Finextra Research: Latest fintech news, analysis, interviews, features and opinion by industry experts

Company update/startups

Prospa raises $3.8m pre-seed to offer software to Nigerian micro-businesses

Prospa, a YC-backed Nigerian startup offering software and financial services to entrepreneurs and micro-businesses, today announced it closed a $3.8 million pre-seed investment, which was oversubscribed by 380%. The round was backed by venture funds Global Founders Capital and Liquid 2 Ventures. Leading entrepreneurs also participated in the round including Mercury’s Immad Akhund, Ramp’s Karim Atiyeh, Teachable’s Ankur Nagpal, Todd Goldberg and Rahul Vohra’s angel investment fund, and executives from Square, Facebook and Nubank. This investment is the largest pre-seed round for a Nigerian fintech.

09 September 2021

Company update/startups

Barclays Eagle Labs launches second dedicated startup accelerator for black founders

Barclays Eagle Labs is launching its second 12-week virtual accelerator programme, designed to help early-stage tech businesses founded by one or more black entrepreneurs, in order to continue to help boost diversity in entrepreneurship.

09 September 2021

News/startups

Marshmallow announces Series B funding round

InsurTech Marshmallow has raised $85m as part of its Series B funding round – making it the UK’s latest tech unicorn.

08 September 2021

News/sustainable

ING reveals $12.4 trillion required to green Asia's transport sector

Powering a new generation of net-zero transport with clean energy – in China, Japan, and South Korea – will cost US$12.4 trillion, a ING bank report has just revealed. This equates to over 90% of China’s 2020 GDP.

08 September 2021

Company update/sustainable

FCA opens applications for Digital Sandbox's sustainability cohort

Building on the success of the Sandbox's first pilot, the FCA and The City of London Corporation, supported by Innovate Finance, are running a second phase of the Digital Sandbox to support the testing and development of new products and services that will aid the transition to a net zero economy.

07 September 2021

Company update/people

Standard Chartered Women in Tech Bahrain Programme winners revealed

The SC Women In Tech Bahrain Program announces the 5 winning teams receiving $10,000 each and 3 months of incubation at Bahrain FinTech Bay, one of MENA’s leading FinTech Hub. The winners will be able to further develop their startups, scale up, and venture into new markets. The program is an initiative by Standard Chartered Bank in partnership with the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), and Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB).

06 September 2021

Company update/retail

GFT opens regional innovation hub in Manchester

With the pandemic triggering a significant increase in tech investment across the country, demand is growing for cloud, application development and data specialists.

02 September 2021

News/retail

Smart finance startup W1TTY secures UK licence

New challenger, W1TTY, has just secured a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to roll out services in Britain early next year.

27 August 2021

News/sustainable

BIS to investigate tokenised green bonds

The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub has started its first green finance project, Genesis, which will explore the tokenisation of green bonds enabling investment in small denominations, combined with real-time tracking of environmental outputs.

24 August 2021

News/payments

Blackhawk Network partners with Disneyland in QR code offering

With live events beginning to make a comeback, Blackhawk Network has partnered with Disneyland to launch a contactless ticket purchasing solution at retail locations across California.

23 August 2021

Company update/people

Arie Finance appoints Grunwald as group director of strategy

ARIE Finance, the bespoke digital and service-based financial ecosystem for business banking customers, has announced the appointment of David Grunwald as Group Director of Strategy. David will be responsible for corporate and investment strategy at ARIE Ventures and will also oversee the development of ARIE Finance’s marketplace banking services, strategic partnerships and the creation of ARIE Lab, an incubator for financial technologies that will serve the ARIE platform.

19 August 2021

News/cloud

NAB, CIBC, Itaú Unibanco and NatWest launch open finance challenge

NAB, CIBC, Itaú Unibanco and NatWest Group have joined forces with Amazon Web Services to run a global open finance challenge, inviting fintechs, universities and other large organisations to prototype and develop new digital banking services.

16 August 2021

Research/Innovation

SMEs Front and Centre

10 August 2021 524 downloads

Research/Innovation

Driving successful Cloud Transformation

15 July 2021 338 downloads

News/retail

Comparing progressive vs traditional banks’ digital progress post Covid-19

Providing a view into the status of financial institutions digital transformation across the US, banking consultancy CCG’s recent survey ‘The Banking Battleground: Views From the C-Suite’ considers the attitudes and capabilities of banks toward digital in a post-pandemic world.

08 July 2021

Company update/wholesale

Contour opens trade finance innovation lab in Singapore

Contour has opened an innovation lab In Singapore where it will collaborate closely with its growing network of banks, corporates and ecosystem partners to research and develop novel, digitally native trade finance solutions.

01 July 2021

News/devops

Credit Agricole CIB kickstarts quantum project

The corporate and investment banking arm of CIB has teamed up with Pasqaland and Multiverse to explore applications for quantum computing in finance.

30 June 2021

Research/Innovation

Successful strategies in adopting Hybrid Cloud in Financial Services

29 June 2021 320 downloads

News/identity

EBAday 2021: Payments leaders race to perfect digital identity solutions

The European Commission recently announced its plans to deliver a digital identity and wallet framework in a matter of years. Stating that “there is no time to lose”, the Commission is urging member states and the private sector to work in collaboration to deliver its first toolbox by September 2022.

25 June 2021

News/payments

Amazon opens Fintech Lab in Dubai

Amazon is opening a Fintech Lab at Dubai's DIFC Innovation Hub, working with startups and partners to provide a forum for new directions in digital payments.

21 June 2021