Nigerian fintech platform and Open Finance (API Economy) pioneers, Okra, have secured a $3.5m Seed raise. The round was led by US-based Susa Ventures, with participation from existing investors TLcom Capital, and newly joined Accenture Ventures. This comes just under a year from closing its $1m pre-Seed round with only TLcom Capital participating in the round. This brings Okra’s total funding at seed to $4.5m. The capital will be deployed to expand Okra’s data infrastructure across Nigeria.

Founded by Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside in January 2020, Okra’s Open Finance platform is the digital transformation tool for businesses in Africa and its API enables developers and businesses to build personalized digital services and fintech products for customers. Since launch, the fintech infrastructure company has provided its services to high calibre financial institutions, startups, and government agencies including Interswitch, Access Bank, uLesson, Aella App (YC W17) and over a 100 digital-first platforms. In just under a year from launch, the fintech infrastructure company has seen an avg. month-on-month API call growth of 281%. In addition, the company has analyzed 20M+ transactions and analyzed over 5.5M transaction lines in March 2021 alone. 

Fara Ashiru Jituboh, Okra co-founder and CEO/CTO says, “We build the tools that businesses need to achieve full digital transformation and we are excited to be welcoming some highly strategic global investors as we scale our Open Finance-as-a-Service operations. The opportunities to collaborate and grow together are significant and we are now in a strong position to continue to build and scale in the African, and global API space.” 

David Peterside, Okra co-founder and COO says, “The companies that will dominate the business landscape over the next decade are prioritizing a digital-first experience for their customers today — and will leverage data & personalization to win market share over time. We share the same vision on Open Finance in Africa and are excited to be working closely with the team at Susa. Having Accenture Ventures  join us at Seed stage speaks volumes about our team’s ability to execute at a global scale.”

Leading the round, San Francisco-based Susa Ventures is known as one of the premium seed stage funds in Silicon Valley with notable early investments including Robinhood, Flexport, Andela and Fast.  Susa is also known for co-investing with top tier firms like Peter Theil’s Founders Fund, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, GV (Google Ventures), General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, & Accel Partners.

Susa’s General Partners include Chad Byers, who is the son of Brook Byers, a founding member of Kleiner Perkins; Leo Polovets, ex-LinkedIn and Google engineer; and Seth Berman, who was previously the VP of marketing at luxury good company Richemont (CFR:VX) — owners of Cartier, Montblanc, Piaget, etc. Seth Berman, General Partner at Susa adds, “We’re thrilled to partner with Okra as they enable developers across the African continent to transform digital financial services. We’re blown away by the quality of Okra’s team, pace of development, and the excitement from the customers building on their API.”

Omobola Johnson, Senior Partner at TLcom Capital and Former Minister of ICT in Nigeria says,  “We have consistently been impressed with Fara’s technical depth and expertise, which when combined with the entrepreneurial acumen she and David bring to the company leaves us confident that they are building Africa’s most stable and robust API infrastructure. TLcom is delighted to continue partnering with Okra.”

Accenture, a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security also participates in this round, with Tom Lounibos, Managing Director,t Accenture Ventures adding, “Fara and David have a compelling vision and value proposition, and we believe Okra's powerful technology can address critical challenges in the African financial market. We look forward to working together to help Okra scale its solutions for maximum impact.“

Beyond Susa and Accenture Ventures, Okra brought on three super angels to this round. Rob Solomon; Chairman at GoFundMe — he is also a former Partner at Accel, Arpan Shah; Founding engineer and ex- Head of Data Platforms/Data products at Robinhood, and Hongxia Zhong; Founding engineer and ex- Senior engineering manager at Robinhood.

Consumer behaviour in Africa is changing and consumers are demanding full digital experiences of all services — including financial services. Across the business landscape, the number one priority across every board room is digital transformation and Okra is the go-to platform for developers and businesses to build end-to-end personalized digital experiences for consumers in Africa. 

Underwriting Innovation Europe features top Chief Underwriting Officers addressing analytics, automation and cyber. 

Over 1000 underwriters are expected to attend Underwriting Innovation Europe, the largest online gathering of European underwriters, which takes place from June 28-30.

The virtual conference runs across three days and is free for insurers to attend. Run by Intelligent Insurer, the leading digital hub for senior insurance executives, brokers and insurtechs, it features over 40 speakers from across the insurance ecosystem: personal lines, commercial lines, brokers, and new entrants. Over 80 percent of those currently signed up for the event are from insurers.

Speakers include Chief Underwriting Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Chief Distribution Officers, Chief Cyber Officers and senior underwriting experts from companies including Zurich, SCOR, Swiss Re and Munich Re.

Among those appearing are:

• Louise Smith, Chief Digital Officer, Lloyd’s
• Gareth Hemming, Managing Director - Personal Lines, Aviva
• Elena Rasa, Chief Underwriting Officer, Zurich
• Thierry Daucourt, Head of P&C Commercial Lines, AXA European Markets
• Jerome Jean Haegeli, Group Chief Economist, Swiss Re
• Jürgen Reinhart, Chief Underwriting Officer–Cyber, Munich Re
• Renaud Ambite, Chief Technical and Distribution Officer, Single Risk, SCOR P&C
• Herbert Baeten, Chief Underwriting Officer, MS Amlin

Covering the core issues impacting the underwriting function, day one of the event will focus on data and analytics—in particular, how underwriters are leveraging external data to make better decisions, while simultaneously reconfiguring internal data to overcome silos and foster a data-driven culture. Specific sessions will cover new technologies for risk assessment, and how underwriters are moving from traditional ratings to data-driven methods. Louise Smith, Chief Digital Officer, Lloyd’s, will feature in a keynote session titled COVID-19 as a Catalyst for Changes in Digitisation, Coverage and Culture. 

Automation, digitisation, and customer-centricity are the key themes for day two. Senior underwriting speakers will be demonstrating how to drive efficiency and transform operations, with a special focus on using automation to triage submissions more effectively.   Other topics include customer-centricity, and how underwriters can play a role in reducing friction and improving the customer experience.  

On day three, the focus will shift to the evolving landscape in terms of new risks, the global economic climate and shifts in power along the value chain. Speakers will be addressing how underwriters can stay ahead through product innovation, especially for intangible risks.  The final few hours of the event are dedicated to the growing cyber threat, with keynotes from C-level executives. 

Sponsored by kasko2go, ABBY, RavenPack, Cytora, Hyperscience, Wenalyze and CyberCube, this event is free for insurers to attend, and the content is available on demand post-event at no extra charge. 

Speaker Gareth Hemming, Managing Director - Personal Lines, Aviva, said:

“We know that the way in which we use data, analytics and ingenuity to improve the process of underwriting and claims is critical, but too often we focus on what it can do for us as an industry - I am interested in how we can use it to improve the outcomes for our customers as well improve our own performance.”

Speaker Alina Jipa, Head of Analytics, RSA, said:

“Looking forward to the Underwriting Europe Virtual event, there are some great topics being discussed and an opportunity to network with other people in similar roles, going through similar experiences and challenges. I decided to speak on the Deploy Automation to Triage Submissions More Effectively and Write More Business panel, as I believe in today’s economic climate driving efficiencies through automation is no longer a nice to have, but something we need to explore and implement more widely in insurance.”

Speaker Jerome Jean Haegeli, Group Chief Economist, Swiss Re, said:

“A lesson from COVID-19 is that supply chains go from efficiency to resilience and the re/insurance sector plays a key role in this transition. COVID-19 was a wake-up call for risk awareness. New risk pools have emerged, and the re/insurance industry needs to contribute to closing existing protection gaps.”

Helen Raff, Head of Research, Intelligent Insurer, said:

“Underwriting is undergoing massive transformation, so it’s hardly surprising that Intelligent Insurer has been able to attract so many senior underwriters to this online event. The seniority of the speakers is a real draw to attendees.” 

Register here for the event: https://bit.ly/3v8SjKY

The Western Union Company, a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments, announced today that Chief Executive Officer Hikmet Ersek and Chief Financial Officer Raj Agrawal will host a webcast and conference call to discuss 2021 first quarter results on May 4, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. ET. A press release highlighting the financial results will be issued at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET the same day.

The webcast and slide presentation will be available at https://ir.westernunion.com. Registration for the event is required, so please register at least five minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

To listen to the conference call via telephone, dial +1 (888) 317-6003 (U.S.) or +1 (412) 317-6061 (outside the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the start of the call. The pass code is 0142810.

A webcast replay will be available at https://ir.westernunion.com.

About Western Union

The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a global leader in cross-border, cross-currency money movement and payments. Western Union’s platform provides seamless cross-border flows and its leading global financial network bridges more than 200 countries and territories and over 130 currencies. We connect businesses, financial institutions, governments, and consumers through one of the world’s widest reaching networks, accessing billions of bank accounts, millions of digital wallets and cards, and over half a million retail locations. Western Union connects the world to bring boundless possibilities within reach. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.

Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry, will explore the latest insights into offering the best customer experience in the QSR sector after lockdown has ended, in its latest webinar, ‘The Customer Experience’. Taking place on Wednesday 28th April at 12:00pm BST, the live session will explore what to expect post lockdown, through exclusive research shared by webinar’s panel of QSR leaders and subject matter experts.   

After being shut for many months or only operating as contactless take-out services, the QSR sector must prepare for increased operation after lockdown, with customers at top of mind. The sector must prepare for the post pandemic world and adapt their service to increase market share in this new economy.  

During the hour-long live session, speakers will discuss their forecasts for the QSR industry, identifying consumer trends to come out of 2021, and sharing their tips on how QSR’s can grow market share in new ways. The panel will also share direct accounts of their personal experiences of operating during a pandemic and how they plan to navigate in this new and challenging world.   

Lee Jones, Managing Director (GSV) of Northern Europe at Worldline will join the panel, including Dominic Allport, Insights Director and Head of UK Foodservice, NPD Group, David Hodgetts, Managing Director, Triple Two Coffee, Mark Hilton, CEO, Paul UK, Imran Sayeed, CEO, German Doner Kebab, Neil Manhas, General Manager and Chief Financial Officer, Europe, Pizza Hut UK. The discussion will be moderated by Tim Charlton, Publisher, QSR Media.  

For more information about the webinar and to sign-up, visit: The Customer Experience | QSRMedia UK 

Clearwater Analytics announced today that it is implementing its SaaS-based data management, accounting, reporting, and analytics solution for Aegon Asset Management (Aegon AM). Clearwater’s solution will help Aegon AM streamline their data, investment accounting and reporting globally. 

Aegon AM is an active global investor managing and advising on USD $475 billion of assets for a global client base, including pension plans, insurance companies, banks, wealth managers, family offices and foundations.

“We recognized that in order to retain our leadership in the insurance asset management market and meet our growth ambitions, we needed leading-edge technology to match those objectives,” said Wouter Peters, Global Chief Operating Officer at Aegon AM. “We chose Clearwater for its integrated view across asset classes and its regulatory reporting. This will enable us to replace multiple accounting and reporting systems with one platform.”

Clearwater is the leading SaaS solution for investment data management, reconciliation, accounting, and reporting for insurers, investment managers, and other institutional investors. Clearwater’s platform, which is backed by a global client servicing team, has evolved according to the needs of the world’s most sophisticated insurers, investment managers, and corporations. Region-focused investment accounting and reporting solutions and experts assist clients and help guide the further development of the system, with more than half of Clearwater’s 1,300+ employees being dedicated to ongoing software development. Clearwater also recently announced that it is expanding its operations in Europe to more closely serve its European clients like Aegon AM. Aegon sister company Transamerica selected Clearwater for enhancing its investment data management.

“Clearwater is a disruptor in an industry dominated by legacy technologies,” said Gayatri Raman, Managing Director, EMEA and APAC at Clearwater. “The Aegon Asset Management team went through a rigorous and exhaustive selection process to find a state-of-the-art solution that will help them streamline and future-proof their operations. We are proud to be chosen by Aegon AM to deliver market-leading investment solutions for its clients.”

 Glue42, the company that delivers integrated desktop experiences to financial institutions globally, and Cloud9 Technologies (“Cloud9”), a leader in cloud-based communications, have partnered to deliver a full suite of voice trading capabilities to the institutional marketplace, providing users remote access to all trading floor connectivity and services.    

In addition to quick voice trading capability, traders will have secure anywhere, anytime access to voice data, counterparties and regulatory information seamlessly integrated with their other desktop applications via Cloud9’s suite of open APIs.  

“The institutional landscape is becoming increasingly reliant upon technology solutions to maintain and grow their business. With voice trading remaining a key part of capital markets, it’s imperative that onsite and remote users are able to seamlessly access a ‘virtual trading floor from anywhere at any time,” said Brian Hunt, Chief Administrative Officer & Head of Partnerships, Cloud9 Technologies.  

He continued, “As the industry continues to evolve due to greater reliance on cloud-based technology, rapid integration to SaaS-based solutions becomes a critical requirement for every financial desktop.” 

Through the partnership, Cloud9 offers complete enterprise voice trading and unified communications and collaboration (UCC) services including full data capture. Glue42 complements this through integration of these components into the trader’s existing workflow, regardless of application type or technology. 

For now, the joint solution supports ‘click to call’ directly from the bank’s CRM or Microsoft Office suite; hence clicking on a contact in one of these applications will initiate a call via the Cloud9 platform. This capability will eventually see Cloud9 replace the physical dealer board on trading desks.  

In the medium term, traders will be able to capture voice orders on the phone, after which order tickets will open on their order management systems, pre-populated with the phone transcript. For compliance purposes, they will also be able to log these calls in their CRMs.  

“Voice trading mustn't be left behind in an industry that is becoming increasingly digitized. When integrated with desktop applications, voice is a highly efficient communications channel that continues to play an integral role in strategic and compliance workflows,” said Reena Raichura, Head of Product Solutions & Customer Success, Glue42.  

“Our joint, long-term vision is that traders will be able to control their trading apps using voice capabilities in a similar way that virtual or voice assistants do with global retail users,” she continued. 

In a region still dominated by cash and mobile money options, like M-Pesa, new collaborations between fintechs are looking to capture the price-sensitive market with innovative, open-loop digital payment solutions in East Africa. According to Mark Dankworth, President International, Ukheshe Technologies, the region is poised for a surge in digital banking growth, with the likes of MCQR and virtual cards likely to make the biggest impact.

This follows the Kenyan retail-tech startup, Tanda, leveraging Ukheshe Technologies’ cutting-edge Eclipse API to increase their digital banking offering in Kenya and East Africa to include QR payments, digital wallets and the issuing of physical and virtual cards. The move will empower Tanda agents and merchants throughout East Africa to implement 100,000 physical touch points within the next 24 months.

Dankworth says that despite Kenya’s continued innovation in financial services, thanks to mobile money platforms, a report from FSD Kenya suggests that between 2016 and 2019, traders received over 90% of their revenue in cash. “High transaction fees on many digital payment platforms, coupled with inadequate access to traditional banking infrastructure, have limited the greater adoption of digital payments, particularly in the more price-sensitive sectors of the market of the Kenyan and East African region.”

As a leading fintech enabler, Dankworth says Ukheshe is providing financial service players, telecommunications providers and other organisations in the region, with truly digital-first solutions thanks to the Eclipse API, making informal banking an accessible and lucrative growth market for Ukheshe partners. “As the East African region remains heavily under-served, collaborating with Tanda as an enablement partner ensures we can be at the forefront of providing the right solutions to increase the uptake and use of digital payments.”

He notes that as Eclipse is an orchestration framework layer, it enables single API integration to access multiple payment solutions with the inclusion of third-party products. “Through Eclipse our clients are able to customise and cherry-pick from a vast range of payment products. We remove the heavy lifting for fintechs, banks and telcos by offering seamless payment solutions that are as convenient as they are affordable” says Dankworth.

Geoffrey Mulei, CEO of Tanda says the startup chose to partner with Ukheshe because of the dramatically simplified manner in which digital wallets, card issuing and acquiring can be rolled out. “Traditionally, these capabilities have either been highly inaccessible or cost prohibitive for a significant majority of players in the fintech space, and can take several years to deploy. The Tanda / Ukheshe collaboration has the potential to close these critical gaps, as it enables cheap transactions on digital platforms and accelerates the deployment of banking infrastructure.”

Dankworth adds that Eclipse provides cost-effective payment solutions for organisations to enable their small merchant customers to accept digital payments. “With simple, accessible and affordable solutions that solve real-world pain points; touchless, paperless digital innovations will likely accelerate exponentially in East Africa and across the entire continent.”

Spice Money, India’s leading rural fintech, today announced the appointment of a new Advisory Board Member, Abhay Aima.

Abhay is well recognized as one of the wizards in the financial space with 35 years of experience, out of which 24 years are in core banking. He was associated with HDFC Bank as Country Head overseeing the critical businesses of Private Banking, Retail Liabilities, Premium Banking Services, Digital Banking, ATMs & International Business. Abhay also helmed an additional responsibility in HDFC Securities as a Director, guiding the development of business at this entity.

At Spice Money, Abhay would play a critical role in guiding the organisation towards its future course of success. Dilip Modi, Founder of Spice Money, said, “I am delighted to have Abhay Aima join us as an Advisory Member on the Board. Abhay’s strengths across understanding of customers, structured approach to supporting business lines along with strategy development and execution, will aid Spice Money to expand the business horizons in multiple directions. With his extensive experience in banking and financial markets, we are confident that his counsel will enable Spice Money to be at the forefront of the rural fintech revolution bringing digital financial accessibility to India’s unbanked and underserved population.”

Abhay Aima commented, “I am glad to be part of a company like Spice Money which is changing the rural economy landscape in India. I would be bringing in some new insights and critical thinking to the table and engage in a stimulating, high quality developments towards bettering the banking and financial services to the rural India.”

A pass out of the National Defence Academy & elementary flying school – Bidar, Abhay Aima began his professional career outside the Air Force in sales before settling into a banking career at Citibank. He then moved on to HDFC Bank and became a member of the core promoter group, and played a key role in building HDFC Bank into one of the most valuable banks in the world. He pioneered the creation of a strong distribution- focused retail bank by initiating sales of mutual funds, insurance and non-life insurance across retail segments of the bank. Abhay had also turned around the Global Consumer business at HDFC Bank and has run large teams out of India, the Middle East, Kenya and Hong Kong. Under Abhay’s leadership, the bank won many awards. He has also been recognised as one of India’s Best Market Minds by Outlook Profit.  

About Spice Money

Spice Money is India’s leading rural fintech company with more than 500,000 Adhikaris (entrepreneurs) offering cash deposit, Aadhar enabled payment system for cash withdrawal, mini ATM, insurance, loans, bill payments, cash collection centre for customer/agents/representative of NBFC/Banks, airtime recharge, tours & travel, online shopping, Pan Card and mPoS services. More than 90% of their network reside in semi-urban and rural India. Spice Money services are available through Spice Money App (Adhikari App) and web portal. The user-friendly interface and superior technology platform have earned the app a 4.4 star rating, best in industry, on Google Play Store. Spice Money through its cutting-edge technology and wide network of Spice Money Adhikaris, is bridging the gaps in access to various financial services for the masses across the length and breadth of India."

Today Commerzbank has joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance of UNEP FI, the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. As one of the first financial institutions worldwide, Commerzbank is committed to reducing its CO2 emissions in the best possible way. The aim is to reduce the CO2 balance sheet of its entire lending and investment portfolio to net zero by 2050 at the latest. For its own banking operations, the Bank aims to reduce CO2 emissions to zero by 2040. “By voluntarily committing ourselves to net zero we underline our decisiveness to actively contribute to the sustainable transformation of society and the economy. In the run-up to this year's World Climate Conference in Glasgow, where the realisation of the Paris Climate Agreement will be a headline topic, we’re sending a clear signal," says Manfred Knof, CEO of Commerzbank.
 
In 2019, Commerzbank singed the Principles for Responsible Banking initiated by UNEP FI and committed itself to support the real economy in its transformation. "With our commitment to net zero, we’re taking an important and consistent step forward," says Knof. Commerzbank’s.
CO2 emissions have already been reduced by more than 70% since 2007and its own banking operations have been climate neutral since 2015.
 
The net zero commitment demands comprehensible actions with which Commerzbank proves support for its clients’ efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Firstly the focus is laid on CO2 intensive sectors. The Bank will regularly report on its progress in accordance with UNEP FI guidelines. In managing its portfolio, Commerzbank will use the scientific approach of the Science-Based Targets Initiative, which it joined as the first German Bank in 2020.