Quant, the blockchain for finance pioneer, has secured a new patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent, titled ‘Blockchain Communications and Ordering’, recognises that Quant has invented a unique method for chronologically ordering transactions from different blockchains. 

Having also secured a patent from the Japanese Patent Office last year, this represents another significant milestone in Quant’s ongoing mission to make distributed ledger technology simple, trusted and future-proof.  

Prior to Quant’s research and development, different ‘block times’ (the average time taken to generate a new block) across blockchains meant that finding a definitive transaction ordering method over multiple blockchains, that a consortium could agree on, was a disjointed and inconsistent process. This hindered firms from integrating multi-blockchain-based projects into existing systems or using more than one type of blockchain in their operations.  

The grant of US patent 11842335 recognises that Quant has introduced a method to agree on a universal time zone for all blockchains, so that enterprises and smaller businesses can produce reliable, consensus-based records. 

Helen Kemmitt, Quant’s general counsel, comments: “As blockchain adoption grows, patents are vital in protecting the fruits of research and development, and act as a catalyst for ongoing innovation. At Quant we view patents as a key way of solidifying our market position as a pioneer in blockchain for finance.” 

Quant has a proven track record of supporting large institutions in the digitisation of financial markets, including collaborating with the Bank of England and Bank of International Settlements on Project Rosalind to explore how APIs could be used for digital currency systems. It is also making blockchain more accessible to firms of all sizes via its low-code platform, Overledger. Other elements of Overledger’s technology are also patent pending in various jurisdictions. 

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Basware, a global leader in AP automation and invoice processing, has appointed Markus Hornburg as its Senior Vice President, Global Compliance. It strengthens the company’s compliance offering to help customers through upcoming e-invoicing requirements.

Many countries such as France, Poland, Spain, and Germany, are introducing legislation to enforce e-invoicing, while many existing countries around the world including Latin America continue to revise their requirements. This complexity will require businesses trading in those countries to send and receive invoices electronically, to clamp down on issues such as VAT fraud.

However, regulations concerning invoice formats, systems, tax rules, and timelines can be challenging and differ across countries. Basware supports global enterprises automate their accounts payable (AP) function by seamlessly matching, approving and processing invoices at scale. Hornburg will lead Basware’s strategy to provide an answer to this ever-more complex compliance challenge, which integrates the different rules required in each country in terms of invoice formats, signatures and archiving into its AP automation and e-invoicing platform.

With over 25 years in product, trade and tax compliance, Hornburg has worked with governments and private sector companies globally, bringing a wealth of experience defining and delivering digitalisation efforts. Before joining Basware, he served as VP of Global Product Compliance for Coupa Software and VP of Compliance at Tungsten Network.

Markus Hornburg, Head of Compliance at Basware, said:

“I’m excited to join Basware to continue furthering compliance in financial processes. Over the years many so-called ‘disruptors’ have tried to enter the market, but Basware has a very long track record of delivering meaningful value to customers. With so many complex and evolving e-invoicing regulations expected over the coming years, Basware is strengthening its position as a trusted and reliable partner for all businesses, supporting finance teams and the office of the CFO. With Basware, digitisation processes will be projects customers want to do rather than something they have to do.”

Basware supports customers with e-invoice compliance in more than 100 countries with extensive experience with mandates, laws, and requirements tailored to each market through its Global E-invoicing Compliance Map. Basware’s solution is already connected to several government platforms as well as interoperability networks such as Peppol - the common global framework for the cross-border exchange of electronic business documents. Basware has the world’s largest open network, with the ability to integrate with more than 250 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems across more than 175 countries. In 2023, Basware launched its Partner Dematerialisation Platform (PDP) application to facilitate digital invoicing businesses in France.

Based in Germany, Hornburg will report to Basware’s CEO, Jason Kurtz.

Jason Kurtz, CEO at Basware, commented:

“Basware is committed to support its customers through e-invoicing mandates. The appointment of Markus reaffirms our commitment to be the choice of the customer for global compliance. Compliance is a priority for our customers but is ever-changing and can be complex to adopt and implement. Markus will help ensure complete coverage of financial processes for our customers that are navigating differing mandates across the world.”

British Patient Capital announces today a £20m commitment to the third fund by Episode 1, a specialist early-stage technology investor. The £76m fund will back a new generation of B2B innovators at the pre-seed and seed stages, as well as deepen their reputation as an innovative early-stage investor.

Launched in 2013, Episode 1 has backed over 69 portfolio companies to date, including Carwow, Huboo, CloudNC, Raft, Robin AI, Fatmap and Omnipresent. The team has also overseen high-profile exits including Fatmap (acquired by Strava), Passfort (Moody’s), Feedr (Compass Group), Touch Surgery (Medtronic), and Atlas (Meta).

Episode 1 will be making investments of between £250k and £3m in pre-seed and seed-stage startups, with capital also allocated for follow-on investments. The firm’s focus is in software-led companies operating primarily in the UK which focus on key areas including AI, TechBio, open-source, software infrastructure, healthtech and marketplaces.

British Patient Capital is joined by a range of additional institutional investors, including Molten.

Christine Hockley, Managing Director, Funds at British Patient Capital, said: “Episode 1 have a track record of investing in UK B2B tech start-ups through a team of investment professionals with operational expertise. We are pleased to partner with them in supporting the next generation of home grown tech start-ups to scale into the leading businesses of tomorrow.” 

Hector Mason, General Partner at Episode 1, said: “This new fund, our biggest yet, is really a testament to the work of our portfolio founders who are building some of the fastest growing companies in Europe. It’s their tenacity, creativity, and vision which has enabled our fund to go from strength to strength and made this new fund possible.

“As a team, we never sit still. This fund gives us the ability to double down on our team and the proprietary tech that’s got us to where we are today, as well as providing more firepower to invest in the next generation of extraordinary founders.”

The British Business Bank’s Enterprise Capital Funds program, which helps develop and maintain effective venture capital provision in the UK, lowering the barriers to entry for emerging fund managers, backed Episode 1’s Fund I in 2013 and Fund II in 2017.

Temenos today announced that Puerto Rico-headquartered Segura Bank International, Corp. (“SBI”) has gone live with Temenos core banking platform deployed in the cloud to power a new digital bank for mid to high-earners in Latin America.

Temenos’ cloud-native platform will enable SBI, which is licensed by Puerto Rico's financial services regulator, the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions (OCIF), as an “International Financial Entity” (IFE), to launch banking products faster and scale efficiently as it expands across the continent.

With Temenos banking capabilities for Multicurrency Accounts and Deposits, SBI will offer US dollar financial products, helping its customers protect their savings from potential currency fluctuations and devaluation and enabling easier international transactions and access to global markets denominated in US dollars.

SBI will leverage the cloud-native core banking capabilities of the Temenos platform for fast and efficient transaction processing and managing customer accounts, as well as supporting the bank’s compliance. SBI is also benefiting from Temenos’ model bank and pre-configured banking processes, which improve operational efficiency and accelerate time to market with increased automation and digitized workflows.

The implementation, supported by delivery partner ITSS, was completed in just six months, with Temenos’ cloud-native, API-first architecture also making it easier for SBI to build an ecosystem to meet its growing requirements.

Juan Zambrano, Chief Executive Officer, Segura Bank International, Corp., commented: “We are delighted to be running our multicurrency accounts and deposits on the world’s most trusted banking platform. Temenos offers a market-leading cloud-native banking platform and proven expertise across the LATAM region. This will allow us to grow our new digital bank with confidence, as we offer the stability of US dollars to more customers across Latin America.”

Rodrigo Silva, Executive Vice President – Americas, Temenos, said: “Congratulations to Segura Bank International on this successful launch. By running our banking platform on the public cloud, the bank benefits from greater agility, higher performance, scalability, and security to grow its operations and provide banking services across the rapidly growing markets of Latin America.”

Kin, the pioneering digital, direct-to-consumer home insurance company, today announced the closing of $15 million in financing from new investor Activate Capital, a growth-stage VC firm focused on the sustainable, resilient transformation of the global economy.

Raising at an increased valuation, greater than $1 billion, is an achievement that’s becoming increasingly rare as other technology companies continue to have trouble securing capital. Kin has maintained systematic, capital-efficient growth, increasing revenue by more than 50% year-over-year and maintaining positive net income in 2023. With this incremental capital, Kin can accelerate its growth investments, including multiple new markets and products, which will widen the gap with legacy insurers that aren’t able to quickly respond to changes in climate, technology, and consumer preferences.

“Investors appreciate our focus on the fundamentals – maintaining positive unit economics, using technology for accurate pricing and better underwriting, and eliminating unnecessary steps in the insurance journey,” said Sean Harper, CEO of Kin. “We ended the year with approximately $85 million in cash, which doesn’t include the cash in the reciprocal exchanges we manage. But in this environment, having a strong balance sheet is particularly beneficial, which is why we’re excited to partner with Activate on the investment.”

Activate invests in companies building category-defining platforms that address disruptive global forces like climate change. Sustainability and resiliency are at the heart of Activate’s investment strategy, where its portfolio companies are accelerating decarbonization and strengthening shared systems of energy, production, transportation, trade, and infrastructure.

“As millions of homeowners seek to protect themselves against growing risks from climate change, reliable and affordable insurance grows as a socioeconomic imperative,” said Eric Meyer, principal at Activate. “We believe that Kin’s unique approach to homeowners insurance unlocks new levels of agility in adapting to market challenges and providing necessary coverage in many underserved regions.”

Kin operates in eight states where it serves approximately 115,000 policyholders, and its reciprocal exchanges have nearly $345 million of premium in force.

AffiniPay, a leading provider of professional technology solutions, announced today the launch of next-generation In-Person-Payment options for professionals. The new functionality of In-Person Payments maximizes a firm's efficiency by leveraging state-of-art in-person payment devices that integrate seamlessly across products and interfaces. This initiative modernizes the client experience with on-the-go and in-office payments and with the latest “tap-to-phone” technology for mobile.

This new technology will be rolling out to AffiniPay’s leading professional payment solutions LawPay, CPACharge, ClientPay, and AffiniPay for Associations as well as MyCase in 2024.

Firms accepting payments through the new AffiniPay In-Person Payment devices can experience a reduction in chargeback risks and be fully compliant during all payments. This includes multiple types of payment methods such as:

• Contactless Debit and Credit Cards
• Debit and Credit Card Chip Inserts
• Apple Pay and Google Pay Wallets

“We are excited to provide customers with limitless options to get paid fast and secure with our prolific solutions that empower firms to go beyond,” said Dru Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer of AffiniPay. “AffiniPay’s new In-Person Payments technology validates firms to take more control of how they implement flexibility and amplify their services to propel client satisfaction.”

Tookitaki, a trusted leader in the financial crime space, announced the rebranding of its flagship Anti Money Laundering Suite (AMLS) to FinCense. This strategic move is aimed at better representing the enhanced capabilities of its compliance platform, which now seamlessly addresses both fraud and AML risks.

The convergence of fraud and AML challenges has reshaped the compliance landscape, leading financial institutions to seek a unified solution. Currently, operational silos divide anti-fraud and AML teams. As costs continue to soar, a complete solution to manage both is needed.

This is especially critical in cross-border payments, where protection from Financial Crime risk is vital. FinCense bridges the gap between fraud and AML with its FRAML solution.

Mr. Abhishek Chatterjee, Founder, and CEO of Tookitaki, emphasized the significance of this rebranding, stating, "Why FinCense? Because it can sense finance aka suspicious patterns. Our transition from AMLS to FinCense signifies more than a name change; it marks a pivotal advancement in compliance solutions available in the market. By merging Fraud and AML prevention into a single, powerful solution, we enable financial institutions to capitalise on the synergy to improve detection rates, reduce operational costs and prevent fraud in real-time."

FinCense fosters collaboration between fraud and AML prevention, with a comprehensive platform adept at handling both domains' complexities.

Recognizing the unique intricacies of cross-border payments and their susceptibility to both Fraud and AML risks, FinCense has been carefully crafted to provide real-time protection for domestic and cross-border payment companies. FinCense is built for scale by processing billions of transactions with high throughput at 200 TPS for real-time fraud prevention. 

BNY Mellon and Microsoft are joining forces to transform capital markets and the broader financial services industry. Using Microsoft Azure cloud and BNY Mellon's extensive financial data and analytics capabilities the platform will provide BNY Mellon's buy side and sell side clients with a leading data management solution.

The global alliance between two of the world's leaders in their respective industries will help enable financial institutions to navigate complex market dynamics with precision and agility while enhancing risk management and optimizing operational efficiency.

As part of the expanded collaboration, the two companies will look to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can be incorporated for improved productivity and better-informed decision-making.

With a focus on innovation and the expertise and platforms to help clients achieve their goals, BNY Mellon will also migrate its data and analytics workloads to Microsoft Azure.

"The technology and data ecosystems are becoming more complex, competitive and cost-intensive for our clients," said Akash Shah, Chief Growth Officer, BNY Mellon. "Combining BNY Mellon's data infrastructure and analytics services with Microsoft's cloud solutions will provide our buy side and sell side clients with a leading data management solution designed to offer deeper insights and actionable data that can help improve their investment performance, distribution reach, and risk management. For 240 years, we have been building new solutions to help our clients grow their businesses, and this is the latest step towards making investing more effective, easier, and less expensive."

As an organization with a dynamic culture focused on delivering solutions with excellence and speed, part of what led BNY Mellon to the Microsoft Azure platform is working with a cloud provider that is committed to a trusted and resilient cloud that serves the markets in which it operates.

Key details of the collaboration include:

• Innovative applications for data and analytics: BNY Mellon will take advantage of multiple technologies from Microsoft to develop next-generation data management and software products tailored to the unique needs of capital markets firms. This includes data and analytics associated with increasing investments in private markets and alternative assets. The integration of these advanced analytics capabilities will provide BNY Mellon's clients with near real-time, data-driven decision-making tools that can help improve agility and adaptability in the fast-evolving capital markets landscape.
• BNY Mellon's data and analytics suite fully available on the cloud: The collaboration will accelerate the release of BNY Mellon's next generation data and analytics cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering. This will help clients fast-track their asset onboarding and take advantage of optimized data and analytics at scale. It will also provide clients with continuous integration and delivery of new features and upgrades.

"This strategic alliance underscores Microsoft's commitment to advancing the frontiers of cloud computing to drive transformative change across industries," said Karen Del Vescovo, Corporate Vice President & U.S. Financial Services Lead, Microsoft. "The collaboration with BNY Mellon sets the stage for a new era in capital markets, where the fusion of data analytics and emerging technologies, such as AI, powers unprecedented platform innovation and provides an ecosystem of capabilities across investment and data lifecycles."

This is the latest example of a longstanding relationship between BNY Mellon and Microsoft. The companies have spent years driving success for customers around the world, creating data, technology and content solutions for investment managers on Microsoft Azure.

Sapiens International Corporation, a leading global provider of software solutions for the insurance industry, and Binah.ai, the number one health and wellness check software provider, today announced a partnership to empower more insurance companies worldwide to use client-provided health data for improved risk management and value-added services at reduced costs. The partnership enables Binah.ai to leverage Sapiens' strong global presence and provide Sapiens' customers with seamless access to Binah.ai's software-based health and wellness check technology.

Access to health data shared by end-users through Sapiens' platform, enhanced with Binah.ai's technology, provides a myriad of benefits for both clients and insurance companies:

• Improved risk assessment and prevention measures
• Improved market understanding and competitiveness
• Streamlined underwriting and more efficient straight-through processing
• Increased engagement in wellness programs
• Enhanced user experience at reduced costs

Binah.ai's Health Data Platform is disrupting healthcare and wellness monitoring by leveraging AI technologies to transform smartphones and tablets into powerful tools for both on-the-spot checks and continuous health and wellness checkups. Users have the flexibility to conduct either a quick spot check by simply looking at the device's camera or opt for continuous monitoring by wearing the Polar Verity Sense™ optical heart rate sensor. This enables them to measure and share a comprehensive array of vital signs, including blood pressure, heart rate, heart rate variability, oxygen saturation, respiration rate, pulse-respiration quotient (PRQ), and mental stress-related biomarkers like sympathetic stress and parasympathetic activity. Additionally, users can simultaneously obtain an overall wellness score.

"We are extremely excited to partner with Sapiens, a leading player in the global insurtech sector. Sapiens' strong presence will help boost our expansion in the insurance industry and provide their customers with seamless access to our solution. I look forward to a great partnership, for the benefit of the entire industry and its clients," said David Maman, Co-Founder and CEO of Binah.ai.

With more than 40 years of industry expertise, as well as 600 customers in more than 30 countries, Sapiens empowers insurers to transform and become digital, innovative, and agile. Sapiens' cloud-based SaaS insurance platform offers pre-integrated, low-code capabilities across core, data, and digital domains to accelerate our customers' digital transformation.

"Binah.ai's groundbreaking health monitoring technology is a game-changer in our insurance solutions, revolutionizing how insurers harness objective health data for robust wellness programs," emphasized Amanda Ingram, Sapiens Proposition & Ecosystem Manager. "Through seamless integration, we drive straight-through processing and elevate premium rating by leveraging remote, real-time health monitoring. This transformative partnership not only optimizes the underwriting processes but also empowers the insurer to assess risk more accurately and bolster preventive measures."

Unity Trust Bank, the commercial bank with a social conscience that serves SMEs and organizations, has appointed Colin Fyfe as its CEO.

Colin joins Unity with more than 40 years’ experience in the banking sector including 10 years as CEO at two building societies.

With a deep understanding of commercial business and the wider regulatory banking environment, Colin brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the role.

Commenting on his appointment, Colin said: “Unity’s very strong track record, its social purpose and driving ambition are compelling.

“Personal service and relationship banking combined with community good is a great proposition for all SMEs and socially-conscious organisations. I’m delighted to be joining as CEO.”

Alan Hughes, Chairman of Unity Trust Bank, said: “I’m very pleased to announce Colin’s appointment. Unity has grown four-fold since it became independent in 2015 and Colin will be a driving force for the next stage of Unity’s progress.

“Colin joins Unity with a strong record of innovation, transformation and growth.”

Colin succeeds Deborah Hazell who stepped down from her position as CEO at year end.

Alan continued: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Debbie for her commitment and wide contribution to Unity. Most notably she has improved our approach to impact, delivered the new digital banking platform for our customers, and raised Unity’s profile externally. We are grateful to her.”

With offices in Birmingham, London, and Manchester, Unity offers an ethical alternative for businesses with a social conscience, working with organizations and SMEs that share its values and philosophy.

With its ‘double bottom line’ strategy of delivering social impact and not simply maximizing profits, Unity lends to customers that make a positive contribution to economic, social, and environmental change in communities across the UK.