This Week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 18/03

The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Tuesday 18 March 2025.

Industry hires

Guavapay, a provider of end-to-end payment solutions headquartered in London, UK, appoints Guy Noble as its new CEO for Guavapay UK. Under his leadership, Guavapay will continue to develop its flagship products, MyGuava and MyGuava Business, while exploring new markets, partnerships and fintech innovation.

PayFuture, the payments technology platform connecting global businesses with emerging markets, has appointed Praful Morar as deputy CEO. He will advise on PayFuture’s expansion strategy, as it targets high-growth underserved markets across the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and Latin America. Founded in 2019 by Manpreet Haer and Zaki Farooq, PayFuture has offices in London, Dubai, Malta, and the Philippines.

Orion, a provider of wealthtech solutions for financial advisors and the enterprise firms that serve them, has named Michael Mandelos executive vice president of wealth management product. In his new role, he oversees product portfolios, including wealth management platform technology and investment solutions, while managing partner relationships.

WSO2, an enterprise digital infrastructure technology company, appoints Tami Reller and Nina Hargus to its board of directors. Their expertise will help guide WSO2’s expansion strategy, enhance brand positioning, and ensure alignment between business objectives and marketing initiatives.

Global insurtech bolttech has appointed Ridhi Chaudhary, chief investment officer, Dragon Fund by Liquidity and MUFG, to its board as a non-executive director. This follows bolttech’s recent Series C funding round led by Dragon Fund. Her insights will support bolttech as it works towards its goal to make insurance more tailored, accessible, affordable and convenient for customers.

More hires

Duco, the enterprise platform for data automation, has named Margaret Franco as its first ever chief marketing officer. She has over two decades of experience in leading global marketing teams across the US, EMEA and APAC. Franco also has a strong tech background, having worked for firms including Dell and HP.

Global wealth management platform FNZ appoints Anthony Habis as group head of Asia Pacific. Based in Sydney, Anthony will be responsible for leading FNZ’s strategy in the region, enhancing client partnerships, and ensuring the delivery of market-leading wealth management solutions to financial institutions across APAC.

Partnerships

Fintech Jack Henry has extended its collaboration with Mastercard to offer Mastercard Move, Mastercard’s portfolio of money transfer solutions, through Jack Henry Rapid Transfers, a cloud-native service that enables near-real time money movement. This includes account funding and a variety of payment use cases in the US via the Mastercard network. Mastercard Move provides banks, non-bank financial institutions, direct disbursers and their customers with fast, secure money transfer solutions.

Capital on Tap, the all-in-one small business credit card and spend management platform, has selected bank payment company GoCardless to provide variable recurring payments (VRPs) through its open banking feature, Instant Bank Pay. This expands a relationship which began in 2014. Capital on Tap will use GoCardless to collect both one-off and recurring payments. Customers will also be able to repay their credit cards on a monthly basis using Direct Debit.

Global fintech Airwallex has unveiled a new collaboration with Discover® Global Network, enabling Airwallex merchants to accept Discover® and Diners Club International® Cards, and other domestic scheme cards as a payment method, providing greater payment flexibility for businesses and their customers. This integration lets merchants tap into Discover Global Network’s 345 million cardholders across 200+ countries and territories.

JCB, the Japanese  international payment brand, and First Cash Solution, an integrated payment provider, have established a strategic partnership to significantly expand JCB Card acceptance throughout Germany. This collaboration has streamlined e-commerce transactions and expanded payment options for all merchants with J/Secure since its launch in 2024.

Kuady, a digital wallet solution, has forged a new partnership with Deriv, a global online trading platform, to integrate its payment services for both deposits and withdrawals. This integration will provide Deriv users with a faster, more secure and seamless payment experience, enhancing their ability to trade efficiently. Initially focused on Latin America, the integration will later expand to African markets.

M&As

OakNorth deepens support for US lower mid-market businesses with acquisition of Michigan-based, Community Unity Bank. It will enable OakNorth, through CUB, to expand its business lending throughout the US as well as in Michigan. Since it began operating in the US in July 2023, OakNorth has lent over $700million to the lower mid-market.

MoonPay has made a strategic acquisition of Iron, an API-first stablecoin infrastructure platform. MoonPay’s co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright commented that with this technology, “we’re putting the power of instant, programmable payments into the hands of enterprises, fintechs, and global merchants”.

Funding and investments

Curve, the digital wallet, has secured a £37million investment led by Hanaco Ventures, with participation of existing shareholders such as Fuel Ventures, IDC, Outward VC and Lord Stanley Fink. The funding will support Curve’s plans for 2025, including product launches and a series of customer-driven enhancements. This capital injection also strengthens Curve’s financial position, accelerating its path to profitability.

RedotPay, a crypto payment platform, has closed a $40million Series A funding round led by Lightspeed following a commitment in December 2024, with significant investments also from HSG and Galaxy Ventures. With this new funding, RedotPay plans to accelerate its product roadmap, enhance its payment ecosystem for a smoother user experience, reinforce regulatory compliance frameworks, as well as expand its licensing footprint across multiple jurisdictions.

Wealthtech NAO has secured additional capital of over €1million through a second closing of its seed financing round. This increases the total seed financing to €4.5million. Serial entrepreneur Jens Hilgers, founding general partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, is among those participating in the second round. The Berlin-based fintech is also expanding its advisory board with Karl Alomar from US VC M13.

Town, the tax platform for small businesses, has bagged an $18million seed round led by First Round Capital with participation from Conviction, Alt Capital, Mischief and WndrCo.This investment will accelerate its mission to bring strategic financial support to small businesses nationwide. It is also hiring for a world class product, go-to-market and accountant team.

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