The UK’s leading online accountancy firm for small and micro businesses Mazuma has been chosen to join forces with the FreshBooks, the number 2 small business invoicing and accounting software in America, with paying customers in 100+ countries.

Mazuma has a proven track record of being tech-focused and working with cutting-edge companies to provide unparalleled service to micro businesses.

That caught the eye of Toronto-based software company FreshBooks, which chose Mazuma to give its clients access to a range of online services which they can use to manage and grow their businesses.

The companies work well together thanks to a similar vision for how the latest technology can be used to transform business and simplify important processes for clients. 

From the estimate stage to managing projects, time tracking, invoicing, claiming expenses, reporting, and accounting, FreshBooks’ all-in-one invoicing and accounting software makes it a seamless process. It is also Making Tax Digital compliant, automates payment and helps cashflow with its Direct Debit function, and allows project collaboration.

FreshBookshas paying customers in over 100 countries, and its software is designed exclusively for freelancers and growing service-based business owners.

Mazuma co-founder Lucy Cohen said: “Knowing your numbers is so important in business. It’s the difference between making a profit or loss, between a business struggling or being able to grow and expand.

“This is a prestigious partnership and is excellent for our clients because using FreshBooks helps business owners enormously.

“It runs your invoicing and has auto reminders to nudge people into payment, has the facility for online credit card payments and bank transfers, and offers payment schedules for your clients to make partial payments against bigger invoices and help their cash flow.

“In the UK, it is also HMRC compatible and Making Tax Digital compliant, allowing you to create VAT returns and file them with HMRC.

“FreshBooks also offers Direct Debit, where clients can pay by bank transfer directly on invoices and the invoice is automatically marked as paid. This automates reconciliation.

“We chose this partnership with FreshBooks because of its status as a major global player in cloud accounting software and its excellent reputationin providing an easy to use platform for small business owners.

“FreshBooks carried out a customer survey with more than 2,000 respondents which showed their clients save 192 hours a year by using the software. That allows entrepreneurs to put more energy into serving their customers and finding new business, rather than chasing invoices or totting up mileage.

“Our clients now have the opportunity to join a community of 24 million people who have used FreshBooks, a company which has been recognised with ten Stevie awards for the best customer service in the world.”

The software also has:

• Proposals and estimates – Where you can pitch to clients for work, estimate costs, and use e-signatures to approve it.
• Client account statements – To keep clients in the loop about their payments and give them a transaction history.
• Projects – Where you can collaborate on work with clients.
• Due Dates – Where you can set the payment date.
• Expense and mileage tracking – Organising receipts and logging trips.

"Based on their track record of providing seamless accounting services and their dedication to helping entrepreneurs flourish, partnering with Mazuma was an easy decision to make. FreshBooks is excited to support Mazuma as it continues to grow within the UK," said Matt Baker, SVP, Corporate Development & International for FreshBooks.

You can find out more about FreshBooks here. Read a case study from a writer who used FreshBooks to stay on top of her taxes here.

A panel of industry experts has selected Banking Circle’s SME lending initiative, delivered by Cardstream, as winner of the 2020 Tech Ascension FinTech Award for Most Innovative FinTech Solution.

In partnership with Banking Circle, Cardstream is providing its 200+ Channel Partners with access to affordable, flexible business loans. The joint initiative sees the two businesses’ platforms technically integrated so that Cardstream can deliver seamless lending solutions without having to build the technology or the solution in house.

The Tech Ascension Awards are grounded in facts and accomplishments, aiming to elevate the companies that are driving cutting-edge, innovative technology that solves critical challenges. Applicants are judged based on technology innovation and uniqueness, market research, performance stats, and competitive differentiators.

Cardstream’s CEO, Adam Sharpe, commented: “Winning this award is a clear demonstration of the exciting and important work we are doing with Banking Circle to increase financial inclusion. The solution is helping our Partners to provide their merchant clients with accounts and cash at speed empowering their businesses to prosper. We look forward to working with Banking Circle on other award-winning solutions in the future.”

Anders la Cour, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle, added: “We are delighted to have won another award for our innovative lending solution. Banking Circle Lending was launched specifically to help Payments businesses offer their merchants faster, more flexible and more affordable business loan options. Working with Cardstream we integrated the Banking Circle platform to reduce friction and ensure a seamless customer journey from application right through to repayment of the loan.”

Banking Circle Lending provides financial institutions with the ability to offer their merchant customers a fast, transparent, flexible, low-cost, and easy-to-manage loan solution. Where once smaller businesses were unable to achieve global ambitions due to a lack of necessary funds, Banking Circle Lending is improving financial inclusion by giving financial institutions the ability to offer SMEs fast access to loans and receivables financing with flexible repayment options.

FinTech success Cardstream is the UK’s largest independent provider of white label payment software and services. Its mission is to become the global standard for white label payment provision. Everything the company does is designed to give its partners the freedom, flexibility and control to deliver the unhindered achievement of their business objectives.

Home Credit Group, which lends to underserved customers with little or no credit history, has chosen FICO® Decision Optimizer to further improve its lending offers in multiple markets. The adoption of FICO’s AI-powered optimization follows a successful pilot in Russia, which delivered excellent results including significant profitability improvement on the targeted part of the loan portfolio, as well as an increase in new loan volumes.

“We pride ourselves on being a responsible lender whose decision-making in risk management is powered by advanced technology,” explained Radek Pluhar, Home Credit Group’s Chief Risk Officer. “We have a very clear understanding of the consumers we want to continue serving – they are often neglected by other lenders simply because of their lack of credit history. For them it’s vital that we are able to offer a loan with the best possible combination of the price and the loan size which fits their needs. FICO Decision Optimizer will help us to acquire these customers while meeting our demanding risk and reward targets. The advanced technology enables us to boost our competitive edge across our markets.”

Home Credit Group’s central team of data scientists and optimization experts will further develop country-specific solutions to optimize loan pricing in Kazakhstan and Vietnam initially, with plans to expand into other markets in the next phase.

“Pricing optimization can generate impressive results in just a few months,” said Petr Kapoun, Chief Risk Officer at Home Credit Russia. “FICO’s optimization approach brings a clear structure that easily accommodates numerous overlapping policy rules; at the same time, it builds our own analytics expertise into the final decision-making. Such a unique combination delivers truly significant business impact and we are continuously looking for its introduction into new applications areas.”

“We have built an excellent relationship with Home Credit Group’s risk team,” added Steve Hadaway, EMEA general manager for FICO. “They understand the potential that mathematical optimization can bring to an organization. Our pilot delivered outstanding results, giving the business the confidence to implement the solution for other markets targeted for growth amidst challenging environments.”

FICO® Decision Optimizer, part of the FICO® Platform, supports the entire lifecycle of designing, developing, executing and deploying decision optimization technology. Its advanced decision impact modelling, simulation and optimization techniques allow lenders to discover better decision strategies that balance trade-offs between cost, risk and reward, while also factoring in economic and market conditions.

SIA, a leading European hi-tech company in the payment services and infrastructures sector, controlled by CDP Equity, has signed a partnership agreement with Hex Trust, the leading fintech company in digital asset custody infrastructure for the banking sector, to provide digital asset services to European financial institutions enabling their customers to access new investments opportunities based on blockchain technology.

Through an innovative platform, SIA and Hex Trust will allow banks and financial institutions to manage and safekeep any kind of digital assets - such as security and utility tokens, central bank digital currencies and stablecoins created on a number of different blockchain protocols - and to offer custody services to their institutional, private banking and retail clients with the highest levels of security, control and scalability.

Furthermore, this custody platform connects financial institutions to digital asset intermediaries (including exchanges, brokers and lending platforms) within a secure custody framework complying with the most stringent Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing regulatory requirements.

The partnership between SIA and Hex Trust comes at an exciting time of growth in the digital assets market, as many first-tier banks and financial institutions are entering the industry and several Central Banks are also working to launch their digital currency pilots.

“The collaboration with Hex Trust further strengthens our expertise and primary role in designing and delivering innovative infrastructures for the European financial community. We aim to create an ecosystem where banks can manage their digital assets based on state-of-the-art technologies and comply with their internal procedures and regulatory requirements,” commented Daniele Savarè, Innovation & Business Solutions Director of SIA.

“This is a critical milestone as SIA and Hex Trust join forces to make a bank-grade solution for digital assets available to European financial institutions. The partnership comes at a key inflexion point in the market where digital assets have become a reality: the banking sector is requiring a clear strategy around them and we are perfectly positioned to support this transformation,” said Alessio Quaglini, CEO and Co-Founder of Hex Trust.

App Annie, the leading mobile data and analytics company, recently released a report on Generation Z, How to Build a Winning Gen Z Strategy on Mobile, that reveals the mobile habits of this generation to help businesses understand and cater to this group.

Gen Z is quickly becoming one of the world’s most powerful consumer segments - as one of the youngest generations, Gen Z amounts to a third of the world’s population and controls an estimated spending power of $143 billion annually. With 98 percent of Gen Z owning a smartphone, on average receiving their first at the age of ten, it’s clear that businesses looking to reach this demographic need to meet them on their mobile devices.

“Gen Z has never known a world without their smartphone. They see the world through this mobile first lens,” said Ted Krantz, CEO, App Annie. “As new consumers, businesses have an opportunity to earn their loyalty. App Annie connects brands to the mobile preferences of this generation.”

"Leveraging data to understand how to best reach consumers on mobile is more critical than ever, and Gen Z’s importance for marketers will only increase in 2021 and beyond. Businesses need to understand the values and user preferences of this audience to create truly engaging experiences on innovative platforms like Snapchat," said Skye Featherstone, Product Marketing Manager, Snap, Inc.

Key insights and statistics about Gen Z from the report include:

• On average Gen Z users spent 4.1hrs per month on apps (excluding games) in Q3 2020
• TikTok and Snapchat are the most over-indexed apps among Gen Z in nine out of ten markets analyzed, indicating the importance of a photo and video-first strategy
• The finance and shopping app categories have experienced the strongest growth YoY with the Gen Z audience, with a 60 percent increase versus Q3 2019
• Finance apps like Venmo and DANA are more likely to over-index on Gen Z in most markets, indicating an opportunity for mobile-first banks to capture Gen Z audiences
• Gen Z is less likely than average to use the top 20 shopping apps, indicating opportunity for brands to expand their Gen Z reach within this space
• Gen Z’s engagement is deeper in apps (excluding games), with 20 percent more sessions per user in top apps than older groups
• The Core action gaming genre (led by Battle Royale games such as PUBG Mobile and Free Fire) accounted for nearly 25 percent of time spent among Gen Z gamers

The How to Build a Winning Gen Z Strategy on Mobile report offers significant additional insight into the behaviors and preferences of Gen Z and where opportunities for brands lie within this critical audience, including how these attributes vary across different geographies and categories.

To learn more, download the report at:  https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/reports/how-to-build-a-winning-gen-z-strategy-on-mobile.

Leading trade digitisation technology provider Bolero International has announced significant new partnerships with CommChain and Envoy to embed electronic bill of lading into their blockchain based digital trade platforms built on R3’s Corda.

CommChain, based in Australia, and Envoy, based in Latin America, will use Bolero’s electronic bill of lading as-a-service in their highly advanced digital trade platforms built on distributed ledger technology. These partnerships confirm Bolero as the number one provider of electronic bills of lading (eBLs) to blockchain based trade and supply chain finance platforms.

As part of Bolero’s ambitious broader strategy to establish itself as the platform agnostic, interoperable eBL service specialist, Bolero continues to invest in global partnerships with trade platforms across all leading blockchain platforms such as Hyperledger, Corda and Ethereum. Bolero provides eBL as a service to Contour, a leading trade finance network, and earlier this year, became part of the Marco Polo Network, the world’s largest and fastest-growing trade finance and working capital network.

Bolero CEO, Andrew Raymond said: “Bolero is continuously investing in new technologies and innovating to keep pace with evolving business models in digital trade. These partnerships reinforce Bolero’s strategy of easing the adoption of eBL services globally and will help grow the Bolero network of banks, corporate and carriers. Collaborations with CommChain and Envoy are exciting because they share our vision of fully digital global trade finance flows with streamlined processes benefiting all parties.”

CommChain is transforming the processing of bulk commodity trades through the elimination of paper. It offers a secure digital solution with a suite of features that radically improve efficiency in the execution of logistics services and trade settlement.

Gary Zamel, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of CommChain, added: “It is an exciting move for CommChain to partner with Bolero – a company that has a tried-and-tested eBL solution that fits in perfectly with our aim of transforming the commodity trading industry through digitisation and the power of blockchain.”

Envoy Group employs blockchain technologies to bring significant efficiencies to global supply chain and trade finance, injecting vital and once-unobtainable liquidity into the system by means of decentralised finance (DeFi).

Lee Tarone, CEO of Envoy, said: “Like Bolero, we want to revolutionise global trade and its processes, opening up the system to provide thousands of companies with the finance they are currently denied. Our partnership with a proven expert such as Bolero is a big step forward in fulfilling our ambitions.”

Covid-19 remains one of the biggest global health issues we’ve seen in our lifetimes, and finding a vaccine is a cause that people all over the world want to support.

But, when it comes to donations to international organisations, most banks and payment providers don’t exchange money using the mid-market rate (the rate you find on Reuters, and Google). 

That means when people donate money to Covid-19 research efforts in another country, and the transfer provider doesn’t give them the real exchange rate, the full donation isn’t getting to their chosen organisation.

Today, TransferWise is launching it’s COVID-19 donation platform, partnering with 3 international organisations working to find a vaccine for COVID-19. Currently, these are: Gavi - the Vaccine alliance CEPI - the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness UNF - formal name for the World Health Organisation. We’re also waiving fees up to $20 million in donations - meaning the entire amount transferred will reach these organisations.

If you’d like to hear more about the issue of hidden fees in international donations, and specifically how it might impact Covid-19 efforts, we'll be happy to discuss, and potentially loop in some of our partners.

You can read more in the blog here.

Bottomline (NASDAQ: EPAY), a leading provider of financial technology that makes complex business payments simple, smart and secure, today commented on the launch of the Coronavirus Payment Plan, a debt management program offered by StepChange Debt Charity, and created in consultation with the UK Government. 

Bottomline’s PTX payment platform is enabling the StepChange program to collect available funds from individuals, manage debt payment plans and associated official correspondence, and disburse the agreed payments as negotiated with creditors across the country.

“Setting up mandates, managing payment plans, and collecting or paying variable amounts on a recurring basis can be a complicated and time-consuming process, aggravated by potential fraud and manual error if not managed properly,” said Nigel Savory, Managing Director of Europe, Bottomline. “Bottomline’s PTX payment platform provides a simple, smart and secure way to automate and ease that process.”

Responsible for managing StepChange’s technology and architecture, Lorna Allan, CIO of StepChange Debt Charity, explained: “The coronavirus pandemic has created a period of widespread financial instability for households, with many people receiving unforeseen knocks to their finances. That’s why we have developed CVPP, a product to help those who need to get back on their feet quickly. In a similar way to longer-term payment plans, StepChange will work with CVPP applicants to determine the number of creditors they have, what they owe, and what they are able to pay. StepChange will then liaise with all creditors on behalf of the client, who will be required to make one single payment per month to StepChange as per their agreed plan for the next 12 months – with the option to leave or to switch to a different debt solution if their circumstances change during that period.

“To manage these payments, we needed to rely on proven technology that could be rapidly deployed. Having worked with Bottomline for many years, we naturally turned to them to handle the seamless disbursement of our clients’ debts to their creditors. Their services have not let us down during our long relationship, and therefore it was a natural decision to work with Bottomline to implement PTX on CVPP to ensure the smooth and ongoing transfer of funds for our clients throughout their payment plans.”

Savory added: “It’s a privilege to be involved in this program with StepChange as they offer hundreds of thousands of individuals a way to help manage their debt during this difficult time.”

• 22.10.2020 -- 12:23 pm

Vijay Oddiraju is CEO of volante Technologies, a leading global provider of cloud payments and financial messaging solutions to accelerate digital transformation. They serve as a trusted partner to over 100 banks, financial institutions, market infrastructures, clearing houses, and corporate treasuries in 35 countries. Their solutions and services process millions of transactions and trillions in value every day, powering four of the top five corporate banks, 40% of all US commercial bank deposits, and 70% of worldwide card traffic.