Spreedly, the provider of the leading Payment Orchestration platform, today announced even more payment method options for customers with the addition of integrations to Venmo, PayPal Credit, PayPal Pay Later, and ACH payments. These new payment methods are now available to joint PayPal and Spreedly customers processing through PayPal Braintree. 

An effective payments strategy must include the right mix of payment methods to address customer preferences, regional payment needs, and a host of other considerations. Payments Orchestration facilitates the integration to additional and local payment methods (LPMs), providing a comprehensive set of payment options for global merchants to help reach more customers, lower transaction costs, and improve conversion rates. 

“Through our single point of integration, Spreedly provides the capability, along with a wealth of knowledge, to enable customers to select the right mix of payment methods for today’s market needs – and prepare for future, unknown needs,” explained Randy Guard, chief product and marketing officer with Spreedly. “Our joint customers are able to offer a variety of local payment methods, like Venmo, and make it even easier for consumers to pay using any method they choose.” 

Learn more about the integrations available via Spreedly’s Payments Orchestration platform, visit https://www.spreedly.com/solutions/accept-local-and-alternative-payment-methods.  

Northern Trust today announced that UK-based asset manager Redwheel is now using its data aggregation tool, developed by its strategic partner, Equity Data Science, Inc., to enhance ESG integration across its investment business.  Founded in 2000 and formerly known as RWC Partners, Redwheel currently manages approximately US$19 billion for its clients.

The data aggregation tool leverages data science to help increase data accessibility while generating efficiencies and enhancing collaboration between Redwheel’s investment teams and its core business functions. Using the tool, investment teams are better equipped to monitor and analyze third-party and proprietary ESG data across the entire investment lifecycle, the platform effectively providing a single view for ESG integration and reporting.

“The insights we can derive from Northern Trust and EDS’ data aggregation tool enable us to use ESG data more effectively. By enhancing data accessibility, it becomes easier to integrate ESG considerations within both investment decision-making and client reporting,” said Chris Anker, Head of Sustainability at Redwheel. “Working in collaboration with the Northern Trust and EDS teams we have been able to harness the power of the tool’s flexible architecture, helping us make rapid progress towards our end goal which is to fully embed the tool within all investment and oversight processes to meet the evolving expectations of our clients.” 

“ESG is more important than ever for many investors but implementing it can be challenging in a dynamic market environment. Partnering with EDS to launch the ESG workflow solution was a significant step forward for us and our clients,” said Paul Fahey, Head of Investment Data Science at Northern Trust Asset Servicing. “We have enabled our clients to more easily access their data while providing a new level of efficacy, which is a key tenet of our Whole Office™ strategy. Most importantly, we can provide a single source for data which is often difficult to obtain.”  

“It is no secret that ESG data is increasingly being utilized within investment decision making but accessing that data can be time-consuming and inefficient,” said Greg McCall, President of Equity Data Science. “The ESG workflow solution helps Redwheel integrate their ESG data and improve accessibility for their investment teams. Discussions continue between EDS and Redwheel regarding the development of additional capabilities which, if implemented, we hope will help to further improve their research management and portfolio construction decisions, enabling them to achieve their business and performance goals.” 

Sumsub, a global tech company that provides customizable KYC, KYB, AML and transaction monitoring solutions, has partnered with  Mercuryo, a global payments infrastructure platform, to publish User verification in Web3. How to solve key challenges and manage user data. The guide covers everything the crypto industry needs to know about KYC checks, AML compliance and verification based on the current regulatory landscape.

The guide combines Sumsub and Mercuryo’s expertise to reveal the main verification and data control challenges of Web3 and how to resolve them. It also offers an outlook on what user verification in Web3 could ideally look like in the future.

As the crypto ecosystem grows and regulations mature, the Web3 space is slowly establishing relationships with mainstream finance. Still there is some uncertainty. Compliance is a big issue for crypto, and while some regulations like the Travel Rule already exist, many more are yet to come. Whichever way the regulations go, crypto companies need to know the fundamentals: 1) how to properly verify users and 2) how to store and transfer user data.

Drawing from their vast industry expertise, as well as the Singapore Personal Data Protection Commission’s (PDPC) guide to data protection in blockchain, Sumsub and Mercuryo recommend best practices for handling user data to make onboarding secure and compliant with existing and upcoming regulations.

Sumsub and Mercuryo advocate for reliable, convenient and reusable verification in Web3. Reusability is especially important in the crypto sphere, as user overlaps between platforms can reach up to 75%. Also, Reusable KYC can boost verification pass rates tenfold, as Sumsub’s results with Mercuryo have shown.

“At Mercuryo, we have partnered with leading CeFi and DeFi companies and successfully onboarded over 3 million users to Web3 since our inception. Unlike others, we understand the challenges associated with facilitating payments while complying with regulations when it comes to user onboarding. And making Web3 more accessible requires solving these challenges – which is why we have partnered with Sumsub.

This collaboration allows us to provide a seamless user experience. Leveraging advanced compliance stack and unique Reusable KYC feature, we have gained the trust of Web3 providers such as MetaMask, TrustWallet, and Ledger, which have integrated Mercuryo fiat-on-ramp into their products.” – comments Andrew Ilinsky, Chief Product Officer at Mercuryo.

“In Web3, personal data is supposed to be controlled by users themselves. At Sumsub, we’re constantly working to meet the verification challenges of Web3. We believe that this can be achieved by building an entire ecosystem on the soulbound token (SBT) approach, ensuring trust between users and verified companies and maintaining data security both for users and crypto platforms. We appreciate our partnership with Mercuryo for the outstanding opportunities it creates, amplifying our crypto expertise and allowing us to contribute to the future of Web3 verification,” adds Tony Petrov, CLO at Sumsub.

Leading payment processing fintech, VizyPay, today announces the creation of its new Advisory Board, comprised of distinguished leaders from within and outside the payments industry. The board's purpose is to leverage their experiences and knowledge to advise VizyPay on its fast-paced growth and its mission to make a massive difference for small-town businesses across rural America.

Representing a multitude of experiences in various industries, VizyPay’s Advisory Board roster includes:

• Chad Anselmo, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Corvia, a payment processing company based in Austin, Texas. Anselmo will bring his insight as a payments executive.

• Charles Bishota, Esq., Founder of Bishota Law, a boutique law firm focused on business, payments, and fintech based in Plano, Texas. Bishota will provide a legal perspective.

• Genevieve Dozier, Director of Business Development, Finova Capital, a Rochelle Park, N.J.-based company serving small businesses with financing options for equipment and working capital. Dozier will bring to bear her experience in management, development, sales, and marketing.

• Emad Georgy, Chief Technology Officer, Georgy Technology Leadership, an IT services and consulting firm based in Los Angeles, Calif. Georgy will deliver advice as a technology executive.

• Ermis Sfakiyanudis, Chief Operations Officer, Uproar PR, a global public relations agency based in Annapolis, Md. Sfakiyanudis will share an external perspective as an executive outside the payments industry.

To learn more about the Advisory Board members, click here for their bios and headshots. The board will convene twice a year, beginning with their first meeting at VizyPay’s corporate office in mid-March 2023.

“These leaders are driven disruptors just like us. Moreover, just like us, they share our passion for helping small businesses and recognize their importance as America’s economic backbone,” said VizyPay CEO and Founder Austin Mac Nab. “I’m proud to have this diverse group of committed individuals volunteering their time to consult with our leadership team and assist our growth strategy as VizyPay expands across the Midwest and beyond.”

VizyPay’s proprietary payments technology is available for Clover POS systems and PAX SmartTerminals.

Brightwell, a payments technology company that builds financial products to send money securely anywhere in the world, shared the results of a survey measuring consumer experiences and attitudes towards card fraud across prepaid, credit and debit cards. The findings revealed that fraud prevention is a key consideration for consumers in the decision-making process when choosing a new credit, debit, or prepaid card.

Card Fraud is Top-Of-Mind for Consumers in 2023

While card fraud feels incredibly jarring and personal when it happens, it’s becoming prevalent. In 2021, 389,845 cases were reported in the U.S., making it the second most common form of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission. 

With card fraud top-of-mind for consumers in 2023, Brightwell’s survey found that 83% of respondents reported security and fraud prevention is extremely important when opening up a new credit or debit card. Moreover, 95% said security and fraud prevention is extremely or somewhat important when choosing a prepaid card or gift card.

Further, Consumers view credit cards as the most secure card type, with 41% ranking them as highly secure, compared to just 32% who said the same about prepaid and gift cards and 31% who ranked debit cards as highly secure.

Perception and Experience of Card Fraud Differs By Generation

Brightwell’s survey confirmed that generational perceptions and experiences are as unique as the generations themselves, finding that younger generations are more likely to report experiencing card fraud in the past 12 months - unsurprising since card fraud is the most common form of identity theft among adults aged 20-39.

A similar percentage of respondents from Gen Z (36%), Millennials (38%), and Gen X (33%) report having experienced card fraud in the past year. However, fewer Baby Boomers (22%) reported card fraud, a possible indication that younger generations are more aware of — and sensitive to — card fraud. 

“Younger generations are more aware of fraud and more likely to blame card issuers, banks, and digital wallet providers,” said Larry Hipp, chief executive officer of Brightwell. “Businesses that are vocal about fraud protection and take real steps to protect their customers against it will have an advantage in attracting younger consumers – but many businesses have yet to invest in new technologies and practices to detect and prevent card fraud, particularly when it comes to prepaid card programs.”

New technology, such as Brightwell’s fraud prevention, security and Compliance-as-a-Service solutions can help card issuers, banks, and digital wallets fight fraudulent behaviour, identify and block card testing attacks and verify customers to reduce losses from enumeration and bin fraud by as much as 95%. 

To learn more about the survey findings and how fraud impacts consumer decision-making and prepaid card choices, download Brightwell’s whitepapers, Consumers Ready to Take Action Against Card Fraud and Improve Fraud Detection and Prevention to Retain Younger Customers. If you’re ready to take action against card fraud, contact Brightwell today.

Wolters Kluwer, a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services, today announced that Qdama Group has chosen CCH Tagetik Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software to help drive the digital transformation of its finance operations.

Qdama is a fast-growing fresh, agricultural produce service provider with 3,300 shops in 30 Chinese cities, serving more than 10 million households. Qdama will use the CCH Tagetik platform’s award-winning, intuitive interface, built-in financial intelligence and automated workflows to empower its finance team to complete everyday financial processes, faster, so they can focus on strategic goals. The solution also helps the company address major financial regulations and simplify compliance processes, as well as helping improve productivity and reducing the financial close cycle time.

Bill Wang, CFO of Qdama, said: "CCH Tagetik is a powerful strategic and financial intelligence platform that will help drive Qdama’s continued growth by accelerating the development of a comprehensive budget management system, standardizing our accounting operations, enhancing business predictability and profitability analyses, and improving our business decision making.” 

Qdama has selected HFGR, a Beijing-based consulting firm specializing in performance management and business intelligence solutions, as the implementation partner for this project.

Michael Chung, Greater China Managing Director, CCH Tagetik at Wolters Kluwer, said: “The predictive intelligence and open architecture features of CCH Tagetik will help Qdama to accelerate its continued expansion throughout China by driving the digital transformation of its finance operations.”

GoLogiq, Inc., a U.S.-based global provider of fintech and consumer data analytics, has completed its previously announced merger with GammaRey, Inc., a privately-held fintech ecosystem for the New World Digital Economy.

“The completion of this accretive merger represents the realization of our goal for GoLogiq to become a comprehensive fintech platform for the large global population of underserved businesses and consumers, and particularly for Generation Z and Millennials,” stated GoLogiq interim CEO, Brent Suen. “We see huge opportunities ahead as we integrate our respective technologies and customer bases, and set the stage for strong growth and profitability.”

The combined company plans to focus initially on the high-growth market of wealth management for Generation Z and Millennials. This new generation of wealth-builders represents the sharing economy that will be powered by digital banking solutions, such as virtual payments, lending and loyalty programs.

The company views this as a uniquely strong emerging market opportunity, with the collective wealth of Millennials and Gen Zs reportedly jumping 25% last year—much higher than for Gen Xs and Baby Boomers—and their aggregate assets grew from $2.9 trillion to $3.6 trillion. Bain & Company projects the wealth management market to double in size and exceed $500 billion by 2030.

“Given this tremendous outlook for wealth management, we believe that now as part of GoLogiq we can address this opportunity on a much larger scale,” stated Timothy Alford, former GammaRey CEO and now president of the new GammaRey subsidiary. “As a publicly traded company, we now have better access to the capital markets. We believe this affords our combined shareholders numerous benefits. In addition to greater liquidity and higher visibility of our brand, we see this merger with GoLogiq unlocking the value we have created with our fintech platform.”

Added Suen: “We can now move forward with completing our recently announced acquisition of Nest Egg which is one of several companies introduced to us by GammaRey. We anticipate that NestEgg’s mobile savings and investing app will further strengthen our value proposition to not only prospective customers but also the additional high-value, complementary acquisition targets we are currently pursuing.”

GoLogiq recently reported that it has begun the process of applying to list on a senior U.S. exchange. The listing would be subject to approval based on several factors, including satisfaction of minimum listing requirements. The company believes it meets the quantitative requirements, including net shareholder equity and market capitalization.

GoLogiq also believes it currently satisfies the reporting and governance requirements for the listing. It is fully reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and it recently appointed two highly experienced independent board members that established a majority of independent directors on its board.

The company plans to disclose additional details of GammaRey’s financials with its 2022 audited results to be filed with the SEC later this month. Additional details about the merger transaction is available in a Form 8-K as filed at www.sec.gov and is also available in the investor section of GoLogiq’s website.

Droit, a technology firm at the forefront of computational law and regulation, today announced it has closed a $23 million Series B investment in its latest funding round. The round was led by Pivot Investment Partners and UBS, the leading global wealth manager, through its venture and innovation unit UBS Next. Goldman Sachs, an existing investor, is also participating in the financing round.

Since its founding in late 2012, Droit has established itself as a technology provider advancing global regulatory compliance in the capital markets space, with its patented Adept platform now used by the world's largest financial institutions for pre- and post-trade decision-making and auditability.

The investment will support Droit's expansion into wealth management through the development of new products specifically for the sector, including Cross Border and Product Suitability. This natural extension of the Adept platform for use in wealth management will allow financial institutions to benefit from the same transparent decision-making infrastructure deployed for capital markets. The investment will also support Droit's expansion of new and existing products, including Position Reporting, Transaction Reporting, advancements in Droit's Pre-Trade product suite, and the build-out of new cloud-based services.

"This year marked Droit's 10-year anniversary and we greatly appreciate the support from our investors and their confidence in our future success. This funding will enable us to accelerate the innovation of our new product lines," said Brock Arnason, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Droit. "We are also excited to join UBS Next's portfolio of fintech companies and look forward to partnering with them on building out our wealth management capabilities."

"We believe Droit's capabilities will help companies unlock potential revenue streams by simplifying and driving real-time regulatory compliance," said Mike Dargan, Chief Digital & Information Officer, UBS. "Through this investment, we will work with Droit to build out their product offering to support the industry and look forward to extending our relationship with them across our wealth management business."

This funding round comes at a period of strong growth for Droit. Over the past two years, Droit commercialized four new product lines and increased its headcount by nearly 70 per cent, adding key leadership roles in business development and technology. Droit also expanded its global footprint establishing a presence in Singapore to support existing clients and build new relationships in the region.

"Since our initial investment in Droit, we have been incredibly impressed with how the team leaned into regulatory complexity, built breakthrough products using its innovative and patented platform, and paved the way for a new approach to consensus-driven compliance. We are proud to co-lead this round and see immense potential in the expansion of the Adept platform for use in Wealth and beyond," said Dinkar Jetley, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Pivot Investment Partners.

Themis announces today that they are opening new offices with Runway East, the contemporary office provider “fighting boring offices since 2014”. This partnership reflects Themis’ ongoing investment in its mission to normalise due diligence and protect companies and people from unknown or unwanted associations with criminals or organised crime. The company, which recently announced that it had raised £3.1 million its Pre-Series A round, helps both companies and individuals really understand their clients, suppliers and third parties.

This announcement also coincides with B Corp Month this March and the associated “We Go Beyond” campaign, which raises awareness of the B Corp community of impactful businesses striving to take action to transform the economic system. Themis is particularly proud of this partnership with Runway East given that the company, like Themis, is B Corp certified. This certification - a measure of social and environmental impact - is complemented by Themis’ 2022 Best For The World™ certification, ranking the company in the top 5% of all B Corps for its size group for Governance. As part of its core strategy and mission, Themis always tries to work with other B Corps - and choosing an appropriate office space, like Runway East, is no exception.

With its automated due diligence platform (Themis Search & Monitoring), Themis has continued to champion and develop cutting-edge technology to help clients in the fight against financial crime. The platform allows companies and individuals to carry out AML screening and monitoring of all of their clients, suppliers, third parties and investors in one place to ensure no unwanted or unknown links to criminality exist amongst their clients or in their supply chains.

Themis uses advanced AI and ML technology, powered by threat-based data, research and intelligence to detect potential links to financial crime. Its AML software provides a simple way to conduct screening, KYC onboarding, risk mapping, enhanced due diligence and automated monitoring in one platform to make sure that you are not inadvertently dealing with companies, entities or individuals with criminal records, links to serious & organised crime or other forms of financial crime.

This move comes as part of a big investment in Themis’ ever-expanding team - and the need, with that, for a bigger and more permanent office space! It also demonstrates Themis’ strategic growth in its core markets - and complements Themis MENA’s office in the shared working space Hub71 in Abu Dhabi.

Dickon Johnstone, Chief Executive of Themis, said: “Financial crime is a very real and evolving problem, for societies as well as individual victims of crime. It has been described as “a cancer on our society” and “an issue of international security” and its impact on the global economy and society is profound. We want to help organisations understand strategic financial crime threats through an ESG and socio-economic lens, in order to protect their customers, staff, suppliers and shareholders from criminal attacks or association - and by doing so, fuel sustainable change in the public and private sector. Our mission aligns us with other B Corps who are also fighting for beneficial change.”

Lizzie Stewart, Head of Operations and Customer Success at Themis, said: “Runway East is the perfect partner for us - we love their fun and innovative approach to office space and can’t wait to make the most of all the great perks they offer!”

Carel van Randwyck, Chief Growth Officer & Head of Impact at Themis, said: “Working with other B Corps, like ourselves, is so important to maximising our impact; as a purpose-driven company, we can extend our reach further by working with like-minded companies who are committed to making a similar contribution to society.”

The prevailing economic conditions with a looming recession, correcting valuations and a tough fundraising environment have meant companies are zooming in on optimizing their cash flow to establish a sustainable growth pathway. Helping these companies get a focussed lens, fintech startup Growfin is today announcing a $7.5M Series A funding round to provide real-time visibility and predictability in cash flow for modern CFOs. 

The funding round was led by Singapore’s SWC Global with participation from existing investors 3one4 Capital and angels including CFOs and other industry leaders. This funding round comes hot on the heels of 8x growth in customer numbers over the last 12 months during which time Growfin has helped businesses collect $1B in account receivables (AR). Notable customers include Intercom, Locus, Mindtickle among others who have been able to boost their cash flow by 33% month on month by collecting their AR on time or faster. Globally, AR numbers for B2B businesses equate to $125 Trillion every year and 30% of this remains outstanding every month, presenting Growfin with a substantial opportunity to serve. 

Modern CFOs are struggling to get to grips with visibility and predictability in their cash collection cycle from customers, many of whom still rely on spreadsheets to solve this problem. Growfin has built a unique finance CRM that solves these challenges for finance and revenue teams. With its automation, collaboration tools and real-time collection tracking capabilities, it helps finance, sales and customer success teams connect in one place to handle customer relationships during the payment process and improve efficiency in collecting payments. It seamlessly integrates with any ERP (which connects invoices with payments) and CRM systems (which connect leads to sales) to drive faster payment collections from customers, improving the cash flow and the financial health of businesses.  

Founded in 2021 by Aravind Gopalan and Raja Jayaram, both second-time (exited) founders, had been plagued by a lack of cash flow constraints in their previous ventures and sought to remedy this. They launched Growfin publicly in March 2022 having run focus groups of over 200 finance professionals from around the world to build the product. 

Aravind Gopalan, Co-founder and CEO at Growfin commented: “Getting paid and getting paid on time have been challenges as long as commerce has existed for businesses of all sizes. Managing receivables and collecting payments are often complex and compound even more as companies grow. Despite the growth of ERPs and CRMs such as Salesforce and Netsuite, I’ve understood that 90% of finance teams still manage their AR processes outside these tools, typically on spreadsheets or in-house databases. We are building a tool that is purpose-built for managing AR by integrating with the ERPs and CRMs, replacing all these spreadsheets and botched systems”

“Growfin enables anyone concerned with invoice payment, including the customer, to collaborate in one place where they all see the same information and help solve payment issues faster. This collaboration-first approach will offer better efficiencies and greater transparency and build trusted relationships between customers and businesses towards collecting B2B payments faster.”

“Over the last year, I have met with countless CFOs and two key observations stick in my mind. They have major concerns about the accuracy of the data informing their cash flow positions and twinned with this, they are anticipating their company numbers will come under increased scrutiny in 2023 from their boards and investors owing to current market conditions. Growfin is solving these headaches for CFOs.” 

Supporting the Growfin insights and proposition, a recent Gartner report found that CEOs and CFOs of tech companies feel underprepared for the current economic downturn and 78% have invested in automation and cash flow visibility to build the CFO tech stack to navigate the downturn. Additionally, prominent VCs like a16z and Redpoint ventures have also been calling for the modernization of the CFO tech stack as the way forward. 

Tuck Lye Koh, Founding Partner at SWC Global added: “Growfin’s AI-powered system is poised to disrupt how businesses collect their invoice payments by sitting on top of ERP systems like Netsuite and Microsoft dynamics that dominate the industry. Globally they have over 100,000 customers and now finance teams beholden to these systems will be able to plug in Growfin to get a deeper and wider eye into their financial well-being with real-time cash-flow efficiency and forecasting. Aravind and Raja are young yet very experienced and we're excited to be a part of their journey”

Growfin will make significant investments in its tech stack and product range in 2023, expanding its offering from a Finance CRM to an all-in-one integrated cash solution that will enable B2B enterprises to streamline and manage cash flow to enhance its product's predictive AI capabilities. This evolution will help businesses optimize their working capital and drive growth.