IDPartner Systems, a new company that optimizes online identity verification through a network of financial institutions, has secured a $3.1M seed round led by Abstract Ventures, with support from Foundation Capital, Circle Ventures, Firsthand Alliance, Correlation Ventures, Success Venture Partners and Aleo. 

The round includes angel investors, Aaron VanDevender (former Chief Scientist at Founders Fund), Lance Armstrong, and Joe Grundfest (former SEC Commissioner and co-founder Financial Engines). 

Following the round, the company graduated from the StartX accelerator. Ranked #1 nationally, StartX has five times more unicorns than any accelerator program of the same age, and its 700+ well-funded growth-stage startups have a combined valuation of over $26 billion.

IDPartner addresses a problem that confronts all 5 billion Internet users — how to verify their identities and build trust online. Founded by former Santander identity and payments leaders, IDPartner collaborates with OneID UK,  Akoya and others to create a product that allows individuals to control their digital identities and choose a preferred identity verification partner from a network of trusted providers, including banks and other financial service firms. 

IDPartner benefits businesses by providing a high assurance, low friction reusable method for customers to securely access their online services, wherever they are. The company also helps banks and other partners become indispensable to their customers by providing safer, faster, and easier onboarding and login across the entire internet.  

“By giving banks the tools to manage digital identity as a new asset class and by aligning marketplace incentives to drive adoption by companies and users, we can transform the most frustrating identity journeys into an experience as easy and familiar as social login,” said Rod Boothby, IDPartner CEO. “We are building an accessible, assured digital identity layer for the internet that empowers people and protects everyone from fraud and cybercrime.” 

Company founders, including Rod Boothby, Trish Burgess, Elizabeth Garber, and Brenan Isabelle led the Open Digital Trust initiative at the Institute of International Finance and play a leading role in the Global Assured Identity Network (GAIN) initiative, a open-source community that seeks globally interoperable identity solutions and policy. GAIN is supported by the OpenID Foundation, Open Identity Exchange, Cloud Signature Consortium, the Secure Identity Alliance, and the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation.  

“Identity remains one of the largest unsolved problems on the Internet,” said Ramtin Naimi, General Partner at Abstract Ventures. “We are excited to invest in IDPartner and support their mission to overcome the cold start problem for reusable digital identity.”‍

The IDPartner marketplace comprises trusted partners and businesses that the company has verified. Only verified partners will be available for individuals to select from and use for their reusable ID and verification needs as they navigate their digital lives.‍

“Our partnership with IDPartner will give consumers more choice and visibility into where and how their financial data is being used,” said Paul LaRusso, CEO of Akoya. “We’re focused on giving all consumers secure access to their data and 100% of our requests go through APIs. This agreement represents a key step in that journey.”

IDPartner is inspired by the success of the BankID ecosystem in the Nordics, which has 99% adoption, is used several times daily by the average person, and has reduced fraud to nearly zero. BankID Norway is an early participant in the IDPartner marketplace, which will offer verification through most major banks in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Other participants are Bonifii, provider of the US credit union digital ID MemberPass, and Airside, the developer of a user-controlled digital identity app that is approved by TSA and used by and the world’s largest airline.

“It’s important that people can take back control of their digital identities, online and in-person,” said Adam Tsao, Acting CEO, COO, and founder of Airside. “We’re pleased to team-up with IDPartner to help people create trusted connections when needing to seamlessly verify and share their digital identities with ease and peace-of-mind.”

Individuals can experience IDPartner’s verification solution by joining the NotABot pilot on Twitter. Users simply link to their Twitter accounts and use their bank to verify their identity.

Sumsub today announced it has been chosen winner in the  “Technology Partner of the Year” category at the 2023 ICA Compliance Awards Europe. The company got recognition for its outstanding work ensuring regulatory compliance and fraud prevention for its long-term partner, Kriptomat.

Kriptomat is a fully licensed European cryptocurrency platform where anyone can buy, store, sell, and use cryptocurrencies. The company is fiercely committed to security and compliance with government regulators. 

Since 2018, Kriptomat has partnered with Sumsub, which provides a single platform for crypto compliance, fraud protection, automation, and a smooth and people-friendly verification flow—all while ensuring a streamlined user experience and excellent pass rates. Together with Sumsub, Kriptomat has built industry-leading fraud defences while protecting the personal data of its 500K+ users across 57 countries. Sumsub also helps Kriptomat keep up with evolving crypto regulations with backup from an experienced in-house team of compliance experts. 

“We are proud to be recognized as a leader in compliance and customer protection. The use of innovative and reliable technologies play an important role in our AML/CFT program. It's amazing to see how much of a difference Kriptomat is making in the industry to make customers more safe. Winning awards like these helps us on our company goal of becoming a regulatory white knight in Europe,” said Dejan Davidovic, co-founder and Chief Operating and Integrity Officer at Kriptomat.

Having won the ICA Awards 2023 validates Sumsub’s hard work and commitment to compliance practices, benchmarking the company’s achievements with peers across the UK and Europe.

The ICA Compliance Awards are the UK's only awards recognising teams and individuals across the financial crime prevention and regulatory compliance community. Building on their tremendous success in 2022, the Awards are back by popular demand, featuring 19 categories designed to recognise the initiatives and achievements of the compliance community over the past 12-18 months. The categories are split across four key themes, including celebrating teams, recognising individuals, praising collaboration, and showcasing innovation. The award entries were reviewed and assessed by a judging panel comprising senior compliance and financial crime prevention leaders who were looking for outstanding achievements, innovation, collaboration, and excellence across individual submissions, team projects and business initiatives.

Winners for the ICA Compliance Awards 2023 were announced during a private awards ceremony at Hilton Bankside, London on 27 April 2023. Sumsub representatives attended the ceremony with colleagues from Kriptomat. This award is the result of joint efforts of both partners aiming to achieve excellence in the products and service they offer their customers.

“We are honoured to be named “Technology Partner of the Year” by the International Compliance Association. Winning the ICA awards is a prestigious recognition brought by top international compliance experts. We are thankful for this moment of celebrating our shared success with Kriptomat, our long-term partner. Sumsub’s tech and compliance teams will continue their hard work to exceed expectations and bring the best results to our global clients, partners and the whole fintech compliance community,” commented Andrew Sever, co-founder and CEO of Sumsub.

The NEAR Foundation today announced NEAR Horizon, an accelerator revolutionizing how founders are supported in Web3. NEAR Horizon will enable founding teams to scale their project with the support they need, increasing the number of founding teams building great products with real-world value, on the NEAR Protocol.

Startups will interact with NEAR Horizon through a double-sided marketplace application built on the NEAR Blockchain Operating System. The marketplace will connect founders to people and organizations able to accelerate their growth, including over fifteen service providers, forty mentors and over three hundred backers. NEAR Horizon was made possible by partnerships with Dragonfly, Pantera, Decasonic, Blockchange, Fabric Ventures, dLab, Hashed, and Factomind working together to develop a marketplace that levels the playing field, allowing the best ideas and teams to win.

NEAR Foundation has also developed an extensive collection of content and tooling resources for Web3 startups, including go-to-market examples, tokenomics guides and legal and hiring frameworks. NEAR Horizon is initially focused on founders building on the NEAR Protocol, with the goal of opening up the NEAR Horizon marketplace to founders building cross-chain products.

“The NEAR Foundation’s objective is to support the NEAR ecosystem and enable founders to build great products,” said Marieke Flament, CEO of the NEAR Foundation. “Scaling products in Web3 is a momentous undertaking, with no blueprint and limited success stories to guide startups. NEAR Horizon will accelerate startup growth and support teams at every stage of their journey.”

Upon launch, every founder in the NEAR ecosystem will have self-service access to NEAR Horizon, allowing them to find and connect with people and resources that can help them succeed. Founders will also be able to apply for credits to cover the cost of service providers across marketing, legal, back-office finance, product and infrastructure, significantly accelerating the growth of projects building on the NEAR Protocol.

Founders searching for a more guided pathway may also apply for intensive programmes supported with a NEAR Foundation partner, providing extensive mentorship, business resources and access to start-up capital. Programmes are available from Antler, Brinc, FabricX, CV Labs, Blockchain Founders Group and many more industry-leading startup investors. Founders accepted into a guided pathway will also have direct access to the NEAR Foundation’s team and ecosystem support.

Laura Cunningham, General Manager of NEAR Horizon, added: “We are thrilled to increase the support available to teams creating real-world value with NEAR. Our openly available resources and innovative marketplace will lower the hurdles for founders, decreasing the cost of building on the NEAR Protocol and encouraging entrepreneurs to join the ecosystem.”

NEAR Protocol is steadily gaining momentum among founders and investors in the Web3 community, boasting higher transaction speeds than Ethereum and a strong commitment to its ecosystem. The NEAR Protocol recently launched Blockchain Operating System, creating an industry-first category and providing Web3 with a common layer for browsing and accessing any blockchain.

Over the coming months, NEAR Foundation will reach out to 120 projects currently on the NEAR Horizon waitlist, introducing founders to the marketplace and ensuring that there will no longer be missed introductions, advice, capital or hires.

Here’s how to get involved:

-       Founders: Join NEAR Horizon here

-       Accelerator Programmes: Register your interest in a partnership here

-       Backers: Register your interest in partnering here

iDenfy, the global identity verification, compliance, and fraud prevention company, partnered with Artfinder, the D2C e-commerce B Corp-certified site to shop and sell original artwork. The duo will ensure a secure environment for the artists on Artfinder, who’ll be asked to complete a speedy ID verification at sign-up. 

Regulators are expanding their range of regulations to cover additional industries, including the art sector. Although art dealers and marketplaces are required to follow the Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, iDenfy points out that numerous dealers and intermediaries could be involved in an artwork transaction. This creates confusion about who is responsible for conducting the necessary KYC checks, and this challenge contributes to the art market being exploited for illegal activities.

As claimed by iDenfy, the art industry is a high-value market that attracts fraudsters for money laundering, theft, and other criminal activities. Implementing identity verification helps prevent crime and protect the overall integrity of the art market. Artfinder agrees with this approach, explaining that the art industry needs regulation and security measures, such as artists’ authentication, to ensure that buyers and sellers can operate with trust and confidence. 

Artfinder is expanding its global presence and helping make art a viable career for more than 7,000 artists. The company's rapid growth required a more efficient Know Your Customer (KYC) solution that could ensure a smooth and speedy onboarding process for Artfinder’s sellers willing to join the marketplace and connect with customers who care about original art as well as a sustainable and ethical business.

At the moment, iDenfy has been selected as Artfinder’s KYC partner, responsible for the safety of the e-commerce site’s customers. The newly implemented verification process will ensure that Artfinder complies with the latest regulations, which played a significant role in Artfinder’s decision to choose iDenfy.

iDenfy’s AI-powered identity verification service detects forged documents and fake identities in seconds. iDenfy’s verification solution requires all users to verify their identity by providing a government-issued ID and a selfie. To ensure complete accuracy, iDenfy’s in-house identity experts meticulously review this automated process to eliminate fraud and prevent suspicious registrations. 

The new verification process ensures that only legitimate users are allowed to access the platform, reducing the risk of fraudulent activity and protecting artists' intellectual property. Artfinder states that iDenfy provided additional advantageous ID verification features, including verification links accessible on various devices, without requiring users to download other apps to complete the verification process.

In addition to other responsibilities, iDenfy is accountable for securing personal data and ensuring that Artfinder's customer data is handled appropriately by compliance regulations. It’s worth mentioning that iDenfy is certified to meet the ISO/IEC 27001 standard, which guarantees that Artfinder’s data is handled with the highest level of security protocols.

According to iDenfy, the newly integrated KYC solution will also benefit artists by providing them with increased visibility and exposure to potential buyers who are looking for high-quality art. This will help artists to expand their reach and grow their audience while maintaining the security and integrity of their work.

“Our team is committed to creating a secure and trusted environment for our customers, and we take security very seriously at Artfinder. We’re happy to partner with iDenfy to add an extra layer of protection, helping us increase trust between our artists and buyers.” — said Aneta Bukowska, Senior Finance Manager at Artfinder. 

Domantas Ciulde, the CEO of iDenfy, commented: “By incorporating effective AI-powered identity verification checks, the art market can eliminate all possibilities of fraud while maintaining a seamless user experience. iDenfy is pleased to collaborate with Artfinder, a responsible business that prioritizes security and sustainability.

Paysend, the international payments platform and card-to-card pioneer, today released a short film produced by for them by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions, to uncover the challenges surrounding financial inclusion in Latin America. This short film is titled, “The Virtual Bank Card Boosting Wellbeing”, and follows the financial challenges faced by Latin Americans due to minimal access to basic financial services in the region. 

"Through this film, we aim to increase awareness and understanding of the daily challenges that many people in Latin America face due to the lack of access to financial services and the importance of remittances,” said Jairo Riveros, Managing Director, Paysend. “Coupled with our Mastercard partnership, the film will enable us to engage with a global audience and provide valuable insights on financial education and inclusion." 

With 70% of the Latin American population being unbanked, millions of people rely on remittances from family members abroad for basic necessities like housing and food. To address this issue head-on, Paysend introduced Paysend Libre in November 2022.

Paysend Libre allows unbanked users in Guatemala and soon other countries in Latin America to receive remittances from the U.S. instantly to a Paysend virtual Mastercard digital card. The virtual card is ready to use in minutes, allowing the millions of people that rely on funds from family members abroad to access their money safely and simply.  

“On a purely operational level, financial inclusion involves access and continued use of formal financial services for everyone, regardless of where they live. Yet, in its deepest implications, it contributes to eradicating poverty, ending inequality, promoting employment and industry, and is a guarantee of independence, among other important goals, for women entrepreneurs,” said David Goldschmidt, Vice President, Transfer Solutions, Mastercard Latin America and the Caribbean. “Advancing financial inclusion is not something that should be done; it is something that must be done. We are proud to partner with Paysend on this important mission and look forward to driving further progress together."

As a UK-based next-generation integrated global payment ecosystem, Paysend offers its services to consumers and businesses, providing over 40 payment methods for online SMEs. Paysend can send money to over 170 countries worldwide and supports cross-network operability globally across Mastercard, Visa, China UnionPay, and local ACH and payment schemes.

To watch the short film, visit www.wireddifferentlyseries.com. If you are in the UK, you can view the film at https://www.innovatefinance.com/wired-differentlyseries.

CryptoUK, the trusted voice of the UK crypto industry, has today published a detailed response to His Majesty’s Treasury’s (HMT) Future Financial Services Regulatory Regime for Cryptoassets consultation paper.

Consultation proposals included strengthening rules for crypto trading platforms and a robust world-first regime for crypto lending. The consultation began in February and will close on 30 April, after which, the government will consider feedback and work to set out its consultation response.

Commenting on the consultation, Su Carpenter, Director of Operations at CryptoUK, said: “We believe that a regulatory regime for cryptoassets is key to enabling the UK to be competitive as a destination for the  fast growing cryptoasset market.

“We support the ‘same risk, same regulatory outcome’ approach and continued UK commitment to the development and promotion of international standards, given the cross-border nature of the crypto-asset industry. 

“We would welcome the UK taking a leading role in promoting safe and orderly cryptoasset markets given that this will both support the further development of the crypto industry as well as the competitiveness of the UK as a destination for crypto firms. 

“We welcome proactive engagement with industry by the HMT and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in preparation of both a UK crypto asset regulatory framework. 

“We suggest taking a broader view at all of the enablers for the UK to deliver on its ambition to become a global hub for the crypto industry, which includes a proportionate application of FinProm rules to trading venues, addressing concerns of de-banking by the crypto industry and progressive tax policy that addresses the nuances of the asset class.”

Su also announced CryptoUK’s specific recommendations:

• A predictable and transparent registration process. “We support an indicative timeline for the entire application process and welcome detailed, clear and upfront guidance on expectations towards industry by the FCA akin to the recent feedback statement on good and bad quality applications under the Money Laundering Regulations.”
• Pragmatic rules around disclosures. “We believe that disclosure requirements should provide the right information to consumers but not put disproportionate liability on trading venues. We also suggest international alignment with other jurisdictions to avoid multiple disclosure standards emerging. “
• Custody and safekeeping of client assets is fundamental to building consumer trust. “Trading venues should segregate holdings of cryptoassets on behalf of their clients from their own holdings, and make this verifiable through periodic on-chain checks..”
• Setting a global standard for safe, transparent and orderly markets. “We believe that the FCA can take a leading role globally in promoting safe, transparent and orderly markets through adoption of a phased approach where trading venues are first responsible for implementing market abuse rules on their own venues before adopting trade surveillance tools at a global level..” 
• The creation of an asset-reference stablecoin category. “We acknowledge that only fiat-backed stablecoins are likely to be considered and/or allowed to be marketed as stablecoins or e-money. However, we believe a broader stablecoin category or regime that includes algorithmic stablecoins and crypto-backed tokens could be prudent, and would reflect the reality that these cryptoassets continue to have use cases in cryptoasset ecosystems, such as trading pairs. 
• DeFi remains nascent and non-systemic and may require new approaches. “We are supportive of HMT’s forbearance in seeking to develop a prescriptive framework for the regulation of DeFi before any international standards and approaches emerge. We would support a separate consultation of industry in the identification and development of industry best practices and potential novel supervisory approaches.” 
• Clarity on regulatory treatment of staking. “We would support industry consultation on regulatory treatment of staking in the short term given its growing importance for the cryptoasset industry.”

CoinDesk Indices, the leading provider of digital asset indices by AUM since 2014, in partnership with CoinFund, a leading Web3 and crypto-focused investment firm and registered investment adviser, today announced CESR, the composite ether staking rate.

CESR is a global floating rate benchmark derived from the daily transaction fees and staking rewards emitted from the Ethereum Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain. As a global and unbiased benchmark, CESR can serve as a fundamental building block of the Web3 economy by enabling the proliferation of loans, bonds, futures, swaps, other derivative products and financial instruments that reference the index.

“We are excited to launch what we see as a defining institutional reference rate for the crypto asset class,” said Chris Perkins, President of CoinFund. “This benchmark is poised to precipitate the expansion of investment products across global finance to ultimately enhance stability and risk management capabilities for investors.”

This benchmark serves as an important first step in the creation of a forward rate curve, serves as a new discount rate, and allows assets across the digital domain to be priced as a relative investment to CESR, as retail and institutional market participants are granted new opportunities to gain exposure and hedge risk. This development follows Ethereum’s transition from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake (‘The Merge’).

CESR captures all relevant block rewards paid to network validators, comprising new emissions issued by the Ethereum PoS blockchain and transaction fees awarded from existing circulation, including maximal extractable value (MEV). The methodology accounts for protocol “slashing” and protocol withdrawals. CESR will be calculated and published by CoinDesk Indices daily, seven days per week.

“Our partnership with CoinFund creates such a foundational piece of infrastructure to crypto-asset markets,” said Alan Campbell, President of CoinDesk Indices. “Drawing on our experience managing the longest-running and largest benchmarked crypto indices globally, we’re excited to launch CESR, a building block for crypto-based finance.”

Roger Bayston, EVP and Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, expressed support for CESR “As a firm committed to innovation across digital assets and the Web3 ecosystem, Franklin Templeton is very excited about the launch of CESR, backed by CoinFund and CoinDesk Indices, and the pathways it may open for the industry to use this innovative new index.”

CESR will be released to the public in the coming weeks. To learn more, submit your information here.

Synechron, Inc., a leading global digital transformation consulting firm, has now capped off its fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. During the past 12 months, Synechron has continued its commitment to staying agile and evolving to keep pace with rapidly changing industry needs, while maintaining its industry-leading position as a digital technology transformation specialist.

Expanding the Global Footprint

Notable achievements during the 12 months ended March 31 include strategic and purposeful growth that expanded the firm’s global footprint to 40 offices within 17 countries, and a total global workforce of 14,000+. Office expansion includes:

• A new office in Belgrade, Serbia – the sister location to our Novi Sad, Serbia office
• A new office in Belfast, Northern Ireland
• A new office in Pune, India, the 8^th office in India

This expanded footprint includes the office in Melbourne, Australia, which Synechron added with its January 2023 integration of Attra, a payments technology services and solutions provider in the banking and services space. Attra was acquired by Synechron in December 2020 and became Synechron Payments business.

Key Additions to the Management Team:

Synechron also filled some key C-level roles in the management team, including:

• Antonia Maneta as Chief Marketing Officer
• David Sewell as Chief Technology Officer
• Christin Spigai as Chief Human Resources Officer

Enhanced Capabilities and Domains

Synechron spent considerable time redefining its capabilities and array of end-to-end Consulting, Design, Cloud, Data and Engineering services across nine industry domains that include Capital Markets, Investment Banking, Wealth Management, Retail Banking, Commercial Banking, Asset Management, Exchanges, Payments and Insurance industries. These enhanced practice areas have enabled Synechron to expand its focus beyond the financial services industry to include technology clients.

Continued Innovation and Enhanced FinLabs

In February 2023, Synechron launched its Data Monetization Accelerator program, which includes four solutions to help financial institutions apply advanced techniques to leverage and monetize their collected business data. Since 2016 Synechron has innovated 10 Accelerator programs, each of which contains a suite of business solutions that leverage cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated strategies.

Additional Recognitions and Corporate Awards

In February 2023, Synechron was named a winner in the Business Intelligence Group’s BIG Innovation Awards 2023 contest recognizing Synechron’s PayTech Accelerator program and suite of five cutting-edge solutions (which debuted in February 2022). To date, Synechron has won 33 innovation-related global awards.

During its recent fiscal year, Synechron won a global 2023 Best Places To Work award and was also recognized with six Great Place To Work® 2022-2023 certifications – awarded for workplace excellence. Synechron’s recent Great Place to Work® certifications include regional offices in The Netherlands, Singapore, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the UAE.

Faisal Husain, Synechron’s Co-founder and CEO, in reflecting on the past 12 months, said, “I am so proud of Synechron’s trajectory. Despite difficult environmental challenges, we’ve held to our mission that we started the firm with back in 2001 – deploying technological solutions to solve real-world business challenges. We have strategically and carefully invested toward further building the scope and depth of Synechron’s business and capabilities. But, we still have work to do as we map new avenues and strategies for proving that Synechron is the change-partner-of-choice for organizations across the world.”