Your Daily FinTech Podcast - July 1st, 2022

Sign up for my Daily Fintech or Daily Digital Banking Newsletters here. Check out my latest podcast episode below: Welcome to another episode of our Daily Fintech Podcast. THE NEWS HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY IS Belvo receives authorization to develop payment initiation solutions in Mexico. The IFPE license, under the Fintech Law in Mexico, will allow Belvo to develop its payment initiation solutions in the country – the company is also applying for a similar license to develop payment initiation solutions in Brazil. JUST IN: Stere has expanded its operations to the Latin America insurance market. ALSO: Ashman Finance has received an authorised with restrictions (AwR) UK banking licence. FURTHERMORE, Releasing its first annual results as a publicly listed company, Wise has shared that its revenue grew by one-third to £555.9m in the 12 months up until the end of March 2022. LET’S HEAR ALL ABOUT MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS: European B2B payments major iBanFirst has announced that it is acquiring UK cross-border payments player Cornhill. AS FOR PARTNERSHIPS The Lithuanian identity verification and compliance company iDenfy, joined forces with Juni, the financial management platform made for ecommerce. Mastercard and Paysafe Group announce the integration of Mastercard Send into Paysafe’s payments platform. WHAT ABOUT FUNDING ROUNDS AND INVESTMENTS? Zilch announced it has secured an additional $50m in funding, taking the total raise for its Series C to $160m. Currensea surpassed its crowdfunding target in under two hours, raising £1.35m from over 350 investors on Seedrs. Ophelos has raised £5 million in a seed funding round led by AlbionVC. 4Trans Factoring raised a €3m seed round from Atmos, Tera Ventures and Lighthouse Ventures. Google has invested in Progcap, an Indian startup that provides working capital to small and medium-sized businesses. PolySign, Inc. has raised $53 million in a Series C funding round. NOW, LET’S COVER NEW LAUNCHES AND FEATURES. Gatehouse Bank plc has launched a mobile app, available on iOS and Android, to support customers in managing their personal savings accounts.