The Weekly Wrap: all you need to know by Friday COB | Aug 29th

By Puja Sharma

The Weekly Wrap is published every Friday and recaps the week’s main stories and deals, as well as upcoming events and announcements for Prime subscribers only.

The Big Story

HCLTech has partnered with Thought Machine, the cloud-native banking technology pioneer, to accelerate the modernisation of banks worldwide. This collaboration is designed to help financial institutions move beyond legacy infrastructure and embrace a new era of intelligent, autonomous banking, powered by artificial intelligence and cloud innovation.

At the heart of this initiative is Vault, Thought Machine’s next-generation core banking platform. By replacing traditional systems with Vault’s flexible, cloud-native architecture, banks gain the ability to automate critical processes, increase operational efficiency, and deliver highly personalised customer experiences. HCLTech will complement this with its extensive expertise in banking technology, regulatory compliance and complex integrations, ensuring seamless transformation at scale.

As part of the alliance, HCLTech will deliver full-stack transformation services through Vault-certified delivery teams and its global FinTech Centres of Excellence (CoEs). The company will also establish a dedicated global CoE for Vault Core and Vault Payments, enabling banks to build modular, real-time and scalable platforms tailored for future-ready financial ecosystems. Underpinned by a robust DevSecOps foundation, the partnership equips both established institutions and new market entrants with the agility to accelerate innovation, reduce operational friction, and shorten time-to-market for new products and services.

Deals of the week

• CredRight raises $10m Series B to scale credit access for SMEs
• Transbnk secures $25m Series B funding to fuel global expansion
• Backbase drives digital banking platform for Libyan Islamic Bank
• Moka United taps Algbra Labs to launch digital bank in UK
• Finshape acquires Realtime-XLS to boost global banking
• Maalexi secures $20m to scale digital trade finance
• Profile Software deploys CrediaBank’s risk & compliance platform
• Macquarie Bank taps BioCatch Trust for scam prevention
• Aavishkaar Capital raises $40m to expand credit for SMEs

Be on the lookout for

Nominate Now!!

The IBSi Global FinTech Innovation Awards 2025, set to take place on 21st November in Mumbai, will once again spotlight the most disruptive and transformative achievements in banking and financial technology. Now in its seventh year, the awards honour innovation across high-impact categories such as Core Banking, Digital Lending, AI/ML, and GenAI.

After a record-breaking 2024 edition—which drew 400+ submissions from 155 banks and 90 tech vendors—the upcoming awards are poised to set an even higher benchmark. Expect broader global participation, richer insights into bank–tech collaboration, and a data-driven judging process powered by IBS Intelligence’s proprietary research and analytics.

Beyond trophies, winners benefit from year-long visibility through editorial features, thought leadership opportunities, and industry event integrations—making this a platform not just for recognition, but for continued growth and influence.

Whether you’re a startup reimagining digital onboarding or an established bank modernising at scale, GFIA 2025 offers the stage to showcase your innovation, impact, and scalability to the global FinTech community.