Hirewell, Prytek’s Talent Solutions Division, has announced its acquisition of Rainmakers, a US recruiting platform exclusively aimed at top technology sales talent.

The acquisition forms part of Prytek’s strategy to create a tech-enabled talent ecosystem, and will enable Hirewell’s clients to easily connect with top technology sales talent via a digital marketplace.

For the last 20 years, Hirewell clients have created a competitive advantage through talent acquisition with Hirewell’s top-rated recruiters and flexible client engagement models. In 2021, Hirewell helped over 350 companies hire over 1,300 employees.

Since 2016, Rainmakers has quickly become a digital marketplace known for delivering top tech sales talent. The integration of Rainmakers into the Hirewell talent ecosystem will empower the digital marketplace with Hirewell’s industry-leading recruiting expertise while providing a self-service hiring option for Hirewell’s clients.

Andrey Yashunsky, Co-Founder and CEO of Prytek, said “We are delighted to be integrating Rainmakers into Hirewell. The recent additions of world class technology through Prytek will continue to fuel Hirewell’s rapid growth while contributing to Prytek’s vision to create industry and client impact through vertically-integrated value chains. Hirewell clients can now automate their tech candidate sourcing with next generation AI (Sourcewell), easily connect with top tech sales talent through a digital marketplace (Rainmakers), and continue to leverage Hirewell’s full-service recruiters as a part of one integrated talent experience.”

Matt Massucci, Founder and CEO of Hirewell, said “The talent acquisition space has evolved significantly over the past 20 years. Yet, technology has struggled to truly disrupt the industry. For job seekers, traditional job boards are too general and typically are black holes. Niche talent marketplaces offer professionals the ability to focus on roles that fit their interests. Rainmakers is the premier tech sales marketplace. It has become the go to place for companies hiring tech sales talent. And it saves sales people a lot of time and effort sifting through roles on the large job sites. We’re excited about Rainmakers joining Hirewell, and offering clients another alternative to finding great talent.”

Michael Ferguson, Co-Founder and CEO of Rainmakers, said “When the opportunity arose to partner with Hirewell, it was a no-brainer. Working with Hirewell will allow Rainmakers to significantly expand our sales talent marketplace while continuing to build out the Rainmakers technology stack, further cementing Rainmakers as the go to hiring platform for salespeople.”

Trust Payments, the disruptive leader in fintech specialising in frictionless payments and value-added services, has today published its annual report and financial statements for 2021: headlined by a 73% increase in total revenues to £108.7m, up from £62.7m the year before.

Net revenues increased to £70.2m, up 73% from £40.5m in 2020, buoyed by net merchant volume retention over 100% and driving adjusted EBITDA for the year up 105% to over £20m.

Daniel Holden, Group CEO of Trust Payments, said: “It's been an incredible year for Trust Payments. We’ve delivered outstanding financial growth, doubled our headcount, and expanded the depth and breadth of our product suite, to become a leading fintech disruptor.”

“We’ve now built a robust platform for scale across multiple industries, and through our acquisitions,have deepened our ability to support them: whether through integrated ePOS solutions or a direct-to-consumer eCommerce platform ( Stor ) for merchants to accelerate their revenues. The future looks bright for blending commerce and payments and in 2022 we’re well positioned to offer just this,” he continued.

Despite the economic uncertainty stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, Trust Payments has continued to grow from strength to strength. The company doubled its staff headcount from 214 people to 428 over the last year and has opened up six new offices across the UK, EU and US. 

Holden added: “Our aim is to help businesses optimise their sales and build truly world-class experiences for their customers. By combining and then embedding payments, banking and value-added services into customer journeys we

deliver our vision of Converged Commerce™ for next generation business.”

The business grew across all three markets as more merchants recognised the need for digitisation of payments and commerce, partially fuelled by the rise in contactless spending and the need to meet growing customer demand for Converged Commerce ™ experiences.

Volt, the leading open payments gateway has recruited payments veteran Matt Komorowski as its new Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). 

Matt joins Volt after almost a decade with PayPal, where for the past three years he has been leading the payments giant’s channel partnership business across APAC, LATAM, and MEA. Previously, Matt was instrumental in PayPal’s record growth in a variety of senior commercial and leadership roles across Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. 

Matt’s role at Volt will ensure that the open payments powerhouse continues on its path to hypergrowth and drives the adoption of open banking with merchants and PSPs worldwide.

Komorowski’s hire marks one more step for Volt’s global growth plans, in response to a rising tide in global demand for real-time payments. His international experience in the global payments industry with PayPal is complemented and enriched by previous successes in building Groupon’s sales organisation in Poland, and his experience at the Boston Consulting Group where he honed his global perspective and strategic approach to growth organisations.

Volt has assembled a stellar cast of industry experts at its helm: its founder and CEO, Tom Greenwood, previously founded fintech payments business IFX Payments, and its chairman, Robert Kraal, was on the founding team and COO of Adyen before founding Silverflow. Volt’s global ambition and proven product-market fit have already led to a record-breaking $23.5m funding round - the largest Series A on record for the open banking industry, which powers the company’s growth plans.

Tom Greenwood, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Volt, said: “We are delighted to have Matt onboard. At a key time for our business, he brings a wealth of experience in payments and in driving high-growth in scale organisations.”

“Matt has proven his success in optimising revenue and strategic growth for global companies. Combined with his expertise in bringing innovative payments models to new markets, he’ll be invaluable in working with us to realise our vision of real time payments everywhere.”

Matt Komorowski, Chief Revenue Officer at Volt, said: “My role will focus on driving adoption for our open banking products across markets and business verticals, and on building the right organisation and hiring the best talent to start hyperscaling".

“Volt’s culture is centred around building an organisation where sales and product development interact and exchange information very quickly, ensuring merchants are getting the products that they need. As Volt continues to scale, we want to make sure that that part of the culture remains at the core of its strategy".

“There is huge potential for transformation in the payment sector, all around the world. It is driven by the growing need for consumers to gain freedom and control over their finances and their money, and for merchants everywhere to be able to securely receive payments in real time, via one seamless experience, without friction, and freed from traditionally high fees".

“I am excited to become part of Volt’s mission to create ultimate payment freedom, for everyone, everywhere.”

New research by global cryptocurrency payments company Mercuryo has revealed that over 28% of the UK population now own cryptocurrency, with a further 41% expecting to hold it in the next five years. However, the research has also revealed a stark gap in the necessary infrastructure required for mass cryptocurrency utility, with 75% of UK banking providers not having cryptocurrency infrastructures available for their customers, and with 36% of banking providers actively discouraging their customers not to buy, use of hold cryptocurrency. 

The research polled both UK consumers, as well as decision makers within financial services businesses, to explore adoption, sentiment, use cases and blockers to cryptocurrency utility. When assessing consumer usage, over two thirds of consumers would like to use cryptocurrency in the same way they’re able to use other currencies in everyday life. Of those surveyed, the most popular cryptocurrency use cases included paying for goods online (38%), sending money to family or friends (37%) making a charity donation (18%) and paying for online subscriptions and services (17%). 32% of respondents also claimed they would be happy to receive their salary payment in cryptocurrency. 

However, despite healthy indicators of mass consumer adoption and a host of business use cases for cryptocurrency, the research also highlighted significant blockers for many UK consumers and businesses, with 24% of consumers claiming that a lack of regulatory clarity is halting the business development needed to utilise cryptocurrency in their everyday lives. A lack of education (37%)  and a lack of in-house expertise (20%) was referenced by businesses as a key reason why they are not implementing cryptocurrency into their business, despite 56% of UK businesses believing that accepting cryptocurrency payments for example, would give their business a competitive edge. Interestingly, the research, which was also conducted in the USA, revealed that businesses in the USA are slightly more advanced in accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment with 57% of US business respondents claiming they accept it, vs 38% of UK business respondents.

Security concerns remain an ongoing battle for the industry, with the fear of being a victim of cryptocurrency scams having been referenced by over 60% of consumers as a worry. This is likely to be somewhat heightened by fraud and scam communication alerts from their banking provider or regulators, with nearly 40% of respondents claiming their use of cryptocurrency is heavily influenced by communications from banks and regulators. Peer sentiment is also a barrier for some, with 32% of respondents claiming their peers have frowned upon them for holding cryptocurrency. 

These concerns collectively have undoubtedly created accessibility issues, with over 62% of consumers feeling they are unable to carry out a variety of transactions using cryptocurrency in their everyday lives.

The research coincides with the launch of Mercuryo’s Banking as a Service solution, an end to end, plug and play product for cryptocurrency companies looking to build a payments infrastructure for both fiat currencies and digital assets.

Petr, Co-founder and CEO of Mercuryo comments:

“Whilst it’s an extremely exciting and promising time for the cryptocurrency landscape, to see such evolving use cases and appetite for ulitising cryptocurrency, it’s clear the industry has a long way to go in terms of building the appropriate infrastructure to support this mass utility.”

“This is why we’re launching our Banking as a Service product, designed specifically to support cryptocurrency companies in providing a plug and play solution for their business and their customers’ to adopt and be able to utilise cryptocurrencies in their daily routines.”

Wealth managers can now introduce more of their end-investors to the world of private investments through a newly-launched institutional service on digital securities exchange ADDX. Corporate treasuries and family offices can also take part in the space via a corporate service to diversify their portfolios through private market products.

Both services fall under a new product line for businesses, called ADDX Advantage. Among some of the first institutions to come on board as partners include StashAway, Southeast Asia’s fastest growing digital wealth manager, and CGS-CIMB, a leading securities brokerage in Asia.

Wealth managers utilising this institutional service can offer their clients fractional access to private market products, which better enhances portfolio diversification away from public markets exposure. This service is designed for brokerages, private banks, external asset managers and multi-family offices. Through a B2B2C 1 model, the service ultimately benefits the wealth manager’s end clients, who may be individual accredited investors 2 or corporate investors.

Currently, wealth managers looking to offer private market products to their end-clients have to negotiate deals with each issuer separately – a time-consuming process. Being on ADDX means an instant plug-in to a full suite of deals across multiple asset types. The use of blockchain and smart contracts on ADDX also enables the fractionalisation of opportunities down to a minimum of US$10,000, from the US$250,000 to US$5 million typically required when going direct to private market issuers. The lower barrier to entry makes it possible for end- clients to manage risk by spreading their capital across a variety of products.

Depending on the regulatory licenses the wealth managers hold, they can choose between two types of institutional services. They can either execute trades and perform fund transfers on behalf of end-investors, or create sub-accounts in their end-clients’ names and allow the clients to take control of their own activity on ADDX.

CGS-CIMB Group CEO Carol Fong said: “We believe that investments should be made more affordable to a wider group of investors. This means collaborating with platforms such as ADDX that allows more investors to access previously out-of-reach private investments with fractional ownership. This is a start to ‘democratise’ the private equity market to make it more inclusive.”

ADDX’s corporate service operates under a B2B 3 model and is designed for institutional investors, as well as businesses investing their own capital, such as corporate treasuries and family offices. For example, corporate treasuries with excess cash on hand may now benefit from short-term investment instruments that pay a higher return than bank fixed deposits. A three-month commercial paper with a yield of 2.3% p.a. by the SGX-listed ValueMax is currently listed on ADDX. Family offices, on the other hand, often have longer horizons and more sophisticated investment strategies. They may prefer a wider range of products, including opportunities with higher risk-reward profiles. For them, the lower minimum investment sizes on ADDX can help them build optimal portfolios, narrowing the handicap they traditionally face due to their smaller pool of investable capital vis-à-vis large institutional players like sovereign wealth funds and pension funds.

ADDX CEO Oi-Yee Choo said: “ADDX was founded with a vision of democratizing private markets for individual investors. Our B2C 4 experience has shown us how investors now have the platform to accumulate a diversified private markets portfolio powered by our technology. We would like to expand our approach to tailoring private markets for more efficient access to our partners in the wealth management space.”

Ms Choo added: “Corporate investors and family offices too face serious pain points in the market. We had the solutions to these problems, having built an efficient platform for individual investors with a steady stream of deals. The last mile was building the technology to serve institutional and corporate investors, which required time and investments, as their needs are more complex – ranging from API connections to multi-user access.”

“For ADDX, this latest move represents an important strategic pivot that strengthens the competitiveness of our exchange by expanding and diversifying our investor base. This will better equip us to attract high-quality issuers to list on ADDX, knowing there will be sufficient investor demand. As an exchange, our goal is to ensure a critical mass of both issuers and investors at the table, so that capital can find worthwhile investment projects, and vice versa. In launching private market services for wealth managers and corporate investors, we have made a long stride towards this goal,” she said.

Established in 2017, ADDX uses blockchain and smart contract technology to automate manual processes that have thus far made it inefficient for private market securities to be distributed to a large number of investors. The efficiencies from tokenising these securities enables ADDX to reduce minimum investment sizes to US$10,000. Asset classes available on the ADDX platform include private equity, venture capital, private debt, real estate, hedge funds, cryptocurrency funds, and structured products. ADDX has listed 26 deals to date, working with blue-chip names such as Partners Group, UOB, Investcorp, CGS-CIMB, as well as Temasek-owned entities Mapletree, Azalea and SeaTown.

George Liu from Babel Finance's Singapore office believes that as the Ukraine crisis drags on, the looming uncertainty will force investors to seek assets that might assist in mitigating sovereign risk, in particular Bitcoin. George Liu, The head of derivative at Babel Finance, is confident that Bitcoin will continue to go north as demand rises and supply falls as it becomes more mainstream in 2022, with some corrections expected.

Apart from the Ukraine crisis, technical advancement and celebrity support also greatly influence the mainstreaming of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies among investors. Liquidity difficulties during the Covid pandemic are also a reason for concerned investors to seek new avenues for higher-yield investments. At any rate, crypto will continue to rise, as seen in Q1 2022. The Luna Foundation Guard recently acquired $1 billion worth of Bitcoin, causing cryptocurrency prices to rise.

The Babel finance crypto team is noticing an increased interest in its tailored crypto-asset financial products with traditional finance features for institutional and HNWI investors. George Liu anticipates that more varied products, such as ETFs and mutual funds, and crypto asset management, will embrace the new wave of opportunities in the future.

"In a world that is rapidly going digital, the shift to trading via crypto tokens is likely to be unstoppable. While the Fed's tightening of liquidity will have some impact on asset prices, the surging crypto dollar will bring a higher floor for bitcoin. Given the global macro environment will remain accommodative, continuing investment in Bitcoin, in general, will still be preferred by institutional investors", George Liu said.

As Babel Finance's financial services arm serves its clients' needs and growing interest in crypto in the region, a shift from traditional assets to crypto is more evident than ever. Current political events, war, and macro factors will increase the demand for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Shojin Property Partners Closes £3m From Global Investors at a Valuation of £49M

Shojin Property Partners, an FCA-regulated online real estate investment platform, has raised its first tranche of £3m via a global pool of investors at a company valuation of £49m. Having proven substantial growth in the past 12 months, Shojin  has just launched the next tranche of funding to raise a further £2m at a £55m valuation. This raise sits alongside a £5m underwriting facility provided by a London-based family office with a provision to increase it to £10m, which effectively guarantees funding for mid-market real estate investment opportunities before they go live to investors.

Barclays-backed Anthemis Invests in Regulated Future Earnings Agreement Assets in World-first Deal

StepEx, an FCA-regulated fintech that provides the infrastructure for universities, business schools, and technical and professional/vocational course providers to offer qualifications in exchange for a share of students’ future earnings, has agreed on a world-first deal for a financial institution to buy the receivable assets. Barclays Anthemis will invest an initial £500,000 into regulated Future Earnings Agreements (FEA) assets via a special purpose vehicle (SPV), with the right to extend the investment to £10 million. This is the first of a number of such deals that StepEx plans to do with asset managers.

Gaviti Raises $9 Million in Series A Led by Flashpoint 

Gaviti raises $9 million in series A after helping clients collect $6.2B in account receivables in 2021. FinTech startup Gaviti helps companies recoup outstanding receivables with their automated platform. “In 2021, our clients recovered $6.2 billion in A/R Receivables by streamlining an otherwise tedious process,” said Yan Lazarev, Co-founder & CEO. Gaviti, an automation system designed to help companies collect and manage client invoices, announced the closing of a $9 million Series A funding led by UK-based Flashpoint with participation by Moneta VC, North First Ventures, TAU Ventures, and LETA Capital.

Uplinq Raises $3.5 Million in Pre-Seed Funding Round

Uplinq Financial technologies (Uplinq) has raised USD $3.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by noted venture capital investors, N49P and Surface Ventures, alongside a veritable ‘who’s who’ list of leading individual Fintech investors. The business will use the investment to further its commitment to help banks and lenders deliver financial inclusion for their small business customers across the globe. Alongside N49P and Surface Ventures, Uplinq’s pre-seed funding round also includes participation from MoVi Partners, Impulsum Ventures, Magic Fund, Assure Syndicates, and the DVC Syndicate. 

PayPoint Announces Investment in Optus Homes

PayPoint announced a £750k investment in Optus Homes, a leading app for tenants to manage their home rental account. The deal will see the PayPoint Group make an investment in the company, building on the recently-signed commercial partnership positioning PayPoint as the preferred payment provider within the app.The investment strengthens PayPoint’s MultiPay proposition for the housing sector, as the Optus Homes’ native app payment solution. 

Alpian Obtains FINMA Banking License and Secures CHF19 Million Series B+ Financing

Alpian SA, an innovative digital private bank, announced the granting by FINMA of a banking license and a successful CHF19 million Series B+ closing, enabling Alpian to shortly launch to the public in Q3 2022, becoming Switzerland's first digital private bank. Alpian, majority-owned by Fideuram-Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, secured a third round of financing, fully subscribed by Fideuram - Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking. The financing will support the deployment of Alpian's range of services in Switzerland, comprising both private and online banking.

EnKash, a Corporate Spends Management and Cards Issuing Startup, Raises US$ 20 Million in an Ascent Capital-led Round

EnKash, an India-based, all-in-one Spends Management Platform and Corporate Cards company, has raisedUS$ 20 million as a part of its Series B round that was led by Ascent Capital and joined by Baring India & Singapore-based White Ventures. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Mayfield India and Axilor Ventures. EnKash has been a pioneer in unifying cards and spend management and features financial automation tools, enabling businesses to manage payables, receivables and expenses on the fly, powered by a DIY-Platform first approach. 

British Business Investments Commits Additional £15m to Compass Business Finance

British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, announces an additional £15m commitment to Compass Business Finance, taking our total commitment to £30m. This additional investment will further increase the flow of funding for asset finance products into UK-based smaller businesses operating in the print, packaging and manufacturing sectors. It will also provide this specialist lender with additional funding for smaller and medium-sized businesses requiring business critical equipment finance over the next three to five years and contribute to Compass Business Finance’s own growth trajectory whilst supporting underserved businesses as they recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Labster Secures $47M in New Funding Tranche to Expand Global Opportunities for Virtual Science Laboratory Simulations April Ondis

Labster, the world's leading platform for virtual labs and interactive science, has raised $47 million in additional funding to support massive growth opportunities worldwide. This new capital infusion will enable Labster to further develop in Europe and the United States and to establish itself within Asia and Latin America. By investing more funds into its library of science simulations and expanding its reach to younger students and adult workforce skills training, Labster will be able to serve 100 million students around the world through its institutional and government partnerships.

Budget Insight Raises $35 Million

Budget Insight, the leading aggregator of banking and financial data in France and a pioneer of Open Finance in Europe, announced $35m (€31m) in funding from PSG Equity (“PSG”), a leading growth equity firm partnering with software and technology-enabled services companies to help accelerate their growth and build scale across Europe and the US. PSG will be a shareholder alongside the management team and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa. Crédit Mutuel Arkéa invested in Budget Insight in 2019 due to Budget Insight’s strong growth potential and the natural synergies arising from the combination of the two players.

TransFICC Secures New Investment of $17 million Led by AlbionVC

TransFICC, the specialist provider of low-latency connectivity and workflow services for Fixed Income and Derivatives Markets, has closed a Series A extension for $17 million. Led by AlbionVC, all existing institutional shareholders took part in this investment round, which follows the original Series A for $7.8 million, announced in April 2020. TransFICC’s investors are AlbionVC, Citi, HSBC, Illuminate Financial, ING Ventures, and Main Incubator (the Early Stage CVC unit of Commerzbank Group).

lemon.markets Secures €15M in Seed Financing to Launch a Stock Trading API for Developers, Paving the Way for a New Era of European Brokerage

lemon.markets, a financial technology company offering an easy-to-use API for stock trading, announced€15M in seed financing to launch its pioneering brokerage platform for developers and tech companies. Co-led by leading investment firms Lakestar and Lightspeed, with participation from Creandum and System.one, it is one of the largest seed funding rounds in Europe. Angel investors in the round include operators from N26, Public.com, sennder, Taxfix, Finoa and Stripe. The financing signals lemon.markets’ strong trajectory on its path to facilitate brokerage services across Europe.

Moneybox Secures £35m in Series D Funding as AUA Nears £3bn

Moneybox, the award-winning digital wealth manager, has secured £35m in a Series D funding round, led by Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, a dedicated venture capital team at Fidelity International, alongside existing investors as well as new investors Polar Capital. The investment brings the total amount of funds raised to date, to £95.1 million. Moneybox is on a mission to help people build wealth with confidence and provides a range of products and services across saving, investing, home-buying, and retirement, all within one easy-to-use app, supported by award-winning technology and customer support.

Partnerships

Mollie Teams Up With Recharge to Offer Best-in-class Product Subscription Solution

Mollie, one of the fastest-growing payment service providers in Europe, announced its partnership with the leading subscription management solution, Recharge, to offer an API-first, end-to-end subscription solution that provides unprecedented support for recurring payments and subscription management. The partnership provides cutting-edge innovation to subscription-based e-commerce businesses and is now available across all markets that Mollie services.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Announces Partnership with Clearpay

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), owner and operator of Westfield shopping centers across the US, the UK and Continental Europe, has announced the expansion of its international brand partnership with Clearpay, a leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments. Clearpay will become URW’s “Buy Now, Pay Later” brand partner with a program of consumer advertising and experiential activity at the brand’s London flagship centers, Westfield London and Westfield Stratford.   

FXCH Crypto Clearing House Partners with 24Exchange PR Announcement

FXCH (Hong Kong) Ltd. has partnered with 24Exchange (Bermuda) Ltd. to offer a Clearing and Settlement option to Crypto cash institutional market participants. The service, available to all 24Exchange members, provides the first clear demarcation between trade execution, margin/risk management, and settlement for the Crypto asset class. FXCH Ltd. operates a real-time netted Clearing House model for Institutions that trade digital assets on multiple Exchanges and OTC venues. The market utility works on the principle of managing collateralized multi-counterparty risk, culminating in one Net Settlement at the end of every trading day.

SkyParlour Announces Partnership with Fintech Week London 2022

Fintech Week London 2022, the leading event for the fintech community, has re-appointed SkyParlour as its official PR and media relations partner. Following a successful event in 2021, Fintech Week London has re-appointed SkyParlour as its official PR and media relations partner. The week-long event, which will run from 11th to 15th July 2022, with a two-day conference at its start, will welcome delegates from a host of traditional financial institutions, fintech and financial services companies

Utimaco and Nokia Expand Partnership to Secure a 5G Future

Finnish telecoms company Nokia and Utimaco, a leading global provider of IT security solutions, announcedthat they will jointly develop 5G security solutions for Core mobile networks in a move that expands the two companies’ partnership.  The combined technology will further improve security on 5G networks ranging from private site networks to national networks and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The 5G standard for broadband cellular networks began being rolled out in 2019, and today has been implemented in 24 European countries.

Propeller Inc. Partners with Amwins for Surety Bond Distribution

Propeller, Inc., a high-growth insurtech MGA specializing in surety bonds, has signed an agreement with Amwins, the largest specialty insurance distributor in the U.S., to serve as a preferred surety partner to their network of over 25,000 retail agencies. The partnership focuses on delivering Propeller's proprietary, white-labeled (URL) technology to agents and brokers, allowing the surety bond process to become fully automated from application to billing and issuance. Propeller onboards agents in minutes for free, with no premium requirements.

Suresite Group Partners with TSG UK to Launch P2PE Enabled Payment Terminals for Forecourts

Forecourt retail specialist Suresite Group has partnered with leading equipment and service supplier to the energy sector, TSG UK, to enhance its payments offering. This partnership will enable Suresite to offer a one-stop-shop for hardware, software, installation and customer support, providing a range of simple, affordable and secure payment solutions to its forecourt retail customers. The British Retail Consortium’s 2021 annual payments survey, published last September, shows that, for the first time, more than 80% of all UK retail sales last year were made by a payment card, with more than half of these by debit card.

Launches 

BEQUANT Launches Market-first Crypto Capital Introduction Event

BEQUANT, the digital asset prime brokerage and exchange, announced it is hosting a market-first crypto capital introduction forum in London on 26 April 2022.  The forum will bring together a selection of professional fund managers operating across multiple strategies, including Market Neutral Digital Currency Arbitrage, DEFI Market Neutral Yield Farming, and Volatility & Skew Arbitrage. The crypto market has grown from a value of $767bn to $2.22tr from the start of 2021 to the end of the year as more businesses look to raise capital to establish themselves in this burgeoning market, many are struggling to find the right sources of capital for them.

BlueSnap Launches Embedded Payments Suite to Help Software Platforms Maximize Revenue Globally

BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform committed to helping B2B and B2C businesses accept and optimize payments around the world, has launched its Embedded Payments and Payfac-as-a-Service offering for software platforms looking to scale their customer base globally.  BlueSnap has been helping software platforms monetize their payments for several years with their Integrated Payments for Platforms. The new Embedded Payments and Payfac-as-a-Service suite expand and innovate on this to include three new products: BlueSnap Dash™, BlueSnap Relay and BlueSnap Flex. 

Fast Growing RegTech SteelEye Launches Market Replay Solution

SteelEye, the compliance technology, and data analytics firm, has announced the launch of its new Order Book Replay service – a cutting-edge market replay solution. Designed to facilitate more precise and rigorous market abuse surveillance, SteelEye’s market replay tool enables organizations to playback a trading session and more thoroughly analyze market movements. This allows compliance teams to play, pause, rewind, fast forward, slow down and speed up order book activity to gain a full understanding of what has taken place – visually showcasing the overall balance of the book against market price levels and spreads.

GKFX Launches its Own Online Trading Platform GKFX Trader

GKFX, Global Kapital Group’s (“GKG”) brokerage arm offering financial services in the EU, announced the launch of its new online trading platform, GKFX Trader. GKFX is on the verge of a new era, starting on a transformation journey to become a global investment platform to serve all clients’ investment needs. GKFX is now ready to announce the first step of this transformation journey, presenting its own trading platform, GKFX Trader. The customers will be able to use GKFX Trader for all products that GKFX offers today, including FX and CFDs for indices, stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrency. 

Winvesta Launches Multi-Currency Payment Collections for Exporters and Freelancers

The UK headquartered Winvesta, a neobank building cross-border banking and wealth management, has launched foreign payment collections for Indian exporters. The service comes as an extension of the existing multi-currency banking facility for Indian individuals. Businesses receive virtual accounts in 30+ currencies, including USD, GBP, and EUR. The accounts serve as collection accounts for service exporters to receive payments, which are then converted to INR and deposited into their Indian bank accounts the same day.

Citi Extends Trade Product Offerings with the Launch of Sustainable Trade and Working Capital Loans Solution

Citi has announced the launch of its Sustainable Trade and Working Capital Loans (Sustainable T&WC Loans) solution in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Latin America (LATAM), and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions.The launch follows the successful rollout of Citi’s Sustainable Supply Chain Finance offering and represents the next step of the journey to expand Citi’s sustainable Trade and Working Capital Solutions as a key part of Citi’s broader commitment to advancing its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agenda.

Newly Launched TPP Verification by Salt Edge Consolidates Security, Exactly as PSD2 Requires

Salt Edge announces the launch of a new open banking solution on the European market – TPP Verification. The solution simplifies ASPSPs’ efforts in checking the third-party providers trying to access users’ account data. To keep customers’ accounts safe, ASPSPs are obliged by PSD2 to have a mechanism for TPPs to identify themselves before accessing the open banking channels. Now, they get more safety in opening up access to customer accounts data and payments capabilities for third-party providers with Salt Edge’s TPP Verification.

ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions Launches in Australia

ANZ Worldline Payment Solutions announces its launch in Australia– a joint venture between ANZ and global payments services leader Worldline. Australian merchants will have access to some of the world’s most advanced payment solutions, proven internationally and adapted to meet the unique requirements of the Australian market. Worldline is the technology partner of choice for merchants, banks and acquirers across more than 50 countries, with decades of experience in domestic and international payment systems.

Merger & Acquisition

Equinix Enters Africa, Closing the US$320 Million Acquisition of MainOne

The acquisition signals the first step in Equinix’s long-term strategy to become a leading African carrier-neutral digital infrastructure company, enabling organizations to accelerate digital transformation throughout the continent. Equinix, Inc. the world’s digital infrastructure company, today announced it has completed its deal to acquire West African data center and connectivity solutions provider MainOne for an enterprise value of US$320M, marking the beginning of its expansion into the African continent.

SAP Fioneer Acquires Majority Stake in Okadis Consulting

SAP Fioneer, the leading global provider of financial services software solutions and platforms, has acquired a majority stake in okadis Consulting GmbH, the consulting company and SAP software house based near Frankfurt, Germany. The acquisition is built on an already successful and proven partnership and demonstrates SAP Fioneer’s commitment to innovation and developing state-of-the-art software solutions for financial services. Since 2003, Okadis has provided SAP consulting, application services, additional products and solutions to customers that run on SAP’s financial software.

Job Moves

Aliaswire Appoints New CFO

Aliaswire, a provider of bill payment and credit solutions for businesses and banks, announced the appointment of financial veteran Brian Bartlett as CFO. In his role, Bartlett will be responsible for financial operations, planning and reporting, human resource management, and helping to shape overall strategy and direction. Bartlett’s experience spans 20 years as an entrepreneurial-minded finance leader with exceptional operational, analytical and planning skills coupled with a roll-up-the-sleeves, can-do mentality.

5ire Appoints Dr. Richard Swart, Jamie Gold, and Ed Martin as Strategic Advisors

5ire, the 5th generation blockchain network, announced that social innovation expert Dr. Richard Swart, celebrity talent manager Jamie Gold and former Senior Advisor to the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Ed Martin, have joined its team as strategic advisors. Dr. Richard Swart is an expert on global challenges and the application of technology to create greater access to capital. His interests and expertise are a perfect fit with 5ire’s realization of the fifth industrial revolution and its commitment to personalization, human-centereddesign, and deep integration of the UN sustainable development goals in 5ire’s technology.

Trulioo Appoints Identity Industry Expert Dawn Crew as First Chief Marketing Officer

Trulioo, the leading global identity verification company, announced the appointment of Dawn Crew as its first Chief Marketing Officer. Crew brings more than 25 years of experience in defining and leading global marketing strategies for technology companies in the identity verification, authentication and human resources industries. Most recently Crew served as Senior Vice President, Industry & Solution Marketing at TransUnion, accountable for leading teams across the organization’s core B2B Solutions businesses.

Duco Expands Board of Directors with Three New Appointments

Duco, a leading cloud-based data automation company backed by private equity firm Nordic Capital announced that it has named Uwe Weiss, Linda Middleditch and Spencer Lake to the company’s board of directors. Uwe Weiss is a long-standing entrepreneur and software executive with a passion for disruptive technologies. He was CEO of Blue Yonder, an award-winning SaaS Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI) start-up acquired by JDA. In 2020 the combined companies rebranded to Blue Yonder and Uwe continued to serve as a member of their executive team.

Reassured Hires new Head of Digital Product from Klarna

Reassured, the UK’s largest life insurance broker, announces that it has appointed Simon Towndrow as its new Head of Digital Product in a move to continue the development of their digital platforms. Simon will work closely with the board to build upon the successes of the last two years, including the continued investment in Reassured’s infrastructure to enable effective digital services. This will include continuing to diversify services in order to be flexible to customer needs and provide the best possible experience.

Phos Appoints Chris Haincock as its new Chief Operating Officer to help Accelerate Growth

Phos, the fintech behind the leading software-only Point of Sale system, has appointed program management leader Chris Haincock as its new Chief Operating Officer. At Phos, Chris will be responsible for optimizing the customer journey, setting the product roadmap, as well as creating and expanding the company’s project and operations support function. With over two decades of experience in the payments industry, Chris is an experienced leader with a track record of success in the international banking market.

Taulia Appoints Chief Growth Officer

Taulia, a leading provider of working capital management solutions, has announced the promotion of Bob Glotfelty to Chief Growth Officer. Bob, who previously served as Taulia’s VP of Growth, will now be responsible for overseeing Taulia’s ambitious growth plans since being acquired by SAP. Following Taulia’s expansion in Asia last year. Bob will be in charge of growing Taulia’s full suite of services in China to help build its presence in the market and will work closely with Haiyan Zhuang, Head of China.

Stocard Joins Klarna and Gets “Smoooth” with All-new Brand Identity

Klarna, a leading global retail bank, payments, and shopping service that helps consumers save time and money, be informed, and be in control, revealed the new “Klarna-fied” brand identity of Stocard, one of the world’s leading mobile wallet providers that enable consumers to gather all of their loyalty cards virtually in one single place and receive personalized offers. The rebranding marks the next step of Stocard’s integration into the Klarna ecosystem following its successful acquisition by Klarna in July 2021 and opens up the doors for commercial and technological synergies between the two company’s offerings.

Antler Continues Growth in the Nordics with Appointment of Michael J. Wiatr as Partner and Twenty-Four New Investments

Antler, a global early-stage venture capital investor, announced the expansion of its presence to Denmark with the addition of Michael J. Wiatr as Partner and the promotion of Lavanya Indralingam to Associate Partner. The firm has also made twenty-four new investments in early-stage startups in the region. Antler is the most active early-stage investor in the Nordics and has made 102 investments to date. Of these companies, 39% have at least one female co-founder, of which 50% are CEOs, and the founders represent more than 76 nationalities.

Paynetics Appoints Andy Patton as its New Chief Commercial Officer to Accelerate the Business’ Growth

Paynetics, the regulated e-money services provider, has appointed the senior commercial and sales leader, Andy Patton as its new Chief Commercial Officer. At Paynetics, Andy will be responsible for developing and implementing breakthrough go-to-market strategies and accelerating growth. This comes at a time when Paynetics is leading the charge in helping businesses digitize their payments - offering embedded payments, card acquiring, and many other payment solutions.

Revolut Appoints APAC General Manager to Growth team

Revolut, the global financial super app with over 18 million customers, has appointed Charles Debonneuil as APAC General Manager as it continues to focus on growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Debonneuil will focus on building out Revolut’s local Growth teams and developing the business’ growth strategy, driving rapid new user acquisition in the APAC region. Prior to joining Revolut’s APAC team, Debonneuil was the President of Intrepid Group, a leading e-commerce solutions company for global brands, overseeing the growth of the company to over 300 employees across Asia.

Finastra Welcomes Lynne Biggar to Board of Directors

Finastra announced the appointment of Lynne Biggar, a proven financial services and marketing leader, to its Board of Directors, effective March 2022. Lynne brings decades of experience and deep financial services insight to the Board. Most recently, she was Executive Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer at Visa, where she led the organization’s global brand and marketing strategy, including all consumer, B2B, and B2B2C marketing activities that advanced Visa’s brand and business goals.

Deployment of the artificial intelligence (AI) platform will automate and streamline loan decisioning for the credit union

Leading global credit decision platform provider Scienaptic AI announced today that Partner Colorado Credit Union has chosen its AI powered credit underwriting platform to automate their loan decisioning process for sharper and faster loan decisions.

Partner Colorado Credit Union was established in 1931 and was initially known as Denver Postal Credit Union. For over 90 years, Partner Colorado has safeguarded the financial well-being of its members. The credit union has grown in strength and now serves over 34,000 members and is $567 million in assets. Scienaptic’s AI-powered credit underwriting platform will allow Partner Colorado to reduce risks and increase loan approvals, which is a win-win for the credit union and its members.

“Partner Colorado is built on the values of responsiveness and resourcefulness – we continuously look for new ways to help our members achieve their dreams and improve their financial well-being,” said Choua Ly, Senior VP of Lending for Partner Colorado. “Scienaptic’s AI-powered credit underwriting platform will automate our loan decisioning, making it faster and more efficient. We have been serving the financial needs of generations of Coloradans and AI-based underwriting will take our member experience to the next level.”

Correspondingly, Pankaj Jain, President of Scienaptic AI, stated, “It is incredibly satisfying to play a role in a member's journey towards realizing their dreams and through our partnership with Partner Colorado, we will be able to deliver on this mission by enabling advanced and faster loan decisioning. Our AI-powered credit underwriting platform can help increase credit access, elevate member experience, and reduce risk all at the same time.”

Brian Bartlett joins fast-growing fintech

Aliaswire, a provider of bill payment and credit solutions for businesses and banks, today announced the appointment of financial veteran Brian Bartlett as CFO. In his role, Bartlett will be responsible for financial operations, planning and reporting, human resource management, and helping to shape overall strategy and direction.

Bartlett’s experience spans 20 years as an entrepreneurial-minded finance leader with exceptional operational, analytical and planning skills coupled with a roll-up-the-sleeves, can-do mentality. He brings significant experience in start-up, early- and growth-stage companies across high tech, professional services and biotech. His background also includes raising capital, M&A and business development. 

Most recently, Bartlett was Chief Financial & Accounting Officer at AZTherapies, a clinical stage biotech focused on the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Previously, he was Partner at The DMF Group, providing across-the-board financial, strategic and operational consulting services to start-ups and early-stage companies. Prior finance roles include MembersFirst, a SaaS and professional services provider, GetConnected, a SaaS-based order processor for digital service providers and retailers, Houghton Mifflin, a leading educational publishing company, and edocs, one of the early innovators in the online self-service and payment space.

“Brian brings a great combination of financial operational abilities and strategic mindset on how we can best fuel the growth of our company,” said Jed Rice, CEO of Aliaswire. “He has demonstrated the ability to elevate the finance function from transactional and tactical to trusted strategic business partner. And he’ll be key in the next stage of our evolution as a company.”

“It’s a really exciting time to be joining Jed and the rest of the Aliaswire team,” said Bartlett. “The company’s recent performance has been exceptional, and I believe we are very well positioned in the market as payments become an increasingly strategic aspect of the relationship businesses have with their customers – both B2B and B2C.”