• Opportunity: By 2030, demand for skilled workers will outstrip supply, resulting in a global talent shortage of more than 85.2 million people
• Impact:  $8.542 trillion in unrealized revenue by 2030 if left unchecked amongst Korn Ferry’s study of 20 nations. Multiplier is dedicated to rebalancing the demand and supply of global talent 

Multiplier, a global employment platform, that helps companies employ and pay talent anywhere in the world compliantly, has today announced a $60m Series B funding round. This round was co-led by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India with participation from DST Global Partners. The new investment brings Multiplier’s total funding to $77.2m, taking their valuation to $400m. 

This news comes in less than 3 months since Multiplier’s series A (led by Sequoia Capital India) and just 6 months after seed funding ( through Surge, the Sequoia Capital India start up programme) as the company scales globally. And testament to the growing popularity of the platform, Multiplier’s solution has been recognised and highly-rated in G2 and Capterra 

Founded in 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, the company has been solving the problem of global employment by allowing companies to tap into global talent pools effortlessly. “The talent shortage is real and the restrictions due to the pandemic accelerated it. Businesses are finding it hard to hire people with in-demand skills and have opened themselves to the possibility of distributed teams. Meanwhile, candidates have gotten picky about their employers, the actual work, compensation, benefits, flexibility and much more. With this paradigm shift afoot, companies have recently realized that going global is the only way forward. Country borders shouldn’t hinder the search for the right people for the right roles. We are resetting the mantra that hiring people from abroad is a costly, time-consuming, and organizationally daunting effort.” said  Sagar Khatri , CEO of Multiplier.

Multiplier eliminates the need for organizations to establish their own legal entities to access talent in any country. Businesses that use Multiplier can focus on employing anyone, anywhere in the world in minutes. The company works with customers from across the globe today, with its roots in the Asia Pacific region. Users can manage global payroll, provide benefits, insurance and tackle compliance with ease starting at $300 per employee per month and $40 per freelancer per month. In geographies where businesses have their own entities, Multiplier is helping companies manage payroll for their employees starting at $20 per employee per month. 

A key focus for Multiplier is the provision of health insurance coverage, a central provision in most standard benefits packages. However, the market is flooded with intermediaries, agents and brokers, so the cost and the value offered becomes extremely important. Multiplier is the only company in the space to provide locally competitive, customizable and homogenous insurance to its customers starting at as less as $20 per employee per month which comes with a detailed factsheet to compare plans.

“With this new capital, Multiplier will be able to further accelerate its work towards expanding the global infrastructure, garnering meaningful partnerships and adding new capabilities to our platform. Additionally, we are also on a hiring spree, looking for an all-star team across countries, departments and levels, helping us pivot at scale and deliver premium experiences to our customers.” added Sagar Khatri.

Multiplier is doubling down its approach in terms of adding fresh capabilities to its platform. Businesses can now self-register on the platform and instantly send their candidates offer contracts in minutes, not days. They can also offer employee stock ownership plans to their employees. The team is also working on rolling out the crypto-payroll features so businesses can pay their freelancers with cryptocurrencies. 

John Curtius, Partner, Tiger Global commented: 

“Multiplier is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the massive opportunity that lies ahead for them. We’re happy to be a long term partner as they are solving a deep pain point for businesses enabling them to employ and pay global talent effortlessly. We are particularly impressed with their product velocity and the speed of execution. We believe that the future of teams is global and Multiplier will the be operating system powering those teams.”

Rohit Agarwal, Principal, Sequoia India  commented: 

"Today, founders and businesses are not constrained by borders in their thinking. This has been one of the most fascinating trends in the last couple of years and it's a fundamental shift. Several founders across Asia are building for the world from day 1 and hiring from around the world from day 1. We believe globalization of the workforce is one of the most exciting trends of the next decade and are thrilled to see Multiplier facilitate that shift seamlessly for hundreds of companies and thousands of employees."

Multiplier has become the leading global employment solutions platform in a very short span, with customers across the globe from startups to listed enterprises. The founders believe that every company, regardless of location, deserves to have access to talented employees. The team is committed to democratizing global employment and its mission of bringing the world's potential to businesses of all sizes. Multiplier envisions a future in which every business is truly global. 

MHR poll findings suggest a shift in employee priorities amidst the current challenging financial environment

It has long been said that a strong, supportive company culture is the key to happiness in the workplace, however a poll of over 4,800 people employed within UK organisations of all sizes by MHR International, the HR, payroll and finance experts, has found that seven in ten would sacrifice the support of a good manager for a higher pay packet.

In fact, salary far outranks all experiential benefits on the list of employee priorities, including company culture, perks, and development opportunities, with 60% of the 4,800 people polled deeming pay to be their top motivating factor when looking for a new role. Accordingly, a similar majority (62%) of employees would choose receiving 10% extra salary over having a strong, positive company culture.

These findings come as Britons navigate an increasingly fraught financial landscape. With households on course to be £1,000 worse off this year due to soaring food and energy bills, securing a better salary is front of mind for many employees as they and their families tighten their belts. Wellness at work, while long synonymous with physical and mental health, is now becoming intertwined with financial wellbeing, leading to even greater value being placed on remuneration.

Mark Jenkins, CFO, MHR, said: “Salary has always been a key consideration, but these findings paint a clear picture. Businesses need to understand the drivers behind ever-more competitive salary offerings in order to tap into the evolving needs of their workforce as the cost of living surges. There is little point in employers simply offering a pay rise if the impact of the increase doesn’t go far in the real world. Instead, companies must provide a range of financial wellbeing benefits, such as flexible pay, to empower employees to take charge of their financial situation.”

Whilst these findings reflect a competitive job market that is driving salary increases across all sectors, HR leaders concerned about the impact of the Great Resignation in their own firms need-not despair: for almost two-thirds (63%) of employees, a 10% pay rise would not be enough to tempt them away from a job they loved. This suggests that competitors would have to offer a much more substantial salary increase to successfully attract the best talent, and that there is still value in offering employees a strong company culture and structured learning and development opportunities to complement earnings. 

- To support strategic data integration and consolidation programme

- Underpinning efficiency and productivity drive across the business

- Matrix IDM solution fully aligned to NGS ESG policy

Rimes today announces a new contract with NGS Super, one of Australia’s leading industry super funds for employees in non-government education and community organisations. This initiative is integral to NGS’s commitment to a carbon-neutral portfolio by 2030. NGS Super initially procured Matrix technology in 2021, which Rimes acquired in October 2021. As a result, NGS is now part of the growing Rimes client roster and has access to a broad range of specialist data solutions and sector expertise.

Ben Squires, Chief Investment Officer of NGS Super, had this to say: “Our Investments team manages vast amounts of complex structured and unstructured data sources, and volumes continue to rise. And, despite investments we had already made in technology, it was clear that we were too reliant on labour-intensive, time-consuming processes, and this needed to change. So, the impetus came from us to invest in an investment data management system. Our objectives were simple — to maintain our strong competitive position, drive productivity and efficiency, empower socially responsible and improved investment performance, deliver enhanced customer service capabilities, and achieve our ambitious ESG goals. To do this and power our ambitious business growth plans, we had to modernise and future-proof the entire data management function.”

Sadeer Jan, Senior Manager Business Intelligence for NGS Super, said: “Partnering with Matrix IDM and Rimes to deliver a centralised investment data solution is a critical component of a broader data maturity uplift the Fund is currently undergoing. It also ties in with our data vision — to create a data-informed business, where decision-makers have continuous, efficient access to reliable data and insights. Our requirements were precise. These included the creation of a single, consolidated and fully integrated data platform, customised real-time reporting, streamlined data modelling and the ability to have our data accessed via a variety of ways. Having looked at different options, we found Matrix’s cloud native investment data management offering, their proven track record, and their alignment to our ESG vendor policy was the perfect fit for our needs.”

Stuart Plane Head of Investment Intelligence at Rimes: “This is a multifaceted, complex project, but we are delighted to report we are on track to deliver the first phase of this ambitious programme successfully and due to go live in early 2022. The progress achieved thus far is a testament to the shared commitment and close working relationship between our two organisations. However, there is still much to be done, and we are looking forward to helping NGS reap the benefits of their partnership with Rimes over the coming months and years.

The industry leading payment orchestration platform and white label solution, IXOPAY, has partnered with Hawk AI, Germany’s leading provider of anti-money laundering (AML) surveillance technology for banks, payment companies and fintechs. This strategic partnership boosts IXOPAY’s offering by giving its white-label clients access to state-of-the-art fraud prevention that uses traditional rules in combination with artificial intelligence to detect suspicious behavior.

IXOPAY’s white label solution lets fintechs, acquirers, and other payment companies scale their services by adding payment orchestration to their offering. One connection gives access to market leading software that is fully customizable, has a twenty-four-hour service line offering both customer and technical support, and is connected to over 140 acquirers and 3rd party providers. Ensuring flexibility for individual business needs.

Its new partner, Hawk AI, drastically reduces false-positives – a challenge for financial institutions – and provides all-in-one list management that powers payment and customer screening efforts. The Customer Risk Rating solution gives users the ability to understand their customers in depth. Managing AML processes and ensuring that businesses are protected is complicated and can be confusing. Hawk AI aims to make it as transparent as possible. Every decision that is made is explained in natural language that provides the transparency to ensure all stakeholders understand and trust the performance of AI-powered AML.

Quote “The ability to scale quickly and effectively is essential in payment ecosystems, which is why IXOPAY is excited to partner with leading AML provider, Hawk AI. Together, we can offer users the connections, flexibility and protection needed in order to scale effectively”. Said Rene Siegl, Founder and Executive Chairman of IXOPAY.

“The payment sector is currently experiencing significant growth and innovation, a perfect time for our partnership with IXOPAY," said Tobias Schweiger, CEO and CO-Founder of Hawk AI. "AI-powered AML surveillance isn't just about ticking compliance checkboxes. It's a powerful way to remove growth roadblocks for young companies while solving the efficiency bottlenecks holding back established market leaders. We look forward to delivering this in a flexible and scalable manner together with IXOPAY.”

Together, IXOPAY and Hawk AI will allow fintechs, banks, and payment companies to increase their businesses offering and strengthen their AML capabilities.

Identity proofing experts to share expertise via global training programmes

IDnow, a leading European provider for identity proofing, has announced a partnership with the International Criminal Police Organisation – Interpol.

The 12 month collaboration will see IDnow experts deliver a series of training programmes to local law enforcement and immigration departments, starting in Abu Dhabi later this month.

Lovro Persen, Director Document Management & Fraud at IDnow, commented: “We are thrilled to be working with Interpol to share our knowledge and expertise on the subject of fraud prevention.

“Sophisticated fraud is becoming increasingly prolific, with recent statistics from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)[i] revealing that 47 percent of companies had suffered at least one form of fraud in the prior 24 months, at a cost of $42 billion.

“Our partnership will help ensure relevant officials and departments have access to IDnow’s team of experts, who will be sharing important knowledge in the global fight against fraud.”  

Headed up by Lovro Persen, who has more than 24 years’ experience in identity and fraud management at national and international levels across both the public and private sector, the partnership will provide Interpol with insights into the very latest trends and case studies in the world of fraud prevention.

Based in Munich and with offices around the world, including UAE, France and the UK, IDnow provides businesses with a unified set of methods to meet every identity verification and document signing need, along with identity management services to effectively orchestrate, customize and configure the proofing process.

The company recently announced a consolidation of a comprehensive set of identification verification methods and document signing services into a single platform.

Event ticketing platform pretix has chosen to partner with Nordigen to obtain transaction data for automatic processing of incoming payments.

pretix provides firms in the event industry with a one-stop solution for all their ticketing needs. Their features include an e-commerce platform, a point of sale application, access control systems, and a versatile self-service backend. As part of their platform’s e-commerce payment options, pretix allows its clients to connect directly to their own bank accounts in order to receive payments.

“From the very start, it has been important to us that our clients have many options to choose from when it comes to payment. Traditional bank transfers are not only still a very important payment option for larger B2B clients, they are also a cost-efficient alternative to online payment methods like credit cards,'' says Raphael Michel, CEO of rami.io, the software company behind pretix. “Up until now, however, using bank transfers involved a lot of effort for our clients, as they had to manually check their bank accounts for incoming payments. With Nordigen, we've finally been able to automate this process in a way that is both user-friendly as well as secure.”

The pretix x Nordigen collaboration enables pretix to connect to client bank accounts securely and quickly, allowing event organisers to keep track of transactions and payments.

“Open banking can be used successfully by any business that relies on payments or financial data, and we are excited to see diverse types of enterprises pick our solution to help facilitate payment reconciliation. pretix is a flexible system that can be used by any firm or organisation holding events and we are delighted to be helping them achieve convenience through  automation of their accounting procedures,” notes Rolands Mesters, co-founder and CEO of Nordigen.

Medius, a leading provider of source to pay solutions, today announced that global private equity firm Advent International has acquired a minority stake in the business. Following the deal, Marlin Equity Partners remains Medius’ majority shareholder. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in Stockholm in 2001, Medius is a global leader in AP automation, payments, sourcing and procurement with more than 500 employees serving thousands of customers across the globe. The company’s suite of products and services automate the process of receiving, handling, approving, and paying an invoice, and simplify the onboarding and managing of vendors.

The common goal is to accelerate the development of Medius’ core technology, including leveraging AI and ML to deepen its automation capabilities, and further the company’s vision of a touchless invoicing process. In addition, the intention is to strengthen Medius’ end-to-end, source-to-pay solution through strategic business investments and M&A activity in the coming months.

“We are thrilled to welcome Advent as a partner for Medius,” said Jan-Olivier Fillols, a Managing Director at Marlin Equity Partners. “The spend management market has an incredible amount of potential, and we believe Medius is uniquely positioned for continued success. Both Advent and Marlin share similar values, while having enormous technology know-how and far-reaching operational capabilities. The combination of our teams, as well as our global resources will drive significant value to Medius customers and further enhance Medius’ strategic value.”

Jim Lucier, CEO of Medius comments: “Medius has a big, bold vision for the future of the source to pay category, and has the market-leading technology, deep domain expertise and leadership team required to execute against it. We’re delighted to welcome Advent, with the category insights and intelligence its team brings, as an investor in Medius.”

As part of the deal, Douglas Hallstrom, Director at Advent will join the Medius board. Hallstrom comments: “Finance professionals are starting to recognize the savings and efficiencies that AP automation can deliver, as well as its ability to reduce costly mistakes and eliminate fraudulent payments. As a result, we anticipate strong growth in this segment of the fintech market. We were also impressed by Marlin’s partnership-oriented culture and success achieved to date and believe Medius is uniquely positioned to become the category defining global business for the mid-market.”

Date – March 31, 2022

Venue – Parklane Hotel, Limassol Cyprus

https://forexexpo.com/

The flagship event of this spring Forex Expo 2022 is supported by the best companies of the industry. MetaQuotes, the leading developer of trading platforms for brokerages, banks and exchanges has become a Grand Sponsor whilst NAGA, a social investment platform with over 950 tradable assets booked a Gold Sponsor spot. Interestingly, Forex Expo draws the leading forces to meet under one roof on March 31, 2022 in Limassol’s Parklane Hotel. Here, the larger part of the European B2B community of the FX industry will be joined by companies from other parts of the world to meet top experts, network, learn and grow. 

Forex Expo is a true hub for a purposeful matter - industry network and development where every member can both uplevel his own skills, improve his business flow and help the industry to make a new step towards the future. Networking spaces, expo zone, conference hall and workshop rooms create an opportunity for visitors to both learn and connect. 

Traditionally topics for keynote speeches and workshop presentations include regulatory details, new trends and developments, law, regulations and licensing, new trends in IT and software for brokers whilst the panel discussions will cover topic of Cyprus as a friendly environment for financial markets, question of the future of payments ecosystem, matter of crypto integration in the Forex and financial markets and even affiliates, IBs, HR and marketing in the FX industry.

The conference part will include speeches from two leading experts of MetaQuotes: Head of Global Business, Christoforos Theodoulou and Head of Operations, Tony Spyrou. They will discuss regulatory issues, new trends and developments, legislation and licensing, customer profit preservation, as well as promising areas in IT and broker software. Furthermore, Christoforos and Tony will talk about other developments, including the upcoming integration with Payment Service Providers and web services and a lot more.

Gold Sponsor NAGA has also prepared some exciting content as its Founder and CEO Benjamin Bilski has prepared a workshop presentation to share how NAGA has raised more than $100M in funding from star investors, transacted more than $250 billion in volume and saw a successful launch of its mobile payments and investing app and is also ready to join the conference chat about social media influence and how to finally take it over.

Seamless networking environment formed by the exhibition floor filled with booths from leading companies and dedicated networking spaces for meetings accessible by Business and VIP ticket holders is complemented by an infamous night party with unforgettable shows and an informal atmosphere of fun and success.

Not to mention that the Forex Expo organizing committee follows all the necessary preventive COVID measures to make the experience for attendees as safe as possible. Visitors are invited to safely attend the best workshops and panel discussions, network and discover the industry from a different perspective.

You can explore the opportunities to participate in this amazing upcoming event at https://forexexpo.com/ Tickets are already available on the website with an early bird discount until the end of February and include standard, business and VIP packages. 

About the organizer

Finexpo aims higher with its events creating phenomenal shows and substantial series all over the world including Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, South Africa, Egypt, Ukraine, Russia and Cyprus. Networking and learning are the key elements everywhere you go with Finexpo. Every event produced by Finexpo has its unique touch of perfection yet common sense for every person in the industry.

Broker dealers and wealth advisors can now intelligently target more clients and prospects through Vestorly’s artificial intelligence solution alongside Refinitiv Workspace for Wealth Advisors.

Refinitiv, an LSEG Business, today announced a new strategic agreement with Vestorly, an AI-driven content curation and marketing platform, to provide wealth management firms and advisors with personalized content and marketing tools designed to foster a more-impactful digital customer engagement experience.

Today’s wealth management industry continues to be transformed with new digital solutions that enable firms to provide best-in-class solutions that meet their customers’ needs. The agreement with Vestorly supports Refinitiv’s focus on enhancing the advisor experience and giving customers access to the analytical data and advanced marketing tools needed to help them build trusted relationships and strong businesses in this time of unparalleled change. 

Refinitiv’s customer base of leading financial institutions will benefit directly from having Vestorly’s capabilities available for use within their own products and services. Customers can now access and personalize Vestorly’s content streams alongside Refinitiv’s Workspace for Wealth Advisors using their own data on customer interests, hobbies, retirement plans, and financial holdings to fuel digital communications and build deeper customer relationships. 

Charles Smith, Global Head of Investor Services, Wealth Management, Refinitiv, said: “We’ve seen a significant uptick in requests for AI solutions that provide relevant, timely content for internal and external communications to maintain a feeling of connection and engagement. Our agreement with Vestorly will provide our clients with more-impactful digital content solutions as they look to build more personalized and impactful relationships in a virtual environment.”

Ralph Pahlmeyer, CEO of Vestorly, said: “Our agreement with Refinitiv speaks volumes about the importance of content and quality engagement in the financial services industry. We believe that our agreement with Refinitiv will improve the level of marketing and client engagement tools they can now offer. Our AI-driven technology surfaces and manages top content from across the web and represents a powerful addition to Refinitiv’s broad array of digital tools.”

Vestorly’s AI-driven technology, manages and distributes data-driven, relevant, and safe content that businesses use to personalize digital customer interactions and increase customer engagement and satisfaction. Vestorly’s Intelligence Center^Ⓡ dashboard organizes content libraries and manages key account features to provide users with granular control over what content and topics to prioritize at the organizational level. The AI-driven content management engine also tracks engagement and content preferences at the audience level to optimize content recommendations.

For more information about Refinitiv Wealth Management, visit: https://www.refinitiv.com/en/wealth-management-solutions.

Refinitiv has a rich history of servicing the Wealth Management industry from front to back office. Over the last year, the firm has invested heavily in the business and is committed to bringing the most advanced solutions to the market. Refinitiv offers market-leading content such as Reuters news, Lipper mutual fund data, I/B/E/S Estimates and a comprehensive ESG ratings database. Most recently, Refinitiv has been building out the firm’s solutions including Refinitiv Workspace for Wealth Advisors, and recently launched Refinitiv Active Investor, a scalable market data and trading platform for active traders.