VitraCash Limited, a payment technology platform that is using artificial intelligence to change how people around the world pay for goods and services, announced their crowdfunding campaign on CrowdCube this week.

In an effort to raise funds for the launch of their AI-powered smart payment card, with MasterCard as a strategic partner, VitraCash is the first-of-its-kind smart debit card that saves all credit and debit cards for one customer in one singular place.

When the knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent UK lockdowns are discussed, much of the focus is on the negative impact on the economy, our physical health, and our mental health. But, while the damaging effects are unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed, it’s not all doom and gloom.

Cross-border sales have been supercharged by the pandemic. But while the increased volume of online transactions is good news for international sellers, merchants could get themselves a bigger piece of pie by offering local currency payments. 

As more transactions are made on mobile devices, customer service channels proliferate and social media becomes a popular sales channel, merchants around the world are closer to their customers than ever before. 

Building on its commitment to drive positive change through its data and insights, Refinitiv today announced the expansion of its economic data coverage of Africa. The new data set allows investment managers, central bankers, economists, and research teams to use Refinitiv Datasteam analytical data for detailed exploration of economic relationships and investment opportunities among data series covering the African continent.    

The conversation around Bitcoin’s negative environmental impact isn’t new, but as its value soars past $64,000 (as of 14th April), and, most importantly, its trading volumes are at a record high, it is becoming harder to ignore.

According to research published by cryptocurrency economist Alex De Vries, Bitcoin's energy use this year will rival that of all cloud-computing data centres globally. 

SimplyBiz Mortgages has added new lender MPowered Mortgages to its lender panel.

MPowered Mortgages, brought to you by MQube, offers lending for buy-to-let individual, limited company and portfolio landlords, now available to members of SimplyBiz Mortgages.

Having built a strong initial reputation in the rapidly growing open banking space of Northern Europe, Nordic API Gateway is announcing that its fully rebranding to Aiia to reflect the company’s pan-European focus of delivering open banking ‘that simply works’. 

ikigai, the new premium fintech bringing self-care to personal finance, today announced it has extended its relationship with WealthKernel, choosing them as custodian to safeguard the financial assets of its clients in line with the current permissions of the FCA. Prior to selecting WealthKernel as its custodian, ikigai’s clients’ assets were held by investment platform, Third Financial. 

Digital payments provider, Paydoo, has partnered with technology company Tribe Payments to provide processing, gateway and POS services across the UK and Europe. Under Tribe’s acquirer processing programme, Paydoo will gain instant access to the latest technology to manage their merchants’ success and support ongoing growth.