O’Neill Patient Solicitors (ONP), one of the largest conveyancing firms in the UK, today announces that it will be utilising LMS Secure Link Workspace as a preferred method for law firm-to-law firm communication and enquiry management.

The rollout is already underway, with LMS uniquely positioned to deliver on the law firm’s requirement of one centralised platform that drives end-to-end management of the conveyancing process. With efficiency and security already at the heart of the Secure Link offering, LMS wanted to drive further innovation by building technology in collaboration with the industry to function as a centralised, agnostic platform. As such, authenticated users can drive transparency and efficient stakeholder communication. Secure Link will allow stakeholders on both sides of the transaction to have full visibility of all case updates that are recorded, stored and updated on the hub in real-time automatically. This removes the need for manual updates, constant admin and rekeying of information which takes time and is prone to mistakes.

ONP’s adoption saw the value of LMS’ solution which will improve its own processing of cases by reducing admin and fraud risk as well as streamlining case updates for all stakeholders, but it will also drive the adoption of the technology across the industry as it looks to effect change. The technology continues to be developed in line with feedback and law firm demand and is available to the whole conveyancing community to provide an efficient and effective communication channel for all involved with each case journey.

With the largest network of authenticated users in the UK, consisting of over 4,000 law firms and 60,000 registered users, LMS can already cater for this need, ensuring no extra work is needed for any firm to work with ONP, while the latter is driving the adoption of digitised end to end conveyancing.

Travis Scholes, Commercial Director at LMS, comments: 

“ONP has been absolutely instrumental in the launch of this exciting iteration of Secure Link and we’re delighted the team want to use it as their preferred method for communication in the conveyancing journey moving forward – it’s a real testament to the technology we’re worked so hard on in conjunction with all the law firm feedback on their greatest pain points. Tapping into Secure Link allowed us to drive such innovation much more quickly without compromising on quality and we continue on our mission to reduce risk and connect the right people safely and easily throughout the conveyancing journey. The rollout across the entire business for ONP is proof that we can scale it at speed in a robust way. With multiple other firms also taking part in the initial trial, we’ve proven the value of the platform and the hope is that we will see further adoption from the law firm community.

“Thanks to the whole team at ONP who have been brilliant to work with and who really understand the LMS vision of collaboration to make the industry better and more efficient for all.”

Mark Tosetti, Group Partnership Director at O’Neill Patient Solicitors, adds:

“The dedication and commitment of LMS in driving innovation to streamline and digitise the conveyancing journey for all stakeholders is clear to see with the launch of its new Secure Link Workspace. But it is not just launching tech for the sake of it – the whole team at LMS really listened to the issues we faced and built a platform that addressed them for us and we’re already seeing the benefits. That’s why Secure Link is now our preferred method of communication.I  It delivers the efficiency and security in conveyancing that is so vital, and the collaborative nature and partnership  in working with LMS is second to none. We look forward to seeing a whole community of firms taking advantage and driving change across the board.”

Chargeflow’s mission has always been to simplify and increase profitability for online merchants, retailers, and companies processing online payments. Our ethos has been that businesses should focus on serving their customers, building better products and providing better experiences. We don’t think preventing fraud, fighting chargebacks and dealing with time-consuming and profit-diminishing regulations should be one of the focus points for growing businesses. Chargeflow eliminates those pains and will continue to do so in the future.

When my Co-founder, Ariel Chen and I started building Chargeflow after suffering from chargebacks at our previous eCommerce businesses, we couldn’t imagine how far this journey would take us.

Today, we are excited to share an amazing milestone with our customers, partners, employees and the rest of the fintech community. Chargeflow has secured $11 million in VC funding, led by OpenView, which brings the total funding amount to $14 million. The funding will help accelerate product development, company growth, improved customer experience and pursue our mission of solving the biggest eCommerce challenge: loss of revenue by fraud and illegitimate chargebacks.

The next phase for Chargeflow 

Chargeflow originally started as a “Shopify app”, but has since evolved and grown by leaps and bounds. Since then, we have added Klarna, Braintree, Recharge, Stripe, and more processors. In order to support the next phase of our growth, we’ll be expanding our integration catalog with dozens of instant, secure, and scalable platforms and payment service providers.

Alongside the new integrations, we have an exciting roadmap ahead with new products, features and services we can't wait to share with you.

The funding will also allow us to build new products, just as our newest announcements, Chargeflow Alerts, and our all-new Stripe App, which has already gained amazing momentum and feedback from our customers.

A Commitment to Our Community

This achievement would not be possible without the trust and support of our customers, investors, partners and the Chargeflow team. We want to take this opportunity to express our sincerest gratitude to everyone who believed in our vision and contributed to achieving this milestone.  

Looking ahead, we recognize that with this investment comes great responsibility and we are more committed than ever to deliver a best-in-class chargeback solution for merchants and businesses. The future looks bright for Chargeflow and we’re excited about the opportunities that lay ahead. 

As always, we remain dedicated to our customers and invite you to be a part of this amazing journey. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions or if you would like to learn more about the investment. 

Together, let's innovate, grow, and prosper. Thank you for being a part of the Chargeflow journey. 

Micro Connect announced it has completed a capital raise of US$458 million in its Series C funding round, with broad-based participation from a diverse group of new and existing investors from Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Greater China, including leading long-only investment managers, private equity and venture funds, university endowments, internet platforms, and consumer retail groups.

Micro Connect (Macao) Financial Assets Exchange (MCEX), the first licensed global exchange for DROs and related products, is slated to launch in August 2023. The strong shareholder base and the new capital raised will support Micro Connect’s effort to enhance MCEX’s market structure and develop the world’s largest financial market for micro and small business investing.

Goldman Sachs served as financial advisor on the transaction. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer served as legal advisor.

LeaseQuery, a fast-growing provider of software built to empower accounting and finance teams by simplifying the complex, today announced its acquisition of Stackshine, a SaaS spend management platform designed to help companies track and optimize their software spend and usage. With this acquisition, LeaseQuery extends a period of growth and tackles an increasingly crucial issue for organizations – SaaS operations and spend management, a mounting challenge for both IT and Finance.

As SaaS spending continues to grow by 15-20% annually for businesses of all sizes, the acquisition of Stackshine will significantly expand LeaseQuery’s offerings. The average company spends more than $343,000 annually on SaaS subscriptions, making it the largest cost other than payroll and real estate. Organizations that lack centralized visibility can struggle to budget accurately for and control their SaaS spend, leading to at least 25% overspend through 2027 due to excess licenses or overlapping tools. 

“We are committed to making our customers' lives easier by simplifying the complex, and our acquisition of an innovative SaaS spend management platform allows the office of the CFO to address another significant pain point regarding one of their largest areas of spend outside of leases,” said George Azih, founder and CEO of LeaseQuery. ‌“Expanding our offering beyond lease accounting gives our combined customer base something no other provider is offering in the market – centralized visibility into two of their biggest spend areas, SaaS subscriptions and leases, in one comprehensive platform, enabling them to identify and reduce unnecessary spending.” 

Founded in 2019 and backed by Y Combinator, Stackshine’s platform discovers the SaaS software used by a company, highlights available cost-cutting opportunities, and uses AI to automate employee onboarding and offboarding. Recognized for its revolutionary approach to data integration, Stackshine’s customers will now further benefit from LeaseQuery’s dedicated resources and commitment to customer success. By offering an expanded suite of solutions, users will now centralize processes and accelerate innovation.

“This exciting partnership with LeaseQuery elevates Stackshine to the next level of SaaS spend management providers,” said Tyler Diaz, CEO and co-founder of Stackshine. “Together, we will tackle this growing challenge facing organizations of all sizes on a larger scale than we could have individually. This is an exciting opportunity to become a category leader in an emerging market.”

GTreasury, a treasury, payments, and risk management software provider, today announced the company has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2023 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US45741820, July 2023) and the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Midmarket Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2023 Vendor Assessment (Doc # US45741720, July 2023).

The IDC MarketScape studies provide an evaluation of SaaS and cloud-enabled enterprise and midmarket treasury and risk management applications, and discuss the criteria that are most important for companies to consider when selecting a system.

The IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2023 Vendor Assessment evaluates select vendors on the strength of their offerings. The report states, “In times of uncertainty, businesses rely heavily on liquidity management to stay prepared for the unknown. Between global conflict, natural disasters, political unrest, and the ever-looming shadow of economic uncertainty, the ability to manage liquidity and cash is becoming a higher priority than ever. The current state of the world gives treasury management software (TMS) providers the opportunity to capitalize on an ever-growing need.”

The IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Midmarket Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2023 Vendor Assessment report notes, “Consider GTreasury if you want a modular, highly configurable, single treasury and risk management platform (cash, payments, and risk) that will allow you to fully customize your treasury functions as needed with the ability to grow as your business grows.”

“We believe being positioned as Leader in both the Enterprise and Midmarket reports reinforces the value that GTreasury’s solutions deliver to a particularly wide breadth of organizations,” said Renaat Ver Eecke, CEO, GTreasury. “Through proprietary treasury technology innovation, key partnerships, and integrations into an ecosystem of banks and other solutions, we continue to deliver customers the tools and data-driven insights they need to operate more efficiently and drive more successful business outcomes. We are proud of the IDC MarketScape recognition for our treasury and risk management technology strategy and capabilities, and look forward to empowering treasury transformation within even more companies going forward.”

As the treasury and risk management space rapidly evolves, GTreasury’s solutions continue to provide treasurers and the office of the CFO with the tools they need to effectively manage their financial operations. From cash and liquidity management to risk analysis and mitigation, GTreasury offers a powerful, integrated platform that meets the complex needs of today's global businesses.

To download the reports:

• IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Enterprise Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2023 Vendor Assessment (Doc #US45741820, July 2023)
• IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Midmarket Treasury and Risk Management Applications 2023 Vendor Assessment

Bud Financial (Bud) unveils an all-new generative Al core to its data intelligence platform, enabling banks and financial services organizations to apply Al to every consumer engagement.

The Bud.ai platform will empower any financial services organization to transform their transaction data into powerful new customer insight and achieve the holy grail of personalization at scale in customer experience.

For half a decade, Bud has been a trailblazer in the development and application of Al, machine learning, and Natural Language Processing in banking and financial services. Bud has been developing foundational language models on top of banks first-party transaction data and consumer-permissioned, third-party open banking data since 2018.

This latest development represents an improved logic core that can generate new insights for consumer and corporate users in real-time. With an immense and growing capability to comprehend financial data, Bud.ai empowers developers, marketers and risk professionals to integrate deep financial insight into their workflows, growing engagement through meaningful hyper-personalization, and generating more opportunities to match consumers with the right financial products.

The new Al core now underpins and powers Bud's two products: Assess (its lending and affordability solution) and Engage (its money management and personalisation solution). Financial services organizations can integrate Bud's large language model (LLM) technology through a single integration. When combined with the transactional data models that Bud has been refining for over five years, this no-code solution means banks, lenders and other financial services businesses can transform their vast quantities of otherwise unstructured data into a clearer picture of an individual's financial position, or a detailed view of the bank's wider portfolio.

Bud's financial domain expertise, combined with its deep experience in the ML-based Al space, offers the right context and specialist industry knowledge to bring these capabilities into fruition.

A generative Al interface for next-generation money management

Bud is enriching its product suite with the first, flagship product built upon the powerful Bud.ai core: Jas, a personal generative chat interface. Jas empowers consumers to engage with a fully-trained Al assistant that is capable of supporting customers with various aspects of their financial lives, such as the right credit product or financial planning.

Bud's generative Al chat interface uses Google's PaLM 2 large language model, to feed on enrichment and analysis driven by Bud's transactional data intelligence platform, and presents these insights directly to consumers, in an intuitive way, similar to the conversational Al programmes now being widely adopted.

Consumers can ask a multitude of questions, and be supported with straightforward, easy-to-understand, easy-to-action, and above all accurate, insights.

With Jas, individuals can take steps to enhance their financial resilience, whilst financial institutions can customize the service to align with their specific objectives around customer engagement and satisfaction, product upselling or cross-selling, risk management etc.

As Jas evolves, it will transform into an action-bot, capable of providing tailored recommendations and executing tasks on behalf of customers and clients.

“As a part of their digital transformation strategies, many companies are seeking reliable solutions that help them better engage customers along their financial journey," says Toby Brown, Managing Director, Global Banking Solutions, Google Cloud. “By tapping into Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities, Bud is optimizing internal workflows and external user experiences in a safe and efficient way.”

"Since 2018, Bud has been diligently developing foundational language models that leverage bank data. These years of tireless product and technical work have brought us to this point, where we can deliver reliable, secure and personalized generative Al capabilities to our financial services customers, without compromising on data ethics. We can unlock an endless array of insights for our clients, who can supercharge marketing efforts, refine customer segmentation, and optimize various aspects of their business operations. This is a true breakthrough, as we unveil a logic core capable of delivering real-time, limitless insights for both individual customers and corporate users", says Ed Maslaveckas, Founder and CEO of Bud.

Rapid Enterprise, a division of Rapid Finance, an industry leader in delivering automated and scalable Lending-as-a-Service (LaaS) solutions to support the growth and success of small businesses, announced the availability of its SMB Disclosure Service, a standalone Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Regtech module, to support business lenders and financing companies in complying with New York’s new commercial transaction disclosure requirements.

Following similar regulations from both California and Utah, New York is the latest state to pass its commercial financing disclosure law taking effect this month, including updated regulations to mandate standardized disclosures for commercial financings below a certain principal amount.

“These laws aim to safeguard and assist businesses in comprehending the intricacies of financing terms, and we recognize the challenges that commercial finance providers may face due to the introduction of new compliance requirements,” said Will Tumulty, CEO, Rapid Finance. “In response, we have created the SMB Disclosure Service to empower New York’s small business lenders and commercial financing companies with the necessary tools to efficiently generate compliant disclosure statements while meeting the financing needs of their customers.”

Organizations have the option to integrate their existing loan origination platforms with Rapid Finance’s SMB Disclosure API (application programming interface) or utilize a user interface to obtain the desired statements. Commercial finance providers simply submit their offer details and Rapid Finance returns the disclosures in either HTML or PDF format (including calculated APR and fees) that can then easily be provided to the borrower. As more and more states come out with regulations for SMB financing, leveraging Rapid’s API/ User interface will enable lenders to stay on top of these regulations. It will enable enterprises to focus on building their customer relationships without having to worry about staying compliant. With Florida and Georgia slated for a rollout in Jan of 2024 and Connecticut next summer. Legislatures in a number of other states are considering or recently considered adopting similar legislation. With Rapid’s competitive pricing structure and expert team adapting the tool to new states as they come in, this is a tool that could benefit several lenders to continue financing their SMB customers without interruption.

The SMB Disclosure Service is an offering from Rapid Enterprise, the company’s business segment focused on providing LaaS solutions, technology consulting and custom development offerings to help enterprises accelerate their growth. Rapid Finance’s team is proactively monitoring additional state regulations in this space and will continue to add new states as similar laws come into effect. 

Commenting on his appointment, George Hansen, Chief Revenue Officer at ConnexPay, said: “As the world economy shifts online, digital innovation is key to acquiring and retaining customers, and businesses of all sizes are demanding modernized payments to address their needs in the market. Through their proprietary end-to-end payments platform, ConnexPay is uniquely positioned to eliminate the burden of legacy technology and enable businesses to accept and make payments at scale, globally.” 

He added: “Technology has not only created a paradigm shift in payments, but also in visibility and control. Firms are looking at payments wholistically, with pay-ins and pay-outs more closely linked now than ever before. The impact of technology and data on payments has reached a tipping point, and I am thrilled to be coming on board with ConnexPay at this important time.”

Bob Kaufman, Founder and CEO at ConnexPay, said: “Throughout his career, George has demonstrated an unwavering focus on what is at the core of revenue growth: the customer. This customer-centric approach and his extensive industry experience make him a great fit for our organization, and we’re pleased to welcome him on our journey to transform business by simply connecting payments.” 

He added: “George’s appointment comes during an exciting time of international expansion for ConnexPay. We’ve worked closely with our key partners to ensure that we are delivering exactly what the market needs, and George’s global perspective will prove invaluable as we continue to grow our reputation as the go-to payments partner of choice.” 

PaymentComponents, a renowned leader in AI, payments, and open banking solutions, is thrilled to announce its strategic partnership with Brillio, a top-tier global digital technology service provider. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in PaymentComponents' vision to drive ISO 20022/CBPR+ adoption worldwide while spearheading the modernization of payments through AI/ML-powered financial messaging solutions.

By joining forces, PaymentComponents and Brillio expand Brillio's service offerings to include the full suite of PaymentComponents products, revolutionizing the payments landscape. The comprehensive range of products includes:

aplonHUB Payments Hub: This solution empowers companies to swiftly expand into new markets and enrich their existing product portfolios with cutting-edge payment instruments. aplonHUB facilitates the seamless transformation of any ISO 20022 messaging format, simplifying financial institutions' handling of complex requirements.

FINaplo.AI: This innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering harnesses the power of AI and ML to uncover suspicious behaviours, influential accounts, runaway clients, payment corridors, predictions, and much more. By analyzing SWIFT MT or ISO 20022 financial messages, FINaplo.AI acts as a game-changing "chatGPT for financial messages," delivering unparalleled insights and intelligence.

Finaplo Financial messages: This comprehensive toolkit equips financial institutions with essential libraries for financial messaging. It enables real-time creation, validation, and translation of SWIFT MT, ISO 20022, SEPA, CBPR+, TARGET2, MEPS+, FedNow, P27, and BAHTNET messages, empowering institutions to meet evolving industry standards seamlessly.

aplonAPI open banking solution: Designed specifically for open banking, this award-winning API management framework enables financial institutions to securely expose APIs, enabling them to thrive in the open banking ecosystem. aplonAPI has already played a pivotal role in transforming numerous banks and financial institutions into open banking champions worldwide.

With this strategic partnership, PaymentComponents and Brillio position themselves as key players in addressing the pressing market needs for modernized payments infrastructure, ISO 20022/CBPR+ protocol adoption, and empowering banks and corporations to navigate emerging opportunities with confidence.

Together, PaymentComponents and Brillio are set to redefine the future of global payments solutions and drive unparalleled growth in the financial services industry.

European Commission’s VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) proposal and its effects on how to issue, exchange, process E-Invoices, and on how to report VAT data will be at the centre of discussions at the E-Invoicing Exchange Summit in Dublin from October 2 to 4, 2023. The presentations and the discussions with international high-level experts will shed light on how to maximise efficiency potentials for businesses under ViDA E-Invoicing.  

Key topics from the agenda  

+ The Commission’s Proposal on VAT in the Digital Age - State of Play 

+ Peppol and Decentralised Continuous Transaction Controls (DCTCE) 

+ What Governments Can Do to Ease CTC Introductions 

+ Requirements and Technical Specification to Extend EN 16931 for B2B E-Invoicing + Preparing for E-Invoicing from a Finance, IT, and Tax Perspective 

+ Update on Global Regulatory Compliance and Legal Frameworks for B2B, B2G and B2C + Maximising Efficiency Potentials for Businesses under ViDA E-Invoicing 

An exhibition of the leading industry partners in the field of E-Invoicing, payment and process automation will be featured. 

More information on the E-Invoicing Exchange Summit Dublin: www.exchange-summit.com/europe