Norwegian business-to-business payments firm Two has raised €18 million in a Series A funding round led by Shine Capital and Antler.

Martell Hardenberg, global investment partner, Antler, says: "Two’s rapid growth is a testament to the large pain points they are solving, by allowing merchants to offer their clients seamless payment and access to credit, while boosting online sales and customer loyalty for their merchants."

Ebury, the global financial services firm, is delighted to announce that Tom Davies has been appointed Managing Director of the Middle East & Africa. 

Tom has been at Ebury for close to 12 years. Throughout his tenure, he has held various leadership roles most recently in Switzerland and the UK & Ireland where he was Country Manager and responsible for all commercial activity. He was made a Partner in 2014. 

As part of his new role, Tom will relocate to Ebury’s office in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), the leading and comprehensive financial ecosystem in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region.

Ebury’s presence in the region has grown substantially and the team now numbers 36 people as it looks to capitalise on the significant opportunities across the Middle East and Africa, and has a long-standing track record of commitment and innovation within the DIFC.  

Ebury became the first company to be granted a Financial Services licence to carry out the regulated activity of providing Money Services from the Centre under the Dubai Financial Services Authority’s (DFSA) comprehensive Money Services Regime. It also expanded its Mass Payments division into this geography in 2021 via the DIFC’s innovation hub.

Ebury offers financial solutions to help SMEs and midcaps trade internationally. It specialises in international payments and collections, offers foreign exchange activity in over 140 currencies for both major and emerging markets, as well as cash management strategies, trade finance, and foreign exchange risk management.

Tom Davies, Managing Director – Middle East and Africa at Ebury, commented: “The Middle East and Africa offers a huge growth opportunity for Ebury. Wherever businesses are trading internationally, Ebury is able to offer a wide range of financial services that combine global reach with local presence and expertise.

“The Middle East and Africa are becoming increasingly prominent in global trade and there are strong corridors already in place between the two across a range of sectors from oil and gas to telecoms and infrastructure.

“I am excited to lead this team and take advantage of the huge possibilities that exist for Ebury to provide an outstanding service and help the exciting, innovative companies in the region prosper.” 

Sibstar is the UK’s first debit card and app designed to help people living with dementia and their families to safely manage everyday spending.

The launch comes as research shows that nine in ten (89%) of those affected by dementia experience difficulties with managing their money day-to-day, and nearly half (45%) find money difficulties a major cause of stress and worry. Sibstar has been set up to combat this and offers an innovative way for people with dementia to access and manage their day-to-day money and empower those living with dementia to live financially independently for longer in a safe, supported way.

The Mastercard debit card is pre-loaded with funds, then how and where the money is spent can be managed through the Sibstar app, which is available on iPhone and Android.  Each element of Sibstar’s functionality can be instantly switched on or off, delivering a flexible solution which can be scaled as the needs of individual customers change. The app’s money management controls include spend limits, ATM, online, phone switch on/off, instant freeze, auto top-up, and real-time notifications which can be changed instantly and remotely.

There are currently around 900,000 people with dementia in the UK, and this number is projected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040. In addition to the physical symptoms, many people can lose their ability to deal with their daily finances - as confusion increases, so too does vulnerability to being scammed, losing cash or cards, giving money away inappropriately, or over-buying, and as a result, hard-earned savings can disappear.

Although there have been some improvements in making the financial sector more accessible, current banking services are yet to offer the necessary security and management functionality required by people with dementia and their families. Two in three respondents felt there is not enough being done to help people living with dementia to manage their money safely. In the absence of a suitable solution, often the only choice for those living with dementia is to limit or remove access to their finances, which severely limits their independence and ability to enjoy everyday activities. 

It’s these issues which Sibstar addresses head-on and is the brainchild of Jayne Sibley. Over the last nine months, the product has been piloted by 65 people in the UK who are affected by dementia and their families.

One customer said: “Sibstar will be a solution to keep my Dad’s dignity, but enable the control we as a family need to help him. He has asked many times that we find a way to help him and I've been searching for a while. I wish I had found Sibstar sooner.”

Jayne Sibley, co-founder of Sibstar and whose parents are both living with dementia commented, “As my Mum’s dementia progressed her ability to manage her everyday money declined.  One of the hardest challenges we faced as a family was finding a way for Mum to remain financially independent whilst keeping her money safe. Mum is capable in so many ways, but needs access to her own money in order to live her life the way she wants to. That’s why we developed Sibstar.  How we choose to spend our money is a big part of who we are, that doesn’t need to change because you have dementia. We believe Sibstar provides a way for people living with dementia to manage and access their own money more safely, reducing their financially vulnerability, which means they can remain independent and live life the way they choose.”

Colin Capper, Associate Director of Evidence and Involvement at Alzheimer’s Society said: “Too many people living with dementia face barriers in using financial services, leaving them with a loss of independence and vulnerable to scams. Alzheimer’s Society is working to make the financial sector more dementia-friendly, as well as raise awareness of the challenges involved. We are delighted to have supported Sibstar through our Accelerator Programme, which funds innovations and inventions that we believe can change the lives of people affected by dementia."

Kelly Devine, Divisional President, Mastercard UK & Ireland added “At Mastercard we believe everyone should have access to financial services in a way that works for them, whatever their needs may be. Innovations in technology are making it more and more possible to build tailored products and tools for specific needs, and Sibstar is evidence of this. We are delighted to be working with Jayne and the team at Sibstar on this much-needed solution to make financial independence a reality for those living with dementia.”

See the full Sibstar story on the website or get started with Sibstar by downloading the Sibstar app from the App Store or Google Play.

SAP Fioneer, a leading global provider of financial services software solutions and platforms, has announced the launch of “Fioneer Embedded Finance as a Service” (EFaaS), the world’s first B2B embedded finance platform facilitating orchestration between SAP users and Financial Service Institutions (FSIs). The service allows FSIs to easily connect to SAP Enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes, enabling them to develop innovative embedded finance solutions tailored to the specific needs of their corporate clients in one centralised platform.

Embedded finance is becoming more important, not just for the financial services industry, but to the wider economy. By placing a financial product in a non-financial business process, client journey or e-Commerce platform, embedded finance accounted for $2.6 trillion of total US financial transactions in 2021. Its total value shall exceed $7 trillion globally by 2026.

Charlie Platt, Managing Director, Banking, at SAP Fioneer said: “By bridging the gap between banks and their corporate clients, we are enabling financial institutions to better serve the needs in a digitized trade environment and stand out in a highly competitive environment. With our platform, banks can now directly connect to their clients' ERP system processes, bringing the two closer together.”

SAP Fioneer’s EFaaS capabilities can be deployed to support a number of different use cases, such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Request to Pay (R2P), Purchase Order Finance, and Invoice Finance. These offerings allow businesses to embed financial solutions into their business operations, create seamless transaction flows, increase cash flow visibility and reduce costs.

Dirk Kruse, CEO of SAP Fioneer, adds: “Businesses seek seamless banking experiences in their B2B transactions and end-to-end processes. Embedded finance offers new possibilities for managing complex business models in a digitized, data-driven commerce environment. The launch of our EFaaS platform addresses these challenges, showcasing our ability to provide reliable, world-class financial technology in a scalable, adaptable, and open platform.”

The international technology company Tools for Brokers (TFB) has announced the expansion of the FIX API emulator technology for simple and straightforward migration to the Trade Processor liquidity bridge. 

The FIX API emulator makes migration to Trade Processor from alternative bridging software simpler, more straightforward, and less risky. The built-in FIX API protocols allow clients to avoid the excessive coding and re-configuring that was typically previously required during the process. 

During the migration, the clients of prime brokers usually have to rebuild their connections to continue trading, creating extra management overhead and unwanted risks. Tools for Brokers recognizes this issue in its new migration technology. Now, brokers looking to move to Trade Processor will only need to turn on the emulator and provide new session credentials to their clients. 

Commenting on the new functionality, Ivan Egorov, Global Head of Sales at TFB, said: “We know how hard it is to move to a new liquidity bridge, especially for prime brokers who distribute liquidity to other market participants. And we didn’t want our clients to miss out on all the functionality that Trade Processor has to offer. From now on, the transition from third-party liquidity bridges to Trade Processor is simpler than ever before”. 

The Trade Processor bridging solution supports MetaTrader 4 and 5, cTrader, and Match-Trader. It connects brokers to multiple liquidity providers and offers a vast range of functionality to achieve best pricing for traders. Trade Processor received the Most Innovative Bridge Solution award at the Ultimate Fintech Awards 2022.

Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered data and decisioning software, today announced that Kees-Jan Koppenaal has been appointed General Manager, Northern Europe. Koppenaal will help to lead Provenir’s expansion in the region, responsible for directing and driving new business, building customer loyalty and supporting corporate strategies.

Koppenaal brings more than 20 years’ experience in sales, business growth and strategic expansion, with proven expertise and success in executing cross-regional sales strategies. He has a strong track record of building and leading world-class global sales teams that drive rapid new business growth and deliver strong customer success. He’s held senior roles at Accenture, Mambu, Oracle, Backbase and Adobe.

Provenir is experiencing an unprecedented demand for its data and AI-powered risk decisioning platform that drives improvements in the customer experience, access to financial services, business agility, and more. Based in the Netherlands, Koppenaal will build and develop a high-performance sales team to engage with businesses eager to improve the speed and accuracy of their risk-decisioning processes.

“The European financial services market is ripe for innovation when it comes to unified decisioning solutions that drive business growth,” said Frode Berg, Provenir’s Managing Director, Europe. “At Provenir, continuing to expand our dedicated sales team to provide our innovative AI-powered data and decisioning platform to the global market is of the utmost importance. We’re excited to have Kees-Jan join our team to help meet the demand. With extensive experience in this industry, he brings invaluable leadership and vision to the company.”

GoldenSource, the leading independent provider of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) and Master Data Management (MDM) solutions, announced today the launch of the GoldenSource IBOR, a real-time investment book of record, powered by MAIA.

The new functionality builds on the GoldenSource Nexus platform and adds to its business use cases, including data warehousing offering of point-in-time analytics, and client, account, and product data management. Clients can now go well beyond the standard whole-of-fund views by updating prices, transactions, and positions intra-day, allowing clients to gain a real-time view of what they own and where they own it.

This benefits the organization, which ultimately leads to better investment outcomes for investors. Portfolio Managers, Asset Allocators, and Risk Managers can make more informed and impactful decisions through the ability to see updated asset allocations and exposures without the time lag that has persisted up to now. This is especially beneficial for those funds with investment assets in multiple geographic regions, providing a real-time view for their global portfolios across time zones and the international date line, which up to now has not been possible.

Removing the batch process brings new operational efficiencies to the back office, which ultimately reduces the time and resources dedicated to a longstanding arduous process.

The partnership to create the GoldenSource IBOR came out of a need for a close to real-time or event-based investment book of record that can update valuations as transactions and prices are published, regardless of the source or time of day, with updated positions and valuations data as transactions are executed throughout the day. Built on the high-capacity IBOR technology of MAIA Technology, both firms were able to make this a reality.

Commenting on the new GoldenSource capability, Jeremy Katzeff, CFA, Head of Buy-side Solutions at GoldenSource said: “From conversations with clients and prospects, the need for a real-time IBOR was clear. With the powerful technology infrastructure of MAIA Technology, we have created a capability that processes significant volumes of transaction data as and when our clients need it, by building on the existing framework capabilities and strength of our Nexus offering.”

Mark Veevers, CEO at MAIA Technology added: “We feel that MAIA’s cloud native technology complements the breadth of data-related investment expertise that’s baked into the GoldenSource platform. The combination adds a responsive intra-day IBOR that will automatically link positions data to all other investment data for GoldenSource customers.”

The new IBOR functionality is available for clients of GoldenSource. More information is available on the GoldenSource website.

Billie, the leading provider of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment solutions for business customers, and Mollie, one of the fastest growing payment service providers in Europe, announce today the launch of their pan-European partnership to bring Buy Now, Pay Later payment methods to business customers. 

By joining forces with Billie, Mollie enables several thousands of European merchants to offer the most popular payment method in B2B commerce: Payment by invoice. Billie’s B2B BNPL payment solution is seamlessly integrated with Mollie and can be activated by online stores and marketplaces with just a few clicks in their Mollie Dashboard. 

"Buy Now, Pay Later online payment methods are immensely important for B2B e-commerce merchants, especially in the small and medium-sized segment,“ says Annett Polaszewski-Plath, Managing Director DACH at Mollie. “BNPL makes it possible to offer more flexible payment terms, improve cash flow, accelerate the purchase decision and minimize the risk of payment defaults for B2B merchants. We are therefore very pleased to be able to offer this service from now on and to have won Billie, a strong German fintech, as a long-term partner."

“In B2B, payment by invoice has long been the payment method of choice, allowing businesses to optimize working capital and keep their own customers happy,” says Christian Grobe, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Billie. “With the shift to e-commerce catching on in B2B, we have seen a huge demand for our digital BNPL solution, offering the same flexibility when purchasing online. We are very excited to partner with Mollie to bring BNPL to small and medium-sized merchants everywhere. For Billie, this is a big step towards our goal to simplify the purchasing experience for all businesses and make it a tool for growth.”

Once activated, Billie allows business customers to purchase goods without having to pay for them for 30 days. At the same time, Mollie’s merchants selling the items get paid upfront, making Billie’s payment method a useful addition to the cash flow management of both merchants and business buyers. Billie performs real-time credit approval of buyers at the checkout, with shopping cart limits of up to €100,000 as well as default and fraud risk protection for merchants. This way, B2B sellers can offer their customers flexible payment terms while reducing credit risk and administrative burden of commercial credits collection to zero. Via the integration with Mollie, merchants can also manage the full post-purchase cycle, from capturing shipments to handling refunds, directly in the Mollie Dashboard or using their API.

The first market to go live today as part of the pan-European partnership is Germany. This means that Billie's payment methods will be available to all of Mollie’s merchants in Germany catering to business customers. The product offering will be expanded to additional core markets in 2023.

Today, Coincover, the global leader in digital asset protection, announces its new partnership with BitGo, the leader in custody, wallet, and security solutions, enabling clients to benefit from wallet access failure by holding recovery data with a trusted third party.

Coincover and BitGo have collaborated since 2019, bringing an industry standard of protection to the digital asset economy by offering secure business continuity features to their institutional clients. BitGo clients are able to recover their wallets in a secure manner working with Coincover in case they lose access to their keys.

As the crypto market matures, security and risk management is becoming increasingly important consideration for customers and regulators alike. The partnership intends to apply lessons learned from recent events to create an industry standard of digital asset protection. This will help inform BitGo’s clients, enabling them to understand the security risks of digital assets while building trust to encourage mass adoption. Once a business has decided what kind of wallet set-up is optimal, Coincover can provide a trusted back-up and recovery solution to alleviate the risks of the business having to determine that for themselves.

By collaborating with Coincover, BitGo and its clients can manage all security risks simply and effectively.

Gavin Kip, Senior Security Product Manager BitGo, said, “As a pioneer of blockchain infrastructure, security has always been critical to us, but we are constantly looking for ways to improve. There is no such thing as too secure. That’s why we have elevated our relationship with Coincover, to integrate the option of storing backup keys with Coincover for all BitGo’s coin offerings. Their technology is unparalleled when it comes to security and acts as a failsafe against disaster situations in case we – or one of our clients – fail in some way. It is a valuable additional layer to our security and will ensure we maintain our reputation as the best and safest place to store digital assets.”  

Oliver Cummings, Strategic Partnerships Director at Coincover, said, “This is another big step forward in our mission to make crypto accessible to everyone, by making it safe to hold and use. BitGo is one of the most respected names in the market and this further establishes us as the industry standard for safeguarding digital assets. We are delighted to be working with BitGo as we continue our mission to bring safety and protection to the crypto market.”