The international Forex broker OctaFX has recently added 25 new cryptocurrencies paired with the U.S. dollar, ready to be traded on its services from 14 March 2022.
A brief market recap

The whole cryptocurrency market is turbulent since there is no certainty on where bitcoin might go next. After recovering from its low of 34,750 U.S. dollars on 24 February, the world's first cryptocurrency is in sideways motion with an occasional uptrend with some market participants' slightly bullish sentiments. At this time of writing, bitcoin hovers slightly above 39,000 U.S. dollars.

Up until recently, OctaFX offered only five cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple), all paired exclusively with the U.S. dollar. From today, anyone can start trading any of the 30 cryptocurrency pairs.

Here is a list of just ten of the 25 new pairs that the global Forex broker has included:
● Solana (SOL)
● Cardano (ADA)
● Binance Coin (BTB)
● Matic (MATIC/POLYGON)
● Cosmos (ATOM)
● ZCash (ZEC)
● Decentraland (MANA)
● Polkadot (DOT)
● Chainlink (LINK)
● Avalanche (AVAX)

These new cryptocurrencies are among the highest in market capitalisation, making them a popular choice for any savvy trader who wants to avoid volatility and best utilise market opportunities.

All of these pairs come with a ratio of 1:25 maximum leverage. To check the complete list of all available cryptocurrencies, please visit the OctaFX official website.

Bell will be joined by Academy Award winning director Jimmy Chin as part of Accelerate’s star-studded speaker lineup.

Event runners for Accelerate: The Global Ecommerce Acceleration Summit today revealed two new headline speakers for the June 2022 summit: Kristen Bell and Jimmy Chin.

Award-winning actress, singer, and film producer Kristen Bell knows what it takes to accelerate a successful brand. In 2018, Bell co-founded natural baby products brand Hello Bello and has since scaled the company to $200 million in gross sales—all while continuing her prolific film and television career.

Joining Bell as part of Accelerate’s star-studded lineup is New York Times bestselling author, professional climber, and Academy Award winning film director Jimmy Chin. The National Geographic photographer has inspired the world with his ability to capture extraordinary imagery and stories while climbing and skiing in extremely high-risk environments and expeditions.

Presented by Pattern, Accelerate is bringing together leading minds from brands, accelerators, and marketplaces to arm leaders with practical takeaways that drive immediate impact in their ecommerce business.

The summit will take place June 15-16, 2022 in the illustrious Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, Utah and will feature prominent keynotes, in-depth breakout sessions, world-class entertainment, and singular networking opportunities. Speaker topics will include: 

·       Digital marketplace and D2C acceleration

·       International expansion

·       Online ecommerce acceleration platforms

·       Digital marketing

·       Customer and brand experience 

·       Fulfillment and logistics

Dom Norton, Sales Director, Spitfire Network Services Limited

There have been many technology challenges as a result of businesses adapting to the fallout from COVID - a universal change in how workforces all over the country (and around the world) went about their daily business shone a spotlight on some important technology issues - an explosion in video conferencing / communication usage, the need for employees to access resources from outside the traditional network perimeters, and a reliance on devices other than the office PC/laptop to get work done etc.

Amongst all of this technological disruption, people might have had just cause to sit and ponder broadband services. After all, lots of business (and personal) interaction has taken place over the likes of Zoom, there has been a move towards using more real time applications and with many of us wanting to access applications from home offices that would have ordinarily been local, any failure or deficiency in your broadband service would have been keenly felt - you’re no longer enjoying a business grade line from the office.

And the market for broadband services has never been busier, although not all are created equal. It can be very confusing for businesses when it comes to choosing the right service for their needs - you are confronted with a myriad of choices when it comes to the technology used, speed offered, infrastructure type or even which provider to supply it. In the face of all of this choice, how can a business determine which broadband service is the one for them? Or how do you choose the best option for your home office?

Clearly, we have different expectations between the quality we get from our home broadband service and that which we get from business use. To put it differently, the outcome from a dip in service at home is very slightly annoying, whereas the same drop in a business context can cause much bigger headaches. So, if you are watching a film at home via a streaming service and you get a couple of seconds of delay is no big deal but if you’re pitching a new client over Zoom for example, a poor-quality broadband service could impact very negatively on your efforts to win that business.

Should speed be your priority?

Those choosing broadband for the home tend to focus on speed. In reality though, a business needs guarantees on performance levels and not speed. This is because they use applications that are expected to work consistently or that need real time performance - high speeds don’t necessarily guarantee this. Try and gain an understanding of the underlying circuit performance provided which is indicative of the type of performance you actually need. Start by appraising the minimum speed your business actually needs and then look at the type of performance your business requires. Simple internet browsing or local use of applications doesn’t require high speed or performance. Things like video calling or using key business applications remotely means that you should instead be considering service level agreements (performance SLAs) as a priority.

Service level agreements (SLA) are key

Performance SLAs are massively important for your business. Application providers will often quote minimum performance levels required for their application to work, i.e., what bandwidth is required and associated levels for jitter, latency and packet loss. Your circuit must meet these performance levels, otherwise speed becomes irrelevant. The performance SLAs of a circuit indicate that you are getting the performance levels needed to provide a consistent, high quality user experience - vital for running your business smoothly. Remember, some services may boast very strong performance SLAs as they use different infrastructure to get back to the core network (FTTC Ethernet) whilst others have no performance SLAs which can’t deal with the kind of real time processing previously discussed (FTTC Broadband). You can only expose such differences by taking a close look at the performance SLAs on the circuit. Review them and make sure that they match your requirements.

And don’t forget support

Support can be divided into two aspects. Firstly, the support level on the actual circuit, or fix time and secondly, how easy it is to actually get support. For example, what happens if your connection goes down whilst discussing a proposal with a new client? What is the fix time if your connection goes down and what obligations does your provider have? Clearly, downtime under such a scenario has ramifications for your business - how will you work if the connection does go down and have you lined up a backup circuit? Is it easy to get hold of somebody at your service provider when there is a problem that needs addressing? You want a provider that can actually correct the issue instead of keeping you waiting on the phone endlessly. Will they remember you if you have to call back, are they logging things correctly? Find out where the support team is based and try to get a feel for their pick-up and resolution times. Test the support number and see how the experience rates against your needs.

It is clear that choosing broadband for your business is in a different league to choosing broadband for your home. The kind of everyday problems you encounter on your home broadband would be unacceptable for your business. There is much more risk to your business resulting from a problematic broadband service.

Think about the implications to your business if your broadband runs slowly or constantly lags. Look closely before you sign up to any deal - however attractive the marketing might be.

Industry’s searchable resource of impact investing fund managers sees record number of applicants and assets, reflecting innovation and exponential growth

Quona Capital, a venture firm focused on financial inclusion in emerging markets, today announced it has been selected for ImpactAssets’ prestigious “IA 50 Impact Fund” listing for the third consecutive year. The listing, made up of private debt and equity impact investing fund managers, represents a broad range of geographies and impact areas of focus. More information is available here.

Quona Capital invests in companies that are expanding access to financial services for underserved consumers and small businesses in Latin America, Africa/MENA, India and Southeast Asia. Quona’s Fund I (AFIF) was anchored by nonprofit financial inclusion pioneer Accion and was deployed in a strong portfolio of investments that included the exits of Coins.ph (acquired by Go-Jek), and the IPO of IndiaMart, a B2B e-commerce company in India. The firm closed Fund II (AQF) with $203 million in commitments from a variety of global asset managers and insurance companies, investment and commercial banks, as well as university endowments, foundations, family offices, and development finance institutions. In late 2021, the firm began investing out of Fund III.

This year marks the eleventh edition of the IA 50, which now includes the IA 50 Emerging Impact Managers list and IA 50 Emeritus Impact Managers list. Across all three categories—and despite a tumultuous year where the world continued to grapple with the global effects of the COVID pandemic—143 impact fund managers reported assets totaling $116.96 billion invested in a range of asset classes and impact themes. Fifteen managers selected in this year’s showcase reported assets exceeding $1 billion. An additional ten had assets under management between $500 million and $1 billion.

“We are delighted to be included once again in the IA 50,” said Quona co-founder and Managing Partner Monica Brand Engel. “As signatories of the IFC’s Operating Principles for Impact Management, and as early pioneers in the impact measurement and impact investing space, Quona blends purpose with progress, capital with community, and innovation with execution to help founders build a more financially inclusive world—one that also generates positive returns for our investors.”

“The caliber of this year’s IA 50 lists is a product of the rigorous application scoring and analysis process that the IA 50 Review Committee has fine-tuned through the years,” added Sandra Kartt, CFA, Managing Director,  Investments, ImpactAssets. “We’re thrilled to foster the continuing growth of these unique, innovative investing approaches addressing critical issues from climate to racial equity and gender equality.”

Quona, a venture capital firm founded in 2015 by Monica Brand Engel, Jonathan Whittle, and Ganesh Rengaswamy, was one of the first venture investors focused exclusively on emerging market fintech. Today the firm has team members in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa and the US, which enables it to support its portfolio with connections across emerging and developed markets, facilitating the cross-pollination of ideas, best practices and strategic relationships among potential partners, investors, and acquirers.

“Our collective backgrounds as founders and builders of financial technology businesses in Quona’s target markets, as well as our work in venture, private equity, investment banking and microfinance, bring unique expertise to bear for our portfolio companies, and unique insights for our investors,” said Engel. “Our inclusion in this year’s ImpactAssets 50 list is a great recognition of Quona’s leadership in impact.”

The Government Blockchain Association (GBA) is pleased to announce the nomination of Earle G. Hall to its Board of Directors. He will also serve on the Standards and Certification Workgroup.

Gerard Dache, GBA's Executive Director, said, "We are excited to welcome Earle to the Board of Directors. Earle has deep knowledge and insight into the blockchain world of today and tomorrow, and we are excited to benefit from his leadership and expertise. His relentless passion to make our world safer and more ethical makes him a perfect fit for vision and mission."

"GBA is the global leader in the education and promotion of government blockchain adoption, and its mission is very dear to my heart," stated Earle G. Hall. "The accomplishments of GBA in such a short time are simply extraordinary, as governments everywhere are now studying how to adopt of blockchain because of the GBA leadership's tireless hard work. I am grateful to be part of this movement to make our World a safer place."

Earle G. Hall is recognized as visionary and innovator in several fields of technology and neuroscience. He is the CEO of AXES.ai, a fintech present in more than 40 countries dedicated to the eradication of money laundering, addictive gambling and illicit activities through real-time blockchain-based data collection, artificial intelligence, and cashless technology. Earle is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada and a Veteran Army Officer. He holds a master's degree in Public Administration and has undertaken doctoral studies in Organizational Psychology.

The Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, has launched £15bn worth of housing, regeneration, commercial and infrastructure development opportunities to international investors at the MIPIM property conference in Cannes, South of France.

MIPIM is the world’s leading real estate event, bringing together over 20,000 property professionals from around the world, including over 4,000 investors, representing hundreds of billions of pounds in capital.

Speaking at an event at the UK Government Pavilion at MIPIM today (March 16), the Mayor unveiled more than 20 diverse development opportunities from across the region, all featured in the West Midlands Investment Prospectus 2022.

Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street launches the Investment Prospectus at MIPIM 

The opportunities include:

• Birmingham Curzon HS2: major investment opportunities around the new HS2 station include commercial, residential, leisure, energy, and education development.
• UK Central Solihull: significant opportunities around the HS2 Interchange Station at Arden Cross, across the UK Central Hub, and broader Solihull, with investment in commercial, residential, leisure and energy sectors
• Key regional growth corridors and hubs: developments guided by the Perry Barr 2040: Vision for Legacy masterplan; Phase 3 of the landmark Paradise Development in Birmingham City Centre; and a new opportunity area linking Coventry and Warwickshire.
• Urban centres and strategic sites: regeneration schemes including Nuneaton town centre redevelopment; the 125-hectare West Midlands Gigafactory site at Coventry Airport; the South Site of automotive innovation cluster MIRA Technology Park; and a significant residential and commercial development on the site of the former MG Rover car plant at Longbridge.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will use its presence at MIPIM to engage with international investors, putting the region on the global stage, and highlighting the best opportunities for investment across all property and regeneration sectors.

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and chair of the WMCA, said: “We are taking a bold approach to winning investment, anchored by our nationally-acclaimed devolved housing and regeneration programme and our dedicated capital investment strategy – the first of its kind in the UK.

"We have a clear and compelling proposition to put to investors on the world stage, underscored by a genuine demand for affordable local housing alongside inclusive, sustainable places helping our communities to thrive.

“With the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and HS2 on the horizon and the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda centre stage, we have a once in a generation opportunity to make this a game-changing moment for the West Midlands.

"I know that our stellar public-private delegation will make the most of MIPIM and ensure investors grasp the true scale of the development opportunities available right across our region.”

The WMCA is uniquely placed to bring together and support investors, developers, occupiers, landowners and other partners, who are passionate about placemaking, delivery and innovation.

It has secured close to £5bn of national Government investment for the region, and is showcasing levelling up in action, with a nationally leading brownfield regeneration programme, a £1.3bn five-year transport package to decarbonise and expand the region’s network and a comprehensive training programme to give people the skills needed to work in the industries of the future.

Throughout Covid, the region has continued to lay the foundations for inclusive growth through investing in transport corridors to drive development, while pioneering new approaches to affordable, modular and net zero homes. It is also working in partnership with ESG-focussed investors to maximise the best of public and private sector investment and capability.

The West Midlands – fast facts:

• Pre-Covid the West Midlands was the fastest growing economy outside of London, worth almost £120bn.
• The region is home to 950,000 working age people qualified to degree level+
• The region is investing heavily in transport corridors that drive development, with £363 million invested in 2021/22, and over £1bn in transport funding secured in 2021.
• Housing delivery in the region has doubled over the past decade, with the largest house price growth of any UK region in 2020/21.
• The WMCA has secured over £600 million in devolved housing land funds, unlocking hundreds of hectares of land and leading a revolution in brownfield development.
• The region has committed to a net zero target by 2041, and is delivering landmark innovations in transport mobility, zero carbon buildings, the environment and affordable housing.
• The region has committed to becoming a world leader in modern methods of construction, with 51% of new homes using advanced methods by 2031
• The West Midlands offers fantastic connectivity, with 90% of the UK population and 92% of UK businesses within four-hours’ drive. The arrival of HS2 will connect the region to Central London in less than 40 minutes.
• The region is home to the UK’s 5G testing hub, with leading 5G coverage.
• Birmingham has one of the highest proportions of green space of any UK city and the region’s natural environment is a major asset.
• The region is home to major cultural assets, including globally recognised assets such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), leading sports clubs and facilities, major heritage assets, arts venues, and events. Coventry is the UK City of Culture in 2021/2022 and the Commonwealth Games are being hosted in Birmingham this summer.

Prizeout’s integration brings benefits directly to the local communities of Q2’s banking partners.

Prizeout Corp. (Prizeout), an innovative ad-tech company that works within a wide variety of industries to turn withdrawals into a growth solution for eCommerce and retail businesses, has announced its integration with Q2’s Digital Banking Platform. Q2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: QTWO), is a leading provider of digital banking and lending solutions.

As part of Q2’s Partner Accelerator Program, Prizeout’s integration has been standardized so it can work seamlessly across all 450+ Q2 banks and credit unions, who now have the option to deploy this integration to their customers. Account holders who use Prizeout’s platform can convert their online funds into digital gift cards to their favorite brands, many of which offer added value on top of the gift card amount. Gift cards are delivered instantly and cost the customer no transaction fees.

According to recent studies, getting more value for their money is a customer’s leading factor of importance when dealing with financial institutions. The Prizeout platform allows customers to maximize purchasing power for everyday expenses such as groceries, food delivery, and more. On average, Prizeout offers 11% more value on every withdrawal.

A Prizeout integration will also be a boon to business accounts as well. While Prizeout has relationships with hundreds of national retailers, the Prizeout platform has the ability to onboard a bank or credit union’s local business clients, even if they don’t currently have a gift card program. By including them as part of the consideration set, Prizeout can drive revenue to local businesses and keep money within the community.

“We’re thrilled to be able to help each part of the banking ecosystem.” said Prizeout CEO David Metz. “Not only will an account holder be getting more for their hard-earned money, but they have the opportunity to cycle that back into local businesses within their community. Furthermore, the Q2 integration makes it simple for the banks and credit unions to introduce this program to customers and earn increased engagement and retention.”

Baton Systems (“Baton”), the global fintech digitally transforming post-trade processing using distributed ledger technology (DLT), has announced the appointment of Ronn Baker as Senior Director of North American Sales.

Ronn previously served at Wells Fargo, where he was most recently Director of Innovation & Digital Strategy, spearheading the implementation of DLT, cryptocurrencies and digital assets for the FX trading and Capital Markets division. Having been at Wells Fargo for nearly 15 years, Ronn brings vast experience, with his tenure at the company spanning FX technology, eCommerce sales and institutional sales for cross-border payment solutions and services.

Reporting to Baton’s Global Head of Sales, Alex Knight, Ronn will be US based and work closely with the firm’s bank clients and prospects in expanding the reach of the Baton CORE^TM suite of solutions that span FX, payments, liquidity and collateral. In his new role, Ronn joins an experienced team, which is advised by some of the industry’s most senior names including former Basel Committee Secretary General, William Coen, and J. Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Ronn’s appointment follows Baton’s December 2021 announcement that the firm’s DLT-based Core-FX^TM solution had powered the world’s first interbank riskless settlement outside of CLS. He joins as adoption of Baton’s technology, which is designed to address the most critical risk, capital and liquidity issues impacting post-trade today, continues to increase. Having orchestrated the settlement of more than 15 million transactions over the last 12 months, several of the world’s largest banks are now using Baton’s technology, which has facilitated the settlement of more than $3.5 trillion of cash and securities to date.

Arjun Jayaram, CEO and Founder of Baton Systems, said: “I am delighted to welcome Ronn to Baton. Ronn brings invaluable experience to our growing team and has witnessed the impact that our DLT technology can have everyday, enabling real-time, riskless settlements in a live production environment. I’m excited to work with Ronn and help further communicate how Baton is working not only to help address the post trade market structure challenges of today, but also to promote the broader evolution of the financial ecosystem.”

Commenting on his appointment, Ronn Baker said: “Baton is pioneering real transformation in post-trade market structure and I’m very excited to be part of this industry-defining journey. Baton’s use of DLT is addressing a real industry need and I believe the level of choice and control the Core suite of products offers will soon become the market standard. I’ve seen first-hand what’s possible and know that Baton’s transformative technology offers industry-wide benefits. Along with Arjun and the whole team, I believe that Baton is driving the future of the industry.”

Flutterwave will process payments for all events on Afritickets across the continent.

Event organisers on Afritickets will have access to eventgoers in over 34 countries.

Flutterwave, a leading technology company, has partnered with Afritickets – an end-to-end event ticketing platform – to create more revenue opportunities for event organisers in Africa and improve the ticketing experience for event goers.

The new collaboration will be significant for event organisers in Africa as the ability to accept payments from anyone anywhere will see them partake in the Global Events Industry Market, which was valued at USD 886.99 Billion in 2020, according to Verified Market Research. The festivals, concerts, and hospitality industries’ re-emergence since Covid-19 lockdown provides the perfect opportunity for Afritickets to reignite their event ticketing business. Afritickets, whose business goes beyond event ticketing, are looking to positively impact the event ticketing space with a platform that promises convenience, security, and the best exposure for event organisers.

Princess Ilomechine, Product Manager at Afritickets commented: “The Covid-19 pandemic saw a lot of event platforms take a big hit, leading to a massive decline in events and ticketing. We’re excited about our new collaboration with Flutterwave which enables event organisers on our platform receive payments from eventgoers anywhere in the world. Event organisers also get additional exposure from Flutterwave events web page when they register their events on Afritickets. We look forward to people experiencing the improved Afritickets event platform in a way they’ve never seen.”

Commenting on the announcement, Ife Orioke, Chief Commercial Officer of Flutterwave, said: “The events and hospitality industry across Africa employs and sustains many young people. Our mission is always to create endless possibilities for everyone, and this obviously includes event organisers and attendees. Our collaboration with Afritickets is one out of our many product-led efforts towards growing the sector. It’s our way of providing more markets and revenue opportunities to event organisers. We’re excited that high profile event organisers are already finding this partnership beneficial, and we look forward to more platforms taking advantage of the infrastructure we’ve built.”

Spring update to support tax, revenue recognition and regional compliance mandates to help customers expand globally

Fresh off its recent round of funding, Chargebee, the leading subscription management platform, today announced the industry’s first e-invoicing service for high-performing SaaS and subscription-model businesses as the centrepiece of its Spring 2022 Product Release. The release includes updates geared towards enabling growth and efficiency for Chargebee customers, including taxation and revenue recognition features, and a new Marketplace to automate billing workflows through a library of customisable integrations. 

E-Invoicing

Countries across the world, including Brazil, France, Finland, Germany and India, are already mandating e-invoicing for Business to Government (B2G) transactions as a way of modernising and simplifying tax reporting and payment, and several countries, including Poland and France, will join Italy, Mexico and Chile in mandating e-invoicing for B2B transactions as early as 2023. Chargebee’s e-invoicing service will allow businesses seeking to expand operations globally to easily comply with local e-invoicing mandates and serve B2G and B2B customers in new regions. 

“Chargebee has solved a huge problem for us,” said Gabriele Proni, co-founder and CTO of Voxloud, an Italian-based communications company. “Italy has some of the strictest e-invoicing mandates in the entire world, and without Chargebee’s e-invoicing service, we would have had to spend countless hours sending them out manually. Chargebee came in and helped automate the process, saving our team from spending unnecessary time and power, and allowed us to focus on doing what we do best.”

Marketplace 

Automation is key to ensuring that modern billing systems are able to remain flexible and adaptable for businesses to succeed, especially for SaaS and subscription-models, and is taking on a large role in Chargebee’s 2022 Spring Product Release. 

Chargebee’s Marketplace enables businesses to build their billing systems on top of Chargebee, allowing for more and better integrations by connecting merchants with a wide catalogue of available integrations to choose from. Marketplace improves integrations with other apps end-to-end, from discovery to sign-up, automating billing workflows and use cases.

Taxation and Revenue Recognition 

In addition to e-invoicing and Marketplace, Chargebee adds taxation and revenue recognition capabilities to handle real-time changes based on customer demands. Through automation, Chargebee is providing subscription businesses with a new way to sync billing information and improve an organisation’s financial efficiency and enabling them to meet the growing list of compliance requirements, including Value-Added Tax (“VAT” in Europe) and Tax Deduction at Source (“TDS” in India). 

Compliance

As Chargebee continues to support expansion into new and different geographies, customers need not worry about the growing list of regional and local compliances they will face. Chargebee is now certified as HIPAA compliant with the “Privacy Rule”, “Security Rule” and “Breach Notification” as per the HIPAA Portability and Accountability Act to support customers in the healthcare industry. In addition, Chargebee is also compliant with PCI and GDPR standards and adheres to ISO, SOC1, SOC2 and MFA standards.

Global Growth 

“Global and product expansion is a big part of Chargebee’s 2022-and-beyond roadmap, and we know that our customers are always looking to scale up, increase capabilities and enter new territories,” said John Pearce, Vice President of Product Management at Chargebee. “There are tons of constantly changing rules and regulations that could inhibit growth, and our new offerings are designed to help our customers offload these concerns and focus on building and maintaining business.”

The Chargebee Spring 2022 Product Release full list of features includes:

• E-invoicing for India and the European Union
• Tax Withholding (TDS)
• Subscriptions Marketplace
• New Salesforce Integration UX
• GST Breakdown (Australia)
• Revenue Recognition through acquisition of RevLock
• Retention through acquisition of Brightback
• Receivables through acquisition of numberz
• HIPAA Compliance
• SOC-2 Compliance

These latest product enhancements come on the heels of a $250 million funding round that valued the company at $3.5 billion and was geared towards Chargebee’s global expansion. Recent acquisitions of Brightback (customer retention), RevLock (revenue recognition) and numberz (receivables) will also strengthen Chargebee’s offerings to enable end-to-end management of subscriptions and revenue data.

To learn more about Chargebee’s Spring 2022 Product Release, please visit https://www.chargebee.com/blog/spring-release-2022.