Strategy Developers can enjoy a smoother user experience with ZuluTrade’s reinforced social trading infrastructure. Thanks to its versatile interface design, the platform allows strategy developers to easily create, backtest, edit and deploy strategies, equipping them with everything they need to succeed.

Centred on simplicity, ZuluTrade’s platform offers smooth navigation, intuitive features and an intelligent UX design that significantly reduces the time required for strategy developers to develop and launch their algos. Doing so, ZuluTrade removes the complexity of the development process, allowing strategy developers the freedom to focus on creating and optimising their winning strategies.  

“Market opportunities arise every second, and as a strategy developer, you must be in lockstep with the market. With our integrated infrastructure, strategy developers can launch their strategies in minutes,” says Tajinder Virk, ZuluTrade CEO.

The strength of ZuluTrade’s value option for strategy developers lies in its advanced technology and powerful trading infrastructures. Through close collaboration with industry-leading platforms, including MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, X Open Hub, ActTrader and Match-Trader, the social trading platform ticks all the boxes. This gives strategy developers the flexibility to opt for any platform, use a wide range of cutting-edge tools and features available across these solutions, and combine different programming languages to adjust and launch their algos in a few simple steps.

“Our aim is to reduce deployment time down to T-0, and with our current integrations I believe we’re on the fast-track to achieving that,” Mr Virk added.

Changing the game for strategy developers

In addition to speedy strategy deployment, what contributes to ZuluTrade’s appeal in comparison to similar automated trading solutions is its compatibility with any brokerage platform. Capitalising on broker agnosticism, ZuluTrade opens the door to strategy developers and algo traders everywhere, regardless of the platform they use or the broker they hold an account with.

The platform’s advanced risk management, revenue monitoring and strategy simulation tools enable strategy developers to keep track of their earnings and strategy performance, and make adjustments in real time. 

Facilitating further strategy developers seeking new wealth avenues, ZuluTrade also places a great emphasis on the marketing aspect of strategy provision and engagement. The social trading platform offers strategy developers the opportunity to share their best algos with a growing community of investors and engage them directly through the social feed - where Investors and Leaders(strategy developers) meet to exchange ideas, share news, get inspired and learn from each other. 

Furthermore, when joining ZuluTrade, strategy developers gain access to a state-of-the-art marketing engine that promotes their algos to the whole community. Leveraging social media and other marketing tools, the social wealth management platform seeks to maximise the visibility and facilitate interaction within the strategy developers fueling its community-driven trading ecosystem. 

The platform compensates strategy developers with $5 (subject to currency pair) for every closed lot that investors trade. This attractive payout structure guarantees that strategy developers are rewarded commensurately with their efforts, empowering them to generate consistent income streams and build wealth.

For more insights, visit ZuluTrade’s website.

Moneris Solutions Corporation (“Moneris”), a Canadian leader in innovative solutions for mobile, online, and in-store payments, has partnered with Wix.com Ltd., a leading global SaaS platform to create, manage, and grow an online presence, to power the Moneris Online solution for Canadian businesses to set up their shop online.

“We know running a business can be complex, but getting online shouldn’t be,” said Patrick Diab, Chief Product and Partnership Officer at Moneris. “We’re excited to announce our partnership with Wix, as it allows us to give Canadian businesses an all-in-one e-commerce solution. Intuitive design tools from Wix make it simple for businesses to get started, and their suite of business capabilities coupled with payments powered by Moneris make it easy to scale.”

Businesses using Moneris Online will have access to Wix’s robust product offerings including bookings, online ordering, commerce and business solutions as well as enterprise-grade performance, security and a reliable infrastructure. With Moneris, they can seamlessly process transactions however customers choose to pay – whether via credit, digital wallet or eGift cards. In addition, built-in fraud prevention tools like Kount Essential, 3-D Secure 2.0, multi-cloud hosting, and SSL certificates help give businesses peace of mind knowing their website and payments are secure while also maintaining a frictionless experience for their customers.

“We’re always expanding our offerings and partnering with companies who share our mission in providing the best tools for businesses to succeed,” said Anthony Scaglione, EVP of Global Partners at Wix. “Our embedded online presence and commerce platform enables banks and acquirers to deliver integrated omnichannel solutions to our partners’ small business customers. This collaboration combines Wix’s advanced customization capabilities with Moneris’ integrated payment processing services to give Canadian businesses an all-in-one solution to succeed both instore and online.”

Business sites are always on, and to receive the help they need when they need it, Moneris offers 24/7 customer support. In addition, to help them get started, only Moneris Online comes with up to fourteen hours of free support provided by Moneris’ Website Creation team, who will work with businesses to understand their e-commerce needs and how to meet them. At launch, Moneris Online is available in three plans, starting at $36 per month, with simplified processing fees starting at 2.75% + $0.30.

The first day of Money20/20 Europe started with Tracey Davies, President of Money20/20, and Scarlett Sieber Chief Strategy & Growth Officer of Money20/20, kicking off another fantastic event at the RAI, Amsterdam on the Encore stage, welcoming all and outlining what’s hot at an action-packed show this year. 

Please see below a list of session highlights with quotes from the speakers, a list of companies who made announcements throughout the day, and a snapshots folder (including B Roll, logos and pictures from the first day),  we hope this will help with your reporting. 

Session highlights 

On the Encore Stage at 10:40 CET, Lily Cole, renowned author, supermodel, activist and entrepreneur in an exclusive, sat down for an interview with Money20/20 President, Tracey Davies. Lily,  known for her podcast and book  “Who Cares Wins”, outlined the importance of new, care-led strategic approaches, in a world faced with accelerating climate risks, financial inequality and the increasing global complexity of money.

“There’s an increasing desire for change which we’ve seen with the demand from companies to be B-Corp certified, and I see this continuing. People have the power to make a change by choosing who they work for or with, voting for what they want, and building pressure to change policy. Everyone needs to rise to the challenge, embrace innovation and help solve problems. There must be more action and not just words.”

“Companies also have a role to play and shouldn’t fear being called out. It’s not the responsibility of just one company, as no company is perfect. We shouldn’t be hypocrites; we all need to work together and do better. Be honest and upfront, share learnings, and create an open dialogue. The role of technology is essential, but we need to be careful not to think that technology will solve everything, it’s not the silver bullet.”

Waze Co-Founder and author of “Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution – A Handbook for Entrepreneurs”, Uri Levine, followed on the Encore Stage at 11:05 CET to share his first-hand experience founding Waze and Moovit, which were acquired by Google and Intel respectively, and shared top tips for startups and entrepreneurs looking to make it big. 

“When building a successful startup, you need to focus on the product market fit, which is always the first part of the journey. It's imperative that you create value for customers and if there is value they will always come back. Start with product market fit, then you need to find your business model and growth etc. A metric to measure this is retention or renewals. If you've got a good handle on this, you're on the path to success. If you don't, you will die (I mean, your company).”

“Being an entrepreneur is like being on a rollercoaster, with lots of up, down and twists. All entrepreneurs should collaborate, talk, discuss, and lean on others to learn from each other and provide much-needed support. CEOs need to make tough decisions quickly, you should have a 30-day rule, if someone in your team isn’t right, act fast and get rid of them. Firing and hiring, it’s hard to fire someone and easy to hire them, but if you don’t have the right team, it won’t help you to succeed. Being an entrepreneur is a challenging journey, you need to be 1000% committed, with your mindset, time, and energy if you want to create something of significance.”

“Banks need to think about their next product, who the customers are, what do they want and what is value they can bring to their customers. If you’re not solving a problem, forget to develop a product.”  

HSBC UK CEO Ian Stuart at Encore (13:15) talked about how the HSBC team worked to structure the SVB UK deal in record time, why HSBC felt it needed to act fast to support the UK’s startups and how he sees things playing out for European startups and banks as they build a new future together.

“Challenger banks have made us (traditional banks) good and I’ve always been open about that. We would have carried on doing what we have always done. They have given us a massive wake-up call. We were slow to move. We’ve embraced the market and are interested in doing more.

With SVB UK – the market shouldn’t be worried; we are 158 years old and know what we are doing. SVB UK is a good bank and we will take it global. People have the assurance that we will protect SVB. Time is the barometer. The next 5 years will be exciting. 

The macro-environment in 2023 is going to be difficult, in late 2024 market will come back. This isn’t new, this happens all the time across the markets.  We are in pause mode; inflation is an issue. Rates will come down but not yet. Innovation will play an important role. It will take longer for interest rates to come down but once it’s under control growth will happen.  

There is a rush for digital as Central banks actively focus on digital currencies, with China leading the way but not sure how it will be used. More to come!”

Creating Dynamism in Capital Markets: LSE CEO Julia Hoggett at Encore Stage discussed LSE’s role in helping address the funding needs for companies across Europe – both for private and publicly traded companies – despite a challenging economic backdrop. She also talked about her role as Inaugural Chair of the UK Capital Markets Industry Taskforce.

“London is by far the largest financial centre in the world, raising more money every year than any other venue.

We have great universities, disproportionately more than most countries, and we have a world-leading capital market, if we can just connect the two together more effectively. We have all of that raw materials, far more than most countries do.” 

Announcements 

See below a few announcements that grabbed everyone’s attention today: 

1. Lucinity: https://lucinity.com/blog/the-journey-of-luci 
2. Discover: https://investorrelations.discover.com/newsroom/press-releases/press-release-details/2023/Discover-Global-Network-Study-Finds-93-of-Global-Fintechs-Increased-Reliance-on-Payment-Networks-Given-the-Current-Economic-Environment/default.aspx 
3. Defactor Labs: https://defactorlabs.com/press-release-alpha-bonds/ 
4. Klearly: https://klearly.eu/klearly-officially-launched/ 
5. Rabobank: https://www.rabobank.nl/en/business/embedded-services/knowledge-and-trends/articles/banxware-and-rabobank-partner-up-to-make-short-term-financing-more-accessible-for-smes 
6. Convera: https://convera.com/blog/company-news/future-of-b2b-global-payments-trade-report/ 

Don’t forget to check out the announcements on the Horizon Stage tomorrow to hear their news before anyone else does! 

U.S. multinational UKG Inc., a leading provider of HR, payroll and workforce management solutions for all people, has reached an agreement with Kilkenny-based CluneTech to acquire global payroll provider Immedis. 

Founded in 2016, Immedis is a subsidiary of CluneTech  ̶  a suite of technology companies focused on simplifying global business. Through its cloud-based payroll platform, Immedis delivers multi-country payroll solutions to customers spanning multiple industries across more than 150 countries and 120 currencies. Demand for the Immedis payroll platform has grown strongly and this acquisition reflects an increase in valuation above its last investment round.

With 374 people worldwide, including an Irish workforce of over 100, Immedis provides organizations with a real-time view of data and analytics across their entire global payroll ecosystem, regardless of how payroll is processed at the country level.

The acquisition of Immedis, subject to closing conditions, is expected to be completed within 60 days and propels UKG into a global HCM leadership position with the creation of the industry’s most adaptable, intelligent “schedule to fund in one” experience for multinational businesses. UKG has 15,000 employees and 75,000 customers around the globe. In 2021 UKG acquired Great Place to Work, which has ranked CluneTech as one of Ireland’s best workplaces for the past eight consecutive years, as well as a Best Workplace in Tech™ and a Best Workplace for Women™.

The acquisition of Immedis will help UKG support their customers to transform multi-country payroll, while also providing exciting career opportunities for Immedis employees as part of the UKG business.

“Having worked closely with Immedis for several years, utilizing their technology to help support our customers through a strategic partnership, we are delighted to welcome the team to UKG,” said Chris Todd, chief executive officer at UKG. “The combination of UKG and Immedis will create the HCM industry’s most flexible and intelligent multi-country payroll experience for multinational businesses.”

“We established Immedis to help large companies solve their global payroll problems. I am incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication of the Immedis team over the past seven years to achieve our goal of becoming a global leader in international payroll service and technology,” said Terry Clune, founder of Immedis and CluneTech. “Joining UKG expands the reach and impact of our ground-breaking technology. It also presents tremendous new opportunities for the exceptional people who make Immedis special. I really appreciate the hard work of our incredible team, and I’m delighted that each of our Immedis staff will gain from this acquisition. I’d also like to thank Lead Edge Capital and Scottish Equity Partners (SEP) who have been strong and supportive partners in Immedis’ growth.”

The Irish State will also benefit as an investor in SEP via the Ireland Strategic investment Fund (ISIF).

“Tackling the persistent challenges of global payroll and compliance across multiple countries through completely new and innovative approaches that are technology-led has been the driving force behind our work at Immedis,” said Richard Limpkin, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Immedis. “Now, coupled with the powerful UKG HCM suite and its industry-leading global workforce management, we’re excited to help further redefine the entire multi-country payroll market.”

Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG, added: “The formidable combination of UKG and Immedis will be transformative and help us reshape and modernize how North American-based global businesses manage their people — and compliance — worldwide.”

Qatalyst Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor, A&L Goodbody LLP acted as legal advisors and PWC acted as tax advisors to Immedis in relation to the transaction. In addition, DLA Piper LLP and Clerkin Lynch LLP each acted as legal advisors to certain shareholders.

Investment Platform Third Financial (Third) today announces a further three new business wins in the first four months of 2023 as it continues to be recognised as the best partner for wealth managers and advisers looking for a platform for growth. Third also recently reported a 35% increase in revenue in the financial year ending December 2022.

BRI Wealth Management (BRI) has been a valued software client of Third’s since 2013 and moved its assets to Third’s investment custody service in April to support its ambitious growth plans while benefiting from the class-leading service and efficiency benefits the platform provides.

FirstBank UK has signed a five-year deal moving its sizeable AuA from a competitor to Third’s platform. A UK-registered bank, FirstBank UK has been live on the platform since the start of Q3.

GHC Capital Markets (GHC) has meanwhile renewed its partnership with Third for another five years, having deployed Third’s software in 2018.

The new business wins solidify Third’s position as the leader in the market and will allow Third to support the growth plans of all three firms. Third is on a mission to transform the wealth management and advice sectors, a mission which has been recognised and appreciated by BRI, FirstBank UK and GHC, alongside Third’s wider client base.

Ian Partington, Group Chief Executive at Third Financial commented: “Being continually recognised by respected firms as the best in the industry underlines the great work Third has been doing to support the wealth sector and help our customers to execute their growth plans. Third takes the weight off our customers’ shoulders so they can focus on driving value to their clients.”

Dan Boardman-Weston, CEO at BRI said: “We are delighted with the work Third has done as a software provider and excited to make the switch to Third’s platform. BRI’s existing infrastructure was not aligned to our ambitions for the firm and Third were the obvious choice to step in. The migration of data and assets was extremely well-managed, and we are now poised to deliver on our growth plans.”

Global tax software provider Sovos today announced the appointment of Kevin Akeroyd as Chief Executive Officer. Akeroyd joins Sovos from Magnit, where he served as CEO from July 2020, overseeing a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. Sovos has now reached a scale of offering value proposition to enterprise customers unique in the industry: eInvoice and tax compliance in any country from a single API connection. Akeroyd is joining at a time when more and more countries are mandating e-Invoicing and Sovos solutions are becoming widely adopted across multinational enterprises. As part of this transition, current Sovos CEO Andy Hovancik will be assuming the role of chairman of the board.

"Meeting regulatory requirements around the world used to be a tax and finance problem; not anymore. Today, government authorities are heavily invested in technology and demanding information in real-time directly from the source,” said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, Sovos. “Regulatory concerns are now the domain of IT and having the solutions in place that can deliver what authorities want, when they want and in the form they want is where Sovos comes in. Sovos is the one partner you can count on to provide the confidence that your compliance obligations are being met so that you can focus on your business priorities. I’m looking forward to leading this amazing team.”

Prior to joining Magnit, Akeroyd served as CEO at Cision, taking the company public on the NYSE. Previously, Akeroyd had been a general manager at both Oracle and Salesforce, running category-leading business units in cloud software, services and data. 

“IT and data management continue to play an increasingly important role in meeting regulatory obligations around the world, an area where Kevin brings a wealth of experience and credibility to Sovos’ growing organization,” said Jonathan Boyes, partner, Hg. “His expertise in navigating the worlds of SaaS technology and global enterprises makes him the ideal person for this position. We are excited to partner with him on the next phase of Sovos growth.”

In their journey to offer users a first-of-its-kind, fully crypto-compatible mobile finance platform, fintech startup Lanistar now allows its Brazilian users to buy and sell cryptocurrency directly from the app.

Social media famous fintech Lanistar has unveiled the latest update to its mobile payment app, which gives all users the opportunity to buy and sell a diverse range of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, directly via the Lanistar app.

Lanistar has an ethos of striving towards the future of finance and bringing its users with them. Lanistar is taking a divisive, modern approach to money, either that be by removing physical plastic cards to prevent waste or by their belief in cryptocurrency as a financial solution for the underserved.

On the matter, Chief Commercial Officer at Lanistar, Merton Smith, said:

“The plastic-free virtual cards, it gives us that flexibility that we're not simply bolted to a table like a terminal in a fixed format: we're virtual. So wherever users go, the virtual goes too”.

“So, you know, we're embracing crypto, and crypto is an example where there's no- you know, it's definite, it's defined, it's there”, Smith continued. “I think that we serve the underbanked, the underserved people who don't feel like they are represented by these traditional banking institutions. And I think crypto is one of the things that people have turned to as an alternative to these systems”.

Cryptocurrency has been a part of the financial conversation since 2009, with Bitcoin created as a response to the financial crisis which occurred the year prior. However, it is only in recent years that the technology and its accompanying virtual currency have made its way into public use. Promoted by celebrities like Elon Musk and encouraged by some outlets like Gucci and Starbucks as a payment option, cryptocurrency now has a more diverse in-person use case than ever before.

However, more notably, due to the security enabled by blockchain technology, cryptocurrency also has a massive appeal to those around the world who feel their national banking systems are failing them. They, therefore, seek an alternative: an alternative that Lanistar intends to make as accessible as possible.

On the Lanistar crypto exchange itself, CEO Jeremy Baber said: “The layout is simple, straightforward. Some exchanges, they fill the screen with information, it's overwhelming, and that can make new investors nervous. With Lanistar, our goal is to make something that anyone can use. Where users can just log on, tap a few buttons, and their chosen crypto is there, in their account. That's the goal”.

The Lanistar app and its current crypto functionality are available in Brazil, with the app expected to reach the UK and other LATAM regions later this year. Further functions will become available later this Summer with a full crypto exchange offering send and receive functionality creating a full ‘AnyMoney’ solution.

Radiflow, creators of the award-winning OT cybersecurity platform, CIARA, have today announced CIARA 4.0. The update introduces a leading benchmark tool and delivers actionable insights for managing and minimising risk in large multi-site industrial facilities.  

Today, CISOs and security teams are responsible for the cybersecurity of OT facilities. However, they lack the ability to evaluate the ever-changing cybersecurity risks to their operations. Unlike other sectors, they cannot easily assess risk exposure nor the effectiveness of specific security activities. To address this, Radiflow has released CIARA 4.0, a data-driven platform that continuously monitors changes in the site topology as well as vulnerabilities and threats, always re-evaluating the risk posture of facilities and their digital components. This continuous monitoring enables the CISO to review the strategic and tactical OT security plans and adapt them if needed. 

In order to further assist the CISO with the evaluation of their risk posture, Radiflow is introducing a new, free-to-use cloud benchmark tool. Using collected industry-specific benchmark information based on Radiflow’s vast experience and enriched with CS2AI surveys, the new tool provides the user with a quick risk posture assessment compared to the industry status and best practices.  

“CISOs are under enormous pressure to do more with less, making it challenging to understand their current standing across the OT Cybersecurity landscape,” said Ilan Barda, Radiflow CEO and Co-founder. “Data-driven CIARA 4.0 automates the delivery of the necessary insights concerning the changes in the risk posture that actually direct users toward optimal security actions.” 

At the same time that threat actors are getting more sophisticated and vulnerabilities are becoming more diverse, national and industrial regulatory bodies are tightening cybersecurity regulations. But these are often highly complicated and challenging. For example, while the widely accepted IEC62443 international series of standards provides a detailed map of security controls, it is often too complex for companies to understand and implement. For these situations, CIARA 4.0 delivers a view of Best Practices of Security Controls which is much simpler to understand and to better map the planning of security projects in an individual factory or across a sprawling, geographically diverse complex of interlinked facilities. 

“A centralised, highly intelligent solution that enables OT cybersecurity teams to identify vulnerabilities, and stay up to date with industry standards and/or best practices, while prioritising and evaluating mitigation efforts, slashes the investment in time and effort required to conduct secure operations,” explained Michael Langer, Radiflow’s Chief Product Officer. “With the accelerating pace of interconnectivity between so many new devices via expanding OT networks alongside decades of legacy versions, CIARA 4.0’s ability to automate accurate risk analyses and furnish actionable insights becomes vital for ensuring zero downtime.”