Kennet Partners Limited (“Kennet”), a leading European technology growth equity investor focused on bootstrapped and capital efficient companies, has agreed to sell its stake in Dext (formerly ReceiptBank), the digital, multi-product platform for accountants and bookkeepers, to Hg, a leading global software and services investor. The sale will provide Kennet with a 4.4 times return on its investment. 

Kennet was the first institutional investor in Dext and acquired its stake in the company in 2016. The sale of Kennet’s stake in Dext comes after a record-breaking financial quarter following its rebrand (from Receiptbank) earlier this year.  

Over the last five years, funding from Kennet and subsequent investors including Insight Ventures, has helped Dext to build a world class management team, to accelerate its capabilities to support customers in their digitisation of accounts and book-keeping, and to expand internationally. Dext now supports over one million users in 242 countries and has digitised over 408 million pieces of paper. The company currently processes millions of financial documents per week.  

Hillel Zidel, Managing Director, Kennet Partners, said: 

“As the first institutional investors in Dext back in 2016, we saw the potential and opportunity to build a market leading position in the bookkeeping automation category. Dext’s capital efficiency, business model, strong foundations and ethos is exactly in line with Kennet’s investment strategy. We wish Adrian and the team the best of luck on the next stage of what will continue to be a great journey.”

Adrian Blair, CEO, Dext, said: "As an original backer of Dext, Kennet have played a key part in our growth to over 1 million users.  Our record-breaking start to 2021 is testament to the stewardship that Kennet and our investors have provided."

The announcement follows Kennet’s recent successful exit from Nuxeo which saw Kennet realise more than 5x return on its investment. 

On April 21^st a new accelerator programme is being launched in the UK to help organisations around the world succeed in the new economy after lockdown in ways that are both good for people and good for the planet.

The Build Back Better Accelerator will support leaders of financial services organisations launch new and more sustainable products at a rapid pace, as well as investing in new start-ups and ideas independently.

The accelerator has been developed by Label Ventures, a global consulting and investment company headquartered in Edinburgh. The concept of accelerators is well established in the tech world as a way to take founders through the steps involved in starting and scaling a company at pace. The Build Back Better Accelerator will use similar techniques to help leaders of brands, and public sector institutions, move with the urgency of a tech founder as they face into the challenge of creating businesses that are high growth but have a low environmental footprint and are high in social impact.

“As the economy comes back to life, we all have a rare opportunity to make change happen” says Label Ventures partner, Nick Sherrard. “However, we simply won’t see progress made if we do not work in new ways. The lifting of lockdown restrictions gives us a rare opportunity to reset the way we do things, and we have to be ready to take advantage of that.”

“What holds leaders in FS back in making change happen is a mixture of issues in strategy and execution. Thinking through where the issues are in your company, and how to change them, can be quite mystifying. Then when it gets to actually building new products and services it is easy to fall back into your old habits, and frankly move too slowly when the market wants to see change happen more rapidly. That’s why we are approaching this as an accelerator.”

The programme itself takes leaders through a 6-week process to blueprint out how their strategies, products and ways of doing business may be able to build back better. Label Ventures has constructed a network of over 40 specialist studios drawn from the UK, US, Europe and Australia, who can input to this process. The goal is that at the end of the programme companies can either secure investment themselves and/or the Label will invest alongside them to execute significant programmes of change.

Organisations can join the accelerator in two ways. They can either book in for an informal online discussion of the programme with the team, or they can access a more detailed diagnostic session that will identify where their organisation is currently blocked from building back better and find initial opportunities to change this. Both can be accessed through label.ventures/build-back-better-accelerator

Don Guo, CEO of Broctagon

“This move comes as no surprise. While China initially ignited this fire, we've seen it now spread to nations such as the UK who has now become the latest example of those acknowledging the inherent advantages of digital tokens. Should this taskforce lead to further developments, the UK – and any other country who can correctly implement a CBDC –  will benefit as it will have a currency which is completely borderless, efficient and immutable. 

"The endorsement of digital currencies by the Government is poised to increase the popularity of the wider crypto industry. That said, its growth will be limited if the space does not address existing underlying issues quickly. This rise in attention should serve as a wake-up call for the industry to prioritise liquidity provision through enhancing crypto infrastructure. This will ensure both old and new traders consistently have access to the best prices and that the industry reaches the next level of maturity." 

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions announced that it won four accolades at the 2021 Global Banking & Finance Awards®. The recognition came in the Business Technology category with LexisNexis Risk Solutions winning Best Anti-Fraud/Security Solutions Provider in the Asia Pacific, Latin America, United States and Western Europe regions.

The Global Banking & Finance Awards has spotlighted companies of all sizes across the financial industry for innovation, achievement, strategy and inspirational change since 2011.

Fraud and identity management solutions from LexisNexis Risk Solutions utilize passive and active fraud controls to help customers optimize the consumer experience at every touchpoint. Its solutions provide organizations a complete view of identity by incorporating physical, digital, device and behavioral intelligence for successful risk mitigation and fraud prevention.

“The past year forced the banking and finance industry to greatly accelerate digitization plans and our solutions helped our customers mitigate fraud risk during this time of rapid change,” said Stephen Topliss, vice president, global fraud and identity strategy at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “We must constantly work to innovate our solutions to keep pace with fraudsters that are continually changing their tactics. Winning Best Anti-Fraud/Security Solutions at the Global Banking & Finance Awards after such a challenging year and across four regions is a testament to the strength and versatility of our fraud and identity solutions.”

LexisNexis Risk Solutions continued to innovate its fraud and identity solutions through the launch of several new products and solutions in the past year:

• LexisNexis® Emailage® is a fraud risk scoring solution fueled by email intelligence to help companies balance a seamless user experience with fraud detection and prevention capabilities.
• LexisNexis® Behavioral Biometrics integrates the way a user interacts with their device with information relating to the trustworthiness, integrity and authenticity of that device to improve the detection of high-risk fraudulent activities.
• LexisNexis® Fraud Intelligence is a non-FCRA solution that helps organizations mitigate new account fraud risk by bringing together identity assessment and consumer application activity to arrive at a comprehensive non-FCRA score that offers a more complete view of an identity. 

Learn more about the company’s suite of fraud and identity management solutions.

ION, the largest global provider of trading, analytics, and risk management solutions for capital markets, commodities, and treasury management, announced that Marex, has chosen the ION Fidessa Equity Trading Platform to grow their European equity market making business. 

Marex is a leading broker, market maker and clearer in the world's financial and commodities markets. A market leader across the metals, energy and agricultural commodities markets, the firm is now looking to expand their equities offering in Europe. 

Paolo Tonucci CFO and COO of Marex commented: “We’ve been partnering with the ION team since 2006 for our global commodities franchise and they were the logical choice for us as we expand into equities market making.  The ION Fidessa trading platform is a market leader in the equities space and is very much the platform of choice for the industry”.

Justin Hobday, ION Markets Equities Chief Technical Officer, added, “We’re delighted that Marex has chosen our solution to introduce their Equities offering in Europe, providing institutional and RSP services”.

ION’s Fidessa Equity Trading Platform delivers an award-winning equities platform comprising comprehensive market making tools, access to the RSP network, and trading and risk tools in one unified solution with a strong focus on automation, simplicity and reliability.

Global enterprise software firm R3’s Development Fund has reached the milestone of USD 10 million in capital deployed across over 30 investments in more than 20 of the most promising early-stage blockchain and confidential computing companies.

The Fund invests in innovative start-ups building apps on R3’s enterprise blockchain platform, Corda, and its new confidential computing platform, Conclave. The Fund launched in 2019 to support firms leveraging blockchain for global commerce and to further establish R3’s presence in financial services, trade finance, insurance and digital assets. 

Key achievements of the Fund to date include:

• 30+ investments to date, across ~20 companies in financial services, trade finance, insurance, digital assets, and other sectors.
• Total capital deployed to date is ~USD 10 million, with more than sufficient funding to continue investment activity in 2021 and beyond. 
• Received 250+ inbound investment opportunities since inception.

With the launch of Conclave, the Fund expanded its investment thesis to include promising start-ups building with confidential computing software. While the Fund’s core goal is to further the adoption of Corda and Conclave in R3’s core markets, it takes an opportunistic approach in other non-core segments such as digital advertising, media, healthcare and more.

The Fund’s portfolio companies show significant progress in both product and business development. In Q3 and Q4 of 2020, during the height of COVID-related economic turmoil, nearly a third of the Fund’s portfolio companies marked up their valuation through either equity or convertible loan note fundraises. The portfolio valuation is now at a historic highwater mark.

R3 leads the largest enterprise blockchain ecosystem in the world, comprised of hundreds of firms building and deploying applications on Corda, as well as institutions collectively exploring and embracing its technology to solve real-world problems. The Fund’s positions, a select subset of these firms, are all building forward-thinking, use-case specific enterprise products and solutions on Corda.

In addition to its financial capital, the Fund devotes significant human capital resources to help advance portfolio companies with Go-To-Market assistance, legal and regulatory insights, technical consultation and a robust co-investor community. 

David E. Rutter, CEO at R3, said: “R3’s strength is derived from its community, which includes a diverse range of start-ups from a myriad of industries – from insurance to education, supply chain finance to payment messaging – building and deploying apps for customers across the globe. The R3 Development Fund is already known in these industries as an expert strategic investor with a strong track record in backing the most promising early-stage companies."

“As ever at R3, collaboration is a key pillar of the Fund’s work. Now, more so than ever before, we recognise the importance and value of partnership and work very closely with all of our portfolio companies to provide support across a multitude of aspects, from fundraising to product and business development. We are excited to see so many of them going from strength to strength.”

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today published a white paper examining how capital markets operations responded during the COVID-19 pandemic and where market participants are focused in a post-pandemic future.

In a new white paper, “Managing through a Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on Capital Markets Operations”, buy and sell-side firms reported that, while their post-trade operations (Ops) and operations technology (OpsTech) proved largely resilient during the pandemic, several key challenges emerged as market volatility surged throughout 2020. The study was conducted with research assistance from McKinsey & Company, and was based on insights from Ops and OpsTech professionals at 35 buy and sell-side firms. The top areas of focus highlighted were:

• Cash fixed income and cash equities were most impacted by the pandemic-induced market volatility, with 30-35% of firms across the buy-side and the sell-side reporting operational post-trade processing challenges in these asset classes.
• From a processing perspective, settlements/payments and collateral/valuations were impacted the most, with 58% of sell-side firms reporting challenges in settlement and payments during the peak of the pandemic.
• Buy-side firms typically experienced less disruption to post-trade processes than sell-side firms due to simpler operational models, with the sell-side reconciling breaks and settling trades across hundreds of counterparties.
• The sudden transition to a work-from-home operating model was achieved almost seamlessly, and in most cases within a matter of days, due to the ability to implement tactical changes to operating models. 

Respondents cited that efforts made in recent years to re-engineer and automate processes and upgrade technology platforms were the main reason for firms’ resilience during the pandemic and their ability to manage an unusually prolonged business-continuity planning (BCP) event. A significant majority of respondents stated that the pandemic validated their Ops priorities and investment plans.

Michael Bodson, President & CEO at DTCC, said: “During, and in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry remained resilient, with buy and sell-side firms working seamlessly to support unprecedented volumes and ensure uninterrupted trading for clients and underlying investors. However, opportunities remain for further optimizing post-trade processes across the capital markets.”

The survey highlighted that while the pandemic did not create an impetus for change in Ops and OpsTech due to largely resilient operations, a consensus emerged around where firms should focus next:

• Sell-side and buy-side firms are aligned on the need to further simplify and standardize a sub-set of post-trade services which were hardest hit. For the sell-side, these include making enhancements to reconciliations and confirmations capabilities, while the buy-side prioritized an increased focus on fails and collateral management.
• More than half of firms who responded to the survey plan to increase capacity, build new capabilities or re-engineer post-trade processes. 
• Respondents highlighted the need for a continued focus on shortening settlement cycles due to the impact of the unprecedented trading volumes and volatility on liquidity and margin. More than 50% of firms plan to increase capacity in support of these processes.
• The stigma around working from home and productivity no longer exists, with many firms planning to retain part of the remote and flexible working model post-pandemic across post-trade operations. 

Bodson added: “As the impact of the pandemic continues to unfold, firms must keep their focus on delivering continued improvements to efficiency, while reducing risk. At the same time, to unlock new sources of value and remain relevant to clients, a focus on innovation will be essential. The industry will need to embrace collaborative approaches, common processes, best practices and deploy operating models that continue to meet the evolving needs of market participants.”

Integration of Mastercard Send™ provides the ability to transfer funds to debit and prepaid card accounts

As the demand for quick, secure, and easy digital payments solutions continues to grow, Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) announced today that it has expanded payment options for Citi® Payment Exchange institutional clients through the integration of Mastercard Send™. Citi’s corporate and public sector clients in the United States can now leverage Mastercard Send to send funds directly to a consumer debit or prepaid card account. Citi is the largest global treasury bank to implement Mastercard Send.  

Citi® Payment Exchange provides Citi commercial clients with the ability to send Business-to-Consumer (B2C) payments via their customers’ preferred method of payment. It also incorporates payee enrollment services, a payee database, online payment preference management, an administrative platform, dedicated support, bank-grade data security and storage all in one.

By leveraging various electronic payment options, including ACH and now near real-time payments to debit and prepaid card accounts, organizations can simplify and help reduce payment costs while providing an exceptional and brand building user experience for their clients. 

“We are pleased to offer our clients more choice when making payments to their consumers,” said Alberto Casas, North America Head of Payments and Receivables, with Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions. “In today’s world, consumers expect choice and offering customers a broader mix of payment options can provide a significant competitive advantage.” 

In the United States, Mastercard Send reaches virtually all consumer and small business debit cards, delivering a quick and enhanced consumer experience. Consumers won’t need to receive a check in the mail, deposit a check, or share sensitive bank routing information. In addition, they will benefit from near immediate access to funds.

“Mastercard is creating a future where payments keep pace with the way that we live, work, and do business, and we’re proud to be working with Citi to deliver Mastercard Send to their customers,” said Chiro Aikat, Executive Vice President, North America Products & Innovation at Mastercard. “Expanding our long-standing relationship with Citi allows us to provide more corporate and public sector organizations with game-changing services to transact in near real-time and with certainty.”

The expanded Citi Payment Exchange capabilities are available now to corporate and public sector clients in the United States. 

Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) enables clients' success by providing an integrated suite of innovative and tailored cash management and trade finance services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations across the globe. Based on the foundation of the industry's largest proprietary network with banking licenses in over 90 countries and globally integrated technology platforms, TTS continues to lead the way in offering the industry's most comprehensive range of digitally enabled treasury, trade and liquidity management solutions.

Mastercard Send allows people and organizations to send and receive money how, where and when they choose. Mastercard Send plays a key role in diversifying Mastercard’s payment flows and enhancing payment experiences for customers.

buguroo, a pioneer in behavioral biometric based online fraud prevention, today announced it is changing its name to Revelock to reflect the company’s commitment to not just reveal fraud, but also preemptively respond to and block attacks. Revelock’s mission focuses on dramatically advancing the fight against fraud by leveraging behavioral biometrics and hybrid AI to “Know Your User” (KYU), continuously verify their BionicID™ digital fingerprint and prevent account takeover by RATs, zero-day malware, bots, phishing and social engineering scams.

“Losses due to stolen personally identifiable information and credentials will grow to $635.4 billion USD by 2023” said Aite Group Research Director, Julie Conroy. “Revelock’s innovative account takeover solution can help financial institutions keep pace with the constantly evolving threats, and achieve their goals to stay top-of-wallet, improve operational efficiencies and reduce fraud.”

“We were pioneers in using behavioral biometrics to fight fraud,” said Pablo de la Riva, CEO & Founder, Revelock. “This is a major milestone for the company as we once again lead the industry with an active defense approach and automation of both fraud detection and response.”

The company has also announced a new Advisory Board, made up of industry veterans in digital identities, payments, fraud and financial crime.

“Fraud teams need a proactive, “always on” platform to prevent tenacious adversaries from taking over user accounts,” said Monica Pal, cybersecurity industry veteran and Revelock Advisory Board Chair. “Revelock provides a continuous, adaptive solution to silently verify authentic users while blocking bad actors again and again, making it too frustrating and expensive for these attackers to continue their attempts.”

The company also unveiled the Revelock Fraud Detection & Response (FDR) Platform, updating and enhancing capabilities to protect against more threats and further reduce the operational costs of fighting fraud. Find out more.

"Revelock's focus on training their hybrid AI systems with behavioral biometric signals to "Know Your User" is a game changer in the industry," said Alex Doll, General Partner Ten Eleven Ventures. "At every sign-in, the Revelock platform quietly and continuously interprets new user signals, allowing banks to verify customers without impacting their digital experience. Bad actors can also be identified, giving security teams full visibility and enhanced defense capabilities. It's a powerful new tool in the fraud-fighting arsenal and one that we are very excited to help bring to market."