TotallyMoney, the credit app which helps everyone move their finances forward, has partnered with Cashplus, the leading SME-focused digital challenger to launch its new, market-leading cashback credit card.

The Cashplus card for entrepreneurs and independent traders offers limits of up to £5,000 and 56 day interest-free repayment periods, enabling greater financial flexibility
It comes with zero monthly or annual fees, and with 1% cashback customers can earn while they spend
Guaranteed limits and guaranteed rates mean applicants know exactly how much they’ll be able to borrow, and at what interest rate, before they apply
With 65% of new UK businesses being refused credit*, API-enabled eligibility checking will mean that customers will now know their chances of acceptance, removing guesswork and improving transparency
2021 saw the number of sole proprietorships decrease by 11% (382,000)**, with soaring inflation putting many more at risk of closure in 2022.

A more transparent product for those often left in the dark
TotallyMoney and Cashplus announce the launch of a new credit card to market, in a bid to help close the £6bn SME lending gap† where 65% of new businesses are refused credit. 

Enabled by an API integration between the two parties, the product features guaranteed rates, guaranteed limits, and eligibility checking. This means applicants will know exactly what they’re applying for and their chances of acceptance.

The UK’s 3.2m sole proprietorships‡ make up 56% of the total private sector business and are often deemed “too risky” by other mainstream lenders. The new Cashplus card offers limits of up to £5,000, with zero monthly or annual fees, and 1% cashback on purchases. Customers will also receive up to 56 days’ interest-free credit, as long as they pay in full each month.

This new, transparent, FCA regulated credit option comes at an important time with inflation hitting a 30-year high, following the covid crisis which is estimated to have cost SMEs £127 billion§. This coincided with 11% of the UK’s sole proprietorships closing in 2021.

Alastair Douglas, CEO of TotallyMoney comments:

“We’re very excited to launch the new Cashplus card, whose target customers are often overlooked and neglected by many mainstream lenders. Sole traders make up more than half of total private sector businesses, so it’s essential that they’re given the support they need.

“This is especially true now, with soaring inflation impacting everybody, from consumers, to small business owners, to big retailers. Nobody’s safe from increasing costs, and the pressure this can add to people's finances.

“Integrating the Cashplus card via an API has meant we can enable features such as guaranteed rates, and limits. Along with pre-approval, customers will know exactly what they’re applying for, and their chances of acceptance.

“At TotallyMoney we’re on a mission to help everyone move their finances forward. By partnering with Cashplus Bank to bring a new product to an often overlooked audience, we’re moving a step closer to our goal of enabling fintech for everybody.” 

Rich Wagner, CEO, Cashplus, commented: 

“Our 1% reward credit card is a powerful tool for the sole-traders that play such an important role in powering the UK economy yet are too often overlooked by high street lenders, particularly as they work to get their business up and running. This partnership with TotallyMoney will allow us to reach an even wider audience of entrepreneurs and independent traders and marks another step in our drive to close the UK’s £6bn SME lending gap.”

 juli, the AI-powered digital health platform empowering patients and their care teams to manage complex chronic conditions, announced it has secured $3.8 million in a seed funding round. Leading the round were Speedinvest, one of Europe’s most active early-stage venture capital firms, and Norrsken VC, a fund investing in start-ups solving the world's biggest problems while building massive businesses.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund Emerge Program  and Dieter Von Holtzbrinck Ventures also joined the financing round.

With a vision rooted in improving care for chronic conditions, the financing will enable juli to scale its commercial team across the U.S., conduct clinical trials of the app, and acquire additional artificial intelligence talent.

“juli is helping patients, providers and employers identify behavioral triggers that worsen or improve the most hard-to-treat and complex chronic conditions, including asthma, migraines, depression and bipolar disorder,” said Bettina Hein, CEO and co-founder of Boston-based juli. “With the support of Speedinvest, Norrsken and our other investors, we will be able to expand our reach to improve patient health and lower health care costs.”

Chronic and mental health conditions account for 90% of U.S. healthcare expenditures. juli harnesses AI to help patients (and their caregivers) gain control over their conditions by giving them powerful insight into the behavioral patterns that impact their health, like pinpointing triggers that make a complex, multifactorial condition worse, and identifying changes that can help avoid or alleviate a flare-up.

Since launching a year ago, approximately 15,000 patients have used the juli app to track data for chronic, debilitating conditions. The company has already earned high-profile awards including Best New Company of 2021 by MassTLC, has been selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as one of 15 digital health startups to join the 2022 PandemicX Accelerator cohort, and is one of only nine companies selected into SoftBank Vision Fund’s Emerge Program for 2021.

Hein, a serial software entrepreneur who has previously built successful technology companies, co-founded juli with Bettina Duehrkoop, a Swiss entrepreneur and Chief Marketing Officer of juli.

 “Chronic conditions are increasingly affecting a larger number of people, and putting huge pressure on healthcare systems,” said Tove Larrson, General Partner at Norrsken VC. “We urgently need better tools to manage these conditions, and available technology must be leveraged to ensure wider access to management tools. By gathering data from various sources, and monitoring patterns and triggers using its intelligent AI powered system, juli enables patients to live better lives, and helps to alleviate the pressure on healthcare systems. We look forward to working together with the juli team to tackle this massive challenge.”

"It is often experienced founders with a fresh perspective who manage to innovate where others just rely on the status quo,” said Michael Schuster, General Partner at Speedinvest. “The juli team brings so much experience from so many different fields to the table - especially their in-depth experience and expertise in working with data - that I am convinced they‘ll shake up digital healthcare for good!“

Meet with juli at VIVE

juli will participate in the VIVE conference in Miami Beach, March 6-9. ViVE merges the leadership of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the digital marketplace of HLTH to create a technology event focused on the business of healthcare systems.

Contact sales@juli.co to schedule a demo of the juli platform at booth #106-01 in the Startup Hive.

India is known to be the world’s largest recipient of remittances, receiving $87bn in 2021*

Sokin, the next generation payments provider, is set to disrupt India’s $87bn* remittances market by giving the 18 million** Indian migrants living outside their homeland access to 51% cheaper global money transfers***.

The news follows Sokin’s recent multi-year partnership announcement with Visa to bring its innovative digital account and debit card to Asia Pacific countries and territories.

Founded in 2019, the London-based fintech is equipped to support India’s vibrant migrant population in regions and countries such as Europe, US, Australia, UK and Canada by providing its consumers the ability to send money across borders cheaper, transparent, and convenient. The start-up has already enjoyed success in over 32 countries since the launch of its digital wallet in August 2021 with 120,000 registered users and 175,000 on its global waiting list.

Sokin gives those living and working outside of their native country looking to send money back home access to 51% cheaper global money transfers*** over a larger international reach than is currently available via alternative providers on the market. Using Sokin, consumers can send unlimited money transfers and access cost-effective currency exchange in 38 currencies to over 200 countries and territories for one fixed monthly fee.

Customers living in India can download the feature rich, holistic Sokin app designed to be an alternative to the traditional banking system. Features include the ability to receive Indian Rupees from beneficiaries living overseas, send money transfers to other Sokin customers in India for free, bill payments and recharges, debit card controls, payments assist, nominee back-up, linked trading accounts and access to various customer offers.

A launch which is personal and close to the heart of founder and CEO, Vroon Modgill, commented, “Sokin was born from humble roots, and I am excited to bring our ethos to my homeland. As a first-generation Indian immigrant, I watched first-hand as my father struggled with sending money back to India regularly. The whole experience was stressful, expensive, and time-consuming. Unfortunately, this was a process he repeated religiously for many years. I knew there was a better way for economic migrants, like my father, to transfer money to loved ones across the world. Sokin has committed itself to creating a streamlined and accessible payments process for all; introducing it to India is very special indeed.”

India is well-known for having a large native resident outflow**, with many choosing to emigrate for work, to study abroad and for family reasons. Sokin’s digital wallet is an alternative to traditional banking services; and one which is truly inclusive and accommodates India’s vibrant remittance market by removing the barriers which prevent people achieving their economic potential.

*The Hindu: India received $87 billion in 2021, World Bank

**The Times of India: At 18 million, India has largest diaspora in the World, UN

*** Comparison based on the average digital remittance cost when sending USD200 using the free Sokin Basic account to a Sokin Wallet user. Data sourced from the World Bank

The joint solution will provide fully integrated POS and digital ordering for 
hotels

Mews, the industry hospitality cloud, has today announced the acquisition of Bizzon, an innovator of POS software, to expand its fintech offering to hotels and their F&B teams. The Bizzon POS product family will become part of the Mews Payments product line.  
 
Founded in 2015, the Bizzon team developed an integrated suite of products that were designed to help hospitality businesses connect and modernize the guest experience through fully integrated POS and digital ordering.

Capabilities include:  

•        Point-of-sale (POS): a mobile-first POS that enables hotels to serve guests, take orders, and make payments from anywhere at the property 
•        Digital Ordering: a web-based product that enables guests to order and pay without any staff intervention
•        Inventory: enables restaurants to manage single or multi-warehouse inventories  
•        Payments: a module that supports both mobile and e-commerce payments in multiple currencies. Bizzon currently supports 500 hotel businesses across 15 countries in Europe and Asia-Pacific, including over 200 Accor properties with several hundred more planned for rollout in 2022.
 

“Mews revolutionized property management systems by putting the guest at the center of our product instead of rooms and inventory,” said Matthijs Welle, CEO of Mews. “As soon as we saw the Bizzon product, we knew that their team shared our vision and product principles. They’ve put the guest at the heart of their product and removed every friction point in the F&B and hotel journey.”

The fintech product line from Mews includes a fully integrated payment gateway in the Mews Hospitality Cloud. 

In 2021, Mews processed over one billion euros in card payments from over 2,000 properties around the world. 

“Mews is setting a new standard for hospitality”, said Saša Šarunić, Co-Founder of Bizzon. “They are laser-focused on simplifying and automating operations for hoteliers and guests and like us, the team has a bold vision to make this industry better. This is an incredibly exciting moment, and both our team and customers will be able to thrive with the resources and knowledge of Mews.”

Prior to the acquisition,  Bizzon  supported an integration with the Mews Hospitality Cloud. The company believes the acquisition will streamline the PMS and POS experience for hoteliers and their staff. Mews anticipates that with both technologies in their portfolio, customers will be able to make smarter decisions about their guests through consolidated reporting and centralized guest profiles. 

As part of the acquisition, the Bizzon team will join Mews. This represents the fifth acquisition made by Mews Ventures in the last two years. Previous acquisitions have included Planet Winner (2019), Base7Booking (2020), Hotel Perfect (2021) and Cenium (2022). 
 

• Leading fintech provider finova fully migrates its servicing solution to the cloud using cloud computing service, Microsoft Azure
• The enhanced product has built-in security controls, advanced self-serve features and leverages finova’s API gateway for rapid third-party integration
• The proposition is integrated to finova’s market-leading Apprivo2 core banking platform

 The UK’s largest mortgage and savings technology provider, finova, has fully migrated its servicing proposition to the cloud using Microsoft Azure enabling faster deployments.

finova’s servicing proposition helps financial institutions run an efficient back office by enabling effortless, full lifetime management of mortgages, equity release, specialist lending and savings products.

Now underpinned by Azure, the service has improved scalability and resilience. Not only does using the native capabilities of the cloud refine performance, but it contributes to a reduced cost of ownership for lenders too.

The new service includes more advanced security controls, a wide range of self-serve features and greater capacity for integration.

Advanced security controls

The new solution is fully equipped with built-in protection measures, including integration to Microsoft’s Security Operations Centre (SOC) and Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) platform to provide a fully managed security framework.

Alongside this, the servicing proposition delivers an open architecture via the finova API gateway allowing rapid integration with third party data sources for fraud monitoring, business intelligence and payment gateways, to reduce the user’s operational costs.

Self-serve

The enhanced proposition also has several self-service features, contributing to a better user experience, increased retention of customers and a reduced operational cost.

Customers also have access to the native mobile app for monitoring their current balance and reviewing bank statements.

Integration

finova’s servicing proposition is fully functional across all of its lending and saving products and is integrated to its Apprivo2 core banking platform.

In completing its migration to Azure, finova has created an advanced digital end-to-end banking platform which can be leveraged to deliver a set of post-contract variation journeys, meeting today’s market demands.

Chris Little, Commercial Director at finova, comments:

“The second generation of the finova servicing proposition will combine the latest cloud-first technology, enabling ease of scale and deployment. Sitting alongside finova’s cloud-based API Gateway and Apprivo2 originations platform, this will create one of the most powerful digital end to end banking platforms in the UK market.”

Rowan Clayton, Product Director at finova, comments:

“We are proud to be leading the way in next generation cloud-based core banking systems, providing a market leading solution with open architecture and integration capabilities to help banks run more seamless and cost-effective operations

“Paired with finova’s market leading Apprivo2 core banking platform, we have created one of the most advanced platforms available today.”

To support its new obligations under the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD II), WealthSeed, a breakthrough digital application for easy investing and personal finance in Poland launched by Fair Place Finance S.A., announced it will utilize a blockchain-based disclosure solution from global Fintech leader, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR).

WealthSeed will use Broadridge’s new Shareholder Disclosure Hub, an industry-wide digital solution that uses the latest API- and blockchain-based technologies, to address SRD II’s new shareholder disclosure requirements and provide class-leading data security for WealthSeed’s business in Poland and other European markets over time.

“SRD II has pushed forward corporate governance standards across Europe, while transforming market transparency through a secure and efficient disclosure process,” said Michał Antoniak, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, WealthSeed and Fair Place Finance. “With Broadridge as our trusted go-to partner, we have been able to leverage their unique depth of expertise and get ahead of the SRD II regulation’s mandatory disclosure requirements, safe in the knowledge that we are in line with Europe’s data protection legislation.”

“We are delighted to be supporting WealthSeed, enabling them to simplify and reduce the cost of compliance for their SRD II shareholder disclosure requirements, and mitigate the risk of compliance breaches associated with a failure to forward or respond to a request,” said Demi Derem, GM, International Investor Communication Solutions at Broadridge. “By taking advantage of our innovative platform, the firm will be able to handle complex disclosure requests quickly and efficiently.”

Broadridge’s Shareholder Disclosure Hub is another example of Broadridge’s commitment to enabling the democratization of investing, helping companies better connect with investors and improve corporate governance.

DSB aims to ensure industry readiness in light of market and regulatory developments 

The Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB), founded by the Association of National Numbering Agencies (ANNA) to facilitate the allocation and maintenance of International Securities Identification Numbers (ISINs), Classification of Financial Instrument codes (CFIs) and Financial Instrument Short Names (FISNs) for OTC derivatives, has today announced the timeline for the 2022 industry consultation related to the 2023 OTC ISIN and CFI service provision.

The annual industry consultation is critical in shaping the DSB’s operating model. In providing advance notice of the consultation, the DSB is seeking to provide market participants with sufficient time to aid planning and resource alignment where necessary. 

The DSB encourages all market participants that utilise or report OTC ISINs, CFI codes, and FISNs who will need to incorporate any service changes into their workflows, to review and respond to the consultation, so that a broad spectrum of views can be reflected in the service that is introduced in 2023.

The OTC ISIN consultation paper will be published on 29th April, and industry will be able to respond until 5pm UTC on 30th May. The final results of the consultation will be published on 30th June. The full timeline is available on the DSB’s website.

Emma Kalliomaki, Managing Director of ANNA and the DSB, said, “We are grateful to stakeholders for continued engagement and collaboration to shape the best OTC ISIN solution for the market. Given the varying demands on firms’ resources due to market and regulatory developments, it is essential to provide advance notice to enable firms to accommodate providing input.”

As with prior years, the purpose of the consultation is to ensure that the DSB focuses its attention on the areas users consider most helpful. The consultation approach, together with the DSB’s industry outreach and market education efforts, are aimed at ensuring the DSB can continue to best serve its users in a rapidly evolving landscape. The DSB also continues to work to find further efficiencies and alignment of market practices, through the work in the Product Committee and Technology Advisory Committee. 

For more information about how to get involved with the consultation process, please contact us via industry consultation@anna-dsb.com. 

All other questions can be directed to otc.data@anna-dsb.com.   

• ‘Kingswood Go’ will allow clients to access their investments and hold all of their financial information online and in one place securely

• Kingswood Go will allow Kingswood to launch their own fully branded client app that delivers compliance confidence and builds client loyalty

• Providing a single client view, the portal will be available via desktop and mobile app and is driven by technology from wealthtech firm, moneyinfo

• Kingswood Go highlights the firm’s tech roadmap redesign

Kingswood Holdings Limited, the international, fully integrated wealth and investment management group, today announces the launch of ‘Kingswood Go’, a new online portal for clients, in partnership with technology designed by moneyinfo, a leading wealthtech firm that specialises in client portals and mobile apps for the wealth management industry.

Available via desktop and mobile app, Kingswood Go will allow clients to:

• Access and track their investments, pensions and savings effortlessly, online and in one place.
• Hold all of their financial information from other providers safely and securely, such as insurance products, property, and bank accounts as well as other assets.
• Securely communicate with their adviser whenever, and wherever it suits them, with encrypted WhatsApp style messaging.
• Share and digitally sign important documents which will be automatically stored encrypted in the cloud, eliminating unnecessary paper copies and physical trips to the adviser’s office.
• Create an in-case-of-emergency folder where all important paperwork and insurances are kept in one place, for trouble-free access if the unexpected happens.

For Kingswood, this enables the firm to:

• Create a single client view for advisers.
• Enhance loyalty amongst its clients.
• Enable effective workflow management.
• Increase communication to clients by pushing ‘relevant content’ to their mobile devices.
• Streamline the core business processes.

Lucy Whitehead, Chief Client Officer at Kingswood, commented: “We’re delighted to launch Kingswood Go, a product generated from comprehensive feedback gathered from our clients, who are now busier than ever and eager to have easy access to their accounts online and benefit from highly tailored communications with their adviser. We are proud to have built this new offering made available both via desktop and mobile app in response to requests from both the older and younger generations.”

Harriet Griffin, Chief Operating Officer at Kingswood, commented: “Our reliance on technology has only deepened over the past couple of years and we expect this trend to continue. As such, we strive at Kingswood to deliver best in class technology to ensure our clients have everything they need at their fingertips as a single client view. We are very excited to officially launch Kingswood Go, which was built to perfectly respond to our clients’ demands and aspirations.”

Sim Sangha, Business Development Director at moneyinfo, commented: “Kingswood is a forward-thinking, fast growing and highly acquisitive wealth management firm with an appetite to move with the times. We are very happy to partner with them to deliver a tailored digital client experience via the Kingswood Go branded app which will ensure that as they grow and acquire new clients, they can continue to deliver the same great level of tailored client service that the firm is known for.”

Over the past few years, Kingswood has evolved into a growing international vertically integrated wealth and investment management group with £9.1 billion of Assets under Advice and Management and over 19,300 clients. So far this year, the firm has made four acquisitions in the UK, expanding in footprint across the UK with by acquiring Allotts Financial Services Limited, a high quality, long established financial advisory firm based in Rotherham; D.J. Cooke (Life & Pensions) Limited based in Conisbrough, South Yorkshire; Joseph R Lamb Independent Financial Advisers, an advisory business based in Essex, and Aim Independent Limited, an independent financial advice business serving clients throughout Hampshire. The firm also acquired Metnor, the holding company for IBOSS Asset Management Limited and Novus Financial Services Limited, late last year.

One in seven P2P investors use their smartphones primarily as financial instruments. At the same time, computers are preferable for investors when working with P2P sites. These are the results of the latest survey conducted by the investment platform Robocash.