Published
- 08:00 am
Today, the UK’s top Direct Debit provider, GoCardless, and Sage, the market leader for integrated accounting, payroll and payment systems, have announced a partnership to create a closer link between accountancy software and payments to support small and medium businesses.
Sage customers can now link accounting software directly with GoCardless, allowing them to automate both payment collection and reconciliation. This partnership and introduction of a new integration between the two platforms has been carefully designed to help business owners reduce unnecessary admin and get paid on time.
Seamus Smith, EVP of Global Payments and Banking, Sage, said: “Our partnership with GoCardless provides another great solution to help achieve our mission: making admin invisible for our customers. With the new integration, customers can easily access and set-up direct debit payments in their Sage software giving them back valuable time to focus on growth. Combined with our einvoicing and ‘Pay Now’ button functionality, Sage is uniquely positioned to help customers get paid faster in a way that suits their business.”
Alan Laing, MD for the UK and Ireland, Sage, said: “Sage’s partnerships are focussed on one core aim; helping businesses operate as efficiently as possible. Poor cash flow remains one of the main causes of problems in businesses so we want to take away some of the red-tape and admin associated with managing money. Our work with GoCardless allows us to do just that. Our vision is to make those tasks invisible by 2020 by automating the back-office functions so we can free business builders’ time up that they can better spend growing their business.”
- 06:00 am
Nordea will partner with Finnish company Basware, a global leader in networked purchase-to-pay solutions, to provide a dynamic discounting solution to customers across the Nordics.
The newly agreed partnership means Nordea and Basware will jointly offer a dynamic discounting solution to Nordea’s corporate customers, while Basware will deliver the solution integrated into the customers’ Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) or customer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. The agreement further enhances Nordea’s position as a leading working capital service provider, with a focus on helping customers maximise their efficiencies in this area, and Basware’s place as a leading provider of financing technology solutions.
Patrik Zekkar, Global Head of Trade & Working Capital Management Sales at Nordea commented: “Managing working capital should be a clear priority for all organisations. Many businesses have a strong cash position - and effective cash management can help support these businesses to achieving better profitability and working capital position. Regardless of their objectives, with Basware we can now help businesses take advantage of their excess cash and gain a better return on invested capital. Dynamic discounting also supports the cash flow of the suppliers. Basware is a recognised leader in financial technology solutions, and we are excited to provide a dynamic discounting offering to our customers together with them.”
Vesa Tykkyläinen, CEO of Basware also commented on the deal: “Nordea is a strategic partner for us as we further establish our financing services offering to businesses in the Nordic region. Through this partnership, Nordea can take advantage of our expertise in purchase-to-pay process, and build new exciting cloud-based value-added services into their trade financing portfolio. Basware sees that this partnership can substantially accelerate the adoption of financing services in the Nordics, including dynamic discounting. By combining subject-matter expertise of working capital management and new digital financing services, Basware and Nordea can together provide flexible options for buyers to optimise cash at hand while giving suppliers the opportunity to get paid early.”
- 02:00 am
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony between the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Hong Kong Cyberport (Cyberport) was held today to set up the HKU x Cyberport Digital Tech Entrepreneurship Platform (Platform). The Platform is the first-of-its-kind collaboration between HKU and Cyberport aiming to form a closer partnership to build a unique digital tech ecosystem for Hong Kong spanning the aspects of human capital, innovation and technologies, entrepreneurship, and legal and business expertise.
Cyberport has the largest FinTech cluster in Hong Kong with close to 200 FinTech companies, and houses the world’s leading FinTech Accelerators like Accenture FinTech Innovation Lab Asia Pacific and SuperCharger. Cyberport also provides the largest FinTech co-working space for FinTech events and workshops to support the aim under the MoU. “Cyberport is pleased to seal a strategic partnership with HKU, we share the same vision and commitment to drive digital tech innovation and adoption. With Cyberport’s wealth of global connections and digital entrepreneurial resources, together with HKU’s expertise on technologies and development, we are sure that many more great ideas will flourish and innovative solutions will be widely adopted,” said Dr Lee George Lam, Chairman of Cyberport.
As an internationally recognized research-led education institute and breadth of academic expertise, HKU shall provide support to digital tech start-ups at Cyberport by hosting legal and business clinics with professional service on legal advice, business plan consultancy and internal valuation practices to help them accelerate their growth organically and inorganically. Through this Platform, a “HKU x Cyberport FinTech Nucleus” is also set up. “HKU is pleased to partner with Cyberport. With our strength in human capital and the expertise and technologies from our faculty, together with Cyberport’s connections and infra-structure, we can cultivate and develop strong innovation and entrepreneurial activities through this platform,” said Professor Peter Mathieson, President and ViceChancellor of HKU.
The opening of the “HKU x Cyberport FinTech Nucleus” is the first step to introducing more creativity and innovation to The Cyberport Centre of Global FinTech Innovation, an important avenue where FinTech solutions will be spotlighted to stimulate exchanges and adoption, as well as to spawn further innovation and collaboration. At the launch of the FinTech Nucleus, the very unique cybersecurity technology - SHIELD by the Center for Information Security and Cryptography (CISC) was showcased. A powerful portfolio optimization software “PORTimizer®” and MPF mobile app “MPF Optimal Allocation (MPF OpAl)” by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science was also demonstrated. CISC will offer 50 units of SHIELD for a one-year free trial, with the support from the Public Sector Trial Scheme (PSTS) under the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Government of HKSAR, to the FinTech start-ups and companies in the Cyberport community.
With the opening of FinTech Nucleus and the Centre of Global FinTech Innovation, Cyberport will further reinforce its strength in providing a comprehensive one-stop platform to bring together the world’s top FinTech innovative solutions and industry stakeholders to access, collaborate and build stronger synergies to form a center of global FinTech excellence.
- 01:00 am
CardFlight, a mobile point of sale (POS) technology provider and Central Payment (CPAY), a merchant service provider that offers payment, loyalty and marketing services to businesses, announced today that CPAY is offering CardFlight's SwipeSimple mobile POS solution, enabling merchants to accept EMV chip card payments on the go from their mobile devices.
CardFlight's SwipeSimple mobile POS solution is built for merchants on-the-go
CardFlight's SwipeSimple mobile POS solution is built for merchants on-the-go
SwipeSimple is an easy-to-use, turnkey, EMV-enabled mobile payment acceptance solution that enables merchants to accept card present payments on the go. The solution includes an EMV chip card reader, mobile application for iOS and Android, and a back-office web dashboard for merchants to accept payments and manage their business.
SwipeSimple will be co-branded for CPAY. Through this partnership, merchants will be able to:
Accept EMV chip card payments on their smartphone or tablet
Manage their inventory in real-time, leveraging on SwipeSimple's cloud-based inventory and item-tracking
Adjust tip and tax levels, through an easy to use tip and tax option interface
Get smart analytics, with SwipeSimple's comprehensive reporting that enables merchants to make better business decisions
"Providing our merchants with a secure, advanced, EMV-enabled mobile payments solution is key to helping them run their business successfully," said Tommy Chang, VP, Operations, Central Payment. "CardFlight has proven themselves as a leader in the mobile POS space, and we're excited to offer SwipeSimple to our merchants and partners."
"CPAY is one of the fastest-growing merchant service providers," said Derek Webster, Founder & CEO at CardFlight. "We're excited to partner with them and empower their merchants to accept payments on-the-go with SwipeSimple."
- 05:00 am
Silicon Valley Bank, the bank of the world's most innovative companies and their investors, and First Data (NYSE: FDC), a global leader in commerce-enabling technology, have selected four startups to participate in Class 6 of Commerce.Innovated., an accelerator designed to help commerce, payments, and fintech companies grow their businesses.
The four-month virtual program provides participants with operational mentorship from Silicon Valley Bank, First Data, and their respective networks.
The four companies selected to participate in the current class come from across the U.S. and provide a variety of solutions for businesses and consumers:
• Apostrophe: A healthcare savings-as-a-service startup for self-insured employers based in Denver
• Blueprint Registry: A peer-to-peer gifting and life event fundraising platform based in Seattle
• Finix: A payment infrastructure platform enabling real-time push-to-card disbursements based in San Francisco
• Headnote: A transaction network for the legal industry based in San Francisco
"As the category of fintech expands, Commerce.Innovated. continues to attract various companies that are bringing differentiated models to market," said Reetika Grewal, Head of Silicon Valley Bank's Payments Strategy and Solutions Group. "I'm always impressed by the passion and caliber of the entrepreneurs we see through the program. We're excited to work closely with Class 6 to support the participants' impressive business goals."
"At First Data, innovation is at the heart of everything we do. It's exciting to see the disruptive technology these startups are working to bring to market, especially when you consider how they could be shaping the daily consumer experience for the future," said Christine Larsen, Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer, First Data. "I'm delighted to see Class 6 take shape and look forward to watching their growth as they move through the Commerce.Innovated. program."
Commerce.Innovated. launched in 2014 and has worked with 24 commerce, payments and fintech-focused startups to date, including Alloy, AppZen, Apruve, CardFlight, Dash, Domuso, Earny, Float, Footmarks, Gone, LaunchKey, LiveApp, Local Maven, Nowsta, Pay By Group, PennyOwl, Slide, SmartGift, SnapUp, Spend Labs, Splitwise, Standard Treasury, Truebill, and Qwil. Since graduating from the program, more than half of the companies in the program have raised funding or been acquired.
- 05:00 am
Thomson Reuters today confirmed that three additional European financial institutions serving the buy-side investment sector have adopted its Org ID Know Your Customer (KYC) platform for due diligence.
Drawing upon Thomson Reuters extensive international regulatory intelligence and news gathering capabilities, the Org ID KYC managed service also keeps clients up to speed on rapidly evolving changes, helping to tailor their internal compliance and data collection procedures to ensure a smooth, cost-effective customer on-boarding process in any market. The Thomson Reuters managed service is also used for enhancing and refreshing existing customer portfolios to meet a global standard.
Dominic Mac, Head of KYC Industry Solutions, Thomson Reuters, said: “It is most gratifying that these three world-class asset management institutions have selected our KYC managed service to address and fulfill their enhanced due diligence and related compliance needs. We are experiencing increased levels of participation from the buy-side in our solution in Europe and worldwide, notably since the recent acquisitions and integration of Clarient and Avox.”
Pierre-Guillaume Veaux, Global Head of Legal and Compliance at Candriam Investors Group, said: “Thomson Reuters Org ID undertakes sustained due diligence on our behalf, and identifies risk flags in accordance with AML/KYC standards. This means we now can better dedicate our resources to understanding our clients and their associated risks of doing business globally.”
Richard Lepere, Managing Director at Fund Channel, said: “We estimate that approximately 90 percent of our time had been spent on collecting documents and 10 percent on actually analyzing them. With the Thomson Reuters KYC managed service, we look to reverse this ratio of deployed activities by our team, while significantly reducing the overall time allocated to these critical responsibilities on our B2B distribution platform.”
Jason Cule, Head of Financial Crime with Legal & General Investment Management Group, said: “Thomson Reuters global AML/KYC policy provides key support in jurisdictions where we conduct our client business. We expect to continue driving operating efficiencies, reducing costs and enhancing our risk management procedures by using the tools optimally provided by the Org ID managed service.”
- 03:00 am
Coupa Software, a leader in cloud-based spend management, announced today that storyteller, digital marketing executive, and veteran software industry marketer Chandar Pattabhiram has joined the company as its chief marketing officer (CMO).
Named one of five CMO’s to follow this year by LinkedIn, Pattabhiram has more than 23 years of experience in both fast-paced and large technology companies including Marketo, IBM, Badgeville, Cast Iron Systems, Jamcracker, and Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). Pattabhiram served recently as CMO at Marketo where he was responsible for all aspects of marketing. He led efforts to position Marketo as the digital marketing industry innovation leader and the best solution for high-growth and enterprise businesses.
Pattabhiram and his team transformed the Marketo brand from a marketing automation tool to the leading engagement marketing platform for the enterprise. At Badgeville, Pattabhiram was head of worldwide marketing and during his tenure the company won several industry awards for innovative storytelling including the Best Platform-as-a-Service for 2013.
As vice president at IBM Cast Iron Systems, Pattabhiram was responsible for all product marketing and channel marketing efforts. He helped transform the company from an appliance offering to the number one cloud integration platform. In 2010, IBM acquired Cast Iron as a centerpiece of its Cloud strategy.
Pattabhiram also spent time at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) as an advisor to Fortune 500 companies in the high-tech, retail, and oil and gas industries.
As CMO at Coupa, Pattabhiram will manage all aspects of marketing including, demand gen, corporate, product, and industry marketing as well as lead the company’s global marketing strategy.
“Coupa has the core essentials of being a game changer: a unique competitive advantage in a huge, must-have market category via innovation, proven customer success and a vibrant company culture,” Pattabhiram said. “I am honored to join such a world-class company, and my vision is to create a marketing engine that helps build the best brand, drive revenue and ultimately win the marketing battle in the spend management sector.”
Known for his mantra “marketing is about winning the battle for the mind,” Pattabhiram brings to Coupa proven strategies and tactics on how to build a brand that connects with customers emotionally. “Marketing begins with storytelling,” he said. “It takes the art of storytelling to reach the heart and to build a bond. I believe that if you reach the heart, then you’ve captured the mind.”
“Chandar is a proven, results-driven marketing executive who strongly believes that fostering a culture of empowerment, recognition and fun is the key formula for building and scaling high-performance marketing teams,” said Rob Bernshteyn, CEO at Coupa. “I look forward to him expanding our global marketing footprint to take Coupa even higher. Chandar is a natural fit for Coupa, and we are ready to support him and what he brings to the table.”
Emma Roe
Partner and Head of Commercial at Shulmans LLP
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- 07:00 am
August 15th 2017 is a very special day for EBANX: 4 years ago, on August 15th 2013, EBANX started processing payments in Brazil for AliExpress, the Chinese retail giant. Since then, they have been converting themselves into the international e-commerce that sells the most in the Latin American country.
With EBANX, AliExpress is able to accept Brazilian alternative payment methods, besides international credit cards that are owned by only 19% of the population. This means that AliExpress can reach the other 81% of Brazilians, the ones that don't have an internationally accepted credit card. What EBANX offers is access: for the merchants to all of its potential clients and for the consumers that can purchase on international e-commerces paying the way they are familiar and feel comfortable with. "EBANX is shortening distances between Brazil and the whole world", says Alphonse Voigt, CEO of EBANX.
One of the alternative payment methods accepted by AliExpress in Brazil through EBANX is Boleto Bancário, or boleto for short, a very traditional Brazilian cash payment method. "AliExpress has an immense importance on EBANX's history and they know it. And they also acknowledge the importance of EBANX on their history as well, on reaching all of their Brazilian potential customers", adds Voigt.
- 03:00 am
Edgewater Technology-Ranzal, LLC, (Edgewater Ranzal), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Edgewater Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:EDGW) and Cloud Select Platinum level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork, is pleased to announce a new alliance with Thavron Solutions, a services management consulting company that assists both outsourced service providers and internal corporate service providers with driving value to their businesses.
This alliance unites our respective expertise and strengths to deliver a comprehensive Information Technology Financial Management (ITFM) solution to clients that provides a unified view of IT's value to the business determined through a rigorous, disciplined, and transparent process, known as ITFM, governed through the offices of the CFO and CIO. Edgewater Ranzal's cost management, planning, and business intelligence technical expertise complement Thavron's strategic advisory services and trademarked business service success framework.
"With our continued growth and expansion, this partnership enables us to assist clients needing ITFM solutions," said Robin Ranzal, President of Edgewater Ranzal. "An alliance with Thavron Solutions is mutually beneficial as we are able to combine our expertise and provide our clients with a complete solution.
"Our joint solution allows us to help organizations reduce the time IT Finance spends on managing business processes, deliver IT managers more detailed and timely data, as well as provide Finance transparency across business goals," stated Nan Braun, CEO of Thavron Solutions. "The partnership brings together Thavron's consulting capabilities and data algorithms for ITFM and Business Services, and Edgewater Ranzal's expert capabilities in designing and implementing the Oracle Cloud solutions."
"This collaboration brings a unique intersection of technology, strategy and implementation expertise to the ITFM space," stated Matt Bradley, Senior Vice President, Product Development, Oracle. "We see a compelling opportunity to further strengthen the bonds between the offices of the CFO and CIO and bring a common language to the business," added Bradley.
Both Edgewater Ranzal and Thavron Solutions will attend the 2017 World of IT Financial Management conference in New Orleans from August 7-11
