Linedata, a global provider of asset management and credit technology and data services is proud to announce that Mondrian Investment Partners, a London-based global investment manager, is upgrading its existing Linedata software suite to harness the comprehensive advantages of Linedata Asset Management Platform’s (‘AMP’) cloud-native software modules and modern APIs. This strategic partnership with Mondrian is designed to take advantage of AMP’s modern architecture, allowing a progressive move of its business applications away from ‘on-premises’ to ‘Software as a Service (‘SaaS’)’. 

Mondrian has partnered with Linedata for over twenty-five years; starting with Longview Order Management and then expanding to implement Linedata Compliance. Now, they've broadened their suite of solutions further by adopting the AMP Platform, which will allow future adoption of modules such as AMP APIs, Accumen, Exception Manager, and Model Management. This upgrade signifies a pivotal step in Mondrian's operational strategy, leveraging AMP’s 'access anywhere' functionality and configurable design supporting Mondrian’s adoption of data virtualization technology, thereby allowing easy integration of APIs to deliver data. 

Linedata's extensible and high-performance AMP Platform resonates with the dynamic needs of asset managers like Mondrian, specifically targeting challenges such as inefficient workflows and transparent portfolio management tools.  The transition accords Mondrian early access to a continuous influx of innovative capabilities; significantly enhancing portfolio and order management, compliance exception management, and API-connected data and applications. 

"The Mondrian team is excited at the prospect of onboarding new technologies like AMP that underpin core software, such as the Linedata Order Management System," said Warren Shirvell, COO of Mondrian Investment Partners. "AMP APIs will help us to separate Longview data from our other systems as well as provide access to core functionality, which we can incorporate into our in-house software.  Additionally, AMP allows delivery of new features and capabilities to Longview via the SaaS approach without the need for a core upgrade, making the testing and implementation of these changes quicker and less risky". 

Aldric Dupaïs, Head of Asset Management Northern Europe at Linedata, commented, "This marks a significant milestone in our long-standing partnership with Mondrian Investment Partners. Their renewed trust in our technology underscores our mutual commitment to innovation, laying the groundwork for unprecedented growth and success." 

dLocal, a leading cross-border payment platform, is thrilled to announce its strategic partnership with Jeeves, a global financial technology platform that provides businesses with comprehensive financial solutions, to facilitate secure client payments across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The new alliance empowers Jeeves’ clients to effortlessly make payouts in local currency, while at the same time allowing their vendors to receive the payment in USD. With the enhanced cross-border payments solution across emerging markets, Jeeves is providing a more streamlined financial experience for their business clients.

The partnership will span an impressive array of countries, including South Africa in Africa; India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates in Asia; and further extending to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay in the vibrant LATAM region. This strategic move demonstrates the commitment of both companies to optimize the efficiency and security of cross-border payments for clients in these regions.

Dileep Thazhmon, CEO of Jeeves expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, saying, "We are excited to join forces with a powerhouse like dLocal to enhance the efficiency and security of vendor payments for our clients. This partnership marks a significant step forward in our mission to make financial transactions effortless and secure."

Sebastian Kanovich, co-CEO at dLocal, added, "We are pleased to work with Jeeves in this strategic partnership. Our cross-border payment solutions, combined with Jeeves’ innovative financial technology, will offer a groundbreaking experience for companies and vendors across multiple regions. Together, we aim to redefine how businesses handle client payments on a global scale."

This collaboration between dLocal and Jeeves represents a significant milestone in their mission to simplify global client payments and provide a seamless user experience for businesses operating across borders. By offering a wide-reaching, comprehensive solution, both companies aim to support businesses in their growth and expansion efforts while fostering secure and efficient client relationships.

The collaboration between dLocal and Jeeves promises to transform the way businesses manage client payments, fostering growth, and expanding financial possibilities for companies worldwide.

Kinto, the first KYC'ed Layer 2 blockchain capable of supporting both financial institutions and decentralized protocols, announced today it has raised $5 million in two funding rounds to power its future as a secure and compliant network for financial apps on Ethereum.

Of the $5 million, $1.5 million came from a pre-seed round led by Kyber Capital Crypto, a SALT family venture fund. A second $3.5 million round was led by Kyber Capital Crypto, Spartan Group, and Parafi, with additional investors including Skybridge, Kraynos, Soft Holdings, Deep Ventures, Modular, Tane, and Robot Ventures. The funds will go toward team expansion and network development.

"We believe that a fully KYC'ed Layer 2 on top of Ethereum is an inevitability, and we have extremely strong conviction that Kinto is the right team to execute this vision. We are excited about the opportunity to invest, partner, and support them as they grow," said Alex Klokus, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kyber Capital Crypto.

Kinto enables providers to conduct network-native KYC and investor accreditation checks compliant with U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requirements, allowing them to access the abundant capital in Ethereum by offering traditional financial services on-chain

Kinto protects both the privacy and assets of users. Its KYC mechanism encrypts all personal information and stores it with a third party, shareable only at user request. In addition, every app is insured on Kinto, shielding users from untraceable exploits and anonymous scams. Finally, Kinto offers developer incentives that make it the perfect place to launch new applications.

"With built-in insurance, KYC, and fraud monitoring, Kinto provides the ideal environment for finance to thrive," said Ramon Recuero, CEO and Co-founder of Kinto. "Traditional finance users and institutions can finally access the wealth of liquidity available in the Ethereum ecosystem in a fully compliant and vetted environment."

CFX Labs, a future leader in the monetization of rapid and secure international payments markets currently operating a nationwide payment network, announced it has raised $9.5 million in seed funding. CFX Labs raised funds from a diverse array of strategic partners including Shima Capital, Decasonic, Antalpha, CMT Digital, Corazon Capital, Hard Yaka, Kraken Ventures, New Form Capital, Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust amongst others in an oversubscribed round.

More than one billion people globally rely on being able to make secure, fast and inexpensive domestic and international remittance transfers. CFX Labs's funding round will provide resources to expand its network reach and continued development of innovative technologies supporting international payments.

Operating at the intersection of financial services, point of sale and digital assets, CFX Labs is revolutionizing stablecoin settlements globally with a fiat payment platform that enables users to move money instantly across borders. The company's offerings include the MoveMoney™ embedded wallet, which enables users to send and receive fiat instantly from brick and mortar locations across the U.S. at network affiliated locations including Walmart, CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid and others.

One in seven people globally rely on remittances. According to the U.S. Federal Reserve the average cost of sending a remittance from the U.S. to other countries was 5.41 percent of the notional value of the transaction. High costs, slow settlements, and limited accessibility, significantly impact households that rely on remittances. These factors also affect smaller businesses that make infrequent global payments to suppliers. Reducing unnecessary costs and improving access to more secure funds has the potential to stimulate economic growth, enhance global commerce, improve international remittances, and reduce inequality.

"Bringing together an accomplished team of industry executive leadership from the likes of PayPal, MoonPay, Sardine, Robinhood, ABN AMRO Bank, Feeding America, and world class technical development, this seed round represents the conviction our investors have in our platform and its potential," said Nick Cavet, co-founder and CEO of CFX Labs. "CFX is not just accelerating the movement of money; we're transforming the very fabric of the global money movement to unlock entirely new monetization opportunities for the real producers and consumers of our shared economy."

There has never been a better moment to initiate more meaningful and transformative financial systems around the world, and it starts with better access to efficient, secure and rapid payment transfers. CFX Labs' payment network stands to expand beyond remittances internationally between the Americas, to global international money transfer and remittances, a market valued in trillions of dollars.

"We are eager to support CFX Labs as they reimagine and transform the global payment processing market with the industry's most advanced and intuitive technology," said Sam Yagan, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Corazon Capital. "CFX Labs has the potential to reshape the multi-trillion dollar global payments market through its vertically integrated platform that empowers everyone to easily access and take control of their payment transfer needs."

Global Blue Group Holding AG, the leading strategic technology and payments partner powering retailers’ improved performance and enhancing shoppers’ experience, is pleased to announce it has entered into a share purchase and investment agreement with Tencent, a world-leading internet and technology company.

Tencent has agreed to invest $100 million in Global Blue common equity at a price of $5.50 per share, which is generally in line with the volume-weighted average price over the past 3 months. At closing, Tencent will own 18.18 million common shares, representing approximately 8% of the total fully diluted share capital.

Jacques Stern, Global Blue CEO said: “We are pleased to welcome Tencent as a shareholder as we continue to diversify our ownership base. We have achieved robust revenue growth and margin improvement in recent quarters, thanks to the ongoing international travel recovery and our investments in digitalization and new products, as well as cost management. Today’s investment validates our strategy and confidence in the ongoing travel recovery. We believe Global Blue is well-positioned to continue to benefit from the return of Asian shoppers in FY24/25 towards 2019 levels, in particular Mainland Chinese, supporting our Adjusted EBITDA guidance of more than €200m in FY24/25.”

James Mitchell, Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent, added: "We have closely followed Global Blue’s digital evolution for several years, during which the management team has enhanced the company’s technology capabilities and service offering, extending its shopper and merchant reach. We are pleased to make a strategic investment in Global Blue to help support its future growth and look forward to continued growth in cross-border travel and shopping, including travel from China."

The aforementioned common shares will consist of (i) 50% / 9.09 million secondary common shares to be sold by affiliates of Silver Lake and Partners Group and certain members of the board and management and (ii) 50% / 9.09 million primary common shares to be issued by Global Blue. The closing of the proposed transaction is expected to take place before month-end, subject to closing conditions. Global Blue intends to use the primary proceeds to reduce its debt balance, in pursuit of its long-term target of net leverage of less than 2.5x Net Debt / Adjusted EBITDA.

BofA Securities acted as financial advisor, and Davis Polk & Wardwell and Homburger as legal advisors, to Tencent. J.P. Morgan Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities acted as financial advisors, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Niederer Kraft Frey as legal advisors, to Global Blue and its secondary sellers.

B2BinPay is a leading crypto payment provider and solution developer that helps businesses send and receive cryptocurrency payments globally. The company announces a new update to its ecosystem and services in a package update dubbed v18 as a successor to the v17 update that was launched in September 2023.

The new B2BinPay v18 focuses on flexibility and transparency by merging two business models (Merchant and Enterprise) in one single account, redesigning the interface, and strengthening regulatory compliance. Let’s take a look at some of the newly updated areas.

New Merged Account

The new update introduced a new account type that merges both merchant and enterprise accounts in a single account, accommodating more flexibility and simplicity. What does it mean, exactly?

Unique Structure

The update takes the account structure to another level by unifying the user experience through a merged account that suits both merchants and enterprises to do business using cryptocurrencies.

Moreover, the update included redesigning the layout to make it clear by reducing clutter to avoid distractions and making the UX much more straightforward. Now, the registration process has become easier and faster.

Simplified Onboarding

The time required between creating a new account and launching services is now reduced, thanks to the revised onboarding process. Users can now select the services off the bat and quickly set up their accounts with minimum steps or additional costs.

Those who want to shift between different wallet services can do so without paying extra money or worrying about lengthy procedures, as they only pay a unified onboarding fee once. 

More Functional Layout

The front end of the website underwent design and performance updates. The layout was redesigned in line with the B2Broker family’s aesthetics, and the website was technically improved for faster loading speed.

These updates were added thoughtfully to provide more tools without forcing users to familiarise themselves with another website. Thus, additions and improvements were made smoothly. Here are some updated bits on the front end.

Wallets Interface

The new update reworked the wallet and transfer pages and reduced fluff and unnecessary clicks to speed up the website journey and improve user experience. This leads to an improved performance stream and better loading times.

The update also included refreshing other features such as bank withdrawals, exchanges and payouts.

Account Layout

The account menu was also revamped to make it more user-friendly and interactive. This was achieved by adding customisation tools that allow customers to select the services and settings that suit them.

Additionally, the robust security system was revisited, and the two-factor authentication was added to provide another safety layer.

Invoice Customisation

Now, issuing invoices and setting expiration dates can be customised since the 7-day expiration time was removed. Users can set their due date and customise the invoice to better manage their business.

Helpdesk Improvements

The Helpdesk is a crucial element of the user journey, which also got updated by adding more language options and new sticker notifications when a user receives messages from the support team.

Rates Page Update

The rates page interface underwent design changes to make it clearer and distraction-free. Users can now find currency and exchange rates at the top of the page and filter and select their favourite currencies.

FATF Travel Rule Adherence Powered By Notabene

As part of the update package, B2BinPay announced a new cooperation that boosts its legal compliance and increases customer confidence. B2BinPay joined forces with Notabene to reinforce its legal structure and comply with the Financial Action Task Force Travel Rules.

The FATF requirements imply that B2BinPay collects and shares user information associated with crypto transactions to detect and mitigate cyber crimes, money laundering and illicit financial activities. 

Conclusion

The leading crypto payment provider keeps pushing new updates that meet customer needs and set new competitive standards. 

The new B2BinPay V18 brought some design changes to the website to make it more interactive and improve user experience. The account management is now unified in a merged (enterprise and merchant) account that simplifies the registration and onboarding process.

These new updates are testimonials of the company’s commitment to providing service and innovations that suit market demand and raise the bar higher.

Nexi – the European PayTech – and Compass – the consumer credit company part of Mediobanca Group – announce a strategic partnership in the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) business.

Thanks to the agreement, Compass' BNPL digital solution PagoLight will be available on Nexi SmartPOS. This will allow Nexi’s partner banks to provide retailers with an innovative solution for deferred payment directly integrated into the payment terminal, with no need for an additional device. To date, several banks have joined the initiative, and more will join in the coming weeks.

The partnership between the two innovation-driven companies allows Nexi to provide its partner banks with a product that will enable them to take full advantage of the business opportunities offered by Buy Now Pay Later, a continuously growing payment service that, according to Politecnico di Milano's forecasts, will reach an annual transaction volume of around 14.5 billion euros in 2025.

"The agreement we signed with Compass is in harmony with our European PayTech positioning, which is focused on bringing our partners and merchants innovative solutions for business development," says Filippo Signoretti, Merchant Solutions Director of Nexi Italy. "In particular, this partnership allows us to provide merchants with a Buy Now Pay Later service which can be used by their customers in physical shops through Nexi SmartPOS in a simple, immediate and secure way, thus increasing sales opportunities.”

The agreement represents an extraordinary opportunity for Compass to significantly expand the distribution of PagoLight in physical shops. In fact, PagoLight is designed to enable merchants to increase both the number of sales and the value of the average purchase, relieving them of the credit risk, which is entirely carried by Compass.

Launched in 2021, PagoLight is now active in Italy in more than 13,000 shops. The network continues to grow, with approximately 1,000 new activations per month.

"Thanks to this strategic agreement we are strengthening our presence in the Buy Now Pay Later market, particularly in the physical channel where, through Nexi, we will be able to bring our innovative deferment solutions to merchants and final customers throughout Italy," comments Francesco Caso, General Manager of Compass. “The partnership with Nexi represents an important milestone for Compass that is consistent with the objectives of the Mediobanca Group's Strategic Plan to 2026 One Brand - One Culture, which foresees in the development of PagoLight an important driver for the growth of the Consumer Finance division, leveraging innovation and risk assessment capabilities, which have always been distinctive factors for Compass," concludes Francesco Caso.

Enfuce, the leading provider of embedded finance solutions today announces a new partnership with the UK’s leading small business lending platform, Funding Circle, to launch its new small business credit card as part of its FlexiPay product.

FlexiPay is a revolving line of credit that helps small businesses in the UK to spread a wide variety of business costs and manage their short-term cash flow needs. By adding the new business credit card feature, Funding Circle has further expanded its offering to serve more of its customers’ needs, giving small businesses the flexibility to now borrow, pay and spend with Funding Circle.

To support the launch of the FlexiPay card, Enfuce, the award-winning Card-as-a-Service platform is enabling Funding Circle to offer SMEs a physical, secure and flexible business credit card. The FlexiPay card was developed through Enfuce’s MyCard service, a management app that enables companies to launch their own card app, helping streamline the process.

Small businesses can use the business credit card to make upfront payments directly to suppliers, and cover expenses like stock, equipment and energy bills. FlexiPay also comes with a free ‘FlexiPay by Funding Circle’ app, which allows customers to pay bills, schedule payments and manage their line of credit, on the go. 

Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Funding Circle has a strong commitment to empowering SMEs, having globally extended credit to over 140,000 businesses, totalling more than £16 billion. The partnership with Enfuce will bolster Funding Circle’s product offering while furthering its mission of backing small businesses with hassle-free lending.

Denise Johansson, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Enfuce, said: “We're delighted to partner with Funding Circle to empower SMEs. This collaboration guarantees a steady cash flow and flexible repayment choices to small businesses when they need it the most, offering crucial breathing space for UK SMEs to achieve their full potential in a hassle-free and secure way.” 

Monika Liikamaa, Co-founder & Co-CEO of Enfuce, said: “Working with such a reputable British company marks a significant step in our UK expansion plans, and we take great pride in furnishing the cards essential to help further drive the UK economy.”

Jerome Fernandez, Managing Director of FlexiPay at Funding Circle said: “We're really excited to have launched FlexiPay to help small businesses manage their cash flow, which we know is one of their biggest pain points. We've expanded our offering to meet more customer needs by giving them more ways to spend. We're pleased to be partnering with Enfuce in launching the card which is another milestone in our ongoing product development journey."

This announcement follows a successful year of innovation and growth for Enfuce, as the Finnish Fintech recently entered the UK market and opened a brand new office in London. Beyond providing its modular card issuing and payment processing solutions, Enfuce also handles licensing, financing, compliance, and fraud management.

Lynx, a leading provider of AI software that detects and prevents fraud and financial crimes, today announces a €17 million (c.£15 million) Series A funding round led by Forgepoint Capital, a leading venture capital firm focused on cybersecurity and digital infrastructure software, with the participation of Banco Santander, a Lynx shareholder. Forgepoint Managing Director Leo Casusol will join Lynx’s Board of Directors.  

Digital fraud is the fastest-growing type of fraud. Cumulative merchant losses to online payment fraud globally between 2023 and 2027 will exceed USD$343 billion. Financial institutions are spending upwards of $206 billion globally on financial crime compliance. The UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimates the total amount of money laundered globally to be 2% to 5% of global annual GDP (approximately $800 billion to $2 trillion), most of which goes to fund the drug trade, people trafficking, and even terrorism. Money laundering is estimated to cost the UK economy more than £100 billion each year, with UK financial institutions spending upwards of £34.2 billion per year on financial crime compliance.  

Created 20 years ago by Dr. Carlos Santa Cruz, a computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert who now serves as Chief Technology Officer, Lynx applies advanced AI and machine learning to prevent digital fraud and combat money laundering by predicting and detecting behavioural patterns and delivering risk scores in real time and at enterprise scale. After two decades of co-development with select commercial clients, Lynx also announces the appointment of new CEO, industry leader Dan Dica, who will leverage his extensive experience growing successful software companies to help the company scale.  

Today, Lynx is helping leading financial institutions across Europe, the UK, the US and Latin America, including Cielo, the largest credit and debit card operator in Brazil, and Banco Santander. With models trained and validated on the 58 billion transactions by 300 million bank customers per year that Lynx protects, the company offers fraud prevention for cards, digital banking, ecommerce, telephony, branches and ATMs.  

Lynx uses insights from its fraud prevention, anti-money laundering (AML) and cybersecurity risk identification capabilities to continually enhance its models. Its ‘Daily Adaptive Model’, a first-of-its-kind proprietary capability, continually learns new behaviours and retrains models daily, ensuring its AI models are drift-resistant. Lynx can process enterprise-level transaction volumes and generate fraud scores three times more accurate than current industry standards in under 15 milliseconds. With Lynx, consumers can transact safely and securely without delay and financial institutions contend with far fewer false positives than competing solutions. 

The investment will fund Lynx’s global expansion and further the development of the company’s integrated fraud and AML platform that will provide 360-degree visibility of risk and generate significant operational efficiencies, informed by market and regulatory drivers, client needs and technological advancements.  

Dan Dica, Chief Executive Officer, Lynx, comments: “I am privileged to be working with Carlos and our extraordinary and passionate team, forward-looking clients, and supportive investors and Board who recognize the power of the Lynx platform and the critical problems we are out to solve. Together, we will continue to advance our platform capabilities to better serve our clients across the globe in the enduring fight against fraud and financial crime.”  

Julio Bento, Senior Manager of Fraud Prevention and AML at Cielo, says: “We are one of the leading payment processing companies in Latin America, with more than 1 million customers across Brazil and we chose Lynx due to its advanced AI and performance in predicting and identifying fraud. At Cielo, we process large quantities of transactions, so speed is essential. We found Lynx to be the fastest, with the highest accuracy and the fewest false positives. We are impressed by Lynx’ continuous innovation in the field of AI, automatic machine learning models being one example. Models can learn customer behavior and provide our customers with a great experience, enabling genuine transactions to flow while identifying fraud in real time. Over the years, Lynx has been and continues to be a trusted and reliable technology partner.” 

Forgepoint Capital Managing Director Leo Casusol adds: “Lynx’s highly differentiated AI model stops fraud and financial crime in real time, at enterprise scale and with unparalleled levels of accuracy. It’s the best kept secret in AI and banking. After extensive co-development with leading global banks, fintechs and enterprise clients, Lynx demonstrates a deep understanding of their fraud prevention, compliance and risk needs and has achieved product-market fit. We are excited to support Dan, Carlos and the Lynx team as they continue to deliver on their vision of an integrated anti-fraud, AML and cyber platform.”   

Last year, Forgepoint Capital and Banco Santander announced a strategic alliance to drive cybersecurity investment and innovation globally and this is their first joint investment. Today’s investment is subject to regulatory approval.