Published
- 09:00 am
MageMail, an advanced digital marketing and e-commerce SaaS solution provider for online retailers, announces the addition of Erik Bullen as CEO.
Erik Bullen has been helping to envision, build, and scale businesses since his first startup experience in college. His diverse career spans strategic, senior management, delivery, operational, and advisory responsibilities with startups, corporate NewCos, and enterprise innovation initiatives. His recent roles include VP of Global Services at Brightcove; a leading online video platform; VP of Digital Strategy and Innovation of Mobiquity; a digital engagement provider; and Executive Director at Frog Design, a global design and innovation firm. Erik also acts as a mentor at Techstars and MassChallenge.
MageMail's mission is helping online retailers to increase revenue through stronger customer engagement. Products include Uplift, a comprehensive but easy to install tool set for email marketing campaign automation with major ecommerce platforms such as Magento. Key features include abandoned cart recovery; product up-sells and cross-promotions; win-back campaigns; customer specific personalization; real-time inventory; and analytics. MageMail was founded by Kalen Jordan, a luminary in the Magento community, and is backed by FE International, the leader in SaaS M&A advisory services.
"I'm thrilled to join MageMail and to work with FE International and Kalen to build a world-class company. It's a startup with tremendous opportunity," said Bullen. "The team, the product, the market, and the culture are critical for success, and we have an extremely strong foundation in all four areas. We will continue to build products that our customers love, and FE International's backing will help us to invest in product development, sales and marketing, and customer success. Lastly, I'm invested in growing Boston's innovation ecosystem, so bringing MageMail to the area is a great win for us!"
"Erik's arrival will usher in a new era of development and growth for MageMail," said Ismael Wrixen, CEO of FE International. "The wealth of knowledge and experience he brings will help further support the business' fantastic clients and drive more success across the board."
- 04:00 am
Paybis users of the leading digital and cryptocurrency exchange platform can now buy Bitcoin instantly with their credit card. The new function makes Paybis one among the few platforms that offer such an option.
Paybis accepts credit cards issued by major providers like Visa, MasterCard, etc. on its secure platform. Those making use of the "Bitcoin with Credit Card" option on the platform are assured to receive the cryptocurrency as soon as the card company approves their transaction. Buying Bitcoin with Credit Card is a convenient process where users can simply create an account on PayBis.com and sign in with either Facebook or Google for speed and convenience. Once verified, users will be able to choose the amount for which they wish to buy the cryptocurrency and execute payment.
Paybis implements a quick, simple and easy to follow identity verification stage that takes as less as 30 minutes in processing time. The platform has a simple tiered system for those wanting to purchase Bitcoin with other payment methods, where they can increase the spending limits by successfully completing different levels of verification. New users can enjoy an impressive weekly credit card purchase allowance of $5,000 or a monthly allowance of $ 20,000 USD.
Other payment methods supported by Paybis in addition to the Bitcoin with Credit Card option includes the likes of PayPal, Western Union, MoneyGram, OKPay, WebMoney, Skrill, Perfect Money, EPay, Yandex Money, Payeer, and Payza. The platform also offers the popular gift card to Bitcoin option that supports a range of gift cards from Amazon, Target, Walmart and other mainstream US vendors.
The feature-packed Paybis cryptocurrency platform, with its attention to detail and an easy-to-use interface, provides a 24/7 live customer support for its users. The website's design shares similarities with major online trading platforms to give its customers a familiar feel. Paybis takes its users' security and privacy seriously and ensures adequate protections by implementing state-of-the-art security for transactions happening over the platform. It also has a fast, fully automated payments and transfer process to provide instant delivery of Bitcoin to the customers.
Paybis believes in maintaining a transparent operating process with no hidden charges for the benefit of its clients. The fee structure and exchange rates for all payment methods can be directly accessed on Paybis website. All these features make Paybis one of the trusted platform among the community members with impressive feedback ratings to prove it. Paybis has completed over 50,000 transactions so far for more than 20,000 happy customers. It is going to further improve in the coming days with the introduction of few new features and products.
- 09:00 am
Cellum demonstated a new solution aimed at providing financial services to the unbanked and underbanked, at this year’s SMART Conference. The solution, called Connected Card, utilizes prepaid cards and allows users to make purchases both online and in-store using NFC, as well as to send funds directly to other users. Speaking at SMART 2017, Cellum Chief Operating Officer Ábel Garamhegyi pointed out that, while mobile transaction solutions built on top of the traditional financial ecosystem have gained significant ground, a considerable portion of the world’s population is locked out due to lack of access to a bank account. Users only need to install a smartphone application, through which they can sign up for the service and immediately get a virtual prepaid card. Following a quick activation process, the card can be used right away for all standard bank card transactions. This way, instead of the usual onboarding process, people who have previously not had access to digital transaction services can join the open-loop world of card payments in a matter of minutes. Connected Card supports online payments through MasterPass™, in-store payments using NFC, and peer-to-peer transactions between users.
“Prepaid cards currently represent an estimated USD 45 billion market. Thanks to their ease of use and low barrier to entry, so many people already find them useful. We believe that by introducing mobile financial services based on prepaid cards we can foster financial inclusion for those who need it the most,” said Cellum COO Ábel Garamhegyi. “Cellum has always been looking for ways to broaden the horizon for mobile payments. Connected Card is a new milestone in our efforts to bring meaningful fintech innovation to the market,” he added.
Connected Card is launching as a white-label solution. Festipay, a major European cashless payment provider for festivals and events, is launching the first implementation under the name Trio Wallet this summer.
- 02:00 am
Gresham, the major software and services company that specialises in providing real-time transaction control and enterprise data integrity solutions, has strengthened its business development team with two senior appointments in New York. Jan Dinger joins to lead the North American sales operation and John Burchenal to build and lead a global alliances programme. The new appointments build on the recent strategic new wins in North America, as well as capitalizing on the fast-growing reputation of the company’s Clareti platform within the financial technology industry.
Bill Blythe, Global Business Development, Gresham says, “We’re delighted to welcome Jan Dinger and John Burchenal to the team. They bring with them a wealth of experience that will help us realise our global ambitions in the FinTech space. The North America market presents significant opportunity for Gresham, with strong demand for newer more agile technologies as financial services firms come under increasing regulatory pressure to get their data under control. We are also seeing strong interest from other industry solution providers to partner with us, and forming the right strategic alliances and relationships will be important for the company in the future.”
Dinger brings 15 years’ financial technology sales experience and joins Gresham from Advent Software who offer portfolio management, STP and trade order management solutions to investment management firms. During his 10 years at Advent he worked in EMEA and in the US, where he has been for the last three years, leading the strategic accounts team in New York.
Burchenal joins from ICAP, where for the last five years he has been running the strategic partner programme for the Traiana business, developing relationships with market infrastructure providers. Prior to that he spent six years at Omgeo, the Thomson Financial/DTCC joint venture, as managing director of strategic growth. John brings a wealth of alliances, sales and financial markets experience to a newly created global role.
- 01:00 am
Arrowhead Credit Union, with more than 133,000 members, was seeing a lot of growth, and with growth comes the need for improved efficiencies. In order to achieve greater operational efficiency, the West Coast credit union recently installed five of ARCA's CM18T cash recyclers.
"Creating greater efficiencies through technology is important," said Theresa Hainsworth, VP of Operations at Arrowhead Credit Union. "Once we installed ARCA cash recyclers, we experienced an immediate reduction in time spent processing transactions, increased cash handling accuracy, and more importantly we improved our member experience by providing additional time for our team members to focus on member service and engagement."
As a global leader in cash automation technology, ARCA's flagship CM18 helps credit unions and banks streamline operational costs—including the tedious task of manually counting cash so that tellers can focus on what matters most: members and customers.
"Many banks and credit unions underestimate the amount of time that tellers spend face-down counting cash and not being able to adequately engage with members," said Mike Mares, VP of Business Development at ARCA. "The CM18 is a perfect solution for this as it completely eliminates this manual task and greatly improves the customer experience."
Almost always, the benefits of teller cash recyclers can be seen in more than one way, and at Arrowhead Credit Union, this was no exception.
"It was easy to see the benefits created by having improved cash security by using a device that can do the heavy lifting," Hainsworth said. "The benefits reach across the organization. Team members can quickly balance each day and departments can spend less time researching errors."
- 03:00 am
MahiFX, a leading financial technology provider, are now authorised to provide regulated products and services by the FCA. The firm recognised that authorisation from the UK-based financial regulatory body was important for their European-based clients, in addition to already being authorised and regulated by both the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and the New Zealand Financial Markets Authority.
Founded in 2010, MahiFX is a provider of foreign exchange technology products, enabling spot e-FX businesses to reduce costs, manage risk, and analyse their operations in fine detail. Their unique business model means that MahiFX forms a partnership with each of their clients to ensure maximum results, and take no payments from clients until they begin to profit from their services. MahiFX also offers their popular proprietary trading platform, MFX Trade, to retail clients.
David Cooney, CEO of MahiFX has said of the announcement, "We are providing services to a range of FCA regulated brokers, and as a technology provider we thought it was important to comply with the same standards as them. Authorisation from the FCA also reinforces our status as a business that prioritises integrity, honesty and security. We hope that our new membership demonstrates this to both present and future clients.’
- 04:00 am
XM Group (Trading Point Group), a leading Forex and CFD broker and the official trading partner of the Fastest Man in the World "Usain Bolt", has been recognized as Best Forex Service Provider for 2017 during the City of London Wealth and Management Awards which were hosted on the 30th of March at The Guildhall in the City of London. The City of London Wealth and Management Awards are hosted once a year and the winners of each category are determined by an online public vote.
During the event Stephen Pinner, MD of Goodacre UK the company managing the Awards said, "The Wealth Management sector is working hard to meet a wide range of challenges and it is very re-assuring to see the increasing interest from the investing public. In addition to ensuring that they meet a significant amount of new regulatory requirements, many firms strive to deliver services of the highest quality and these Awards acknowledge and reward the very best companies in the market."
Anne Plested
Head of the regulation change program at Fidessa
The last day in March represented a significant milestone on the crowded MiFID II timeline, with the remaining regulations and directives now finally published in the see more
Sali Jalalpour
Presales Manager at Tieto
- 07:00 am
Today WHOA.com a leading provider of cybersecure and compliant cloud solutions, announced that Global Chief Information Security Officer for Netsurion and EventTracker, John Christly, has joined its Executive Advisory Board.
"WHOA.com is at the forefront of the rapidly growing Cybersecure and compliant cloud market and John has an excellent track record of helping to develop highly successful companies as well as robust compliance programs and we're thrilled to have him join our advisory board," said Mark Amarant, CEO of WHOA.com. John Christly currently serves as the Global Chief Information Security Officer for Netsurion and EventTracker where he leads cybersecurity and compliance efforts.
John brings expertise in creating new product offerings, rapidly scaling product sales, and developing partner eco-systems that drive revenue growth. He possesses a wealth of strategic experience and operational capabilities with an emphasis on sales and business development across various verticals. He has over 27 years of industry experience including general management, revenue growth and retention, go-to-market strategy, product development, business operations, and cybersecurity strategy. He brings extensive cybersecurity expertise in both cyber attack detection, prevention, and response as well as computer, mobile, cloud, and social forensic analysis.
John formerly served as the CISO and HIPAA Security Officer for Nova Southeastern University in Florida. He was also the co-founder and CEO for OMC Systems, a Florida-based cybersecurity advisory firm. He also served as the HIPAA Security Officer for Memorial Healthcare System, a multi-hospital public healthcare system. As Chief of Security, he also created and led the computer forensics division for eTERA Consulting, a firm located in Washington, D.C. that served AMLAW 100 clients. He also served as the Chief Technology Officer for the Golf Network.
He is an MSI Senior Fellow™ and holds various certifications including the ISC2 CISSP, PMP, Certified Fraud Examiner, AccessData Certified Examiner, HIPAA Security Specialist, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Certified Kaizen Facilitator, Certified Anti-Terrorism Specialist, and is a Licensed Private Investigator. He is the former Healthcare Sector Chief for the South Florida chapter of Infragard. His experience includes several industry regulations including HIPAA, HITECH, GLBA, FERPA, FCPA, FIPA, and PCI DSS.
As an accomplished author and blogger, his articles have appeared in publications such as Security Magazine, Executive Insight Magazine, 24/7 Magazine, and the ISSA Journal. He is frequently quoted in industry news sources, and is often a keynote and panel speaker at international, national, and regional events.
