The annual award by The Software Report recognizes women that demonstrate admirable leadership across a variety of roles within the software industry

Creatio, a global software company that provides a leading no-code platform for process management and CRM, today announced its Founder and CEO, Katherine Kostereva, has been listed as #1 in The Top 50 Women Leaders in SaaS of 2021. The winners were selected by The Software Report (TSR) for their contributions to their companies and expertise in the development of business strategies, based on careful analysis of their professional experience and nominations by peers and colleagues. The Software Report is a leading online publication that provides software market research and insights to over 28,000 software executives and professionals.

According to TSR, “A commonality found among high-performing executive teams is the presence of women in key roles. This year’s awardees have made a definitive and lasting impact on their organizations, from spearheading cloud adoption pushes to espousing diversity in the workplace to driving overall company growth. The COVID-19 era has compelled many businesses to accelerate their adoption and roll-out of cloud-based software solutions, and these women have enabled their companies to meet the challenge presented by this surge in demand.”

Katherine’s strategic vision, operational discipline, and compelling leadership style have been the driving forces behind Creatio’s success to date. Under Katherine’s leadership, the company has united 700 employees around a single goal to create a world where everyone can automate business ideas in minutes. Creatio’s no-code platform for workflow automation and CRM helps organizations all over the world automate their ideas in minutes. Ten million workflows are launched daily in 100 countries by its clients. Creatio is recognized as a Leader and Strong Performer in multiple Gartner and Forrester reports, and its products receive raving end-user reviews on peer-to-peer portals. Creatio’s culture is about genuine care for its clients and partners, passion, going the extra mile, and staying positive.

Katherine Kostereva has also been recognized with Silver Stevie® Award in 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, Top 25 SaaS Influencers: Ones to Watch in 2021, Top 50 SaaS CEOs and Top 50 Women Leaders in SaaS in 2018-2020, the Winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the Female Entrepreneur of the Year category in 2020, the Executive Leader of the Year in the 7th Annual 2020 Customer Sales and Service World Awards, and more.

Juno offers billing, payments solutions and banking services for more than 35,000 small and medium-sized businesses in the country

EBANX, a leading fintech company for payment solutions in Latin America, announced today it has finalized the acquisition of Juno, a Brazilian payments company that enables digital commerce through billing and banking services in the country. Juno, one of the main players in the local payments industry in Brazil, has long-time expertise in the field. Juno's customers include more than 35,000 small and medium companies in Brazil that use its billing and payments solutions, including its digital account Conta Juno.

The completion of Juno's acquisition by EBANX follows a USD $430 million Series C investment that EBANX received from Advent International in June, as well as the acquisition of shares in the Brazilian Banco Topázio, which is helping to optimize the company's foreign-exchange operations.

"Juno is a trusted partner that has an outstanding history in the payments industry, offering innovative services and helping thousands of Brazilian companies and entrepreneurs to sell online. We are honored to have them onboard, to provide Brazilian companies and consumers with broadened access to the very best payment solutions," said João Del Valle, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of EBANX.

Founded in 2014, Juno's platform allows Brazilian merchants to sell online through Pix, boleto bancário and credit cards, in addition to managing their payments flow in their own digital accounts. Besides enabling payments with Pix, Juno offers BaaS (Banking as a Service) capabilities and is a member of the Brazilian Interbank Payments Chamber (CIP), which acts as a clearinghouse that validates user data for security purposes and identity check. The solutions developed by Juno have led to a total volume of more than BRL 4.7 billion in 2020, representing a growth of over 130 percent, and they have positioned it as one of the most important fintechs serving SMBs and larger corporations in Brazil.

"This is an exciting moment in the history of Juno. EBANX's trust in our work proves the value of our solutions and gives us the opportunity to grow our services and portfolio. We are very happy to be part of EBANX's big dream and what we can achieve together from now on,” said Juno Product Director André Carréraat.

At today’s Spending Review, the government has announced its plans for spending over the next three years, from 2022/23. This includes a number of measures to support smaller businesses, to be delivered by the British Business Bank.

Catherine Lewis La Torre, Chief Executive, British Business Bank, said: “The package the Chancellor has announced today enables us to build on our range of programmes to support sustainable economic growth by increasing the supply, diversity and demand for finance for UK smaller businesses.

“We welcome the provision of this funding to deliver our expanded programme of activity, enabling us to make over £4.9bn of financial commitments and loans. This includes £1.6bn to provide investment funds for the Devolved Nations, and the North, Midlands, and South West of England, £150m to invest alongside business angels across the UK, and resources to provide 33,000 Start-Up Loans over the next three years.”

“A six-month extension to the Recovery Loan Scheme will also provide valuable support for smaller businesses as they look beyond the pandemic towards the opportunities available to them in the recovery.”

The announcements in the Spending Review include:

Supporting finance across the regions and Nations of the UK – expanded Regional Funds and Regional Angels Programme

The British Business Bank’s three regional funds – the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, the Midlands Engine Investment Fund, and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Fund – and the Northern Ireland Growth Finance Fund have delivered over £1bn of public and private sector funding to smaller businesses in those regions, helping to address regional funding gaps.

The government recognises the success of these funds in its £1.6bn commitment to a next generation of funds:

• £660m for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, including an expansion into the North East of England
• £400m for the Midlands Engine Investment Fund
• £200m to provide a new fund for businesses in the South West of England, building on the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund.
• £150m to provide a new fund for Scottish businesses
• £130m to provide a new fund for Welsh businesses
• £70m to expand provision for businesses in Northern Ireland

We look forward to working with the Devolved Administrations’ economic development banks and local stakeholders to deliver this increased support.

We also welcome the additional funding for the Regional Angels Programme, which will enable commitments of a further £150 million over three years, investing alongside angel syndicates into high potential businesses across all the UK’s regions and nations. The programme has fully committed its initial £100m allocation, with 85% of investments outside London helping to reduce regional imbalances in access to seed and early-stage equity finance for smaller businesses.

Multi-year settlement for Start Up Loans

The government also announced that it will provide funding for 33,000 Start Up Loans over the next three years, maintaining delivery at the expanded level agreed at Spending Review 2020.

We welcome this extension to the programme, which means that even more people across the UK will now be able to access the finance they need to start a business. The programme has a strong record of providing funding to less well represented groups including women, people from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and the unemployed. This new funding will help create more opportunities for the best talent to access finance regardless of factors such as social background, gender, ethnicity and age.

Extension of Recovery Loan Scheme

At Autumn Budget 2021 the Chancellor announced that the Recovery Loan Scheme will be extended by six months to 30 June 2022, having already seen total funding of over £1bn offered to businesses by the scheme’s diverse range of accredited partners.

Ongoing activities

The government has confirmed that throughout the three years from 2022/23 it will continue to provide the British Business Bank with the resources to help drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by supporting access to finance for smaller businesses. This includes confirming funding for the Future Fund Breakthrough programme and the Life Sciences Investment Programme, both of which launched this year.

Sovcombank has reduced its ownership stake in SPB Exchange from 12.9% to 9.99% by selling part of its stockholding. The Bank’s stake was purchased by shareholders, some of the Bank’s key partners, as well as the management company Sovcombank Asset Management. Each buyer purchased an insignificant share.

Sovcombank decided to reduce its equity stake in SPB Exchange in order to bring its share below 10% so as to treat this holding as an immaterial investment.

Sergey Khotimskiy, co-owner and First Deputy Chairman of the Board of Sovcombank, said:

“This transaction will enable us to manage capital more effectively right away, especially in the context of the Bank of Russia’s plans to regulate dead assets. At the same time, we gave access to a first-class investment idea to our shareholders, major partners and customers. The Bank is not planning to further reduce its stake in the Exchange, and our management company may increase it.”

Clearwater Analytics’ 2021 Insurance Investment Survey Report reveals insurers are shifting into non-traditional assets, recruiting external managers, and deploying cloud-based reporting platforms 

Clearwater Analytics, a leading provider of SaaS-based investment accounting, reporting, and analytics solutions, today announced key findings from its 2021 Insurance Investment Survey Report. Clearwater’s survey report features data from more than 1,000 respondents, revealing insurers’ continuing shift toward non-traditional assets, their growing use of external managers, and the related urgency around deploying cutting-edge technologies to provide transparency and trusted accounting data, among other findings.  

With over $5.6 trillion in total assets on its SaaS platform, Clearwater serves hundreds of insurers and asset managers as two of its key client market segments. With this report, the company provides client and others including insight into investment trends. 

“The search for yield amid low interest rates has driven insurers into non-traditional asset classes and away from traditional safe havens,” said Sandeep Sahai, Chief Executive Officer, Clearwater Analytics. “This creates significant challenges because non-traditional asset class data is often extremely complex and deciphering it requires multiple systems and manual processes, which brings serious risk for misinterpretation or misguided action. This report demonstrates the urgency of working with trusted partners to ensure accurate and timely accounting.”

The survey polled insurance investment and accounting professionals as well as C-Suite executives across hundreds of insurers on a global basis. Regardless of the size or regions, the data illustrates the way insurers invest and that their related investment technology platform is changing significantly. Following are the key takeaways and data revelations. 

Insurers Focus on Non-Traditional Assets 

Clearwater’s Insurance Investment Survey results clearly show that non-traditional asset classes have a foothold and will garner additional investment in the years to come. 
 

·                  Top 4 non-traditional asset classes – The search for yield has driven insurers into new assets that have already made sizeable footholds with insurers. Fifty-five percent or more of insurers indicate some level of allocation to Private Placements, Private funds (LPs), Mortgage Loans, and ETFs. More than 1/3 of respondents said they will increase exposures with non-traditional assets. 

·                  Other emerging asset classes – There is a growing use of bank loans and other complex asset classes. Insurers also reported increased investment in derivatives.  

·                  Investment allocation challenges – Despite the momentum around non-traditional assets, some insurers are holding back due to factors such as investment guidelines, regulatory constraints or concerns, and lack of expertise. 

Reliance on External Managers’ Expertise is Here to Stay 

External asset managers are a core and growing resource for insurers. Insurers who use them to manage at least half of their portfolio expect to increase or maintain their dependence on external managers. 

·                  External asset manager usage – The vast majority of respondents use external managers, ranging from 20% to 80% or more of their total portfolio.  

·                  Insurers’ requirements for asset managers – External managers are being measured by a variety of factors, but performance (62%) and insurance client expertise (46%) were most commonly cited among the survey respondents.

Insurers are Ramping Up Their Tech Stack and Risk Analysis, But Room for Improvement Remains 

Non-traditional asset classes often create technology challenges for insurers, as indicated by the survey data showing that more than half of the respondents reported juggling multiple technologies to deliver on investment accounting. Additionally, risk and related analysis were cited as requirements including benchmark comparison, exposure analysis, scenario testing, VaR, and ex-post risk. The need for technology is very clear because half of surveyed insurers state that manual processes are the leading factor slowing down their monthly close process. 

“Insurers who deploy an advanced cloud-based singular platform, designed to deliver on any asset class, no matter the complexity, will benefit from actionable intelligence and as a result their investments will outpace those failing without trusted visibility,” added Sahai. 

The full 2021 Clearwater Insurance Investment Survey Report is accessible here. Additionally, Clearwater Analytics held a webinar to discuss the findings with its subject matter experts including Steve Doire, Strategic Platform and Client Advisor; Chandresh Iyer, Head of New Markets; and Cynthia Pennell, Enterprise Sales Leader. The recording can be accessed here.   

Survey Methodology 

Over the course of two months in 2021, Clearwater Analytics surveyed insurers across the globe as part of the 2021 Insurance Investment Survey Report. This includes respondents from the Americas, EMEA, APAC, and offshore. In total, more than 1,000 insurance professionals participated, comprising all types and sizes of insurers. Half of respondents identified as working in investment accounting, and the other half were split between operations and investment management. Respondents are anonymous.  

Digital Guardian strengthens HelpSystems’ data security portfolio with SaaS and managed service-enabled endpoint, network, and cloud data loss prevention

HelpSystems today announced the acquisition of Digital Guardian, the industry’s only SaaS provider of data loss prevention (DLP) solutions for large and mid-sized organisations. Digital Guardian’s solutions give customers visibility and protection of their data across many operating systems and applications. The company also provides a popular managed service that operates as an extension of their customers’ security teams to protect sensitive data from threats originating inside and outside the organisation.

The team and solutions from Digital Guardian will fit into HelpSystems’ data security portfolio, and combine with powerful security solutions such as GoAnywhere, Clearswift, Agari, and Titus. In addition to extending HelpSystems’ DLP capability, this acquisition further improves the company’s ability to categorise, or classify, data and protect it across a wide set of applications and operating systems.    

“Our global customers look to us to provide them with powerful solutions and services to support all of their cybersecurity needs, and the data protection expertise the Digital Guardian team brings to HelpSystems is second to none,” said Kate Bolseth, CEO, HelpSystems. “As the threat landscape grows and organisations struggle to keep up, the ability for teams to offload deployments as well as the ongoing risk and responsibility to experts is invaluable. We are thrilled to welcome the Digital Guardian team into the HelpSystems family.”

“Data breaches remain one of top risks to companies today,” said Mordecai Rosen, CEO, Digital Guardian. “Recent headlines serve as an unsettling reminder that even the world’s largest and most influential companies aren’t immune from that threat. It’s why data classification and DLP remain critical components of a comprehensive cybersecurity program and the combination of Digital Guardian and HelpSystems will provide all our customers, regardless of their size, the opportunity to implement world class data protection solutions.”  

Macquarie Capital served as exclusive financial advisor to Digital Guardian.

Tingo Mobile Plc partners with Visa as its sole card scheme

To further deepen its financial services in Nigeria and with ambitious expansions plans across Africa in the coming years, Tingo Mobile Plc today announces it has entered into an agreement with Visa Inc., the world leader in digital payments.

Tingo is a leading Agri-Fintech business in Africa and has delivered significant impact with its unique rural communities-based business model. The Company’s goal is to become Africa’s leading Agri-Fintech business, delivering significant social impact to many rural communities and providing a unique platform to enable financial inclusion, social upliftment, wealth creation and a sophisticated marketplace to promote its produce to markets both domestic and international.  Tingo has over 4,000 women agents that support the rollout of its services in Nigeria alone.  The Company remains very active in promoting women entrepreneurs to support gender equality and opportunity to this underserved segment of the market.  As of Dec. 31, 2020, Tingo had 9,344,000 subscribers. The Company is confident these figures will grow through its planned expansion across Africa and natural progression of business in Nigeria.

With the strategic partnership, the unique African Agri-Fintech company will be able to drive greater adoption and an increase in financial services offered, especially digital payments, on its platforms. Tingo operates two proprietary platforms: Nwassa, Tingo Mobile’s digital agri-marketplace platform that is better connecting African farmers with other players in the agricultural value chain; and Tingo Pay, its in-house payment platform that was recently made available to the general public.

“We are delighted to partner with Visa, the leading company in the global financial services sector. Visa has the mission of connecting the world to secure payment networks and enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive, which aligns with Tingo’s mission,” said Dozy Mmobuosi, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Tingo Inc. (OTC: IWBB), the parent company of Tingo Mobile Plc. “With this agreement, Tingo Mobile will be able to issue Visa cards (both physical and virtual) to users on Nwassa and Tingo Pay.”

Mmobuosi also highlighted that Visa will be pivotal to the expansion plan of Tingo Mobile across other African markets and beyond.

In addition to enabling the issuance to and usage of Visa cards for users on Tingo Mobile’s platforms, Visa will also be providing technical support toward enabling payments functionalities

Along with Tingo’s goal to increase financial inclusion in Africa, a vital aspect of the partnership is centred around financial education. Tingo and Visa will work together to provide knowledge and learning tools to communities, which will increase financial literacy and lead to greater financial and economic independence across the continent.

“Partnerships are fundamental to Visa’s business model, and the expansion of our strategic partnership with Tingo Mobile is another example of how collaboration can help our clients deliver improved customer experiences,” said Otto Williams, Senior Vice President, Head of Products and Solutions for Visa Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Whether it is changing the way people invest, manage money, receive loans or send real-time payments to friends and family, Visa is a natural partner for fintech companies, providing them with new ways to reach their customers through Visa’s vast network and global scale.”

For more information about Tingo Inc., visit www.tingoinc.com.  

Staircase AI, a pioneer in relationship intelligence, announced the completion of its $4 million seed round today. The company received funding from StageOne Ventures, a VC fund focused on solving large enterprise challenges, and Disruptive AI, an early-stage VC that specializes in artificial intelligence (AI).

“We are very excited that StageOne Ventures and Disruptive AI have placed their confidence in Staircase AI,” said Ori Entis, co-founder and CEO of Staircase AI. “Only an AI-based system that fuses and analyzes large amounts of customer data can provide the deep insights needed to help companies better understand, retain and grow their customers. This investment will help us scale our engineering and accelerate our go-to-market plans.”

Staircase AI uses advanced machine learning to analyze thousands of digital engagements between companies and their existing customers. It runs 24x7 to provide Customer Success (CS) teams the peace of mind knowing that it will detect anomalies and trends while providing predictions and recommendations. The system identifies whether a champion or decision-maker is putting the entire account at risk. Staircase AI will alert team members to the change, and direct them to move forward. CS leaders are trying to understand how to quickly adjust their playbooks. Without advanced data science capabilities, this is impossible.    

The company was founded by Ori Entis and Lior Harel and is based in the US with an R&D team in Israel. While managing a CS team responsible for generating over a hundred million dollars in annual recurring revenue, Entis realized he lacked visibility into both the health of the client relationship and into the relationships his team members had with their counterparts.

To improve his understanding of customer status and team performance, Entis began reading through existing correspondence and was quickly able to determine which accounts were on solid ground and which were at-risk. He worked with Harel to develop a natural language processing AI tool that could scale across hundreds of thousands of messages and automatically analyze correspondence – including sentiment, engagement, and conversation topics – from any channel.

“It is the magic of AI to disrupt the Customer Success paradigm – with superhuman capabilities over millions of data points, relationships could be managed greatly”, said Yorai Fainmesser, General Partner at Disruptive AI. “Staircase AI can help enterprises ramp up their relationships in a click, scale their ability to assess a customer, and drive annual recurring revenue to record levels.”

“Customer Success teams struggle with complex, many-to-many relationships with their clients, and lacking intelligent analytics tools, they have been unable to effectively nurture and expand their relationship to the full potential,” said Yuval Cohen, Managing Partner at StageOne Ventures. “Through relationship intelligence powered by Staircase AI, companies can determine whether they are ready to upgrade their service, maintain their existing service level, or are at churn risk.”

Staircase Relationship Intelligence (SRI) will set the bar for AI-driven customer analytics that help customer success managers gain insight into their teams’ activities. 

Product strategy milestone uses the platform to offer SaaS-delivered access services for hybrid organizations

ThycoticCentrify, a leading provider of cloud identity security solutions formed by the merger of privileged access management (PAM) leaders Thycotic and Centrify, today announced it has leveraged the power of the ThycoticCentrify platform to integrate with Secret Server, its industry-recognized privileged account and session management solution. The combination avails Secret Server customers to a range of SaaS services, establishing the foundation of modern PAM strategies and centralizing access and visibility to credentials for faster time to access, risk identification, and resolution.

ThycoticCentrify’s ‘better together’ vision of modern PAM has rapidly taken shape with its latest 21.7 release. Recognized worldwide for its ease of use and robust feature set, Secret Server takes the next step forward by integrating with the platform – a shared collection of SaaS services designed for modern hybrid organizations. Customers now have access to credentials vaulted in multiple Secret Server instances from a single portal. In addition, Secret Server can now consume platform capabilities such as enhanced remote access with VPN-less login and extensive second factors for multi-factor authentication (MFA). 

“Our platform is the foundational layer that connects ThycoticCentrify’s core vaulting and privilege elevation solutions, leveraging the similar cloud architectures of each to deliver new insights and value for modern, hybrid enterprises,” said David McNeely, Chief Technology Officer at ThycoticCentrify. “Centralizing access empowers security and IT teams to quickly access a range of accounts across multiple vaults, whether optimizing day-to-day operations or during time-critical instances such as active cyber-attacks." 

Embrace Zero Trust with fine-grained privilege elevation 

With the 21.7 release of its Cloud Suite product, ThycoticCentrify also delivers centralized, fine-grained control of access and privilege for Windows and Linux servers. With PAM policies centrally managed in the platform, organizations can scope varying degrees of privileged access that better align with job functions, allowing administrators to elevate permissions, just-in-time, to run privileged applications or commands. 

Consistent management of Linux identities across namespaces 

Unless their identity is consistent, when users log in to different Linux systems, mount central file shares, and create files and folders, the file system can deny access, affecting productivity. In the 21.7 release, when a user with a Linux profile defined in the platform logs into a Linux server, Cloud Suite ensures their correct profile attributes are associated with the session. The clients on the host systems perform user identifier and group identifier rationalization and preserve this across user sessions. Resource access is assured, avoiding a disruption in usage. 

For more information about the 21.7 release and integration of Secret Server with the ThycoticCentrify platform, read the release notes.