SberDevices has presented SberBox Time, a smart media speaker, in the framework of Engineering Joy: Creating Smart Devices with Sber’s Virtual Assistants movie premier. Created with the latest product design trends in mind, the all-new device combines the functionality of three gadgets at once – a smart speaker, a set-top box, and a music alarm clock. As is the case with all Sber devices, SberBox Time has the Salute family of virtual assistants on board.

A speaker with a mechanical clock and virtual assistants

SberBox Time’s front panel is a hip mechanical clock with an LED mode indicator. Depending on the smart assistant you have chosen – Sber, Athena, or Joy – the indicator light will be soft green, blue or orange.

Like the rest of Sber smart devices, SberBox Time has voice control. The Salute virtual assistants will be happy to do what you tell them to: put on the music that clicks your mood, your favorite radio station or a podcast, an exciting lecture for adults, a bedtime story for children or just chat with you. For those who love to have detailed conversations with artificial intelligence, there is a new special mode that can be activated by saying, “Salute, let’s chat.”

SberBox Time is especially convenient when using voice to control smart home devices by Sber and partners*, get a weather forecast, stay on top of news, set a timer, a reminder or an alarm clock. For pleasant and comfortable morning wake-ups, the user can select any of the 65 million songs in the SberSound library for an alarm clock sound. You can also add any devices paired with the Sber smart home platform to your alarm clock scenario: for example, adjust the color and brightness of a bedside lamp or turn the coffee maker on once you wake up.

Powerful sound and voice recognition even from the next room

While being compact, SberBox Time delivers high quality and powerful sound thanks to two wideband speakers and a passive radiator to ensure the right balance of low, mid, and high frequencies. SberBox Time is a smart speaker, but it can also be used as a conventional Bluetooth speaker, stream sound to headphones or a standalone audio system.

Thanks to its five-microphone matrix, SberBox Time recognizes voice commands perfectly – unless there is loud music, the device will hear them even from the next room. If you seek some privacy, the microphones can be turned off physically through the ‘mute’ button.

A speaker that is also TV compatible 

Unique in its category, SberBox Time is more than a smart speaker. It can be used as a full-fledged TV media center when plugged to a TV using HDMI. Whether or not your SberBox Time is connected to your TV, the Salute assistants are always out there. A TV connection unlocks multimodal control – with voice, a physical or a virtual remote in the Salute application or a gamepad.

SberBox Time’s media center mode opens access to a wide collection of video, audio, and gaming content through the favorite interface of hundreds of thousands of SberBox set-top box’s Russian users. On top of the functionality of the no-screen-mode, users can watch TV channels, online videos, feature films, cartoons and series with Okko and other online cinemas. Moreover, you can look up anything in the browser. SberBox Time supports modern 4K UHD and HDR video output. Throw karaoke parties, shop online with the Layer function, order groceries or pizza for watching a movie from Delivery Club right on the big screen. The ever-growing collection of the app catalog will offer hundreds of gaming, entertainment, kids and educational smart apps. There is also parental control blocking adult content and payments.

Playing best PC titles from famous studios on a big screen without buying expensive consoles is easy with SberPlay’s cloud gaming. Modern, graphically-demanding games are run on remote servers, and SberPlay streams them in HD quality to your SberBox. If your Wi-Fi is slow, you can use an Ethernet cable to improve your gaming experience.

Colors, accessories, and availability

Thanks to its smooth lines and laconic design, the device will fit into almost any interior. At the start, SberBox Time will be available in black and white, but moving forward, the choice of colors will get bigger.

To personalize and create a unique look, the SberDevices team has developed a set of accessories that will especially appeal to children and DIY enthusiasts. Reindeer antlers and cat ears, a princess crown, airplane wings, shark fins and even flames – a total of 16 3D models are available for download on the company’s official website. You can use ready-made models or change them to your liking and then print them on a 3D printer. You do not have a 3D printer or feel reluctant to go to a printing studio? Accessories can be easily cut out from cardboard or thick paper.

The SberBox Time smart speaker will sell for RUB 7,990. To be the first to learn about the available devices, leave an application at sberdevices.ru/sberboxtime/ or on svyaznoy.ru.

Konstantin Kruglov, CEO of SberDevices, senior vice president for new digital surfaces, Sberbank:

“The Sber product line has added a smart media speaker, a product that our users have been asking for a long time. However, we saw it as crucial to create a device that would not limit the owner to audio content only. Therefore, while developing SberBox Time, we considered three variables at once – quality sound, rich multimedia capabilities, and stylish design. Unique in its class, SberBox Time is a 3-in-1 device that combines the functions of a speaker, a set-top box, and a mechanical clock that will decorate any interior and add ‘analog’ coziness to our digital world.”

*The Sber smart home platform’s list of partners as of December 6, 2021: Aqara, EKF Connect, ELARI SmartHome, HIPER IoT, iRidi, MimiSmart, Philips Hue, Roximo IoT, Vixion Home.

 Klarna, the leading global retail bank, payments and shopping service, has today announced a partnership with luxury retailer Harrods, offering customers more flexible and convenient payment options throughout Harrods Knightsbridge, H beauty and Harrods.com. 

Harrods UK in-store shoppers will, from today, be able to use Klarna’s popular Pay in 3 payment options for beauty purchases in Harrods iconic Beauty Hall, as well as across H beauty stores in Essex (Lakeside) and Milton Keynes (centre:mk). Further Harrods departments are set to roll out Klarna’s payment options in the coming months. Customers shopping the store via Harrods.com in the UK will also be able to benefit from splitting their payments via Pay in 3, whilst US customers can use Pay in 4 when purchasing goods online. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, online customers will be able to use Klarna’s Pay later feature when shopping. Klarna is available to eligible customers ages 18+, limits for how much a customer can spend are in place, and Klarna does not offer an open line of credit.

Luke Griffiths, Chief Commercial Officer at Klarna, commented: “Harrods is one of the most recognisable brands across the globe with a footprint and heritage that is unrivalled within the luxury retail space. We are excited to bring our payment products to Harrods customers across Europe and the US, offering them the option to buy goods how and when they want.”

Alex Unitt, Partnerships Director at Harrods, said: “Harrods is known for providing a first class shopping experience, and this latest partnership with Klarna enables us to give our Harrods customers maximum flexibility and convenient payment options. We’re excited to bring Klarna to our iconic beauty halls in Knightsbridge, as well as H beauty, our beauty emporiums in Essex and Milton Keynes, and across Harrods.com. Klarna’s market-leading payments products will enable us to continue supporting existing customers' payment needs, as well as enabling a greater breadth of customers to access Harrods’ unrivalled selection of international brands and products.”

StrikeX, the London-based blockchain technology company, has hired Rob Clark as Interim Chief Technology Officer. Rob will work on the entire range of StrikeX products, including delivery of its flagship product, TradeStrike, scheduled for 2022.

Rob brings 25 years of experience in the global IT market to the StrikeX team. He began his career as an engineer at ServiceTec, helping to support and deploy mission critical mainframe, Unix and Wintel platforms for various enterprise, defence, and public sector organisations.

In 2003 Rob moved to BT as a technical consultant, working in a variety of roles and industries, including within transition and crisis management teams, as well as technical solution design and deployment for a number of financial institutions in the City of London.

In 2008, Rob joined specialist network distributor Zycko as Technical Director, helping the business to achieve significant growth, which resulted in a takeover by Nuvias group. At Nuvias, Rob was instrumental in enabling the group’s expansion by running its technology and solutions portfolio, as well as its strategic and alliance business. As Director of Technologies & Solutions Development, Rob led the group’s networks, infrastructure and cyber security capabilities, as well as owning the DevOps practice. He was responsible for designing and delivering solutions to SP, SI and enterprise partners, including several mission critical infrastructure and software deployments into the financial and trading sectors. Departing Nuvius in 2021, Rob left the group in a significantly improved financial and operational position.

Rob’s focus at StrikeX is the delivery of its products, including the decentralised exchange TradeStrike Lite, as well as the StrikeX Wallet, and the TradeStrike exchange. With Rob’s extensive experience of delivering robust and innovative infrastructure and security platforms, he is responsible for security and compliance throughout StrikeX’s infrastructure, and delivering the launch of TradeStrike in late 2022.

Rob Clark, Chief Technological Officer, StrikeX said: “Innovation in blockchain technology is revolutionising trading as we know it. This development is immensely exciting, and I am delighted to be able to play a part by working on the next generation of financial infrastructure. StrikeX have some fantastic products and an ambitious plan to deliver a new way of tokenised asset trading which is accessible for everyone. Having worked for a number of trading organisations, I am excited to work at the cutting edge of technology and contributing my experience to the construction and delivery of a whole new platform which has the potential to completely transform the market.”

Joe Jowett, CEO and co-founder of StrikeX said: “We are delighted to have someone with Rob’s experience join the team while we tackle the practical delivery of our roadmap. His hands-on support on the launch of our StrikeX Wallet and the TradeStrike platform, as well as implementing important updates to our decentralised exchange TradeStrike Lite will be invaluable for the stability and efficiency of our products. Furthermore, Rob’s experience in working for a number of financial organisations and implementing functional business strategies will bring a valuable perspective on how StrikeX can develop as a business in the long term. With Rob’s support and know-how, we are well-placed to successfully reinvigorate the trading market.”  

  The investment aimed at expanding the manufacturing capacity at the Vitero Tiles unit at Peddapuram, Andhra Pradesh

-          The investment has doubled the production capacity for Vitero Tiles to 30,000 sq ft. per day

Aparna Enterprises Limited, the leading building materials brand, today announced that they have invested INR 100 crores into their tile division - Vitero Tiles. The investment is targeted at expanding the manufacturing capacity of Vitero Tiles at Peddapuram, Andhra Pradesh facility. This expansion aims at helping Aparna Enterprises cater to the increasing demand of floor and wall tiles and target more government and private projects especially in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and other focused markets across India including Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

With this investment, Aparna Enterprises aims to further strengthen their growth vision for the Vitero segment. Sharing his views on the future plans of the brand, Mr Ashwin Reddy, Managing Director, Aparna Enterprises Limited, said, “Driven by rising consumer demand in both B2B and B2C space, the tile segment is poised to grow in India @ 8% CAGR in the next 5 years. This reflects strongly in the growth trajectory of Vitero Tiles as well. We are already seeing increased demand, bullish market opportunities in this segment and we are expecting to close FY21-22 with 50% growth in tile division. Keeping this growth vision in account, we have invested INR 100 crores into this business this year, majorly directed towards the expansion of our tile manufacturing capacity. With this expansion, we are also looking to strengthen our product offerings and increase market share in the organized tile market in India”.

At the Vitero manufacturing unit at Peddapuram, Andhra Pradesh, the brand has added another kiln. This addition has doubled the manufacturing capacity of the unit from 15,000 square feet per day to 30,000 square feet per day.

Apart from production capabilities Aparna Enterprises is also aligning their resources to expand their dealer network and their market presence. In FY 20-21 the company had increased their network in India by 23% and this year they plan to further boost it by 30%.

Investment into Vitero marks the second investment of the brand towards strategic business goals this year. Earlier in June 2021, Aparna Enterprises had announced their plans to infuse INR 100 CR into their aluminum window and door system brand Alteza.

Launched in 2017, Vitero Tiles has fast become one of India’s leading tile brands. With an impressive product portfolio consisting of an extensive range of floor and wall tiles, Vitero is solidifying its presence in the fast growing tile market in India. Committed to their vision of providing the customers with only the best, Vitero also has a wide range of glazed vitrified tiles, double charged vitrified tiles, digital wall tiles and full-body tiles, armed with both design and functionality.

Alif to issue debit and premium Visa cards for Tajikistani residents

Alif Bank has accomplished the first stage of its partnership with Visa with the issuing of debit and premium Visa cards for Tajikistani residents. Tajikistani fintech will be using the Visa payment network to roll out its suite of financial products and services over the coming years.

In July 2020, Alif Bank announced a new partnership with Visa, global leader in payment technologies. With Visa network, products and expertise, Alif Bank will be able to facilitate payments and financial transactions, providing safe and secure digital payments. Bank’s customers will also have access to virtual and physical cards.

According to the partnership agreement between Alif Bank and Visa, companies are planning to jointly develop innovative, secure, and user-oriented payment solutions based on progressive technologies and products of Visa. In addition, Visa and Alif Bank are planning joint marketing initiatives to raise awareness among Tajik residents of the benefits of cashless payments and expand access to innovative payment solutions for consumers.

Alif’s partnership with Visa is the latest in a series of recent announcements delivered as part of its growth strategy. In August,  the company announced plans to expand into the UK to grow its investor network and lead new business developments in Europe and Central Asia. As a result of its cooperation with Visa, Alif has completed the project implementation and testing of payments. Early September, Alif announced a pre-order for the issuance of Visa Gold, Visa Platinum and Visa Infinite cards for everyone and began active delivery of cards in the operating cities in Tajikistan.

Cards are available for all Alif’s customers, with a special benefit when premium cards will be offered to clients for free. Customers are able to place an order for cards through the mobile app and Alif Bank’s website. It will deliver the issued cards to the customers in Dushanbe, the capital of the Republic of Tajikistan and Khujand city.

The issuance of the premium cards emphasizes the commitment of Alif Bank and Visa to provide the most convenient, profitable and functional products, which should contribute to the qualitative growth of cashless payments in Tajikistan.

Founded in 2014 by Abdullo Kurbanov, Zuhursho Rahmatulloev and Firdavs Mirzoev, Alif Bank is one of Central Asia’s leading fintech companies. With a full banking license in Tajikistan and a payments license in Uzbekistan, Alif now has over 800,000 users and a team of 800 professionals. Its services include alif mobi (Tajikistan’s most widely used mobile wallet), Alif Salom and Alif A’zo (buy now, pay later system) and alif.shop (Tajikistan’s largest online marketplace).

Alif recently received a company valuation of over $100 million, raising $8 million in equity and $50 million in debt. The total investment was raised from its existing shareholder Jefferson Capital Holdings Limited – a UK-based investment vehicle founded by Khofiz Shakhidi, who is also Chairman of Alif Bank. 

Alif’s products are developed with Shariah compliance in view, while adaptation of the Islamic finance principles to local regulations may vary across different jurisdictions. 

The co-founders of Alif commented that: “We are pleased to be working alongside Visa to help democratize finance in Central Asia. The partnership comes at an ideal time for Alif — we are proud to say the company has been growing at a phenomenal rate in the past 12 months, through the dedication and hard work of our team”.

Our partnership with Visa means our customers have access to world-class technology that will empower them to take control of their finances. We all look forward to seeing what new opportunities this partnership will bring for both Visa and Alif in the coming years.”

Yevgen Lisnyak, Senior Director and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Fintech & Ventures, Visa, CISSEE, added: “At Visa we welcome the appearance of such technological, motivated and disruptive players in banking services as Alif Bank. Combining Visa’s global expertise in payment solutions with Alif Bank knowledge of the local environment we can bring a real value and completely new digital banking experience to the consumers. We’re excited to support Alif Bank in their ambitions to digitize payments in the country.”

TrueLayer, Europe’s leading open banking platform, has announced that Sebastian Tiesler has joined the firm as Country Manager for Germany. A highly experienced product and commercial manager, Hamburg-based Sebastian will define and manage commercial strategy in Germany, alongside TrueLayer’s Chief Revenue Officer Max Emilson. 

The announcement comes as TrueLayer consolidates its position as the leading open banking platform across Europe, routing more than half of all traffic in the UK, Ireland and Spain. TrueLayer offers 90% coverage of German banks delivered through PSD2-compliant APIs and has been active in the country through its collaboration with innovators such as Revolut.

“Open banking offers significant benefits over the existing payment methods available to German consumers and businesses - they’re instant and digitally-native, providing an improved payment experience and at a lower cost to the merchant,” Tiesler explained. “This is the ideal time to join an innovator like TrueLayer as more German banks, consumers and businesses embrace open banking. There is so much opportunity and I’m incredibly excited to help build the business, expand our local market presence, win new business with local clients and work with our existing clients as they expand into Germany to take advantage of the changing market landscape.”

Sebastian brings more than a decade of experience in fintech product management and commercial development, most recently from German open banking firm, finleap connect, where he was responsible for solution engineering & go-to-market strategy. He has extensive banking and payments knowledge having also worked at figo, responsible for product development and subsequently helped merging with two other firms to create finleap connect, and as Head of Mobile Solutions at Star Finanz, a subsidiary Finanz Informatik (Sparkassen FInanzgruppe), among others.

Max Emilson, CRO at TrueLayer, commented: “TrueLayer is accelerating its European expansion, tackling the issues of costly, poor converting payment methods with instant, secure bank-to-bank payments. Germany offers a huge opportunity with established financial services centres, a thriving fintech scene, and ecommerce platforms that can all benefit from TrueLayer’s services. Sebastian will play a critical role for us in Germany, building on our work with clients such as Revolut, and expanding our operations in the country. His experience, within the local fintech and payments ecosystem and in-depth knowledge of open banking will be vital as we continue to grow in the country.”

In a move upending the hottest part of the fintech market, two of the world’s leading issuer processors – Paymentology and Tutuka – are merging to create a new payments and card processing powerhouse.

Operating under the Paymentology name, the merger creates a new force in payment solutions; giving banks and fintechs the technology, team and experience to issue and process Mastercard, Visa and UnionPay cards, across 49 countries.

The move brings together the ultra-advanced, multi-cloud platform of Paymentology, with the global reach and experience of Tutuka. The merger creates a powerhouse of over 270 payments and technology experts, working across both developed and emerging markets, serving customers in 49 countries, across 14 time zones – and a platform that is already processing USD 10 billion in transactions each year.

Previously, banks and fintechs had to work with a multitude of card processors to reach a global market. Now, through Paymentology, they can integrate into a single API, go live and issue cards almost anywhere in the world. They can then rapidly scale beyond that, as Paymentology can process client cards on the company’s shared platform, and upgrade clients to a dedicated platform just for that client, or in particular countries – a feature not available through any other processor.

Rowan Brewer, CEO at Paymentology, said: “Banks and fintechs are racing to provide customers with digital and data-driven features. They are highly receptive to working with a single issuer-processor that can provide that, across the globe.
“People want to be able to pay with a virtual card – sometimes online, sometimes tapping their phone – but everything digitally. Banks, digital banks and fintechs need support and expertise to help them issue cards and process payments.”

Quantile Group Ltd (Quantile), a leading provider of portfolio optimisation services for the global financial markets, today announces that it is to be acquired by London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSEG). The acquisition will enable Quantile to continue to deliver its market leading services and will accelerate product development, the launch of new services and expand its network to better serve its clients.

As part of LSEG, Quantile will operate as a standalone entity within the Post Trade division, reporting to Daniel Maguire, LSEG’s Group Head of Post Trade. Quantile will continue to be led by its CEO and co-founder, Andrew Williams.

Since its formation in 2015, Quantile has been led by a team of industry experts and has grown to over 80 employees, with offices in London, New York and Amsterdam. In January 2021, the Company received $51 million in growth investment from Spectrum Equity, a leading growth equity firm focused on internet-enabled software and information services companies.

Andrew Williams, CEO, Quantile, commented: “We are really pleased to announce this news, which demonstrates how far Quantile has come in a very short time. Quantile and LSEG share many of the same values, including a culture of innovation and a critical focus on service excellence, and this agreement will enable us to innovate further and faster to deliver optimisation services for the market. We have built Quantile to be a bold and agile company which can react quickly to our clients’ needs, and we will continue to operate this way, but with the expertise and platform of a larger group.”

He added, “Clients continue to face new challenges and there is immense capacity for Quantile to help maximise efficiency and better manage risk, capital and funding requirements through our multilateral optimisation services. We look forward to the next stage of our journey as we continue to evolve and deliver the best service to our clients.” 

Quantile’s optimisation services reduce risk, notional and capital requirements for market participants trading OTC derivatives globally. Clients include all of the G15 top tier global banks, regional banks and other large institutional market participants.

Daniel Maguire, Group Head, Post Trade, LSEG & CEO, LCH Group, said: “The acquisition of Quantile builds on the strong growth delivered by LSEG and our Post Trade division. It significantly enhances LSEG’s multi-asset class customer offering across the transaction lifecycle by providing more sophisticated tools and infrastructure for customers to optimise their financial resources and drive greater operational efficiencies in OTC derivatives. I look forward to working with Andy and his team at Quantile to further support innovation for the market and develop our businesses.”