Radware® (NASDAQ: RDWR), a leading provider of cybersecurity and application delivery solutions, today announced it has released its 2018-2019 Global Application and Network Security Report, in which survey respondents estimate the average cost of a cyberattack has climbed to $1.1M. For those organisations that calculate (versus estimate) the cost of an attack, that number increases to $1.67M.

The top impact of cyberattacks, as reported by respondents, is operational/productivity loss (54%), followed by negative customer experience (43%). What’s more, almost half (45%) reported that the goal of the attacks they suffered was service disruption.  Another third (35%) said the goal was data theft. 

 “This year we’ve seen a real shift in the impact an attack has on a company financially and it’s especially interesting that more companies are taking the time to calculate the loss not just estimate it. That’s not surprising given how volatile economies are at the moment. Understanding the impact of downtime on productivity as well as sales and consumer trust is essential to justify spending money on protecting the business in the future, and staying competitive.” said Jeff Curley, head of online and digital for Radware UK, Ireland and the Nordics.

While the cost of attack mitigation continues to rise, so does the number of organisations under attack. Most organisations have experienced some type of attack within the course of a year, with only 7% of respondents claiming not to have experienced an attack at all. Twenty one percent reported daily attacks, representing a significant rise from 13% last year.  Not only are attacks becoming more frequent, they are also more effective: 78% of respondents hit by a cyberattack experienced service degradation or a complete outage, compared to 68% last year. Even with these numbers, 34% of respondents do not have a cybersecurity emergency response plan in place.

Other key findings of the report include:

• 43% of respondents reported negative customer experiences and reputation loss following a successful attack.

• Data leakage and information loss remain the biggest concern to more than one-third (35%) of businesses, followed by service outages.

• Hackers increased their usage of emerging attack vectors to bring down networks and data centres: Respondents reporting HTTPS Floods grew from 28% to 34%, reports of DNS grew from 33% to 38%, reports of burst attacks grew from 42% to 49%, and reports of bot attacks grew from 69% to 76%.
• Application-layer attacks cause considerable damage. Two-thirds of respondents experienced application-layer DoS attacks and 34% foresee application vulnerabilities being a major concern in the coming year. More than half (56%) reported making changes and updates to their public-facing applications monthly, while the rest made updates more frequently, driving the need for automated security.
• 86% percent of surveyed businesses indicated they explored machine-learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. Almost half (48%) point at quicker response times and better security as primary drivers to explore ML-based solutions.

Jeff adds, “It’s a worry to see that a third of companies suffered data loss last year as I suspect a good proportion included personal data. The public is now far more aware of the risks of handing over information and the long-lasting impact to their lives if their data is caught up in a breach. Hackers will continue to exploit this and I expect to see more and more automated attacks, especially those that target applications in the future.

He adds: “It’s no surprise then that ML and AI are growing in popularity. They are a way to provide defences that are effective 100% of the time. Companies that fail to invest in these new technologies, will suffer the consequences.”

Radware’s Global Application and Network Security Report, now in its eighth year, is a cross-industry report compiled by Radware’s Emergency Response Team (ERT), leveraging vendor-neutral survey data from 790 IT executives spanning several industries around the globe, Radware’s hands-on experience handling today’s leading threats, as well as third-party service provider commentary. The complete Global Application & Network Security Report 2018-2019, which details 2018’s major attack trends and provides predictions and recommendations from Radware’s ERT for how organisations can best prepare for mitigating cyber threats in 2019, can be downloaded at https://www.radware.com/ert-report-2018/

THIS PRESS RELEASE AND THE REPORT ARE PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THESE MATERIALS ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE AN INDICATOR OF RADWARE'S BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OR OPERATING RESULTS FOR ANY PRIOR, CURRENT OR FUTURE PERIOD.

BLEND Network, a fast-growing peer-to-peer property lending platform, has announced the appointment of highly-experienced property professional Paul Watson as Head of Origination. His arrival will help the company better serve its existing clients, as well as accelerate the acquisition of new borrowers, while also enhancing its due diligence capability for the benefit of its lenders. Paul’s appointment comes at an exciting time for the business, and follows the company’s recent successful completion of a £10m funding round, including commitments from a number of leading global business figures.

BLEND Network is a peer-to-peer property lending platform which allows lenders to invest in property-secured loans. Private lenders are able to co-invest from £1,000 with very sophisticated high net worth lenders in the same deal, in a move that is leading to the increasing ‘democratisation’ of investing.

The business’s platform has delivered double digits returns to investors whilst also channelling money into affordable housing where there is a recognised lack of funding. BLEND Network has already lent £5m to 20 projects across Northern Ireland, Scotland and the North of England, with 0 defaults and an average fixed return of 12.06% p.a.

Paul has a 15-year track record of working across residential and commercial property, including experience in distressed assets, fund management of residential income portfolios, new acquisitions, and development management. He also brings significant experience of the property market outside of London, which fits well with BLEND Network’s core strategy of focusing its lending in the regions, particularly in the North of England, directing funds to small-and-medium-sized affordable housing developers in these areas, which are typically overlooked by mainstream lenders.

Paul’s most recent position was as Senior Development Finance Originator for leading real estate lender Octopus Property, where he focused on the sourcing and execution of development finance projects in residential, mixed-use, and student accommodation schemes.  Previously Paul was a Senior Development Manager at Churchmanor Estates in Ipswich, where he was responsible for working on new transactions and managing existing assets and developments, including the delivery of the £25 million Chequers shopping centre. 

Earlier in his career, he spent five years at Royal Bank of Scotland’s Real Estate Management division as an Investment Manager, where he had sole responsibility for £105 million of strategic buy-side transactions and was involved in the financial appraisal of a variety of distressed assets and joint ventures across a number of real estate sectors.

Paul began his career as a surveyor in the property sector with global real estate investment management firm Jones Lang LaSalle. As part of this role Paul was responsible for advising clients on mixed-use development and investment issues in London, analysing assets whilst providing development advice and the marketing of opportunities. He was also involved in a variety of buy-side and sell-side mandates including financial modelling, due diligence and structuring advice to a national housebuilder in order for the firm to secure an equity partner. 

Paul holds a masters degree in Property Appraisal and Management, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Manchester.

BLEND Network and other alternative property lenders offer one potential approach to help address the UK’s housing crisis. Housing experts report that 40% of all new houses built every year need to be affordable homes, but 2016-2017 figures show that the figure was only 23%. Recent research also states that England has a backlog of 3.91 million homes, meaning that 340,000 new homes will need to be built annually until 2031.

The company had a strong finish to 2018, securing £10 million in a successful financing, which included investment from leading business leaders such as Cyrus Ardalan, chairman of OakNorth Bank and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, Chairman of Publicis Group Maurice Levy, and Jean-Phillipe Blochet, co-founder of Breven Howard. BLEND Network aims to continue its growth in 2019, further expanding the team, developing new features for the platform and increasing its range of borrowers and lenders.

Yann Murciano, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Blend Network/ Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, Chief Strategy Officer at BLEND Network, commented:

“We are delighted to welcome such an experienced property professional as Paul to our growing senior team. He has a breadth and depth of experience across real estate sectors as well as extensive regional expertise, which will significantly help us scale the business. His appointment will help accelerate our acquisition of new borrowers as well as enhance our capabilities to service both existing borrowers and lenders on the platform.”

Paul Watson, Head of Origination at BLEND Network, commented:

“I am very pleased to be joining BLEND Network at such an exciting time. The company has already gained recognition as one of the most innovative and dynamic businesses in the alternative property lending sector. Its business model and strategy offer property developers overlooked by mainstream lenders an opportunity to secure funding while providing lenders with robust returns, secured on bricks and mortar.  I believe the company has a great future and I look forward to playing a strong role in its expansion and success.”

AxiomSL, the leading global provider of regulatory-reporting, risk and data-management solutions, today announced the appointment of David Weber as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer and the appointment of Eyal Amsalem as Chief Administrative Officer.

Mr. Weber, who brings more than 30 years of financial management and operations experience, joins AxiomSL from Charles River Development (CRD), where he served as Chief Financial Officer since 2006.  His management responsibilities spanned finance, accounting, human resources, legal and general operations of the business. He also played an instrumental role in CRD’s recent sale to State Street Bank and Trust Company. 

"We’re thrilled to welcome Dave to AxiomSL as the new COO and CFO during this important expansion period," said Alex Tsigutkin, Founder and CEO of AxiomSL. "Dave’s unique experience and skilled leadership in the financial technology sector is a great addition to our management team. His deep financial, operational and strategic expertise will enable him to immediately make a strong contribution and drive continued momentum as we enter this phase of growth.”

Prior to CRD, Mr. Weber held various roles at Sybase Inc., including Vice President of Worldwide and International Field Operations Finance; Senior Director of Professional Services; and Director of Operations. He was the Chief Financial Officer at Context Integration, a software consulting company. Mr. Weber holds a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management.

“I’m honored and excited to join AxiomSL, an organization with an outstanding reputation as a global leader of regulatory-reporting, risk and data management solutions,” said David Weber. “The company’s growth over the last few years has been exceptional, and I’m incredibly energized to help lead AxiomSL in its journey to grow, scale and meet the market demand.”

Mr. Weber succeeds Eyal Amsalem, who has served as AxiomSL’s Chief Financial Officer since 2008. Mr. Amsalem will remain at AxiomSL as its Chief Administrative Officer. In his new role, he will help lead efforts to manage AxiomSL’s global presence.

Said Alex Tsigutkin, “Eyal continues to be a major factor in AxiomSL’s success. Throughout his tenure, he’s been instrumental in the company’s growth, which led to our first outside strategic investment by Technology Crossover Ventures in 2017. As Chief Administrative Officer, Eyal will play a major part in ensuring that we continue to be a first-class organization as we grow our presence in North America, EMEA, APAC and Latin America.”

The Future of Finance and CFO Summit spoke with Ian Brimicombe, Senior Vice President Group Finance, Burberry, and Camilla Thorsager Trendell, International Director & Finance Director, itsu [grocery], to gain an insight into what the future of finance looks like for two businesses that sit at drastically different ends of the scale (start up vs. heritage). You can learn a lot more about the challenges and opportunities for Finance at Burberry and itsu [grocery] in the full interview with Ian and Camilla here.

Appian (NASDAQ: APPN) announces that UnionBank of the Philippines used the Appian Platform to launch its first fully digital branch. The branch, called The Ark, completely transforms the customer experience, making that experience entirely digital, including internet-connected self-service kiosks and virtual reality boxes.

Unlike traditional bank branches, The Ark has done away with rows of tellers and long queues, and gone completely paperless. Customers now go to one of the self-service iPad stands stationed around the bank, where they can type in their request, significantly reducing time previously spent waiting in queues for service.

“The Ark is an award-winning digital branch that provides a modern experience for our clients within a traditional brick and mortar store,” said Anna Maria Aboitiz Delgado, Head for Consumer Finance, Chief Customer Experience Officer & Senior VP at UnionBank of the Philippines. “Designed more like a business lounge than a typical bank, this is a ‘first of its kind’ in the Philippines, and an embodiment of digital transformation in the banking industry.” 

To assist in its digital transformation, UnionBank partnered with Appian, through Appian’s regional reseller, Via Appia, to implement automated banking processes and applications on the Appian Cloud platform. 

“UnionBank has utilised digital technology to completely transform the banking experience for customers, making it a more modern, enjoyable and efficient process for them,” said Karen Astley, Vice President of Asia-Pacific at Appian. “The Ark is a model for the future of banking and Appian is excited to be providing the platform for digitalising the country’s banking industry.”

“Our customers are continuously seeking more convenient ways of doing everyday things,” added Anna Maria Aboitiz Delgado. “The Ark provides them with the perfect mix of an efficient and time-saving digital method of completing their banking, while still offering the option of face-to-face interactions with our ambassadors.”

Following the launch of this first digital branch, UnionBank anticipates opening additional digital branches throughout the Philippines during the next year.

For more information on Appian, click here.

Engineering and project management consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV has acquired Lanner, a UK-based hybrid software & consultancy firm specialising in predictive simulation for industrial clients. Lanner’s simulation software (WITNESS) connects physical assets, processes and resources into a single digital model that delivers actionable insights to make business operations and supply chains more resilient and efficient. 

The acquisition supports Royal HaskoningDHV’s strategy to offer services in which its extensive engineering and consultancy knowledge is combined with data-driven and technology-based solutions.

Royal HaskoningDHV CEO Erik Oostwegel: “Today’s rapidly changing business environment requires organisations to be able to quickly adapt and act. Simulation is the most cost-effective way to assess ‘what if’ scenarios of business process changes. Predictive simulation helps to make fact-based investment decisions, improve operational efficiency and embrace Industry 4.0. It allows us to better support our clients on business questions such as ‘what happens if we expand our production capacity’, or ‘what would be the best Industry 4.0 investment for our specific situation’.”

“We are pleased to welcome the experts of Lanner and their proven technology. By combining our extensive engineering and consultancy knowledge with data-driven and technology-based solutions, we are able to better advise and support our clients to run a sustainable business.”

Predictive digital twin

The predictive simulation technology provided by Lanner also strengthens Royal HaskoningDHV’s focus on further building its Digital Twin offering. Lanner’s software platform WITNESS provides optimisation capabilities together with scenario management functionality. Combined with Royal HaskoningDHV’s broader digital capabilities, clients can be supported with a predictive digital twin that is able to hunt for the optimum balance between customer service levels and operational costs.  

Lanner CEO David Jones: “I am very excited by this teaming with Royal HaskoningDHV for all Lanner employees, our customers and partners as it allows Lanner to strengthen its position as the leading simulation company driving real and deliverable Industry 4.0 certainty and success. Being part of the Royal HaskoningDHV family will provide greater technology and market access, accelerating our vision and business strategy of delivering predictive digital twin technology and applications that future proof our customer’s decision making. This is a real win-win!”

Both company cultures and visions are very much aligned, and their customer bases complementary. Royal HaskoningDHV and Lanner feel confident that by joining forces they are able to add additional value to their customers operating in diverse sectors across the world.

With the acquisition of Lanner, Royal HaskoningDHV aims to strengthen its market position in the UK especially in consumer goods, manufacturing, automotive and energy & utilities and it also sees great potential for maritime and aviation. In Asia Pacific, the focus will be on the growing consumer goods market by combining Lanner’s predictive simulation with Royal HaskoningDHV’s parametric business consultancy. Also, in the other global markets of Royal HaskoningDHV joint opportunities will be pursued.

SafeCharge (AIM: SCH), the payments partner of choice for businesses who demand more from payments technology, today announced it has partnered with Kiwi.com, the fast-growing online travel business providing flight and vehicle transportation services. The collaboration will enable Kiwi.com to provide a smooth payment experience for travellers worldwide and accept a full range of traditional and alternative payment methods. Thanks to its direct connections to major card schemes as well as to over 150 local payment methods, SafeCharge drives higher payment conversions by offering Kiwi.com customers their preferred payment methods.

As one of the fastest-growing online travel agencies in the world, Kiwi.com pioneered its Virtual Interlining Technology which can analyse over 15 billion flight combinations - from non-cooperating airlines - into a single itinerary, to provide the best customer experience within any given budget. With the need to match increasingly different booking experiences from customers around the globe, Kiwi.com has furthered its mission to make travelling simpler and more accessible by investing in the latest payments technology.

“In today’s globalised world, providing a flexible travel platform that can adapt to passengers’ varying travel needs is vital to success. To offer the best experience possible to our global customer base, we needed a payments technology provider who not only shared our ambitious mindset, but also possessed a knowledge of cross-border payments,” said Juraj Striezenec, Chief Financial Officer at Kiwi.com. “By partnering with SafeCharge, we are able to take advantage of a solid payments technology infrastructure that will ultimately enable us to grow and expand into other markets.”

“We were looking for a payment partner able to provide global acquiring with a wide portfolio of global solutions”, adds Natália Čermáková, Payment Specialist at Kiwi.com “Our partnership with SafeCharge will allow us to offer to our clients more payment products, more currencies and an improved overall customer experience. This is key for a company as Kiwi.com that aims to quickly roll out in new markets”.

SafeCharge will be providing local and international payment processing services under one roof, enabling Kiwi.com to easily manage its global transaction flows and giving the most secure and easy way for a passenger to book a holiday. By providing a seamless checkout experience, Kiwi.com will be able to increase conversion rates and scale up internationally.

David Avgi, CEO at SafeCharge, added, “with digital shopping increasing dramatically in volume, omnichannel experience is becoming a must for the next generation travellers. And with the rise of local payment preferences, it is important for merchants to fine-tune their payments strategies to streamline the shopping experience for customers around the world. This partnership once again demonstrates the capabilities of our native payments platform as the ideal solution for travel businesses demanding flexible solutions to grow and expand internationally.”

Savills Investment Management (“Savills IM”), the international real estate investment manager, transacted EUR 4.2 billion in 2018, with EUR 1.1 billion of disposals and EUR 3.1 billion of acquisitions. The firm now manages a company record of EUR 18.3 billion assets.

There were 80 transactions across 12 countries in 2018, with highlights including the acquisition of an office block at 125 Shaftsbury Avenue in central London for c. EUR 300 million; a pair of Polish transactions on behalf of a strategic partnership client for a combined EUR 500+ million; and the recent acquisition of two retail assets in France.

The firm also achieved several fund and mandate milestones in 2018, raising a record amount of capital of EUR 2.6 billion. This included deploying over EUR 1 billion on behalf of Korean strategic partnership clients. The firm also successfully completed the resolution of all assets from its Greater Tokyo Office Fund, producing positive outperformance which led to the launch of Japan II, a successor fund, with the backing of prior investors. Furthermore, the European Retail Fund exceeded EUR 500 million in assets under management, while the European Logistics Fund II surpassed its target raise and now manages assets of over EUR 450 million. 

2018 saw EUR 3.6 billion transacted in Europe and EUR 580 million in Asia. European volumes were generated in part by a sharp rise in transaction activity in Spain and Portugal following the acquisition and integration in 2017 of the Spanish firm Zaphir Asset Management. At the time of acquisition, ZAM managed EUR 200 million of assets, a figure which has since risen to over EUR 800 million. This included the acquisition of a Spanish office portfolio for c. EUR 280 million earlier this year.

Savills IM also purchased a 25% stake in the real estate debt investment advisor DRC Capital in 2018. The firm raised c. EUR 780m for its UK Whole Loan Fund, beating its target raise of EUR 550m. DRC Capital has raised over EUR 3.0 billion across its managed fund vehicles.

Kiran Patel, Chief Investment Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer, Savills Investment Management, commented:

"European real estate markets performed strongly in 2018 and there is scope for the continent’s economy to maintain momentum in 2019. But the cycle is clearly at a mature stage and, given a current backdrop that includes political tensions across most European countries and the ongoing uncertainty in the UK around Brexit, investors might consider focus on protecting and enhancing income streams.

“There are still highly promising investment opportunities in Europe, in particular in the overlooked retail sector and the positive structural changing logistics sector. In our view, now is not the time to take major risks and investing for stable income in good quality properties in established locations, commensurate with the achievable returns would be a better risk adjusted profile to adopt. 

“Asia is growing stronger than Europe, with better longer-term fundamentals in terms of population growth as well as faster-growing prosperity and urbanisation. This is leading to increasing occupier demand, while a growing middle class also drives demand for retail space and logistics via growing e-commerce. With Asian markets at all stages of evolution from emerging to established, many opportunities for core-plus/value-add real estate investing are arising.”

Oracle and B-Hive have selected the first fintechs to take part in the Fintech ScaleUp Program that aims to maximize business opportunities for startup, scale-up and mature fintechs while minimizing the time to get to market. The program starts today with an ignition day in Brussels. 

The goal of the program is to realize a fast go-to market model with Oracle as well as enter one of the existing monetization models on Oracle Cloud, where Oracle’s customers can get access to the fintech’s products and services. The fintechs were selected for Oracle and B-Hive’s Fintech ScaleUp Program based on their potential to scale-up, proven market fit and motivated mindset. The fintechs are Features Analytics, BankiFi, Finweg, InvestSuite, The Logic Value, POM, Risk Ident, Salt Edge, Twikey, Unchain.io and Vadis Technologies.  

Together with Oracle and B-Hive, the fintechs will explore their true potential. Anthony de Bruyn, Marketing and Communication Manager at POM, hopes to discover collaboration and integration scenarios of their invoice management services with the Oracle platform and its customers. 

“Through our participation in the program, our goal is to find the perfect match between POM, Oracle's technology and its enterprise customers. We would be thrilled to create a joint go-to-market model and make POM available to Oracle's customer base.” de Bruyn adds.

The fintechs will go through a four-month program that is divided into two sections. The first section focuses on business models, with masterclasses, pitches from selected fintechs and matchmaking sessions, while the second section will have an execution-focus, reviewing the Proof of Concept and the monetization process. Rik De Deyn from Oracle believes that the program will be a great stepping stone for the fintechs on their way to the top of the fintech scene.

“Oracle’s customers are asking us to speed up the collaboration between the innovation of relevant fintechs and the resilience of the Oracle platform. The first Fintech ScaleUp program cycle addresses that request in the areas of Open Banking, Data Monetization and ERP Added-Value. Our customers will be the real beneficiaries of this program.“ 

Today marks as the first day of the program that will run for the next four months. The program will finish in April, when four fintechs will graduate and start their collaboration with Oracle. This makes their product visible to Oracle’s customers including most Tier-1 banks as well as other well-established large and mid-sized companies. 

A second round will take place in London and have new fintechs go through a similar process. More information about the application process can be found athttps://b-hive.eu/fintech-scaleup-program/.