CryptoXpress (CX), offering one of the first consumer mobile solutions for easy, all-in-one access to crypto, banking and NFT services, today announced several new investors, launchpad, and marketing partnerships. These partners will be contributing various combinations of expertise, investment, investor relations, marketing, and access to their launchpads and communities. This comes as part of the private investment round which will support the company’s public $XPRESS token sale/initial DEX offering (IDO) and the upcoming mobile app launch.

“We are delighted with the response we’ve received from these leading players in the VC investment, DeFi and blockchain communities,” said Yogesh Panjabi, Co-founder, and CEO of CryptoXpress. “The vote of confidence in our company and solution from these new partners is immense, and we look forward to collaborating and their contributions as we get ready to launch our product and the public IDO.”

New Investor and IDO Partners include:

• Ferrum Networks 
  • Ferrum is a cross-chain Blockchain-as-a-service DeFi company, providing token utility and advisory services to help get products to market. They will be investing, taking a funding allocation, and providing introductions to their network.
  • https://ferrum.network
• Tokenova/Trustpad Launchpad 
  • Tokenova helps strategize, build, launch, and fund projects. Tokenova has invested, is taking a funding allocation, and will list CX on their launchpad, TrustPad, as an IDO partner.
  • https://tokenova.io/ https://trustpad.io/
• Maven Capital
  • Maven Capital funds, supports and advises crypto startups. They have invested, will take a funding allocation, and will provide marketing support and access to their network.
  • http://mavencapital.io/
• Faculty Group
  • Faculty Group is a collective of synergistic blockchain-native firms that provide bespoke services. Faculty Group will provide investment, take a private funding allocation, and provide market-making services to CX.
  • https://www.faculty.group/
• Nodeseeds 
  • Nodeseeds tokenizes private sales and seed rounds. They will be providing investment, taking a private funding allocation, and provide introductions to their community.
  • https://nodeseeds.com/
• Crypto Fomo 
  • Crypto Fomo is a Youtube crypto influencer with 70 thousand followers. He will be providing private investment and marketing services by highlighting CX to his channels.
  • https://www.youtube.com/c/CryptoFOMO

Who is CryptoXpress?

CryptoXpress provides a platform for all-in-one crypto and banking services through an easy-to-use mobile app. The company’s solution is geared to existing and new crypto users that want beginner-friendly and holistic access to all-encompassing crypto, NFT and banking services ecosystems. When the platform launches this fall, users will be able to buy, sell, trade crypto and fiat pairs, and also buy, sell, and list NFTs. The company’s future roadmap includes compliant issuance of UK and EU bank accounts, debit cards, and will offer direct debit services to customers.

An existing partnership through the Binance Broker Program will power the platform’s backend trading through Binance’s leading liquidity, market depth, asset management systems, and security infrastructure. A previously announced partnership with Polygon will offer cross-chain NFTs, which will be compatible with ERC20/BSC/MATIC blockchains.

The company was started in 2018 by a group of global blockchain experts and is registered and compliant in Estonia. Plans include a staged product launch to 26 countries globally.

Tradeteq and XDC Network partnership brings together industry participants to facilitate the adoption of non-fungible tokens (NFT) for real world decentralised finance (DeFi) in the global trade finance market

Tradeteq has partnered with Singapore-based eXchange inFinite (XinFin) to offer tokenised trade finance products to institutional investors and has completed its first transaction. This is the first complete end-to-end transaction following a unique set of regulatory guidelines and trade finance standards.

The offering utilises XDC Network’s enterprise-grade blockchain technology to transform trade finance assets, which are re-packaged and distributed by Tradeteq, into non-fungible tokens. Institutional investors can buy and sell these tokens, which represent the value of an off-chain asset. This gives token holders legal entitlement to an asset or package of assets.

The first transaction was conducted on 20 September 2021, with invoice finance company Accelerated Payments as the asset originator. This transaction sets the standard for all future NFT-based and tokenised trade finance transactions, with additional originators expected to join the platform over the coming weeks.

To ensure a seamless and secure migration of these assets from an off-chain product to an on-chain token, Tradeteq and XinFin have partnered with both a traditional off-chain asset custodian as well as a digital asset custodian.

The platform launch comes amidst a growing appetite from banks and institutional investors seeking to add digital assets to their portfolios, develop back-office technology and custody solutions and safely store asset-backed and native digital security tokens. It relied upon cohesive participation from corporates, banks, originators and custodians, and represents a major step forward in the tokenisation of traditional fixed income products and investment notes.

Billy Sebell, XinFin’s Head of Ecosystem, comments: “We are excited by the future potential of this ground-breaking partnership with Tradeteq. Decentralised finance represents the future and industry-wide participation relies on the development of robust, enterprise-grade infrastructure. By working with multiple institutions and stakeholders operating in the global trade ecosystem, we are laying the groundwork for the distribution of tokenised bank-owned assets in a standardised and secure manner through the XDC Network’s hybrid blockchain ecosystem. Tradeteq’s technology will be crucial to achieving this goal.”

Christoph Gugelmann, Co-Founder and CEO of Tradeteq, added: “The partnership aligns with Tradeteq’s mission to speed up the distribution of trade finance assets to a broad range of investors in the new digital age. Trade finance is undergoing a revolution and decentralised finance will have a key role to play in future. This project showcases some of the innovative work Tradeteq and its partners are undergoing in order to stay at the forefront of this rapidly-changing industry.”

Ian Duffy, Founder and CEO of Accelerated Payments, added: “The collaboration between XinFin, Tradeteq and Accelerated Payments completes the chain from investor right through to the recipient of funding with complete transparency, accountability and liquidity. This important step demonstrates the ability to disaggregate the Invoice Discounting industry and paves the way to providing access to a much wider range of funders and beneficiaries, providing a platform that can truly scale globally.”

• Year-on-year demand from restaurants for merchant cash advances up 30%

• Pubs and bars taking advances has increased by 37.5% over the last 12 months

Lender 365 Business Finance has been supporting the funding needs of the country’s hospitality industry, with the demand from restaurants for merchant cash advances up 30% year-on-year. Meanwhile, pubs and bars have shown an even greater need for flexible finance with a reported 37.5% growth* in the number of advances taken by these businesses. 

SMEs in the UK’s hospitality market are now more frequently turning to merchant cash advances as an alternative to bank loans, mainly because they are quicker to apply for and an increasingly attractive proposition for business owners when it comes to repayment, with no fixed terms or APR.

While some restaurants, pubs and bars are still getting back on their feet following the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, flexible funding that can take just 24 hours to be approved is proving to be a lifeline for many in this sector. 

However, it is not just the hospitality industry that is making the most of merchant cash advances, as 365 Business Finance has had a staggering 109% increase in funded deals over the summer, in comparison to the spring.

Managing Director at 365 Business Finance, Andrew Raphaely, said, “Despite our main customers being food retail outlets during the lockdowns, caused by the pandemic, since the spring there has been a noticeable increase in restaurants, pubs and bars taking out merchant cash advances – as they aim to refurbish and expand now that the restrictions relating to social distancing have been relaxed. 

“Over the last three to four months we have definitely seen a rise across the majority of business sectors, in terms of applications for funding from us. We put this down to SMEs in the UK now fully realising and exploring the benefits of merchant cash advances over traditional bank loans.”

This latest comprehensive guide from 365 Business Finance provides further information for restaurants, pubs and bars on merchant cash advances versus bank loans, and why a merchant cash advance might be the best funding option available now that government grants and loans are ending: 

https://www.365businessfinance.co.uk/blog/2021/09/15/finding-financing-pubs-and-restaurants-bank-loans-vs-merchant-cash-advances/. 

Recognise Bank has selected Newcastle Strategic Solutions to provide its savings account management services.

One of the UK’s newest SME banks, Recognise Bank recently launched its first personal savings accounts which included fixed rate and notice products.

The long-term partnership with Newcastle Strategic Solutions means the north-east based provider has been chosen to deliver account opening, deposit taking and account management services for all of Recognise Bank’s new retail savings products. 

Newcastle Strategic Solutions is the UK’s leading savings management platform. Recognise Bank and its customers will benefit from a robust and proven platform and services, joining a growing portfolio of UK clients. As the Recognise Bank product range is online-only, Newcastle Strategic Solutions will also provide all online and telephone support through its award-winning customer services team.

Phil Grand, managing director of Newcastle Strategic Solutions, said: “I’m thrilled to welcome Recognise Bank as our newest partner and proud that it has chosen Newcastle Strategic Solutions to provide its outsourced services.  Our focus is squarely on supporting Recognise Bank and its customers by delivering exceptional customer service and seamless online savings management, and we wish Recognise Bank every success as it expands and enhances its offer.”

Jason Oakley, CEO of Recognise Bank, said: “Launching personal savings products is an important milestone in our mission to change the face of SME banking in the UK. Not only will savers be able to choose from a new line-up of accounts, they will also know that their FSCS-protected savings are helping ambitious, small and medium-sized UK businesses, so they’re making a tangible difference to the economy and society too.

“In creating Recognise Bank we have worked with a number of hand-picked partners that offer cutting-edge banking technology, which is why we have chosen Newcastle Strategic Solutions to support us in the creation of our savings proposition. We look forward to a great working relationship, that will include the launch of business savings products later in the year.”

For more information on Newcastle Strategic Solutions visit www.newcastlesolutions.co.uk or to find out more about Recognise Bank and its new savings range, go to www.recognisebank.co.uk/savings/personal-savings  

Cornerstone FS plc, the cloud-based provider of international payment, currency risk management and electronic account services to SMEs, announces that it has expanded into the Middle East with the opening of an office in Dubai. The new office will be led by Robert O’Brien who has joined Cornerstone, as General Manager APAC and Middle East. Mr O’Brien was previously at Vorto Trading Ltd (“Vorto”), where he was the largest revenue generator and built a business line based on inward investment into the UK from Asian clients. His appointment is in line with the Group’s stated acquisition and expansion strategy set out at its IPO in April 2021.

The Group has established the new office to market its foreign exchange and international payment management services to foreign investors in Dubai and particularly to Asian investors acquiring real estate in the Emirate. The Board believes this represents a significant and expanding market opportunity owing to the increasing foreign investment in Dubai real estate, which has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and is supported by a number of government incentives. At present, the Group will not be undertaking regulated financial activity in Dubai.

Robert O’Brien brings over 15 years’ foreign exchange experience to Cornerstone. His leadership of the Dubai office is expected to deliver significant growth in the Group’s revenue. As part of his remuneration package over the first two years he will be entitled to receive share-based incentivisation based on a multiple of revenue generation and contribution to profit. This will be measured at the end of both years. In the first year, any new ordinary shares earned under this incentivisation plan would be issued at the lower of the IPO Placing Price (61 pence per share) or the average closing price of Cornerstone shares for the 20 business days prior to issue. In the second year, any new ordinary shares earned under this incentivisation plan would be issued at the average closing price of Cornerstone shares for the 20 business days prior to issue.

Robert spent the early part of his career at First Rate FX Ltd, a foreign exchange broker where he became a Director. Over the last year, he has focused on supporting customers in Asia invest in the UK.

Julian Wheatland, Chief Executive Officer of Cornerstone, said: “Dubai is a major destination for foreign investment in real estate, particularly with funds from Asia, and its appeal has been enhanced during the pandemic. Dubai also serves as a gateway to the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, making it an increasingly important centre for global FX. By establishing a presence there, we will be able to tap into this sizeable and growing market. We are thrilled that Robert has joined Cornerstone to lead our expansion into Dubai. He has an excellent track record in growing businesses as well as in marketing to customers in Asia. His appointment, along with the recent establishment of our Asia team, should also significantly increase our direct business, in line with our stated strategy. We look forward to leveraging his skills and experience to drive growth in this exciting market.” 

Robert O’Brien, General Manager APAC and Middle East at Cornerstone, added: “I am delighted to have become a part of the Cornerstone team and to be leading our strategic expansion to Dubai. It is a vibrant financial hub that is receiving a sharp rise in international investment interest, particularly in real estate. We are well-placed to support foreign businesses or individuals seeking to invest in Dubai by removing the headache of currency and payments management. Having worked as a partner of Cornerstone for a number of years, I’m familiar with the strength of the platform and I’m impressed with the dedication and ambition of the Board and management team.”    

• Sonovate named Fintech Awards Wales' ‘Fintech Company of the Year’ at 2021 ceremony in Cardiff.
• The award comes during Sonovate's busiest ever year and amidst major recruitment drive to triple size of tech team.
• Sonovate was also recently tipped to become first fintech ‘unicorn’ in Wales.

Sonovate was revealed as ‘Fintech Company of the Year’ at the Fintech Award Wales at the Tramshed Cardiff, attended by Wales’ leading innovators and digital experts.

Six companies were shortlisted for the award, sponsored by Cardiff Capital Region, with Sonovate recognised as the winner. The award recognises Sonovate’s achievements as one of the UK’s most established and scalable fintechs.

Sonovate, which provides finance and tech solutions to recruitment agencies, consultancies and labour marketplaces that engage contractors and freelancers, was also recently crowned winner of the ‘Talent Tech Scale Up Award’, supported by Deloitte, at the 2021 TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards. A panel of 20 judges attributed the win to Sonovate’s impressive growth, strong client feedback and smart purpose-led solution for the growing gig economy.

This comes as the fintech was tipped to become the first fintech ‘unicorn’ in Wales, according to a report by the UK government’s Digital Economy Council and data firm Dealroom.co.

Richard Prime, co-founder and co-CEO at Sonovate, added:

“Winning ‘Fintech Company of the Year’ is such an honour for us at Sonovate, especially from an organisation such as Fintech Award Wales devoted to celebrating the growing and talented Welsh fintech community. This recognition highlights the key role Sonovate played in keeping the contract labour market moving despite the economic shock of the crisis, providing significant benefits to an ever-growing pool of contractors and freelancers around the world.”

Sarah Williams-Gardener, CEO at membership body Fintech Wales, said:

“It’s great to be able to recognise Welsh excellence in the fintech industry – we extend a huge congratulations to Sonovate on this achievement and wish them every success as they continue to hit and surpass key milestones.

“As it stands, Wales is among the top ten clusters producing the UK’s high growth fintechs, according to the much-anticipated Kalifa Review. It’s therefore really exciting to see a Wales-headquartered fintech such as Sonovate scaling and broadening its reach across the world, helping an increasing number of businesses to pay their people on time.”

As the UK seeks to reinforce its position as a global fintech hub, Sonovate is among the Welsh fintechs supporting further growth in the sector. For Sonovate, 2020 has been a record-breaking year in terms of funding and revenue, witnessing strong growth in the 20 months since the start of the pandemic. As a result, the company has accelerated its recruitment drive in Cardiff and plans to increase its headcount from 108 to 150 by the end of the year.

• Crypto trading: Volumes account for over 10% of US equity trading with 56m active crypto traders around the world 
• Funding: Twitch, Google’s Fitbit and Kayak founders among other investors to join the $2.2m funding round as Coinrule monthly revenues hit 43% month-on-month growth in 2021 as more crypto investors get proactive 
• Ambition: Coinrule to push their no-code auto trading strategies for a wider range of financial products to help people benefit from market opportunities 

Fintech startup Coinrule which provides individual and retail cryptocurrency investors an automated crypto trading platform for their assets, has today announced a $2.2m seed funding round. A range of decorated tech founders and investors participated in the round including Fitbit founder James Park, Twitch founder Kevin Lin and a fund in which Naval Ravikant is an investor among others*. Coinrule has also joined the YCombinator S21 cohort. 

Founded in 2018, by Gabriele Musella, Oleg Giberstein and Zdeněk Höfler, Coinrule enables cryptocurrency investors to create and test automated trading strategies for their assets to benefit from market opportunities but also to protect them against adverse events. It was created with the mission to increase the accessibility of trading strategies and models, typically the preserve of investment banks and hedge funds, for anyone. In effect, Coinrule provides algorithmic trading without having to learn a single line of code. Users can access one of 4 plans: one is free, the others charge a tiered fee for Hobbyist, Trader and Pro plans.

Gabriele Musella, co-founder of Coinrule commented: “Coinrule is perfectly placed between two super trends, hyper financialization and the growth of automation in the world. We are bridging these trends to bring everyday crypto currency holders the opportunity to seize market opportunities. This funding and joining the YCombinator programme has put us in a good place to deliver our mission for financial inclusion by giving people the tools to compete in a new world of trading.”

Coinrule has grown rapidly over the last 12 months and now has over 13,000 users trading assets worth £100m every month. In any given month, users are creating over 100,000 strategies on the platform as they seek greater ownership of their assets. 

“Crypto trading volumes account for over 10% of US equity trading and there are more than 60m active crypto traders worldwide. Moreover, our insights tell us there are some 360m people owning crypto assets worldwide with 82% who are keen to act quickly to market changes but feel constrained by the lack of means to do so. The opportunity is clear and present for Coinrule to help a range of people with crypto assets to generate value and protect their assets. Over the next 5 years, we plan to expand our user base to over 2million and automate $100b in crypto trading volume” added Gabriele Musella. 

“The world of finance is changing. Up to 90% of global markets are managed by bots and run by investment banks and hedge funds, leaving the average investor with few tools to compete. Learning to trade manually is difficult and time consuming and the relative knowledge of professional and hobbyist investors is very different, and so is their access to opportunities.”

Coinrule's vision is to become an investment ecosystem that allows users to backtest strategies, copy trades from expert investors in the marketplace, find arbitrage opportunities and automatically find the best prices across exchanges. Coinrule has already integrated it’s offering with global crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Bitstamp among others. 

Gabriele Musella concluded: “The new world of finance requires levelling the playing field between regular traders and hedge funds. Until that point is reached, we will continue to innovate and increase accessibility of the Coinrule platform to all. Long term, we intend to expand into traditional assets such as stocks as well as the new field of Decentralised Finance. Adding decentralised apps to Coinrule strategies would open endless opportunities like staking coins, smart routing and trading synthetic assets. All of this will be possible from one single interface enhanced with the power of automation.”

Coinrule is uniquely positioned to become the link between the old world of finance and the new, offering an automated SaaS trading solution across all assets and platforms.

*Other investors include: Matteo Franceschetti’s Superfund (Founder of Eight Sleeps), Zilliqa Capital (a blockchain crypto fund), YC Alums Fund, Urban Innovation Fund (a Silicon Valley fund), NZVC, Startup Leadership Program (SLP Angels), CV VC, Kube VC, NV Ventures, Christophe Lassuyt, Robin Bade, Justin Hamilton, Stelios Gerogiannakis and Dan Scarfe. 

Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, today introduces WL Account-Based Payments, an account-to-account (A2A) payment offering allowing online businesses to launch their own custom-branded payment method. Worldline’s solution is built with open banking technology which allows third parties to access consumer banking information previously controlled by banks. The payment methods will feature custom branding, instant settlement notification, low fees, comprehensive coverage and more.

The solution is designed for online brands with a loyal consumer base who would consider using a brand’s own payment method at checkout. Brands who wish to adopt a different strategy can choose a more standardized setup. The solution from Worldline can be accessed through a single API allowing for a simple and swift integration offering:

• Custom branded payments: Displays company name and official logo at checkout. This way businesses can encourage consumer adoption and promote their brand to shoppers at all stages of the payment journey.
• Instant settlement notification: A speedy settlement notification assuring online businesses they can release their goods or services with confidence[1].
• Low fees: By leveraging open banking technology, WL Account-Based Payments, provides cost-effective payments.
• The most complete coverage: Gives businesses access to 20 European countries and the UK, making it the most competitive offering on the market today.

Further features include QR-code payments with one-click refunds and the setup of recurring payments at checkout is scheduled for later this year. These lead to an improved user experience and conversion rates. Worldline is launching the solution progressively throughout Europe and is continuing its expansion into high growth markets in Asia and Latin America.

“WL Account-Based Payments gives you more control over all aspects of the payment process. Custom branding, instant settlement notification and lower fees are just some benefits of this open banking product”, says Eline Blomme, Head of Product Management Digital Commerce at Worldline. “We are currently developing the solution for some big household names and are excited to see the momentum building around open banking and what it can deliver for our customers and the digital commerce ecosystem.” 

Worldline’s solution comes at an exciting time for payments as PSD2 is spurring on innovation through the open banking movement. Industry analysts are expecting massive adoption in the near future with Allied Market Research predicting a quarter of transactions to be open banking

transactions by 2026 in the EU. With the launch of this new service, Worldline is helping large online businesses adopt this new paradigm faster.

For more information on WL Account-Based Payments, please visit our website.

Crypto financial services firm Blofin has raised US$12 million in a series A2 round of financing, led by KuCoin Eco Fund, followed by Matrix Partners, Lingfeng Capital and Fenbushi Capital. In March of this year, Blofin finished a US$10 million A+ round of financing led by SIG and Matrix Partners.

At present, Blofin's current global assets under management (AUM) has reached US$150 million. As a Cayman Island registered crypto finance service agency, its proprietary quantitative database covers over 50+ exchanges worldwide through real-time data and is connected with over 200 global quantitative trading teams.

Blofin also provides crypto asset management services by focusing on small and medium sized Quantitative Hedge Funds to provide capital investments, lower trading fees, and other financial services.

With this new round of financing, Blofin will onboard more talent to develop new products and apply for more licenses globally. Blofin obtained the US federal MSB license (the last four digits are 0143) signed by FinCEN two weeks ago. Blofin is close to securing additional digital asset management licenses for Hong Kong, Singapore and other global financial centers around the world.

According to Matt, CEO of Blofin, "the funds raised will be used to bring in talents, develop new products and continue to apply for multi-country licenses."

StashAway has launched Thematic Portfolios. StashAway's Thematic Portfolios include three themes: Technology Enablers, The Future of Consumer Tech, and Healthcare Innovation. The portfolios feature ETFs from some of the world's top fund managers, including ARK Invest, iShares, Global X, and VanEck.

Since 2018, the amount of assets in thematic funds globally have grown at an annual rate of 37%. In 2020 alone, assets in thematic funds grew by 77%. And not only are thematic investments growing in popularity, but they're also eclipsing traditional equity sectors: thematic portfolios have accounted for nearly 40% of all equity fund net sales since 2017.*

What makes StashAway's Thematic Portfolios different from any other thematic offering available to both retail and institutional investors is its risk management feature: Investors select the downside they're willing to accept in a given year, and then the StashAway platform maximises the thematic exposure as much as possible within those risk constraints. "This gives investors the access to thematic investing without the risk inherent with thematic investing," says StashAway Co-founder and CIO, Freddy Lim. The remaining non-thematic assets in a portfolio are there to manage risk. "We call these non-thematic assets 'balancing assets', and their role in our Thematic Portfolios is just as important as the thematic assets."

"One key strategy to building wealth is to diversify the investments where you can capture opportunities. We're thrilled to deliver a product that both benefits our clients' long-term investment strategies and is an exciting opportunity to be a part of the industries investors believe will have the greatest impact in the future," shares Ramzi Khleif, General Manager MENA.

*https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2021/07/30/thematic-investing-grows-by-77-per-cent-in-2020/