Cardinity, a fast-growing Lithuanian online payment service provider, has chosen Nets to provide international acquirer processing, and fraud and dispute services. As a payment gateway and licensed acquirer, Cardinity delivers payment services to merchants across Europe and the partnership with Nets will expand its international footprint.

Egidijus Andreika, CEO of Cardinity, said: “Nets is a leading European payment service provider with a broad suite of services and a scalable set-up. As such, they are the ideal partner to help us provide our growing European customer base with a stable and secure payment solution that enhances their digital experience.”

Henrik Anker Jørgensen, CEO of Nets Estonia AS & Head of Baltic region, added: “We support a range of issuers, acquires and Fintechs across the Baltic region, most of them with European or even global growth ambitions. Our modular and flexible processing platform enables us to tailor our offer to meet the needs of individual customers like Cardinity, while also helping them benefit from our scale and international reach.”

The fast, frictionless payment transactions experienced by consumers are influencing user expectations in the B2B sector and driving payments digitisation across the entire continuum, according to a new report released today by Accuity, a LexisNexis Risk Solutions Company.

The report highlights:

●     The benefits of electronic payments in B2B, showing that improvements could lead to a $950 billion global opportunity across invoice processing, AP payment processing, working capital management, factoring and cross-border payment optimisation.

●     The varying levels of digital payments adoption across key B2B sectors - from corporates to financial institutions, to fintechs.

●     How digital transformation will increase the accuracy, efficiency, and intelligence of payment processing, thereby improving the customer experience and providing a competitive advantage to firms that embrace it.

●     The role of data in providing greater insight and scrutiny of payments, and technology, such as APIs, in removing friction across the payments ecosystem.

●     The role of regulatory standards in transforming payments infrastructure and enhancing security - including PSD1, PSD2 and ISO 20022. 

Sarkis Akmakjian, Senior Director, Product Management, Accuity comments: “The B2B payments market consists of approximately $120 trillion dollars globally. Considering the high volume of payments, it is vital for financial institutions and corporates to advance payments digitization and reap the rewards – both in the short and long term – as it becomes clear that the post-pandemic world is set to be an increasingly digital one.”

The next generation banking-as-a-service platform, HUBUC has been selected to join one the world’s most prestigious start-up incubators, Y-Combinator (YC).

YC’s intensive three-month accelerator is designed to equip entrepreneurs with the skills, knowledge and contacts to develop and scale their businesses as well as connecting them with potential investors. The scheme’s alumni includes the likes of Airbnb, Doordash, Stripe and Dropbox, and the combined valuation of YC companies is more than $300bn.

HUBUC enables companies to incorporate a number of payment capabilities into their offering, from onboarding and payments to FX and card issuance. It offers companies the convenience of having just one API, just one contract, and no regulatory requirements, meaning companies don’t have to sign up to seven different contracts and integrate seven APIs. It also helps them bring payment services online much faster than existing methods.

Hasan Nawaz, CEO of HUBUC added: “It’s a huge accolade for us to join such a renowned incubator and we hope to follow in the footsteps of its successful alumni. The embedded finance opportunity is set to grow and with the added firepower of Y-Combinator, we have the capabilities to help realise its full potential. 

“As well as absorbing as much knowledge as possible, we plan to use the investment funds to build our compliance team, further product development and expand the sales and marketing teams in preparation of international expansion.”

Ignacio Javierre, COO of HUBUC commented: "To be selected to join the Y-Combinator is a significant step in HUBUC’s development. Hasan and I have experience launching a number of fintech solutions, all of which have contributed to the success of HUBUC today. To be recognised for this by YC is incredibly rewarding for us.

“We hope this experience will turn into an opportunity to accelerate the growth of our company so we can bring the benefits of embedded finance - such as improving payment methods, easy bank account opening, currency exchange and better analytics - to even more businesses.” 

Securing a place with YC recognises both the expert team at HUBUC, as well as the wider value of the embedded finance opportunity, which is expected to be worth $3.6 trillion by 2030

Currencies Direct (the “Company”), a global leader in digital foreign exchange (“FX”) and international payment services, has completed a £165 million dividend recapitalisation. The recapitalisation was provided by incumbent lenders CVC Credit and Alcentra, which backed the acquisition of Currencies Direct in 2015 by private equity owners, Palamon Capital Partners and Corsair.

A pioneer in the Fintech space, Currencies Direct is today one of the largest platforms globally in an increasingly consolidating international payments market. The Company focuses on high-value transactions and the mass affluent segment of the FX market, as well as SMEs. Currencies Direct combines a full-stack, fully digital offering with a premium, award-winning expert-led customer service model that allows it to cater to the universal needs of its target customer segments. 

Currencies Direct has seen significant growth over the past five years through expanding its B2B2C affiliate network and broadening its geographic reach to become one of the most profitable players in the market. Its strong cash generation has allowed it to invest heavily in a new, fully automated technology stack with full API and machine learning capabilities.  Underpinned by the launch of its market leading technology stack, the Company has clear ambitions to accelerate growth further through new products such as multi-currency wallets, new verticals, global expansion and further M&A. It has recently signed an exclusive white label agreement to provide FX services to Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the largest wealth managers in the UK with approximately 1.5 million active clients.

Keith Hatton, Chief Executive of Currencies Direct, said: “Currencies Direct is at an exciting turning point, and our continued investment in technology has set the stage for a new phase of transformative growth. Our recent wealth management contract wins and growing global footprint – including through the recent opening of our new office in Singapore – underline our success in pursuing new expansion initiatives.”

Tonik, Southeast Asia’s first digital-only bank, launches as the first neobank in the Philippines today.  Tonik brings to the market a revolutionary and completely branchless way of banking on a highly secure mobile platform that sets out to fundamentally disrupt the Filipino retail banking industry.  Tonik is supervised by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).  Its deposits are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC).  Tonik’s unique cloud-based solution is powered by global financial technology leaders Mastercard, Finastra, and Amazon Web Services. 

Tonik enables its customers to “Save Big and Dream Bigger” with industry-leading deposit interest rates of up to 6% p.a.  To make saving more relevant, fun, and social, Tonik offers unique Stash and Group Stash features, as well as traditional Term Deposits.   

The customers can open fully functional banking account in under 5 minutes, using only the Tonik App, an ID and a selfie.  Tonik account can be easily topped up in many convenient ways, including interbank, debit card, or in cash at close to 10,000 retail agents across the country.  Immediately upon onboarding, the customer is issued a virtual Mastercard debit card that can be used at a variety of e-merchants.  The product offer will soon be expanded to include a physical debit card or take out an all-digital consumer loan. 

“We started Tonik because we were fed up with how traditional banks mistreat their customers. The fact that 70% of the Filipinos remain unbanked shows that the tedious onboarding process of traditional banks and their ridiculously low interest rates do nothing to satisfy the needs of the consumers.  We believe that banking should be easy, fun, and – like most services these days – right there, in the palm of your hand.  We are using world-class technology to dramatically cut operating costs, which allows us to offer game-changing interest rates and not to charge unfair fees to our customers,” explains Tonik Founder & CEO Greg Krasnov. 

“Sadly, traditional banks have completely forgotten how to listen to their customer.  So, we are on a quest to become the first bank brand in the Philippines with a sense of humor and an actual personality that consumers can relate to. Our mission is to trigger a wave of #NeoBankingRomance in the Philippines.  We expect our proposition for the #NeoNormal to resonate particularly strongly with the ‘digital natives’ in the Philippines, who constitute most of the population,” says Long Pineda, President of Tonik Digital Bank, Inc, Tonik’s regulated bank subsidiary in the Philippines.   

Although aiming for a friendly and humorous personality, one of the things Tonik takes extremely seriously is the security of the client’s funds and transactions on its systems.  Tonik is the first bank in the Philippines certified as compliant with PCIDSS, the global “gold standard” in payment card security.  Tonik’s systems are also certified by CISA, the top authority in global IT security audits.  Client’s access is protected by the highest level of safety through server-based biometrics, while all passwords and OTPs are subject to military-grade encryption. 

Railsbank, a leading global Banking as a Service (BaaS) platform, has launched in Australia via a partnership with the country’s first neobank, Volt.

The partnership enables Railsbank to continue its expansion within the APAC region and it considers Australia a highly strategic market.

The embedded finance market in Australia is in its infancy, but both Railsbank and Volt believe it is set for rapid growth over the coming years.

Volt will also engage with Railsbank’s global network of partners and customers, and enable a broader BaaS solution in Australia that will enable companies to prototype, launch and scale financial products within their own customer experience.

Nigel Verdon, co-founder and CEO of Railsbank, said: “This deal has a personal resonance for me as one of my ancestors, Sir George Verdon, was General Manager and a founding father of the ANZ Bank, so it's good to be back in Australia again!

“It’s very exciting to see that Australia’s fintech scene is thriving. We are ready to support all Australian business that want to innovate and capitalise on the expected exponential growth of embedded finance.

What we bring new to the table is represented by deconstructed financial components, tools for product managers, and APIs to allow anybody to come into our toolset to access our consumers and customers for distribution.

These can then be reconstructed into financial use cases. This is what Apple did with iTunes. They deconstructed the music industry and changed the economics of the industry.

Collaborating with Volt gives us access to local knowledge and capabilities to help us succeed. This is a significant partnership for Railsbank as we continue our global expansion and strengthen our foothold in Asia Pacific.”

Justin Xiao, COO of Railsbank, Asia Pacific, said: “Australia is strategically important for Railsbank and it’s a real privilege for us to be partnering with Volt in this next phase of our growth. The strength of the Volt brand, balance sheet, and compliance offering makes it the ideal partner to help us launch into the local market and tap the growth opportunity in embedded finance.

“Australia’s fintech scene is vibrant and Railsbank has a lot to offer in terms of bringing innovative solutions and best practices to customers. Collaborating with Volt gives us access to local knowledge and capabilities to help us succeed. This is a significant partnership for Railsbank as we continue our expansion in the Asia Pacific region.”
Volt founder and CEO, Steve Weston, said: “We are proud to be the first and only bank selected to launch Railsbank’s embedded finance offering in Australia.
“Railsbank has a proven track record of servicing millions of customers through partnerships with banks like Volt in global markets. This partnership demonstrates how our prudent and measured approach to market entry, built on the sturdy foundation of our unique BaaS platform and partnership strategy, could help to make Volt a long-term contender for a share of Australia’s highly lucrative banking sector.”
Railsbank is headquartered in the UK and has offices in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the US, Germany, Lithuania. Melbourne and Sydney.
It has relationships with numerous banks and financial institutions across Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific and will continue its expansion across Asia with a view to deepening its footprint in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam later this year.
In November last year, Railsbank raised US$37 million as part of continued equity funding to support its global growth and product expansion. Significant investors include Mastercard and Visa.

Fintech startup M2P Solutions- YAP has raised $10 million (Dhs 36.7 Mn) in a Series B funding that was co-led by Flourish Ventures and Omidyar Network India at an undisclosed valuation. YAP’s existing investors—Beenext, 8i Ventures and Better Capital—also participated in the financing round.

This is a second fundraising for YAP in less than a year. The Chennai-headquartered startup had raised $4.5 million as part of its Series A round in April 2020.

The six-year-old company specialises as an Application Programming Interface (API) provider for banks, startups and consumer internet companies. The latest capital will be used to expand to international markets and strengthen the team through fresh recruitments.

Madhusudanan R, Co-Founder of M2P Solutions, said: "YAP currently serves companies in India, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. It plans to expand to Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Vietnam and Indonesia."

“We are uniquely poised to cater to new cohorts of distributors as more firms embed financial services into their digital platforms. This investment allows us to strengthen our technology teams, build new capabilities as well as reach new markets across Asia,” Madhusudanan added.

The company caters to around 20 banks in India including ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and RBL Bank, and several leading consumer internet startups such as Ola and PaisaBazaar.

The funding comes at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic induced acceleration to digital finance has made India’s fintech sector a lucrative investment avenue for investors.

“YAP is our first investment in embedded finance infrastructure in India, aligning with our principles of Fair Finance to foster a more inclusive economy,” Anuradha Ramachandran, investments director at Flourish Ventures, said. “The YAP platform provides the rails on which fintechs and incumbents can build new cases for the underserved segment, while delivering financial services in a cost-effective way.”

According to Amol Warange, director at Omidyar Network India, India’s rapidly digitising financial ecosystem will present opportunities for YAP to scale. “…we believe that digital enablers such as YAP can catalyse financial inclusion and drive usage of financial products across the next 500 million Indians expected to come online for the first time via their mobile phones,” Warange said.

W2, award winning global provider of regulatory compliance solutions today announced their partnership with market leading payments provider Contis to supply end-to-end KYC/AML processes for customer onboarding and ongoing monitoring.  

Contis will use W2’s eKYC, Fraud Prevention, PEPs and Sanctions solutions, fully integrated by W2’s single API and SDK software offering. This partnership will support Contis’ expansive growth plans, and provide ideal streamlined compliance processes to both onboard and monitor their growing customer base. 

As the payments sector looks set to continue the growth enjoyed over the past few years, and regulation keeps up apace, this partnership comes at the perfect time for both W2 and Contis to excel in their respective markets.   

Anthony Gudgeon, Head of Fraud at Contis, commented: “Trust is essential to the service we provide clients and their end-customers. In W2, we’ve found a like-minded partner that delivers market leading KYC and AML, and shares our ambition to stay ahead of the curve. In a climate where threats are increasingly sophisticated, their innovative approach will help us deliver trusted services for the long term.”     

W2’s CEO and Founder Warren Russell on the partnership: “This has been one of the most exciting project W2 has worked on recently. Contis have a very clear plan of attack when it comes to growing their business and innovative offering and have a perfect strategic fit to W2. We are delighted to be able to offer Contis a full suite of KYC and AML services as they continue on their growth journey.”

Payment holidays have provided a lifeline for many in the pandemic, but as the planned March end-date[i] fast approaches, consumers and organisations must both prepare for a difficult period of financial transition. Digital payments solutions expert, PayPoint, calls upon consumers and their service providers to mutually agree a flexible payment arrangement to ease the burden for all as financial support schemes draw to a close.  

The offer of payment holidays for mortgages, credit cards, buy-now-pay-later offers and other financial customers will come to an end on 31 March, hitting consumer pockets first. But this will quickly ripple across numerous markets including vital sectors such as housing, utilities and local authorities. Added to this, whilst the government’s 'furlough scheme’ officially comes to an end on 30 September, employer contributions will gradually increase from 1 July 2021, adding to the financial strain for businesses. To responsibly manage debt whilst efficiently collecting arrears, considered communication between the creditor and consumer will be vital for both parties.  

Danny Vant, Client Services Director, PayPoint, explains: “When monthly mortgage bills return for home-owners, many will immediately feel the pinch.  This is likely to have a knock-on effect, hitting other credit agreements and causing arrears to build. One size rarely fits all, so organisations must be able to offer their customers flexible payment terms, tailored to each individual.  The best way to settle arrears is to proactively work with customers and anticipate difficult financial periods waiting on the horizon.”  

PayByLink – available through PayPoint’s digital payment solution, MultiPay – allows businesses to collect due or arrears payments with care, engaging with customers sensitively and responsibly. Importantly, it provides customers with payment flexibility, putting them in control whilst improving cashflow for the business awaiting payment. This also minimises unnecessary payment chasing which is a key burden on call centres.  

Tailored email or text message reminders can be sent to customers about upcoming payments, as well as offering flexible payment terms for households struggling, or seeking agile means to control their finances.  It can also include a secure link to facilitate an immediate and frictionless digital payment. These user-friendly options offer peace of mind, increasing customer engagement and collections success. 

Concludes Danny Vant: “By working closely with customers, considering their financial challenges, and providing payment flexibility, businesses will not only help them navigate the coming months but are likely to benefit from a more efficient payment process. This will ultimately boost customer retention and loyalty at a time when businesses need it most.”  

PayByLink benefits for late payment collection:  

• Sends automated SMS customer reminders – either through PayByLink or using a business’s own CRM system  
• Enhances customer engagement  
• Offers a user-friendly payment option that keeps customers engaged  
• Increases collection of small arrears with ease  
• Easily integrates into your own CRM system  
• Increases efficiency with bulk payment options  
• Reduces spend on collections and write offs  
• Enhances cash flow management  
• Fully PCI compliant and can be used effectively in a call centre environment  

SEON, the fraud fighter, has secured €10 million (USD 12 million) series A investment. The funding, Hungary’s largest series A round to date, was led by leading European early-stage investor Creandum, behind some of Europe’s best tech companies including Spotify, Klarna, and Kahoot, as well as further investment from CEE’s leading VC, PortfoLion, part of OTP Bank. 

As part of the funding round, SEON has added the following industry leaders to its table of current shareholders: N26 founders, Maximilian Tayenthal and Valentin Stalf, SumUp founders Stefan Jeschonnek and Jan Deepen, Tide CEO Laurence Krieger, Revolut ex-CFO Peter O'Higgins, iZettle ex-chief Product Officer Leo Nilsson, Onfido cofounder Eamon Jubawy and ComplyAdvantage founder Charlie Delingpole.

SEON is a fraud-detection solution that draws on data from across the internet to establish customers’ digital footprints to wean out false accounts and prevent fraudulent transactions from taking place. It already supports companies from a wide range of industries, including Patreon, AirFrance, Rivalry, Ladbrokes by having its technology operate in real time, with no stale data and zero false positives, a paradigm shift from previous proprietary databases to true real time fraud prevention.

According to the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), fraud is now a national security threat and ever-growing concern, especially with the recent surge in ecommerce. Reports suggest that e-retail sales account for 14.1% of all retail sales worldwide with forecasts suggesting sustained growth to 22% by 2023. With digital fraud currently taking many forms and impacting a wide range of industries, ecommerce transaction fraud losses reached $25.5 billion in 2019 and are due to reach $50.5 billion in 2024. Therefore, SEON’s technology is needed more than ever in the global fight against fraud.

Today, SEON is often described by its customers as the “Stripe of fraud prevention” and follows a developer and fraud manager led focus. It sees end users having more of an influence when selecting the best tools to help them in their role. Ultimately the vision for SEON is to democratise fraud prevention, ensuring every business is safe online.

Having launched in the second half of 2017, SEON has been consistently profitable since the end of 2019. It experienced rapid growth in 2020, accelerated by the COVID-19 paradigm shift. It is part of the top 80% of tech companies that are not just COVID-proof, but whose operations have been boosted by the pandemic. This is due to operating in some key fast-growing verticals such as neobanks, esports, iGaming, Forex and crypto trading. The investment will support SEON’s continued growth, by adding to their highly skilled teams located in Budapest and London, as well as further global expansion.

SEON’s CEO and Founder, Tamas Kadar, commented: “We’re extremely pleased to have completed our latest funding round, led by Creandum, joining its exciting tech portfolio. We feel we have found a like-minded investor to work closely with to pursue the significant global opportunity for our business as we continue to democratise fraud fighting.”

Bence Jendruszak, COO and Co-Founder at SEON, added: “For all our achievements in such a short time span we feel like we are still only getting started. We are still seen as the new kids on the block in a crowded market, but with this latest round of funding we can add more leading talent to our team to further grow our product led growth and eradicate online fraud.” 

Simon Schmincke, General Partner at Creandum, said: "At Creandum, we believe cybercrime will be one of the most serious threats of the 21st century. With SEON, we’ve found an anti-fraud solution that’s effective, affordable, flexible, intuitive, and clearly proves its ROI. We are super excited to be part of SEON's journey to capture the hyper-growth, anti-fraud market!"

Gábor Pozsonyi, Partner at PortfoLion Capital Partners, added: "Seon is a fundamentally useful brand: it offers a solution to one of the greatest challenges of digitalization, not only saving hundreds of millions of euros for its partners but making the internet a safer place. Their product is changing the world, and it's a pleasure to be part of their journey."