Alternative Investment Fund Manager Olymp Capital (AIF) today announces the launch of the first European investment fund to cover the entire blockchain and crypto asset ecosystem. The fund, managed by Olymp Capital, will include blockchain-related Private Equity, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) activity and a fund-of-fund activity centred on crypto hedge funds. The fund accepts investment both in fiat and crypto currencies (eg bitcoin, ether). 

Clickatell (www.Clickatell.com/products/transact), an authorized WhatsApp Business Solution provider, is proud to announce that United Bank for Africa (UBA) will be going live with their Chat Banking solution – Leo on WhatsApp.

At times the financial industry can seem like one of those immutable pillars of the economy. Its not like the retail industry, which in little more than a decade, has radically changed its focus from bricks and mortar to digital – with all the logistical and marketing issues associated with it. Nor, is it like travel and hospitality which has been forced to reform due to price comparison sites, peer review, and convenient booking platforms. Save for sporadic innovations like ATMs, chip and PIN and online banking, the fundamentals of banking remain reasonably unchanged.

Reference is made to the joint press release by Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) and Gemalto (Euronext Amsterdam and Paris: GTO) dated 27 March 2018 in relation to the launch of the recommended all-cash offer by Thales for all the issued and outstanding shares of Gemalto (the "Offer"), the publication of the Offer Document, and the joint press release of Thales and Gemalto dated 10 August 2018 in relation to the further extension of the Acceptance Period. Terms not defined in this press release will have the meaning as set forth in the Offer Document.

As the Universal Postal Union meets to decide the secret rates each country must pay for cross border deliveries, international parcels expert ParcelHero says China must be forced to pay its fair share.

On 2 July this year Nordea entered into an agreement to acquire all shares in Gjensidige Bank. The acquisition has now been approved by the Norwegian Competition Authority.

- The approval takes us one step closer to realising our acquisition of Gjensidige Bank, says John Sætre, Head of Personal Banking at Nordea in Norway. 

Augmentum Fintech plc (LSE: AUGM) (“Augmentum” or the “Company”), one of Europe’s leading fintech venture capital investors, announces an investment of £5.3 million in UK based fast-growing mobile-only current account provider Monese.

Augmentum is participating in this £46 million Series B fundraising alongside Kinnevik, PayPal and Avios, all of whom are investing in Monese for the first time.

FlexTrade (@FlexTrade) a new Back-Testing framework designed to gauge and adjust the performance of past trading strategies for real-time use in trading equities, FX and futures.

“Just because a trading strategy worked successfully in the past, doesn’t mean it will show the same results in the present,” said Vijay Kedia, President and CEO of FlexTrade. “There are countless variables – old and new — that could impact performance in unanticipated ways. That’s why using an advanced back-testing framework can make all the difference in running a winning strategy.”

Brett King, author, futurist, founder of mobile startup bank Moven and host of one of the top FinTech podcasts will open the Innotribe programme at this year’s Sibos in Sydney.

A former advisor to the Obama administration on the future of banking, King’s opening will leap forwards to life in 2030, looking at contextual banking, quantum and what new technologies will take their place in the future of money.

 TIBCO Software Inc., a global leader in integration, API management, and analytics, today announced enhanced capabilities for the TIBCO Connected Intelligence Cloud (TCIC). TIBCO continues to expand its cloud offerings, empowering businesses to leverage integration, messaging, and analytics capabilities on TIBCO Cloud to solve their toughest digital transformation challenges.