Financial technology provider, Iress, today announced continued success with its client Kepler Cheuvreux, as it helped the leading independent European financial services company to further optimise trading outcomes. 

Kepler Cheuvreux ranks 10th in the world for trading, is present in 13 major financial centres in Europe and the US and serves 1200 institutional clients around the world. Today, Iress is Kepler Cheuvreux’s unique market data provider for all front-office applications.

Iress delivers high-performance API data feeds that power the performance of the Kepler Cheuvreux ecosystem - with feeds from more than 100 markets covering EMEA, US, and APAC.   
Kepler Chevreux’s recent review of Iress’ performance in its first full year of use highlighted a number of improvements to trading and business outcomes. For Kepler’s algo quant team, Iress’ API Snapshot feature has provided immediate and vital insights outside of the Iress comprehensive real-time data feeds that Kepler Cheuvreux also relies on to evaluate and predict market movements. 

Iress’ business development director, EMEA, Gilles Antoine said: “Today, data availability is at the core of alpha generation. Advanced trading strategies require comprehensive market data and management of those feeds. We’ve helped Kepler Cheuvreux to seamlessly handle a dramatic increase in post-pandemic global trading volumes. Among other benefits, Iress has contributed to Kepler Cheuvreux improving its hit rate for smart order routers to 97-99% on most UK-based venues.” 
Kepler Cheuvreux’s deputy global head of execution services, Thomas Biotteau, said: “After working with a previous vendor for over 20 years, we have been impressed with the stability of Iress’ systems, the quality of the product, and performance of the feeds. We always strive for constant optimisation and while  our operations were already great, the improvement in our SOR hit rate has been exceptional, which is now even as high as 99% in most UK-based venues.

“We are in great hands, with Iress, even as we replaced extensive existing legacy systems and migrated operations to the Iress platform - we hardly noticed the transition.''
Kepler Cheuvreux’s head of algorithmic trading, quant, Jean-Francois Perreton, said: “The first thing you notice working with Iress is the professionalism and expertise of its people.  They are proactive, responsive and experts in what they do.  They are also quick to evolve, as we and the market evolves.”

“Iress quickly and seamlessly integrated into our systems and the improvements have been obvious. They give us the tooling we need for even closer control over our ecosystem and the flexibility to adapt to our changing requirements.”

Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that electrical training ALLIANCE (ETA) has overhauled its IT infrastructure for the cloud with Red Hat OpenShift API Management, resulting in an upgraded training experience for electricians.
ETA is the leading publisher of education materials for the electrical industry. Founded as a joint training program between the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), ETA provides NGO support training, job boards, certifications, and more to electrical professionals. As the organization grew, it realized it needed to modernize its IT architecture using an API-first microservices development approach. Directly supporting over 230 training programs, ETA needed to create an online application that could track trainees’ progress, while rapidly adjusting and scaling with traffic.
With an existing interest in Red Hat OpenShift as a hybrid cloud application development platform, ETA engaged Red Hat Consulting to select and implement Red Hat OpenShift API Management, which is part of Red Hat’s portfolio of fully hosted and managed cloud offerings, to modernize its architecture. Red Hat OpenShift API Management supports teams that want to take an API-first approach to building microservices-based applications, resulting in simplified modernization of existing systems, increased developer productivity, and faster application delivery. Red Hat hosts, manages, and provides dedicated support for both OpenShift Dedicated and OpenShift API Management, making it a great fit for ETA, who wanted a hands-off approach to this migration. The Red Hat team oversees daily functions such as configuration, maintenance, and upgrades, so ETA can focus on development rather than managing a Kubernetes infrastructure.
As training systems and services are integrated into Red Hat OpenShift API Management and APIs are exposed, ETA has been able to provide a smoother experience for training centers and trainees with easy curriculum tracking, accessibility to services, and accelerated performance. Additionally, the upgrade has enabled simpler operational processes for internal personnel and training centers, resulting in the improved accuracy and organization of the electrical professional trainees’ data. With the influx of data, ETA has been able to improve its reporting capabilities, providing better insights to customize and improve training and educational materials.
Supporting Quotes
Ken Johnson, vice president and general manager, Application Services, Red Hat
“We’re beginning to see many companies interested in tapping into the benefits the cloud provides - with a wide range of cloud strategies. Faster delivery and deployment and increased developer productivity enables organizations like the electrical training ALLIANCE to focus its resources on customer needs and other business-critical decisions while relying on Red Hat’s expertise in managing and maintaining application infrastructure.”
Stephen Boyd, IT architect, electrical training ALLIANCE
“Partnering with Red Hat has revolutionized ETA’s ability to provide quality training and education management for the next generation of electricians and overhauled our digital transformation journey as a whole. As a small team, the support we receive through the managed service of Red Hat OpenShift API Management has allowed us to focus more on making positive contributions to the business and providing our customers with the best experience possible.”

AQRU plc, an incubator specialising in decentralised finance (DeFi),  announces today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Accru Finance Ltd., has surpassed US$50 million in  assets under management and 20,000 user signups on its proprietary yield-generating platform,  AQRU.io. The milestone was achieved only five months since the platform’s launch and 39 days after  the company announced that it reached around US$20 million (£16.5 million) in assets under  management. 

AQRU.io was designed to offer investors with an easy and secure way to access and participate in the  decentralised markets. The platform allows users to easily convert their fiat currency, such as EUR and  GBP, into cryptocurrency and participate in staking1, which is the locking of funds to receive crypto  rewards, and yield farming2, where crypto assets are locked to earn interest of up to 12%. Users can  also withdraw their assets at any time, either as fiat or cryptocurrency.  

Since AQRU.io was launched in December 2021, the platform has received significant demand from  both retail and institutional investors as it has proven to be a simple and easy-to-use solution to access  the decentralised markets. Indeed, AQRU.io only requires users to connect their digital wallets to the  platform and select from the different automatic investment strategies available on AQRU.io. And, once  this has been set-up, users can keep track of their investments’ performance in real-time through the  online platform or the mobile app.  

Security has been a priority for Accru Finance when developing AQRU.io. This is why the platform has  been secured by Fireblocks, an industry leader in digital asset security that has secured the transfer of  over $400 billion in digital assets, using bank-grade security software to reassure investors that their  money is safe in the AQRU.io platform.  

Philip Blows, CEO of AQRU, said:  

“With more than $50 million in assets under management and 20,000 signups in only five months,  AQRU.io has demonstrated itself an attractive solution that enables investors to take advantage of the  opportunities that DeFi has to offer. As decentralised finance grows, we expect AQRU.io will remain a  favoured choice for retail investors, as well as an appealing and sought-after solution for institutional  investors in Europe and other international markets too.” 

Pioneering European blockchain start-up Nous Systems is pleased to announce the successful launch of its decentralised investment platform Nous Fund, which is now live on the Polygon Network. As the world`s first, decentralised hedge fund built using blockchain technology, Nous Fund allows investors to mint their own non-fungible contracts and participate directly in Nous’ on-chain decentralised asset management vehicle on the Ethereum-based Polygon platform.  

This launch comes in tandem with the onboarding and integration of Chainlink Keepers onto the Nous ecosystem to facilitate the automation of smart contracts, as well as Chainlink Price Feeds, which will simplify management processes, increase the decentralisation of the platform, and reduce the need to rely on trusted third parties. 

To date, there has been a marked paucity in the use of smart contracts. With increasing investor confidence in blockchain technology, Nous believes that these hybrid smart contracts will in time replace conventional legal agreements and therefore seek to use this launch to demonstrate their utility within the financial sector and lead the charge to broaden their use in the market.  

By harnessing the power of blockchain, Nous Fund is accessible to anyone with an internet connection and with as little as $100 USD to invest. The fund’s use of hybrid non-fungible smart contracts allows it to offer traditional financial services and products at a much lower cost, benefiting the end user and reducing counterparty risk in the process.  

The launch of Nous Fund also represents only the beginning of Nous System’s mission to democratise the asset management space, with a diverse range of products in development that will suit the needs of all types of investors. Historically, excessively high barriers to access have excluded many would-be investors to the highest quality asset management services.

It is with this mission in mind that Nous Systems has integrated into the Nous Fund multiple Chainlink services on the Polygon mainnet. The innovative application of this technology allows Nous to create investment contracts using ETH, MATIC, USDC, and USDT with incredibly low minting fees of $0.03.  

As the established industry standard for building, accessing, and selling oracle services needed to power hybrid smart contracts on any blockchain, the integration of Chainlink services such as Keepers and Price Feed will allow the fund to provide high-end solutions, whilst preserving Nous’s commitment to security, efficiency, and accessibility.  

Chainlink’s price feed will produce highly reliable and accurate price data, helping Nous Fund ensure market rates are hyper-resistant to single points of failure and reducing the level of risk for investors. Chainlink Keepers will additionally allow Nous to monitor the state of its users' smart contracts and automate transactions in an efficient and transparent manner.  

Tom Stuart, CEO of Nous Systems, commented: “We are very excited to finally announce the launch of Nous Fund, which is not only a pivotal moment for this company, but also for the financial services industry. In the past, asset management has been far too exclusive, accessible primarily only to those with significant wealth, and so the launch of Nous Fund represents the beginning of a new era of financial services for the 99%, attainable for anyone with as little as $100. We look forward to carrying on our mission to widen access to great financial tools and look forward to sharing many more products with our community in years to come.”

Kristijan Zivcec, CTO of Nous Systems, added: “Blockchain technology enables us for the first time to create a decentralised asset management platform which doesn’t discriminate against any individual. This next generation of asset-management technology is characterised by its ability to ensure secure, reliable, and cost-efficient transactions. It is for this reason that we are thrilled to announce the adoption and successful integration of Chainlink technology into the Fund. Services such as Chainlink Keepers and Price Feeds will be instrumental in building the infrastructure needed to reduce the platforms need to rely on trusted third parties in both a transparent and secure manner.”

Kickstart, one of Europe's leading platforms for open innovation, has supported over 400 later-stage startups from over 80 countries, facilitating over 200 deals in the form of collaborations and commercial partnerships. So far, Kickstart alumni have collectively raised investments of more than CHF 2 billion, for example Planted, Cord, Keyless and Huma. Now, international scaleups (startups in a more mature business phase) have the opportunity to apply for the 2022 program. Selected companies will benefit from tailored introductions and direct access to Kickstart’s vast Swiss and Austrian network, with the goal of landing commercial partnerships and deals with partner organizations, cities, universities and more. Scaleups offering original, disruptive solutions, looking to tap into new revenue streams, and committed to delivering meaningful impact are encouraged to apply. "The topic of sustainability has now become the core of all activities. Innovation without sustainability considerations has no chance in the future," explains Katka Letzing, Co-Founder and CEO of Kickstart Innovation.

The search for the solutions of tomorrow takes shape in the form of  six verticals: Health & Wellbeing, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, New Work & Learning, Smart Cities and Intrapreneurship. Each vertical has a core focus on leading innovation trends as well as the needs of Kickstart’s established partners. In addition, Kickstart unveils a brand new global identity, portraying the company’s evolution into an international enterprise committed to fast-forwarding innovation for a better future. Many well-known companies such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, Sanitas, The City of Zurich, Canton de Vaud, Credit Suisse, Galenica, CSS Insurance, have already recognized the added value that can be gained from such an enterprise.

This September, successful applicants will join Kickstart’s intense 10-week open innovation program to scale their business through deals with our partner organizations. Over 100 entrepreneurs representing around 50 top quality scaleups will connect closely with executives from leading partner organizations to develop innovative partnerships that solve real business challenges and result in meaningful impact at scale. Participants will benefit from business development and scaling in both Swiss and international markets. "Kickstart really helped us connect to key clients that grew our business, and we continue working with them to this day." Alex Beck, CEO & Co-Founder of Clara.

In addition to building partnerships, Kickstart also provides access to a diversified investor network for later-stage startups and alumni raising funding rounds. Partners with corporate venture arms are actively involved, including Swisscom Ventures, AXA Venture Partners and others.

2022 Timeline:

26.4. - 24.5.         Application phase                              27.7.                Startup announcement

10.5 - 20.6.          Selection phase                                 7.9. - 17.11.      Collaboration sprint

For more information, and to apply until 24th May 2022, please visit: www.kickstart-innovation.com

Enterprise Nation and Mastercard have announced the launch of the Enterprise Nation: Make a Plan app, supported by Strive UK, to help micro and small businesses (MSEs) access free guidance, tools and support from their phone.
The app has been developed as part of the Strive UK programme, an initiative from the  Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, that aims to empower 650,000 micro and small businesses in the UK to succeed in the digital economy over the next three years.

The app will direct MSEs to a data driven ‘one stop shop’, which will house relevant resources, programmes and digital tools from different support organisations to help founders build and grow their businesses. Businesses can upload their details and to generate a digital business action plan which they can use to track progress on their phone.
The app comes at a time when more than one in 10 working age adults in the UK plan to start a business in the next three months, which equates to around three million individuals looking for early-stage business support and reflects an upward trend in the ambition to start a business.
Emma Jones, Founder of Enterprise Nation, said: “This is a totally new approach to deploying curated support and advice to business owners.  They will be able to very quickly build a learning action plan and identify support areas that will have the most positive impact on the business.
“While you don’t have to be an expert in everything to start a successful business, understanding the basics to a decent standard can significantly increase your confidence and resilience – as well as your chances of success.”
Natasha Jamal, Vice President, Social Impact, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, said: “There is an explosive growth opportunity for the UK’s micro and small business sector, but it can only be realised if they receive the right guidance and support. For small business owners, trying to identify which digital tools are the right ones for their business can be a daunting task. The Strive app and one-stop-shop simplifies this by giving time-poor business owners all the resources and guidance they need to grow their business in one place.”
In addition, data from Enterprise Nation shows 70% of early-stage businesses are looking for advice on how to build and improve their cash flow plan, while 55% of more mature growing businesses are looking to establish a financial reporting routine.
The IOS app is available on the App Store and the Android app via Google Play.

SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, announced that it had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with SBI Holdings, Inc to expand their portfolio, both at a business and geographic level, and to explore new ecosystems through this partnership.

SBI is a major Japanese financial conglomerate, with verticals in asset management, financial services and biotechnology-related businesses. Its venture capital fund has a diverse investment portfolio covering internet technology, fintech, artificial intelligence and big data, blockchain and crypto assets.

SC Ventures and SBI hold core beliefs in transforming financial services through building and investing in “ecosystems” of new companies, which will serve their customers in the ways they want to be served.  Both organisations also have a common goal of leveraging innovative technology to fulfil society’s expectations of financial services, as it relates to enabling growth, welfare improvement, sustainability and financial inclusion in the markets where they operate.

The MOU offers an opportunity for SBI and SC Ventures to mutually benefit from the collective breadth of investment expertise and complementary global footprints. SBI is headquartered in Japan with a strong presence in Southeast Asian markets, while SC Ventures has significant experience operating across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

The MOU is structured to cover three main areas – (1) Opportunities to drive collaboration as well as co-invest in portfolio companies, including the option to establish joint venture funds, (2) Cooperation for business development to set up or scale business models leveraging each other’s geographic footprint (3) Creating ecosystems around particular themes to drive scale and impact (some examples include SMEs and supply chains, digital assets, decentralised finance, Web 3.0).

BankiFi, a Manchester-based banking technology platform provider, has announced its partnership with leading Fintech communications specialist, SkyParlour.

SkyParlour will help BankiFi to communicate its mission of putting banks at the heart of all small to medium size enterprise (SME) activity, via its digital banking solutions. Through these solutions, BankiFi is helping to improve economic outcomes for SMEs by making business banking more reliable and transparent. Similarly, the company’s solution is enabling banks to start providing a set of integrated services, such as accounting, invoicing and payments to their customers in a straightforward and simple manner.

SkyParlour, an award-winning public relations (PR) agency, which also operates out of Manchester, works with an enviable roster of clients, including major names from Fintech, payments, cyber and eCommerce sectors. The company’s expert team is split across three divisions; ‘Started’, ‘Scale’ and ‘Consult’. Moving forward, BankiFi will work alongside the company’s ‘Started’ team, a division dedicated to delivering bespoke PR campaigns for fast-growing Fintech start-ups.

The new partnership reaffirms the continued importance of communication within the emerging Fintech sector. Likewise, the announcement highlights the growing influence of Manchester as a national Fintech hub. In recent years, the city has quickly become an innovation centre within the UK, and now boasts an expanding ecosystem of financial expertise, including traditional banking services and exciting Fintech startups.

Speaking on the announcement, BankiFi’s CEO, Mark Hartley, commented: “We launched BankiFi to improve the quality of SME banking services globally, and by partnering with SkyParlour, we’re taking another important step towards that goal. Together, we’ll work to communicate how our solution benefits SMEs, highlighting the advantages associated with adopting our innovative technology. We’re excited to see where the journey takes us.”

Kimberley Waldron, co-founder of SkyParlour added, “For the past 13 years, SkyParlour has been dedicated to helping Fintechs communicate more effectively with the wider industry, which we will continue to do through our partnership with BankiFi. We’re excited to start working with a fellow Mancunian business, and to help showcase the company’s genuine enthusiasm towards improving SME banking experiences with its innovative digital solutions.”

Specifically, SkyParlour will assist BankiFi with the creation and distribution of official company communications. The two businesses recently worked together to announce BankiFi’s new Open Cash Management platform. The exciting service gives BankiFi’s customers access to a litany of modern solutions that help to make business financial management easier than ever.

For more information on BankiFi please visit: https://www.bankifi.com

For more information on SkyParlour, please visit: https://skyparlour.com

BMLL, the leading, independent provider of harmonised, historical Level 3 Data and analytics, today announced a collaboration with Aquis Exchange (Aquis), operator of Pan-European equity trading exchanges, to provide its Members with insights into market structure dynamics, including  venue quality and liquidity analytics. 

Using BMLL’s granular Level 3 Data and analytics, Aquis is able to monitor and evidence liquidity dynamics and provide its Members with third-party, independent verification on the availability of passive liquidity on its own venues versus other European exchanges. This insight helps unlock valuable trading opportunities for Aquis Members, increasing fill probabilities at a better rate and with minimum market impact.

BMLL offers full order book transparency by bringing together granular Level 3 Data from 65 venues across equities, ETFs and futures in one harmonised format. BMLL Level 3 Data captures all individual orders and messages, providing market participants insights into order fill probability; order resting time; and order queue dynamics. What’s more, BMLL’s cloud engineering dramatically improves research and analysis performance: market participants can derive meaningful venue and market quality analytics as well as liquidity and order book dynamic insights to make better informed decisions on the markets they trade and the venues they run. 

David Stevens, Chief Revenue Officer of Aquis, said: “As Europe’s 7th largest exchange, we are constantly looking to enhance the liquidity and execution opportunities for our Members. By using BMLL Level 3 Data and advanced analytics we are now able to engage with our Members to compare their trading dynamics on our exchange versus their peer group and to demonstrate that Aquis offers superior trading outcomes for both passive and aggressive strategies. In addition, we are able to evidence our ability to consistently be present at the ‘European Best Bid and Offer’ (EBBO), regularly ranking in the top 2 across European exchanges.”

Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL, commented: “We have been collaborating with Aquis Exchange for the last six months and we are delighted to help them showcase the unique strengths of their market model to their Members. Aquis is now able to demonstrate better and deeper liquidity, as well as monitor the performance of the market, improve access to best price and ultimately reduce market impact. We look forward to deepening our collaboration over the coming months.”

BMLL Level 3 Data and analytics are delivered as Data Science as a Service, directly into existing workflows to ensure ease of access and enhanced speed to output.

The countdown is truly on for Money20/20 Europe with the best three days of 2022 is just around the corner. The agenda was announced recently and it’s jam-packed with unmatched Fintech content and loaded with some of the biggest names in the industry. But most importantly the networking parties are back, which means after hours business deals and lot’s of fun making industry connections. We’ve got new stages and immersive experiences delivering nothing less than groundbreaking Fintech material. Money20/20 Is the heartbeat of the money ecosystem, if you want to rub shoulders with Fintech giants, then this is the place to be. Remember, you can save €200 on your pass by using the discount code: MPFIT200

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