Decentro, a leading fintech infrastructure company, has announced its expansion in the lending infrastructure space through its first-ever acquisition of Neowise. The acquisition, executed in a combination of cash and stock, includes acquiring all assets, mainly its advanced collection suite, and integrating the acquired company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Decentro's India arm. This strategic move strengthens Decentro's position in India's digital lending ecosystem, allowing them to offer an end-to-end embedded banking & finance stack. With this acquisition, Decentro demonstrates its commitment to innovative solutions for stakeholders in the BFSI sector. As its first-ever acquisition since inception, this milestone reinforces Decentro's reputation as a forward-thinking and comprehensive financial infrastructure provider. 

According to the latest RBI data, the Indian banking system’s credit grew 16.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) as of February 10, 2023, to reach INR 134.17 trillion. The rising demand for credit, greater financial awareness, and expectations for a seamless experience have compelled lenders to adopt digitisation. This can be achieved by automating their debt recovery and collection pipeline while allowing customers to streamline and manage their workflows. 

Neowise has emerged as a disruptive force in the collections industry, offering innovative solutions that cater to the pressing need for a robust and scalable collections infrastructure. Over the past year, Neowise has been at the forefront, providing a comprehensive suite of full-stack tools and leveraging manual workforce expertise to meet the ever-growing demand. Neowise has also integrated its CaaS (Collections as a Service) product with multiple licensed NBFCs and large Fintechs, solving the last-mile challenge in the lending lifecycle. With automation and customisation catering to different customer buckets, Neowise handles the end-to-end collections processes on behalf of the lender. 

Decentro strategically integrates its banking and payments network through the acquisition, capitalising on the unique solution offered by Neowise while keeping its team independent, with full access to its resources. By seamlessly bridging the gap between lenders and borrowers, this acquisition seeks to elevate the lending experience for businesses and their clientele, addressing intricate challenges within the financial industry. 

"We observed a crucial aspect of streamlining loan repayments when we introduced our Digital Lending API stack. Moreover, the collections process for numerous NBFCs and lenders relied heavily on manual operations," stated Rohit Taneja, Founder and CEO of Decentro. "While developing solutions internally have been our forte since our inception, we recognised the need to establish a deeper partnership that enhances our suite and empowers existing industry players. Neowise, with its comprehensive loan collections suite, seamlessly aligns with our vision of empowering the lending sector."

In considering the broader perspective, Mr. Taneja added, "We firmly believe that the future of India's Fintech industry lies in integrating financial and banking capabilities into various enterprises, and this acquisition perfectly reflects that vision. With a highly skilled and proficient team specialising in loan collections, we are enthusiastic about addressing this critical aspect and augmenting our infrastructure alongside the two talented founders of Neowise - Rohit and Siddarth."

Reflecting on this strategic acquisition, Rohit Ramachandran, CEO and Co-Founder of Neowise Technologies, added, “This acquisition by Decentro marks an exciting milestone for both companies. It combines Neowise's expertise in debt recovery technology with Decentro's comprehensive full-stack payments and banking APIs, which enable Banks, Fintechs, and NBFCs to digitise their workflows across the entire value chain. This partnership allows us to tap into Decentro's extensive expertise and reach. We look forward to scaling along with the Decentro team”. 

Decentro is experiencing significant business growth, with a substantial increase in monthly API transactions, reaching an impressive 14 - 15 million. The company is hitting a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of nearly 50% across multiple sectors, including consumer platforms, Non-Banking Financial Firms (NBFCs), Loan Service Providers (LSPs), Prepaid Issuers (PPIs), Neobanks, and Wealth Managers.

Furthermore, Decentro recently closed its Series A funding round in 2022, securing an investment of $4.7 million. Renowned investors such as Rapyd Ventures, Cathexis Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures based in California, US, invested in the latest round.

Fennech Financial, a leading innovator in the financial technology sector, is pleased to announce that it has successfully raised £2.3 million in its latest round of funding. The round was led by Lloyds Banking Group, who contributed a substantial £2 million, alongside some high-profile individual investors.

This investment underscores Fennech Financial’s continued growth and commitment to delivering innovative financial solutions for our clients. With this new funding, Fennech Financial will be able to accelerate its product development, expand its team, and further establish itself as a leader in the fintech industry.

Emmanuel De Rességuier, CEO of Fennech, said: “We are thrilled to partner with Lloyds Banking Group on this important fundraising round. As a leading provider of financial services to businesses and individuals in the UK, their investment in Fennech is a testament to the strength of our business and our team, as much as a testament to their willingness to further help their client base thanks to strategic technology and digitalisation. With this new funding, Fennech is well-positioned to continue its growth and success. We are extremely grateful for the support of Lloyds Banking Group. I would also like to thank and warmly welcome, on behalf of the team, our new Individual investors that joined this fundraising round for their trust and support. Equally, I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the past investors who have been there for us and are still here with us”.

Kirsty Rutter, Director of Fintech Investment at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Our investment in Fennech forms part of our commitment to supporting the fintech ecosystem in the UK and expanding our client capabilities through the use of cutting-edge technology.”

“Lloyds Banking Group’s investment marks a significant endorsement of Fennech Financial’s vision and strategy. This collaboration will pave the way for future opportunities and contribute to the strengthening of the fintech ecosystem.”

Fennech would like to extend its deepest gratitude to its new and existing investors for their continued support. This funding will play a crucial role in driving growth, innovation, and customer satisfaction.

Global digital payments innovator Zip Co Limited, today announced the appointment of veteran payments and financial services industry leader Andy Stearns as Senior Vice President and Head of Merchant Business, starting immediately, for the U.S. market. In his new role, Stearns will focus on accelerating the growth of Zip’s merchant network and driving product innovation to assist retail merchants in effectively capitalizing on Zip's mission and commitment to creating a financially fearless world, attracting customers who value flexible payment options, and promoting financial well-being among all.

Before joining Zip, Stearns spearheaded all customer management groups within Capital One's Business Cards & Payments organization. His influence extended to small, mid-sized, and large companies throughout the United States. Prior, Stearns led the go-to-market efforts of Capital One’s Commercial Card business as a founding member of the team, leading the growth of sales, customer management, sales strategy and analytics as well as marketing and product strategy since the inception of the business, playing a pivotal role in propelling Capital One's Commercial Card business toward rapid growth. During his tenure at American Express, Stearns served as director of small business relationship management and global corporate payments business development. Andy earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

"Andy is an exceptional global financial services leader, and we are thrilled to have him join Zip," said Zip's Global CEO and Co-Founder Larry Diamond. "His unparalleled expertise within the payments industry and vast network make him uniquely suited for this pivotal role. We eagerly anticipate the valuable contributions he will bring to our organization."

Stearns is deeply committed to social justice, education, and poverty alleviation, as evidenced by his dedicated volunteer work with organizations such as World Vision, Harbor House Ministries, and Commonwealth Catholic Charities. Through his involvement, he has actively contributed to creating positive change in communities at home and around the world empowering individuals in need.

"I am thrilled to be an integral part of the remarkable Zip success story," Stearns added. "With my extensive go-to-market experience in the payments industry and the remarkable skills, mission, and entrepreneurial spirit of the Zip team, we continue to be an unstoppable force in the rapidly expanding Buy Now, Pay Later landscape. At Zip we already have strong traction in the US working with partners including Best Buy, Fanatics, Newegg, SHEIN, Mercari and many thousands more but in reality, Buy Now Pay Later is still in its infancy and expected to grow 3X in the next 5 years in the US. Now is the time for merchants to capitalize on the opportunity & together, we will further revolutionize the industry and leave a lasting impact."

Founded in Australia in 2013, Zip’s mission is to be the first payment choice, everywhere and every day. Zip gives consumers and merchants around the world access to transparent, flexible, and interest-free credit. Driven by people-centered product innovation, Zip is the next generation of payments, helping consumers and businesses to take control of their financial future across the globe. Tens of thousands of retailers around the world offer Zip as a payment choice to millions of growing active customers globally. Zip has an average rating of 4.9 stars across its US and Australian App Stores.

NEAR Foundation, the non-profit that supports and funds ecosystem development on NEAR Protocol, a leading open-source and climate-neutral blockchain, has announced it signed up to the Ethereum Climate Platform. The move demonstrates the foundation’s commitment to sustainability in Web3 – and to working collaboratively with globally recognised leaders to minimise the environmental impact of Web3 ecosystem development. 

The Ethereum Climate Alliance (ECA), convened by ConsenSys and climate tech firm Allinfra, was announced at COP27.  ECA is a group of technology companies aligned around the mission to accelerate decarbonization and scale climate action. It achieves this by deploying the best-in-class technology and funding the development of digital environmental assets that will mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and deliver positive environmental and social impact for years to come.

Inspired by the Ethereum Merge, ECA is launching the Ethereum Climate Platform (ECP) – an initiative designed to collaboratively build a blockchain-based technology platform that will engage a decentralised community to accelerate climate finance at scale. The platform is committed to redress and counteract the historical Ethereum-based carbon footprint, dating back to the network’s launch in 2015, and accelerate the launch partners' own decarbonization strategies.

The NEAR Foundation’s move to join the platform signals its intention to act as a sustainability model to the broader tech and business community.  The collective includes a still-growing list of prominent stakeholders from the Web3 ecosystems, including Laser Digital (Nomura), Microsoft, Polygon, The Climate Collective, Celo, Aave, Filecoin, and UPC Capital Ventures, as well as civil society leaders, all committed to mitigating human-driven climate change.

NEAR Foundation's environmental stewardship is an integral part of its ethos. From its inception, NEAR has focused on a computational alternative to PoW. In this system, known as Proof-of-Stake (PoS), there are no miners. Instead, validators stake a given token amount to allow themselves to take part. PoS blockchains incentivise communities to own and control the network. Only then can they validate blocks and collect a block award. Functionally, NEAR’s PoS, called Nightshade, allows the platform to realise its ambition of being simple, scalable, and secure. 

NEAR Foundation CEO, Marieke Flament, commented:  “From the outset, we’ve been dedicated to bringing a billion users into a more open web. We recognised early on that sustainability would be a cornerstone of our approach to facilitating the widespread adoption of Web3 technologies. By aligning with the Ethereum Climate Platform and implementing our Blockchain Operating System (BOS), we're not just enhancing the user experience — we're creating a paradigm shift in the blockchain industry that respects and supports our global environment.”

Bill Kentrup, Executive Director of ECP added: “Having NEAR Foundation onboard this endeavour strengthens our joint mission significantly. Through persistent collective effort, we can bring to market climate finance tools that will accelate capital into climate-aligned assets and in turn,  significantly mitigate greenhouse gases. As a fellow pioneer in the Web3 space, their participation is invaluable, and we're sincerely excited about the potential this partnership holds for the future.”

On a social and ecological level, sharding allows NEAR Foundation to deliver on its carbon-neutral commitment. In 2021, NEAR Protocol was awarded the Climate Neutral Product Label, and its developers have been leading the charge in this era of extraordinary energy efficiency, creating an infrastructure that is lightning-fast, remarkably secure, and capable of accommodating millions of Web3 users.

NEAR Protocol has achieved this after enlisting South Pole, a globally recognised climate solutions provider based in Zurich, Switzerland, to evaluate NEAR’s carbon footprint, find ways to reduce it and counterbalance the remaining emissions with CO2 offsetting initiatives. The assessment revealed that NEAR Protocol was over 200,000 times more carbon efficient than Bitcoin, primarily due to the adoption of PoS over PoW.

Reforestation projects offset the minimal environmental impact of NEAR, thus rendering the NEAR Blockchain carbon neutral. Performing transactions on NEAR contributes to tree-planting initiatives in Colombia, Zimbabwe, and the United States via these carbon-offsetting projects.

NEAR Foundation’s mission since its inception has been to onboard 1 billion users to a more free, fair, and open web. The first step in the journey was to focus on building a best-in-class L1 blockchain that was easy to build on and use in a sustainable way. With the launch of the NEAR Blockchain Operating System – an industry first – anyone can create their own frontends and customise them to work with the blockchain of their choice.

ThetaRay, a leading provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, announced today that it has joined the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program with its SONAR solution now available at the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. To date, more than 50 banks and fintechs around the world implement ThetaRay’s solution, hosted on Microsoft Azure.  Among those that have adopted the technology are some of the world’s leading banks including Santander, Mashreq Bank, Travelex Bank and ClearBank as well as many fintechs around the world.

“ThetaRay’s technology is different because it utilizes advanced unbiased AI which truly makes rules-based-only technologies and ‘traditional’ biased AI a thing of the past,” said Peter Reynolds, CEO of ThetaRay. “We are delighted to be integrating with Microsoft to help banks and fintechs grow their business while reducing risk, enabling significant efficiencies that have a real and direct impact on end-customer experience while, at the same time, taking into account global regulations.”    

Unlike traditional artificial intelligence methods being used by many Anti-Money Laundering technology providers, ThetaRay’s technology, which has over 1 billion end users and monitors over 15 billion transactions per year, includes proven, advanced machine learning (ML) already in use globally. Importantly, ThetaRay’s unbiased AI does not require data labeling or long Machine Learning (ML) training times and provides true, out-of-the-box, artificial intelligence capabilities.

ThetaRay’s full-stack detection platform leverages a combination of rules-based, AI/ML risk-based and network visualization to provide maximum insight into financial networks to detect financial crime. The cloud-based SaaS system allows banks and fintechs to rapidly grow their business while complying with global regulators and reducing risk. At the same time, financial institutions can increase efficiency by reducing false positive alerts by up to 90%, cutting analyst time in half and detecting the ever-present ‘unknown unknowns’.

As part of its status as Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, ThetaRay’s SONAR solution is now available through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure. ThetaRay customers can now take advantage of the productive and trusted Azure cloud platform, with streamlined deployment and management. 

“Through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, customers around the world can easily find, buy, and deploy partner solutions they can trust, all certified and optimized to run on Azure,” said Jake Zborowski, General Manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. “We’re happy to welcome ThetaRay’s SONAR solution to the growing Azure Marketplace ecosystem.” 

Euroclear, the global provider of financial market infrastructure, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Goji. Euroclear announced its intent to acquire Goji on 12 December 2022. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Goji aligns with Euroclear’s strategy of expanding its reach and capabilities in private markets, building upon its successful acquisition of the MFEX funds distribution platform.  Euroclear is now able to provide a true one stop shop offering to clients across a spectrum of products including mutual and alternative funds, ETFs and private market funds.

The combination of Euroclear’s open infrastructure administering €3.1 trillion worth of funds globally and Goji’s innovative technology will provide a digital platform to streamline trading and custody, increase accessibility, and reduce the overall cost of access to private market funds. The acquisition coincides with rapidly increasing demand for entry into private markets as investors seek strong, predictable returns and the security that comes from portfolio diversification.

David Genn, CEO, Goji commented: “We are extremely pleased to partner with Euroclear to provide the technological infrastructure necessary to unlock private markets for all investor groups. The integration of Euroclear’s extensive cross-border fund network with Goji’s technology and experience allows us to deliver a solution that will transform the private markets industry.”

Lieve Mostrey, Chief Executive Officer, Euroclear commented: “We are delighted to be working with Goji. The acquisition enables Euroclear to diversify and expand its product and service offerings in private markets, providing clients with a comprehensive suite of solutions catering to their evolving needs. Through our collaboration with Goji we will build a global network for private funds.” 

In a move to streamline its business model, loyalBe, an embedded rewards platform powered by payment data, is excited to announce that it has decided to refine its strategic focus on its B2B proposition. As part of this transition, loyalBe will be shutting down its consumer app and enter a strategic partnership with Cheddar, the UK’s largest open banking consumer rewards and payments app, to facilitate a seamless transition for loyalBe's dedicated user base.

loyalBe’s new B2B proposition enables businesses to integrate frictionless cashback offers from top brands into their existing products with ease. In addition to delivering more value to their customers, such businesses can expect new revenue streams and improved customer retention rates. loyalBe already has a reach of over 500,000 consumers through its new B2B product.

"Our decision to pivot our focus towards our B2B proposition comes after a thorough evaluation of our market positioning and long-term growth potential. We have always been driven by our mission to provide every merchant with a powerful tool to help them attract and retain the best customers," said loyalBe's CEO, Cormac Quinn. "We firmly believe that this strategic shift will enable us to better serve our partnering businesses and contribute more significantly to the democratisation of frictionless rewards programmes in the marketplace."

With this partnership, loyalBe users will be given the opportunity to transfer their balances to Cheddar. Delivering hyper-personalised offers within the closed environment of their consumer app, Cheddar targets new, lapsed and existing customers for its extensive B2B partners, utilising spending behaviours of consumers, driving loyalty, retention and revenue for all partners. This exciting new arrangement will see Cheddar continue to provide exceptional customer rewards experiences to loyalBe's expansive user community.

"As we embark on this new journey, we are delighted to partner with Cheddar, an organisation whose vision and customer-focused approach aligns perfectly with our own," added the CEO of loyalBe. "Cheddar's innovative approach to payments and rewards sets the industry benchmark, and we're confident that our users will continue to enjoy a seamless and rewarding experience with them."

Cheddar, too, is enthusiastic about the partnership. COO Luke Ladyman commented, "We are thrilled to welcome loyalBe users to Cheddar. We see this as a unique opportunity to further enrich our platform and community with the addition of their vibrant user base that’s already very aware of the huge benefits and value open banking can deliver. Both our merchant and consumer sides of the business continue to expand monthly and this latest addition will also expand our footprint within Northern Ireland. This strategic partnership represents a significant step towards our mission of helping everyone save and earn more, being the go-to destination for frictionless consumer rewards in the UK."

Detailed instructions on how to transfer rewards to Cheddar will be shared with LoyalBe users via email and in-app notifications.

Eventus, a leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, market risk and algo monitoring solutions, has won the award for Best Market Surveillance Provider for the second consecutive year in the Waters Rankings 2023 Awards.

Thousands of WatersTechnology's market participant readers across the buy side and sell side voted in this year's Waters Rankings. The honour recognizing the company's software and service is the sixth award Eventus has received from WatersTechnology.

Victor Anderson, Global Content Director, WatersTechnology, said: “Congratulations to Eventus for winning the best market surveillance provider category for the second consecutive year in the Waters Rankings. Eventus continues to attract and retain a range of clients across the capital markets, thanks to its impressive Validus platform, collaborative approach, and internal expertise on market regulation, compliance and engineering.”

Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said: “The trade surveillance field has grown increasingly competitive over the last few years, and we are honored and humbled to receive the votes of the financial community for our highly customizable technology and the deep expertise we bring to our clients.”

The recognition follows Eventus’ win over the past two months of two key regional awards – the WatersTechnology Asia Award for Best Market Surveillance Platform for the third year running and the RegTech Insight Europe Award for Best Trade Surveillance Solution for the second consecutive year. Eventus has now won nearly 35 awards and honours in four years.

The Waters Rankings Awards recognize the initiatives, innovation and achievements of the industry's “best-in-class” technology and data providers.

Thunes, the global B2B payment infrastructure platform, today announced the addition of three prominent investors – Visa, a world leader in digital payments, EDBI, a Singapore-based global investor and Endeavor Catalyst, a San-Francisco co-investment fund of Endeavor – to its Series C funding round, supporting its mission to address the inefficiencies of moving money internationally and create a next-generation payment system that is secure, instant and transparent.

This investment brings the total Series C funding to USD $72m, coming shortly after Thunes announced an investment of $60m led by London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace with support from Bessemer Venture Partners and Southeast Asian private equity firm 01Fintech.

Thunes already has an ongoing global partnership with Visa. In October 2022, Visa and Thunes announced a strategic collaboration to extend Visa Direct’s reach to 1.5 billion digital wallets. Through this partnership, Thunes B2B payments platform offers a send-to-wallet capability to 78 digital wallet providers globally. Using an API integration with Visa Direct, Visa’s customers – financial institutions, governments, neobanks and money transfer operators – can enable consumers and small businesses to send funds to eligible digital wallets in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, powered by the Thunes global network.

Peter De Caluwe, CEO, Thunes, says: “We’re proud to close Series C with such a strong roster of influential investors. Support from Visa, EDBI and Endeavor is a powerful endorsement of our strategy and capabilities, providing us with additional resources to develop innovative solutions to face industry challenges. By leveraging the insights and support of our investors, we will expand our network and offer businesses and consumers an unparalleled cross-border payments experience. I’m delighted to see an even deeper collaboration with Visa. Together, we will pave the way towards a global payment ecosystem that is inclusive, efficient and ubiquitous.”

“And as a Singapore-based company, EDBI’s backing is also incredibly important to us. Though our business has a global nature, Singapore continues to serve as our home-base and we are proud to be deeply embedded in this dynamic global Fintech hub. This supportive ecosystem provides us great benefits, with a market for top talent, an excellent infrastructure, and a progressive regulator at the forefront of financial innovation.”

Ruben Salazar Genovez, Global Head of Visa Direct, adds: “Digital wallets play a key role in providing underserved communities with greater economic empowerment and financial inclusion by penetrating previously unreached regions. Visa is proud to take part in Thunes’ Series C investment round and we look forward to continuing our collaboration aimed at providing more customers around the world with quick and simple access to the financial system through digital wallets.”

Paul Ng, CEO of EDBI, adds: “Thunes' commitment to addressing the business challenges of international money movement aligns well with our mission to strengthen Singapore's position as a global innovation and financial hub. As strategic investors, we deeply appreciate the significance of nurturing Singapore-based companies like Thunes throughout their growth journey, and we are excited to provide our support in expanding their local and regional presence. We anticipate a close collaboration with Peter and his team as we work together to achieve even greater milestones."