The Berlin-based Fintech Raisin has raised €60 million in a series E funding round, from existing and new investors. The global savings and investment specialist recently exceeded 1 million customers, for which a total of €850 million in interest has been generated since founding the company in 2012. Raisin has been profitable for half a year and currently manages a total of €38 billion Assets under Management (AuM) for customers globally. In the past 6 months alone, AuM grew by more than 30%.

Raisin is experiencing high demand from consumers looking for competitive savings rates, and banks looking for attractive retail funding sources. With the new investment, Raisin aims to give more consumers access to simple and convenient products by investing in new features, even simpler processes and broader accessibility, and to accelerate growth in expanding markets such as the United States, where Raisin entered in 2020 and added over $1 billion AuM in 2022 alone.

Raisin has raised money in this round from two new investors – a global financial services institution and M&G’s Catalyst, a $6 billion purpose-led global private assets strategy – and from existing investors such as Goldman Sachs.

Dr Frank Freund, Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder of Raisin, comments:

“We are delighted to continue our growth trajectory together with our partners and to welcome our new investors in our mission to make money perform better. The investment marks another important step in our objective to provide savers throughout the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States with straightforward and fair products. As a Fintech pioneer, we provide the infrastructure to democratize the global savings and investments market – benefiting consumers and financial institutions alike. With the new commitment, we will be better positioned to bring value to even more consumers and partners. We are thrilled that we can thereby make a valuable contribution to the functioning and the efficiency of the financial market.”

Niranjan Sirdeshpande, Head of Global Investments for M&G Catalyst, added:

“We are excited to be supporting Raisin’s impressive growth story as they seek to improve outcomes for savers of all ages across Europe, the UK and US and reduce barriers and inefficiencies in the financial system.”

Raisin was supported by Goldman Sachs Bank Europe who acted as sole placement agent on the transaction.

London-based SME funder 365 Business Finance has signed an all-new multi-year agreement to become an Associate Partner to Crystal Palace Football Club.

Including the remainder of the 2022/23 season, this ground-breaking partnership for 365 Business Finance means the company’s branding will be visible to fans at Selhurst Park, for the first time, on Saturday 01 April as Crystal Palace takes on Leicester City.

Andrew Raphaely, Managing Director at 365 Business Finance, said, “Around 40% of our customers are in London and the South East, so this associate partnership with Crystal Palace enables us to reach many more of these businesses. It also gives us wider national exposure, using the power of Premier League football to increase awareness of our brand and service.”

The associate partnership is being delivered by sports rights specialist Eleven Sports Media.

In addition to branding activation at Selhurst Park, the partnership gives 365 Business Finance the opportunity to engage and partner with other businesses associated with Crystal Palace.

Offering revenue-based finance from £10,000 to £300,000, 365 Business Finance is a direct financial provider funding SMEs across the UK, with no fixed payments or APR.

Calastone, the largest global funds network, has released its Global Funds Automation Report, revealing that manual processes and antiquated technology like fax machines remain the backbone of many asset managers’ operations, despite the industry’s desire to transform.

UK asset managers who are not embracing technology are being held back from achieving their priorities (including enhanced customer service and profitability) and are at serious risk of losing out to the competition.

Key findings from the research reveal a stark gap in the perception of automation:

• Just 41% of UK asset managers believe their organisation to be mostly or fully automated, with 62% admitting to still using fax machines, revealing that there are still many manual areas of the transaction chain that require attention as they can create unnecessary costs and increase risk for the industry.
• The continued use of legacy technology, and inefficient and costly manual processes contradicts the priorities of UK asset managers, who identified client service (80%), operational cost reduction (75%), and regulation (53%) as the key drivers of their automation strategies.
• The UK’s highest technology priorities to help deliver automation included the use of digital forms (49%) and business processes and workplace management (45%), highlighting the industry’s understanding of the value in automating simple but time-consuming tasks in the name of efficiency.

These technologies, however, only scratch the surface in terms of what is available to help asset managers in their digital transformation programs. In contrast to the UK, Singaporean asset management firms cited more advanced technologies including DLT (46%) and machine learning & AI (54%) as most important in their automation strategies.

In this new era of frictionless fund management, automation, immediacy and personalisation will be at the forefront of the investor experience and the inefficiencies associated with manual processes will not be acceptable to many – especially with a new generation of tech-first investors entering the space. There are many technologies available for fund firms to leverage; it will be critical for all market participants to utilise the entire array of technologies in order to achieve a full digital transformation and for the UK asset management industry to stay competitive.

Thunes, a global cross-border payments firm headquartered in Singapore, has raised US$30 million from London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace, according to VentureCap Insights, which tracks regulatory filings in the city-state.

Peter de Caluwe, CEO of Thunes, has confirmed to Tech in Asia that Marshall Wace is the new investor.

The funding brings the company closer to becoming a billion-dollar company, with an estimated post-money valuation now pegging at US$776 million after raising about US$166 million in equity funding.

Thunes was launched in 2019 after fintech firm TransferTo spun it off into a separate business covering cross-border payments. The B2B firm now supports 79 currencies and 300 payment methods, with clients like Uber, Grab, Deliveroo, and PayPal.

In early 2022, Thunes said it was planning to “significantly accelerate” its expansion in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau.

Later that year, it acquired Singapore-based regtech startup Tookitaki for over US$20 million, enabling Thunes to offer anti-money laundering software. It also expanded to Saudi Arabia.

In a previous interview with Tech in Asia, Caluwe said his company was “building highways” to unify the world’s payments systems, calling Western Union, MoneyGram, and e-wallets “truck stops.

OKX, the world-leading cryptocurrency platform, has issued updates for the week of March 20, 2023.

OKX Web3 Wallet Integrates with zkSync Era
OKX has further expanded its Web3 ecosystem with the integration of zkSync Era. The OKX Wallet web extension is now fully integrated in the platform, enabling users to view and trade their crypto on zkSync Era in the OKX Mobile App and OKX Wallet Web Extension.

zkSync Era is a Zero Knowledge (ZK) rollup that supports EVM compatibility for the Ethereum blockchain. The primary benefit of zkSync Era is that developers who have created EVM dApps can port to zkSync Era effortlessly and realize significantly lower gas fees and more transactions per second while inheriting Ethereum's security and decentralization.

Caxton, the leading payments company, today announced Payroll Payments, offering fast, frictionless payments for businesses of all size.

As technology transformation begins to gather significant pace within the finance function, replacing legacy systems and creating more efficient processes are a priority, and payroll teams are demanding faster and more flexible solutions.

With many frustrated by the extra time and money they’re forced to spend managing traditional BACS payments, payroll professionals are looking for ways to enhance productivity and offer greater pay support for employees, at a time of growing financial strain.

The new offering will appeal to:

·         Modern practices and bureaus wanting a resilient payment solution that most closely mirrors personal payments for their clients (including sole traders, LLPs and charities)

·         Larger accounting firms and bureaus currently using BACS and who want a secure, flexible risk mitigating solution or a cost-effective alternative for payment adjustments

·         In-house payroll teams who want to reduce errors and make Faster payments more securely and efficiently with better visibility

Benefits include:

Cashflow management – no more having to close the payroll run weeks in advance.

Flexibility - to make last-minute payroll changes and support employees’ financial wellbeing.

Vendor agnostic – integrates with any cloud payroll provider or use your current BACs file

Frictionless payments- which are available 24/7/365.

Support for global payments - from the same centralised solution.

Automation - of notifications, future-dated payments and more enhanced payroll productivity such as open banking

“There are an increasing number of challenges facing payroll teams at a time when organisations are increasingly trying to help their employees through a cost-of-living crisis and many are trying to be as flexible as possible with salary payments,” said Caxton founder and CEO, Rupert Lee-Browne.

“Our new functionality minimises chances of payroll errors impacting staff, ensures payments go out whatever day of the week they fall on, and offers exciting new opportunities to expand the value payroll can add to any business.”

Customer Case Study

Wagemate has already been using the Caxton Payroll Payments product and Daniel Hull, Director of Wagemate, said “As a Bureau we need every one of our processes to be efficient, secure and as risk-free as possible.  To achieve this, we are constantly looking for the latest innovations in technology to enhance our client experience, adding value and creating time savings for our team.

We have successfully processed FASTER payroll payments with ease using the Standard BACS 18 file available in our current software, with minimal change to the existing process. Making this change has saved us valuable time and taken the pressure off our team. We have mitigated several risks and have a back-up option for late submissions, we are equally delighted with Caxton’s forward-thinking compliance approach.

Our values for making the complex simple has perfectly aligned with Caxton's approach. We strongly applaud Caxton’s focus on processing payroll payments and look forward to developing our relationship”.

Clausematch, a technology company developing solutions for regulatory compliance, has been recognized as the Best Policy Management Solution by the annual FinTech Breakthrough Awards. 

The award celebrates policy management technology that is innovative, easy to use, valuable to the customer and has a high impact on the success of the customer. 

Clausematch has been a leader in the FinTech and RegTech industries, growing its client base to support a variety of companies the likes of Currencycloud, Arbuthnot Latham, First Central, LMG, Davies Group, and others. More than 210,000 users are on the platform with thousands of documents uploaded to assist compliance departments. Clausematch has been an instrumental part of compliance processes of expanding businesses as well, such as Griffin, which was recently authorized as a bank by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

“To be honoured among such outstanding technology companies is a major accomplishment for our team,” said Emma Kempton, Global Head of Customer Success. “We strive to elevate our platform to meet customers’ growing regulatory compliance needs, and I think this award shows our commitment to that goal. We look forward to continuing working with the fintech industry on our best-in-class solutions for compliance and lifecycle management.”

The FinTech Breakthrough Awards recognizes financial technology companies that serve ordinary customers, financial institutions, wealth management businesses, insurers, and others. All award nominations are analyzed, evaluated, and scored by a panel of judges representing a mix of technical, business, academic, and marketing expertise within the industry.

Clausematch’s technology helps companies achieve agile robust policy and procedure management, hitting efficiencies and improving quality and standardization. To recall, Clausematch was recently recognized as RegTech of the Year by the US FinTech Awards as well as listed on the RegTech100 industry listing. 

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, today announced the enhancement of its security defence against advanced fileless attacks using AnchorIntel® Threat Detection Technology (Intel® TDT) leveraging the Intel® integrated GPU to offload memory scanning operations from the CPU. Acronis is the latest cyber protection company to integrate Intel® TDT to enrich its security products.

With cyber threats evolving and growing on a daily basis, Acronis researchers have witnessed new types of malware and attack vectors on enterprises such as polymorphic malware and fileless attacks. Many threats utilise an in-memory-only approach which can be hard to detect. Intel® TDT technology allows Acronis cyber protection solutions to free resources while scanning HDD and memory resulting in improved system performance. Acronis researchers found that while scanning all the processes in system memory on supported CPUs, Intel® TDT reduced the load on the CPU 2.4x times, by offloading the job to the Intel® integrated GPU.

The Acronis solution combines complete single-agent cyber protection with Intel® TDT. This enhancement results in lower CPU utilisation which allows more compute capacity for productivity and office software used by Acronis end customers while compute-intensive security operations run in the Intel® integrated GPU. The innovation of Intel® TDT will be available through Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, Acronis Cyber Protect, and Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office solutions.

“The integration of Intel® TDT into Acronis cyber protection solutions is a logical step to meet the needs of our users, said Patrick Pulvermueller, CEO at Acronis. “During the last year, we observed that almost 50% of attacks detected were fileless. The use of this Intel technology is a great milestone as we continue to optimise and enhance our anti-malware engine.”

“Through our collaboration with Acronis to integrate Intel® Threat Detection Technology into their cyber protection solutions, customers of all sizes that utilise Intel vPro® can perform frequent and highly performant memory scanning. This is a great benefit for our mutual customers as we help them stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated threats,” said Carla Rodríguez, Vice President and General Manager, Ecosystem Partner Enabling at Intel.

“As the IT world grows in sophistication and continues its migration to the cloud, more stress has fallen on security teams with less-integrated technology, creating complexity and unintentional blind spots in security systems,” said Research Vice President of Security and Trust Michael Suby at IDC. “According to a recent IDC survey of 1,015 security professionals in North America, this is particularly the case for smaller organisations who are less equipped to effectively operate separate products from multiple vendors or benefit from a position of strength in negotiating with multiple vendors. As such, they are more likely to resonate with an integrated hardware and software approach to endpoint security.”

Acronis provides its users with the ability to take back control and overcome complexity with an integrated platform which results in greater operational efficiency. By implementing an integrated solution like Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud, organisations can reduce the time that security teams spend on various operational activities, lower training costs, reduce the complexity in their environment by minimising the number of tools managed and ultimately drive business growth.