PayU, the payments and fintech business of Prosus, has announced its collaboration with Celo, the mobile-first, open-source blockchain ecosystem focused on making DeFi accessible to anyone with a smartphone. In addition to a purchase of CELO, the utility and governance token for the Celo community, PayU has partnered with payment infrastructure company First DAG and Celo’s Alliance For Prosperity to offer stablecoin payments. With this integration, almost half a million of PayU’s merchants will be able to accept Celo’s stablecoin, cUSD. 

The move will open the doors for millions of people in emerging markets who are underserved by traditional financial institutions to easily pay for groceries, subscription services, and retail goods at participating merchants. PayU’s current merchant list spans major online marketplaces and retailers. 

PayU is one of the world’s leading online payment service providers, operating in more than 50 markets, supporting over 450,000 merchants and millions of customers across Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Stablecoins are particularly well-suited for high-growth markets like these because they provide access to USD and EUR-backed digital assets that are protected from the volatility of some fiat currencies and of cryptocurrencies more broadly. High-growth market participants can easily spend, save, and send money without needing to access traditional financial institutions or volatile local fiat.

Mario Shiliashki, CEO of PayU Global Payments Organisation said: “This move aligns with our vision of a world without financial borders where everyone can prosper. We strive to equip merchants and their customers with the latest payments solutions and this drive has led us to invest in CELO and purchase tokens, in addition to integrating the stablecoin offering for our clients and partners. As digital transactions become the norm, it is important that we equip merchants and customers with the latest payments solutions. Working with First DAG and Celo to offer a new payment option creates new opportunities for e-commerce merchants and creators, and will open new doors for users to transact freely.”

Using First DAG’s platform, which acts as a middle layer between the merchant and its bank of choice, PayU’s merchants can seamlessly accept stablecoin payments without integrating additional blockchain components. First DAG’s payment platform manages the processing rail and custodial wallet in the background, so merchants can integrate stablecoins with no additional setup. 

Ran Goldi, CEO of First DAG, said: “Innovative fintechs such as PayU are leading the evolution of payments towards digital currencies, leveraging Celo’s international network. PayU’s merchants are set to gain from minuscule fees and near real-time settlement and pay-outs.”

PayU and First DAG are also joining Celo’s Alliance For Prosperity, which enables collaborations across the technology stack and offers a way for developers to build decentralized mobile apps (dApps) that are based on Celo’s blockchain platform. They  join Opera, Deutsche Telekom, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, Gitcoin, Anchorage, and over 150 different organizations that are building and integrating payment solutions that better serve the needs of users globally. 

Chuck Kimble, Head of Celo Alliance for Prosperity, said: “This ecosystem built between First DAG, PayU, and Celo is the perfect example of how digital assets can deliver in practice on its promise to democratize access to money anywhere in the world. As more merchants come online to offer this solution, stablecoins will become commonplace, unleashing major benefits for users like near-instant global transactions.” 

Segmint, the global leader in transaction cleansing and analytics for financial institutions, announced a partnership with TokenEx, an Oklahoma-based data security company that protects sensitive data to enable critical digital operations.  Segmint has engaged the company’s Payment Tokenization Services, allowing the fintech to build its foundation for multi-channel marketing message delivery. The financial services industry no longer has to deal with the challenge of having to share sensitive data across platforms.

❝Extending our capabilities by being able to leverage secure and tokenized data to innovate new products and drive growth for our financial institution clients is a tremendous win,❞ said Ed Matis, SVP of Engineering and Data Science for Segmint. ❝Segmint does not use any PII (Personally Identifiable Information) within its ecosystem of data and analytics, and TokenEx helps further safe-guard this process, maintaining security seamlessly within our operations to bifurcate both sensitive and non-sensitive data.❞  

Segmint will extend the capacity within its Marketing Automation Platform, fueled by proprietary Key Lifestyle Indicators® (KLIs), to ultimately deliver marketing messages to virtually any channel, including email, SMS, direct mail, social media and more. Segmint’s financial institution clients can now leverage their enriched transaction data across multi-channels while maintaining both security and personalization.

First Busey Corporation, a financial holding company with $10.76 billion in assets, engaged Segmint to help deliver transformational change in data analytics. ❝Our first priority is always the data security and privacy of our clients.  The tokenization process has provided us with increased confidence in partnering with Segmint to implement data-driven business strategies while protecting client data,❞ said Mark​Trembacki, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at First Busey.

TokenEx's Data Protection Platform leverages tokenization to protect and store sensitive personal and/or payment data. Unlike encrypted data, tokenized data is undecipherable and irreversible. This distinction is particularly important - because there is no mathematical relationship between the token and its original number, tokens cannot be returned to their original form. By using TokenEx, Segmint ensures privacy protection without disrupting payments orchestration or other critical business operations.

❝Modernizing and controlling data, while maintaining its anonymity, is a requirement to operate in an increasingly privacy-focused world,❞ said TokenEx Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Alex Pezold. ❝The partnership with Segmint results in a holistic data protection offering, further extending omnichannel strategy. Their financial institution clients will now have unlimited flexibility with their data to grow revenue across multiple channels unlike ever before.❞

 Mollie, one of the fastest growing payment service providers in Europe, today announced it will be opening a development hub in Lisbon, Portugal. The office will be home to over 100 Mollies by 2023 and is part of the company’s plans to dramatically increase its product development velocity. The news comes just weeks after Mollie’s Series C round, in which it raised 665 million Euro, valuing the company at 5.4 billion Euro.

Diogo Antunes, a Senior Engineering Manager at Mollie, will manage the Lisbon Development Hub, and has set some ambitious recruitment targets. Primarily focused on software engineers and product managers, by the end of 2021 Mollie expects to have hired up to 20 people. By the end of 2022, the hub will support up to 60 staff, rising to more than 100 in 2023.

“Mollie is now one of the largest privately-held fintechs in Europe, and we have firm plans to accelerate our product development to meet the evolving needs of our 120,000+ merchant customers,” said Marco dos Santos, CTO, Mollie. “We are excited to come to Portugal, and Lisbon is a fantastic base for our new development hub, with thousands of highly talented software engineers and product managers in the region. Lisbon has a strong and rapidly growing technology ecosystem and boasts a number of world class science and engineering universities. It’s also an exciting opportunity for market expansion in the future.”

“Marco and I understand the incredible levels of both experienced and emerging engineering talent in Lisbon,” said Diogo. “I’m excited to be leading our new development hub and helping Mollie to realize its vision of becoming the most-loved payment service provider in the world.”

Mollie’s best-in-class products, simple and transparent pricing and excellent customer service, alongside its no lock-in contracts, have driven rapid, continued growth. Mollie works with partners like Klarna, WooCommerce and web agencies to deliver simple, reliable and stand-out products for SMEs, and counts Gymshark, Lyskin and Sem Escamas as customers. With the series C investment, there are plans to expand its product portfolio beyond payments into financial services for SMEs, following the arrival of Chief Product Officer Rogier Schoute in April.

Details of the roles Mollie is hiring for in its Lisbon Development Hub can be found here. Mollie will also be participating in Web Summit and WomenHack events in Lisbon in November.

 Global end-to-end payments provider Paysend announced today that more than 300,000 U.S. customers have used its platform to send digital money transfers across borders in the past three quarters.

Since the company’s U.S. launch in September 2020, digital money transfers have experienced a considerable boost backed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The market’s value was estimated at $16.3 billion in 2020 and has increased by nearly 9% to $17.69 billion in 2021. 

As a result, both Paysend’s domestic and global business activity has accelerated. For example, money transfer services experienced a 214% increase in U.S. outbound transfer activity from September 2020 – June 2021. In addition, the UK-based company recently secured a $125 million Series B funding to accelerate the expansion of its payments platform. And globally, Paysend registered more than 4 million customers for its digital money transfer services to date.

“Paysend is filling a void that has long existed in America: a low-cost, convenient method to send money to loved ones across borders,” said Matt Montes, U.S. president of Paysend. “We anticipate that our monthly double-digit customer growth will only accelerate as we announce new strategic partnerships, more remittance countries and additional services in the coming months.”

To join the over 4 million people already using Paysend to send money overseas, create a Paysend account today, and download the Paysend mobile app from the App Store or Google Play. 

State Street Corporation (NYSE:STT) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Mercatus, Inc., a premier front-and-middle-office solutions and data management provider for private market managers. The transaction is expected to be completed in September subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

In connection with the acquisition, the company will launch its State Street AlphaSM for Private Markets solution which will allow institutional investors to fully manage the entire lifecycle of their infrastructure, private equity, real estate, private debt and fund of funds investments through a fully integrated, digital front -to-back, single platform. This includes the ability to provide whole portfolio exposure to managers investing in both public and private markets.

“Investors in private markets have historically struggled with inefficient and manual processes because existing solutions are too fragmented and rigid to meet their changing investment requirements,” said Spiros Giannaros, president and chief executive officer of Charles River Development, a State Street Company. “Mercatus’s focus and solution for private markets augments Charles River’s market leading platform for public markets, enabling us to support clients across the full spectrum of their investment needs.” 

The solution will also reach across key areas such as cloud-based asset management, deal management, ESG, investor relations and portfolio monitoring allowing clients to make faster and more informed investment decisions as well as improve client service levels with better responsiveness and transparency. In addition, it will enable clients to have more granular visibility into asset and fund level data to help solve challenges caused by increased fund complexity, more sophisticated investors, the need for better transparency and regulatory obligations.

"Investors in both public and private markets are realizing the risk and inefficiencies created across their bespoke front, middle, and back office solutions," said Haresh Patel, chief executive officer of Mercatus. "We are excited to join forces with State Street and Charles River Development to achieve a new one office vision and deliver a fully integrated front to back; public to private; technology, data, and services offering all under one platform."

“Institutional investors are turning to the private markets as the hunt for alpha intensifies,” said Paul Fleming, executive vice president and global head of State Street's Alternatives Segment. “Expanding our alternative offerings will help us meet the multifaceted needs of these investors and provide our clients with even more solutions.”

Mercatus has operations in the US, UK, and India, and manages more than $1 trillion invested capital across its global private markets client base. Mercatus’s client base includes some of the most sophisticated managers in private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt.

Financial technology leader Worldpay from FIS^® (NYSE: FIS) has been selected by cryptocurrency platform OKCoin to provide global merchant acquiring and foreign exchange services to support its continued global expansion, currently spanning 190 countries.

OKCoin is a global exchange that enables customers to easily transition between crypto and fiat currency into bitcoin, ethereum and 25+ other cryptocurrencies, as well as earn yield via staking on DeFi protocols. The exchange was looking for a proven and experienced partner to make card-to-crypto payments easier for its global customers.

The exchange will leverage Worldpay’s global scale and foreign exchange services, enabling smooth credit and debit card payments for customers to purchase crypto. The partnership will help OKCoin seamlessly expand into new markets while providing superior reporting, analytics and fraud monitoring, with high authorization rates.

“Worldpay has extensive experience guiding cryptocurrency exchanges through the complexities of the global payment ecosystem,” said Jason Pavona, General Manager for North America, Worldpay Merchant Solutions at FIS. “For the past eight years, we have worked with some of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, building solutions to open up card payments and payouts to consumers using crypto exchanges. Interest in crypto currencies has never been greater and making exchanges more accessible to consumers by enabling global card-to-crypto payments is now more important than ever. “

“Our mission is to enable seamless transition between local currencies and cryptocurrencies to grow the ecosystem across the globe, and to provide intuitive products which enable our customers to participate in the crypto economy with none of the complexities,” said Jason Lau, OKCoin COO. “Worldpay’s extensive experience in the industry is helping us in that goal through card payments across all other markets. As we activate new markets and local currencies, opening up new channels of payments will play a key part in our growth, as well as the overall cryptocurrency industry.”

FIS processes over $2 trillion in transactions annually across more than 100 countries in numerous payments types and currencies. The company, which serves 5 of the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges, has recently announced a number of cryptocurrency-focused initiatives in its mission to advance the way the world pays, banks and invests.

When State Farm looked to the future needs of its customers, helping more people achieve their financial goals was paramount. Offering a better investing experience is critical to deepening the relationship State Farm agents have with customers, as well as expanding the scope of investment products and services available to State Farm customers. 

State Farm recently selected intelliflo as a partner to deliver a compelling digital investment experience for both customers and agents. This includes migrating State Farm’s brokerage business onto the intelliflo platform for easier access by agents, while at the same time providing customer self-service tools. The platform will also deliver efficiencies for agents achieved through data-driven integrations and automated digital workflows.

On a single platform powered by intelliflo, State Farm agents will be able to recommend products for both brokerage and advisory accounts using intelliflo risk mapping tools and goal-based planning capabilities to understand customers’ financial needs and preferences.

intelliflo is able to provide a comprehensive digital wealth platform for State Farm as the company was recently formed from five established financial technology companies owned by Invesco 

(NYSE: IVZ), spanning financial planning, practice management, portfolio management solutions, digital advisory, and managed services.
“Earning State Farm’s business is significant, but not just because of its size,” said Jennifer Valdez, president, Americas for intelliflo. “We saw the opportunity to be a close partner with State Farm to fully transform the agent and customer experience.”

“When we set out to evaluate what our future state needed to be for our agents and customers, we found a great partner in intelliflo,” said Sarah Mineau, vice president, Operations – State Farm Investment Planning Services.  “Their expertise in delivering digital financial services solutions resulted in a partnership that is going to positively transform how our agents serve customer needs in more ways than ever before.”

Continued Valdez: “intelliflo is able to offer the complete package for our customers, from enterprises like State Farm to banks and independent advisors. Our focus is to be a true partner for our customers, to help them achieve their business goals with a full suite of services that provide what they need to succeed.”

Hence announced today that it is now among the first start-ups globally to leverage the Palantir Foundry platform. This bolsters Hence’s already considerable capabilities in revolutionizing the relationships companies have with their external lawyers and consultants. Hence uses data and AI to help global corporations manage relationships with lawyers and consultants in real-time. This levels the playing field between clients and their providers, making the $2 trillion market for legal and consulting services more transparent. Using Foundry, Hence is able to more efficiently integrate and analyse diverse data about these providers in a scalable, secure and robust way.

“Access to Palantir Foundry further accelerates Hence’s progress toward being the unparalleled solution for helping organizations take control of their external legal and consulting relationships. Just like building our technology in Rwanda gives us unique access to an untapped talent pool, Palantir Foundry gives us unique access to a world-class platform to underpin our cutting edge software” said Steve Heitkamp, Hence co-founder and Palantir alumnus.

Hence is joining the first cohort of Palantir’s “Foundry for Builders,” an initiative dedicated to supporting early-stage companies by providing them with the Palantir Foundry platform, helping fuel their growth.

“We’re excited to expand the use of Palantir Foundry to companies that wouldn’t normally have access to our platform. As a Palantir alumnus, Steve understands the value of our technology and will be able to utilize Palantir Foundry to its full potential to bolster Hence AI’s capabilities and growth,” said Palantir COO Shyam Sankar.

Earlier this year, Hence announced the completion of a major funding round, which has enabled it to deploy its solution with a number of top global corporations. To learn more about Hence, please visit https://hence.ai/.

The world’s #1 pricing and billing software provider SunTec Business Solutions, today announced the opening of its new development center in Chennai’s Ramanujam IT City (Taramani, Rajiv Gandhi Salai).

The new center will be SunTec’s fourth base in South India with existing offices and development centers in Kochi and Bangalore apart from its Headquarters in Trivandrum. SunTec also said that it is looking to hire over 100 professionals for specialized roles in product engineering and product support across all its locations.

SunTec’s award-winning platform - Xelerate, continuous training and learning opportunities, investment in facilities and a reputed global client base makes it an employer of choice for many young engineering graduates in South India.

Nanda Kumar, CEO and Founder of SunTec said: “Over the last year, organizations globally have accelerated their digitization efforts to offer innovative offerings to customers and ensure faster time to market. As we transition into a post pandemic world, organizations will focus even more on enhancing customer journeys. At SunTec, we believe a customer-centric approach is paramount in the new world. We’re enhancing our technological capabilities and expanding our support and implementation teams to serve our clients better.  While Trivandrum continues to remain our base, our team expansion is vital as we transition to new models. Building a team with low code no code skills become crucial to offer banks the agility and scale they seek. Our platform innovation will continue to deliver unmatched value to our customers. As we equip ourselves to achieve this milestone, I am looking forward to work with our young team.”

The new development center will house new hires in SunTec’s technology and product development team. The company said that it is looking to hire both freshers and experienced tech professionals in roles like Java Developers, Support Engineers, Implementation Engineers, Project Managers and Cloud Architects, among others.

Headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, SunTec has offices in UAE, USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Singapore, Australia, and India. The company aims to strengthen its global support with a lean team based out of South India. The company currently has over 600 people across all functions and locations.

With SunTec’s global presence, it counts over 130 clients in more than 45 different countries. Seven of the world’s top 25 banks by assets are SunTec’s customers. Its product portfolio includes solutions for relationship-based pricing and billing, product rationalization, offers, deals and loyalty programs management, indirect taxation compliance and e-invoicing, among others.