The Monday Roundup: what we are watching this week | September 5th

By Gaia Lamperti

September 05, 2022

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

New chapter for the UK

Today, member of the Conservative Party Liz Truss was announced as the new UK Prime Minister, what will this appointment mean for the national FinTech community? When the Kalifa’s review was published last year, Truss recognised there are many opportunities to make the UK the epicentre of financial innovation and pointed to boosting the country’s presence in global markets. “We welcome Liz Truss’ evident passion for the City as a ‘jewel in the crown and trust that she has the fintech community in mind as much as the incumbent institutions as she sets out her economic agenda in the months that follow,” commented Simon Cureton, CEO of Funding Options.“Her promised ‘war on technocrats’ should be handled with care, but this represents a chance to position the UK as a leader in realising the benefits of Open Banking and embracing the technologies that will make lender decision-making faster and more robust than ever.”

Upgrading the UK’s payments infrastructure and increasing real-time payments adoption are forecast to boost the UK economy by $3.8 billion by 2026, according to a study from ACI Worldwide, Global Data, and the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The UK was a world leader when it introduced its Faster Payments service more than a decade ago but is now lagging behind the likes of India and Brazil, says ACI. The ‘New Payments Architecture’ programme, led by Pay.UK, will bring sweeping changes to the country’s payments infrastructure over the next five years, delivering real-time account-to-account payments.

Last week’s funding rounds

NYC-based identity verification FinTech Alloy has raised $52 million, extending last year’s Series C round and bringing its valuation to $1.55 billion. The latest round of investment was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Avenir Growth, with further participation from existing investors Canapi Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Avid Ventures and Felicis Ventures. The firm will use the money to invest in a global rollout, expanding into 40 countries, and as it embarks on a recruitment spree.

India’s largest personal lending fintech EarlySalary has raised $110 million in a Series D funding round led by TPG’s The Rise Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. Founded in Pune in 2015, EarlySalary provides loans of up to Rs 5 lakhs (about $6300) to working professionals. The new funding will be used to expand EarlySalary’s BNPL segment and build out an extensive network of partners across the healthcare and EdTech segments.

Where is the buzz

The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has named its first-ever Head of FinTech and Digitalisation in recognition of the growing influence of digital technology on capital markets. Georgina Jarratt, appointed for this newly created position, will be responsible for leading a number of the trade association’s tech-themed initiatives.

September 05, 2022