There are 117 projects nominated to participate in "Metaverse 4 Finance", the first Italian Web3 acceleration program - promoted by the Sella group and implemented by its Venture Incubator dpixel in collaboration with the Global Partner VISA. The aim is to identify and support the growth of national and international startups for the development of innovative, economically sustainable, inclusive and safe solutions and technologies, in the context of the metaverse applied to finance.

The 117 projects submitted come from 26 countries around the world. In particular, 37 from Italy, 11 from the United States, 6 from the United Kingdom, 5 from India, 3 from Germany while the remaining applications come, among others, from Argentina, Canada, Finland, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Australia.

The final phase is accessed by 7 startups with financial solutions based on decentralized finance architecture, "crypto as a service" solutions for B2B, decentralized metaverses and Web2 and Web3 hybrid open banking solutions.

This is the list of the 7 finalist projects:

Crypto Mate, Buenos Aires (Argentina) e Vilnius (Latvia)

A crypto platform "as a service" that helps SMEs explore and build crypto services through simple Plug & Play APIs, overcoming technological, regulatory and operational complexities.

Dexy, Miami (USA)

A hybrid neobank that combines the advantages of the crypto and web3 world with those of the traditional bank, bringing the best of both worlds to mass adoption.

Intraverse, Turin (Italy)

An open metaverse founded on blockchain and focused on the interoperability of NFTs integrated as in-game avatars.

Seed Venture, London (UK)

It decentralizes fundraising activities for startups and SMEs and, at the same time, enables the exchange of tokens representing financial instruments issued on the secondary market.

Stablecomp, San Marino

The first DeFi protocol totally focused on stablecoin returns. The DApp provides access to different strategies for stablecoin returns across multiple chains to offer each user the ideal product.

Vertigo Exchange, Rome (Italy)

Professional investment platform that helps automate and optimize cryptocurrency investments thanks to tools such as bots, investment strategies and crypto indices.

Vestinda, Bucharest (Romania) 

Company that builds technology for trading and investing in Web3 and beyond. It offers zero-queue solutions to automate, grow and secure portfolios for both retail traders and platforms.

The 7 finalist projects now access an accompanying path to perfect business models, followed by the technical validation phase and the development of products and solutions.

The prizes

The 5 best startups will receive a prize of 100 thousand euros each, before moving on to "matchmaking" which provides the possibility of integrating the innovations developed within the processes of companies operating in the sector or testing them directly on the market.

The partners

The selected startups will benefit for over 4 months from the support of the network of partners (including Anubi Digital, Credem, Mintlayer, OGR Torino and Young Platform) who supported the call and the mentorship of dpixel, Sella Group's Venture Incubator, which has been operating for over 10 years in the European market with over 36 million euros of investments generated. Dpixel is the accelerator partner of the initiative, with the task of managing all the design, implementation and investments of “Metaverse 4 Finance” Accelerator.

Small business loan approval percentages at big banks dropped from 14.7% in October to 14.6% in November, the second lowest total in 2022, according to the latest Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index™ released today. Approval percentages of business loan applications at small banks declined from 21.2% in October to 21.1% in November.

Similarly, credit unions granted 20.3% of loan requests in November, a decrease from October’s figure of 20.4%.

Among other non-bank lenders, approval percentages of alternative lenders rose from 27.3% in October to 27.4% in November. Institutional Investors also showed an increase in approval percentages, going from 25.7% in October to 25.8% in November.

"With seemingly ever-rising interest rates, small businesses are taking a wait-and-see approach to borrowing. All eyes will be on what the Federal Reserve announces at its next meeting on Dec. 14. Most experts anticipate another 25bps increase in interest rates,” said Rohit Arora, CEO of Biz2Credit and one of the nation’s leading experts in small business finance. “While rates continue to rise, the economy has not yet reaped the benefits of tighter monetary policy as a means to curb inflation.”

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000 in November, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7 per cent, according to the Jobs Report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, and government. Employment declined in retail trade and in transportation and warehousing. Many of these positions are created by small businesses, which are responsible for the lion’s share of new jobs in the private sector economy.

“Inflation and high cost of capital remain among the top concerns for small business owners,” Arora said. “There is a lot of uncertainty for small businesses in the current economy. While we seem to have recovered well from the worst depths of the COVID pandemic, cost pressures -- including rising wages, increasing costs of raw materials, and cost of capital -- are putting a lot of pressure on small companies at this time.”

Biz2Credit analyzed loan requests from companies in business for more than two years with credit scores above 680. The results are based on primary data submitted by more than 1,000 small business owners who applied for funding on Biz2Credit's platform.

Encoded, a leading Payment Service Provider and pioneer of innovative secure payment solutions for contact centres and e-commerce, has announced that JT (Jersey Telecom) has successfully implemented its Gateway Services, Agent Assisted, PayByLink and E-Commerce Payments technology. JT, a government-owned full-service global communications provider headquartered in the Channel Islands, selected Encoded as a single supplier of payment solutions to migrate from its existing legacy payment systems. Encoded’s integrated solutions work together to provide simplified processes, unified reporting, management and to ensure compliance with GDPR, PCI DSS the latest Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

Approximately 40 agents in JT’s contact centre handle customer payment enquiries. IVR Payments enable customers to make card payments 24x7 and has been configured to automatically reconcile with JT’s corporate accounting systems. Additionally, Encoded Agent Assisted Payments gives customers the choice to pay securely while talking to an agent, should they prefer.

Tim Peach, Finance Operations Manager from JT said; “Encoded provided us with the suite of solutions that we needed to give us secure payment choices that benefit our customers.  While migrating to Encoded solutions was driven by our requirement to comply with the latest payment standards, including SCA, there is no doubt that we have seen benefits both to our customers in terms of service and our agents with a single easy-to-use platform to help provide the best customer experience.

“Encoded’s integrated solutions also give us unified reporting and management, and can be easily supported by our helpdesk, backed up by the Encoded team.”

The Encoded team worked closely with JT’s Finance department to deploy the payment solutions to meet the March 2022 SCA deadline, proving bespoke configuration work where required. Encoded Gateway Services bridges the gap between JT’s corporate accounting systems and their payment acquirer, by providing a single secure and simple-to-use API for processing transactions through any payment channel.

Rob Crutchington, Director at Encoded said, “For companies like Jersey Telecom with thousands of customers it is critical that their systems comply with the latest security legislation for data. Encoded has experience of managing large-scale, successful migrations from multiple legacy payment systems to modern secure payment technologies. The team’s in-depth knowledge of data security, PCI DSS compliance and the latest payment regulations, gives clients such as JT the confidence that they can provide secure omnichannel payment services.”

Encoded offers a range of card payment solutions designed to help organisations comply with GDPR, PCI DSS and the newly introduced Payment Services Directive (PSD2). Encoded’s automated secure payments are designed to free up valuable contact centre agent time allowing people to focus on customer service, more complex enquiries and revenue-generating activities.

Transact365, a UK-based global payments platform powering merchants in emerging markets, has appointed Scott Major as its new Chief Commercial Officer. 

Scott joined Transact365 in 2020 as its Director of Business Development. With more than 12 years of experience operating directly in European and Asian markets, Scott moved into the payments sector six years ago. 

During that time, he has worked with leading fintech companies globally, establishing himself as an expert in commercial payment dynamics in areas such as gaming, cryptocurrency and alternative finance.

In his new role as Chief Commercial Officer, Scott will oversee the strengthening of Transact365’s international service offerings. He will continue to work closely with the senior management team to extend the merchant businesses into established and emerging markets. 

A key part of his role will be ensuring new businesses and merchants can take advantage of safe, fast, and flexible payment gateway options. Scott will also focus on supporting merchants to adopt crypto payments as demand for the currency continues to grow.

Transact365 is a global payments platform powering merchants across the world in leading industries. With offices in the UK and Singapore, Transact365 now services more than 1,000 merchant accounts to access e-commerce opportunities in five continents through local payment processing solutions. 

Major’s appointment comes following a period of consistent market expansion for Transact365. In 2022, the fintech launched its payment services in India and Latin America, bolstering its presence in Asia, Europe and Australia. The company also launched its authorised payments institution, Nucleus365, to bring data and merchant transparency together under one unified platform in June 2022.

Speaking on his appointment, Scott said: “The role of CCO at Transact365 gives me the opportunity to take charge of both expanding our merchant portfolio and increasing the services we provide to businesses worldwide. Our industry-leading payment services, combined with our expertise and focus on client support, offer huge advantages to the markets we currently serve. 

“Payment-making for merchants can be overly complex when it doesn’t need to be, so I’m looking forward to offering fast, easy, and effective solutions to businesses who are both established and looking to scale up.”

Leading RegTech provider Rivero today announced it has signed a deal with Paymentology, the world’s first truly global issuer-processor.

Under the terms of the agreement, Paymentology will deploy Rivero’s scheme compliance SaaS solution, Kajo, to digitalise its compliance processing requirements and to make it easier to scale with guaranteed quality control for all its compliance needs. 

Paymentology provides banks and fintechs the technology, team and experience to rapidly issue and process Mastercard, Visa and UnionPay cards, at a global scale. Through the game-changing partnership, the Kajo solution will be implemented into Paymentology’s tech-stack which processes over 10 billion USD annually for its tier 1 bank and fintech customers in 50 countries.

Deploying Kajo will ensure Paymentology continues its rapid global growth with enhanced compliance capabilities, leading the way in an increasingly complex and highly digitised payments ecosystem.

Commenting on the announcement Michal Jerabek, Chief Product Officer at Paymentology said: “Rules and regulations around compliance are constantly being created in the fintech and banking ecosystem, and it is vital we adhere to them. That’s why it is a key priority for us to ensure we work with a partner that is at the top of their game, like Rivero, which effectively manages the full scheme compliance process.

On review of the availability of technologies on the market, Kajo stood out from other solutions for its comprehensive, tailor-made compliance offering which strengthens our service to our customers. While we continue to scale across the globe, we are reassured that Kajo will support our customers in 50 countries and growing - with a tailor-made solution that serves our compliance needs.”

Rivero had emerged as a leader in simplifying card payment operations for the highly regulated payments industry. Registered and based in Switzerland, Rivero is a privately held company with a strong focus on the payments and card industry. Led by a team of highly experienced payments professionals, the company has filled a gap in the market for quality fraud recovery, dispute management and card scheme compliance solution by leveraging the benefits of SaaS, providing solutions for all players in the card payment ecosystem such as issuers, acquirers, BaaS and fintechs.

Commenting on the agreement, Fatemeh Nikayin, co-founder from Rivero said: “We are excited to onboard Paymentology to our state-of-the-art card scheme compliance platform Kajo, enabling an up-to-date scheme compliance status and reducing the manual work involved with scheme compliance processes.”

finova Payment and Mortgage Services today announces its partnership with home finance provider, StrideUp, extending the range of lending products available to finova’s directly authorised (DA) broker club.

Through the addition of StrideUp, finova Payment and Mortgage Service members will have access to a unique Shared Ownership model, giving their clients an alternative option to a conventional mortgage. The digital home finance provider targets first-time buyers looking to get a footing on the housing ladder. It aims to break down the cycle of renting by helping people buy their home with the assistance of up to 20% equity from the lender, and thereafter gradually being able to increase their ownership of the property by purchasing this equity while living in it.

Unlike Shared Ownership schemes, StrideUp doesn’t build homes, meaning that brokers can help their customers pick a home from any property on the open market. However, like Shared Ownership, they own a share of the property, which the borrower can buy back once they are able to afford it. The minimum deposit requirement is 10% of the total property value.

finova’s Payment and Mortgage Services’ panel is the first mortgage club StrideUp has chosen to partner with. It joins finova’s panel of over 75 lenders offering products from standard mortgages to specialist and niche lending solutions, including residential, buy-to-let, bridging, second charge, commercial and development, equity release and more. For brokers looking to join finova’s network, there are multiple registration routes, from discounted software and quarterly profit share to enhanced profit share.

Melanie Spencer, Head of finova Payment & Mortgage Services, comments:

“We are delighted to be partnering with StrideUp to give first-time buyers an alternative way to finance their home purchase. With Help to Buy recently ending, providing our club members with exclusive access to StrideUp’s exciting products presents an exciting way to increase the options available to their customers, and will further help brokers to foster meaningful client relationships for the future.”

Jon Sturgess, Head of Intermediary Sales at StrideUp, added:

“Helping people get on the property ladder earlier is at the heart of what we do, and we're delighted to join finova Payment and Mortgage Services’ lender panel to help even more borrowers buy a home that fits both their needs and budget.

“As a digital home finance provider, it’s a pleasure to partner with a tech-first firm like finova, who is equally committed to embracing technology for the benefit of homebuyers across the UK.”

Business funding provider Accelerated Payments (AP) has made another strategic appointment in the UK as it ramps up its expansion plans. Siobhan Jones has joined as Business Development Manager and will be supporting the company’s growth and customer acquisition strategies for alternative financing services in the North of England.

Prior to joining Accelerated Payments, Siobhan had a successful banking career, holding a variety of positions in both commercial and private banking. Siobhan has covered the spectrum from business development in the SME marketplace and introducer network, to portfolio management across diverse sectors such as manufacturing, property and large education trusts. More recently, Siobhan worked as corporate partnership manager for a North-West based cancer charity, helping them to raise awareness and vital funds in the corporate world.

Commenting on the announcement, Ian Duffy, CEO of Accelerated Payments, said: “This new appointment marks a new chapter for the company, and will support the next phase of our growth as we expect to double our business in 2023. Attracting highly experienced and diverse talent to spearhead our business development is key to our success and we are excited to have Siobhan join Accelerated Payments. Siobhan will play a pivotal role in AP, assisting businesses to grow in the North of England. She will join an extraordinary team, whose combined efforts have allowed us to deliver an impressive track record for the customers we are proud to serve.”

Accelerated Payments is a Selective Invoice Finance platform which provides competitive and flexible working capital solutions. With offices in London, Dublin, Toronto, and Florida, its offering shifts the credit risk from a business to its buyer, enabling the fintech to support a broader range of clients.

Accelerated Payments unique approach empowers businesses to select existing debtors and invoices for financing with no lengthy contracts, no personal security, nor complex renegotiations with existing finance providers.

“I am very much looking forward to working with my extensive business network and expanding the firm’s reach in the North of England,” said Siobhan Jones. “Businesses in this part of the UK are facing an existential threat due to the economic downturn and soaring costs - including those that are growing quickly and trying to scale up. Accelerated Payments can offer the liquidity they need to expand even during this challenging time - and I feel confident that we can help many businesses obtain the financing they need to fulfil their growth ambitions.’’

Nutanix has today announced the introduction of its new Referral Program, designed to reward partners across the entire lifecycle of any project.

Part of Nutanix’s innovative Elevate Partner Program, the Referral Program changes the traditional partner-vendor relationship model and recognises the entire partner ecosystem, rather than just the ones that transact the deal.

It recognises partners’ different business models and the ecosystem of partners that customers engage with, depending on where they are with their buying cycle. In particular, it rewards partners who help customers shape their strategy early in the buying cycle, as well as ISV partners who engage more with line of business at the application level, but might not be involved in the end transaction.

At its core, the Referral Program means that Nutanix is able to recognise all partners involved in a customer’s buying journey and help build profitable partnerships. This gives a clear signal to the industry of the value that Nutanix places on its entire partner ecosystem and the customers they serve. It also highlights how the Nutanix Elevate Partner Program framework is continuing to evolve to maximise partner profitability, based around the opportunities at hand. 

Adam Tarbox, Vice President of EMEA Channel Sales at Nutanix, said: “Analysts talk about how customers engage with at least seven partners across the lifecycle of any project and there are multiple touchpoints. Despite this, vendors have traditionally tended to only concern themselves with and reward the partners involved in actual transactions, forgetting the whole ecosystem around each deal and how it comes to life. We’re changing that, and our new Referral Program is intended to reward more of our partners who are involved across the process – especially those who help customers to shape their strategies in the early stages of any project and support them through the buying process.”

Duco, a leading cloud-based data automation company, today announced that Canadian fintech KOHO Financial has been able to centralise their reconciliation processes and improve auditability thanks to Duco’s cloud-based data automation platform.

KOHO chose Duco to achieve their key objectives: cost savings, reduced time spent identifying mismatching transactions, improved data quality and lower operational and audit risk. Duco’s flexible, no-code platform has enabled KOHO’s finance operations team to build data quality controls and audit reports themselves, with no need for technical support.

This has increased auditability and agility for the company, supporting growth as the team is now able to respond fast to new payment streams.

KOHO uses Duco to reconcile payment transactions between their general ledger and an internal system, as well as against their bank statements. Their previous solution for this was highly technical, requiring knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL) in order to build reconciliations. It often generated false exceptions, struggled with differences in field formatting and was impossible to audit. The shortcomings of the tool created risk for the business and drained resources. For example, the team was losing 20 hours a month on just one process because they had to manually download and compare records.

Saurabh Sharma, Sr. Payment Operations Analyst at KOHO, said: “We reviewed different systems and Duco scored above the rest in a long list of areas, particularly the ease in creation of reconciliation processes, excellent UI and simple menu options. We also benefit from the way that a non-technical person can create and run reports, the platform’s informative notifications and transparent audit options.”

Christian Nentwich, CEO at Duco, said: “Duco helps firms to change their operating model by giving subject matter experts the ability to build data controls. This creates an agile, streamlined middle and back office and removes the support burden from IT, who have bigger priorities to focus on. It’s great to see the initial results from our partnership with KOHO and I’m looking forward to seeing what they achieve next.”