Today, investment platform Lightyear announces the full launch of its web application with new stock screeners, a highly requested feature by investors on the platform. The screeners - a directory of instruments with metrics and data - are completely available to the public.

Lightyear customers can now access a fully functional web app from signing up, to investing and managing their portfolios - meaning new users no longer need to download the mobile app to get started. The web app holds all the same key features as mobile, including ways to deposit cash and the newly launched order types (limit and stop orders). Over half of Lightyear’s customers (57%) have said that access to their account and data on a bigger screen comes into play when choosing which broker to invest their money with. 

The company launched its web app in beta last year, allowing users to view and buy stocks. Since its launch, Lightyear has been adding multiple features, iterating the web platform experience based on a feedback survey from 500 customers. This includes some of the web users’ most requested features: watchlists, tools for investment analysis such as analyst ratings, financials, earnings data, and news and investors activities and statement downloads to get an overview of transactions on accounts.

Stock screeners launch alongside the full web platform today; a full directory of stocks and funds with metrics and data to enable all investors - whether a Lightyear customers or not - to make informed investment decisions. Screeners are divided into stocks and funds, allowing users to filter the entire Lightyear instrument universe based on specific criteria - from country and sector to P/E ratio, share price, daily performance, and more. Users can also find out more about selected stocks or funds, see analyst ratings, and use the available instrument analysing tools.

The directory of instruments is also completely available to the public, giving non-Lightyear users access to explore Lightyears’ instrument universe in full, using the same tools that are available to customers of the platform. These launches further the investment platforms’ mission to make investing more accessible in Europe while fostering education and financial literacy simultaneously. 

Although this is the newest version of Lightyears’ web application, Jani Kiilunen, Product Lead at Lightyear, emphasises it is just the foundation of future iterations of the web platform: “Lightyear on Web has quickly become one of the most advanced and intuitive web platforms for investing - while other neo-brokers have kept their customers waiting for years or keep very simple versions of their web apps behind paywalls. Many of our customers are advanced investors that prefer investing on the big screen, which is why this has been a high priority project for us. We want to create tools that allow users to make better investment decisions - whether you’re a Lightyear customer or not. We’re only just scratching the surface of what we’re planning for Lightyears’ web application.” 

Private equity investor, LDC, has invested in the rapidly expanding insurtech business Uinsure, to support its ambitious growth strategy.

Founded in 2007, Uinsure is a cloud-based technology platform that connects financial intermediaries and lenders with a panel of the UK’s leading insurers, enabling its customers to arrange cover through a frictionless platform that has removed the complexities from insurance.

Uinsure has achieved 27% compound annual revenue growth over the last 10 years and LDC’s investment and strategic support will increase its market share further, while developing new markets, as well as growing its network of partnerships with intermediaries, major building societies, and banks.

Uinsure has invested heavily in its technology capability in recent years, including in new API integrations, improvements to its customer experience and in the development of its new pricing engine, enabling it to offer disruptive and award-winning digital-first insurance solutions.

The Manchester-based business has doubled the size of its team dedicated to technology over the last two years, while it has won twelve prestigious industry awards during that time for its UinsureCX product, which tracks an individual’s mortgage progress and triggers communications at the most relevant moments of the mortgage cycle.

LDC is backing the existing management team led by founder and CEO Simon Taylor, who is also the former founder and CEO of Bankhall. Martin Schultheiss will continue as Group Managing Director, James Fawcett as Chief Financial Officer, and Dan Wright as Non-Executive Chair. As part of the transaction, Peter Thompson, industry expert and former CEO of BGL Insurance has joined Uinsure as a Non-Executive Director.

The investment was led by LDC North West Partner Aziz Ul-Haq and Partner and Head of North West Dale Alderson, alongside Investment Director Grant Goodwin and Investment Manager Camilla Greenwood. Dale and Aziz will join the board.

Simon Taylor, CEO of Uinsure, said: “Right from the very first meeting, LDC has been aligned with our vision to remove the complexity of insurance for our partners and their customers. When we started looking for an investor to support us through our next phase of growth, finding the right partner who shares our culture was extremely important to us. The team at LDC will be working closely to strategically support us with our long term goals, as we explore new markets and grow our network of partnerships.”

Aziz Ul-Haq, Partner at LDC in the North West, added: “Uinsure’s recent large-scale investment in its technology means it is perfectly placed to serve its target market by offering a digital-first solution with a competitive edge. It has a highly experienced and incredibly ambitious management team whose offering has disrupted the industry and revolutionised the market. We’re looking forward to working with them to help it grow further.”

LDC has a successful track record in the technology sector. Since 2012, we have invested over £650m into more than 35 fast-growing technology businesses, backing management teams to achieve their ambitions.

Uinsure was advised by GP Bullhound (corporate finance), Eversheds Sutherland (legal), and Deloitte (debt advisory), with bank facilities provided by HSBC and Santander.

LDC was advised by DLA Piper (legal), KPMG (financial due diligence and tax), and LEK (commercial due diligence).

Duco, the leading SaaS provider of AI-powered data automation, today announced it has acquired Metamaze, a fast-growing company in the unstructured data ingestion and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) space. Metamaze uses AI and no-code techniques to accurately replace manual data extraction and classification from documents and emails for customers across multiple industries, with a strong focus on banking and insurance.

Most business data is not organised, sitting in various document formats like pdfs, emails, images… and is difficult to manage, with operations and finance teams often resorting to manual entry, for example to process insurance claims, structured loans, or orders and bills of lading. These processes have resisted automation for decades, creating cumbersome and low-value task work. By combining the power of the Metamaze and Duco platforms, customers can now easily ingest any type of data from any type of document and automate processes around it.

“Duco has taken a very extensive look at firms in this space and we are extremely pleased that, in Metamaze, we found a company that shares our vision of how software should be delivered - in the cloud, with AI doing the heavy lifting, and focused on a powerful business end-user experience, based on a no-code framework. By combining Metamaze with our proven enterprise-grade security and scale, we are rapidly delivering innovation safely to some of the world’s most demanding businesses,” said Christian Nentwich, Founder of Duco.

“Combining Duco’s and Metamaze’s capabilities and expertise fundamentally changes how firms deploy AI in their operations. Our customers will now be able to bring together all unstructured and structured data in a single platform and manage it through its full lifecycle. They can avoid point solutions and automate the biggest time wastes, such as manual data entry, manual data validation and reconciliation. This is highly transformative for areas like post-trade operations in financial services, which remains under-automated to this day. It is a massive step forward towards Duco’s vision of reducing the time spent on data related work in operations and finance teams by 90%,” adds Michael Chin, who recently joined Duco as the new CEO.

“We started Metamaze to tackle the huge and growing ‘unstructured data problem’. Most IDP platforms are limited by preset models, common document types, and fixed sets of fields. We’ve built Metamaze as an AI-powered self-learning intelligence platform that reads and interprets any document to extract information and data by itself. Embedding our tech into a complementary data automation suite, while scaling globally is our primary goal. We are very excited to join forces with Duco, who share our automation vision, and to grow Metamaze as a core part of Duco’s strategy,” said Niels Van Weereld, CEO and board member at Metamaze

Cohesity, a leader in AI-powered data security and management, and Veritas, a leader in secure multicloud data resilience, today are announcing their definitive agreement under which Cohesity intends to combine with Veritas’ data protection business, which will be carved out of Veritas, to create a new leader in data security and management. Customers will benefit from the accelerated innovations unlocked by the joint company’s scaled R&D investment, its unwavering support for customer success, and one of the industry’s most extensive partner ecosystems. 

Sanjay Poonen will lead the combined organisation as CEO and President. Greg Hughes, CEO of Veritas, will serve as a Board member and strategic advisor to Sanjay Poonen after the close of the transaction.

Protecting the world’s data and gaining insights from that data are top imperatives for IT practitioners all the way to board members. Given the rampant threat of ransomware, every organisation needs a cyber resilience strategy. Furthermore, technology and business executives now have a unique opportunity to leverage the power of generative AI for data-driven insights to unleash new levels of efficiency, innovation, and growth.  

The combined innovations of Cohesity and Veritas will address these challenges directly, offering organisations a comprehensive, multicloud data protection portfolio with a powerful, simple user experience, and a high-performance, centrally-managed hyperconverged platform. This highly complementary combination will create a new leader in data security and management with numerous product offerings to help customers address their needs for data security and data insights. The combined company will bring together 100s of exabytes of data protected, a global go-to-market footprint, high penetration in the enterprise with 96 of the Fortune 100 and 80% of the Global 500, and a strong partner ecosystem across all segments of cloud service providers, security players, VARs, system integrators, and hardware OEMs. 

The combined company will continue to invest in and advance the roadmap and strategy of all Cohesity products and services, as well as Veritas NetBackup, NetBackup appliances, and Alta data protection offerings, while working towards the delivery of an integrated solution combining the best technology across the two companies.

“We are deeply committed to our mission to protect the world’s data. This deal will combine Cohesity's speed and innovation with Veritas’ global presence and installed base. We will lead the next era of AI-powered data security and management by bringing together the best of both product portfolios - Cohesity’s scale-out architecture ideally suited for modern workloads and strong Generative AI and security capabilities and Veritas' broad workload support and significant global footprint, particularly in the Global 500 and large public sector agencies,” said Sanjay Poonen, President and CEO of Cohesity. “This combination will be a win-win for our collective 10,000 customers and 3,000 partners, and I can’t wait to work with the Veritas team to bring our vision to life.”

Greg Hughes, CEO of Veritas, stated, “Veritas and Cohesity share a common vision of empowering businesses to protect their critical data assets in the face of evolving cyber threats and complex hybrid cloud environments. Bringing Veritas’ differentiated cloud-native architecture to Cohesity’s strong innovation engine will ideally position us to offer our customers transformative solutions against cyber attacks while delivering the flexibility and scalability required to thrive in the multicloud era.” 

“Both companies have high Net Promoter Scores and share a steadfast, long-term commitment to customers. Existing products will continue to be supported for many years while leveraging joint best-of-breed technologies to provide the most innovative roadmap for a future that delights customers,” Poonen continued. “We are deeply committed to both Cohesity and Veritas customers, partners, and employees as we accelerate customer-driven innovation as one company.”

“I believe customers could benefit from the combination of Cohesity’s simple and secure, high-performance platform and AI-enabled data insights together with Veritas' global footprint and cloud-native capabilities,” said Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, and Chief Analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “The combined company will benefit from scaled R&D efforts and industry-leading capabilities to help make customers more secure and offer them advanced capabilities in data management and insights.” 

Together, the companies will target a total addressable market (TAM) of over $30 billion. This figure includes the data replication and protection software market, estimated to be $12.2 billion in 2024 by IDC. The expanded go-to-market breadth, geographic footprint, and R&D resources will allow the combined company to accelerate new customer adoption and help drive the deployment of innovative solutions within the fast-growing data security and management segment. 

The combination will provide compelling benefits for customers, with increased resources to invest in technology innovation while simultaneously adding scale to support customers worldwide. On a pro forma basis for the fiscal year ending July 2023, the combined entity had revenues of over $1.6 billion, annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $1.3 billion, and a 27 percent adjusted cash EBITDA margin. Further, the combination will augment long-term growth with incremental product and geographic expansion opportunities, ensuring customers can access best-in-class tools and services to safeguard their data.

MediConCen Limited, an Insurtech company that automates insurance claims using AI and blockchain, announced that it has raised USD 6.85 million in its latest Series A round. HSBC Asset Management leads the new funding and has also received support from existing investors including G&M Capital, ParticleX, and new investor Wings Capital Ventures. To date, MediConCen has received USD 12.7 million, and this new investment will accelerate its growth in the international market, including the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

“Insurance does good for the society but often it is not felt by the customers. There is much frustration dealing with the medical claim process for both customers and insurers alike. We always aim to create a 10x better customer experience, and we believe that insurance claims are the most pressing area to address. MediConCen’s capability to deliver extraordinary solutions lies in our profound understanding of insurance and state-of-the-art technology. We are changing the paper-based and human-based claim process to digital- and AI-assisted journey, utilising the latest AI and blockchain technology. We are glad to have the Venture Capital team at HSBC Asset Management join us as an investor supporting our mission to revolutionise the insurance claim experience” said William Yeung, CEO and co-founder of MediConCen.

“Given our operational background in financial products and services, we are true believers in the transformational effect of igitization. Insurance’s true value is realised the moment policyholders experience an insured event. We are supportive of MediConCen’s aim to improve this experience by simplifying and speeding up the claims journey, including ensuring that the claim amount is fair, with a technology backbone that supports the scaling up of these benefits.” Said Kara Byun, Head of Fintech, Venture & Growth Investments, HSBC Asset Management.

MediConCen is a Cyberport community start-up that joined the Cyberport Incubation Programme in 2018 and benefited from the financial support and access to partners and networks.  With the support of the Cyberport Macro Fund, an investment fund that provides seed to Series A stage and beyond funding to Cyberport digital entrepreneurs, MediConCen has successfully secured extra co-investments to facilitate its growth in 2020.

Today Mastercard announced it is joining with the U.S. Department of Commerce to help establish the U.S. AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC), which will focus on creating new, trustworthy AI standards. The consortium will bring together a collection of AI developers, users and researchers and will include Fortune 500 companies, academic teams, nonprofits and other U.S. government agencies.

The goal of the group will be to research and provide guidance on AI safety issues, which will underpin future standards and policies. The members will help ensure the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology can collaborate closely with the broader AI safety community on best practices, learnings and new developments. The full list of participating organizations can be found here.

“To unlock AI’s full potential, we need to ensure there is trust in the technology,” Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach says. “That starts with a common set of meaningful standards that protects users and sparks inclusive innovation. The public-private partnership enabled by AISIC will be critical in helping to achieve this goal and reinforce responsible AI.”

Mastercard believes that technology development must always start with foundational practices that respect and protect individual rights and society. That’s why it has also developed and continually evolves a set of robust principles to hold the company to the highest standards of data and tech responsibility and share its experiences with partners, regulators and policymakers. Mastercard looks forward to collaborating in the same way through AISIC.

Revenued, a leading fintech that helps small businesses simplify the process of managing business finances, today announced the company's first neobank partnership with Found, a fintech company on a mission to make self-employment easier. The new and strategic partnership will address the significant challenges today's small businesses face such as access to capital and allow owners to establish a separate business account to qualify for Revenued products.

Revenued offers small business owners access to capital, which has historically been a significant hurdle for small business owners to overcome. Initial Revenued analysis, however, showed that more than 2,000 small businesses each month were unqualified for a Revenued product because they did not yet have a dedicated business bank account. The partnership with Found will help bridge this gap; Found will offer small businesses exclusive incentives to set up business bank accounts through their platform, which will in turn then help those businesses qualify for Revenued products.

"As an advocate for small businesses, we're thrilled to partner with a like-minded fintech leader such as Found. The company paves the way with digital solutions that empower business owners to access the financial tools and services they need in a convenient way. The partnership with Found also addresses a critical barrier for small businesses that don't have a business bank account," said Sol Lax, CEO of Revenued. "We are committed to enabling growth within the small business ecosystem and collaborations like this help us not only accelerate our impact but better serve the entrepreneurial community."

According to data gathered from more than 20,000 active small business bank account connections by Revenued, 92% of U.S. small businesses currently rely on traditional banks or local credit unions for their banking needs. However, these conventional financial institutions, on average, cost small businesses more than $700 in banking fees annually. An increasing number of small businesses are turning to online banks and fintechs, such as Found, allowing them to avoid fees such as NSFs and overdrafts.

The initial pilot between Revenued and Found showed high levels of interest and engagement from Revenued traffic; 34% of qualifying small business merchants clicked on Found's offer to learn more, and a significant proportion of those users went on to successfully create and fund new business bank accounts. The initial results of the pilot suggest the appeal of the offer, combined with a streamlined onboarding experience, are interesting, accessible, and useful to these small business owners.

"In just one month, we've seen approximately 10% of qualifying Revenued traffic move forward with creating a Found account," said Nick Adler, COO of Found. "If this milestone serves any indication of the future of our partnership, we're confident that we can reach even the most underserved small businesses."

Alba Bank (Alba) has announced that Rod Ashley is stepping down from his role after 6 years in post.

Jonathan Thompson will assume the role of acting CEO to lead the business over the next critical phase, bringing with him extensive start-up and SME banking experience. Dominic Wade also joins the firm as Chief Financial Officer. He joins from Unity Trust Bank, where he held the same role.

Rod Ashley said: “I have enjoyed every moment of leading Alba from the early days but now is the right time to step aside. I will be following Alba’s progress over the coming months and wish the team every success.”

Robert Sharpe, Alba’s Chair, said: “Rod has been a part of the Alba story for 6 years but has decided now is the right time to move onto other interests. He leaves with our thanks and best wishes.”

Jonathan Thompson, acting CEO, said: “I am delighted to take the reins at Alba and lead the bank through this next critical phase. It is great to have someone of Dom’s calibre alongside me as we take the business forward.”

Navro – the pioneering fintech firm formerly known as Paytrix that simplifies global payments for international businesses – today confirms that it has been authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI). Under the terms of the licence, fast-growth businesses with international ambitions can benefit from Navro’s global payments curation services under the protection of European Union regulation. 

Securing an EMI licence from the Central Bank of Ireland confirms the importance Navro places on building a strong and effective governance structure as the foundation for its global payments network and infrastructure. In addition to the Irish licence, Navro also recently secured an EMI licence from the UK’s regulator, the FCA. 

Founded in May 2022, Navro launched its curated payments solution to fill a gap in the market for an efficient, cost-effective, and streamlined international payment solution. Up to now, businesses of all sizes aspiring to expand into new international markets have been faced with managing a diverse, complex and demanding range of service providers, payment gateways and regulatory authorities. 

In response, Navro has developed the world’s first payments curation platform — a new infrastructure approach that provides access to the best payment services in every region of the world through one platform, one API, and one contract. 

Aran Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of Navro, said: “International payments are a pain point across a range of industries including e-commerce, marketplaces, and online platforms such as payroll and pensions to name just a few. These are sectors that need to cater for complex layers of incoming and outgoing payments, to and from large volumes of businesses and individuals, and across multiple jurisdictions. Getting the licences in Ireland and the UK sets us up wonderfully for 2024 and means that international businesses can now use our solution to remove these headaches in a regulated environment.” 

Welcoming the authorisation, Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath, said, “I would like to congratulate the team at Navro on securing their EMI licence from the Central Bank of Ireland, which marks an important milestone for this fast-growing company. Ireland has a strong track record of attracting and retaining innovative firms like Navro and their Irish operations will give them a strong platform to develop their regulated business in the EU, the US and beyond.”

Following the successful licence applications in two of Europe’s major financial jurisdictions, Navro has also completed a new funding round to increase its reserves and satisfy the capital requirements of tier-one regulators, clients and banks. Existing investors, led by Bain Capital and Unusual Ventures, including Motive Partners, contributed a total of USD 14 million in an internal investment round with participation from prior investors Fin Capital. That sum, combined with the majority of funds retained from its Series-A investment round, means that Navro is well capitalised for growth.. 

As the company looks ahead and executes its expansion plans, it has also rebranded from Paytrix to Navro. The new brand comes off the back of rapid growth and recognises that the business is evolving to offer more than just payments. The new name, Navro, represents the business’ mission to help customers navigate their growth into new markets, with speed and efficiency.