Moniepoint appoints ex-Capital One VP, Pawel Swiatek, as COO. 2 other stories and a trivia

This line-up of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today

1. Moniepoint appoints ex-Capital One, Pawel Swiatek, as COO

Pawel Swiatek, a former managing vice president of Capital One, has been appointed by Moniepoint to serve as its chief operating officer.

Moniepoint disclosed this in a statement seen by Ripples Nigeria on Wednesday.

Before joining Capital One, Swiatek spent ten years as a member of the management team at the hedge fund Bridgewater, where he helped the company grow from 150 workers to over 2,000.

Ripples Nigeria understands that Swiatek is a venture partner at NextGen Venture Partners and also belongs to four firm boards either as an advisor or member.

Swiatek’s new position will require him to develop policies, tools, metrics, and a culture that will support the expansion of Moniepoint’s business.

Swiatek will be working with Tosin Eniolorunda who is the Chief Executive and a senior management team.

Tech Trivia: Which application includes a feature called motion tweening?
A. Microsoft Word
B. Corel Paintshop Pro
C. Adobe Animate
D. Apple Numbers
Answer: see end of post

2. Xapo Private Bank partners Lightspark to integrate with the Lightning Network

Xapo Private Bank has announced a partnership with Lightspark to integrate with the Lightning Network, enabling its customers to make lightning-fast Bitcoin payments.

Rocca, CEO of Xapo Private Bank, confirmed the partnership in a media release on Wednesday.

Read also:Nigerian B2B e-commerce startup, Alerzo, lays off 15% workforce. 2 other stories and a trivia

Xapo Private Bank bills itself as a fully licensed private bank that allows deposits in Bitcoin and USDC.

“By integrating with the hyper-efficient Lightning Network, we are the first bank in the world to streamline this process and allow members to pay for small purchases with Bitcoin without having to convert to USD first,” says Rocca.

Rocca added that the connection will lessen the time-consuming and expensive issues that frequently arise for users who pay for minor Bitcoin transactions.

3. La Famiglia raises $260M for Seed and Growth B2B startups

A Berlin-based venture capital firm, La Famiglia, has secured approximately $260M (€250 million) for its third combined seed fund.

The family of Founding Partner, Dr. Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, confirmed the funding in a statement on Wednesday.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the fund has a vertical focus on topics such as “Industry 4.0,” data, logistics, and supply chains, consumerization of B2B, fintech, and insurtech.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty but overall, just looking at the kind of fundamentals of the types of companies we invest in, maybe Europe won’t be home to the next Facebook or the next Amazon, but we will be home to the next Siemens or the next Mersk,” Fürstenberg explained.

The fund intends to invest up to €5 million in firms that are mostly B2B.

The first investment made by Fund 3 is in the quality management platform Ethon.ai, based in Zurich.

Since the fund’s creation in 2017, when it completed its first seed fund of $35 million, it has raised more than €350 million to date.

In 2019, a second seed fund of €60 million was launched.

Trivia Answer: Adobe Animate

A motion tween is a feature available in Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) that allows you to easily animate the motion of an object.

By Kayode Hamsat

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