Author: Akin Naphtal

Egyptian mass e-commerce startup Kenzz has raised a US$3.5 million seed funding round to help it recruit talent, widen its product range, and invest in technology. Founded this year by Ahmed Atef, Mahmoud AlSilk and Moataz Sami, Kenzz is a mass e-commerce solution that brings reliable online shopping to the mass market in Egypt, the Middle East and Africa. The startup’s customer-centric platform aims to digitise the offline experience, making it exciting, fun and sociable for users – across all customer touchpoints – while providing discounts of up to 65 per cent. The US$3.5 million seed round is led by…

A new academy focused on tackling financial crime will be formed under a partnership agreement between Griffith University and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). A new academy focused on tackling financial crime will be formed under a partnership agreement between Griffith University and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Building on CBA’s existing capability to combat financial crime and Griffith University’s considerable expertise in business and accounting structures, criminology and cyber security technologies, the Academy will offer financial crime investigation and compliance programs. Griffith Business School Accounting, Finance and Economics Head of Department, Professor Andreas Chai, says the academy…

UK challenger bank Atom has named Andrew Marshall as chief financial officer. He replaces Atom co-founder David McCarthy whose departure was first reported back in September. Marshall has worked at Atom for six years, holding a number of roles and was most recently deputy CRO and director of corporate finance. Atom has made a number of senior appointments in recent weeks, including Andy Sturrock and Rebecca Cartwright who were named as chief technology officer and cheif risk officer respectively. The appointment of Marshall comes at a time of continued speculation about Atom’s intention to go public. A merger with a…

Egyptian fintech startup MoneyHash has launched its services across Africa after a successful launch in the MENA region earlier this year. Founded in late 2020 by Nader Abdelrazik, Mustafa Eid and Anisha Sekar, MoneyHash provides a unified checkout experience built on top of a secure super-API that aggregates payment and fintech solutions through a single integration, as well as a central dashboard consolidating technical infrastructure and centralising data and operational reporting. The startup announced a US$3 million pre-seed funding round in February as it emerged from beta, and has now expanded across Africa. MoneyHash has pre-built integrations with top PSPs…

Nigeria-based mobility fintech startup Moove, Uber’s largest vehicle supply partner in EMEA, has raised GBP15 million (US$16.8 million) in financing from Emso Asset Management to scale up its UK operations following a successful launch in August. Founded in 2019 by British-born Nigerians Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove is democratising vehicle ownership in Africa by providing revenue-based vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs. By embedding its alternative credit scoring technology onto ride-hailing, e-logistics and instant delivery platforms, Moove can use proprietary performance and revenue analytics to underwrite loans to drivers that have previously been excluded from financial services. Over three million…

UK high street bank NatWest Group has teamed up with the Vodeno Group to launch Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) business targeting UK corporates. The deal, which will see the bank invest £115 million, will combine Vodeno’s BaaS technology with the banking technology and UK licenses of NatWest. Vodeno is a Polish software vendor that provides an API-based technology platform and uses the European banking licence of Aion Bank. The partnership aims to modernise the delivery of financial services and enable the bank’s customers to embed products such as payments, deposits, PoS credit, and merchant cash advances. NatWest has already developed a standalone core banking…

IIFL Finance, one of India’s largest non-banking financial companies and ZestMoney, a fast-growing digital EMI/checkout financing platform announced that they have entered a partnership to offer credit to customers. Through this partnership, IIFL Finance as a partner will get access to a new customer base on the ZestMoney platform and play a crucial role in driving financial inclusion for a large section of people in the country. Commenting on the partnership, Nirmal Jain, Founder, IIFL Group and Managing Director, IIFL Finance said, “We are excited to announce this partnership with ZestMoney as this will help IIFL deliver credit to customers…

The Ugandan government has introduced a new law which restricts the use of internet and social media. Last year, the government vowed to develop a law that would criminalise the spread of what it described as fake and illicit information via social media. A new Bill, passed by the county’s parliament in September, was proposed by lawmaker Mohammed Nsereko who argued that some people were hiding behind the right to privacy in order to share unsolicited, false, hateful and malicious information online or social media. Nsereko claimed the existing Computer Misuse Act of 2011, which the country had been using,…

Checkout.com, the cloud-based payments service provider, today announces the next evolution in the fight against fraud with Fraud Detection Pro, a fully flexible solution used by businesses such as Curve and Delivery Hero to solve the rising problem of online payments fraud and optimise revenues. As the trend of consumers shopping and managing their finances online continues to grow, online fraud is increasingly impacting businesses. In 2021 online fraud increased by 285%, with businesses globally losing $20bn and, in the UK alone, £1.3bn was defrauded from businesses over the year. The problem shows no signs of slowing down with businesses…

Ebury, one of Europe’s largest fintechs and global provider of transaction payment solutions, has established a branch in Luxembourg, registered under CSSF regulations to support managers in the alternative investments sector. For entities being set up in Luxembourg, Ebury provides a variety of services such as issuing certificates which are required by local regulations to prove that funds have been blocked until company formation is complete. The office will allow Ebury to address growing demand from corporate service providers and alternative investment fund managers for better cross-border payment services than those offered by traditional institutions. Luxembourg is a globally recognised…