Partnerships 

AllianceBlock and Peaq partner to power Web3’s Economy of Things through DeFi

Peaq, the decentralized Web3 network powering the Economy of Things (EoT), and AllianceBlock, an end-to-end decentralized finance solutions provider, have announced a partnership centering on their acceleration into Web3. The partnership will see peaq utilize AllianceBlock’s end-to-end decentralized infrastructure in order to enhance the capabilities of the network's economic mechanisms, accelerating the creation of the Web3 machine economy.

HI partners with Contis to launch Drypto debit card and fiat accounts

HI, the crypto exchange upstart and mobile banking platform, has announced a strategic agreement with Contis, a leading Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider in Europe. The partnership with Contis - who counts Visa and MasterCard amongst their network of partners - means that later this year, eligible hi members will be able to seamlessly spend their digital assets at over 60 million merchants, using a hi Debit Card.

Supporting hi’s mission to build the world’s most user-friendly and functional crypto and fiat platform, this partnership will not only enable hi’s 3 million-strong community to use cryptocurrencies to make payments using the hi Debit Card but also provide eligible members with their personal IBAN accounts for a seamless on/off-ramp.

Nordigen partners with SaaS platform Enty to launch an open banking solution on the management platform

Accounting app Binderr has tapped into Nordigen’s freemium open banking platform to gain account information for their client operations. Binderr is a Malta-based business finance and automated accounting platform, created with freelancers and SMEs in mind. Binderr opts for simplified processes and options that save time for their clients, such as quick invoice creation, expense reports updated with photographed receipts and clear real-time financial insights. The platform also boasts an innovative tax system, with automatic updates to VAT and income tax returns with every transaction.

Transunion teams up with Creditladder to include property rental payments in credit reports

Global information and insights company TransUnion, one of the UK’s leading credit reference agencies, has partnered with CreditLadder, the UK’s first and largest rent reporting platform, to incorporate UK tenants’ rental payments into their credit information. Rental payment history of those individuals using CreditLadder can now be recorded in their TransUnion credit report, giving finance providers a more holistic view of financial standing and creditworthiness. Anyone renting can sign up to the service by providing details of their bank account, rent amount and tenancy details, enabling CreditLadder to capture and track rental payments automatically, via Open Banking.

PXP Financial partners with the US leading esports betting service, Esports Entertainment Group

PXP Financial Inc, the expert in acquiring and payment services, announces a new partnership with Esports Entertainment Group, a full-stack esports and online gambling company fuelled by the growth of betting on competitive videogames and the ascendance of esports with new generations. Esports Entertainment Group is an integral part of the global esports betting market which is expected to exceed $205bn by 2027. It has recently been approved by the state of New Jersey to become the US’ first betting company for competitive video games.

Finastra partners with Datagear to help corporate banks in Egypt optimize core processes

Finastra announced its partnership with DataGear, a leading service provider for banking and financial services in Egypt, to enable corporate banks to rationalize core operations, automate compliance and reduce costs. DataGear will provide its customers with Finastra’s solutions, Fusion Corporate Channels, and Fusion Trade Innovation, to help banks strengthen their services and grow their business.  

Surecomp partners with Enigio for sustainable and cost-efficient end-to-end digitization of trade documents 

Surecomp announced that it is partnering with Enigio - the Stockholm-based provider of digital original documents. Enigio’s trace: the original solution will be embedded into Surecomp’s cloud-based solutions to provide financiers, corporate traders, insurers, and other trade participants with the ability to create and fully manage digital negotiable instruments, documents of title, and other trade documents, all with the assurance that their content has not been manipulated or altered.

Vyne and Gr4vy partner to enable instant open banking payments for online merchants 

Vyne, the specialist account-to-account payments platform, announces a new partnership with Gr4vy, a leading cloud-native payment orchestration platform (POP), that will give online merchants access to open banking payments infrastructure.

Gr4vy's cloud-native payment orchestration platform enables merchants to streamline and manage payment methods, services, and transactions all in one place. With eCommerce becoming the cornerstone of retail, this partnership will give Gr4vy’s merchant partners access to Vyne's full array of account-to-account payment processing solutions. Once referred, Vyne's simple integration process will allow merchants to offer payments in as little as three clicks, and enable instant settlement while bypassing high-cost middlemen.

Launches 

Circle launches new portal for businesses to seamlessly access growth in the digital asset economy

Circle Internet Financial, LLC, a global internet finance firm that provides internet-based payments and financial infrastructure to businesses of all sizes, and the sole issuer of USD Coin (USDC), announced the launch of the new Circle Account. Through the comprehensive portal, Circle Account allows business customers to deposit, withdraw, send, receive, store and allocate funds to invest in digital currency to implement their operations in the digital economy. 

The new Circle Account comes amid booming interest in digital assets. According to recent research from Gartner in December 2021, 20% of businesses will use “digital currencies for payments, stored value or collateral by 2024.” This increased interest is happening alongside rapid innovation in blockchain technology that promotes faster and cheaper transactions, and as high inflation is prompting some companies to turn to digital assets as a hedge.

Computop integrates new Amazon interface for express checkout

The new version of Amazon Pay is available for merchants in many European countries as well as the USA and Japan. By integrating this payment method, online shops not only receive access to validated address data from the Amazon data pool for new and existing contacts as always but also benefit from further optimized user guidance. This leads to an improved purchase completion rate compared to the classic Amazon Pay solution. Computop customers will also benefit from future functional enhancements as many steps in the payment process take place directly in Amazon Pay, so improvements can be incorporated without any maintenance effort for the merchants.

Klarna brings the Pay-Now-And-Rewards program to new markets to bolster customer loyalty

Sweden-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm Klarna launched its rewards program in nine countries, including the UK and Canada, per a press release. Klarna also brought its Pay Now feature to the same countries, plus Australia. More on this: Klarna’s rewards program, which it launched in Australia and the US in 2020, lets customers earn points when they make on-time payments. Points can be redeemed at brands in the Klarna app. The BNPL provider also introduced “Missions”—small tasks that users can complete to earn points and discover different features in the app.

Wirex introduces Polygon Blockchain to app & non-custodial Wirex wallet

Leading crypto payments company Wirex, announced the addition of the Polygon blockchain to their recently launched non-custodial wallet, as well as the industry leading Wirex app. Users will have access to the benefits of the Polygon blockchain, which joins the Wallet alongside the Ethereum, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain and Fantom blockchains, and the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains on the app. Available worldwide, Wirex launched their mass-market non-custodial wallet at the end of 2021, complementing the Wirex app and crypto-enabled card with over 4.5 million customers.

SWIFT vets bid to make cross-border payments as easy as texting

A group of Swift veterans has unveiled a global payment addressing service for banks and fintech that promises to make transferring money around the world as way as easy as sending a text message. Founded by three former Swift staffers, iPiD (International Payments Identity) has built a service - with partner Palo IT - that enables users to make cross-border payments anywhere in the world using only a simple proxy, such as a phone number, for the payee’s identity.

The addressing service uses the proxy to retrieve all the other data that is required, including an account number and bank name, without the payee needing to provide financial details they may not be familiar with.

PayHawk collaborates with NHS* Group to launch ‘scaling up’: a guide for global businesses expanding to Germany 

Payhawk, the growing platform that combines expense, payment, and invoice management in one solution, and NHS* group, a global tax and accounting firm headquartered in Duesseldorf, announced the launch of Scaling Up, a guide to opening an entity in Germany.

This follows Payhawk’s successful launch of Scaling into the UK, a corresponding guide for launching in the UK, written in partnership with law firm Mishcon de Reya. A key player in the European Union, Germany represents an attractive opportunity for companies looking to open or expand. Yet opening an entity is not easy -- there is a large amount of paperwork, and opening a business bank account is challenging and requires many official translations. As a result, it is vital to have a trusted partner who can manage location-specific tasks.

Virgin Money introduces Paylink solutions’ affordability platform across its lending products 

Virgin Money has enhanced the way customers who have fallen into arrears provide their income and expenditure (I&E) information as part of a new digital affordability platform, delivered by Paylink Solutions. The customized software brings Virgin Money’s operations together as part of a consistent affordability system for agents and customers to self-serve. Virgin Money staff will benefit from using Embark’s self-assist I&E configuration when in dialogue with customers, with prompts that highlight any customer over and underspending.

Bybit to launch USDC perpetual contracts 

Bybit, one of the world's fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges, will soon release its USDC perpetual contracts. The new product will allow users to trade using their USDC balance on Bybit's derivatives exchange.Bybit's new USDC perpetual contract will first open to whitelisted traders, allowing them to use USDC as collateral and place long or short contracts with up to 100x leverage and no expiration date.

Utimaco introduces Utimaco Deep Dark web system for critical insights in monitoring cyber attacks 

Utimaco, a leading global provider of IT security solutions, introduces the latest addition to its cyber security solution portfolio: Utimaco Deep Dark Web System. The solution is designed to support business analysts and investigators in law enforcement with sophisticated dark web monitoring tools and automation, required to prevent criminals profiting from stolen data.

Businesses, organizations, and individuals could all benefit from knowing whether information about them, their employees, or their customers, is available on darknet marketplaces. However, an estimated 96-99% of the internet is the ‘deep web’ – sites that are not indexed by any search engine, and which often need specific login credentials to access.

A new green fintech market emerges across Europe and the UK, building an open banking

Platformable launched their latest report, “Using Open Banking and Open Finance APIs to Build Green Fintech”. The report describes how Europe and the UK use open banking and open finance APIs to enable the growth of new sustainability-focused financial products and services. The report specifically focuses on key drivers including the current regulatory environment, partnership action, consumer demand, and how banking API products from open banking platforms are being used to build sustainability products.

Tradeplus24 launches into the UK with close of £30 million debt facility from PFG

Global SME lending fintech Tradeplus24 is launching into the UK with the close of a £30 million debt facility provided by San Francisco-headquartered global credit fund, Partners for Growth (PFG), with advice offered by debt advisory, Neu Capital. The funds will be used to rapidly scale Tradeplus24’s highly competitive revolving lines of credit for SMEs across the UK, after already experiencing great success with SMEs across Switzerland, The Netherlands, and Australia.

Merger & Acquisition

Chargebee acquires Numberz, launches Receivables to help subscription businesses get paid faster

Chargebee, the leading subscription management platform, announced it has acquired collections management platform Numberz and launched Chargebee Receivables. Subscription businesses will now be able to smartly automate their entire receivables process from purchase to payment, in addition to managing subscription products and invoices, leading to better data collections and insights for more confident decision-making. Chargebee Receivables helps finance leaders reimagine this critical workflow. Integrating with the existing ERP and accounting solutions, Chargebee Receivables will also provide finance leaders better visibility and control of their receivables and improve their own customer experience.

Trevipay announces the acquisition of BATON Financial Services, Inc.

TreviPay, a global financial technology company, announced its acquisition of BATON Financial Services, Inc. (“Baton”), a technology company that has built a unique, innovative B2B invoice payments network. To meet the trade credit needs of small businesses, Baton’s payments network has enabled the seamless delivery of structured financial services in partnership with financial institutions​. This successful acquisition is part of TreviPay’s ongoing, global expansion plan to make B2B payments faster and more flexible for its clients.

Job Moves

Macrobond appoints Klaus Holse as Chairperson to further support the growth journey

One of the leading providers of macroeconomic and financial time series solutions, Macrobond, has appointedKlaus Holse as new Chairperson to support further growth and expansion. Klaus has a background as CEO of SimCorp, Corporate VP at Microsoft, and Senior VP at Oracle. 

Klaus Holse is currently Chairperson of open banking firm Tink AB, cloud platform SuperOffice AS, vertical software company EG A/S and payroll firm Zenegy A/S. In addition, he is also Vice Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of Industriens Arbejdsgivere in Denmark and Dansk Industri. He has previously held the positions of CEO of SimCorp for eight years, Corporate VP at Microsoft for eleven years and he has also been Senior VP at Oracle. At Microsoft, he was President of Western Europe, leading the largest area outside of the US.

Currencycloud appoints Australian country manager

Currencycloud, the experts in simplifying business in a multi-currency world, announces the appointment of Nick Briscoe as Country Manager for Australia as our global expansion continues across the APAC region.Formerly the Australian MD of Finalto, the market leader in next-generation multi-channel trading software, systems, and liquidity services, Nick has held a variety of senior roles leading sales, operational, and technology teams for non-bank prime brokerage Invast Global.

In his role, Nick will initially guide the business through the regulatory process of obtaining a license in Australia, while also working with the wider APAC team to build out the infrastructure required to service new and existing customers in Australia and the region. Nick will then build the on-the-ground team through the second half of 2022.

Colt Technology Services appoints Catherine Leaver as Chief People Officer 

Colt Technology Services has appointed Catherine Leaver as its new Chief People Officer, with immediate effect. A seasoned telecoms industry HR executive, Leaver comes to Colt from Telefónica Group, where she has spent the last 16 years in senior HR leadership roles, latterly as HR Director and member of the Executive Team at Telefónica UK - O2. As she joins the Colt Executive Leadership Team, Catherine brings a wealth of experience in working across international workforces and in building strong teams, delivering change, and driving results, while making sure the wellbeing of the organization remains a top priority.

Iliad Solutions appoints COO

Iliad Solutions, a global leader in payments testing, has appointed Jill Pyper as Chief Operating Officer. She will be a member of the Executive Team and report directly to Chief Executive, Anthony Walton. Ms. Pyper will support Iliad’s CEO, Executives, and wider functions, strategically contributing to the achievement of commercial strategies through the development and implementation of effective operational solutions. She will work across the business ensuring processes and ongoing strategies meet the needs of an ever-growing client base and the evolving payments landscape.

Solarisbanks enhances the management team with the appointment of Chloe Mayenobe as a Chief Growth Officer

Solarisbank, Europe’s leading Banking-as-a-Service platform, announced the appointment of Chloé Mayenobe as its new Chief Growth Officer and General Representative. She will join the company on March 1. Mayenobe will strengthen the management team with her prestigious leadership background and deep experience in international growth and scale management. In the newly created position, she will be part of the Extended Management Board overseeing Solarisbank’s international expansion. Subject to BaFin approval, Mayenobe will join Solarisbank’s Management Board in the second half of this year.

1. Sweater closes $12 million in new funding to fuel the venture capital revolution 

Sweater, a fintech company building the first fully-managed venture capital fund that is open to everyday investors, closed a monumental $12 million series seed round of funding. The round was co-led by Motivate VC and Akuna Capital, with participation from Jeffrey Cruttenden (Co-founder of Acorns), Eli Broverman (Co-founder of Betterment), Litquidity, MRTNZ Ventures, Bison Venture Partners, Spacestation, First Chair Ventures, Zilliqa Capital, Monsen Ventures, Nick Perez, Jeb Bush Jr., Ryan Holtzman, Aaron Wolko, as well as YouTube creators Peter Hollens (2.6M subscribers), Andrei Jikh (1.9 M subscribers), Nate O'Brien (1.2M subscribers), and Jake Tran (924K subscribers), among other super angels.

2. Fintech NayaPay secures $13 million as it polls out digital payments revolution in Pakistan 

NayaPay, a Pakistan-based fintech platform, has raised $13 million in one of the largest seed rounds in South Asia. Bringing together a diverse mix of leading global institutional and angel investors, the round was led by Zayn Capital, global fund manager MSA Novo and early-stage VC Graph Ventures from Silicon Valley. Singapore-based Saison Capital, Waleed Saigol’s Maple Leaf Capital, and Warren Hogarth, CEO Empower Finance, also participated in the round, alongside a major investment from the sponsors of the Lakson Group – a Pakistani conglomerate with interests in media, telecom, industrials, financial services as well as controlling stake in Colgate-Palmolive Pakistan and McDonald’s Pakistan.

3. Niyo raises $100 million in series C round led by Accel and Lightrock

Niyo, the consumer neo-banking platform, has raised $100 million in its Series C round of funding. The company will be using the funds to accelerate its mission to transform banking in India and to provide convenient and hassle-free financial services to digital native customers. This Series C round of funding was led by Accel & Lightrock India with participation from Beams Fintech Fund. Existing investors Prime Venture Partners, JS Capital are also participating in this round along with others.

4. Skale-based 3air and K3 Telecom secure $10 million investment to expand in Ethiopia

Shortly after announcing its move to the SKALE network, a fully EVM-compatible multichain solution based on the Ethereum blockchain, 3air followed with news about the next step in its rollout in Africa. 3air and telecom partner K3 Telecom are going to expand operations to Ethiopia. An MOU was signed on February 17 which includes an investment of $10 Million USD to build out K3’s Telecom infrastructure in Ethiopia, starting with its capital Addis Ababa.

As the official partner of K3 Telecom, 3air is contributing to this expansion and is looking forward to the large potential this new market represents.

5. Weavr closes $40 million in Series A funding to accelerate expansion of Plug-and-Play Finance

Weavr, a London-headquartered technology provider that enables businesses with Plug-and-Play financial solutions, announced the close of a $40 million Series A funding round led by Tiger Global. The company is disrupting the current banking-as-a-service (BaaS) model -- which can serve only a limited audience because of its heavy costs, compliance, and technical burdens as well as long implementation times--by making embedded financial services available to any business with a digital presence. The financing will support Weavr’s international expansion plans, beginning with an official U.S. market launch and including continued growth in the UK and Europe.

6. Automata raises $50 million in Series B financing to accelerate automation in life sciences 

Automata – the automation company helping life sciences rapidly innovate, diagnose and discover at scale – announces it has raised US$50 million in Series B funding. The investment round was led by Octopus Ventures with participation from returning investors Hummingbird, Latitude Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures, Isomer Capital as well as strategic investors such as In-Q-Tel, amongst others. This investment will enable significant development, in the UK and beyond, of Automata Labs for scientists working across diagnostic, drug discovery, and biotech.

7. Blend Network secures from top business and finance figures in latest £10 million funding round 

Market-disruptive property lender Blend Network has secured £10 million in funding in its latest investment round. The funding round was capped at this level following an oversubscription. Blend’s backers in this funding round are led by emerging VC investor Nico Paraskevas, a former senior executive at Glencore, while existing investors, who also participated in this round, include Cyrus Ardalan, former Barclays Vice Chairman and current Chairman of both OakNorth Bank and CAF Financial Solutions Limited, and Jean-Philippe Blochet, co-founder of macro hedge fund Brevan Howard, which as of October 2021 has $20bn in assets under management.

8. Relief secures $15 million in Series A funding to help consumers combat the credit card debt crisis 

Relief, the personal finance startup committed to helping everyday people achieve financial freedom by eliminating credit card debt, announced it has raised $15 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to date to $17 million. The round was led by Nava Ventures and includes a range of strategic investors, including Ken Chenault, former CEO and Chairman of American Express; Vikram Pandit, former CEO of Citigroup and The Kraft Group. Other leading venture capital groups include Interplay, Animal Capital, Necessary Ventures, and Brand Foundry Ventures, among others.

9. B2B fintech unicorn Tipalti raises $270 million at a valuation of $8.3 billion

Tipalti, the leading global payables solution, announced it has raised $270 million in series F funding at a valuation of $8.3 billion, bringing the total funding raised to date to just over $550 million and placing Tipalti among the most valuable private fintech companies in the world. Tipalti will use the funding to accelerate its product roadmap and customer operations, as well as expand globally to transform global financial operations for high-velocity customers.

Led by G Squared, the Series F round also includes significant investments from new investors Marshall Wace and funds and accounts managed by Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), in addition to current investors Zeev Ventures, Durable Capital Partners, 01 Advisors and others.

10. OCR Labs secures $30 million in Series B round led by Equable Capital

OCR Labs has announced a $30 million Series B round led by New York-based Equable Capital to expand its team in North America and EMEA. OCR Labs is headquartered in London. Viewed as a technology leader in the digital identity verification space, OCR Labs solves major challenges including identity fraud and regulatory compliance, using its proprietary technology. The end-to-end solution supports Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations and improves customer identity verification while reducing fraud.

11. Cryptocurrency firm Amber gets funding from Singapore’s Temasek at $3 billion valuation

Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings was among investors in a funding round that valued cryptocurrency-trading platform Amber Group at US$3 billion, just weeks after the city-state cracked down on marketing by crypto firms. Existing shareholders, including Sequoia China, Pantera Capital, and Tiger Global Management, also took part in the US$200 million financings, Singapore-based Amber said in a statement on Tuesday.

12. Nigerian fintech Canza Finance raises $3.27 million seed round to empower underserved Sub-Saharan Africa SMEs

Canza Finance, an emerging markets neobank that is building the world’s largest non-institutional-based financial system, announced the completion of its $3.27M seed round. The fundraising round was led by Fenbushi Capital, with participation from Dominance Ventures, Bixin Ventures, Consensys, Protocol Labs, Emergo Ventures, MEXC Global, NGC Ventures, XanPool, Hashkey, the founders of Celo, and others. This funding enables Canza to continue headcount growth and expand its service offering in Nigeria and other growth regions including  South America and Asia.

A group of Swift veterans have unveiled a global payment addressing service for banks and fintechs that promises to make transferring money around the world as way as easy as sending a text message.

Fundraising led by Fenbushi Capital will help to expand Africa’s Web 3.0 and DeFi ecosystems

Canza Finance, an emerging markets neobank that is building the world’s largest non-institutional-based financial system, announced the completion of its $3.27M seed round. The fundraising round was led by Fenbushi Capital, with participation from Dominance Ventures, Bixin Ventures, Consensys, Protocol Labs, Emergo Ventures, MEXC Global, NGC Ventures, XanPool, Hashkey, the founders of Celo, and others. This funding enables Canza to continue headcount growth and expand its service offering in Nigeria and other growth regions including  South America and Asia. 

Oyedeji Oluwoye, CoFounder and CTO of Canza Finance, commented, “Today, we stand at a critical juncture in the journey to democratizing finance, with Nigeria emerging at the vanguard of crypto adoption globally. Against a backdrop of high inflation, financial instability, and barriers to access to traditional financial services, sub-Saharan Africa’s underdeveloped financial infrastructure has made the region a perfect vector for decentralized finance — according to a 2021 report by KPMG, more than 1 in 3 Nigerian adults are excluded from traditional finance. Our vision is to become leaders in decentralized finance and to spearhead this movement to offer financial freedom to millions of individuals. The tremendous interest and backing of our investors and strategic partners will enable us to grow the world-class Canza team, improve our security and most importantly take a definitive leadership position in our target markets.”

Established in 2020, Canza relies on a robust network of experienced local money market players to distribute financial and transaction-based services to users in Sub-Saharan African countries. Canza’s seamless crypto on/off-ramp services enable a wide range of DeFi services including staking, P2P, and cross-border settlements—aiming to contribute to the creation of an innovative and fully decentralized financial system. Canza is a member of Celo’s Alliance for Prosperity, an ecosystem of 140+ mission-aligned organizations including nonprofits, merchants, and payment processors fostering social impact using the Celo blockchain. Today, Canza has over 7,000 Celo wallets created via the USSD DApp with weekly transactions averaging over $200,000.

“The rate of cryptocurrency adoption in high-growth markets—in particular Africa—not only signals growing excitement for this new digital economy, but the advance of real-world use cases,” said Bo Shen, Managing Partner at Fenbushi Capital, “This traction, combined with Sub-Saharan Africa’s market, social and community conditions, uniquely positions it as an environment where a project like Canza will thrive.”

Prior to this funding round, Canza was financed by Flori Ventures in its pre-funding round, and through its participation in the Filecoin Launchpad Accelerator, Powered by Tachyon. This accelerator offers funding, advice, and support for startups that are building more open, interoperable, and programmable tools, infrastructure, and applications for the distributed web. This program was instrumental in Canza’s development from a hackathon project to a mature high-growth company. 

Colin Evran, Ecosystem Lead at Protocol Labs, commented, “Canza is a shining example of the power of the Filecoin Launchpad Accelerator to transform promising early-stage projects into high-growth businesses on the brink of making a huge impact in developing markets and Web3 ecosystem. Given the early traction of Canza, we are delighted to help expand access to Web3 technologies like decentralized identity tools and KYC options to the sub-Saharan Africa region. We’re excited to help the next cohort of African innovators turn their visions for Web 3.0 into reality.”

• Amber Group’s senior executives have relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong over the past few months, underscoring the city state’s emergence as a hub for the crypto industry

• Temasek’s funding comes even as Singapore is clamping down on the more speculative aspects of crypto while at the same time encouraging institutional participation

Singapore state investment firm Temasek Holdings was among investors in a funding round that valued cryptocurrency-trading platform Amber Group at US$3 billion, just weeks after the city-state cracked down on marketing by crypto firms.

Existing shareholders, including Sequoia China, Pantera Capital and Tiger Global Management, also took part in the US$200 million financing, Singapore-based Amber said in a statement on Tuesday.

The company, founded in 2018 by five former Morgan Stanley traders, has seen its valuation triple since mid-2021.

Singapore is one of Asia’s hottest markets for crypto start-ups, and Temasek and its subsidiaries have made several investments in the sector in the past year. Amber extended its Series B funding round, originally announced in June, specifically to bring Temasek in as an investor, said chief executive Michael Wu.

“They are very strategic, so we made this special effort to bring them in,” Wu said in an interview.

Amber will use the proceeds for hiring in Europe and the Americas and expanding coverage of a mobile application it launched last year globally, according to the statement.

Wu said Amber may pursue another funding round later this year ahead of an initial public offering that could take place as early as the second half of 2023, most likely in the United States.

The deal comes as Singapore is trying to clamp down on the more speculative aspects of crypto while at the same time encouraging institutional participation.

In January, the central bank told companies in the industry to sharply limit marketing geared toward the general public, citing the risk of volatile digital tokens.

Some 180 companies have applied for permits to operate a regulated cryptocurrency business in the wealthiest Southeast Asia country; as of January, just five had received in-principle approvals. Amber declined to comment on whether it has applied for a licence.

Senior executives including Wu have relocated to Singapore from Hong Kong over the past few months, underscoring the city state’s emergence as a hub for the crypto industry. In September, Amber said it hired former executives from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to help bolster its expansion.

OCR Labs a Leading Technology Provider of Digital Identity Verification Globally Secures $30 Million Series B

• The new funding comes from Equable Capital, a New York-based family office founded by Jonathan Smidt, a former partner at investment firm KKR
• OCR Labs’ proprietary technology provides fully automated identity verification through ID document validation combined with facial biometrics
• Over the past 12 months OCR Labs achieved a 500 percent increase in new clients and tripled the size of its team
• Customers come from a wide range of sectors including government, finance, insurance, wireless carriers and more, and include Cognito, recently acquired by Plaid, Zip, Virgin Money, and CoinMetro.

OCR Labs has announced a $30 million Series B round led by New York-based Equable Capital to expand its team in North America and EMEA. OCR Labs is headquartered in London.

Viewed as a technology leader in the digital identity verification space, OCR Labs solves major challenges including identity fraud and regulatory compliance, using its proprietary technology. The end-to-end solution supports Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations and improves customer identity verification while reducing fraud.

OCR Labs was originally founded in 2016 by Matthew Adams and Daniel Aiello and launched its first product in 2018. Adams and Aiello wanted to streamline customer onboarding whilst protecting organisations against the increasing risk of fraud and identity theft.

OCR Labs is the only provider with unique deep learning engines that allows it to control the entire identity verification flow without human intervention. The founders invested in developing this technology after identifying issues in the market that included the use of document templates and higher error rates with different skin tones from existing solutions.

Since announcing its Series A last year, OCR Labs has continued to scale into the UK and European markets. As part of its Series B, it is bolstering its international growth with a new office in North America, a direct sales force, and hiring a global Chief Revenue Officer. OCR Labs has raised $46M through its combined Series A and B. Previous investors include OYAK and Halkin Ventures.

John Myers, CEO of OCR Labs commented, “2021 was an incredible year for OCR Labs, with continued validation from customers who have chosen us as their provider for online digital identity verification. This investment provides us with the capital to continue our growth while bringing a value-added investor on to our board. Our vision remains unchanged: we strive to be the leading technology provider of digital identity verification, globally. The market opportunity continues to grow, and with our expansion in the US, and investment in our global sales effort, we’re in a phenomenal position to grow our customer base.“

A new study has found that revenue for digital identity vendors will exceed $53Bn globally by 2026, doubling from $26 billion in 20211. The past year has seen OCR Labs grow its customer base substantially, with a 500 percent increase in new clients and doubling its growth rate every year in the last three years.

OCR Labs supports clients across industries including financial services, government, telco, crypto and a variety of platform-based businesses, including SaaS providers. Customers include the Australian Government, Vodafone, ZIP and BMW.

Alain Meier, Co-Founder and CEO of Cognito said “OCR Labs has been one of Cognito's preferred partners for ID document verification. The company is extremely nimble, and their products help to verify users that other systems struggle with. We have loved working with OCR Labs and look forward to growing with them after their Series B.”

OCR Labs’ fully automated solution removes the need for human intervention, speeding up identity verification and improving accuracy while ensuring customers have a smooth and seamless identity verification experience. Its proprietary technology is an accredited, biometric solution that combines optical character recognition (OCR), document fraud assessment, liveness detection, video fraud assessment, and face matching.

Jonathan Smidt, Founder of Equable Capital said, “Our investment in OCR Labs was the culmination of a lot of work to find the leading provider of identity verification using identity documents and facial matching. OCR Labs’ solution has the highest accuracy and lowest error rates while protecting customer data and privacy and meeting the highest third-party testing and accreditations standards.”

Smidt continued, “Matt Adams and Daniel Aiello have developed the leading technology for online digital identity verification that has been validated through OCR Lab’s adoption by the leading financial institutions, governments and more, globally. We’re excited to support the team in their international growth, particularly as they increase their focus on the US. ”

Speaking on the investment and relationship with Equable Capital, John Myers, added, “We are extremely appreciative of our original investors Halkin Ventures and OYAK for their support and faith and we are already seeing the impact Equable Capital is having on OCR Labs by bringing Jonathan’s expertise operating in both the US and European markets as well as his deep set of relationships across a broad set of industries and potential customers. We are excited to have Equable as an investor and partner as we expand in North America.”

For more information go to https://ocrlabs.com/

Klarna’s rapidly growing global rewards programme will launch in the UK as part of an expansion to nine new markets, rewarding consumers for every payment they make on time and providing access to exclusive benefits in the Klarna App.

Klarna, a leading global retail bank, payments, and shopping service that helps consumers save time and money, be informed and in control, today announced it will launch its global rewards programme in the UK.

With Klarna’s new rewards programme, consumers earn points every time they use Klarna’s ‘Pay Now’ immediate payment option or make an on-time repayment when using Pay Later or Pay in 3. 

“With our rewards programme, we help consumers get more out of every pound they spend and reward responsible use of buy now pay later by putting the emphasis on repayment, not purchase,” said Alex Marsh, Head of Klarna UK. “This contrasts with traditional credit card providers which encourage irresponsible spending by rewarding consumers for making a purchase but then charge double-digit interest when they can’t afford to repay their bill at the end of the month.”

Since its launch in September 2020, Klarna’s global rewards programme has already gained over 4 million members in the US and Australia, with 1 million members joining in the last quarter alone.

How Klarna’s rewards programme works

The points can be redeemed in the Klarna App for rewards at world-class brands including Decathlon, Caffe Nero, River Island and many more. Members of the programme also benefit from exclusive deals and gain early access to product drops from hand-picked merchants. As part of the global expansion of the rewards programme, Klarna is also introducing “Missions”. Missions are small, engaging tasks that consumers can complete to earn reward points, aimed at encouraging consumers to discover different features in the Klarna App which help them save time and money, be informed and in  control of their finances.

Klarna’s rewards programme is available to UK consumers in the spring. The launch is part of a wider global expansion drive which sees Klarna’s rewards programme launched in nine markets across the globe, and Klarna’s Pay Now immediate payment option launched in nine markets. Pay Now was launched in the UK in October 2021.