorus TM is actively onboarding US clients, with the intention of a full US launch scheduled in the coming months.
