Connect Ventures, the London-based venture capital firm focused on seed-stage technology investments, today announces a new $80M (£65M) fund to support product-led founders across Europe. This third fund was raised from a combination of existing and new LPs including Top Tier Capital Partners, Isomer Capital, British Patient Capital, De Agostini, Big Society Capital, Draper Esprit and Korelya Capital.

In cooperation with Hamburg-based Varengold Bank, Berlin fintech Kapilendo is now offering small and medium-sized enterprises the first fully digital application process for instant loans (GER: Schnellkredite) offered by KfW, a German state-owned development bank based in Frankfurt. German companies with more than ten employees can apply via www.kapilen.do/kfw-schnellkredit. The loans will be 100% guaranteed by the German Federal Government.

Smartway2, a next-generation technology company specialising in workplace scheduling solutions, announced the expansion of its COVID-Safe Workplace capabilities to include the automation of approvals and certification processes for those who want to come back to the office, as well as employee surveys to gauge how people feel about their return to work.

These new capabilities reflect the rising demand for technology that can adapt to fast-changing needs as the pandemic continues. These needs are twofold:

An initiative created by chairman and founding member Allan Green, Ezra has a powerful vision: to partner with mobile operators, NGOs, foundations and organizations to enable a positive impact on the lives of vulnerable communities through digital and financial inclusion. 

Manchester based staff tech group, Orka has announced the launch of their next innovative product, Orka Pay. Orka Pay allows hourly paid workers to withdraw a percentage of their wages as soon as they’ve worked a shift, so there’s no more waiting until payday or taking out high-interest loans. The platform is app based, allowing workers to choose how much they want to withdraw from their available balance, facilitated by full integration with their employers’ payroll systems.

NatWest has today announced the launch of a new online payment service, Payit by NatWest, which allows customers to make instant online payments to participating retailers, without the use of a debit or credit card - resulting in a fast, fair, simple and safe payment experience.

Payit uses the Open Banking infrastructure to allow customers of UK banks to pay for products and services offered by retailers who use the service, which is targeted at mid to large corporate companies.

Banks set to move to open source to combat rising tide of fraud, predicts Instaclustr

Nutanix (NASDAQ: NTNX), a leader in enterprise cloud computing, today announced new solutions that will allow IT teams to deploy, upgrade and troubleshoot their cloud infrastructure while working from anywhere — whether at home or from a central office location.