M.Video-Eldorado Group, Russia’s largest electronics and household appliances retailer, and state-run Sber, the country’s largest bank, agreed to jointly develop goods.ru, a marketplace that brings together Russia’s leading online stores.

As part of the transaction, Sber intends to invest about RUB 35 billion, most of which be put towards further development of goods.ru (Marketplace LLC). Sber also plans to acquire a portion of M.Video-Eldorado Group’s stake in goods.ru. As a result, Sber’s ownership of goods.ru will amount to 85%, with the holdings of M.Video-Eldorado Group and Alexander Tynkovan at 10% and 5%, respectively. All three parties are to be represented in the  board of directors of the marketplace. The parties expect to conclude a binding agreement in 1H 2021 following completion of due diligence and after all necessary approvals by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.

The partners expect that the integration of goods.ru into the Sber ecosystem, combined with Sber’s capabilities, expertise and strong experience in e-commerce, as well as synergies with other projects in the Sber ecosystem are set to transform goods.ru into one of Russia’s key e-commerce companies. Goods.ru will become the main multi-category e-commerce platform for Sber, where 18 main categories with 2.5 million products are already represented today, and their number will increase in the future.

Goods.ru has also already been integrated by Russia’s largest digital-only bank Tinkoff into its super app in 2020 (Tinkoff news (tinkoffgroup.com) and remains a part of its vibrant ecosystem.

M.Video-Eldorado Group will focus on developing its core business while remaining a partner in the joint venture. M.Video-Eldorado Group plans to continue diversifying its own marketplace offering under the third-party model (3P: sales of partner products without accumulating inventory) using goods.ru infrastructure on its own platform (on a white label basis) and to cooperate with goods.ru on other projects.

The parties expect to conclude a binding agreement in 1H 2021 following completion of due diligence and after all necessary approvals by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia.

Alexander Izosimov, CEO of M.Video-Eldorado Group, said: "The development of goods.ru to date confirms M.Video-Eldorado’s vast expertise in e-commerce and its ability to quickly adapt to new digital models and practices, even as the business environment changes rapidly. This partnership with Sber will fuel the marketplace’s growth and enable it to be part of a leading ecosystem project in Russian e-commerce."

Lev Khasis, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board at Sberbank, comments: "Presenting our three-year strategy during the latest Sber Investor Day, we paid much attention to the evolution of e-commerce services and set ourselves some ambitious goals in this industry. The partnership with M.Video-Eldorado Group and Alexander Tynkovan is a vital step to achieving our goals. Our competencies, the invaluable experience, and the extensive expertise of the founder and shareholders of M.Video-Eldorado Group will position us to create an attractive service meeting today’s customer demands."

Alexander Tynkovan, founder and co-owner of goods.ru, adds: "It took goods.ru only three years to evolve from the first prototype into one of the leading Russian e-commerce companies. The team was able to bring our vision of a true marketplace to life – it is an open platform with no inventory that connects sellers and buyers. Its strength is that it is an easily scalable model that it is complementary for any other platforms. We see great potential in combining the vast expertise of goods.ru in non-food online retail with Sber’s experience in e-grocery and logistics, including last mile delivery services. Investments and integration into Sber’s ecosystem will enable goods.ru to offer the best services for customers and partnership terms for sellers."

AccessFintech, a leading fintech company evolving the financial operating model through data and workflow collaboration, announces the appointment of Paynter Higgins as Executive Vice President for Global Enterprise Sales and Sarah Lloyd Parry as Executive Vice President for Marketing.

The hires come as a response to the recent momentum across all products and services and will play a pivotal role in supporting the company’s next stage of growth. In his new role, Paynter will develop and manage the growing AccessFintech Sales team. He will be responsible for the strategy and execution of enterprise sales globally. Sarah will lead overall corporate marketing and brand strategy.

Paynter brings extensive knowledge in building and managing sales teams within successful, high-growth SaaS companies primarily in the financial services sector.  Most recently he served as Vice President, Enterprise Sales at Collibra.  Paynter spent 8+ years at SuccessFactors in the US and Europe, during which time the company went public, acquired multiple companies, and was ultimately acquired by SAP for $3.4 billion.  His career has spanned leadership and strategic roles at PeopleSoft and Procore, as well as early-stage start-ups Moore Technology Solutions and Encore Development.

Before joining AccessFintech, Sarah was Chief Marketing Officer for Avora. Prior to that, Sarah built the EMEA Marketing team and regional presence at ServiceMax, including the marketing integration following the acquisition by GE Digital for $1 billion in January 2017.  Previously, Sarah grew the SuccessFactors EMEA marketing operations over four years, including the EMEA marketing integration of SAP’s for $3.4 billion. 

Reflecting on the new hires, Roy Saadon, CEO of AccessFintech, said: “We are very fortunate, to be able to attract the talent and experience we need as AccessFintech grows and evolves. In Paynter and Sarah, we have gained two industry veterans who provide a deep understanding of the SaaS universe and a great track record in building, developing and managing sales and marketing teams. We are a time of unprecedented demand, in the financial ecosystem, for our solution of data and workflow collaboration. Sarah and Paynter arrive with an understanding ofs how we can match this demand and achieve growth. We welcome them to AccessFintech.”

LAB577, an established software firm at the nexus of emerging technology and financial services, has today announced that ABE.io has signed a multi-year deal to build-out and implement a Corda-based distributed ledger (DLT) powered by DASL for their global marketplace exchange.

ABE.io joins a growing number of companies focused on digital assets, including BCB Group, Ivno, Skyhook and SEBA Bank who have all signed up to utilize DASL’s out-of-the-box, production-ready, robust, finance grade application for asset tokenization. DASL is a complete, hosted technology solution for digital assets, built on Corda and uniquely designed to be interoperable with other DLTs to allow for consolidation of technology over time.

By implementing DASL, ABE.io will be able to deliver on their vision of revamping capital markets infrastructure to improve transparency, optimize trust, reduce associated fees and, globalize access to capital markets.

Launching in 2021, ABE.io enables issuers to register a financial instrument once and trade it around the world. ABE also enables access to the capital markets regular investors, not just accredited or institutional investors, across four different continents 24/7. 

John Pigott, CEO founder of ABE, said: “ABE's adaptable-auction market structure optimizes trust. ABE enables multiple forms of a financial instrument to trade simultaneously, so that a stock, its ADR, GDR, and tokenized form all clear at the same price."

LAB577, an established software firm at the nexus of emerging technology and financial services, is helping ABE start with a compliant, foundational premise by using the Corda DLT in a private node network.

The architecture of a private node network directly correlates with the current regulatory regime of member-based securities exchanges. Leading a technological paradigm shift, current tier-one members on the ABE.io exchange will essentially become connected nodes, gaining access to self-authenticating DLT data packets, providing ontological certainty that the data is accurate and has been reconciled with the rest of the data set. “This can reduce the damage from market seizure, by 60% to 70,” according to Pigott. As well as reducing operational costs by millions of dollars.

In the ABE.io exchange, powered by DASL, significant developments to optimize post-trade workflow processes have been implemented to ensure the buyer and seller can verify the trading request. DASL helps to verify that the exchange hasn’t falsified the orders verifying requests contain references to signed payloads. Further enhanced functionality is being built out to escrow assets during the order placement and matching process.

“We’re excited to partner with LAB577, they understand the ethical constraints of capital markets as well as the traditional capital markets structure while also understanding the technology and the value set. They are good trading technologists, building the right technology on top of the right blockchain,” added Pigott. 

Richard Crook CEO & Founder at LAB577, said: “We’re really enjoying working closely with the ABE.io team. We share their vision for how capital markets should work and how DLT can be applied to trading technology. We look forward to building out the basic infrastructure in the direction of the capital markets.”

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, today issued a warning that, based on their research of recent cyberattack trends and existing business practices, organisations around the world currently face a global threat to data privacy and security. The company announced its findings on European Data Protection Day to alert organisations that immediate action is needed to avoid costly attacks.

The latest research by the cybersecurity experts at the global network of Acronis Cyber Protection Operations Centers (CPOCs) revealed that 80% of companies do not have an established password policy. Between 15-20% of the passwords used in a business environment include the name of the company, making them easier to compromise. Two recent high-profile breaches illustrate this problem: before its Orion compromise, SolarWinds was warned that one of its update servers had a publicly known password of “solarwinds123”, while former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was hacked because the password was allegedly “maga2020!”.

Of the organisations that do have a password policy in place, the researchers found many rely on default passwords – and up to 50% of those are categorised asweak.

Attackers know these weak password practices are widespread and, with so many employees working from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals have targeted the less secure systems of these remote workers. Acronis analysts observed a dramatic increase in the number of brute force attacks during 2020 and found that password stuffing was the second most used cyberattack last year, just behind phishing.

“The sudden rush to remote work during the pandemic accelerated the adoption of cloud-based solutions,” explains Candid Wüest, VP of Cyber Protection Research at Acronis. “In making that transition, however, many companies didn’t keep their cybersecurity and data protection requirements properly in focus. Now, those companies are realising that ensuring data privacy is a crucial part of a holistic cyber protection strategy– one that incorporates cybersecurity and data protection – and they need to enact stronger safeguards for remote workers.”

Financial and reputational risks

While the business community is recognisingthat better cyber protection is needed to ensure the privacy of their data and their customers’ data, awareness among digital users continues to lag. One report found that 48% of employees admit they are less likely to follow safe data practices when working from home.

Poor password hygiene and lax cybersecurity habits of remote workers are among the reasons Acronis CPOC analysts expect the financial impact of data exfiltration will soar in 2021, as bad actors can more easily access and steal valuable company data. The trend is similar to one now seen among ransomware attackers, who are stealing proprietary or embarrassing data and then threatening to publish it if the victim doesn’t pay. Last year, Acronis identified more than 1,000 companies around the world that experienced a data leak following a ransomware attack.

Implementing tighter authentication requirements

To avoid the costly downtime, significant reputational damage in the marketplace, and steep regulatory fines that can be caused by a data breach, organisations must strengthen the authentication requirements needed to access company data.

Acronis and other cybersecurity experts recommend the following best practices:

• Multifactor authentication (MFA), which requires users to complete two or more verification methods to access a company network, system, or VPN, should be the standard for all organisations. By combining passwords with an additional verification method, such as a fingerprint scan or randomised PIN from a mobile app, the organisation is still protected if an attacker guesses or breaks a user’s password.
• Zero trust model should beadopted to ensure data security and privacy. All users, whether they are working remotely or operating inside the corporate network, are required to authenticate themselves, prove their authorisation, and continuously validate their security to access and use company data and systems.
• User and entity behavior analytics, or UEBA, helps automate an organisation’s protection. By monitoring the normal activity of users with AI and statistical analysis, the system can recognisebehaviour that deviates from normal patterns – particularly those that indicate a breach has occurred and data theft is underway.

While European Data Protection Day 2021 is an ideal opportunity to bring attention to the risks to data privacy, the researchers at the Acronis CPOCs have identified additional cyberthreat trends that will challenge sysadmins, managed service providers (MSPs), and cybersecurity professionals during the coming year. The full analysis is currently available in the recently released Acronis Cyberthreats Report.

Chip, the award-winning savings app, recorded a 222% increase in the total amount put aside by savers in January 2021 compared to January 2020. Along with increased deposits, Chip also noted a sharp rise in the average user age - 41 in January 2021 compared to the average age of 32 as recorded in October last year. In fact, the oldest user to join Chip this January was 93 years old. 

These are some of the trends pointing towards the maturity of Chip as a financial product. The company, which saw record growth last year, introduced a number of wealth-building features in 2020, such as Payday Put Away (PDPA), and plans to roll out investments in 2021. 

The fintech looked at the use of PDPA and analysed the difference in average monthly savings for users who use the app's PDPA feature, allowing them to save a custom amount of money the day they’re paid, versus those who do not, and found that those who use PDPA end up saving 114% (or £168.47) more per month on average, which can amount to an extra £2,021.64 per year.

The financial priorities of users also reflect this trend, with savers putting money aside for longer-term, bigger financial goals. The top goals set up by Chip savers so far this year include: 

"This year, we are seeing the trend continue on the same trajectory. January is notorious for being "the" month for financial planning, and it's definitely the case this year, with it being our biggest January on record. As a product, Chip has matured immensely and it's reflected in how our savers use the app - from the sharp increase in the overall amount put aside, to user goals and priorities. One thing that hasn't changed, however, is our goal - it was and still is to enable our savers to grow their wealth."

Bittrex Global (Bermuda) Ltd. announced that it has listed  tokenized stocks for GameStop and AMC Entertainment as well as Nokia, BlackBerry, and iShares Silver Trust. Bittrex Global will continue to list additional stocks as other firms announce a delisting from their platforms.

This decision is motivated to ensure retail investors have exposure to stocks they may wish to trade anytime during any day of the week. Bittrex Global aims to harness the power of distributed ledger technology to enable greater financial inclusion, instant settlement of trades, and lower trading fees. 

“We intend to list every stock that gets delisted from platforms like Robinhood, so that even small investors have the same opportunities afforded to multibillion-dollar financial institutions. The current situation feeds into the narrative that the financial system is rigged against the little guy. We believe blockchain, decentralization, and cryptocurrencies will finally put retail investors on a more equal footing with financial institutions who have been gaming the markets for decades,” said Bittrex Global CEO Tom Albright.

Bittrex Global’s tokenized stock offerings allow users from around the world to trade 24/7 and to buy fractionalized shares if they do not have the resources to buy whole shares. 

Bittrex Global’s newly listed stocks include:

• GameStop (GME)
• AMC Entertainment (AMC)
• BlackBerry (BB)
• Nokia Corporation (NOK)
• iShares Silver Trust (SLV)

These tokenized stocks are available for all non-US investors, partiularly in countries where accessing U.S. stocks through traditional financial instruments is not possible. Tokenized stocks can be traded alongside over 250 digital coins and tokens listed on the Bittrex Global exchange.

Vacuumlabs, a trusted global software development partner with a proven track record in successfully delivering full-stack fintech solutions, joins forces with Manifesto Growth Architects to host a virtual event – Banking 2021. The event will take place on February 11, 2021, at 5 pm GMT and will present a single approach to creating profitable digital banking services.

Banking 2021 will blend compelling content and networking opportunities to create space for relevant conversations, building connections, and creating innovations. The virtual event will include talks, panel discussion, roundtables, and live Q&A opportunities. Throughout the event, attendees will benefit from combined years of experience and use-cases from the speakers who created a single approach that links together all the expertise and capabilities to design, build and scale new banking services, including the latest trends in banking.

The insights on how to build profitable banking services will be shared by representatives of GPS, Thought Machine, Manifesto Growth Architects, and Vacuumlabs. While talks will focus on areas such as ‘The 5 Key Pillars of the New Economics of Banking‘ or ‘Technology Considerations for Winning in Banking‘, panel discussions and roundtables will be building on the session content in a more practical way, and will cover the following areas:

• The Reality of Designing and Building Banking Services
• How to bring your visions to life
• Building the right ecosystem
• Networking and general discussion

“Innovative banking services have never been more important for profitability and technology has never made it easier to deliver them. Attendees will get great insights into how to stay  ahead of their competition,“ said Nigel Sirret, Head of Digital Banking of Vacuumlabs.

Banking 2021 will take place on February 11, 2021, at 5 pm GMT. The Banking 2021 agenda, registration details and further information can be found at this following link: bit.ly/banking2021.

DIGISEQ, has appointed internationally renowned author, advisor and commentator on digital financial services, David Birch, and Fintech and strategic communications expert, Angela Yore, as non-executive directors to its board.

As COVID-19 accelerates the move to contactless payments, identification and access, there is a growing consumer demand for Internet of Things (IoT) devices to securely receive, store and communicate data. DIGISEQ, the acclaimed IoT platform provider delivers data into everyday objects, enabling any item - from rings, bracelets and even face masks - to have contactless functionality. Among other world-firsts, DIGISEQ has imbued Golden Globe trophies with true digital identity and enabled many interface-free wearables with contactless payment functionality.

David Birch is a digital financial services specialist, a Forbes contributor and one of the global top 15 favourite sources of business information according to Wired magazine. As Chairperson, he will aid DIGISEQ in trailblazing several game-changing projects in the new year yet to be announced.

Commenting on his new role as Non-Executive Chairman, David said: “It’s such an exciting time to be joining DIGISEQ. Terrie Smith and Colin Tanner andled the product development of tokenisation and ApplePay at MasterCard, and co-founded DIGISEQ to provide services into the contactless wearables and smart objects space. They have built a fantastic company and are now scaling it up to deliver mass market identity for the internet of things, which is where I will help them exploit the key trend in our new contact-free economy.”

Angela Yore is a diversity and inclusivity activist and co-founder of FinTech specialist public relations firm SkyParlour. Discussing her appointment as Non-Executive Director, she said: “The pandemic has accelerated the pace of adoption of the IoT technology market which is now forecasted to extend to over 41 billion devices by 2027. DIGISEQ continues to be the most disruptive player globally and so it’s an honour to join the board under David’s stewardship and steer business through the most exciting phase of its growth.”

Terrie Smith, CEO at DIGISEQ, commented: “I am delighted to welcome our new NEDs. With our goal to give all things a secure identity, so consumers have the ultimate choice of which device they use to pay, safe in the knowledge all transactions are genuine and secure, I’m more than confident that David and Angela’s leadership, experience and connections will complement our ambitious plans.”

The Global Supply Chain Finance Forum (GSCFF) – comprising BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade), FCI (previously known as Factors Chain International), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the International Trade & Forfaiting Association (ITFA) and the Euro Banking Association (EBA) – announced plans to update its Standard Definitions for Techniques of Supply Chain Finance (Standard Definitions) to provide further clarity on the distinctions between the individual techniques.

Alongside the existing Receivables Purchase and retitled Loan sub-categories, a newly created Advanced Payable sub-category now includes three techniques: Corporate Payment Undertaking (CPU), Dynamic Discounting (DD) and Bank Payment Undertaking (BPU).

This update highlights and confirms the quality of the original content – first published four years ago – and the need to be agile in a dynamic field such as supply chain finance. Thus, it is intended to reflect an up-to-date view of current market practices within supply chain finance, in particular by establishing greater clarity between the Payables Finance technique under the Receivables Purchase category and the CPU technique.

CPU is a buyer-led programme within which sellers in the buyer's supply chain can, at their option, access liquidity by requesting a discounted early payment. However, unlike a Payables Finance scenario, the finance provider does not purchase the underlying receivable from the seller, but rather, fully relies on the buyer’s irrevocable payment undertaking.

Christian Hausherr, Chair of the GSCFF, and European Product Head of Payables Finance, Trade Finance & Supply Chain Finance at Deutsche Bank, says: “At the time of publication, the Standard Definitions were deemed to be complete and widespread acceptance of the terminology confirms their benefit for the wider industry. Today, the GSCFF aims to bring further clarity to the techniques, with new description of CPU, DD and BPU. Adapting to current business practices, these updates will continue to encourage greater adoption of the Standard Definitions by market participants.”

The first description document on CPU has also been released today, with subsequent documents on DD and BPU expected over the coming months. Each description document will provide an overview of the technique’s definition, involved parties, distinctive features and variations, relevant risks and benefits, among other technicalities. Once the series has been published, a final updated version of the master Standard Definitions document will be made publicly available.

To access the description document on corporate payment undertaking, please click here.

To read the full breakdown of the reasoning behind the enhancements to the Standard Definitions, please click here.

Today, at its bi-annual Grande Finale Day, the Global Startup Awards announced Pleo as Startup of the Year 2020. 

As the largest independent awards for the startup ecosystem, the decision was made after the winners of the regional startup awards were placed against each other to determine who, out of the thousands of nominations and tens of thousands of votes, was to be recognised as global Startup of the Year.

Pleo was made the overall winner through a combination of public voting and jury deliberations, having previously been crowned with both Danish Startup of the Year and Nordic Startup of the Year awards in 2019. The jury was made up of international business leaders, including investors, founders and CEOs. 

Collecting the prize, Pleo CEO and co-founder Jeppe Rindom said: “We’re so proud to be named the Global Startup of the Year, especially when you look at the number of great companies who were in the running. Our mission is to transform how businesses handle their spending. Our growth so far, from an acorn of an idea to over 13,000 customers, shows that we’re onto something. At the same time, this feels like a moment to recognise that we’ve evolved. We’ve been a scrappy startup, we’ve tackled the joys and challenges of scaling. Now, it really feels like we’re moving into a new phase – and that starts with this fantastic award.”

The other finalists for Startup of the Year included ForFarming, a cloud-based farm management software from Turkey, Oval Money from Italy, and YouTrip from Singapore.

Reflecting on the decision, Global Startup Awards jury member and Executive Director of Innovation Centre Denmark Martin Rune Hoxer said: “As a manager you want to reduce the paperwork and free more time to spend on the real content for your team. Pleo provides a simple solution that gives you just that. And I am excited with the product and not least how they have scaled their business.”

Evaluating Pleo’s win, Global Startup Awards CEO & co-founder Kim Balle said: "Being from the Nordics myself, I have closely followed Pleo, who was solving a pain that even I experienced as a company owner. Where Pleo stands out from the competition is not only because of their very high-standard user-friendliness in the product. It is also because they have managed to create a strong and modern brand that makes finances look easy and pleasant.”

Previous winners of the Startup of the Year prize are Turbine (Hungary) and GRAB (Malaysia).