A clear focus on trust and sustainability for the future of payments

Worldline today unveils its new brand identity. With its global footprint and dedication to reliability, innovation and sustainability, Worldline is focused on accelerating the development of a trusted payments industry and further shaping the way we pay, live and do business.

To reflect this, the Group’s brands will be operating under one clear banner – Worldline – and all previous brands will now be known as Worldline^[1]. The Ingenico brand, leading brand in its market segment, will continue to be used by the Terminals, Solutions & Services business line.

Announcing the launch of the new brand identity, Gilles Grapinet, Chairman and CEO of Worldline, said:

“Worldline fully supports the people, merchants, banks and institutions who process and accept payments. Every day, our expert team of ‘Worldliners’ is deeply committed to deliver trusted solutions to our clients, supporting their own growth and development ambitions in our fast-evolving digital world.

As a leading consolidator of the payments industry, Worldline has inherited the know-how, talent and creativity from the many great companies that joined us. It is now time to consolidate our rich brand portfolio and turn Worldline into a truly global brand after many years of active and successful integrations. I am proud that as we move forward, we do so with a renewed and distinctive identity that encapsulates what Worldline is and what we stand for: a strong, sustainable and trusted company dedicated to play a leading role for the future of payments in Europe and beyond, for the benefit of all its customers and the wider societies that we serve.”

Worldline brand’s evolution

For nearly five decades, the Group has grown organically and through many mergers and acquisitions, resulting in a large number of different brands under the Worldline umbrella, making the Worldline brand itself evolve through time. In parallel, the Group reached a significant milestone in its history in January 2020 when it became a fully independent company, separate to Atos, following the carve out in 2019. All Group’s brands will now be consolidated and harmonized under the same architecture and a distinctive new branding identity.

Trust at the very heart of Worldline’s new branding

Being used daily by billions of consumers, digital payments have always built and operated with a maximum focus on convenience, user-friendliness, efficiency, security and regulatory compliance. These are fundamental pillars that ensure we can always reach the highest level of collective trust in the digital payment system: trust between the payers and the payees, trust between the stakeholders of the payment ecosystem, trust in the privacy of the personal data, trust in the resilience and security of the payment infrastructures.

It is why trust has always been and will always be at the core of Worldline’s offering and is therefore at the heart of the new branding. Ensuring trusted and secure payments and transactions has been the foundation and will be the continuous element to further grow Worldline’s reputation towards its internal and external stakeholders. The Group’s new branding marks a new chapter in Worldline’s journey, bringing together the Company Purpose, values and visual identity whilst encompassing its vision.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, the Lab will serve as a global research and development center for climate conscious digital products and solutions, and support impact-driven startups and customers

Mastercard today announced the launch of its new Sustainability Innovation Lab, which will spearhead the further development of the company’s portfolio of environmentally conscious digital products and solutions. The Lab will focus on ways to empower businesses and consumers to transform how they produce, distribute and purchase products and services, ensuring both people and the planet can thrive as the global economy rapidly digitizes.  

In support of the EU Green Deal, Mastercard selected Stockholm, Sweden as the home of the global Lab – a location that has long been at the forefront of sustainable innovation, with strong consumer, political and business commitment to transitioning to a green economy.

“Fostering innovative solutions with practical applications is urgently needed to achieve global climate change goals,” says Kristina Kloberdanz, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mastercard. “As we continue to build a more sustainable digital economy, the Sustainability Innovation Lab will enable us to co-create a robust portfolio of environmentally friendly solutions, uniting everyone – businesses and consumers alike – in climate action.”

Recognizing that consumption will have to shift to a more sustainable paradigm in order to meet global carbon reduction targets, Mastercard is reimagining the future of commerce by collaborating on digital solutions designed to empower businesses, governments and billions of consumers across its network to help preserve the environment. The Lab will focus specifically on solutions that enable sustainable spending, as more consumers want to take action for the environment, as well as increase visibility and traceability across value chains for producing products that have a positive impact on both people and the planet. 

Open innovation to drive sustainable impact

Mastercard has a track record of building partnerships with startup innovators in the Nordics region, where the new Lab will be based, having most recently collaborated with the Swedish fintech Doconomy to create the Mastercard Carbon Calculator. Mastercard is also nurturing climate-focused fintech innovation through the Climate Fintech Cards & Payments Challenge and its Start Path startup engagement program.  

“Human activity has undoubtedly created the climate crisis and it's ours to fix,” says Mathias Wikström, CEO, Doconomy. “Working with Mastercard and our partners across the world, we are confident that innovation will help us address it. It is truly inspiring to see the Sustainability Innovation Lab capabilities support inclusive climate action by every bank in every market.” 

Research and development within the Lab is already underway – with dedicated Mastercard employees, startup partners and customers – and the physical space will open in spring 2022. 

The new Lab builds on Mastercard’s experience in impact-driven innovation, in areas such as financial inclusion, and will explore how technologies such as 5G, quantum and advanced AI can be applied to address environmental challenges. It will consist of an R&D Center focused on solutions for sustainable consumption and value chains; a “Labs as a Service” platform to convene partners and customers in the co-creation of sustainable shared-value solutions; and a Mastercard Experience Center for hands-on product demos and in-person engagement.

The Lab’s initial priorities include iterating on the Mastercard Carbon Calculator feature, now embedded across the company’s global network, ensuring that it is seamlessly implemented by customers – with Doconomy team members based in the Lab to support. It will also explore how Mastercard Provenance can continue to elevate transparency not only for social impact, but also environmental initiatives, such as enabling supply chain parties to make more sustainable production decisions.  

To further drive collective climate action, Mastercard continues to make progress on its pledge to reach net zero by 2050, having recently joined the 1.5 degree Supply Chain Leaders initiative to address emissions across its network of suppliers. And the company has united more than 65 partners globally as part of the Priceless Planet Coalition, which aims to restore 100 million trees.

Thunes, the Singapore-based fintech company, and a leader in global cross-border payments, today announced it has appointed Irina Chuchkina as Chief Marketing Officer and Babul Balakrishnan as Head of Customer Care. Both executive hires will be based in Singapore and support Thunes’ global growth strategy.

These appointments follow the announcement of Thunes’ acquisition of Limonetik, a European Payment Methods Platform, which complements existing Thunes’ cross-border payments solutions in 115 countries by enabling businesses to get paid in 70 countries. The announcement also follows a number of strategic hires that the company made over the last 12 months, with some of the high-profile industry experts appointed to complement Thunes’ existing strong leadership team.

Chuchkina is an accomplished Fintech marketing leader with over 15 years of experience building world-class brands on the intersection of payments and technology across Europe and Asia. She will lead Thunes’ global marketing strategy laying the foundations of competitive brand positioning, looking at supporting top-line revenue growth, and overseeing key marketing initiatives.

Before joining Thunes, Chuchkina led global brand, communications, and social media marketing for Rapyd. She was also part of Southeast Asia super-app giant, Grab, where she helped to launch GrabPay, Grab’s mobile wallet, and GrabRewards, its loyalty platform. She also spent several years with Visa, where she was part of Visa’s Innovation Centre team and led its Marketing and Communications efforts across APAC. Chuchkina also serves as an Executive Committee Member in the Singapore Fintech Association. 

“Thunes is a fast-rising star in the payments industry and I am thrilled to be joining the company at this pivotal time. I believe that the company has immense potential and I  look forward to helping Thunes grow and build a brand synonymous with cross-border payments excellence, and secure the attention and credibility that it deserves” said Irina Chuchkina, CMO of Thunes.

Balakrishnan, also known as BK, has over two decades of experience across various industries with a focus on customer service and customer experience. In his most recent role as AVP of Customer Experience Operations at StarHub, Singapore’s leading telco, Balakrishnan was responsible for back-office operations and a team of field service technicians, for the company’s consumer business. Prior to that, at DHL eCommerce, BK was the founding member of two incubation startups as well as the regional lead for Customer Experience. In his new role, Balakrishnan will work with the various business units to elevate customer care into customer experience across Thunes’ partner network, which currently spans over 115 countries. 

“Thunes is currently at an inflection point of its global growth, and I’m excited to be part of this journey. My focus will be on building and forging strong network partnerships and enhancing the experience for all our customers,” said Babul Balakrishnan, Head of Customer Care at Thunes. 

“We have built the best-in-class industry team that is growing and cementing our leadership across all core functions. And we already know that we have all the elements to support our long-term leadership – highly competitive product capabilities, an incredible network, and a strong customer portfolio. Now is a great time for us to change the way we communicate the value we create to the world, and ensure that we deliver a world-class customer experience. Irina and BK come with extensive experience in their respective fields, and their expertise will be key to accelerating our growth plans,” said Peter De Caluwe, CEO of Thunes. 

• Partnership to improve access to credit by enabling banks to quickly and easily embed and offer alternative lending options 

• iwoca’s quarterly SME Expert Index of UK brokers reveals unprecedented demand for unsecured finance

• Internal iwoca data suggests embedded finance is key to SME recovery and rebuilding economy

Open finance partnership platform, mmob, has today announced the addition of one of Europe’s largest small business lenders, iwoca, to its growing network of industry-leading third-party digital finance providers.

The partnership will enable banks and other large financial institutions to easily embed small business loan provision into their digital ecosystems and ensure they can rapidly meet the rising demand for alternative lines of credit from SMEs eager to invest in their growth post-pandemic. 

In addition, the secure processing and seamless sharing of customers' personal and account information between iwoca and mmob’s partners will significantly reduce the time small businesses need to invest in filling out lengthy forms and submitting paperwork. This will help to remove the complexity of applying for a loan and greatly increase the speed at which business owners can access much-needed lines of credit. Something banks, in particular, are well placed to leverage already having many of the relevant data points required for loan applications.

“As big banks reduce their risk appetite, we believe embedded finance is the future of SME lending,” said Colin Goldstein, Commercial Growth Director at iwoca. To that end, “mmob presents an exciting opportunity for us and a win-win for everyone involved in its ecosystem. It will ensure mmob’s commercial partners can quickly respond to the increasing demand for credit from small and medium enterprises, and enable us to further extend our reach into new sectors by embedding our solution within the financial apps and systems business owners use everyday.”

The announcement follows the publication of iwoca’s quarterly SME Expert Index of UK brokers which found that demand for small business loans is rising rapidly. According to iwoca’s Index, over a third (38%) of brokers had submitted more lending applications for unsecured finance in May this year, compared to the four weeks prior. Further, internal iwoca data suggests half of applications through embedded finance partners receive faster decisions and are 58% more likely to convert than direct applications.

“Banks and traditional finance institutions face increasing competition from the new wave of digital challengers who can more readily meet the demand for digital services,” said Irfan Khan, CEO, mmob.  “Our partnership with iwoca is a perfect example of how we are helping financial institutions to efficiently and effectively bridge the gap into complementary services that will help build defensibility against digital competitors by keeping account holders engaged, and driving retention and revenue amongst their key market segments. There has never been a better time to grab the opportunity offered by embedded finance.”

mmob’s open finance platform eliminates the complexity, time, and resources financial service providers need to select and deploy partner-driven services. Through its API, banks and large established fintechs can quickly and easily connect to mmob’s network of third party partners and gain rapid access to new verticals, using just one line of code. Embedding partnerships that once took weeks or months can now be achieved in days.

• Using artificial intelligence (AI), RegAssure understands the compliance needs of small to medium sized financial institutions and delivers the regulations and insights that matter to those the most, fast.

• Stay ahead of the curve on what regulations are coming that will impact your organisation and what obligations you need to be compliant with and when.

• For one person compliance hero’s and small compliance teams RegAssure provides a new way to tackle compliance head on reducing risk and workload.

CUBE, a global RegTech company working to simplify compliance for the world’s financial institutions, has launched RegAssure, a groundbreaking product that provides automated regulatory intelligence to small and medium sized financial institutions. 

Drawing on 10 years of experience, CUBE has developed RegAssure specifically to cater for nimble, lean financial organisations and FinTechs looking for effective compliance without the set-up costs and lengthy implementations. RegAssure has been developed to provide instant access to meaningful, relevant regulatory information that enables those working in compliance to get the job done, in a fraction of the time it would normally take. 

Until now, small and medium-sized financial organisations have relied on manual processes to manage regulatory change, which is both inefficient, time consuming, and can expose organisations to regulatory blind spots. RegAssure offers an automated but simple alternative, harnessing artificial intelligence to quickly understand an organisation’s business profile and deliver the regulatory intelligence that matters, at the touch of a button.

Ben Richmond, CEO and Founder of CUBE, “In working with the largest financial institutions across the globe we have put our automated regulatory intelligence to the test in the most demanding environments. We wanted to take that experience and build something specifically for those that have limited budgets and resources to meet their compliance requirements. That’s what we have achieved with RegAssure, which has been founded with a single goal in mind – to provide fast, automated regulatory intelligence that intuitively knows what matters to each organisation and the people within it.”

RegAssure is designed to evolve with companies and is underpinned by a simple user interface, enabling growing financial institutions to quickly begin using and benefitting from new capabilities without the impediment of business or technical complications.

The result is a highly flexible, instantly accessible regulatory alerting, inventory and analytics capability that provides fast, automated regulatory intelligence and one source of the truth that can be relied upon.

Molitor joins Kneip to drive its technology and operational strategy and support the next phase of the company’s expansion

Kneip, the global leader in fund data management, is today announcing that it has appointed Cyril Molitor as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). Molitor brings 20 years’ industry experience, having occupied several senior positions at leading financial services institutions, including HSBC, Credit Suisse and AXA. He was most recently the CEO of Woven, a leading outsourcing provider, where he drove technological innovation and delivered service excellence to its clients. Prior to this, he was the Chief Transformation Officer and Director at Innovation Group Business Services, a leading InsureTech company which he set up in South Africa. Molitor is an experienced and accomplished leader with an impressive background in driving innovation and running operations in financial services and private equity backed businesses. He graduated from Reims Management School with an MSc in Management. 

Based in Kneip’s Luxembourg office, Molitor will be responsible for Operations and Technology. In his capacity he will be driving the company’s operational strategy. He joins Kneip as a member of the Executive Leadership Team, reporting to the CEO, Enrique Sacau.

Commenting on his appointment, Cyril Molitor, Chief Operating Officer of Kneip says: “This is a truly exciting time for me to be joining Kneip. Over nearly three decades, Kneip has built a world class reputation for delivering innovative products and solutions for some of the biggest names in the fund industry. I am thrilled to be joining an ambitious executive team, and I look forward to delivering outstanding client experience and building the structures that will support the next stage of Kneip’s expansion.”

Kneip’s CEO, Enrique Sacau commented: “Cyril’s appointment reflects our commitment to innovate and deliver exceptional service for our clients. We are thrilled that he is joining our team at an important time in our company’s development as we embark on the next stage of Kneip’s growth. His impressive track record in operations and technology gives Cyril the perfect experience to drive innovation and deliver high value to our business and to our clients.”

With Molitor’s arrival, Kneip’s current COO, Mario Mantrisi, who had stepped in the role a year ago, becomes responsible for market development with an emphasis to grow Kneip in new markets. As the newly appointed Strategy Director, Mantrisi retains his role as a member of Kneip’s Executive Leadership Team.

Kneip’s CEO, Enrique Sacau, says: “Mario took over Client Services last year and leaves Cyril a transformed operation. Thanks to his exceptional knowledge of our product, our clients, and our regulatory environment he will now have the opportunity again to grow Kneip.”

Cyril Molitor, Chief Operating Officer of Kneip

The all-in-one loyalty e-wallet app is set to launch with 100+ international brands on board

Swapi, a brand-new loyalty e-wallet platform, has today announced it has closed its latest funding round at £860k ahead of its launch later this month.

This new injection of funds will help bring the app to market, while ensuring a strong customer experience as well as providing the means to expand the Swapi’s growing team. Swapi has today announced the appointment of Carolina Paradas-Mandato, previously Global Senior Affiliates & CLO Manager at Harvey Nichols, as its new Head of Strategic Partnerships. Carolina will be in charge of expanding Swapi into new and exciting international territories as well as handling all affiliate relationships with the 100+ brands working with Swapi.

Swapi has been cultivating funds from a variety of backers since incorporating last year, including private investors, a crowdfunding round as well as considerable investment from Trampoline Ventures, which has invested in other exciting names in the tech industry such as Gousto, Mediquo, a Spanish and Latinamerican telemedicine platform, Argentinian crypto currency payments platform Lemon Cash and Singaporean BNPL start-up Octifi. 

Swapi’s pre-seed round will also be used to ensure the Swapi app is fit for a global roll-out early in the new year, with the team eager to revolutionise not just the British retail experience but kick-start a worldwide evolution of more rewarding retail loyalty.

As modern retail loyalty options and schemes continue to leave customers feeling deflated with poor builds, meagre rewards and incompatibility with other brands, The team at Swapi believe that a change is needed to help retailers bounce back from the pandemic as well as providing customers with attractive loyalty options for the future.

Swapi is on a mission to revolutionise loyalty for the better when it launches next month by providing British consumers with an all-in-one e-wallet for their payment and loyalty cards, as well as providing customers and retailers alike with a brand-new currency called ‘Swapi Points’ to spend on rewards, coupons and discounts on the app, irrespective of which retailer the customer has accrued their points with.

By collecting Swapi Points with a host of leading retailers, hotels, airlines and more, customers can then spend their loyalty points in a way that suits their needs and lifestyle. 

For Swapi’s founder and CEO Pete Howroyd, this funding is another clear affirmation that the retail loyalty industry is calling out for innovation and renovation:

“Everyone at Swapi is ecstatic with the amount we have managed to raise during this pre-seed round. As we get ready to launch this Autumn, the funds are already proving vital to making the app the best it can be, as well as bringing in fantastic new additions to the team like Carolina, who we are delighted to welcome to the team. With Carolina’s experience, we’re confident we can bring globally-recognised brands onto the Swapi app as we prepare to revolutionise the retail loyalty environment for the better.”

Leading UK anti-money laundering specialist SmartSearch has appointed a new in-house general counsel to provide expert guidance on legal issues affecting the business.

Nicola Gifford has joined the rapidly growing regtech specialist, and will oversee the firm’s corporate governance. With over 28-years working at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and HSBC, Gifford brings a vast amount of experience to the role.

SmartSearch’s industry-leading product ensures compliance for regulated businesses in the UK and internationally, therefore Gifford’s expertise is essential to ensure SmartSearch is ahead of the constantly evolving data protection and money-laundering legislation.

Part of Gifford’s responsibilities will be to help further enhance the SmartSearch team’s knowledge so they can have informed conversations with clients. By putting on regular training sessions, each member of the SmartSearch team will improve their knowledge so they can speak to clients on areas such as GDPR and data protection.

Gifford explained: “Being part of SmartSearch in this new role that has been created, means I can integrate myself fully in the business and find innovative solutions to problems.

“Working in-house means I’m available to be involved in conversations day-to-day, for example helping the team deal with customer queries, developing contracts for suppliers and clients, and supporting on the development of new products.

“One of the parts of my role I enjoy most is upskilling and equipping everyone in the business to prepare them with the knowledge they need to do their roles more effectively.

“In addition to the improving the overall expertise of everyone in the business, I also want to start consulting with other compliance professionals so we can have a voice on codes of conduct and the direction digital verification takes in the future.”

For more information about anti-money laundering solutions in the UK, please visit www.smartsearch.com

THG Ingenuity takes a stake in Civo to leverage Civo’s newly launched managed cloud-native Kubernetes platform. The platform will enhance THG Ingenuity’s technology offering

Civo, the first pure-play cloud-native service provider, and THG plc (THG), a global technology platform that specializes in taking brands direct to consumers, together announced that THG Ingenuity, the technology Division of THG, has invested £1.4 million to take a minority stake in Civo. Civo’s developer-focused Kubernetes platform will strengthen and accelerate the development of the technology stack that underpins THG Ingenuity, its cutting-edge proprietary technology platform.

The deal is THG Ingenuity’s first strategic investment since it announced in May 2021 that Softbank Group had invested $730 million in THG with an option for a further $1.6 billion investment in THG Ingenuity, THG’s cutting-edge proprietary technology platform.

The funding comes at an important phase of growth for Civo as it creates the go-to platform for building cloud-native Kubernetes applications. The platform offers a wealth of simplified capabilities for building scalable zero-downtime e-commerce applications that bolt onto THG Ingenuity.

Civo is currently the fastest managed Kubernetes provider in the world, with a fully usable cluster deploying in under 90 seconds. It’s also the first production-ready K3s platform, the super-efficient Kubernetes distribution that focuses on speed, simplicity and reduced overhead.

As part of the investment, THG Ingenuity becomes Civo’s exclusive datacentre hosting & Enterprise sales partner, accelerating the global rollout of Civo regions to data centres and large development teams around the world.

Mark Boost, CEO & co-founder at Civo, said: “We are delighted to announce THG’s investment which will bring Civo’s technology to more people around the world as we grow our capabilities.

“THG Ingenuity is the leading global platform for end-to-end digital commerce, and I’m proud that Civo technology will now strengthen its cutting-edge technology stack and help brands create frictionless digital experiences for their customers."

“For too long hyperscalers have oversold and underdelivered with shocking cloud bills. THG has already proven that there is a better way forward, delivering a global e-commerce solution that drives down cost. Core to this plan is infrastructure, and core to that infrastructure is Civo – a platform that is leading the way for a cloud-native future.”

John Gallemore, CEO of THG Ingenuity said, “We built THG Ingenuity to remove the burden of multi-partner relationships and complex software and infrastructure. In turn, THG has sought best-of-breed partners that help us create the most seamless, effective, and scalable direct-to-consumer retail models in a single, digital platform.

“With Civo we have found the future of home-grown UK cloud-native innovation. Civo is a fast and developer-friendly platform for accelerating our digital commerce roadmap. We are delighted to invest in Civo and to support the next phase of growth of this impressive technology success story.”

*Note to editor: THG Plc will take a 9.4% stake in Civo, at a £12.6 million pre-money valuation (c. $17.4 million at the time of writing)

Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, will offer a programme combining innovation, new technologies and insights on the payments’ key trends at Money 20/20 Europe, to be held in Amsterdam on September 21-22-23, 2021.

ON STAGE

Worldline experts will be on stage to discuss the payments trends that shape the world.

21 September

·        Gilles Grapinet, Chairman and CEO of Worldline // What would a payments infrastructure that combines regional sovereignty and global convenience look like? (14.30 CET)

Learn more about the session & other speakers

·        Nicolas Kozakiewicz, Innovation Executive Advisor at Worldline // What should the new money value chain look like? (11.45 CET)

Learn more about the session & other speakers

22 September

·        Gilles Grapinet, Chairman and CEO of Worldline // How personalised is it possible to make a retail experience? (12.05 CET)

Learn more about the session & other speakers

23 September

·        Giulio Montemagno, SVP & General Manager at Worldline // “How can we empower D2C companies to deliver extreme personalisation at scale?” (10.20 CET)

Learn more about the session & other speakers

WHAT WE’LL SHOW

On Worldline’s booth, the Group’s teams will present their latest solutions that shape the new ways we pay, live and do business.

Digital banking security // For an innovative and trusted digital world, Worldline will present some of its latest solutions & innovations: Behavioural Continuous Authentication, Stablecoins, Green Banking, Digital Issuing, Account-Based Payments and Mobile Biometry.

New ways of payments // Customers need fast & seamless experience, self-service & autonomous journeys. Worldline solutions - Scan & Pay, Face Recognition, Autonomous Store with Smart Lockers and our Next-Generation Terminals - can help them achieve this journey successfully.

New tools for merchants // Worldline will display its automated and omnichannel tools that generate efficient and complete front & back-office services: Bill Pay & Match, Omnichannel Reporting and tools to manage Next-Gen Terminals like Terminal as a Service and Payments Platform as a Service.

WORLDLINE’S E-PAYMENTS CHALLENGE: APPLY AT OUR MONEY 20/20 BOOTH!

The e-Payments Challenge is Worldline’s co-creation programme. During this annual collaborative forum that will be held in January 2022, Worldline’s customers work together with fintechs, tech start-ups and Worldline experts to create solutions which will shape the payments of tomorrow.

More than 10 challenges have been proposed by Worldline customers until date and currently a call for applications is open for the tech companies to apply.

At Money 20/20, our expert will be available on our booth to meet all who are interested to learn more. More information is available here.