The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | January 23rd

By Puja Sharma

The Monday Roundup sets the scene for the week’s biggest news stories, industry deals, and upcoming events. For Prime subscribers only.

Balance the books

A period of the slowdown is being experienced by FinTech, which has enjoyed the attention of private investors for years. Tracxn data shows FinTech start-up funding declined 47% to $5.65 billion in 2022. In 2022, late-stage deals accounted for 56% of the drop in funding from $8.3 billion in 2021 to $3.7 billion.

As a result, the total number of fintech funding rounds fell by 29% to 390. Additionally, the large $100 million+ rounds fell by 50% to 13 during the year. “There has been a constant decrease in funding of more than 30% in each quarter of 2022,” Tracxn revealed in its Fintech India Report – 2022.

However, FinTech remained the second-most funded sector in India, behind only Enterprise SaaS. Y Combinator, Tiger Global, and LetsVenture emerged as the most active investors in the space, with more than 20 deals in 2022. Fintech also added fewer (4) unicorns last year, compared to 13 the year before. These included Yubi, Oxyzo, Open, and OneCard.

Given the paucity of free-flowing venture capital, a lot of start-ups were faced with a funding crunch, forcing them to either lay off employees or sell out to bigger players. As a result, consolidation picked up in the fintech sector. “The number of acquisitions increased by 33% from 30 in 2021 to 40 in 2022. This increase is a result of consolidations that are happening across industries due to declining valuations of start-ups and more opportunities for major players to expand their business,” according to Tracxn.

Mastercard, a technology leader in the global payments industry, has partnered with Bahrain’s leading FinTech and payment service provider Eazy Financial Services (EazyPay) which will now be powered by Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS).

MPGS is a trusted platform that provides financial institutions with white-label technology for payment processing and fraud prevention. As one of the largest gateways in the region that is utilized by many players in the financial ecosystem, it enables its partners to accept a wide range of digital transactions easily and securely, including all leading card brands and other non-card payment methods.

“Mastercard works to co-create a new reality for the digital payments ecosystem,” said Maria Medvedeva, Country Business Manager, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, Mastercard. “We are delighted to expand the reach of our innovative MPGS technology in Bahrain, in collaboration with EazyPay, to support the GCC nation’s rapidly growing e-commerce industry and ambitious digital transformation strategy. The move strengthens Mastercard’s presence and expands digital payment acceptance in the country.”

Just in time

In the wake of the resignation of its most recent CEO, a 20-year veteran of Temenos, Temenos is looking for a new chief executive officer (CEO). The vendor said its board of directors is considering both internal and external candidates and the position is expected to be filled by the end of 2023 at the latest.

Chuard said that now is “the natural time” for him to step down. Executive chairman Andreas Andreades will assume duties as acting CEO until the new appointment is made.

Also, after 24 years at Temenos and following a two-year succession plan process to hand over chair responsibilities, Andreades will not be standing for re-election as executive chairman at the next annual general meeting (AGM). Thibault de Tersant, who is currently an independent and non-executive director and vice-chairman at Temenos, is proposed by the board to be elected as non-executive chairman at the next AGM.

To update its core payment processing infrastructure, Italian paytech Nexi has partnered with IBM for over five years. To provide its clients with more secure, reliable, and quantum-safe transaction processing, Nexi will use IBM’s z16 and IBM Storage Systems.

The company is looking to accelerate the modernisation of its services, data, and processes “so digital channels and applications can be run reliably and securely”.

The IBM z16 system enables high-volume transaction processing while also allowing users to analyse real-time transactions at scale to better monitor for fraud. It also offers quantum-safe cryptographic technology, which, IBM says, can help address “future quantum-computing related threats including harvest now, decrypt later attacks which can lead to extortion, loss of intellectual property and disclosure of other sensitive data”.

What is the buzz

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) has partnered with world-leading innovation platform, Plug, and Play, to call on ambitious startups and entrepreneurs around the world to join the seventh Elevator Pitch Competition 2023 (EPiC 2023), one of the biggest pitch events in Hong Kong. The final entry deadline for the Competition has also been extended to 20 January 2023.

This offers local and global startups the chance to join the combined HKSTP and Plug and Play eco-systems to launch their potential innovations onto the global stage. Interested parties on two technology tracks (FinTech and PropTech) only need to submit a 2-min video introduction to make a potentially life-changing decision. 50 shortlisted semi-finalists will have the golden opportunity to be considered by HKSTP Venture Fund for direct investment of up to US$5 million as well as market expansion support in Asia and beyond, plus the chance to win a cash prize of US$60,000 if crowned champion.

Albert Wong, CEO of HKSTP, said, “This year, our flagship event EPiC is set to be the biggest and best-ever as we partner with world-renowned Plug and Play, elevating the investment platform to a truly global level. This collaboration cements HKSTP and Hong Kong as a unique global launchpad to rapidly scale up innovators on their growth journey while achieving our mission to propel success and advance Hong Kong’s I&T development.”

Saeed Amidi, CEO of Plug and Play, said, “Partnering with HKSTP on EPiC is a major step forward in our mission to harness the huge Asia opportunity to build the world’s leading innovation platform. We are partnering with changemakers like HKSTP to build a unique innovation ecosystem by connecting the brightest minds with world-leading corporations, VC firms, universities, and government agencies across multiple industries.’’