Rimes is pleased to announce that JANA, the Australian- based asset management consultancy firm, has selected the Rimes Matrix solution as a critical component of their five-year digital transformation program.

Ann-Mary Rajanayagam, General Manager of Technology & Data, at JANA commented. "Client service excellence is our uncompromising focus, and to achieve this, JANA continues to develop its best-of-breed partnership approach to tech-enable our business. After thoroughly evaluating several options, we selected the Matrix platform from Rimes, to help us streamline and automate our operational processes. The implementation is live and is already enabling us to better service our customers, minimize risk, and confidently scale the business to ensure we always remain aligned with their changing needs."

Ann-Mary continued. "The transformation program represents a significant evolution in our data and technology journey. Therefore it is essential that the strategic partners we select are proven and as committed to the overall delivery as we are. The Matrix team are knowledgeable and collaborative and worked diligently to deliver a successful implementation.

Stuart Plane, MD and Head of Investment Intelligence Solutions at Rimes concluded. "The JANA project team had a clear vision of what they want to achieve, which was a fantastic starting point. We are honored to be selected to be a significant part of a truly transformative project and look forward to establishing a long and fruitful strategic partnership between our two organisations."

SumUp, the financial partner for over 4 million businesses worldwide, has selected Form3, the cloud-native account-to-account payments platform, to provide direct access into the UK Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) and Bacs Scheme to further enhance its business account offering for UK customers.

SumUp will connect to the Form3 platform via a single API where Form3 will manage the payment processing. In a unique model pioneered by Form3, Barclays will provide scheme settlement with the Bank of England on SumUp’s behalf. This will enable SumUp to build and create unique products for its UK small and medium business customers. 

Michael Mueller, Form3 CEO, said: “SumUp is a major name in mobile point of sale and our core values very much align; a tech-first approach to payments with a primary goal of delighting customers. We are very pleased to support their expansion and aid their mission to support small and medium businesses which is the lifeblood of the UK economy. SumUp is yet another Faster Payments direct participant choosing to use Form3 technology, further strengthening our position as the leading cloud-native account-to-account payment platform for the world’s leading banks and fintech organisations.”

Direct scheme participation will lead to many benefits for SumUp including more resilient and reliable payments, the ability to seamlessly scale and to reduce their total processing costs as they continue their rapid expansion. Form3’s fully managed service also futureproofs SumUp against the potentially disruptive impact of mandatory scheme and regulatory changes such as the New Payments Architecture (NPA).

David Tatarishvilli, Head of Business Operations Banking Tribe at SumUp, comments: “Having thoroughly assessed the UK market, Form3 was the standout candidate. We are delighted to partner with Form3 as our payments provider for UK Faster Payments. Form3’s established reputation in the market, proven operational resiliency and ability to scale with our growth plans made them our chosen partner. As a platform, Form3 can also help us break into new markets and create new payments offerings, so we are very excited about what the future holds.”

Notion Capital (“Notion”), Europe’s leading early-stage venture investor in business software and fintech, has today announced the final close of its new €300m fund Notion Capital V SCSp (“Notion V” or “the fund”), which closed at its ‘hard cap’. The successful fundraising progress is testament to Notion’s strategy, past performance and strong base of supporters, as well as the resilience of the European tech sector in the face of macroeconomic headwinds. 

As well as its strong operational heritage and deep subject matter expertise in business software, the firm prides itself on its value-added model, with an extensive Platform team supporting its portfolio companies in areas such as product, go-to-market strategy, talent and pricing. This not only helps existing portfolio companies fulfil their potential, but also provides a compelling differentiator to access the best new opportunities in the market. This complements the firm’s digital sourcing and productivity capabilities using advanced AI to identify, track and prioritise its investment pipeline.

The fund’s first close was held last year and it has already made several investments including Bound, DataOps, M3ter and Resistant AI. Notion expects to make around 20 core Series A+ investments in total from the fund. Unlike predecessors, Notion V is Euro-denominated and Luxembourg based reflecting the firm’s increasingly pan-European focus.

Notion also announced three senior promotions with Itxaso del Palacio moving to General Partner and Stephanie Opdam and Kamil Mieczakowski to Partner. A Spanish-Basque national, Itxaso joined Notion in 2018 from M12 (Microsoft Ventures) where she was an Investment Partner. She is a Kauffman Fellow and an Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship at UCL, with a PhD in Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital and a Masters in Engineering. Since joining Notion, she has led investments in Bound, Cledara, Cobee and Yulife amongst others. Stephanie and Kamil, Dutch and Polish nationals respectively, also joined the firm in 2018 and have played pivotal roles in strategy and leadership as well as sourcing and winning high-potential companies. They have proven themselves thoughtful investors and great overall contributors with Steph leading Notion V’s recent investment in DataOps and Kam leading the Resistant AI transaction.

Stephen Chandler, Managing Partner at Notion Capital, said: “Our team has built a strong brand and reputation, and the demand for Notion Capital V, in a challenging market, is testament to this. Fund V is large enough to provide meaningful funding to its portfolio companies but crucially, small enough to continue to drive the true outsized venture capital returns we seek for our investors. It’s a great point in the cycle to be investing and the European technology ecosystem has proven to be resilient, innovative and highly productive. 

I am particularly delighted to announce these well-earned promotions, continuing our track record at Notion of promoting Partners from within the firm. We are a diverse team spanning 10 European nationalities which gives us extraordinary reach and access across the market.”

Notion V continues the firm’s successful strategy of investing in Europe’s best-emerging business software and fintech companies. The fund follows the same strategy as its predecessors, where performance has been extremely strong across all metrics.

Investors in the new fund comprised sovereign wealth funds, endowments, fund of funds, pension funds, family offices and high net worth individuals from across Europe, MENA and the United States - as well as numerous founders from Notion portfolio companies. New names included: Cortes Capital LLC, KfW Capital, Shelby County Tennessee Retirement System and TNO Pension Funds. Returning LPs included: British Patient Capital, Novo Holdings and RSJ.

Ryan Tidwell, CIO at Cortes Capital LLC said: “From our very first meeting, we were impressed with what the Notion team has built. They have deep expertise and insight in European software and a very differentiated proposition for founders. As such we felt they would be a strong addition to our wider portfolio, giving us additional exposure to early stage opportunities in Europe and focused insight into the business software market there.’’

Søren Thinggaard Hansen, Senior Partner, Head of Private Equity at Novo Holdings, said: “I have worked with Notion in my current and previous position across multiple fund cycles now and value the relationship. Given our longstanding experience in the venture capital asset class, we have deep insight and access to some of the very best global venture capital firms. We are delighted to be backing Notion once again.’’

Notion expects to be back in market with its third Opportunities Fund in 2024.  This is a complementary strategy investing additional growth follow-on capital into the firm’s best-performing venture assets and selected other growth-stage business software companies in Europe. It will also target parties looking for secondary liquidity in their positions where Notion’s sector knowledge and value-added model should make it an attractive candidate. 

Kristian Kabashi, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Numarics, said, “Time-consuming business administration processes haven't changed in decades. Despite the availability of numerous solutions, outdated business software can make it difficult for businesses to navigate growth and can even lead to failure. At Numarics, we are revolutionizing this by consolidating accounting and finance software, offering SMEs a comprehensive CFO solution supported by our robust operations and expert team. We are building the back office of the future, creating a world where SMEs are free from business administration. Our business OS provides entrepreneurs with an all-in-one solution to run their company and scale faster."

Mike Dargan, Group Chief Operations and Technology Officer at UBS, said, “Through UBS Next, we look to invest in companies that will help shape the future of banking to meet our clients’ evolving needs. This investment will support Numarics’ growth efforts and expansion of new and existing products for SMEs, an important client base for our firm in the region.”

Alexander Christen, Founding Partner at FiveT Fintech, emphasized, “The investment in Numarics completes our fund I, which focuses on Fintechs driving industry transformation. We have strong confidence in the team and their digital CFO solution to disrupt the traditional accounting market. This round of funding will help to accelerate expansion, add new product features, and increase automation, ultimately helping founders and SMEs to head into a new era of efficient and streamlined financial management.”

Pascal Mathis, Founding Partner at Wingman Ventures, added, “The Numarics business operating system is transforming how SMEs function. In the past year, we have seen the team’s rapid growth and are certain with this round of funding, Numarics will be able to impact more SMEs with its transformative solutions. We are happy to back Numarics’ outstanding team for the second time and support them in their vision.”

wefox, one of the world’s leading insurtechs, and GATE (Green & Advanced Transport Ecosystem), have formed a new partnership that uses digital solutions and a pay-per-use formula for the long-term rental of electric commercial vehicles, founded by Iveco Group. 

The multi-year deal will support GATE in revolutionising electric commercial transport through a pay-per-use formula, innovative and long-term rental. GATE is a pioneering digital service that unlocks the future of the mobility business. This first phase will see GATE supply an all-inclusive offer, declined in three flexible packages, providing clients a world of benefits in each kilometre. The solution includes 100% green vehicles, a digital ecosystem of services, maintenance & repair, telematics, recharging and insurance.

Julian Teicke, CEO at wefox said: “Our new deal with GATE from IVECO is another endorsement of our strategy to strengthen our distribution capabilities via our global Affinity business. We are now delivering on our plans to build a tech platform that enables more companies to benefit from insurance products.  Our partnership with GATE is exactly that in action.”

Customized insurance products are embedded in GATE’s rental offer for electric commercial vehicles. Working to the company's specific needs, wefox identified the best products and supported GATE, enabling an all-inclusive formula. wefox will also manage the insurance chain from beginning to end via the organisation's third tech hub in Milan. The entire operation is digital, according to today’s needs and GATE’s fully digital ecosystem.

Simone Olivati, President, Financial Services, Iveco Group, and Head of GATE: “GATE is an exciting new opportunity for the world of goods transport and bringing a fully electric rental service to market, complete with insurance in play, allows our new business to exceed the needs and expectations of our customers. wefox is a natural choice for us. They believe in teamwork, collaboration and aren’t afraid of pushing boundaries. The combination of the wefox business model, knowledge, newly developed international scale and their technology platform was a perfect fit.”

Chinese travelers on average spent 24% more on Alipay when being abroad during the first half of 2023 compared with H1 2019, which signals new growth trends in China's outbound tourism, said Alipay, China’s leading open platform under Ant Group.

"As tourists revisit their favourite destinations, Ant Group continues to innovate our offerings to enhance their travel experience. Beyond payments, Alipay users can now use their app as a one-stop platform, for example, to search for hotels and call for taxis. Consumers’ accelerated adoption of digital services will shape the future of travel and retail, and we aim to enable our partners to cater to these new habits, better connect with international visitors and promote growth for them,” said Dr Cherry Huang, General Manager of Alipay+ Offline Merchant Services of Ant Group at the launch of a joint campaign with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (“TAT”) on Ant Group's campus in Hangzhou, China.

Asian destinations remain the favourites among Chinese mainland tourists in 1H 2023. Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR, Japan and Thailand were the top four outbound travel destinations by total transaction volume on Alipay. South Korea and Singapore ranked sixth and tenth, respectively.

Chinese tourists are also going to a more diverse range of destinations. Long-haul destinations France, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom were the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth most popular destinations for Alipay travellers, as counted by the total transaction volume on Alipay in 1H 2023.

As China's mobile payment leader, Alipay now connects Chinese users to over 5 million merchants across over 70 international markets. The app is launching a series of campaigns in summer 2023 with regional partners on the back of the travel revival. The campaigns feature a variety of promotions on travel-related services, including shopping, attractions, and transportation. The app now offers ride-hailing and taxi services across 2000 cities outside China.

To enhance the travel experience to Thailand, one of the top travel destinations globally, Ant Group is collaborating with the TAT to promote the Amazing Thailand campaign to stimulate travel in Thailand, including by enabling tourists from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia and South Korea to pay seamlessly with their home mobile wallets via Alipay+, the global payment and marketing solutions developed by the Company. Ant Group will also help local Thai businesses better engage with tourists through digital marketing solutions.

"The expanded partnership will help bring more smooth consumer experience to Chinese tourists, and open up more resources to Thai merchants, especially the vast numbers of SMEs to help them develop digital operation and marketing capabilities, " said Mr. Tanes Petsuwan, TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing Asia and South Pacific, at the event.

Platforms like Alipay becomes increasingly important for destination markets because they play a significant role in shaping travellers' decisions on airline, hotel, and destination selection, Mr. Tanes Petsuwan said. Thailand welcomed over 1.4 million Chinese tourists in 1H 2023. Alipay became available in Thailand in 2015. It now connects Chinese travellers to over 550,000 local merchants across the country.

Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, announces the launch of Data Connect for Marketing, a new product enabling omnichannel retailers to leverage payments data to improve marketing initiatives and provide an enhanced understanding of customers. Unique profile identifiers can link previously unidentified in-store transactions to shopper profiles, unlocking a breadth of analytics-driven use cases. Equipped with stronger customer understanding, businesses can reward customer loyalty, tailor shopper experiences, and drive value for existing customers.

With a majority of transactions (82%) occurring in physical stores but lacking customer identification, retailers face a significant “blind spot” in understanding their customers’ preferences. Data Connect for Marketing removes this by providing a structured data set that integrates easily into a business’ external tooling, with use cases ranging from Customer Data Platform (CDP) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. Salesforce is one of the first players to build this integration to offer payments-enriched profiles to their customer base.

“Understanding the customer journey has been a major hurdle for omnichannel retail businesses,” says Brian Dammeir, Global Head of Unified Commerce at Adyen. “With Data Connect for Marketing, Adyen is bridging the gap between in-store and online experiences by connecting our wealth of data to single customer profiles. This means we can support businesses to build customer loyalty, and unlock new customisation and advertising opportunities through their existing Adyen integration.”

Rather than relying on third-party data sources in an attempt to understand their customers, Data Connect for Marketing means businesses can now leverage their own first-party payments data to build a comprehensive customer view. This capability presents a large opportunity for businesses to enhance their loyalty offering, as Adyen’s data reveals that 68% of consumers report they would like to see more personalised discounting from the retailers they shop most regularly with. Likewise, nearly half (48%) of consumers prefer retailers who remember their preferences and previous shopping behaviours to create more tailored shopping experiences.

"Our top priority is gaining a deeper understanding of our customers,” commented Angel Vázquez Cabezas, Group Head of Customer Care for AWWG. “Data Connect for Marketing helps us to identify individual shoppers who make purchases with us across multiple channels, sometimes with different registrations. It means we can better communicate with individuals, with really relevant, timely experiences."  AWWG is the fashion group behind global brands like Pepe Jeans London, Hackett and Façonnable.

"Harnessing the power of payments data is a game-changer for businesses to create a comprehensive customer 360 view,” said Brian Landsman, Executive Vice President, Global Technology Partners at Salesforce. “Thanks to Data Connect for Marketing, teams can offer exceptional customer experiences using our Salesforce Commerce Cloud applications."  

For more information about Data Connect for Marketing, read more here

Global Screening Services (GSS), the RegTech innovator focused on financial transactions screening, has announced its partnership with software company Appian, to integrate the company’s leading low-code development and AI-powered process automation tools into the GSS screening platform.

GSS has leveraged Appian’s flexible, rapid-deployment platform to develop a highly effective and efficient alert management tool for financial institutions. As part of the overall platform, GSS’ alert management tool will improve the efficiency of sanctions screening processes and reduce the time spent on sanctions checks.

The new functionality was developed through strong collaboration between GSS, Appian, and several financial institutions, combining the financial crime knowledge of GSS and the banks with the UX/UI expertise of Appian.

Over the past two years, GSS has been a pioneer in collaboration, partnering with several leading financial institutions and technology businesses focusing on financial screening. Partnerships have been announced with Dow Jones, Silent Eight, Neterium, and SWIFT to develop the leading platform for seamless sanctions screening.

Tom Scampion, CEO at GSS, commented: “The Appian Platform perfectly matches our goal of removing friction and improving the effectiveness of the processes that financial professionals must undertake every day, ultimately saving their time.

“We’re excited to further improve our GSS platform and provide an unparalleled solution to optimise efficiency and accuracy. Appian’s case management expertise with blue-chip financial crime organisations makes them a perfect foil for our own financial crime expertise.”

Charlie Thompson, SVP of EMEA at Appian, added: "GSS will harness the power of the Appian AI-Powered Process Platform to facilitate compliant investigations and requests for information. By leveraging our end-to-end process automation and low-code capabilities, GSS will streamline its operations, reduce the risk of errors and inconsistencies, and ultimately improve outcomes for its financial services clients.”

“We look forward to continuing our partnership with GSS to drive innovation and deliver impactful solutions to the market."

Checkout finance provider, Divido, has announced the upgrade of its UK direct-to-merchant platform to now give merchants easy access to retail finance across Europe. With ‘Divido Connect’ merchants can now uniquely offer retail finance from a network of reputable lenders across the UK and Europe. 

Previously available in the UK, and now in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Romania, Divido Connect makes it straightforward for merchants to offer their customers’ checkout finance for single payments and for European merchants to enter the UK. This will give merchants access to a full range of finance options in each of these markets, including pay-in-three, 0% APR finance and instalment finance for up to 10 years with purchases up to £25,000, depending on the country. 

The ready-to-use Divido Connect platform is powered by trusted lenders. Novuna will offer UK retailers financing options and Oney will provide finance across Europe, with more tier-one lenders set to join the network in the next 12 months. Using one integration and one set of management tools saves costly engineering work. 

With Divido Connect, merchants can: 

·         Enable borderless finance – Access a reliable and trusted lender network in the UK and Europe to activate finance in additional markets in approximately four weeks 

·         Boost efficiency – Manage multi-country finance with a single-serve platform, saving time, costs and resources to build your own bespoke solution 

·         Gain greater control – Manage the customer experience with a solution that will cement brand recognition and build customer loyalty 

·         Increase their visibility – Have a central view of all finance payments and status across the UK and Europe 

Divido Connect is the first offering in Divido’s expansion of its established checkout finance platform to move towards creating a whole-checkout retail finance ecosystem. CEO of Divido, Todd Latham explains, “Checkout finance in all its forms has exploded in the last 18 months. Consumers are increasingly seeking out embedded finance offerings to better manage their finances and we expect demand to continue to grow. Having a checkout finance option that helps consumers pay in smaller repayments is going to have to be a first thought, not an afterthought, for merchants looking to convert sales. On the flip side, lenders have a huge opportunity to grow their market share by working with these merchants, but the two parties are rarely connecting to offer the best solution.  

“That’s where our network can help. We already work with lenders and merchants to offer a win-win solution to all stakeholders, as well as the end consumer. Lenders get access to a larger audience, merchants can de-risk their investment in checkout finance by adding or moving to new lenders as needed and consumers can have more control over their payments. The launch of Divido Connect expands on this, and will see merchants able to easily grow their checkout finance offerings into new markets and have full visibility into all their checkout finance payments in multiple markets, via one single integration.”