Canoe Intelligence (“Canoe”), the financial technology company powering alternative investment intelligence for institutional investors, capital allocators, wealth managers, and asset servicing firms, today announced the completion of its $25M Series B financing round. The round was led by F-Prime Capital with participation from Eight Roads Ventures and other strategic investors. This funding will be used to accelerate expansion into European markets, grow the team in key functional areas, enhance enterprise product offerings, develop new data products, and continue to strengthen Canoe's core platform.

Canoe’s platform helps alternative investment firms streamline their data management processes, reducing the time and costs associated with collecting and reconciling documents and enabling them to act on the information they need to make more informed investment decisions. The platform leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically collect and categorize documents from investor portals and email inboxes, and to extract, validate and deliver clean data to downstream systems, eliminating the need for manual data entry.

“Following a year of significant growth and progress for Canoe, we are thrilled to partner with F-Prime and Eight Roads to advance Canoe’s capabilities for the alternative investment ecosystem,” said Jason Eiswerth, CEO of Canoe Intelligence. “As alternative investments continue to gain popularity amongst institutional and individual investors, the new injection of capital will allow us to further serve our customer base and streamline alternative investment data globally.”

Investments in alternative asset classes have grown from $4.6 trillion to $13.3T over the past decade and are expected to grow to $23T+ by 2026 globally. As the asset class grows, a standardized technology for managing alternative investment documents and data is necessary for optimized investment decision-making.

“Alternative investments, such as private equity, hedge funds, and real estate, have become essential for investors seeking higher returns and diversification. However, managing the data associated with these investments is challenging for asset managers and institutional investors,” said David Jegen, Managing Partner at F-Prime Capital. “Canoe has significantly improved the way firms manage alternative investment data. Not only has it greatly increased efficiency, but it has also improved the accuracy and completeness of alternative investment data. Canoe is ideally positioned to address the need for investment infrastructure and become an industry standard.”

Through its automated infrastructure, Canoe drives dramatic improvements in data accuracy and access, team efficiency, and client satisfaction. The platform has over 250 upstream and downstream connections to facilitate streamlined document collection, extraction of data points into Canoe, and data delivery to reporting and analytics workflows. Additionally, Canoe's platform boasts a 20,000+ fund master database. Annually, Canoe processes over 6M documents, extracting over 20M data points, resulting in a 20x increase in the number of funds processed by each employee.

“Canoe's platform has rapidly become a crucial solution for the alternative investment industry in North America, with a proven track record of impressive customer results. The EMEA alternative investment industry is nearly the same size as North America and its data challenges are identical, yet today there is no comparable local solution. Canoe has a significant opportunity to deliver customer value in Europe first where it already has a presence, as well as other regions in future,” said Alston Zecha, Partner at Eight Roads.

Canoe’s platform has become a crucial solution for the alternative investment industry. Its global client base grew over 200% in 2021 and has continued that pace into 2022. Canoe supports over $5T in assets under advisement.

Unless you’re planning to receive cash via a homing pigeon, you’ll need an efficient payment processor if you have an online store (or take payments digitally at your brick-and-mortar store).

The payment processing service you use is critical not only to facilitate secure transactions but also as part of the wider user experience. A frictionless checkout experience can minimize the chances of cart abandonment and maximize your sales.

Fortunately, payment processors have come a long way. There have never been more options to pick from. It’s common for businesses to use two or more payment processors.

In this article, we’ll discuss what to consider when looking for the best payment processing companies, along with our top 10 picks.

But First, What’s A Payment Processor?

Simply put, this is an entity that manages transactions on your business’s behalf.

A payment processor handles all the behind-the-scenes processes that occur after your customers provide their card info for a transaction. It ensures that your customers’ details have been validated securely and their funds are available so you can get paid.

A payment processor can either be hosted (direct you off-site to complete transactions) or integrated (allow customers to complete transactions on your site).

Features of The Best Payment Processing Companies

There are tons of payment processing companies out there riddled with ridiculous markups, hidden fees, limited security measures, etc.

The best payment processing companies typically offer the following features:

• Easy setup and use
• Fair pricing
• Multiple payment/integration options
• User-friendly interface
• Multiple layers of security
• Global reach
• In-depth reporting and analytics
• Reliable customer support
• Extra features (subscription support, invoicing, etc.)

The 10 Best Payment Processing Companies

Now that we’ve outlined what to look for, here’s our pick of the top 10 payment processing companies in 2023:

Exactly.com

We’ll kick off our list with a top option designed for digital business.

Exactly.com is a service that not only helps you process payments but also lets you benefit from streamlined technologies interflowing with flexible management and reporting solutions.

You can choose between hosted pages and API‐enabled integration to enjoy one-day payouts. There’s no need to engage external coding talent as the team at Exactly.com deals with all technical processes.

Exactly.com currently supports 100+ currencies and 40+ languages and offers merchants anti-fraud and anti-chargeback systems to help cut both friendly and criminal fraud.

PayPal

PayPal is a trusted payment processing company loved for its easy website integration, ubiquity, and ease of use.

The Buy now, pay later feature allows your customers to make purchases and then pay for them later in 4 installments.

PayPal’s wallet-friendly fee system makes it a great choice for small businesses with low transaction volumes.

Stripe

Stripe, a popular choice for small businesses, startups, and even Fortune 500 companies, promises 99.9 percent uptime, AES-256 encryption, and financial reporting tools.

This payment solution integrates with 450+ platforms. Being highly customizable means you can choose from a variety of powerful APIs to best match Stripe’s service to your own website. The Stripe checkout adapts to your customer’s location and device automatically, reducing cart abandonment.

Stripe will allow you to accept debit and credit card payments in 135+ currencies.

Venmo

You may have already heard of Venmo. Many people use the Venmo app to send and receive money from friends and family.

But Venmo is also a popular payment processing company for e-commerce merchants, especially in the United States. Over 83 million people use Venmo, and creating a Venmo business profile means you can easily accept payments from these users.

If you encounter any problem, you have access to Venmo’s 24/7 customer support.

Square

You can either use Square to set up an online store or add it to your existing e-commerce store.

With Square, you can take remote, online, in-person, and manually entered payments.

Some standout payment features of Square include a contactless chip reader, convertible stand, and magstripe reader. All these components allow you to accept payments directly from your smartphone.

The fees are on the cheaper side and Stripe has the technical capabilities to handle all of your transaction needs.

Authorize.Net

As your small business grows, you may need to consider scaling up to a payment processor that can handle higher volumes of transactions.

This Visa solution has been around since 1996. It aims at simplifying the payment process by letting you accept online payments through debit cards, credit cards, e-checks, Apple Pay, and PayPal.

Authorize.net’s Advanced Fraud Detection Suite detects, manages, and prevents suspicious fraudulent transactions.

Other features include recurring payments, customer info management, invoicing, a virtual POS system, and an optional card reader.

Verifone (formerly 2Checkout)

Founded in 2006, Verifone is an all-in-one monetization platform that serves over 180 countries.

“Trusted by 20,000+ industry leaders worldwide,” it aims to help merchants increase their sales by making the checkout process easy for buyers. The platform accepts major credit cards, debit cards, and digital wallets.

Standout features include recurring billing, global tax and regulatory compliance, and access to 45+ payment methods.

AmazonPay

If your client base includes a high percentage of Amazon users, you’ll want to give them the choice of Amazon Pay.

Your customers will be able to pay without having to create a new account or give their card details. They will also enjoy fast checkout with Alexa.

Shopify Payments

This in-house payment provider works well if you’re currently setting up a Shopify store or already using the Shopify platform to power your online store.

Shopify Payments is the perfect solution if you don’t want the hassle of setting up a third-party payment provider.

Being fully integrated means customers will stay on your site at all times instead of being diverted to a payment gateway page and then back again.

Adyen

Adyen is an Amsterdam-based international payment processing company. It’s based in multiple countries, meaning you can accept money anywhere.

Adyen boasts multiple payment methods, including PayPal, AliPay, Apple Pay, bank transfers, and credit card payments. If you’re a small business that needs to transfer money in real-time, then you can give Adyen a try.

AI-based fraud protection tools and recurring payment solutions are the standout features of Ayden.

The tokenization feature allows you to recognize customers with their card number, which is saved as a token. Adyen lets you offer discounts and rewards to loyal customers.

Conclusion

Although card payments have been dominant for the longest time, they’re not the only way to accept customer payments. Shoppers now use debit cards, mobile payments, and online banking to make payments.

As you can see, many reputable and trustworthy payment processing companies offer features for accepting global payments while supporting multiple currencies from all over the world.

It’s advisable to analyze each of them carefully by weighing your budget against what you will get out of ultimately picking that company

ThetaRay, a leading provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology, and Piie, Inc., an insurtech providing an intelligent payment engine, today announced a collaboration to implement an advanced AML solution for insurance claim payments.

Through the agreement, Piie (Payments Intelligent Integration Engine) will integrate ThetaRay’s AI-driven SONAR transaction monitoring AML solution to monitor and detect anomalies pointing to suspected financial crime on its payments-as-a-service platform that includes mobile application support.

A scalable, secure payments platform headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Piie serves the insurance industry with an AI-driven real-time payments solution. Using ThetaRay’s transaction monitoring AML solution will further enhance and strengthen Piie’s current robust risk controls.

“Piie is revolutionizing how payments are processed within the insurance sector as the financial industry undergoes a digital transformation that is improving the customer journey for insurance companies,” said Mark Gazit, CEO of ThetaRay. “We are proud to partner with an insurtech that is focused on digital payments that enable companies to process insurance payments with lower costs and greater speed and accuracy.”

Ritesh Kirad, CEO of Piie, Inc. noted that "ThetaRay's advanced AML monitoring capabilities complement Piie's focus on a modern, secure payments architecture that reduces cost, improves efficiency, and delights policyholders."

ThetaRay’s award-winning SONAR solution is based on a proprietary form of AI, artificial intelligence intuition, that replaces human bias, giving the system the power to recognize anomalies and find unknowns outside of normal behaviour, including completely new typologies. It enables fintechs and banks to implement a risk-based approach to effectively identify truly suspicious activity and create a full picture of customer identities, including across complex transaction paths. This allows the rapid discovery of both known and unknown money laundering threats, and up to 99 per cent reduction in false positives compared to rules-based solutions. 

High-growth trading platform Capital.com, today announced it has entered an agreement with Monecor (London) Limited and Oval Money (Europe) Ltd (OvalX). Under the terms of the agreement, OvalX will offer some of its existing retail and professional clients the opportunity to transfer their accounts to Capital.com. This will ensure continuity of service for OvalX clients and allow them to continue trading, without disruption.  

Peter Hetherington, Group Chief Executive Officer, Capital.com, said:

“OvalX, which began life 20 years ago as TradIndex and then ETX Capital, has a long and reputable track record in the UK financial spread-betting and CFD industry.  This agreement is an important step towards continuing that legacy.  Both our companies share the same unwavering commitment to provide our clients with great customer service, a  seamless user experience and ample educational resources on a secure trading platform. We are excited to welcome consenting OvalX clients to Capital.com and look forward to supporting them in their trading journeys.”

Luca Merolla, Chief Executive Officer, OvalX, said:

“OvalX, previously ETX Capital, has been at the heart of the UK financial spread-betting and CFD industry for many years. We believe that our legacy is in safe hands with Capital.com who are perfectly placed to look after the smooth transfer of clients over the coming weeks. Capital.com’s focus on customer service, education, and product development makes them a great fit for our active trader clients”

In addition to ensuring continuity of service for consenting clients of OvalX, this agreement marks Capital.com’s commitment to continue to evolve, scale and grow its business in the UK and EU. To support this initiative and further drive the UK business, Capital.com has recently appointed Niamh Byrne as Head of UK and Ireland.  

Niamh Byrne, Head of UK and Ireland, Capital.com, said: 

“I am thrilled to be joining a great team at Capital.com. The UK and EU are strategically important markets for Capital.com. With this agreement, we will be in a good position to further broaden our portfolio of products and accelerate our development. We are committed to building a best-in-class CFD and spread-betting business to meet the exacting needs of our new and existing clients.”

Niamh has more than 13 years of industry experience within the UK financial services sector. She has held a number of client management roles over the course of her career and was most recently Head of Global [B2B2C] Sales at IG. As Head of UK and Ireland at Capital.com Niamh will be responsible for building strong client relationships and driving overall strategy to ensure optimal client satisfaction and growth. 

Flutterwave, Africa's leading payments technology company, has announced today that it has received its Payment Services Provider and Payments Facilitator licenses in Egypt.

The licenses will enable Flutterwave to act as an official payment service provider in the country, collect payments on behalf of its customers and settle payments locally and globally. These licences will allow Flutterwave to deploy Flutterwave for Business suite of products including store, payment links, invoices, checkout in Egypt.

Flutterwave as a result of these licenses becomes one of the few payment service providers in Egypt with both local and global settlements capabilities.

Flutterwave facilitates cross-border transactions in multiple currencies for global companies, including Uber, and the new licenses will help the company support international businesses entering the Egyptian market or growing their operations in the country.  Flutterwave will also be in a strong position to empower businesses based in Egypt to expand internationally, in addition to creating new jobs in the country through empowering local businesses.

Commenting on the news, Aalaa Gamal, Regional Manager, North Africa in Expansion & Partnerships, Egypt, said, “We’re excited to receive the payments services provider and facilitator licenses in Egypt. The licenses will enable us to be the go-to payment processor and digital transformation partner for global settlements in Egypt, which enables our customers to expand quickly within or outside of the country. This, for us, is the beginning of other strategic wins in the North Africa and Middle East regions.”

Commenting on the news, Olugbenga GB Agboola, CEO and Founder of Flutterwave said:

“We are proud to have been granted the Payment Services Provider and Payment Facilitator licenses in Egypt, which forms part of our international expansion strategy. This is testament to our commitment to provide first-class payment services, seamlessly connecting businesses to their customers. Our vision is to connect all parts of Africa through payments and connect Africa to the world. This way, it is easier for multinationals expanding into Africa to do so. This achievement is yet another step in that direction. ”

As part of Flutterwave’s expansion initiatives, they have also made it possible for users to send money to Ethiopia via cash pickup. Ethiopians in Diaspora can send money home and have the receivers pick up the cash in Dashen bank branches, Amole Agents and Ethiopian postal service offices.

BankiFi, a leading provider of embedded banking solutions, has selected Steve Ellis as the board’s newest member. Ellis’ addition to the team is just the latest in BankiFi’s recent dedication to the North American market.

Ellis has over 35 years of experience in banking, leadership and financial services. Ellis was formerly the executive vice president and head of the innovation group at Wells Fargo, having previously spearheaded their wholesale services group. As a member of the board of directors, some of Ellis’ responsibilities as a board member will include establishing the organization’s vision and providing proper financial oversight.

“BankiFi’s unique strategy to providing specialized banking solutions is perfectly suited to helping millions of small businesses across America,” said Ellis. “I’m excited to join the team over at BankiFi on the ground level of their North American operations.”

“We couldn’t be happier to have Steve as our newest board member,” said Fred Dumas, U.S. Board Chair for BankiFi Americas. “When Steve led Wholesale Banking at Wells Fargo, his visions of a CEO treasury management system were brought to life. This became the benchmark for the industry. His vision and leadership will be of great help to our board. We’re already looking on track to have a breakthrough year for us in 2023.”

Ellis has been deeply committed to environmental causes for decades. He and his wife, Nicole, are actively involved in My Friends Place, a non-profit focused on assisting homeless youth in the Los Angeles area.

InvestCloud, the global leader in digital transformation for the financial industry, and 55ip, the tax-smart investment platform, today announce a breakthrough partnership to integrate 55ip’s tax-smart investment technology into the InvestCloud Financial Supermarket^TM. The integrated offering expands the products, strategies and tax optimization options available to advisors to seamlessly discover and add to client portfolios, optimizing for tax at a time when maximizing returns is paramount.

55ip has seen huge adoption for its ActiveTax® technology, which uses intelligent automation to elevate portfolios through automated tax-smart transitions, management and withdrawals. This technology will be integrated onto the InvestCloud platform, making it accessible to over 400 wealth management firms with over 25 million accounts on the InvestCloud platform. Advisors will now be able to maximize tax efficiency for their clients across the wealth continuum.

The partnership aligns with InvestCloud’s drive to transform the communication, shopping and selling of financial products within the industry. From a single digital platform via the Financial Supermarket, advisors serving US clients can have access to tax-efficient products through simple search with direct indexing, tax-loss harvesting, tax-efficient portfolio rebalancing and tax transition, pre-integrated into the implementation of portfolios across a myriad of account structures, including true Unified Management Accounts (UMAs).

“Now more than ever, tax-efficient investing is front of mind for advisors as they try to squeeze out every marginal gain amid more volatile markets. There is no better time to enhance tax strategies to align with a client’s long-term goals,” said Cheryl Nash, InvestCloud’s CEO of the Financial Supermarket™. “Integrating 55ip’s powerful technology is an exciting step on our journey to simplifying product selection by digitizing the way advisors optimize for tax when constructing and managing client portfolios.”

Paul Gamble, 55ip’s CEO, commented: “Automating tax-smart management is vital to delivering personalized portfolios at scale that deliver more value to clients. Partnering with InvestCloud means more advisors will have access to the tax-efficient tools they need to help clients reach their financial goals. A fundamental part of our strategy is integrating with premier platforms serving advisors. Our partnership with InvestCloud is a major step on our path to become the industry standard for tax-smart management.” 

Monument (or the “Bank”) has officially released its new Member Services proposition to the market. Available through the Monument app, Member Services is designed to save the UK’s ~7.5 million busy professionals and entrepreneurs and their families time and money searching for ways to reach their wealth-creation potential and enjoy life to the fullest.

The initial release provides individuals and their families with access to a curated collection of third-party services with negotiated special terms and preferential deals to help clients (which Monument calls “Members”) realise their financial, personal, and professional ambitions while maximising the time they have to appreciate their hard work.

Unlike concierge or cashback platforms, Monument’s team independently discovers partners who are experts in their field - whether big or small - so that their clients can enjoy a diverse selection of third-party service providers.

Covering lifestyle, health, wellbeing, career development and beyond, the curated selection is handpicked by Monument’s team to help clients fulfil their aspirations, support their families, and enjoy life to the fullest. Partners include: Bupa, The Training Club, KPMG, Fine Foods Specialist, Laundryheap, Imperial College Business School, Virginia Hayward, House of Townend, USPAAH, Cavendish Health, Bonas MacFarlane, Black Brick, Sama, Singulart, TLT LLP, Lubbock Fine, EMW Wealth, with more to be added over time.

Monument has been piloting Member Services with a sample of clients since summer 2022 to develop the collection of services that reflects the current and future needs of clients. This public launch is an example of Monument's process to refine and innovate its suite of products and services supported by feedback from a broader profile of clients.

Membership is currently free until further notice, but Monument will charge a subscription fee to access Member Services in the future to continue its investment in new services and maintain a high standard of client experience.

Ian Rand, Chief Executive Officer at Monument, said: “We are excited to announce the release of our new proposition. Member Services is all about supporting and enhancing our clients’ prosperity, which we know is about much more than just acquiring wealth. From our deep understanding of the mass affluent community – who for too long have been left under-served by the market – we’ve been able to develop, and subsequently test and improve upon our Member Services proposition through our pilot. We’re now delighted to be able to take to market a service that not only focuses on lifestyle and health, but those key financial and family-oriented services that the mass affluent need now more than ever.”

Ioannis Monios, Product Lead at Monument, added: “Our research shows there's a real need for a solution like Member Services, especially amongst busy professionals and entrepreneurs, whose time is so precious. We've learned a lot from our initial pilot and are excited to share what we have created. Opening up access to the UK's 7.5m wealth creators will help us get even closer to the needs and ambitions of the community Monument was built to stand beside.”

GoSee, which provides car, campervan and RV hire worldwide, has partnered with PCI Pal® (LON: PCIP), the global SaaS provider of secure payment solutions for business communications, to secure its contact centre payments and enhanced the payment experience it provides. 

8x8, a longstanding global PCI Pal partner, was selected by GoSee to manage an upgrade of its contact centre telephony platform. PCI Pal Agent Assist has been selected as part of this project and will be integrated into its telephony platform to provide a seamless and compliant customer payment experience.

PCI Pal Agent Assist utilises DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency) masking technology, which will enable GoSee’s contact centre agents to handle payments without any card data entering the organisation’s environment, and all data remaining anonymous to the call handler. 

Richard Fuli, Chief Customer Operations Officer of GoSee, said: “The modernisation programme of our contact centre platform will enable us to deliver an enhanced customer journey, and upgrading our payment solution is an integral part of this. With PCI Pal Agent Assist we can continue to provide a personalised service to our customers, while the latest cloud-based technology will deliver the safeguards we require from a data security and compliance perspective.”

Adam Paton, VP of Sales for PCI Pal ANZ said, “For any organisation handling payments, ensuring a smooth, secure and compliant experience is vital to retain customer loyalty and trust.  We are therefore delighted to be supporting GoSee, in conjunction with our partner 8x8, on futureproofing its payment card security platform.”