Partnerships 

OKX partners with Pyth Network

OKX, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it is partnering with Pyth network, a next-generation Oracle solution built on the Solana blockchain and designed to provide trusted and verifiable market data to decentralized applications. Pyth operates one of the largest and most reliable oracle networks, deriving price data from more than 70 leading institutions, both in crypto and traditional finance.

Thirdfort Partners with Mint Insurance Brokers

Thirdfort, a risk management platform combining Know Your Client (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Source-of-Funds (SoF) verification, has partnered with insurance brokers Mint. With money laundering now costing the economy more than £100bn, the partnership aims to help property professionals navigate growing fraud and money laundering risks. The partnership enables Mint’s property professional clients to more easily access Thirdfort’s one-stop solution for comprehensive AML.

Apple Teams With Goldman Sachs to Offer Savings Accounts

Apple has joined forces with Goldman Sachs to add a high-yield savings account feature to its credit card.Apple Card users will be able to automatically deposit their Daily Cash cashback rewards into the new savings account, set to roll out in the next few months. There will be no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements for the account, provided by Goldman Sachs.

Mastercard and Nclude Partner to Accelerate Egypt’s Fintech Ecosystem and Boost Financial Inclusion

Mastercard has announced a strategic investment in Nclude, a fintech-focused VC investment platform launched in partnership with Egypt’s leading national banks - Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and Banque Du Caire - to further boost Egypt’s vibrant fintech ecosystem and support the country’s digital transformation journey. The cooperation will enhance Egypt's financial inclusion by investing in early- and growth-stage fintech startups.

BlueSnap Partners with BitPay to Offer Cryptocurrency Acceptance and Payout

BlueSnap, a global payment orchestration platform of choice for leading B2B and B2C businesses, announceda new partnership with BitPay, the world’s largest provider of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment services. This product partnership will give businesses the ability to accept and get paid out in up to 15 different cryptocurrencies and seven fiat currencies globally, and supports BlueSnap’s mission to help businesses across the globe increase their revenue and reduce costs.

Tink and Snoop Collaborate to Help Brits Save on Bills as Cost of Living Soars

Europe’s leading open banking platform, Tink is working with Snoop, the multi-award-winning money-saving app, to give UK consumers real-time insights on how to cut their bills, pay off debt, grow their savings and save where they spend. This summer Snoop passed one million downloads. Together with Tink the app empowers people to use their own data as a powerful force to save money and take control of their finances.

Oklahoma-Based Community Bank Partners with Fintech to Modernize Lending

Farmers State Bank and Teslar Software announced their partnership to automate the bank’s commercial lending processes. Teslar’s technology will help the bank efficiently manage their loan portfolio as they continue to grow. The Quinton, Okla.-based bank partnered with Teslar Software after being impressed by the sophisticated technology and hearing many positive experiences from peer banks. Farmers State Bank plans to first leverage Teslar to better manage exceptions and past-due loans and then gradually add other modules.

Sage Announces New Product Integrations with Microsoft to Make Life Easier for SMBs

Sage, the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), announces that it now provides customers with enhanced capabilities integrated into Microsoft Teams that help simplify and automate workflows. Customers may submit and approve accounting and people procedures directly through Teams, avoiding the need to toggle between solutions.

First Central Partners with Clausematch to Streamline Policy Management Processes

First Central Insurance and Technology Group, a fast-growing private motor insurer and innovator in data, announced that it has embarked on Clausematch's compliance management platform to streamline its drafting, review and approval processes. The First Central team highlighted the growing need to adopt its policy management system to a platform that would mitigate the risk of error as the company scaled and matured.

Yapily and Juni Team Up to Improve Access to Credit for E-commerce

Open banking infrastructure platform Yapily has teamed up with Juni, the financial platform built for e-commerce, to help e-commerce businesses gain a real-time overview of their finances, maximise cash flow, and get better credit decisions. In 2021, retail e-commerce sales amounted to approximately $5.2 trillion worldwide. Despite the current economic climate, this figure is forecast to grow by 56% over the next five years, reaching $8.1 trillion by 2026.

Danish Pension Company, Lægernes Pension, Partners with Premialab

Premialab announced that Lægernes Pension has selected Premialab to enhance its data management, strategy due diligence, multi-asset portfolio modelling, and reporting for systematic strategies. Laegernes Pension will use Premialab's platform and Premialab Pure Factors to pick cross-asset quantitative strategies, do due diligence on market strategies, monitor current investments, and connect to major investment banks for risk management.

Evelyn Partners Strengthens Bestinvest Commercial Team Following Transformation to Hybrid Platform

Leading UK wealth manager Evelyn Partners has invested further in its revamped retail investing platform Bestinvest with a number of strategic marketing and commercial appointments. Oliver Plant was named Head of Bestinvest after managing the company's shift from a DIY investing platform to a hybrid offering with best-in-class digital features and free in-person investment counselling.

JPMorgan and Visa Unveil Joint Blockchain Payment Gateway

JPMorgan Chase and Visa are to establish connectivity between their global private blockchain networks, Liink and B2B Connect. Under the collaboration Visa B2B Connect will utilise Confirm, a new tool from Liink to validate new accounts for cross-border payments and to approve accounts when new users onboard. The service is expected to be live in 10 countries by end-2022 and projected to increase its presence in over 30 countries in 2023.

Equifax Partnership with PrinSIX Enables Telco’s to Bolster Social Tariff Outreach

Equifax and PrinSix have facilitated an Open Banking solution for KCOM, a Yorkshire-based broadband provider, to create the UK’s first internet service provider (ISP) accepting applications for a social tariff online. Social tariffs give eligible low-income households the ability to access cheaper deals from their service providers. Social tariffs were applied to broadband and mobile bills in the summer to tackle the rising cost of living.

BankiFI and Axiom Bank, N.A. Partner for Expansive SMB Offering in the United States

BankiFi and progressive financial institution Axiom Bank, N.A. are joining forces to make banking better for small-to-medium size businesses (SMBs) across the United States. The new partnership also represents BankiFi’s first North American client since its stateside launch in July. As part of its continued efforts to support SMBs around the world, BankiFi has announced the launch of a new partnership with Axiom Bank.

Launches 

Forter Launches Smart Claims to Combat Chargeback Fraud and Increase Win Rates

Forter, the Trust Platform for digital commerce, announced the launch of Smart Claims, a new product offering designed to help businesses manage chargebacks more effectively. By connecting order and claims data across different payment systems into a single, consolidated view, Smart Claims enables merchants to resolve chargeback disputes more intelligently and efficiently, improve win rates and recover lost revenue.

SH Digital Launches to Offer World First Digital Asset Trading Experience

SH Digital, is a fully licenced digital asset trading platform, designed to offer the most fluid, reliable trading experience possible. SH Digital will provide users with a suite of key services including, giving access to tier-one liquidity. Users will be given the ability to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency through multiple on and off-ramps, all while providing access to multiple financial institutions. 

Freelance Payroll Solution Solar Staff Launches in the USA

Solar Staff, an international payment and task management solution for companies and contractors hasannounced its launch in the United States. Solar Staff automates interaction between 700,000 independent contractors and more than 1,600 businesses from 45 markets including SPLAT, SumSub, Atomic Wallet and Adguard. The company was founded using only the founders' money, with an estimated $1.5 million invested at the launch and revenues topping $950 thousand in July 2022.

Temenos Launches Self-Service Financial Crime Mitigation on Temenos Banking Cloud

Temenos announced that it is the first to market with a SaaS offering that enables banks to manage financial crime mitigation (FCM) with composable banking services on a secure, continually evolving, self-service platform. Temenos' FCM-as-a-Service offers pre-built configurations matched with global requirements. Banks can reduce total cost of ownership and improve customer service with self-provisioning and automatic upgrades.

Deutsche Bank and Fiserv Launch Vert - Germany's Newest Payments Company

Deutsche Bank and Fiserv, a global leader in payments and financial services technology, have launched Vert, a comprehensive payment acceptance and banking services provider to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Vert is the only German provider to combine payment acceptance and processing and traditional banking solutions, meeting market demand for an integrated offering and streamlining access to innovative products for merchants of all sizes.

Google Cloud and Coinbase Launch New Strategic Partnership to Drive Web3 Innovation

Google Cloud and Coinbase announced a new, long-term strategic partnership to better serve the growing Web3 ecosystem and its developers. The collaboration will involve Coinbase selecting Google Cloud as a strategic cloud provider to build an advanced exchange and data services. Coinbase will use Google Cloud's powerful compute platform to process blockchain data at scale, and enhance the global reach of its crypto services by leveraging Google's premium fibre-optic network.

PostePay and Mastercard Launch a Solution to Digitize Payment Requests Across Italy

Mastercard, the global payments technology company, and PostePay, part of the Poste Italiane Group, announced they are working together to launch a “Request to Pay” (RTP) solution in Italy. Request to Pay allows billers to request the payment of goods and services, digitally and in real time. The payer receives a digital request on their web or mobile device and can then choose to accept it and proceed to the payment method. 

Fintech Recharge.com Launches Global Marketplace for Digital Branded Gift Cards and Mobile Top-ups

Recharge.com, a European branded payments company, launched a global marketplace for branded gift cards and mobile top-up cards to become the world's leading digital payments and branded payments player. The fast-growing fintech firm that distributes digital gift and prepaid cards for local and global companies like Netflix, Spotify, and Xbox has hailed the new card as a milestone for the company, which is on pace to become a global prepaid payments platform for major financial services products.

Form3 To Launch Cloud-Native API SWIFT Connectivity Solution

Form3, the leading cloud payment technology provider, announces its plans to launch a cloud-native API solution to connect financial institutions globally to the SWIFT network. The Swift as a service solution will help banks, fintechs and payment service providers to gain API access to SWIFT for payments and cash management services. The solution will allow institutions to reduce operational costs and overheads by leveraging scalable cloud-based services.

Merger & Acquisition

Sage Acquires Spherics to Help SMBs Measure and Cut Their Carbon Emissions

Sage, the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), announces that it has completed the acquisition of Spherics, a carbon accounting solution to help businesses easily understand and reduce their environmental impact. The acquisition reinforces Sage’s commitment to sustainability, in line with its purpose of knocking down barriers so everyone can thrive.

LHV UK Plans to Acquire Bank North’s SME Lending Business

LHV UK (the ‘Company’) announces that it has agreed on commercial terms to acquire Bank North’s Small Medium Enterprise (‘SME’) lending business. This transaction enables the Company to accelerate its strategy to expand to servicing SMEs. Powered by 14 years of consecutive growth, lending to SMEs has been one of the core business areas for LHV Group (the ‘Group’), LHV UK’s parent company and an investor in Bank North.

Job Moves

Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc. Announces Appointment of New Directors to the Board

Mercurity Fintech Holding Inc., a digital fintech group powered by blockchain technology, today announced that its Board of Directors (the “Board”) has appointed Alan Curtis, Daniel Kelly Kennedy, Zheng Cui, Qian Sun and Hui Cheng as new directors of the Company effective as of October 9, 2022, among whom Alan Curtis, Zheng Cui and Hui Cheng are deemed independent under Nasdaq Rule 5605.

ComplyAdvantage Names Vatsa Narasimha As Chief Executive Officer

ComplyAdvantage, a global data technology company transforming financial crime detection, announced that Vatsa Narasimha has been named as the company's new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Charles Delingpole, the company's founder and former CEO, will transition to become Executive Chairman. Both will assume their new positions effective immediately.  Charles Delingpole founded ComplyAdvantage in 2014 and has taken it to 450+ employees and 1,000+ clients. In his new role, Charles will be a significant player.

PayNearby Announces Strategic Leadership Hiring to Strengthen its DaaS Network and Drive Growth

PayNearby, India's premier branchless banking and digital network, announced two important leadership hires to improve and expand its DaaS network. Vishal Khanna has been named 'National Head of Sales' and Alok Jha 'Head of Strategic Initiatives'. The recent hires align with the company's ambitious goals to promote growth through DaaS across developing enterprises and channel partners, while bringing millions into the formal financial fold.

In January 2023, all roads lead to Dubai. Now home to the iFX EXPO for the third consecutive year, the city has emerged as a beacon for fintech collaboration in the Middle East.

In recent years, the UAE has risen as one of the most fintech-friendly countries in the region. Thanks to sustained government support, fintech investments in the country hit $819 million in the first half of 2022. With the strongest digitalized retail sector of all the MENA countries, the UAE stands out as the most tech-savvy nation in the area and is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing fintech brands.
Dubai will host the upcoming edition of the iFX EXPO between 16 and 18 January 2023, when thousands of high-calibre prime and retail brokers, liquidity and technology providers, affiliates and regulatory compliance experts will head to iFX EXPO Dubai for 2+ days of networking and thought-provoking debates in the exclusive setting of Dubai World Trade Centre, Za’abeel Hall 6.

More than a traditional industry gathering, the iFX EXPO has become synonymous with the ultimate hub for industry knowledge and business excellence. Rounding up hundreds of distinguished speakers from all areas of business, next year’s exhibition promises to bring even more world-class content and industry leaders discussing hot topics live on stage. While the agenda is still being finalized, you can shape the discussion of iFX EXPO Dubai today, by completing this form.

Who will attend iFX EXPO in Dubai?

The event brings together experts from across the fintech space:

• Retail & Prime Brokers: iFX EXPO Dubai is the place to be for brokerages to come to grips with the latest developments in the fintech space and test-drive a host of state-of-the-art solutions, on the spot. There’s also opportunity for growth in the partnerships sector, with a growing number of IBs and affiliates attending the event every year.
• Service & Technology Providers: The advent Web 3.0 and AI-powered technology solutions across payments and regulatory compliance sectors has propelled tech providers to the front lines of the industry. Blockchain, paytech and regtech developers looking to showcase their cutting-edge products will find not only the perfect spot but also the right audience in Dubai.
• Affiliates & IBs: Affiliate marketing is an ongoing hot topic putting financiers to the test as they seek to attract traders to their platforms. From meeting up with CEOs and CMOs of leading brokerage firms to sharing your affiliate marketing ideas and strategies, the iFX EXPO offers plenty of room for affiliate marketers and business introducers to take their business to the next level.

How to participate?

Explore different participation options to find the one that suits best your business objectives:

• Sponsor: Sponsorship is a great way to gain visibility and make an impact both online and offline. There are multiple sponsorship packages available to brands looking for a visibility boost at the world’s largest B2B fintech event. Sponsoring brands enjoy a slew of distinct advantages, from social media and event website features to exclusive branding in prominent areas of the expo.
   
• Exhibitor: Reserving a booth at the iFX EXPO gives brands a better chance to engage with prospects and showcase their products and services. View the floor plan here.
   
• Register: Leading brands and industry leaders, insightful panel discussions and fireside charts, casual networking events to catch up with new and existing clients – participate as an attendee and experience the best iFX EXPO can offer. Enjoy the same stellar experience for less - the exclusive Early Bird registration comes at a lower cost for technology and service providers. If you’re a retail broker, affiliate or IB – you can register for free!

Register now for an Early Bird Pass and unlock 2+ days of networking with industry pioneers, including free entry to the Speaker Hall and Idea Hub where industry leaders tackle some of the hottest topics facing the industry, as well as the impressive Welcome and Night Party events.

To sponsor or exhibit at iFX EXPO Dubai 2023, please contact sales@ifxexpo.com. With so many sponsors and exhibitors lining up to save a spot at the eagerly awaited event, the best locations sell out fast. Save your spot NOW!

Agribusiness Rural Bank, Inc., one of the top ten rural banking institutions in the Philippines, also known as Agribank, has introduced a world-class new mobile banking App for Android and iOS, developed and delivered by Geniusto International.

This highly secure and configurable mobile banking platform enables Agribank to offer its customers an amazing, modern, efficient banking experience. The [GO] Omni-Channel Platform offers the built-in ability to publish new services and product offerings in real-time, enabling Agribank to enhance the customer experience quickly and seamlessly and stay ahead of the competition.

Working in concert with Geniusto Mobile Banking is Oradian’s advanced cloud-based core banking system. Oradian’s flexible and extensible system uses APIs to power third-party integrations, allowing Agribank to rapidly add new features or launch new products.

On a mission to realise digital transformation and working in collaboration with Geniusto and Oradian, Agribrank is now better able to serve rural communities across the Philippines.

“Exciting times ahead for Agribank indeed as we embark on our digital transformation journey.  Agribank dedicates its efforts to ensuring that every Filipino is given access to formal banking facilities and equipped with the necessary knowledge and information. Empowering them with a secure and reliable online banking platform is one of our magnific leaps toward financial inclusivity. Ang serbisyong pang siyudad, dadalhin aming sa kanayunan!

Agribank is making every effort to uphold its corporate tag as “your rural bank that cares.”

At the center of all our efforts to improve our banking services lies our kababayan as we commit to serving the rural and underbanked communities by bringing them the next-generation banking experience.” Says Danny Boy Antonio, President and CEO at Agribank.

Matthew Edmunds, Chief Executive Officer at Geniusto remarked: “By empowering both the rural banks and their customers with mobile banking; we allow the small institutions to remain relevant within their communities and to compete with the huge uni-banks and alternative financial services operators that have been eroding the rural banks traditional role. Small institutions can now provide a Geniusto secure mobile banking application for their customers that quite frankly is, in many cases, more advanced and secure than the competition from the Uni-banks. The institution can build loyalty with their customers and provide an array of relevant services, including loan originations, bills payment, and QR code payments within the community. The institution can now remotely onboard new customers, growing their customer base and ensuring long-term growth and stability for the business.”

Antonio Separovic, Co-Founder and CEO at Oradian, said: “Oradian’s core banking system is designed for connectivity and integration. Our goal is to be the driving force for financial institutions to deliver their services to customers, to provide them with vital access to financing, credit, and banking services. We’re delighted our partnership with Geniusto has enabled it to deliver a transformative mobile banking application for Agribank, so it can continue to deliver innovative financial services to its end users. We’re certain this will further accelerate Agribank’s already impressive growth and provide exciting and accessible experiences for its clients.”

BharatPe, one of India’s leading fintech companies, today announced the launch of its new and one-of-a-kind marketing campaign called ‘My Shop My Ad’. This first-ever campaign in the fintech industry in India gives millions of offline merchants of BharatPe an opportunity to create their own video advertisement- featuring India’s star cricketers, Rohit  Sharma or KL Rahul. The merchants can create customized advertisements for their own shops in multiple languages. Merchants would be able to share their personalized advertisements directly with their customers. BharatPe has partnered with Rephrase.ai to build the technology platform for this offering.

The process of creating the advertisement is simple. Shop owners can create their own personalized advertisements via the BharatPe app by following 3 simple steps. Merchants can go on the BharatPe app and visit the ‘My Shop My Ad’ section. They will be required to submit their business details like shop name, contact, and business category. Post this, they will need to upload a picture of their shop facade in portrait mode. The personalized ad is created and delivered to the merchants within 48 hours.

Speaking on the launch of this new campaign, Mr. Parth Joshi, Chief Marketing Officer, BharatPe, said, “We are excited to announce the launch of ‘My Shop My Ad’ campaign. This initiative will empower the next-door retail shop owners to have their own customized advertisements with famous cricketers and in turn, be able to attract more customers to their shops. I am confident that this initiative will have a positive impact on their business. We tried this with a limited set of merchants in the pilot phase and the response has been overwhelming. I am confident that this initiative will encourage more merchants to join hands with BharatPe and help us expand our reach across the country. It has been a wonderful experience working with the team at Rephrase.ai for the campaign and we look forward to creating more personalized campaigns for our merchants in the near future, as we continue to stay committed to our vision of empowering millions of offline merchants and Kirana store owners in the country.”

“Working with BharatPe, a pioneer in the Fintech space was a great experience for Rephrase.ai and this is only the beginning. With the growing demand for personalization, humanizing customer journeys continue to be Rephrase.ai’s north star and we are anticipating great developments in generative AI in the next year. For BharatPe, we unlocked new levels of personalization with pictures of storefronts as video backgrounds and audio in local languages, which means BharatPe’s 10 million store owners will get to create their shops’ ads with digital avatars of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu based on their preferences ” Ashray Malhotra, CEO and Co-founder, Rephrase.ai.

OKX, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, today announced that it is partnering with Pyth network, a next-generation Oracle solution built on the Solana blockchain and designed to provide trusted and verifiable market data to decentralized applications.

Pyth operates one of the largest and most reliable oracle networks, deriving price data from more than 70 leading institutions, both in crypto and traditional finance. Pyth aggregates and publishes data at sub-second speeds, making it available across blockchains via the Wormhole messaging protocol. Pyth network has established itself as the most reliable source of financial data for the DeFi ecosystem.

Lennix Lai, OKX Director of Financial Markets said: "Given the recent liquidation events in DeFi, we understand that a high-performance, robust and low latency market data oracle service is crucial in developing financial products in DeFi. The Pyth network, with sub-second latency and its rapidly growing network of highly respected data partners, is an example of this exciting potential."

Michael Cahill, Director of the Pyth Data Association, said: "OKX has firmly established itself as a leading global crypto exchange known for innovation and security. Their commitment to DeFi and Web3 resonates with Pyth's mission of promoting more efficient on-chain markets and we look forward to partnering with them on this journey."

Thirdfort, a risk management platform combining Know Your Client (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Source-of-Funds (SoF) verification, has partnered with insurance brokers Mint. With money laundering now costing the economy more than £100bn, the partnership aims to help property professionals navigate growing fraud and money laundering risks.

The partnership enables Mint’s property professional clients to more easily access Thirdfort’s one-stop solution for comprehensive AML. Moreover, the collaboration means Mint’s clients can reduce the admin burden of searching for and vetting a digital ID and AML solution. Mint and Thirdfort are committed to helping property professionals reduce fraud risks while meeting regulatory requirements.  

Thirdfort is the only platform to combine best-in-class digital ID, AML and SoF verification alongside Open Banking and transaction-specific data. It rapidly informs regulated professionals of risks with onboarding individuals and corporates, enabling them to begin transacting with new clients more quickly. Thirdfort is currently used by more than 850 regulated professional services firms, including estate agents, law firms and conveyancers, among others.

Mint specialises in servicing the insurance needs of property professionals and has a wide client base ranging from national corporates to self-employed individuals.

Matt Berry, Head of Partnerships at Thirdfort, said: “Mint Insurance Brokers is a leading independent insurance broker for lawyers, estate agents and conveyancers. With such a fantastic client base, the partnership enables Thirdfort to increase our reach in the property sector while ensuring we can help Mint’s clients reduce the risk of fraud and money laundering without needing to spend hours searching for a best-in-class AML solution.”

Oliver Wharmby, Director at Mint Insurance Brokers, said: "Thirdfort has an excellent reputation as a one-stop solution for digital ID check and AML for property professionals. We recognise the very real exposure and hope our partnership with Thirdfort will help to promote good practice and raise standards within the industry. We strive to help our clients manage and mitigate risk, which is at the heart of what we do and which forms part of the first-class service we provide for property professionals across the UK." 

Equity management platform Vestd has announced its latest offering to provide founders with the easiest way to apply for advance assurance from HMRC for the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).

In the September mini-budget, the Chancellor announced the extension of EIS beyond 2025 and major changes to the SEIS from April 2023.

This will allow firms to raise £250,000 in the first three years of trading - up from a maximum of £150,000 in the first two years – and increase the gross asset limit to £350,000, from £200,000.

Vestd’s new product will enable founders seeking investment to easily apply for advance assurance from HMRC, as well as the ability to issue shares and share certificates directly through the platform after receiving investment.

Explaining the launch, Ifty Nasir, founder and CEO of Vestd, said:

“SEIS/EIS are hugely popular with investors because of their tax efficiency. As such, securing advance assurance puts founders in a much better position to secure the investment they need.

“The announcement of the extension and widening of EIS and SEIS respectively was great news for UK startups and scaleups, minimising risk for investors and increasing the opportunities for innovative companies to access additional funding.

“With inflation reducing the value of savings, benefitting from generous tax breaks while investing in early-stage businesses through SEIS/EIS is increasingly attractive.

“The complicated HMRC application process is confusing and time-consuming, so our new product is designed to guide founders through the application and provide clarity on the conditions to get approved.” 

Smart money app Plum has secured £1m from investors in the first eight hours of its crowdfund, achieving its initial target.

More than 3700 people have invested so far, from nationalities spanning the UK, Greece, Cyprus, France, Bulgaria, Belgium and Spain.

Further share allocation has been made available and crowdfunding is still open to new investments for 5 more days.  

Given the challenging macroeconomic environment, the strong response from a large number of investors, especially from Plum’s customers, demonstrates confidence in the app’s achievements.

Victor Trokoudes, CEO and co-founder of Plum said:

“I want to thank our 3700 investors for joining Plum in its journey with this new round of crowdfunding. I am thrilled to see that our campaign has secured such good traction in a short amount of time and I am excited about what is yet to come.

“Plum has worked hard to deliver its promises in 2022, bringing major new features to its app, from introducing commission-free investing and a debit card, to expanding into new European markets and enabling cryptocurrency trading. As we look towards the future, we are eager to push even stronger features, winning in the European market with our standout proposition.”

Following these developments, Plum has grown its customer base to +1.4 million, an almost 50% increase in the last year, and helped people set aside £1.4 billion.

Plum is raising funds this year to accelerate its expansion into Europe, refine its products further to best serve its customers’ needs and build an even faster, more cohesive app. It recently announced securing £5m in financing from Silicon Valley Bank UK. The Bank joined existing seasoned investors and financing partners dmg ventures, VentureFriends and Global Brain in supporting the fintech to grow and scale.

The new campaign is being hosted on Crowdcube, one of the world’s largest equity crowdfunding platforms, and is available to both UK and European investors. 

Apple has joined forces with Goldman Sachs to add a high-yield savings account feature to its credit card.

Apple Card users will be able to automatically deposit their Daily Cash cashback rewards into the new savings account, set to roll out in the next few months. There will be no fees, no minimum deposits, and no minimum balance requirements for the account, provided by Goldman Sachs.

Users can also deposit funds into their savings account through a linked bank account, or from their Apple Cash balance. Funds can also be withdrawn at any time to a linked bank account or Apple Cash card.

Once set up, Apple Card users can keep track of money in Wallet through a Savings dashboard, which shows their account balance and interest accrued over time. The interest rate has not yet been revealed.

Jennifer Bailey, VP, Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, says: “Savings delivers even more value to users’ favourite Apple Card benefit — Daily Cash — while offering another easy-to-use tool designed to help users lead healthier financial lives.”

Goldman has been Apple's partner on the credit card since its launch in 2019. However, the tech giant has since made moves to ensure independence in the financial services arena.

Apple was long-rumoured to be using Goldman Sachs for the loans for its upcoming BNPL play. However, Goldman is only facilitating the service as the technical issuer of the loans and the official BIN sponsor, with Apple making the loans directly through a new subsidiary.

This week, Bloomberg reported that Goldman could be retreating from its recent push into retail banking. With the consumer business set to lose $1.2 billion this year, the bank may pull the plug on digital lender Marcus, says Bloomberg.