Banking Circle Group is pleased to announce that Jim Snabe will become the Chairperson of its Advisory Board. Jim Snabe will work closely with Banking Circle Group CEO & Co-founder, Anders la Cour, and the majority shareholder EQT VIII, to continue the rapid profitable growth of Banking Circle Group.

Jim Snabe joins with more than 30 years of experience within the technology industry. He was previously the Global Co-CEO of SAP and Chairperson of Mærsk, and is currently serving as the Chairperson of Siemens, Board member at C3.ai, and as a member of the Board of Trustees at World Economic Forum.

Based on a highly differentiated value proposition to customers globally, Banking Circle Group is currently growing its revenues in the triple digits with more than EUR 150 million of run-rate revenues and is already processing more than 10% of all eCommerce payments volumes in Europe.

Anders la Cour, Co-Founder & Group CEO of Banking Circle Group, commented: “We are excited to welcome Jim Snabe as Chairperson of our Advisory Board. He is joining with a wealth of experience in building strong teams in fast growing companies and will bring highly valuable experience and a unique perspective to Banking Circle Group, where he has been a shareholder since summer 2016.”

Mads Ditlevsen, Responsible Partner at EQT and Head of EQT Denmark, added: “I am delighted to have Jim Snabe joining at this very exciting time for the Banking Circle Group. Compared to when EQT invested in the business 4 years ago, it has already grown revenues close to 15x and the momentum has never been as strong as it is now.”

Jim Snabe concluded: “Banking Circle Group is a unique company group which is transforming financial infrastructure and cross-border payments. I have followed the Group since inception, and I am deeply impressed by what the team has already achieved. I am equally attracted to the future potential. I am very excited to support the Group for the next phase of the journey.”

Appital, the equity markets technology solution, today announced that Matthew Jefford, an experienced equity markets specialist, has been appointed as Business Development Executive. He will help accelerate Appital’s growth strategy, specifically working with the asset management community to deepen platform liquidity and support the firm’s mission to bring innovation and automation to equity markets. 

Jefford brings over 30 years of experience working in the global financial markets, with a highly successful track record in Equities, Equity Derivatives, and Fixed Income. Prior to joining Appital, Matthew was Electronic Sales Trader at ICAP and previously worked with Liquidnet, Bloomberg Tradebook and Instinet on Sales, Electronic and automated Trading, covering clients in the EMEA region. 

The appointment follows Appital’s recent VC funding announcement and the launch of Appital Turquoise BookBuilder™, the first buy-side-to-buy-side book-building platform to bring a historically highly manual and opaque process into an automated, electronic platform. It allows institutional investors to gain control over the entire book-building process and proactively source liquidity often in multiple days’ average daily volume (ADV). 

Mark Badyra, CEO, Appital, said: “I am thrilled to welcome Matthew to the Appital team. His industry insights and equity markets expertise are invaluable as we implement our vision to bring technological innovation, efficiency and transparency to equity markets and unlock latent liquidity for investors.”

Matthew Jefford, Business Development Executive, Appital, commented: “I am delighted to join Appital after such a successful launch and an exciting time for the business. There is a clear need in the equity market space to access deal flow opportunities and I look forward to working with the Appital team to make our capabilities available to the wider buyside community.” 

Jefford added: “We are proactively engaging with global, regional and specialist asset managers following the launch of Appital Turquoise BookBuilder™ to increase the depth of available opportunities and liquidity within the platform”.

More than 40 asset managers, collectively managing more than US$30 trillion, have joined or are in the process of joining Appital. 

Ten more companies have joined the 2025 Fintech Pledge (pledge2025.org) that was launched in September to help tackle the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

The second wave of expansion comes off a period of growth, with the new member base doubling to 22 since the last expansion announcement in late October.

The 10 new members are (alphabetically):

• Car finance and loan provider Blue Motor Finance 
• Credit building service for renters Canopy
• Community and knowledge hub Open Banking Excellence 
• Debt advice and management provider PayPlan 
• Pensions aggregator Penny 
• Open banking network Plaid
• Debt Advice charity StepChange
• Open banking platform Tink 
• Policy and regulatory network The Financial Inclusion Alliance
• Credit building service Wollit 

Founded by Zopa Bank and ClearScore, the pledge aims to drive 10 million consumer actions by 2025 that build up the financial resilience of UK consumers. It is achieving this by connecting people to platforms that make savings work harder, improve credit scores, consolidate debt, and lower utility bills and household outgoing costs.

Members agree to clearly define, measure and quantify actions that contribute to the campaign goal of 10 million actions on a monthly basis. To date more than one million actions have been reported from all members combined, with 530,000 already publicly displayed on the pledge2025.org website.

Alongside reporting members, the pledge has opened three new membership categories as it prepares for further growth in 2023: Registered charities with subject-matter expertise provide knowledge and insight on financial resilience; Industry enablers facilitate introductions to their ecosystems and accelerate pledge adoption; and External supporters & allies with product offerings adjacent to, but separate from, those of the pledge raise brand awareness beyond its core ecosystem and link it to other relevant industry discussions.

Jaidev Janardana, CEO at Zopa Bank said: “Financial concerns are impacting more people than ever due to inflation and increasing interest rates, Recent FCA data from October showed that one in four adults are in financial trouble or at the brink of difficulty, while ONS data from the same month found almost half of adults who pay energy bills and 30% paying rent or mortgages say these are difficult to afford.

“Launching the pledge was a natural step for us, as the ethos of driving better financial outcomes for customers has always been in our DNA, but it has been fantastic to see so many fintechs and allies embrace it too. As we get ready to roll out our first set of 2023 consumer partnerships, I actively encourage members of the UK fintech ecosystem to help UK consumers weather this financial shock by joining the pledge.”

Following a successful period of onboarding and initial reporting, the pledge will continue to welcome new members but will gradually focus its attention on measuring the impact of its consumer actions and rolling out a multi-year consumer brand partnership to reach consumers where they already are. 

Mumbai-based Private Equity Fund Xponentia Capital announces investment in Fintech start-up Zype mentored by industry veteran Vivek Vig.

Zype is a new-age FinTech platform which aims to improve accessibility to credit for millennials and help them develop sustainable financial habits. Zype’s management team is led by Yogi Sadana - Founder and CEO, who has deep Fintech experience and has held several leadership positions with Indian and multinational organizations in the past.

Speaking on the fundraise Yogi Sadana, Founder & CEO of Zype said, “We are in the process of building Zype, a customer-first platform where we intend to offer credit products and interactive money management tools. Our passionate young team has been dedicatedly working on the technology platform. Weare glad to have the backing of Devinjit Singh & P R Srinivasan of Xponentia Capital and, Vivek Vig who has a long record of creating value in financial services.”

PR Srinivasan, Managing Partner of Xponentia Capital said, “We truly look forward to working with Vivek, Yogi &the team of Zype to create inroads in the fintech ecosystem of India. The future of fintech in India looks robust and with the Zype management team’s experience in technology, risk management, finance& payments, we are confident that Zypewill play a key role in the fintech industry.”

Vivek Vig, Mentor and Board member said, “I am sold on Zype’svision and Yogi’s leadership. I believe in the team’s ability to build an iconic company and capture the opportunity that the next decade has to offer.”

Yogi further added, “Interestingly when RBI’s digital lending guidelines were announced, we had to hardly change our direction. This was possible because we always kept the customer and all required compliances at the centre of our product development, from the get-go. Our focus currently will be to invest heavily in our technology stack, continue scouting for exciting talent across multiple functions and for the go-to-market operations in the coming months.”

Axerve, Payment Partner to Grow and a specialist in developing accessible and frictionless payment solutions, and ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a global leader in mission-critical, real-time payments software, have announced the launch of a strategic partnership — geared towards offering enhanced payment orchestration services to eCommerce merchants across the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. 

The partnership aims to provide merchants with improved payments orchestration and fraud prevention services, thereby increasing their acceptance of payments, improving payments security, and ultimately boosting their conversion rates and revenues. EcommerceDB states that as of 2021, there are over 59 million eCommerce consumers in the U.K. alone; this number is estimated to reach 62 million (+6%) by 2025. Thus, it has become increasingly important to ensure that eConsumers’ needs are met quickly and efficiently. The integration of ACI Secure eCommerce and Axerve’s payments orchestration platform strives to provide eCommerce merchants and their consumers with personalised and integrated payment orchestration solutions. Furthermore, through partnering with a key global player and strengthening its U.K. presence, Axerve has undoubtedly reached a key milestone in its internationalisation process following its U.K. launch in 2022. 

Key benefits of the partnership for merchants, at a glance: 

• Payment and fraud orchestration services to increase conversion rates and revenues 
• Instant access to hundreds of local and cross-border acquirers, card, mobile, and digital payment methods 
• An enhanced fraud tool, with the addition of ACI Worldwide’s sophisticated real-time, multilayered fraud management capabilities — enabling merchants to maximise payments acceptance while minimising fraud and chargeback costs 
• Access to all aggregated payments data in one single portal 
• Automatic reconciliation that allows merchants to save on internal resources and time 
• The availability of real-time ledgers that ensure the visibility of financial data, simplifying tracking and accountability and guaranteeing that the customer is only charged once, regardless of how many charge requests are made 

Alessandro Bocca, CEO of Axerve, said: “Axerve is delighted about this new strategic partnership with ACI Worldwide, which is such an important player in the payments software world. Thanks to payments orchestration, Axerve and ACI will manage the interoperability between all the transaction processes and simplify payment configurations thanks to a new proprietary software architecture. With the support of ACI Worldwide’s state-of-the-art payments technology and software, Axerve will be able to offer our merchants and customers an optimisation strategy of payments to reach maximum conversion and smoother customer journeys.”  

Basant Singh, global head of merchant segment, ACI Worldwide, added: “We are delighted to partner with Axerve to advance the company's leading offering of technology solutions. ACI Secure eCommerce gives thousands of merchants and PSPs globally the tools and technology to increase conversion rates and grow their business by making payments part of a smooth, seamless and secure customer journey. Our orchestration solutions for merchants are targeted at helping them to sell more, lose less and maximise margins”. 

Bondaval, a London-based B2B fintech that gives credit teams the certainty that their receivables will be secured, has raised a $15 million Series A Round, led by Talis Capital.

Bondaval will use the financing to continue building its best-in-class team, progress its global expansion, expand into additional sectors and use cases for the platform, and invest in its market-leading intellectual property. Bondaval has now raised more than $25 million to date within a brief two-year period.

Investors in the round include existing shareholders Octopus Ventures, Insurtech Gateway, TrueSight, Expa, as well as new investors Talis Capital,  FJ Labs, and Broadhaven Ventures. Thomas Williams, General Partner at Talis Capital, will join Bondaval’s board.

Founded in London in 2020 by former England Rugby Sevens captain Tom Powell (CEO) and Sam Damoussi (Chief Underwriting Officer), Bondaval’s proprietary technology can be used to modernise and simplify B2B payment security by fractionalising the underwriting process and cost, making it possible to cover risks more comprehensively, expeditiously, and across more applications.

Bondaval combines credit analysis technology with S&P A+ rated insurance backing to create a more secure, capital-efficient and cost-effective form of receivables protection that can be issued, renewed and claimed on digitally. The company’s key offering is its MicroBonds, technology-enabled surety bonds that secure receivables and can be easily purchased, and managed, through the Bondaval platform.

Primarily serving FTSE 100 and S&P 500 companies, including the likes of Shell, BP, Highland Fuels and TACenergy, MicroBonds replace traditional payment security methods, including bank guarantees and trade credit insurance, which can come with a negative balance sheet impact for customers, don’t always offer full indemnity and can be cancelled without notice.

Created for credit managers in large commodities companies, MicroBonds are non-cancellable digital financial instruments that provide 100% indemnity, have no collateral requirement, can be used alongside existing security, and be set up rapidly through Bondaval’s easy-to-use platform.

Unlike collateral-based security, like bank guarantees, Bondaval’s MicroBonds does not require customers to tie up capital in order to provide payment security to their suppliers. This can provide them with much-needed liquidity at a time when business costs are unpredictable and rising. Additionally, unlike trade credit insurance, MicroBonds cannot be cancelled and will provide 100% indemnity in the case of a default, giving suppliers confidence and certainty as they trade.

Since launching, Bondaval has expanded its team to 20 people, including the addition of Jochen Duemler, former CEO North America of the world’s largest credit insurer Euler Hermes (now Allianz Trade), as the company’s Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO) North America, Yoel Marson, former Director of Engineering at Yahoo! Answers, as its CTO, and Charlie Evans as the company’s Chief Commercial Officer. COO, Veronika Ostreyko, and Head of Data Science, Dr Lei Zhong, both joined Bondaval from Funding Circle where they were building, launching and scaling new credit products. Split across Europe and the United States, Bondaval has offices in both London and Austin, Texas.

Co-founder Tom Powell traded international rugby for financial services, and subsequently the technology sector. Co-founder, Sam Damoussi, spent more than a decade working in the surety market, which has allowed him to develop particular expertise in insurance product innovation across international markets. Bondaval’s senior team’s unique combination of experiences has brought a novel and innovative approach to a largely static and antiquated sector.

Tom Powell, co-founder and CEO, comments: ”When we first established the business less than 2 years ago, we could only imagine how quickly the market would respond to our technology-led approach for payment security. We are honoured by the confidence shown by our existing investors and our new investors and the validation from our best-in-class clients. We look forward to increasing access to more favourable financial security for all parties involved in B2B credit transactions and demonstrating more applications for our MicroBonds.”

“What the Bondaval team has been able to achieve in its first couple of years is truly remarkable. We rarely see this pace and thoughtfulness of execution, which is a testament to the talented team that Tom and Sam are assembling, combined with exceptional demand for this product,” adds Thomas Williams, General Partner at Talis Capital. “The simple elegance of MicroBonds unlocks several transformational use cases, which have the potential to fundamentally alter credit markets. We see limitless potential for Bondaval and are delighted to partner with this world-class team.”

Returning investor Tosin Agbabiaka, from Octopus Ventures, added, “After backing Bondaval early on and working alongside them, it’s more evident than ever that the team has both the prudence and the pace to build a category-defining business in credit and insurance. We continue to be impressed by Bondaval’s ability to develop this innovative solution, drive value to some of the largest companies in the world, and continue building an exceptional team. Therefore, our decision to double down on supporting the company in this next stage of its journey was a no-brainer.”

Foundry's Computerworld announces Jack Henry as a 2023 Best Places to Work in IT. This award recognizes the top organizations that challenge their IT staffs while providing great benefits and compensation.

Jack Henry ranked 52^nd in the large companies' category, marking the company's 11^th year on the list.

"Our IT professionals are at the forefront of developing innovative solutions to help the community and regional financial institutions successfully compete and meet the evolving needs of their customers," said Jack Henry Board Chair and CEO David Foss. "By investing in our associates and offering a challenging and rewarding work environment, we are able to attract and retain top industry talent. We are honoured to once again be recognized by Computerworld as the best place to work."

"Adapting to a 'new normal' has put additional demands on IT organizations at companies of all sizes. This year's winning companies have stepped up with increased IT staffing and a variety of innovative professional development opportunities. The result of these efforts is that not only are IT staffs engaged and productive, but the entire business benefits from IT's ability to support evolving workplace models and changing business and customer needs," said Rob O'Regan, global director, content strategy, Foundry. "Importantly, this year's award winners are laser-focused on diversity initiatives to expand the IT talent pool and promote workplace diversity and inclusion."

The end of fintech (as we know it) – Teodor Blidarus, CEO & Co-Founder at FintechOS

Over the past few years, the lines between various financial services, and even financial and non-financial institutions, have become increasingly blurred. Technology has become a great leveller and fintech empowers any organization to offer personalized financial products and services.

As the cost-of-living crisis progresses, 2023 will likely be the year this all comes to a head. To synergize, cut costs, and remove redundancy, the mass adoption of embedded finance will see fintech become ubiquitous across online customer journeys, with providers either partnering with fintechs or becoming fintechs themselves.

Once every company has become a fintech company, fintech will cease to be its own category. The winner then will be the software that empowers fintech adoption across the market, while financial institutions that neither embed their products nor embed other services in theirs, will lose out.

Tightening belts – Paula Costea, VP Product Management at FintechOS

As the cost-of-living crisis deepens across the world, consumer priorities are shifting. While it was fun to invest in crypto during lockdown, or helpful to spread the costs of a new purchase with BNPL, customer focus is now on affordable products and effective budgeting with financial management tools.

While it may seem counter-intuitive, now is the time for providers to push forward on the digital transformation they're potentially second-guessing, allowing these providers to design and offer customer-centric solutions that meet the changed and changing needs of their customers, deepening relationships with their target market and setting their businesses up for success in the short, medium and long term. Fintechs will enable companies to offer customers tailored financial products where and when they need them, embedded seamlessly into their daily life. Switching focus to data-driven products and new business models would require companies to drive better operational efficiency and automation of the back office processes to lower costs.

As such, while many may see the cost-of-living crisis and coming recession as a dark time for fintechs, providers of efficient financial technology may well be needed more than ever.

Highnote, a modern, fully cloud-native card issuance and program management platform, today announces further expansion of its collaboration with Visa, a world leader in digital payments, which includes certification as a Visa card issuer processor under Visa’s fleet management solutions. Through this collaboration, digital companies focused on serving the fleet management ecosystem can now enhance their product offering by issuing Visa fleet and fuel cards that contain more definite product category level controls, more detailed data, and the ability to obtain data more quickly for real-time business decisions, building a new generation of payment rails for the fleet vertical.

The fleet and fuel management sector saw explosive innovation in the years following the height of the pandemic, with venture capital funding for startups in the sector almost doubling between 2020 and 2022². A rapidly growing new generation of innovative fleet-focused software platforms have emerged, solving challenges from managing fleet operations to road-freight marketplaces. Seeking to deliver even greater value, many of these digital platforms are realizing the need for an equally modern card issuer processor that offers the data richness and controls needed to help streamline their customers' financial operations.

“We’ve seen an incredible increase in the scale and pace of technology development in the fleet management sector in the past few years,” said Veronica Fernandez, Head of Visa Business Solutions, North America. “Through our extended work together, Highnote can now offer customers Visa fleet and fuel cards to help them streamline operations and open new opportunities.”

The benefits of Highnote’s Visa fleet and fuel cards include:

• Spend controls: Highnote’s platform enables fleet management software providers to issue cards with custom spend controls, meaning a card authorized only for fuel purchases can also be programmed to allow for food purchases during a certain window of time, for example.
• Helps reduce fraud: Access to real-time data means cards can be turned off when suspicious activity arises and collaborative auth means advanced telemetry can be programmed into the card itself, ensuring purchases are only made at approved locations.
• Enhanced data: Visibility into deeper levels of data, such as type of fuel, number of gallons, and price per gallon, means companies can more quickly input information into enterprise resource planning systems.
• Direct ledger access: Advanced ledgering capabilities can provide a greatly enhanced level of detail on the fleet business’ day-to-day spend.

“We’ve always believed in building for today and for tomorrow, no matter the industry,” says John MacIlwaine, CEO and Co-founder of Highnote. “It just so happens to be an incredible time to be in the fleet industry today, because it’s at the cusp of a massive transformation geared for tomorrow. Highnote excels at moving faster, being more modern, and putting more data and control into the hands of creatively-minded companies on a mission to push innovation to the edge. We’re excited to empower these disruptors together with Visa in the fleet vertical.”

Kyriba, the global leader in cloud-based financial and IT solutions, has today announced the launch of Kyriba Receivables Finance. The solution provides finance teams with greater control over factoring or securitisation programs as well as enabling selective invoice financing. The multi-funder solution integrates all vendor programs into a single platform, providing a real-time overview of credit facilities, utilisation, limits and program performance.

 “A lot of companies face existential challenges despite their profitability, because they don't have the tools to manage or inject cash into their company. In 2023, corporate insolvencies are expected to grow by 10% in UK¹ due to higher energy prices, and rising interest rates and wages. The speed with which companies can convert their receivables is essential for their survival: the faster the conversion, the less working capital required to support the business” said William Goodall, VP Sales, Northern Europe at Kyriba.

Multiple-funders solution to help CFOs and treasurers manage end-to-end receivable finance programs

“Kyriba Receivables Finance enables CFOs to release funds tied up in unpaid accounts receivables, quickly convert them into cash and optimise decision making,” said Edi Poloniato, Head of Working Capital, Kyriba. “This solution enhances the control of financial departments over financial risk, automates the end-to-end process and reduces operational costs, while offering a single funder agnostic platform” he adds.

The solution automatically pulls invoices from one or multiple ERPs, identifies eligible documents based on each funder’s criteria and dispatches them to the different financial institutions while continuously updating ERPs on both status and accounting.

Key Features of Kyriba Receivables Finance:

●      Fast and efficient implementation: As a result of its use of APIs, Kyriba Receivables Finance seamlessly connects to the seller's ERP to upload documents (e.g. invoices, credit notes) and updates status and accounting in real time;

●      Advance payment processing: Kyriba Receivables Finance allows for eligibility and limit checks before processing documents or receivable sales to banks. The solution then completes the workflow by connecting to funders and retrieving the status of drawdown requests;

• Payment and Reconciliation: Once collection reconciliation is complete, Kyriba Receivables Finance automatically settles re-payments of financed and collected invoices to the funder on the due date;
• Dashboards, Reports, and Tips: Kyriba Receivables Finance offers a homepage widget that makes prepayment status, collections, limits, DSO and other KPIs readily available;
• Seamless integration: Kyriba Receivables Finance is natively integrated with the other modules of Kyriba's Liquidity Management platform. It provides real-time visibility into other discounting or payables programs if any (such as Dynamic Discounting, Supply Chain Finance and Confirming). This provides better business intelligence and reporting, enabling a quick, easy and in-depth analysis of global funding programs;

This module is available for corporates, large and medium companies, as well as financial institutions in white-label solution.