NEAR Protocol, the open-source and climate-neutral blockchain, has officially gone live as a Blockchain Operating System (BOS), which makes Web3 usable for all. 

BOS is  a revolutionary, industry-first category, that establishes the NEAR Protocol as the entry point for browsing and discovering apps and experiences that are compatible with any blockchain. The BOS removes one of the main challenges of decentralization by allowing developers to deploy apps once and make them available everywhere, while giving users an easy way to discover them.  The BOS is accessible to everyone, regardless of their familiarity with Web3 technology.

Developers can quickly create apps on a decentralized front end using pre-existing components and a familiar coding experience. With just a few lines of JavaScript, developers can build on any chain, and because BOS is built for multi-chain compatibility developers will be able to deploy their apps anywhere, and have them discovered everywhere. 

With the launch of BOS and thanks to the FastAuth feature, users will enjoy a seamless web2-style onboarding experience allowing for the creation of an account for any app on the BOS without the need for crypto. Additionally, the BOS includes universal search, gateways, and trust and safety features that guarantee a secure, efficient, and user-friendly Web3 experience.

BOS also creates a way for enterprises to quickly onboard to Web3.  Because BOS is built on JavaScript, one of the most used coding languages, enterprises can build new technological capabilities, roll out new products and experiences, and create opportunities for new revenue without the need for a specific Web3 development team, or complex system integrations. 

NEAR Protocol co-founder and  CEO of Pagoda, Illia Polosukhin, welcomed the development, saying, “With the  Blockchain Operating System, we're empowering builders to create custom Web3 experiences with ease. This innovative technology opens up new avenues for collaboration as it is multichain and democratises access to all blockchains, making it more accessible than ever before. We look forward to the endless possibilities this technology will unlock and the transformative impact it will have on industries across the globe.”

NEAR Protocol’s mission since its inception has been to onboard 1 billion users to a more free, fair, and open web. The first step in the journey was to focus on building a best-in-class L1 blockchain that was easy to build on and to use. With the launch of BOS, anyone can create their own frontends and customise them to work with the blockchain of their choice. This groundbreaking development means that builders from any ecosystem can easily create components with just a few lines of code and take advantage of fast onboarding to create new and custom Web3 experiences. 

This is an industry first. The addition of composable frontends to the tech stack enables the NEAR Protocol to function as the Blockchain Operating System, allowing seamless, one-time onboarding for users and eliminating friction points such as the need to create new accounts for each experience. With over 1,800 components available, this technology will supercharge development, making it faster and more efficient than ever before.

The launch of the BOS marks a new era in the evolution of Web3 and the creation of a more open web, and the NEAR Foundation is proud to lead the way. The BOS is now live and accessible on Near.org.

Logiq, Inc., a leading provider of digital consumer acquisition solutions, has acquired Park Place Payments, an award-winning fintech company delivering innovative merchant payment solutions and adjacent financial services to SMBs through a nationally distributed local sales force.

Park Place is at the forefront of the booming gig economy, recruiting, training and motivating its independent account executives through a virtual workplace and online community. The company provides its sales force a unique opportunity to build an unlimited recurring income stream without any financial commitment.

Over a relatively short period of time, this network of now more than 1,500 account executives has grown Park Place’s annualized transaction volume to more than $180 million, from which Park Place expects to generate more than $5 million in revenue and positive cash flow this year.

The company has received nationwide recognition for its revolutionary approach to financial freedom, particularly for women and minorities. Park Place has been featured on Bloomberg, Forbes, Fox Business, Fortune, and Inc. Magazine, and multiple other major media outlets. It has also received the prestigious Worldwide Finance Award, the Stevie Award for Women in Business (twice), and ranked among Growjo’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Los Angeles for 2023.

Park Place was founded in 2018 by CEO Samantha Ettus, who recognized an unmet need for recurring revenue opportunities for freelance workers seeking flexibility and freedom from traditional workplace constraints. She also observed a pervasive dissatisfaction with financial service providers among small business owners. Park Place was formed to simultaneously tackle both problems.

“When we launched Park Place five years ago, we had a vision for recruiting and developing a new kind of sales force to disrupt a fast-growing industry and do business in a different way," stated Ettus. “Given Logiq’s complementary digital marketing business for brands and agencies, they are the ideal partner to turbo-boost our trajectory, attract great talent, and reach a broader world of industries with our unique localized sales force.”

For Logiq, Park Place brings a blue sky of ‘cross-pollination’ opportunities for growth and innovation between its platforms, and a means to differentiate itself among other digital marketing and AdTech companies.

According to Logiq CEO, Brent Suen: “In addition to providing Park Place a public platform to finance its growth and expansion, Logiq has an extraordinary opportunity to offer their clients our customer lead generation and marketing services in a way that was previously inaccessible to small businesses. We also plan to offer additional fintech products to Park Place’s vast customer base, including, for example, insurance and lending products that would be provided by our DataLogiq digital advertising clients. We see such a Salesforce-as-a-Service creating a whole new and powerful value proposition for brands and agencies. The countless synergies are phenomenal.”

About half of the total U.S. workforce or 86.5 million people are expected to be freelancing by 2027, according to Statista. Park Place is positioned to capitalize on this trend by offering a straightforward pathway to financial independence. Now as part of Logiq, Ettus and Suen see a path for growing Park Place’s sales force to more than 40,000 account executives over the next few years.

“Through these multiple initiatives that will build upon an already fast-growing business, we can see the revenue we’ll generate through the addition of Park Place easily reaching $15 million or more over the next year,” added Suen.

Logiq will continue to focus on its M&A program, which includes plans for adding other complementary businesses and brands. “We see Park Place as just the beginning of our evolution into a company of direct-to-consumer and B2B brands that are complementary to and empowered by the industry’s most powerful AI-driven digital advertising and marketing platform,” noted Suen. “This model turned Alphabet into the $1.3 trillion behemoth it is today, and we plan to follow suit.”

Logiq acquired Park Place as a wholly-owned subsidiary in an all-stock transaction valued at more than $6 million after the achievement of certain milestones. Additional details about the transaction will be available in a Form 8-K on www.sec.gov and on the investor section of Logiq’s website.

Private Markets Alpha (PM Alpha), the digital marketplace for asset managers, wealth managers, advisors and distributors to access and distribute private markets investments, has launched its first regulated product – Global Distressed & Special Situations – a PM Alpha mini-blend of three underlying strategies from Apollo and Oaktree that seek to capitalise on prevalent global dislocations arising from distress, deleveraging, and financing needs across corporate Europe and North America.

PM Alpha CEO Tom Douie said:

“Our Global Distressed & Special Situations product offers an exclusive entry point for private investors into three underlying strategies that are generally limited to institutional investors, whilst ensuring attractive terms that are on par with institutional terms.  We are delighted to be able to offer this product specifically designed for our wealth and asset management partners’ underlying private clients, with enhanced diversification, downside protection, and access from a minimum investment amount of EUR 125,000 for their professional and non-professional qualified investors.”

PM Alpha’s Global Distressed & Special Situation’s diversified investment strategy is targeting high-yielding senior secured and asset-backed equity positions, and seeks to allocate equally across three PM Alpha-selected strategies from two of the most established specialised distressed debt and special situations investment managers, with a realised track record of successfully deploying capital through previous periods of market dislocations.

The product will seek to capitalise on global corporate dislocations where there is a key opportunity to acquire discounted senior positions across distressed and over-leveraged middle-market asset-heavy companies requiring urgent capital.

PM Alpha CIO Alexis Weber said:

“We believe that today’s environment, with increased funding gaps caused by higher interest rates, brings a more dynamic backdrop for specialist investors across distressed, special situations and real assets.

We consider it is a salient entry point for distressed debt and special situations managers who are increasingly seeing more motivated and distressed assets sellers - those focused on liquidity and refinancing risks - as interest rates remain higher for longer than expected, alongside an increased risk of a ‘hard landing’ within the trough of the current recessionary period.

The current broadened opportunity set is emerging with three key elements: repricing, refinancing, and restructuring of large corporate assets and SMEs. Non-traditional lenders, like specialist distressed and special situations investors, can capture assets from corporates at reduced valuations and better terms.”

FinTech Automation (“FTA”) announced today that it has signed an agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to be a provider of enabling financial technology for instant payment services on the FedNow^SM Service, which will launch in phases starting in July 2023.

The FedNow Service is a new instant payment infrastructure developed by the Federal Reserve that will allow financial institutions of every size to provide safe and efficient instant payment services. Through the service, funds will settle between participating financial institutions instantly, with no buildup of interbank obligations or short-term credit risk.

David Park, Founder and CEO of FinTech Automation said, “One of our main goals has been to help banks, credit unions, and ODFIs in launching new embedded finance solutions. The ability to facilitate secure instant payments through the FedNow System will be a real game changer for these financial institutions. Using our platform, clients will have the ability to deploy this enabling technology quickly without having to touch lines of code.”

The FedNow platform will offer core clearing and settlement capabilities with credit transfers completing in seconds making instant payments available 24x7x365. It also features access to balance information around the clock, along with activity reports available on demand or at end of day. Additionally, financial institutions will be able to settle using their own master account or a correspondent’s master account and includes configurable features for each routing transit number (RTN) enabled, such as the ability to receive customer transfers, send and receive customer transfers, receive requests for payment, support financial institution liquidity management transfers, and support settlement services for other financial institutions.

Financial institutions using the FedNow Service will remain competitive, have the ability to create new financial products, and meet the growing needs of customers. In turn, this will allow financial institutions’ business customers to gain better control of cash flow management, improve efficiency of corporate payments, and streamline their reconciliation processes.

The first release of the FedNow Service will provide baseline functionality that will support a range of functionality, including those account-to-account (A2A) transfers and bill pay.

IPC, a leading provider of secure, compliant communications and multi-cloud connectivity solutions for global financial markets, and Kaiko, a leading cryptocurrency market data provider, now offer enterprise-grade data to IPC’s Connexus® Crypto ecosystem.

Launched last year, Connexus® Crypto is IPC’s flagship solution for cryptocurrency trading and is performance engineered to support complex trading strategies. Connexus® Crypto supports cryptocurrency arbitrage, placing market participants ahead of the competition by enabling them to buy and sell a cryptocurrency simultaneously in different markets. The solution also provides users with low latency connectivity and instant access to the liquidity of several global crypto exchanges. It is underpinned by the Connexus® Cloud platform, a multi-cloud trading ecosystem connecting more than 7,000 global market participants.

Kaiko's mission is to execute the foundation of the new digital finance economy, serving as a single source for market information from both centralized and decentralized marketplaces. For each of its enterprise clients, Kaiko builds custom data plans designed to serve those who operate at every step of the investment and investable vehicle lifecycle, from financial products issuers to venues and market infrastructure players, to both buy and sell side. Kaiko is the partner of choice for market supervision actors and market surveillance solution builders.

Following Kaiko’s integration, IPC’s flagship Connexus® Crypto trading environment will now deliver real-time stream data, including spot, and derivative. In addition to real-time prices, Kaiko will offer other products such as aggregated quotes and rates. Kaiko’s data on real-time cryptocurrency prices alongside Connexus® Crypto’s inter-exchange connectivity, rapid execution, and service reliability will enable users to implement highly efficient arbitrage and algorithmic trading strategies, perform effective risk management, investing, monitoring, and regulatory compliance activities.

“Our primary goal is to deliver continuous innovation and specialized communications solutions that align with the rapidly transforming markets. By partnering with Kaiko, we help empower market participants to trade cryptocurrencies efficiently and successfully within our robust, ultra-low latency crypto trading environment.”- Bob Santella, CEO, IPC.

“The fusion of Kaiko and IPC’s capabilities within the market-leading Connexus® infrastructure will support IPC’s extensive global customer base to enhance their trading activities, while also growing our mission to be the leading source of real-time information to market participants,” said Ambre Soubiran, CEO, Kaiko. “This collaboration will enable us to showcase our rich market data offering, demonstrating how it can contribute to the evolution of the digital asset economy.”  

Commenting on the partnership, Bob Kaufman, Founder & CEO of ConnexPay, stated: "ConnexPay's partnership with Payouts Network demonstrates our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. With Push to Card, ConnexPay is poised to offer a new payment process to our customers that is efficient and secure, further enhancing our position as a leading payments provider."

"This partnership is a natural fit for us, as both companies are committed to providing innovative and reliable payment solutions," said Payouts Network CEO Keith Smith. "We look forward to working with ConnexPay to bring our Push-to-Card solution to businesses across various verticals."

“Providing secure and transparent digital payment capabilities is at the core of Visa’s efforts to help enhance how individuals and small businesses move money,” said Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, SVP, North America, Head of Visa Direct. “We are excited to extend the benefits of Visa Direct to ConnexPay’s customers across a variety of industries and use cases.”

"We’re excited about the growth and retention opportunities that this partnership will bring to our business," added Kaufman. "Our customers are already using technology that is at the forefront of PayTech, and this new addition will make their payments much faster, while helping us serve more companies."

The full-stack identity verification, fraud prevention, and compliance hub, iDenfy, joined forces with eCOMM Merchant Solutions, the B2B payment gateway, acquirer and processor. iDenfy’s end-to-end ID verification service will help automate the KYC process and safeguard the payment platform from various fraud risks. 

Currently, iDenfy’s Know Your Customer (KYC) service enables eCOMM Merchant Solutions to conduct fully automated identity verification checks on every individual using the payment gateway. Customers must take a photo of their government-issued ID document, which iDenfy’s AI-powered software quickly scans and verifies for potentially fraudulent activity.

eCOMM Merchant Solutions is focused on providing our B2B customers with innovative payment technology services, enabling its merchants to accept Mastercard, Visa, and American Express payments. The company is best known for its online payments but has other features like phone payments, pay-per-link options, or Point of Sale (POS) terminals. 

With a vision of being the world's leading payment solution provider eCOMM Merchant Solutions noticed a growing customer base that demanded a more robust KYC service. After thoroughly assessing multiple partners, the payment service provider ultimately chose iDenfy’s identity verification for its comprehensive documentation coverage, accuracy, and round-the-clock support. 

eCOMM Merchant Solutions has integrated iDenfy's identity verification solution to enhance its customer onboarding process. By leveraging iDenfy's solution, eCOMM Merchant Solutions will be able to verify its customers' identities more efficiently, resulting in a seamless onboarding experience for its customers. One of the primary reasons for choosing iDenfy's service was its ability to automatically recognize, verify, and extract information from over 2,500 identity documents across more than 190 countries.

eCOMM Merchant Solutions was able to easily integrate iDenfy’s unique mobile SDK, enabling the company to verify its customers at the beginning of its journey easily. iDenfy’s OCR engine completes the streamlined verification process for the payment startup while reducing the waiting time for new customers. 

By partnering with eCOMM Merchant Solutions, iDenfy aims to assist them in expanding into new markets and confidently growing their user base. According to Domantas Ciulde, iDenfy's CEO, this collaboration will improve the integrity of the payment platform and drive long-term sustainable growth.

“We’re excited to partner with eCOMM Merchant Solutions and assist them in building the best possible, customer-first account opening experience through our fully automated identity verification solution. We expect to help drive down the cost per customer acquired,” added Ciulde. 

TradeSun has promoted Janna Baer to Chief Client  Officer to lead strategic client relationships as demand grows for TradeSun’s AI-powered solutions for trade and supply chains. 

Based in TradeSun’s Canada hub, Janna moves to her new role from Director of  Customer Success and Product, whereby she led TradeSun’s customer success team,  overseeing product evolution to align with market demands. Prior to this, Janna was  Director of Product Marketing, which involved developing and leading marketing material and product documentation.  

Before TradeSun, Janna worked with global banks and companies to provide comprehensive, empathy-based team-building initiatives to staff. She has held management roles across youth and adult education, delivering professional development programs on behalf of local and global non-profit organizations to support socio-economic growth.  

In her new role, Janna will lead and expand key client relationships around the world,  while continuing to build out the customer success team. She will support TradeSun business objectives through strategic cross-functional initiatives. 

It comes amid a global expansion at TradeSun, with appointments made across the  Americas, Europe and Asia this year to support operations and revenue generation.  Trade and supply chain digitalization is a priority for banks and businesses to enhance risk management functions, from financial crime prevention to environmental, social and governance matters. 

Nigel Hook, TradeSun CEO and Founder, said: “Janna is an integral part of our team, and we are delighted that she will be taking up the role of Chief Client Officer. Janna’s new position is a testament to her skills and experience, reflecting her ability to lead and deliver results. This is particularly important for TradeSun as demand for our AI-powered solutions increases and our reach expands.” 

Janna Baer said: “I am thrilled to be continuing my journey at TradeSun. Ensuring that our clients are provided with the best tools, services and experience in the industry is what drives our team. Relationships are at the core of all that we do, and I am truly honoured to represent and continue working with our valued customers around the  world.” 

Metia Group has launched a data-driven report identifying the unique challenges, attitudes and behaviours that define the buying mindset of senior bank decision-makers. The new report analyses the B2B financial technology buy-cycle, identifying five critical B2B marketing strategies for fintech firms.

The data, sourced by GWI Work 2021/22, includes almost 60,000 interviews with business professionals aged 18–64 who defined themselves as working in business-related occupations.

New market entrants arrive daily, each promising to disrupt the established methods of banking. In turn, making it difficult for fintech brands to stand out. The first generation of now well-established fintech leaders still have large VC-sourced marketing budgets, as do the big banks. This makes it hard to compete and impossible to outspend established players, especially at the beginning of a growth journey.

Key takeaways from the report, comparing how the attitudes of senior bank decision-makers differ from their peers in other industries, include that they are:

• Constrained by legacy technologies – bank decision-makers are 1.7x more likely to be looking for new technology partners because their current technology is already failing.
• Burdened by regulatory compliance – they are 1.6x more likely to feel that their responsibilities for data protection and compliance are increasingly burdensome.
• Buying on reputation – they are 1.6x more likely to choose vendors with strong DEI performance.  
• Listening to experts – they are 1.5x more likely to listen to experts’ opinions on the technologies they should invest in.

“Today, B2B marketing in financial services is all about creating meaningful connections through a more data-driven approach as decision-making processes continue to evolve,” said Steve Ellis, Founder at Metia. “This research goes in-depth to discover the pain points faced by senior bank decision-makers and understand what motivates their decision-making. Data-driven insights are crucial to success, helping to highlight new ways for fintech brands to elevate themselves and capture the attention of senior bank buyers.”

The State of the B2B Financial Technology Buy-cycle 2023: ‘Shine Brighter, Sell More’ can be downloaded here.

The recommendations in the report come from third-party data analysis, industry sources and Metia’s 30+ years’ of experience supporting banks, financial technology vendors and fintechs in their journey from bootstrapping startups, through to IPO and into global corporations.