CQG, a leading global provider of high-performance technology solutions for traders, brokers, commercial hedgers and exchanges, announced today the phased roll-out of its newest trading platform, CQG One. Designed for professional traders and institutional investors, the new cloud-based CQG One combines the ease of use of the firm’s retail-oriented CQG Desktop platform with many of the popular market data, charting, visualization and advanced analytics features of CQG Integrated Client, its flagship professional trading platform.

A multi-asset, multi-broker platform, CQG One will be available through traders’ futures commission merchants (FCMs) beginning in April, with new functionality added throughout the year.

CQG President Ryan Moroney said: “We’re excited to bring CQG One to market after gathering extensive input from our users on what features they most want in our new platform. This will be as intuitive and easy to deploy, configure and use as CQG Desktop but with advanced charting, market analytics and trading functionality, along with the CQG depth and breadth of market data utilized by our largest and most sophisticated institutional clients.”

Marcus Kwan, CQG Vice President, Product Strategy & Design, said: “CQG One is an ultra-fast, secure platform that traders will be able to access from anywhere to leverage technical analysis tools and execute transactions with a single click on markets all over the world. We will continuously update it through our HTML5 cloud infrastructure in a way that’s seamless to users.”

The new platform will include premium functionality such as:

• Single-click trade entry
• Advanced charting and analytics
• Portfolio sharing
• Window linking, and drag-and-drop tabs
• Highly secure, consolidated real-time and life-of-contract historical market data feeds from more than 75 global sources
• Access to CQG Algos, a comprehensive set of pre-built algorithmic order types
• New analytics features, custom formulas, price alerts and a spreader later in 2022

Institutional clients will be able to utilize a Windows-installed version of CQG One in the future.

 Bybit is pleased to be recognized as the Best Cryptocurrency Market Exchange at the Cryptocurrency World Expo 2022. Industry leaders and rising stars in the blockchain and cryptocurrency community gathered at the two-day event in Warsaw, Poland from 9 to 10 March, 2022.

The award is a new milestone in Bybit's compelling growth story from an emerging exchange for traders in 2018 to one of the most celebrated names for all crypto users around the world.

Bybit's Bill Xing joined fellow panelists at a round table on financial instruments in the blockchain space. As Head of Financial Products at Bybit, Bill leads efforts in researching and designing innovative instruments at one of the world's fastest growing exchanges.

Bill said he saw it as the duty of centralized exchanges like Bybit to lower barriers to entry for those ready to embrace cryptocurrency.

Since decentralized finance (DeFi) started gaining mainstream momentum in 2020, Bybit had been gearing up to capture a share of the growth, Bill explained. It is now home to the Bybit Earn, offering a hassle-free platform for eligible users to make the most of their cryptocurrency holdings at various risk and yield levels.

Individual users looking to participate in, say, liquidity farming, had to set up and maintain their own wallet. They also faced relatively high gas fees should they choose to use the Ethereum blockchain. Bill said as a centralized platform, Bybit has been focusing on these two aspects to optimize the DeFi user experience by breaking down barriers.

"At Bybit we simplify DeFi for the average user. They can put their assets on the platform, choose their risk appetite and let the platform do the work," he shared.

"The DeFi space is filled with noise," he added. At the Bybit Earn, Bybit scopes out qualified and promising projects to lessen the due diligence burden with in-house resources an individual user may not have.

"We try to lower barriers to entry on all aspects by providing more information and investor education. On the product side, we try to make it more user-friendly for all age groups and skill levels," he said, and centralized exchanges can help retail investors participate in the DeFi market by removing the technical hurdles.

"Fiat integration is another bump in the crypto onboarding journey that centralized exchanges are working on," Bill said.

For the vast majority of people starting to adopt cryptocurrency, a robust and secure on-ramp and off-ramp system is a key consideration. "This functionality has mostly been taken up by centralized exchanges," Bill said. For most actual users, the choice is not between "crypto or fiat" and they demand secure gateways in both directions," he said.

Bybit's booth at the Expo showcased its trading platform and greeted hundreds of cryptocurrency enthusiasts participating the Expo from across the world with refreshing beer. Over 1,400 visitors attended the conference in person in addition to virtual sessions to a global audience.

●      Estateguru Marketplace Limited opens its UK office in Manchester

●      Estateguru Group is an international property investing and financing platform, which has funded over €500m in loans to over 3,000 business plans and projects across Continental Europe

●      Estateguru operates in eight other markets across Europe including Finland, Spain, Portugal, Estonia and Germany

Today, Estateguru Marketplace Limited, the property investment and financing platform, announces its first office opening in Manchester. It plans to start facilitating loans once fully FCA approved.

Following final approval from the FCA, the technology firm will facilitate property-backed loans for SMEs and present investment opportunities for both retail and institutional investors looking to get a return on their capital through real estate and development projects.

Estateguru Group was founded in Tallinn, Estonia in 2013 and has funded over €500 million in loans to 3,000 development projects and business plans across Europe since then. It hit the €100 million lending mark in 2019 and has grown exponentially since, breaking half a billion in loans in January of this year.

Estateguru Marketplace Limited will begin its operations in Manchester, funding property and development projects across the North West region before expanding its services across the country, with a London office in the pipeline.

The Estateguru Marketplace Limited office opening closely follows the Estateguru new office opening in Berlin, Germany, and is evidence of its mission to become the largest real estate investment platform in Europe by 2025.

Ross Gandy, Managing Director of Estateguru Marketplace Ltd, comments:

“Estateguru Group has an outstanding track record across Europe and one I am confident we can replicate here in the UK. Our offering is two-fold - not only do we offer an accessible route into real estate for retail investors, and a reliable source of investment for large institutions, but our ability to provide competitive alternative finance options to SME borrowers is absolutely crucial in supporting innovative development projects that ultimately have a positive impact on the region and the local people.”

Marek Pärtel, Co-founder and Chairman of Estateguru Group, comments:

“Reaching the significant milestone of €500 million lent was the perfect way to start 2022, and set the tone for the year ahead. We have seen the demand for financing grow throughout Europe and especially from SME companies who are looking for professional, reliable financing partners with expertise in the sector. As such, Estateguru Marketplace Limited office opening in the UK market has came at a perfect time and is another huge step towards reaching Estateguru Group mission to becoming the largest real estate investment platform in Europe by 2025. We are excited to see the difference that Estateguru Marketplace Limited can make to the UK property and investment spaces.”

After growing 10x in 2021, Atlan plans to leverage this financing to accelerate product development and invest in go-to-market.

Atlan announced that it has closed its $50M Series B round led by Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Sequoia Capital India. Several founders in the data space participated in the round including Fivetran founder Taylor Brown and ThoughtSpot founder Ajeet Singh.

Atlan creates a unified discovery and collaboration experience, bringing context and trust to the entire modern data stack. “Today, data assets are not just tables, but code, models, BI dashboards, and pipelines,” said Prukalpa Sankar, Co-Founder of Atlan. “Metadata is the glue that can bind the modern data stack together, the layer that will allow increasingly diverse, siloed tools and people to collaborate effectively.”

“Data and analytics are mission-critical to navigating rapidly-changing circumstances — informing decisions, seeing opportunities and navigating change,” said Alex Kayyal, Managing Partner of Salesforce Ventures. “As businesses embrace a digital first environment, their need for informed, data-driven collaboration will only intensify. We believe Atlan’s deep integration ecosystem and unified product make them the leader in bringing the future of collaboration to data teams.” Salesforce Ventures has also invested in leading companies shaping the modern data and analytics platform including Airbyte, dbt labs, Monte Carlo, Snowflake, and Starburst Data. 

The latest investment comes just eight months after a $16M Series A led by Insight Partners and high profile angels like Bob Muglia, former CEO of Snowflake. It gives Atlan a post-money valuation of $450 million.

Atlan started out as an internal project at datafor good firm SocialCops and was incubated across over 200 data projects, including India’s National Data Platform used by the Prime Minister. Since emerging from stealth, it has reported impressive growth numbers, with both its customers and ARR growing 10x in 2021.

“Traditionally, tooling in the space has focused on collecting metadata but has failed in helping customers actually drive value from metadata,” said Varun Banka, Co-Founder of Atlan. “We are pioneering a new generation of metadata: going from passive, siloed data catalogs to active metadata platforms that can improve every tool in the data stack.”

Atlan is currently used by data teams at high growth companies and major enterprises like Plaid, WeWork, Postman, Delhivery, Unilever, and Scripps Health. “Atlan isn’t just a data catalog. It really is a home for our data people to collaborate, to discuss things, to work together,” said Larisa Gorokhova, Senior Director of Business Intelligence at CSE Insurance Group.

"Sequoia Capital India has been a part of Atlan’s journey since its early days, since it was part of Surge’s third cohort, and the team couldn’t be happier with the progress,” said Tejeshwi Sharma, Managing Director of Sequoia India. “Atlan has emerged as a global leader in its category. The strength of the product and execution is validated by strong customer traction in a short span of time. Every Atlan customer we spoke to attested to the pace of product development and relentless focus on customer delight.”

“In every interaction with the Atlan team, their commitment to excellence shines through and it is clear to us that they are building a world class company. We couldn’t be more excited to double down,” said Teddie Wardi, Managing Director at Insight Partners.

Today, Atlan is a distributed, global team of over 100 people spread across 12 countries, including the US, India, UK, Canada, Nigeria, Singapore, and the Philippines. It plans to use this funding to expand its current team across all functions and accelerate its go-to market strategy. It also plans to facilitate an

ESOP buyback of up to $1.5 million.

The payments provider is seeking to connect with charities and aid organisations seeking to deliver funds to those affected 

Paynetics and phyre have developed a mobile payment application for IOS and Android that allows charitable organisations to easily deliver funds to those displaced as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The delivery and management of the service is available for FREE. The new solution, designed to help deliver support to Ukrainian refugees, is available on the MyPaynetics app. 

The war in Ukraine has created an unprecedented crisis and caused the largest displacement of people since the Second World War. Over 2 million people have already had to relocate and the number is expected to climb to 5 million.

As aid organisations, charities, and governments raise significant funds to support those affected, they are finding it difficult to deliver the funds to those displaced by the fighting. Many Ukrainian refugees no longer have access to their bank accounts while the delivery of support via cash is impractical and there is a limited stock of plastic payments cards to address the issue through prepaid cards.

Paynetics and phyre are offering a mobile payment application for quick delivery and use of funds via ApplePay and GooglePay. While many refugees may not have all their critical documents with them, most people will have a mobile phone. Contactless acceptance is now available on the majority of mobile devices in Europe, making it a practical and easy-to-use means of receiving payment.s.

Paynetics has made it easy for charities to distribute funds securely via the application, in four easy steps.

1. The aid organisation identifies the refugees

2. The organisation then sends Paynetics a list of aid recipients – including their name, email, and phone number

3. The refugees are prompted to download the MyPaynetics app from the AppStore/PlayStore

4. The final step involves Paynetics issuing a virtual card for every refugee, onboarding every refugee, activating their account and transferring the funds as instructed by the aid organisation

Likvidi’s carbon credit distributed ledger platform will provide a new mechanism for companies to offset their carbon footprint

Helsinki, Wednesday 9th March 2022: Likvidi, a sustainable finance company, announces the launch of its carbon trading platform and carbon credits. The ‘Liquid Carbon Credit’ (LCO2) is a tokenized carbon credit designed to be traded at high liquidity on Likvidi’s own platform and on other blockchain-based exchanges and platforms. LCO2 is a real-world digital asset, with each credit equivalent to one tonne of carbon removed from the atmosphere. This gives the holder the ability to buy, trade, and offset carbon credits to achieve net-zero status.      

The COP26 environmental summit in 2021 and the Paris Climate Accords have raised awareness of climate issues and increased pressure on companies to reduce their carbon footprint, including use of voluntary carbon credits. The market is currently fragmented and cumbersome, while the carbon credits are illiquid and variable in quality. The LCO2 features include transparent origin, audit trail and instant trading, via the Likvidi platform.

Likvidi’s blockchain-based solution uses Verra-registered carbon credits from regenerative projects, including agriculture and forestry, opening up a new income stream for farmers and forest administrators. LCO2 can be used to offset a company’s carbon footprint by retiring the tokens. The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) was worth $1 billion in 2021 and is predicted to be valued at $100bn by 2050 -  a growth of 100 fold. [1]

Likvidi is partnering with DAO Maker for its launch, due to their strong track record of supporting blockchain-based startups and a shared vision for accelerated carbon markets. Likvidi has selected Avalanche’s decentralised, sustainable, blockchain that has an energy footprint of just 0.0028% that of the Ethereum network.

The Likvidi leadership team has a strong track record in the blockchain space. CEO Ransu Salovaara co-founded the blockchain advisory TokenMarket and launched Europe’s first exchange traded instrument, BitcoinETI. His Likvidi co-founder Tuomas Siltala was previously Director at Scandinavian investment bank Pareto Securities and co-founded an FSA regulated investment bank – Privanet Securities Oy.

Likvidi CEO and Co-Founder Ransu Salovaara commented: “The world is now waking up to the challenge of reducing carbon emissions. Governments alone won’t achieve this, so private companies must follow the examples of Microsoft and Google in going carbon neutral. Likvidi will enable companies to securely and transparently trade carbon credits, to offset carbon emissions and to incentivise them to sponsor the protection of our vital ecosystems.”

mmob, the UK’s first embedded finance network has today announced the successful completion of a £5m seed round. The investment was raised from a group of angel investors including high net worth individuals and senior banking executives. mmob will use the investment to advance the development of its technology platform, enter new markets including Malaysia, and further its leadership position within embedded finance. 

mmob empowers consumer-facing fintechs to supercharge their growth through the rapid integration and delivery of relevant products and services that meet their customers’ financial needs. Its close links to the banking sector has enabled it to execute and mobilise quickly. Since its inception, the company has built an impressive network of partners including PensionBee, iwoca, Cuckoo, Superscript, So-Sure, Anorak, and Uinsure.

“With growth expected to increase from around £32 billion in 2020 to over £100 billion by 2026, embedded finance is one of the most exciting growth areas in fintech today,” said James Gossip, investor and former Head of Strategy, and COO for HSBC in Malaysia. “The investment will enable mmob to further invest in its platform and team to help brands capitalise on the opportunity presented by embedded finance and become a prominent force in driving the sector’s growth,”

mmob was established in 2020 to deliver the onward journey of embedded finance, for both financial and non-financial brands.  The company is led by founder and CEO, Irfan Khan, a specialist in digital transformation and FinTech.

“Due to advances in technology and the wealth of data available, brands can responsibly respond to consumer demand and offer personalised options and attractive pricing for financial services,” said Irfan Khan, CEO, mmob. However, ease of integration between providers is key to fueling the sector’s growth. This funding will enable us to further expand our operations in the UK and Malaysia, and establish ourselves as the de facto leader and number one choice for embedded financial services moving forward.”   

mmob’s embedded finance network has been engineered to eliminate the complexity, time, and resources consumer-facing fintechs need to select and deploy partner-driven services. Through its API, brands can quickly and easily connect to mmob’s network of third-party partners (TPPs) and embed new services that drive customer engagement and retention.

 Integral (www.integral.com), a leading technology provider to the financial markets’ buy-side, announced today that its IntegralFX service is now available in Singapore’s SG1 data center. The cloud-based SaaS FX workflow platform provides banks, brokers and other market participants with a complete eFX sytem for their internal traders and external customers. 

Integral becomes the first complete cloud-based FX workflow SaaS platform in the SG1 data center, co-located with multiple market makers and takers. The benefits for local clients include the ability to deploy pricing engines, algos, connectivity and distribution tools immediately, as well as making prices, obtaining liquidity and hosting algorithms in a low latency configuration.

“We’re delighted to be able to offer IntegralFX locally in SG1 and extending the many benefits of our FX workflow technology to the growing buy-side in Singapore, the 3^rd largest FX center globally,” said Harpal Sandhu, CEO of Integral. “Due to the modular nature of our cloud-based SaaS technology, clients can take individual components or together as a full stack to meet their exact needs. Making IntegralFX available locally underpins our commitment to Singapore and wider Asian region.”

“Our strategic initiative to build Singapore to become the e-trading and price discovery centre for Asia is gaining momentum and we’re delighted that Integral is launching its SaaS service in Singapore,” said Lim Cheng Khai, Executive Director of Financial Markets Development Department at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). “The high concentration of regional buy-side players looking for better connectivity & e-trading solutions is growing and we’re very pleased to welcome a global technology player to help support the growth of financial services locally.”

"At KGI Securities, we focus on precious metals and Asian NDFs, so we’re very happy to support initiatives that make it easier for customers to trade these in a Singapore data center," said Ken Ong, CEO of KGI Securities. "Integral has proven to be an excellent partner for us and we’re happy to support them in this initiative".

Bottomline (NASDAQ:EPAY), a leading provider of financial technology that makes complex business payments simple, smart and secure, today announced that UK-based Hargreaves Lansdown plc, the UK’s number one investment platform for private investors, has selected Bottomline PTX to support its ‘cloud-first’ payments strategy.

Hargreaves Lansdown’s decision to move to a cloud-based business payments platform aligns with its digital transformation strategy. Its selection of PTX reflects Bottomline’s ability to provide a fully integrated, regulation-compliant platform complete with innovative functionality around new payments initiatives, such as Open Banking. Hargreaves Lansdown will use PTX to receive funds from its clients and distribute funds to them.

“As the UK’s number one investment platform for private investors, Bottomline’s payment system is an important part of our investment into our digital backbone, which gives us access to infinite scale by harnessing the power of the cloud,” comments David Espley, Chief Technology Officer, Hargreaves Lansdown.

“Creating delight means that Bottomline connects its customers with their customers smartly, simply and securely across the life of payments and cash,” said Paul Fannon, Managing Director of Global Business Solutions at Bottomline. “We deliver that by innovating our payments solutions to include functionality such as Open Banking, Confirmation of Payee (CoP) fraud prevention measures, Request to Pay, and Enhanced Data, making the exchange of money easy.”

David Espley concludes, “It was important for us to choose a safe, secure, and trusted payment provider, and following a full RFP, we took the decision to continue our relationship with Bottomline and migrate to their new PTX solution. The Bottomline solution also gives us the option to continue to develop our offering in future, as we see things like Open Banking develop.”