EMEA Daily: Irish Life Partners With Stripe for Investment Platform Solutions

In today’s news from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Stripe announced that will be providing payment solutions for Irish Life’s investment app and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Fintech Galaxy revealed new senior leadership hires.

Plus, Estée Lauder Companies and French luxury fashion house Balmain are partnering on a line of beauty products and more.

UK Scrutinizes Amazon, Google, Microsoft Over Competition in Cloud Market

U.K. communications regulator Ofcom has begun investigating the cloud market to see whether Amazon, Microsoft and Google are stifling competition and innovation.

The three Big Tech companies make up roughly 81% of the revenues in the £15 billion ($15.8 billion) U.K. cloud market. Ofcom said it would “look at how the market is working today and how we expect it to develop in the future — aiming to identify any potential competition concerns early to prevent them becoming embedded as the market matures.”

Fintech Galaxy Hires COO, CFO; Expands Talent Team for MENA Region

Fintech Galaxy is growing its executive and management teams, naming former Salt Edge CEO Dmitrii Barbasura as its new chief operating officer and Iaroslav Babenco as its new chief financial officer.

The company is working to expand its cloud-based crowdsourcing platform and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered global FinTech marketplace across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Nuapay, Pay360 Parter to Accelerate Open Banking in UK

Nuapay, the open banking business of EML, is extending its open banking payments services to payment services provider Pay360.

Through the partnership, Nuapay aims to offer open banking to local government and eCommerce sectors in the U.K. According to the press release, both local authorities and private sector clients will be able to offer customers the ability to make instant payments and make payments without exposing their card details or other sensitive information.

Visa’s New Soccer Video Game Helps People Score Financial Skills

As momentum builds around the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Visa has released a soccer video game that aims to teach players about personal finance.

Visa said in a press release that its virtual educational video game, Financial Football, allows players to compete representing the country of their choice for a chance to win a trophy by correctly answering questions “designed to help players make smart, well-informed money management decisions.”

Estée Lauder Teams With Balmain to Tap High-End Beauty Spending

French luxury fashion house Balmain and the Estée Lauder Companies are partnering on a line of beauty products meant for luxury consumers around the world.

The companies said they will work together to develop, produce and distribute the Balmain Beauty product line. The collaboration will pair Balmain’s background in distinctive and inclusive fashion with Estée Lauder’s history of focusing on prestige makeup, skincare, fragrance and hair care.

Irish Life Partners With Stripe for Investment Platform

Life insurance pensions provider Irish Life has partnered with financial infrastructure platform Stripe, integrating Stripe’s payment solutions into its Smart Invest app.

Smart Invest helps Irish Life customers invest in a range of funds with different risk profiles. Stripe will handle investments through its payments platform and Stripe Billing offering, and Stripe Radar will also be deployed to detect and prevent fraud on the app.

UK Digital Mortgage Lender Perenna Closes $30M Series A

U.K.-based digital bank Perenna has closed a $30 million Series A funding round ahead of its official launch, looking to position itself as a digital-first mortgage lender.

The latest funding comes from IAG Silverstripe, an arm of venture capital firm IAG Capital Partners. Perenna was recently awarded the necessary banking license “with restrictions” by the Bank of England for it to be able to offer mortgages.

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