OpenFin, the operating system (OS) of finance, today announced the launch of OpenFin Cloud Services, providing every bank, asset manager, hedge fund and wealth management firm with its own FDC3-standard private app store and workspace management solution out of the box, eliminating the need for time-consuming and costly internal builds.

‘Innovation’ in insurance is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. But to remain competitive, operationally efficient and to provide modern customers and clients with what they want, innovation demands time and dedicated resources. 

Research published today by Investec shows that too few tech businesses are taking advantage of developing effective ecosystems of sales partners (their channel programmes) to achieve scale-up growth rates. While IT companies have forecasted an average annual growth of eight per cent over the next three years, too many are missing their potential to achieve scale-up growth of 20 per cent or more with poor channel performance a major contributing factor.

Cloud Elements today announced $25 million in new funding to accelerate market adoption of its breakthrough API integration platform for software providers. The Series C round was led by Mercato Partners, with additional funding from existing investors Access Ventures, American Express Ventures, Grotech Ventures, Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures, and Upslope Ventures. The new round brings Cloud Elements’ total capital raised to $46.2 million. 

SWIFT today announces a major milestone in the take-up of gpi with more than $40trn transferred over the service in 2018. Rapid adoption saw the share of cross-border messages using gpi soar from 15% at the start of 2018, to 56% by the end of the year, a year-on-year increase of 270%. More than 3,500 banks, accounting for 85% of SWIFT’s total payments traffic, have committed to adopting gpi, evidencing how the service has achieved the near total transformation of the cross-border payments landscape just two years since launch.

Solactive is pleased to announce that Canadian ETF provider Horizons ETFs Management (Canada) Inc. (“Horizons ETFs”) utilizes the Solactive Laddered Canadian Preferred Share Index as the underlying index for the Horizons Laddered Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (“HLPR”), which lists on the Toronto Stock Exchange today. The index includes more than 170 Canadian preferred share securities that generally have an adjustable dividend rate.

Velocity Ledger Financial, a technology solution supporting the institutional investment and trading processes for digital assets and security tokens, has selected Prime Trust as its preferred custodian. Through this partnership, Velocity Ledger Financial and Prime Trust will facilitate the issuance and custody of digital assets, supporting the growth of tokenized assets in the new digital economy.

With information security a key issue for financial services firms, a new software platform allows directors with no specialist IT skills to monitor the whole of their cybersecurity for the very first time.

EBO.ai, the artificial intelligence company, has today announced the opening of its new UK office. EBO.ai, initially founded in Malta is now opening its doors to the UK market as it looks to rapidly scale up its operations. 

PegaSys today announced the release of Pantheon 1.0 with permissioning and consensus features built specifically with enterprise requirements in mind. Pantheon 1.0 allows users to create private blockchain networks, with new customer support and training offerings.