The Fintech Times Bi-Weekly News Roundup takes a look at the latest fintech stories from around the world on Tuesday 11 March 2025.
Partnerships
Klarna, the AI powered global payments network and shopping assistant, has partnered with Blackhawk Network (BHN), a global branded payments provider, to expand Klarna’s Gift Card Store in Germany, Italy and The Netherlands. The expansion follows the successful launch of Klarna’s Gift Card Store in the US in 2023, and the UK launch in July 2024.
UK paytech platform Blink Payment will integrate its technology into insurance software provider ParaCode’s customer platform, allowing insurance brokers to streamline and enhance their payments processes. ParaCode provides insurance firms – including insurers, brokers and MGAs – with a range of software tools to manage claims, reporting, accounting, and other administrative tasks.
Dwolla, a leading US-based account-to-account payment solution, announces the general availability of its expanded integration with Plaid, a data network powering the digital financial ecosystem. Dwolla’s clients are now able to leverage Plaid’s instant account verification and real-time balance check alongside comprehensive pay-by-bank payments through a single vendor and a single API.
Mesh Payments, the travel and expense management platform for modern enterprises, forges a strategic partnership with global travel management leader ALTOUR. This collaboration aims to deliver a fully integrated, technology-forward solution that simplifies corporate travel and expense management for a wide range of customer profiles, from regional to global enterprises.
Fintech myPOS unveils a new strategic partnership with Satispay, an Italian independent mobile payment firm. This collaboration is set to bridge the gap between physical and online shopping experiences for both merchants and consumers. Through this partnership, an additional 50,000 Italian merchants will now be able to accept Satispay,
Job moves
ClearBank has appointed Mark Fairless, formerly CFO, as its new CEO. ClearBank’s co-founder and former CEO Charles McManus will continue to play an active role in driving the business strategy as a non-executive member of the group board. Fairless has served as ClearBank’s CFO and group board member since January 2023. McManus will also remain as co-chair of the Innovate Finance Unicorn Council.
First Internet Bank has added Carlos Torres Jr to its small business administration lending team as vice president, senior business development officer. Torres has over nine years of SBA experience, including lending and credit underwriting. Most recently, he worked as vice president, SBA relationship manager at SouthState Bank.
Bitget, the cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 company, has appointed Intae Song as chief sales officer. As one of the earliest employees at Bitget, Song has played a key role in shaping the exchange’s approach and is now a business partner at the firm. Song will focus on strengthening Bitget’s position in futures trading and exploring new opportunities in institutional solutions.
Natech Banking Solutions, the banking technology platform in Southern Europe, appoints George Nikolaropoulos as chief technology officer and George Rogkakos as chief product officer. These strategic moves underline Natech’s commitment to scaling innovation, accelerating digital transformation and becoming a world-class product-driven company.
Chetwood Bank, the UK digital challenger bank, has appointed Ben Mitchell as director of savings. Mitchell brings more than 25 years’ experience in retail banking and financial services, having held senior positions at SilverRock Bank as head of products and at Tandem Bank as director of savings. He will drive Chetwood Bank’s commitment to delivering customer-centric savings products.
Funding and investments
Synctera, the banking-as-a-service and embedded finance company, enjoys a $15million round of funding, bringing the company to a total of $94million raised to date. The new funding will support the acceleration of its growth and ability to meet the more complex needs and increased scale of its latest customers, such as Bolt and Unified Signal.
Rakurai, the infrastructure project supercharging Solana staking, has closed a $3million seed funding round led by Anagram Ventures. Other investors in this round include Colosseum, Slow Ventures, Robot Ventures and Crypto.com. P2P.org, GlobalStake and Cyber Fund also participated, highlighting Rakurai’s potential to drive significant advancements in decentralised infrastructure.
Tomo Mortgage has raised $20million in Series B financing, bringing its total investment to $130million. The funding round included Progressive Insurance as a new investor, as well as existing investors Ribbit Capital, NFX and DST Global Partners. The company will use the funding for team and product growth to meet demand, including hiring loan officers in Detroit and NYC. It will also move its headquarters to NYC.
